Our Values

On Public Education

• Teacher empowerment at the center of reform. Great teaching makes up for many systemic shortcomings. No amount of organizational restructuring can make up for poor teaching. True empowerment combines personal accountability with professional discretion, teamwork, capacity, and access to resources.
  
  
• A public school system reorganizing to assure that each student receives the unique support he or she needs: first, to achieve and demonstate academic proficiency as defined by state standards; and second, from that base, to become personally fulfilled.
  
  
• Student choice and open enrollment in public schools resourced by the taxpayer on a per pupil basis.
  
  
• Public school markets, not private school vouchers. School eligibility for taxpayer funding based on accountability to a government agency (school district, chartering authority) for student performance, financial stability, and respect for individual rights.
  
  
• Public school markets harnessing competition among private sector providers to improve student learning. A private sector "on tap, not on top."
  
  
• Private sector providers supplying the tools of of school improvement in a competition for quality and results. An expectation that the quality of a provider's programs in teaching and learning will be more important to its success than the size of its marketing budget or insider relationships.
  
  
• Many stakeholders, one shared purpose. A perspective that considers teachers, administrators, for-profit and nonprofit providers, researchers, and policymakers to be working towards the same fundamental objective for students - proficiency in the basic skills necessary for individual fulfillment, followed by opportunities for personal growth.
  
  
• The enlighted self-interest of industry stakeholders - a strategic view of the school improvement market and its development in the public interest.
  

• The people who pay our bills are clients, not customers, and we will respond to their needs.
  
  
• If our services cannot meet client expectations, we will refund their fee. Period.
  
  
• Our independence. The emerging market for school improvement services is not owned by buyers, sellers or government. It exists to serve the public interest in a high-quality education for all of its students at a reasonable cost. We will do our best to serve the public interest.
  
  
• Quality information at a price within reach of every organization helping to change teaching and learning to meet the goals of No Child Left Behind - schools and districts; providers, think tanks; and education agencies.
  
  
• Constant improvement of our offerings - driven by clients' needs, and a willingness to recognize, point out and admit our own errors and shortcomings.
  
  
• Complete coverage - we will monitor any organization in the indusry that asks, and we hope to cover every organization in the industry.
  

• Always The First Rule: Know what you don't know.
  
  
• Hire good people and let them do their jobs.
  
  
• If you think someone can do the job 70% as well as you, delegate.
  
  
• Unless they are about to drive the organization over a cliff, let people make mistakes.