Efforts to promote an evolving area of study鈥攅ntrepreneurship in education鈥攁re taking hold in graduate schools across the country, as universities craft programs and courses focused on cultivating school leaders and private-sector developers capable of bringing new ideas, and possibly new products and technologies, to schools.
University faculty members and administrators say the study of K-12 entrepreneurship and innovation has had a presence in the postsecondary world for years. But recently, interest in the subject has grown, and it has secured a much more clearly defined place in a number of colleges of education, business schools, and other academic departments.
A number of factors are driving the programs鈥� increased prominence.
School leaders and policymakers have become increasingly focused on bringing new academic and financial models to school districts, which face pressure to raise test scores and control costs.
At the same time, higher education, business, and school leaders have become increasingly convinced that universities can do more to encourage the development of new technologies and ideas that can benefit schools, if entrepreneurs are given encouragement and sufficient knowledge of the primary and secondary school landscape.
That thinking is evident at institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania鈥檚 graduate school of education, which has had a long-standing interest in promoting entrepreneurship in education and is seeking to expand those efforts.
The goal is to bring about 鈥渁n absolute merger of researchers, the education community, investors, and entrepreneurs in a way that benefits schools,鈥� said Barbara Kurshan, a former private-sector entrepreneur who is now the executive director of academic innovation at the graduate school in Philadelphia. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 figure out a way to help these groups speak to each other,鈥� she said, 鈥渨e鈥檙e not going to see any of the benefits reach the classroom.鈥�
The education school鈥檚 work on education entrepreneurship is playing out on a number of fronts.
Since 2010, the school has staged a competition designed to spawn potential breakthrough ideas and products in the education market. It will award $120,000 in prizes this year. The competition is meant partly to expose winners to educators and researchers, as well as venture capitalists and others, school officials say.
Ms. Kurshan, who joined the school last year, also has been working on a project to encourage a more direct link between education research and entrepreneurship鈥攕o that academic scholars with sound research can have the support to take their ideas 鈥渢o product or practice,鈥� she said, and so that entrepreneurs can understand how research can and should inform their work.
Innovation vs. Reality
The background Ms. Kurshan brings to the task includes work in higher education, and time spent as the executive director of an open-source education provider, a developer of children鈥檚 software for Microsoft, and co-chief executive officer of an education investment fund.
The University of Pennsylvania鈥檚 graduate school also offers a course for master鈥檚 and Ph.D. students in education and social entrepreneurship, taught by Martin Ihrig, an adjunct assistant professor at the Wharton business school who is also serving as a senior fellow in the graduate school of education.
Most of the 20 or so students in the class have worked in schools and intend to return to them after earning their degrees, Mr. Ihrig said.
His course draws on texts such as those focused on the theory of entrepreneurship, 鈥渒nowledge assets,鈥� and a third titled Marketbusters: 40 Strategic Moves That Drive Exceptional Business Growth.
Mr. Ihrig said the course addresses entrepreneurship in broad terms, focusing on the 鈥渃harge to improve鈥� and weighing the push for innovation while also considering the needs of students, parents, school board members, and others. He sees benefits both for educators and for business leaders and other innovators in understanding one another鈥檚 needs.
鈥淲here does innovation come from?鈥� Mr. Ihrig said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 from cross-disciplinary integration.鈥�
A different effort is under way at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh: The university will launch a master鈥檚-degree program next fall in learning sciences and engineering. It will be designed to refine the skills and knowledge of students who plan to work in the education industry, including publishing, technology, curriculum development, and testing.
Students are likely to have backgrounds in computer science, design, and psychology, as well as education, said Carolyn Ros茅, an associate professor in the university鈥檚 institutes of language technologies and human-computer interaction. They will take classes in curriculum, instruction, e-learning, assessment, and software, with electives in data mining, intelligent tutoring, cognitive modeling, and other areas.
The program鈥檚 designers want its students to gain the ability to apply science to the creation of products in technology, curriculum, and other areas that will help schools, and to work in other settings where learning takes place, from homes to museums, Ms. Ros茅 said.
It鈥檚 a program 鈥渟pecifically designed to train people to go off into industry,鈥� Ms. Ros茅 said.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want science to not go anywhere,鈥� she added. The program 鈥渨as conceived as a way of making sure our research had more of an impact in the world.鈥�
When efforts to bring innovation to K-12 schools fail, it鈥檚 often because those with new ideas tend to treat schools as 鈥渕arket-style entities,鈥� and they have little understanding of the institutional and educational challenges in play, said Christopher Lubienski, an associate professor of education policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The focus tends to be on 鈥渕anagement techniques鈥� rather than on ideas that can drive academic improvement, said Mr. Lubienski, who has studied efforts to bring innovation to schools in the United States and internationally. Graduate schools would be wise to give students a realistic view of the challenges facing K-12 systems, he said.
Too often, Mr. Lubienski said, 鈥� 鈥榠nnovation鈥� becomes idolized for it鈥檚 own sake, without a lot of thought put into what we want it to look like in schools.鈥�
鈥榁ery Intense Experience鈥�
At Rice University in Houston, studies of education entrepreneurship have secured a place in a different department: the business school.
In 2008, school officials launched the Rice University Education Entrepreneurship Program, inspired in part by a desire to help local schools and to produce leaders for the city鈥檚 burgeoning charter school sector, said Andrea Hodge, the executive director of the education entrepreneurship program.
Students in the program face assignments familiar to business school programs everywhere, Ms. Hodge said, though typically with an education-specific focus. 鈥淥ur cases,鈥� she said, 鈥渢end to boil down to 鈥楬ow does this work in a school?鈥� 鈥�
A majority of those who enter the two-year Rice program are teachers or principals. They attend the school at night鈥攗sually while still working day jobs in schools鈥攁nd graduate with a business master鈥檚 degree with a certificate in education entrepreneurship.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a very intense experience,鈥� Ms. Hodge said.
Student Incentives
But students have an incentive to stick it out. If the graduates continue to work in schools after finishing the program, the university reimburses 80 percent of the business school鈥檚 total tuition and costs, which are more than $90,000 over two years. The school has produced 24 graduates with the entrepreneurship certificate so far.
One such graduate is Eric M. Schmidt, who entered the program in 2009 as a teacher and is now the school leader鈥攅ssentially the principal鈥攐f a new middle school in Houston, KIPP Courage College Prep, part of the Knowledge Is Power Program鈥檚 charter school network.
He said the program shaped his thinking in areas such as supporting teachers at his school, recruiting families and explaining the school鈥檚 goals to them, and making sound purchasing decisions.
鈥淚 decided that if I was going to do a master鈥檚 [program], I wanted it to be an experience that would differentiate me from other future school leaders,鈥� said Mr. Schmidt, who is 28. While the business program didn鈥檛 offer a clear 鈥渢emplate鈥� for running a school, he said, it helped him decide 鈥渨here do I start, and how do I want this place to look.鈥�
