Meet The Broad Residency Class of 2006-2008 Broad Resident Alumni: Where Are They Now? Broad Resident on the Move: Michelle Boyers Interview with The Broad Center Director of Recruitment: Mollie Mitchell Education Reform: Learn More

Welcome!

The Broad Center is proud to present the first issue of our quarterly newsletter. In this introductory issue of "Education Quarterly," we are excited to share with you updates and general information about The Broad Residency as well as resources to learn more about education reform. We hope you enjoy this issue of our newsletter.
   -The Broad Center Staff

Meet The Broad Residency Class of 2006-2008

The Residents in the Class of 2006 have diverse professional backgrounds. They bring experience in management consulting, financial services, nonprofit management, consumer goods, technology, for-profit education, legal services, the military and real estate.

Broad Resident Alumni: Where Are They Now?

Goals
Our expectations are high. We select talented individuals to become Residents, and we expect that they will be hired into Director-level positions during or after the two-year program. Within five years of the program, we hope the Residents will assume senior leadership positions in urban school districts. Our goal is for 80% of Residents to continue their career in an urban school district and for 90% to continue their career in education.

Results
We are pleased that 93% of our first two classes have accepted positions of significant responsibility in public education and that 81% are continuing to work in urban public school districts. To date, alumni from the first two years have taken positions in the following industries upon graduation:

Alumni of The Broad Residency are currently working for
the following organizations:

Broad Resident on the Move: Michelle Boyers

The Broad Center would like to congratulate Michelle Boyers on her recent promotion to Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources for the Boston Public Schools. Michelle is now responsible for the Office of Human Resources for Boston Public Schools. She oversees 33 staff members and a budget of over $5 million. Michelle completed The Broad Residency in 2006 working for the Boston Public Schools and is the first Resident to obtain a cabinet level role.

Boston Public School's Office of Human Resources has been transformed under the leadership of Broad Superintendents Academy graduate Barbara McGann and Michelle Boyers. Their efforts focused on changing the department's culture into one of customer service to schools rather than one that simply enforces policy and compliance. After years of complaints about bureaucracy, non-responsiveness and ineffective paper-based recruitment and hiring processes, the Office of Human Resources has implemented a new strategic recruitment plan, an online application and hiring system and a new teacher support system. McGann credits Boyers with the rapid progress. "The book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done could have been written about her." "The Office of Human Resources is now a very welcoming environment, where phone calls are returned, issues are solved within 24 hours and employees receive 'red carpet treatment' during the hiring and orientation period," said McGann.

Michelle Boyers worked as the Deputy Director of the Office of Human Resources since May 2004. Prior to joining BPS, Ms. Boyers worked for the New York City public school system as Director of Strategic Partnerships. As a founding team member of the Office of Strategic Partnerships, she helped to build the infrastructure to significantly increase private sector support for NYC public schools by raising private funding for district reform efforts and creating partnerships to bring additional resources to individual schools. Previously, Ms. Boyers was a Partner at New Profit Inc., a nonprofit venture philanthropy fund that provides growth capital and strategic consulting support to education entrepreneurs. She also worked in finance as a private equity investment associate at Electra Fleming Inc. and an investment banking analyst at Chemical Securities and Kidder Peabody. Ms. Boyers has a Bachelor's Degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Interview with The Broad Center Director of Recruitment: Mollie Mitchell

Tell me about your background and what led you to
The Broad Foundation.

My background is in executive recruiting. I moved to Los Angeles eight years ago to work for Heidrick & Struggles, a leading global executive search firm. In 2001, I was part of an internet start up that crashed and burned. Recruiters were not in high demand at that time. I actually started the process of becoming a substitute teacher in LAUSD. I had completed everything except the physical exam when I got a call from a friend of mine who had just started working at The Broad Foundation. They were planning to launch The Broad Superintendents Academy, a training program for aspiring superintendents, and they had three months to recruit a class of 25 people. I am embarrassed to say I did not have a clue that the achievement gap existed. I had no idea that large urban school districts were in so much trouble. But I needed a job, so I signed on for a three month consulting contract. That was five years ago. I guess the rest, as they say, is history! By the way, that friend who called me is Becca Bracy, who is now Managing Director of The Broad Center and my boss!

Provide some history on The Broad Residency program. How did it begin?

The Broad Residency in Urban Education is a two-year management training program for talented emerging executives seeking to ultimately become leaders in education reform. The program is designed for graduates from the top business, law and public policy schools who have at least four years of work experience in the private and nonprofit sectors. The Broad Residency places participants immediately in managerial positions in the central operations of urban school districts and in charter management organizations (CMOs).

The Broad Residency was a natural outgrowth of the Broad Superintendents Academy. It became clear that even though we were preparing superintendents, it wasn't going to be enough. Superintendents need to build bench strength to accomplish their reforms, and yet there was no pipeline of outside talent going into these districts. The creator of The Broad Residency, Marcus Castain who now works as the Associate Director for Education, Youth, and Families for the Office of the Mayor in Los Angeles, realized there was a need to offer a career track for early and mid-career professionals who want to transition into public education. Before The Broad Residency, the only option was to start all over and become a teacher. It's thrilling to think that because of The Broad Residency, there are now 81 highly talented individuals working in public education at a very high level. Most of them probably could not have made the career transition without The Broad Residency. I hope that ten years from now, our Broad Superintendents Academy is full of Residents preparing to become superintendents!

