Editor's Note: This is a summary of an HBS Business Summit presentation. View a full summary and video of the event on the HBS Centennial Web site linked below.
| Date of Event: | October 14, 2008 |
| Moderator: | Stacey Childress, HBS faculty |
| Speakers: | Steven Barr, Founder and CEO, Green Dot Public Schools Kevin Johnson, CEO & President, St HOPE Public Schools Wendy Kopp, CEO & Founder, Teach for America Michelle Rhee, Chancellor, Washington DC Public Schools |
A national crisis exists in public education. The root causes include unaccountable teachers, dysfunctional schools, and systemic barriers like lack of political will to drive change.
Yet amid these formidable barriers, a set of passionate social entrepreneurs are disrupting the status quo in education with innovative and effective approaches that are producing measurable results. These education entrepreneurs are providing solutions that work. The challenge now is to build the support to scale these solutions.
Key concepts include:
- Public education is in a state of crisis. Fixing it requires radically reforming a dysfunctional system.
- Effective educational reform addresses the root causes of problems, via the disruptive innovation of entrepreneurs.
- The panelists are all educational entrepreneurs effecting pattern-breaking social change.
- These education entrepreneurs are providing the R&D for widespread changes in the U.S. education system.
For more coverage and video:
2:15 session:
http://www.hbs.edu/centennial/businesssummit/business-society/the-role-of-social-entrepreneurship-in-transforming-usa-public-education-1.html
3:45 session:
http://www.hbs.edu/centennial/businesssummit/business-society/the-role-of-social-entrepreneurship-in-transforming-usa-public-education-2.html