In my application to the Stanford Graduate School of Business I was asked “What matters most to you, and why?” My answer was education – the greatest instrument of equality, and the only sustainable solution to the world’s most challenging problems.
After earning a place at Oxford University, the trajectory of my future changed dramatically. I gained a foothold in management consultancy, and in my first full-time job I earned more than my parents’ peak incomes combined. I owe all of this to the opportunities afforded to me by my education, and personal experience continues to teach me its importance. Over the last few years, both in my role as a management consultant and whilst studying for an MBA and MA in Education at Stanford University, I have had the opportunity to immerse myself in the experiences of others, and to understand more objectively and extensively the challenges faced by global education systems.
The US’s education system is failing the young people who represent its future. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) only 25% of students are proficient in math when they graduate high school, a number that significantly declines the more time students spend in school – from 40% in 4th grade and 34% in 8th grade. The statistics for students who are proficient in reading (37% proficient) and writing (27% proficient) by the time they graduate high school are similarly shocking.
Not only is the system failing, but in some cases it is exacerbating the gap between the majority and the minority. The education system in the US is actually creating inequality – the very challenge it is uniquely positioned to solve. The achievement gap in US schools, defined as “any significant and persistent disparity in academic performance or educational attainment between different groups of students, such as white students and minorities, or students from higher-income and lower-income households”, is both significant, and persistent. For example, in 2015, the latest year for which data is available, the national achievement gap between black and white students in the NAEP reading test in 4th grade was 26pts, whereas by 12th grade the gap had increased to 30pts.
Global trends are providing us with increasingly diverse populations, resulting in children with increasingly diverse needs. Schools are doing their best to cater to these needs, but the data clearly shows that they are not yet succeeding. I have had conversations with many school leaders and education reform advocates over the past year and they frequently cite funding cuts as the limiting factor to providing an adequate education to all children in the US. The Department for Education budget has remained relatively constant (although fluctuating) over the past 10 years, at around $75B, despite population growth and inflation. Furthermore, state funding decreased by nearly $30 billion between 2012 and 2017, constituting a 15% reduction.
Diverse students often require more personalized, small group support such as English language interventions, but many schools simply cannot afford to provide these. Now, more than ever, schools need to use their limited resources as efficiently as possible, in order to improve the quality of the education received by students of all backgrounds. Many schools, especially elementary and other small schools, lack the resources and expertise needed to optimize their spending. Whatever your political view on charter networks, they have shown one thing – that the sharing of resources across a number of schools can lead to greater expertise and efficiencies. The private sector uses this theory of specialization and efficiencies of scale in every industry, so why not education?
I believe schools could provide better learning environments for their students by sharing resources and expertise with other local schools, in informal networks. Here is an example of a school that could benefit from resource sharing.
Resource sharing is also beneficial in other areas. For example, elementary schools often have one person managing all school operations, including admin, HR and finances. It is very rare for this person to have expertise in all three areas, but what if three local schools grouped together to share a finance expert, an HR expert and an admin expert? Or, imagine a small high school has requests from 12th grade students for a politics class, but can’t afford a politics teacher? Whilst another school has a politics teacher, but needs English teachers to support 1:1 language interventions? These schools can work together to provide better instruction in the areas their students need, at a reduced cost.
I plan to create an online platform that allows schools to partner with each other, sharing expertise and resources. From facilitating shared staffing to professional development sessions that allow schools to learn from each other’s successes and challenges, the program will support more efficient and effective school systems. The website will use publicly reported information such as location, school size, demographics and standardized test results, as well as more nuanced information from school websites such as classes offered, to create a profile for each school. School leaders can then add specific areas of expertise and needs to this profile, allowing the system to automatically identify appropriate matches.
My years of experience in management consulting have provided me with a strong understanding of strategy and business plan development. However, a Toptal Scholarships mentor who could support the design and creation of this online platform would be invaluable. I am looking for support to design a platform that encourages engagement between users, optimizes the matching of schools and ensures user-generated content is high quality and targeted.
I plan to launch the program working with a small geographical region. This is because the full potential of partnerships can be achieved when schools are in close geographic proximity, and because it will allow me to work closely with the schools and gather input and feedback to improve the service. Over time, I hope to expand the program across regions and countries, and potentially incorporate it as a non-profit that could raise funding to provide external support to schools looking to optimize their resource allocation and provide greater opportunities for their students.
This program will benefit school leaders, teachers and students. For school leaders, it will provide an easy and trusted way to build partnerships with local schools, in a way that will provide more flexibility within their budgets to improve their student offerings. For teachers the program represents exciting career and flexible working opportunities. Most importantly, the goal of this program is to provide a higher quality and more personalized education to the next generation of Americans, opening up equal opportunities for all, regardless of their background.
Better resource allocation is imperative to the survival and development of the US education system. It allows educators to focus on teaching and learning, to invest more in their students, and ultimately to improve the quality of the education they are providing, so that more of our students enter higher education and the workplace ready to thrive.
Imogen Rey, Toptal Scholarship Application
MBA Candidate, Stanford Graduate School of Business
MA Candidate, Stanford Graduate School of Education
https://www.linkedin.com/in/imogenrey/
Sources
https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/
https://www.edglossary.org/achievement-gap/
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_221.10.asp
https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/history/index.html
Imogen Rey 