As policy geeks, it’s easy to forecast limited investment in supplemental learning because of cultural norms or the structure of U.S. public education. But convenience has a funny way of shaping consumer behavior. Broadband ubiquity and mobile computing are beginning to bend the curve on access and, in turn, consumption. And it’s happening quickly.
I’d like to encourage more entrepreneurs and investors to consider partnering with the public sector, understand its order, and master the sometimes Byzantine systems that will enable them to make an impact. Here are five recommendations for CEOs considering government challenges — or opportunities.
"Teachers, rightly so, are making more and more frequent decisions about the tools and resources that they are using in the classroom," said Ben Wallerstein, Whiteboard Advisors.
Increasingly, we're worried that a generation of entrepreneurs is facing a "new innovators dilemma"
In a rapidly changing economic landscape, educational assistance programs through tax policy changes can offer employers a competitive advantage, write W/A's Erica Price Burns and Liz Simon of General Assembly.
Higher education is abuzz with talk of partnerships between private companies and universities. Yet ask a dozen faculty what they mean by “private sector” and you may feel a bit like the blind man and the elephant. Left to their own devices, education entrepreneurs and investors tend to revel in their own awesomeness, critique risk-averse leaders and exchange vague descriptions of so-called “bureaucratic processes” that stymie innovation and impede progress.
Whiteboard Advisors, a D.C and San Francisco-based agency working with socially conscious tech companies, has named Nicole Harburger as its new COO. Harburger joins Whiteboard from strategic communications and ad agengy GMMB, where she led teams and campaigns at the intersection of innovation, politics, and social good.
Read more in DCInno.
In May, a survey of Washington “insiders” polled routinely about their opinions on education policy by Whiteboard Advisors said Carson was the most likely choice for education secretary under Trump, with 28.6 percent.
Read more in the Washington Post.
“When I speak to superintendents and districts, they’re still waiting for the directive [about ESSA] to come—and they’re not going to get it,” said David DeSchryver, a co-director of research at Whiteboard Advisors, which conducts education research and policy analysis. Read more here.
These newly proposed “supplement, not supplant” rules are now the hot ESSA topic, and they are worth your attention. They have significant implications for schools and districts, as well as for vendors and private partners. And the politics are ridiculous. So let's break out three storylines that you should follow. More in EdSurge.
"According to a poll conducted by Whiteboard Advisors, Washington insiders place the odds of getting the bill reauthorized this year at 40 percent – still less than 50-50, but a stronger showing than even a few months ago."
But there’s dim hope for Vitter’s proposal, according to a survey of 50 to 75 political 'Insiders' published by Whiteboard Advisors, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm that publishes a monthly pulse check on proposed legislations.
Former North Carolina Gov. Beverly E. Purdue has joined the Whiteboard Advisors team of senior advisors.
Ben Wallerstein, co-founder at Whiteboard Advisors, said that although accountability in higher education is “still relatively nascent,” state legislatures will be taking a closer look at it next year. “We expect to see new accountability models considered in 2016.”
