School Improvement Through Social Entrepreneurship?

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Social entrepreneurs committed to educational improvement committed to educational improvement have become an important, but controversial part of the landscape of educational governance. These non-state actors take a range of missions. Some operate schools (the KIPP network); some have programs for existing schools (Accelerated Schools). Some are comprehensive (Success for All); some have a more focused mission. Some are for profit, and some are not for profit.

This session will ask what role social entrepreneurs should play in the American educational system. Can they develop capacities that are not found in the federal-state-local school system itself? Can they intervene to improve learning in locations where children (typically poor, minority children) have been badly served by the mainstream public system? Can they expand the range and improve the distribution of and access to services? Will they increase or decrease the costs of services? How will they affect the voice of various stakeholders in the current system, especially those who are now disenfranchised?

Sub Unit

• Division L - Educational Policies and Politics / Division L - Educational Policy and Politics

Chairs

• William A. Firestone, Rutgers University

• Donald J. Peurach, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Participants

• Jeffrey R. Henig, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Frederick M. Hess, American Enterprise Institute

• Janelle T. Scott, University of California - Berkeley

• Robert Slavin, Johns Hopkins University