“The Policy Landscape of Educational Entrepreneurship” is available from the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education.
Many programs designed by educational entrepreneurs are rendered ineffective by complications with current public policy, suggests a report published by the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Since the No Child Left Behind Act links accountability so closely with standardized testing, it is difficult for corporate educational programs to evaluate their programs’ progress accurately. Also, since schools face clear consequences if they do not meet benchmarks for adequate yearly progress under the federal law, they are less likely to try innovative programs that are not already proven to increase standardized-test scores, the report says. Additional research is needed, it argues, to determine how entrepreneurs are dealing with state and district policy restraints, and whether educational entrepreneurship should be encouraged in light of those complications.
