1990s. Better than the 80s.

Mom, you will not understand this video, so don't watch it.

Duke's brand name

When choosing among business schools, the criteria most cited as most important were usually the alumni network (size, industry concentration, and geography) and, to a slightly lesser degree, brand name recognition. I ended up choosing Fuqua because it was simply a good personal and professional fit for me; I felt at home at Duke, wanted to spend two years of my life with these people (as opposed to other schools where I might have had to "suck it up" a bit more just to get a more prestigious degree), and was attracted to Duke's social entrepreneurship center.

But brand name matters, especially when you're looking for a job in a new region, such as California. I was unsure of how Duke's name would be accepted in California, but I guessed that it would be received positively. After living here for 7 weeks, I can say that I've been pleasantly surprised by Duke's brand. One small example - I attended a workshop last week on SFUSD's new school choice formula, and the presenter proudly declared that they've been working with economists from Stanford, Berkeley, and Duke to ensure that the system works. In a world in which Stanford is the undisputed top dog, this was a pretty big signal to me that Duke's brand name has legs. I've got many more stories like this.

Overall, I feel very proud and confident to have the Fuqua and Duke names on my resume. We're not Harvard Business School, but I'd say that in terms of reputation, Fuqua is just a cut below - in line, and in some cases better than, reputations of NYU, Dartmouth, and Michigan business schools. When I tell someone I'm a "Duke MBA", I can see their reaction, and it's almost always a positive one. People want to know more about me because I go to Fuqua, which gives me a lot of confidence when applying to jobs.

I attribute our brand recognition to a few factors"

1) Quality of graduates. Fuqua's reputation of producing graduates from the "Team Fuqua" culture is a known quantity. The arrogance and elitist attitude of other schools' graduates is much less so at Fuqua. In a business world that values communication skills above all else, Fuqua acquits itself well.

2) Dispersed alumni. Because few alumni stay in the Durham area, Duke sends its alumni to geographically diverse areas. We still don't have a good pipeline to Europe, though.

3) Research. I have always been skeptical of the overall value add of "research" to a school's success, but when I see in national press that "researchers from Duke University conclude that...", my degree is slightly more valuable.

4) Duke basketball. It's undeniable.

"not quite noir"

...Overheard on the street in san francisco, referring to cinema
genres. I dontkbow what this means, but I don't like it.

Inspired, sad and inspired

My day. I woke up at 5:45am to walk 10 minutes to John O'Connell High School in the Mission. SFUSD is holding their annual administrators' kickoff meetings there for the next two days, and I went to attend and help my friend Christopher (who helped plan the event) to set up. I'm going to wait until later to describe everything that I learned, but during the course of the event I...

- Listened to presentations from the Superintendent and Deputy "supe" on how our central office reorganization matters for teachers and principals (which, from the outside probably seems like a dull topic, but believe me it's a massive undertaking and one that requires the deftest of political touches).

- Participated in a kickoff for the "Mission Superintendent's Zone" (more on this below)

- Attended small group sessions on the new SFUSD school choice formula (which will be formally proposed in the next month or so), restorative justice, and 21st century learning.

I ducked out of the conference around 3:30 because it was a gorgeous day (which are few and far between in SF) to go on a quick bike ride and work out. I then went to dinner and my first ever book club with 5 other Ed Pioneers. We read a book by Lisa Delpit called Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. The book is essentially about how cultural differences matter in instructional settings. For example, mostly white, well-meaning teachers who have liberal teaching philosophies such as "let the kids find themselves" and "just write creatively" often miss what black students need Whereas white students will respond to "question commands" such as "don't you think you need to take a nap now?", black students are confused by this language; the black students respond to the direct language of "take a nap - now." Another example is how the author observed in Alaska that native students were getting lower grades on their essays. Teachers docked the students points because stories were rambling messes. The cultural misunderstanding is that, in native Alaskan cultures, stories are meant to go on and on; stories are meant to be told so they have no ending (the philosophy being that life has no ending, so the stories should have no ending). There are no easy solutions to these disconnects, and to be honest there is no way to say exactly how often these instances occur.

Anyway, around the table were an MBA student from Columbia, MBA student from Berkeley, MBA student from Yale, education PhD student from Berkeley, and an ex-teacher and education master's student from Stanford.

After book club we went to see the movie The Lottery, where we predictably saw other current Ed Pioneers, alumni, and staff. The Ed world is a very, very connected community. I recommend the movie. It's about the NYC lottery for kids who want to get into a public charter school and the crazy political fight between the teachers unions, elected officials, charter schools, and parents. There's another upcoming movie called Waiting for Superman that is in the same vein as The Lottery.

Here's the good stuff...

The day was inspiring on many levels. Being surrounded by SFUSD principals and central office staff - it just feels like home. Granted, I still feel like a bit of an outsider because I haven't been a teacher. Most, if not all principals and superintendents have been teachers for a significant amount of time.