What are your thoughts on education reform?

Although I did not join this organization because of my burning desire to make a difference in public education, I have certainly chosen to stay here because I believe wholeheartedly that, as Eli Broad often says, this is the civil rights issue of our time. I believe all children can learn, and I believe that every child born in this country has the right to a high quality public education. As a result of what I've learned through this work I have devoted time in my personal life to impact education. For the last 18 months I have been on the board of Environmental Charter High School in Los Angeles. Once you learn the reality of what is going on in urban education it is difficult to sit on the sidelines.

What do you see are the major obstacles to reform?

I think the biggest challenge is a lack of awareness. I am a great example of that. I was educated in a high performing suburban school district. Even though I live in LA, I don't have children, so I never paid much attention to the schools in my neighborhood. Eli Broad has said many times that if you're not outraged about the state of public education in this country, it's because you're not paying attention. More people need to pay attention. I don't think most people are aware of the implications for our country if we continue to let so many kids fall through the cracks.

How is The Broad Residency helping education reform?

Outside of the actual work in districts, I think as brand awareness of The Broad Residency grows, so too will public interest. We have already seen publicity increase over the past three years. More and more media outlets are interested in reporting on all the bright, young business people who have chosen to get off the fast track and into public education. The Broad Residency is increasingly allowing talented people with graduate degrees who don't want to be teachers to still utilize their skills in education and have an impact on children's' lives. A movement like that will certainly be helpful in bringing to light the issues facing our large urban school systems.

How do you see The Broad Residency expanding in the future?

There is a high demand for Residents. Every year, we have more and more school systems vying to host Residents. We are building our recruitment team so we have the resources to recruit enough Residents to meet the demand. The first year we started recruiting, we had 11 Residents. In our fourth year, we have 27. I think we're off to a good start, but obviously we can impact larger numbers of children by doubling or even tripling in size in the coming years.

When you aren't recruiting the next generation of education leaders, how do you spend your time?

I take advantage of the great weather we have in Los Angeles. I get up four or five mornings a week and hike with my golden retriever. I like to cycle and swim, and when I'm in town long enough to train, I do an occasional triathlon. I also love to cook and entertain friends in my home. There are a lot of great places to listen to live music, and of course I'd be lying if I didn't say that I definitely take advantage of all the great shopping!

Education Reform: Learn More

Imagine that upon your arrival at an airline ticket counter, you are told that only 65 percent of the flights to your intended destination actually even arrive. The remainder crash en route. And, if you are a child of color, or poor, you are required to fly on special, poorly maintained planes of which only 35 percent make it. Sounds crazy, right? But this is exactly the deal that, as a nation, we are serving up daily to millions of children in thousands of our public schools.   - from Crash Course by Chris Whittle

Want to Learn More?

Many contemporary authors have written on the challenges facing public education and reform initiatives. Here are some selections to help you build an education library.

Crash Course by Chris Whittle
A fascinating discussion from the CEO and founder of Edison Schools advocating integration of basic business principles into America's school systems. Whittle shares lessons and ideas he has learned from the "front lines" of managing one of the nation's leading charter school companies.

Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform by David Tyack and Larry Cuban
Tyack and Cuban examine the cyclical nature of educational reform and discuss difficulties faced throughout the last century by proponents of various agents for change. Their explorations provide an excellent foundation to the national discussion of education reform on local, state, and federal levels.

Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol
In this graphic, eye-opening account, Kozol examines the state of public education from the eyes of children of poor families. The shocking realities he uncovers emphasize the urgency of the call to action to fix America's public school systems.

Making Schools Work by William Ouchi
Ouchi believes educational management systems should be entrepreneurial rather than bureaucratic. Give principals real control over their budgets, empower parents as genuine participants in school decisions, and student achievement will soar, even in communities beset by poverty and high immigration rates.

Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools and Winning!  by Donald McAdams
This selection reviews successful district-level reform in Houston, the nation's seventh-largest school district. A first-hand account by a school-board member who helped craft and execute the reform initiatives, this book is a fascinating account of the intricacies and politics behind the successful turnaround of a major urban district.

In future issues, this section will be dedicated to links to articles of interest about education reform.

The Broad Center

The mission of The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems is to raise student achievement by recruiting, training and supporting executive leadership talent from across America to become the next generation of urban school district leaders. Established in 2001, The Broad Center identifies talented leaders who have the passion, knowledge and skill to take on executive leadership roles in urban education. In addition to The Broad Residency, the Center operates The Broad Superintendents Academy, a ten-month executive management program to train working CEOs and other top executives from business, non-profit, military, government and education backgrounds to lead urban public school systems. For more information about The Broad Center, go to www.broadcenter.org.

The Broad Foundation

The Broad Center is sponsored by The Broad Foundation. Founded in 1999 by Eli and Edythe Broad, the Los Angeles based Broad Foundation's mission is to dramatically improve k-12 urban public education through better governance, management, labor relations and competition. The Broad Foundation's Internet address is www.broadfoundation.org.