Universities Create Ed. Entrepreneur Programs

Eric M. Schmidt, who studied education entrepreneurship at Rice University in Houston when he was a teacher, is now the school leader—essentially the principal—of a middle school in Houston. KIPP Courage College Prep is part of the Knowledge Is Power Program's charter school network.

—Michael Stravato for Education Week

By Sean Cavanagh

Efforts to promote an evolving area of study—entrepreneurship in education—are taking hold in graduate schools across the country, as universities craft programs and courses focused on cultivating school leaders and private-sector developers capable of bringing new ideas, and possibly new products and technologies, to schools.

University faculty members and administrators say the study of K-12 entrepreneurship and innovation has had a presence in the postsecondary world for years. But recently, interest in the subject has grown, and it has secured a much more clearly defined place in a number of colleges of education, business schools, and other academic departments.

A number of factors are driving...