ISEE CASE STUDIES

ISEE has sponsored the following case studies:

• High Tech High: Revitalizing Public Education
• EdVisions: Teachers as Owners
• Soliloquy Learning
• GreatSchools.net

CASE STUDY ABSTRACTS

• High Tech High: Revitalizing Public Education

The Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High Charter School (High Tech High or HTH) is a tuition-free publicly funded charter school based in San Diego, California. The original idea of the school was conceived in 1998 when a group of high technology business leaders met with the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce's Business Roundtable for Education to address problems in recruiting qualified personnel for the growing number of high tech jobs in San Diego. They launched the school's program in September 2000 with 200 9th and 10th graders with plans to reach a projected student body of 600 9th to 12th graders. By 2003, Rosenstock and his team had successfully opened the charter school and built a 40,000 square foot learning space with $4 million of public funds. They had also received a total of $9.6 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to replicate its learning model to 14 other charter schools across the country. As a result, HTH established a second nonprofit organization called HTH Learning to manage the replication efforts.

This case explores the history of HTH from 1998 through early 2003. Students will examine five major issues including: 1) HTH's funding strategy to sustain both the original school and replication efforts; 2) ways to motivate and excite the staff and faculty by areas such as compensation, recruiting, retention, teaching, and faculty development opportunities; 3) the balancing act of replicating HTH's model through HTH Learning while simultaneously developing HTH; 4) the effort to develop a business model to become self-sustaining; and 5) the replication challenges to ensure that HTH network sites were implementing HTH's key principles while simultaneously encouraging network sites to be autonomous and innovative.

• EdVisions: Teachers as Owners

EdVisions is a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization that was founded in 1994 by Doug Thomas and Ron Newell. They started EdVisions as a way to generate excitement in the teaching profession and to revitalize public education. They believed that if teachers were "owners" rather than simply employees, they would have more control and accountability, thus leading to higher performing teachers, students, and educational institutions. By 2003, EdVisions Cooperative (the Coop.) included a network of 10 charter schools, 125 teachers, and a few other members. The Coop. currently provides teachers with payroll and benefits and plans to expand its role to areas such as charter school development and planning, as well as faculty and staff professional development. In 2000, Thomas and Newell started EdVisions, Inc. (the Inc.), an arm of the Coop., which sought to replicate the EdVisions learning model both regionally and nationally with grants from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This case is set in the fall of 2002 and early 2003, when EdVisions had reached a crossroads in its development. The EdVisions case study discusses the founding of EdVisions; the charter school movement; the concepts of Teacher Professional Partnerships and a teacher's cooperative; Minnesota New Country School and its innovations; EdVisions Coop. and its innovations; and EdVisions, Inc. and its replication efforts. Students will explore issues and challenges faced by the founders including the overall strategies of the Coop. and the Inc., the optimal relationship between the two organizations, scaling issues as the Inc. moved forward in its replication efforts, and financial and organizational sustainability of the Coop.

• Soliloquy Learning

Soliloquy Learning is a start-up software firm that develops and distributes education technologies to address Putting Reading First, a key initiative of President Bush's No Child Left Behind education reform legislation. The company's first product, Soliloquy Reading Assistant, is a CD ROM-based speech recognition application for children in grades 2-5. The Reading Assistant is a tool that allows students to practice oral reading independently. It works like a classroom reading aide - listening and delivering appropriate guidance and feedback as the child reads aloud. It intervenes when the student struggles and provides help with pronunciation and word meanings.

In this case, students will learn to identify, assess, and approach an opportunity and the accompanying challenges that lie at the intersection of policy, education, and business. They will study the Reading First Initiative included in President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and assess Soliloquy's technology product and business proposition in the context of the policy and day-to-day realities of the American educational system. They will then analyze the processes and challenges inherent in starting a for-profit social venture in education. The analysis will require the consideration of the integration of academics and businesspersons with individual roles, responsibilities, and cultural backgrounds into a startup organizational structure. To conclude, students will critique Soliloquy's first-year decisions and action plan.


• GreatSchools.net

GreatSchools.net is a non-for-profit organization devoted to providing information about K-12 schools for parents so that they may make more informed choices about the schools that their children attend and be advocates for excellence in those schools. The organization was launched as a not-for-profit entity in 1998 with an initial focus on California. It quickly expanded to cover 5 states in-depth by 2002 and sought a nationwide presence by 2005. Between 1999 and 2002, GreatSchools.net grew from 3 to 16 full time employees, and was able to attract senior level staff with an effective blend of Internet, educational and philanthropic experience. Funding for the early stages of growth came from individual donors, foundation grants and corporate sponsorships. The depressed state of the markets between 2000 and 2003, however, created financial challenges. In order to sustain the organization long-term, the management team began actively exploring several models for generating new revenue sources that would supplement their current funding base. GreatSchools.net sought to increase their base of support from corporate sponsorships, began sales of customized sites for school districts and the US Department of Education, and considered consumer revenue streams including membership and subscription services.

In this case, students explore a variety of issues concerning the creation and ongoing operation of an educational services organization. The case study examines the evolution of GreatSchools.net from the idea stage to its current status as a nation-wide information provider and explores the competitive landscape in a fast-growing industry segment. Case content facilitates discussion of topics such as the advantages and disadvantages of selecting a not-for-profit or for-profit legal structure, the impact of strategic planning, components of building effective partnerships, and analyzing means of creating multiple revenue sources.

 

Case studies prepared by the Institute for the Study of Educational Entrepreneurship (ISEE) at the University of California, Los Angeles may be used as part of the syllabi of educational entrepreneurship courses or seminars taught to graduate students and field practitioners in Education, Business, Public Policy and Economics. These cases are intended to be used as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation.