Real-life elevator pitches

Part of my summer internship experience are weekly(ish) workshops on a variety of topics — the nonprofit sector, how to write a resume, what Education Pioneers does, and so on. This week we learned about the elevator pitch. Even if you don't recognize the term, you've given one before. We practiced having 30 seconds on the phone to sell someone on us as employees, or on a business model, or on a specific project proposal. Then we received criticisms. It was a grueling hour. Here's what I learned about myself:

• My voice goes up at the end of the sentence when I'm trying to feign confidence;
• I alternate between identifying as a part of Education Pioneers (saying "we") and feeling outside (saying "they").
• I think conference calls are stressful.

The (few) notes I took during the workshop, however, kind of read as poetry.

we do this
don't let voice go up
don't say I think

I was an intern
they fill a void

I can barely identify what I meant by some of those, but that had a ring to it, didn't it?

Anyway, the day after the workshop, I had a phone call with a career center at a top-tier university in Chicago. After initial introductions, the assistant dean interrogated me about why our company existed. Really. It was the ultimate vote of no-confidence. She opened up by asking why I didn't send her a link to the website. Excuse me, I thought, but I never emailed you directly. Also I emailed another person in the office from an address @educationpioneers.org. I was taken aback by the aggression.

As we proceeded, she tried to throw me some curveballs. For example — what year was Education Pioneers founded? 2004. Who is the founder? Scott Morgan. Why are you trying to expand? To reach more markets that have a need for talented leaders in the ed. sector. I held my ground! My only stumble was over our types of partner organizations in Chicago — but I give myself a break there, having never worked in the Chicago office or for a site team.

For all my frustration, she really wasn't a rude person. She just wanted to know what business I had trying to recruit her students. What it really felt like, though, was a real-life application of the elevator pitch. It was great practice. I think I rocked it.

...Well, let's see if she lets us recruit her students. Then we can decide if I rocked it.

Benefitted-from-the-school-system-splaining

At work the other day, a higher-up in my organization was talking about an organization that I affiliate myself with, one that is for undergraduates interested in education reform. I need to contextualize this a bit, because I mean no ill toward this person: the reason I am going to excerpt part of the conversation is because it was provocative in the way that it made me reflect, not that it made me angry or even that I disagree.

Anyway, she said that the people who are a part of this student group (SFER) either "saw Waiting for Superman, have a big sibling in TFA, or actually came from poverty and understands bad school systems."

My gut reaction was something like this: "Of course that's not me," then "that is me exactly," then "isn't it a bit more complex than that?"

It is and it isn't. The point here is that either we are a victim of inequitable schooling, or we are not (and found out about it secondhand). And it makes me think about an idea that a classmate of mine, Emma, explained to me: "whitesplaining", which is when a person tries to assume more authority than someone who actually has the lived experience. It's sometimes used in feminist circles as "mansplaining", which is when a male tries to rationalize some part of the female experience as an expert (as in, denying that women would understand it and thus perpetuating the sexism feminists try to combat).

What I'm trying to say is that this employee's comment made me think about how I approach issues in education, as a person who identifies primarily as a member of dominant social groups. This wasn't provoked — this was just purely how she thought to describe SFER, without knowing me (the eavesdropper) was a part of the organization)

I want to understand issues of race and class and poverty as they relate to education, but how much can I, really? If it's not in my lived experience? I am more conversant in education issues than TFA worshippers or documentary watchers, maybe, but I still think I do a fair amount of "splaining" on my own front.

There is no answer here. I just wanted to push myself (and you, reader) to think a bit more.

School turnaround

Yesterday, I was a 12-year-old. My parents recently immigrated — only a few years back — and I started schooling in English for the first time here in Boston. I really don't like school. It's just not fun. The teachers are either yelling or drilling us in mundane things I don't need to know, and the few teachers that I do like are only around for a year or two. I know I don't go to a great school — I'm not stupid, I hear what the people say about where I live. But it's my home, and even though I'm not doing great in my classes, I pass and I get to spend time with my friends. Now they're talking about closing my school, or changing it, and I don't know what could make it better, but I guess it's time for change, right?

...
I was invited to attend one of the Fellowship workshops yesterday for Education Pioneers, titled "Current Issues in Education." In lieu of trying to tackle a laundry list of issues, we took part in a major simulation that incorporated many issues in a real-world scenario. The Fellows, a friendly, intelligent group of 40 graduate students, played consultants making recommendations for a failing school (my school). They were tasked with interviewing me and other stakeholders (a teacher, a union representative, the principal, a community leader) to decide if the school should be closed, restarted, "turned around", or transformed.

A bit of context for that: this comes directly from the Department of Education, who in 2010 began offering School Improvement Grants (SIGs) to low-achieving schools, provided they would follow one of four models to facilitate its turnaround. The DOE's blog summarizes the options as such:

• Turnaround model: Replace the principal and rehire no more than 50% of the staff, and grant the principal sufficient operational flexibility (including in staffing, calendars/time and budgeting) to fully implement a comprehensive approach to substantially improve student outcomes. 
• Restart model: Convert a school or close and reopen it under a charter school operator, a charter management organization, or an education management organization that has been selected through a rigorous review process.
•  School closure: Close a school and enroll the students who attended that school in other schools in the district that are higher achieving.
• Transformation model: Implement each of the following strategies: (1) replace the principal and take steps to increase teacher and school leader effectiveness; (2) institute comprehensive instructional reforms; (3) increase learning time and create community-oriented schools; and (4) provide operational flexibility and sustained support.

Genius. Without doing so explicitly, the Fellows learned about teacher's unions, school management, student assessment, teacher assessment, instructional models, federal standards...

I could say a lot of things about how my attempt to convey someone else's lived experience can be problematic, but I took off my American Studies hat yesterday and really invested myself in my character and tried to internalize the student experience of a failing school. It was on my side that twelve year olds don't have to be too articulate about how race, poverty and education interact. I did my best, and also answered a lot of questions like this...

Fellow: "So, what would you want to make your school better?"


Me: "Do we have to do work and stuff, not just fun stuff?"


Fellow: "Yes."


Me: "Umm... I don't know. I'd like to have fun or nice teachers and friends in my classes."

That's clearly a simplistic response, but as I processed the activity after, I realized this is still really nuanced: it points at how the teachers at the school weren't consistent in expectations and discipline, and teachers weren't empowered to make creative lessons that went beyond explaining basic skills.

Out of the mouths of babes, right?

The "consultants'" presentations after interviewing us were really strong and challenged my ideas of what is best for struggling schools, and the simulation and the speaker after (a real-life consultant on school turnaround) definitely stretched my knowledge. I did have one main thought, though. A big part of most of the plans including removing a substantial part of the teaching force and hiring new teachers. I couldn't help but think of this blog, where Diane Ravitch astutely paraphrases and says, "Since we can't fire poverty, we can't fire students, and we can't fire families, all that is left is to fire teachers." And  I know that sometimes teachers are terrible and do need to go. But I worry that the framework of the SIGs subscribe to the idea that firing teachers helps fire poverty, and I don't believe that's true. 


In short: This experience generated a lot of questions for me, which means that it was effective in the best way. Thanks again, EP.

Life in photos

A quick visual tour of the last few weeks!

This is me, making a ridiculous face, hanging out with a group of students doing summer reasearch at MIT, and crouching down to look at 4th of July fireworks through a fence during a rainstorm.

From my daytrip to Provincetown a few weeks ago. I spent the whole day laying on the beach and trying to talk myself into swimming in the freezing Atlantic. Overall, it was a marvelous and relaxing day. 

At the Museum of Science, riding a fake camel in the underwhelming Egypt exhibit. I am forever a fan of science museums.

Cambridge at sunset.

"Why will you transform education?" wall from the Why celebration (see this post.)

The first two photos courtesy of my dear new friend Jen Gavin, and photo of EP courtesy of EP's website.

Thank you

Sorry for the radio silence on my end, but I've been breaking out of my work-home-sleep-work routine to explore Boston, which has cut into my blogging schedule (and my room cleaning schedule, and sometimes my sleeping schedule). I will tell you more about all that later, but for now I just wanted to share how fortunate I am. Yesterday I won a scholarship from a company called Affinitas!

Here was the prompt: submit a collection of photos that inspire you to achieve your dream. This was my entry, titled something to the effect of "I will eliminate the achievement gap." Based on an initial finalist selection, a round of voting (during which my mom and friends helped me rally everyone I've ever met to vote for me online) and an final choice... I won.

As the grand prize winner (!), I get $1500 for tuition and $1000 worth of products. And here's what they said about me:

"We salute your dedication to education reform and have every confidence you will be a fantastic success. =)"

Thank you Affinitas. I am thrilled because I have never received such encouragement for things I want to do — only things I've already done. And it's always heartening to see someone believes in me!

A brief report on leadership and achievement

"So, you want to teach?"

I'm looking at you. I know you've asked me that, or if not me, someone else who likes education or has studied education or even just anyone who has earned a liberal arts degree.

I think teaching is an incredibly rewarding and critically important profession. If living with an elementary education teacher taught me anything, it's that constructing knowledge and promoting intellectual development is something that requires a lot of time and commitment.  I remember in fifth grade that I decided I had finally found the job for me: a fifth grade teacher. Later, when I had Ms. Kincaid for English, I thought that I could be a good secondary English teacher. Teach for America was my first Alternative Break; my volunteer resume is almost exclusively with public schools. But I digress. Although I know teaching is huge (and debatably the single thing that makes the most difference for kids), I don't think it's for me.

One thing about working at Education Pioneers, and especially talking to the other interns and staff, is that you can have a heart for education and kids and social justice without that equating to a life in the classroom. I already believed this (and have build a lot of my dreams around this) but EP is founded on the premise that this is true. Part of my job has been to review resources that validate the effects of leadership on achievement of students.

So empowering, right? Here are some cool things I've learned:

“Reform in the U.S educational system is both lively and messy but, as educators grapple with emerging demands, we found that leadership matters at all levels. Leaders in education provide direction for, and exercise influence over, policy and practice. Their contributions are crucial, our evidence shows, to initiatives aimed at improving student learning, and of course ultimately to the future in which we all share” (Lewis, 283).

“There seems to be little doubt that both district and school leadership provides a critical bridge between most education reform initiatives and their consequences for students. Of all the factors that contribute to what students learn at school, present evidence led us to the conclusion that leadership is second in strength only to classroom instruction. Furthermore, effective leadership has the greatest impact in those circumstances (e.g., ‘schools in trouble’) in which it is most needed. This evidence supports the present widespread interest in improving leadership as a key to the successful implementation of large-scale reforms” (Leithman, 70).

I love augmenting my sense of self-worth through reading research about what I do. I have also had access to some really cool case studies about people who have been Education Pioneers Fellows. They deserve their own post, though. For now, I will let this absorb.

Sources:

Leithwood, Kenneth, Karen S. Lewis, Stephen Anderson and Kyla Wahlstrom. How Leadership Influences Student Learning. Rep. The Wallace Foundation, Sept. 2004. 

Lewis, Karen S., Kenneth Leithwood, Kyla Wahlstrom, and Stephen Anderson. Learning From Leadership: Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning. Rep. The Wallace Foundation, July 2010. 

Why

Education Pioneers threw a spectacular party tonight.

There were a hundred people with advanced degrees from colleges that I wouldn't have even tried to apply to, all in business formal, drinking wine and eating beef wellington and bacon-wrapped scallops off trays from servers dressed in black. It was, at the same, time quite not-my-scene and the best time I've had all week. Graciously they left the word "intern" off my nametag, because a ton of people approached me to hear my story. Can you imagine?

To provide a bit of context, the people who are Analyst and Graduate School Fellows for EP are remarkably accomplished, and tonight was to celebrate them and why they have direct their career path into ed. reform. It was called the "Why Celebration." I will add the party pics later of the beautifully authentic wall of reasons why these individuals are working to transform education – to eliminate poverty, to make it so your zip code doesn't determine your future career, to let kids realize their full potential.

Really I just want to tell you about the keynote speaker. I would have been more excited in advance if I had any familiarity with Greater Boston school districts, but nonetheless the superintendent of Lawrence Public Schools Jeff Riley blew me away. He opened with this story and as much as I wouldn't start a speech with ten minute reading, he had the room in the palm of his hand. He read this to his teachers when he became superintendent, he said.

I can't do his subsequent speech justice by trying to recount it here, so I'll just tell you the ideas I'm still turning over in my head:

• Why is ed. reform so top-down? Why do people think a policy can be a one-size-fits-all in a district that serves such a diverse population? (In the sense that all populations are diverse.)
• The opportunity gap is what we should be considering. Disadvantaged kids just don't have the same sports, internships, involved parents, counseling, tutoring opportunities as suburban kids — and this is wildly significant with regards to achievement levels.
• His comment to the effect of: "People are on one side or the other - charter schools are great, or teachers and unions are great. I don't care. We are making charter schools, but without lotteries, and with unions."

So clever of you, EP. I guarantee you everyone left a little more sure of why they want to work in education, whether they wanted to or not. I heard someone decided to change careers after listening to this man tonight. I'm not even kidding.