Last Tuesday night, Mosaica, the Ohio Council of Community Schools (authorizer of five of our schools in Ohio), and STAR Academy (the school we manage in Toledo) co-hosted the Ohio premiere of Waiting for Superman, the highly praised film that won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.  The movie investigates the crisis in public education and documents our national failure to provide quality schooling to generations of inner city students, which it contrasts with the hope presented by high-performing charter schools.  The capacity audience included most of the STAR staff and board, as well as a number of other local educators and community leaders. There was also a post-screening discussion that gave voice to the raw passions evoked by this movie.

It is an impressive and inspirational movie.  Alternately edifying and heartrending, it is both charming and maddening – a motivational tour de force for what we do.  The topic is admittedly more complicated than can be dealt with fully or in depth in a hundred minutes – this is, after all, an elegantly structured, gripping and empathetic work of art, not an emotionless treatise – but by highlighting some of the issues, it will hopefully function as a catalyst to coalesce forces to create change for the better.

The film, which tracks the families of five students hoping to secure spaces in charter schools, includes interviews with some of our colleagues in the education reform movement, as well as with journalists, school district superintendents, union leaders and others.  It portrays the nation’s public schools as dysfunctional institutions, plagued by inconsistent policies and competing programs from federal, state and local agencies, and ill-served by teachers’ unions focused more on defending ineffective teachers than on enhancing student achievement.  (Variety says the movie makes Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, look like “a foaming satanic beast.”)  A poignant quote from Geoffrey Canada and vintage clips from the ‘50’s TV version of Superman inspired the title, and John Legend provides a theme song.

The film’s director, Davis Guggenheim, also happened to direct An Inconvenient Truth, the Al Gore documentary on climate change that won an Academy Award.  He is skilled at taking mind-numbingly complex issues and changing the way people think about them.  Mr. Guggenheim undoubtedly has an agenda here – detractors have charged that he twists facts to fit that agenda – but it’s ultimately a captivating and emotional story about people attempting to find excellent schools.  To be sure, there are some factual errors – for example, it implies that Harlem Success Academy is the brainchild of Geoffrey Canada, even though it is actually unrelated to Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone – and some may object to the hostile manner in which the film depicts relationships in the past between traditional public schools and charters or to the implication that the work at charter schools is magic.  But I don’t think the imperfections should detract from its power.

At Team Mosaica, of course, we know there are no silver bullets.  There is nothing mysterious about our achievements. It’s simply relentless effort by great teachers in a supportive environment, with high expectations and no excuses.  But if this movie is dismissed as polemic, its potential for good will be dead on arrival.  A commitment to transformational change in the way public education is delivered in the United States is fundamental to our future, necessary if the United States is to compete in the global economy, and critical to enable individual human beings be all that they can be.  This movie will serve an important purpose if its call to action motivates opinion leaders to support educational entrepreneurism, if it enhances parental involvement and community participation in schools, or if it refuels reformers’ passion.  At the very least, let’s hope it consolidates the country’s hearts, minds and political will to get the job done.

I urge you to see it and to partake in the conversations it will generate.  It will remind you why we do what we do, and why being allowed to educate children is a privilege we should respect.

Hundreds of millions of people around the world have been waiting for this day for four years: the opening day of the FIFA Men’s World Cup, in the sport we call soccer but the rest of the world knows as football.  The games are being held in Africa for the first time, with South Africa – a country that was banned from international competition from 1964 until 1992 because of its apartheid system of racial segregation – the proud hosts.  As is tradition, the home team, known locally as Bafana Bafana (or just “the Boys”) plays the first match, against Mexico, at 10:00 EDT.

The United States may be the most powerful nation on the planet in many respects, but it’s not in the top tier of powers in soccer.  For 32 years (1954-1986), we did not even qualify for the World Cup.  In 1994, when we were the host country, the U.S. team made it out of group play for the first time since we came in third in the first “World” Cup (which did not include European teams) in 1930; and in 2002, the U.S. team made it to the quarterfinals.  But the U.S. lost all three games it played in 1998, and four years ago, a loss to Ghana meant another elimination during the group stage.  Notwithstanding that history, there is a positive buzz surrounding the team this year.

The last time the U.S. team played in South Africa was in the Confederations Cup last year, where they improbably survived group play (despite losing to Brazil and Italy) by defeating Egypt 3-0 while Brazil was beating Italy by the same score.  They then won a semi-final match against Spain (one of the best teams in the world and a favorite to win the World Cup this year) by two goals and faced Brazil in the finals.  I happened to be visiting Doha the night of the finals.  Gari Voss picked me up at the airport, and we went to a Qatari version of a sports bar to watch the game amid an international contingent of mostly Brazilian fans.  The Cinderella U.S. team was winning 2-0 at half time, but their glass slippers fell off (and I tore my voice out) during the second half, as Brazil won, 3-2.  Still, it was the U.S.’s most respectable showing at a FIFA tournament and generated hope for this year’s World Cup.