I often get asked "why does an MBA want to go into education? How does having an MBA help you run a school system?" To be honest, before this summer I was clear on my answer to the first question, but hazy on the second. After working with the Assistant Supes and other administrators for over a month, I can say that this is - more than anything - a management job. Our Deputy Superintendent, who I'm a big fan of, is at heart a very, very good leader through being a communicator, bringing clarity to vision, and playing the politics necessary to get things (ANYthing) done. Granted, he is first a teacher and a principal, and his credibility comes from having done those jobs for a long time. But, I am beginning to see my role in a public school system as a manager and leader. There is, without a doubt, a use for my skills. Is there a compelling reason that most school administrators are ex-teachers? Yes, there is - because the content of education is teaching, and that requires teaching experience; one cannot learn the true nature of teaching without being in the classroom. But, there is no reason why management skills (indeed, leadership skills) can't be brought to bear in education and co-exist with instructional expertise.

This is all a very longwinded way of saying that I can see my role much more clearly, and I'm inspired by these people. I sat in on the kickoff meeting for the "Mission Superintendent Zone" at the conference today. The Zone is basically a group of schools from the Mission District in SF that are chronically underperforming because of the inputs to the schools (english language learners, troubled homes, etc.). Thus, the Zone was created to give this area some special attention. I introduced myself in the ice-breaking exercise. Here's the gist of what I said:

I'm Dave. I'm getting my MBA at Duke and am here working with the central office on a dashboard that will give the Assistant Supes and Principals interim insight into how their schools are performing (nodding heads of encouragement). Why am I here? I'm here because I love being around people who talk about "purpose" and "mission" when they're asked "why do you do what you do?" For me, this summer, and being around these people, has been a gamechanger. It's not typical that an MBA goes into education, but when I go back to Duke in a month, I want to recruit my fellow MBAs to come work in public education like I've done. I honestly can't wait to go back and do this, because I think there are a lot of people who want to do what I've done, but just don't "see it" yet. Thanks for letting me be part of this.

Now, "solving" education is an incredibly complex set of problems, and I don't pretend that everyone in education is as motivated and competent as the people I met today. But I'm still inspired. I'm inspired by the people in education. But I'm equally as inspired by my cohort of Education Pioneers. Why? Because we're good. There is no reason why the education system shouldn't be screaming for MBAs, public policy, law, etc. graduates to come into the system in droves. I've been blessed to have met some extremely motivated, dynamic, etc. people in my life, and my cohort in the Bay Area are right at the top. 75% of us will go full-time into the education world. There are 300 of us nationwide this year (and over 900 alumni), and we're growing. And we're motivated for the right reasons. It is indeed sad to watch films like The Lottery - to be rooting for a kid to get into the school his parents see as giving their child the best chance for success - and to be disappointed.

I've been thinking a lot recently about not just what I know, but what I believe. I believe that our kids deserve better. They deserve to have quality options on where they go to school. I believe that it is simply not right (American?) that a kid is destined to go to an awful school just because that's the way it is.

Anyway, that's my rant. I'm curious to see where all of this takes me.

Slow Reading

Perhaps because I am a slow reader by nature and couldn't read faster if I tried, I like the idea of deliberately slow reading.

I love technology. I would upgrade to the iPhone 4 and buy an iPad in a heartbeat if I weren't so cheap. I crave these things. But I also recognize - in my own life - that technology has changed the way I live in a negative way. I compulsively check email (not uncommon these days). When someone is talking too loud (or if I just don't want to hear them), I instinctively reach for an imaginary volume dial only to discover that I can't actually turn them down (seriously, I do this). I relish slow living... mindful living, but I am very much prevented from living this way by gadgets and connectedness. Maybe I'm fighting a losing battle with myself, but I don't anticipate ever not trying my damndest to disconnect myself from my computer.

Here's the article from Newsweek. Here are some quotes:

The phrase “slow reading” goes back at least as far as the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who in 1887 described himself as a “teacher of slow reading.”

“You see schools where reading is turned into a race,” Thomas Newkirk, an English professor at the University of New Hampshire, told the Associated Press last week. “You see kids on the stopwatch to see how many words they can read in a minute. That tells students a story about what reading is. It tells students to be fast is to be good.”

“One student told me even when he was reading a regular book, he’d come to a word and it would almost act like a hyperlink,” Newkirk said. “It would just send his mind off to some other thing. I think they recognize they’re missing out on something.”

John Miedema, author of Slow Reading, likens the movement to the Slow Food movement, which is as much as about taking your time as it is about consuming locally grown food. Both movements encourage increased mindfulness in the conduct of routine activity. “It’s not just about students reading as slowly as possible,” Miedema says. “Slow reading is about bringing more of the person to bear on the book.”

Recently I saw a recommendation that we give ourselves a sabbath from the computer; that is, we turn the darn thing off one day a week. I like that idea. But computers are only part of the techno problem. We’re bedeviled by machines at every turn, and every one of them whispers, “Hurry up.”

Teacher Performance Measurement and Rhee's Bold Moves

Last week in my Education Pioneers workshop (a weekly, day-long session where we discuss and investigate ed reform topics such as school choice, district reform, the achievement gap, etc.), we looked at human capital issues in public school districts. The most recent news on this front is Michelle Rhee's "victory" to negotiate a new contract with the teachers union. I put "victory" in quotes because I believe it took leadership on both sides of the aisle - Rhee's camp and that of the teachers union - to come to a compromise that looks to be groundbreaking. Again, this is a great example of how leaders (in this case, Rhee and the various teachers union leaders) took bold moves to hammer out a compromise that, while initially divisive, has clear benefits for all sides. While Rhee gets increased power to remove ineffective teachers, effective teachers will be paid significantly more. In essence, ineffective teachers will slowly be removed from the system.

Here's an article that explains the reforms, and another article that explains possibly the most important piece in the agreement - a new rubric for evaluating teachers. It's worth noting that teacher evaluations - one of the most contentious pieces of education reform - will not be solely based on absolute test score benchmarks. Rather, they're based on "value add" (jargon in the Ed world) scores plus other measures. The practice of measuring teachers' effectiveness through multiple measures is similar to that of the balanced scorecard, which has become the predominant method for tracking performance in for-profit ventures. A balanced scorecard uses multiple measures (both quantitative and qualitative) to track performance.

In my view, human capital issues such as pay-for-performance are critical to public education reform. Teachers unions often rally around the trite, lazy, and reductive refrain that "you simply can't effectively evaluate teachers' performance." There is, indeed, some merit to this argument - an effective teacher will do things that don't always show up in a students' test scores. For example, a great teacher will go to the homes of students to involve parents, and they will teach students ethical lessons that won't "show up" in a student's character until years in the future. However, test scores are not the only way to measure student performance. Thus, the teachers unions' argument that you simply cannot measure teacher performance is hollow. There is a better, more complete way to measure performance - a problem that Michelle Rhee's contract is trying to resolve.

The difficulty is in designing and implementing such a performance management system. If we are to rely on other measures such as principal evaluations of teachers (an appropriate role for principals), then principals must have the abilities and time capacity to conduct these evaluations. The reality is that in many many schools, principals have neither the appetite nor ability to conduct these evaluations (which brings up a completely new issue of peer evaluations or evaluations by "master teachers", which would require building new tiered teacher roles in schools). For example, my sister, a first year teacher in the Mississippi Delta, said her teacher came into her classroom less than three times the entire year - a year when Jenny, as a new teacher, needed the most instructional assistance.

So, an effective evaluation system requires a lot more than just "putting the system in place." It requires higher competencies from principals, a new management structure within the schools, and buy in from local teachers unions (not an easy issue to overcome). The bottom line is that reform must start somewhere.

Doing Well by Doing Good

I've previously mentioned on this blog that I believe ethical decisions - particularly in business - can drive a "double bottom line" of doing well (making profits) while doing good (for others). Here's an example from today's NY Times about an apparel manufacturer who has committed to paying a livable wage to factory workers in the Dominican Republic.

The interesting thing about this case is that it doesn't deny market forces. In fact, the company is welcoming the market by betting consumers, company employees, and retailers will appreciate its paying livable wages, and will in turn pay more for the apparel. (note: Even though the company says that increased labor costs will not be passed onto the retailer or consumer, I'm assuming that in time these costs will be passed on).

Although the manufacturer is only paying livable wages in one factory, it's an experiment that I hope will give evidence that making ethical decisions (such as paying a livable wage) does not always lead to smaller profits. In order for this experiment to take place, the CEO of the manufacturing company had to make a bold decision that bucks the conventional wisdom of lower costs => higher profits. Refreshing, isn't it?

Narcissism

Is there anything that David Brooks writes that I don't agree with? Here's a decent article from today's NY Times about what the Mel Gibson tapes say about our culture. Brooks cites one dramatic statistic:

In 1950, thousands of teenagers were asked if they considered themselves an “important person.” Twelve percent said yes. In the late 1980s, another few thousand were asked. This time, 80 percent of girls and 77 percent of boys said yes.

I am a singer songwriter

Loyal readers of bookishdave, the past three weeks have been action packed, and I have many thoughts to share (mostly on what it's like to work in the central office at SFUSD) in the next few blog posts. My hiatus from blogging coincided with many good times in San Francisco, which I'll tell you about soon. For now...

My roommate in SF is learning to play the guitar. Last week I picked up his guitar and started playing the few songs I remembered (standards from Ben Harper, Allman Brothers, and a little Yellow Ledbetter), and it felt right. I hadn't touched a guitar in about two years until last week. Note to self: rock out more.