For me, the World Cup is the most exciting sports competition in the world.  But it is far more than a sports competition.  Books have been written about how soccer mimics life, how it reflects geopolitical realities, and, indeed, how it “explains everything.”  Teamwork trumps individual skill, and attention to detail, sustained mental focus, awareness of everything happening on the pitch, knowledge of the game, the ability to anticipate teammates’ and opponents’ movements, poise under pressure and, yes, fancy footwork (not to mention a hot goalie) are all critical, but the game is also a humbling reminder that justice does not always prevail, that sometimes the best team doesn’t win.

The nationalistic fervor the tournament provokes can be whipped out of proportion, the organizational politics are Byzantine, and rampant commercialism in sporting events of this magnitude can be off-putting.  But the passion evoked by a global focus on the simplest of games, a 90-minute marathon of repeated spurts and sprints in an incredible demonstration of stamina and athleticism – the closest thing we have to a universal sport – makes the World Cup special.  Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s President, has acknowledged as much, saying that everyone “must be aware that football is more than kicking a ball around.  It’s the social and cultural aspects” that make it extraordinary.  In furtherance of that thesis, FIFA and political leaders around the globe have established an organization named 1GOAL as the “lasting legacy” of this year’s World Cup.

Chaired by Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, 1GOAL will hold an Education Summit in Cape Town during the last week of the World Cup, focused on the 72 million children in the world (including a disproportionate number of girls) who do not receive even a primary school education.  World leaders and private sector funders are expected to commit to a plan to ensure that they are all in school by 2014, when the next World Cup will be held in Brazil.  Team Mosaica certainly supports that goal, and we are doing our part to make it a reality.  If FIFA can use the tool of soccer to publicize the importance of education to society and to expand schooling opportunities throughout the world, it would indeed be a wonderful legacy.

In furtherance of that ambition, throughout this year’s tournament, players, supporters and political leaders will raise their index finger, not to indicate that their team is Number 1, but in the 1GOAL hand sign of support for universal education as a global commitment.  [If they are raising a finger other than their index finger, that’s probably intended to communicate a different message.]

Enjoy the games.

Michael J. Connelly
Chief Executive Officer
Mosaica Education, Inc.

Welcome to the Mosaica Education CEO Blog.

We live in an increasingly polarized and toxic environment – and I’m not talking about the drilling rig explosion that has spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.  We see the venom most clearly in politics.  Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, hypes book sales by saying the current Administration represents “as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.”  [And he was a history professor with a Ph.D. in Modern European History, so he presumably comprehends how serious those two threats were.]  Last summer’s town hall meetings frequently disintegrated into near brawls, and it seems you can’t watch a Tea Party without seeing a poster comparing President Obama to Adolph Hitler (or worse).  Some Republicans shout down the President when he is addressing Congress, while others have not only embraced the epithet of the “Party of No”; they say they want to be known as the “Party of Hell No.”    

But it’s not just the far right fighting a Democratic administration.  Politicians like Evan Bayh have decided to retire because of what they see as an overall loss of civility in Washington.  Others have been involuntarily retired, reflecting voter anger and anti-incumbent fervor that is running high – and being vented.  After 45 years in elective politics, including 30 years in the Senate, Arlen Specter lost his primary in Pennsylvania by 20 percentage points.  In Utah, Senator Robert Bennett, an 18-year veteran seeking a fourth term, was voted off the ballot at the Republican state convention.  Senator Specter had switched parties because he feared he would lose a Republican primary, and thus his loss may be hard to accurately deconstruct.  But Senator Bennett had received an enthusiastic endorsement from Mitt Romney, a local hero in Utah, and is in his own right one of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate, with a deep political pedigree, strong Mormon roots and a history of public service.  That Utah Republicans found him too liberal and too willing to work with Democrats shows how extreme politics has become.

There’s a related phenomenon in education.  The NewSchools Venture Fund conducted an Oxford-style debate at its summit over the question whether educational entrepreneurs should partner with school districts and/or state departments of education.  I observed that the format contributed to a perception that the issue had but two sides, with no possibility of compromise.  [I also pointed out that Chris Whittle, founder of what is now called Edison Learning, used to answer that question by pointing out that nobody asked Fred Smith why he founded FedEx instead of fixing the Post Office.] 

In education, people seem to squabble about everything.  They argue over whole language vs. phonetic approaches to teaching language arts; whether we should “teach to the test” or abandon all accountability and standards; which are better: charter schools or government schools; if schools should concern themselves solely with providing the best education possible, or should deal with the needs of the whole child; and, whatever we decide with respect to that question, should schools teach critical thinking and analytical skills or focus on making sure students learn a vocabulary of common information, facts, stories and skills that make up a shared cultural literacy, etc., etc., etc.  In every one of those “debates,” one side or the other frequently seeks to demean and demonize the other.  Instead of trying to understand the merits of the argument or to identify an intellectually sound compromise that accommodates both positions, both sets of proponents tend to dig in their heels, scream louder, pound on the table and hurl invective. (You should see some of the responses to Team Mosaica News.)

The reality, of course, is that all of those arguments are false dichotomies, a logical fallacy in which only two alternatives are considered – also sometimes referred to as the “missing middle” or the “bogus dilemma” – whereas the “right answer” could be both, neither, or somewhere in between.  Indeed, the last false dichotomy I cited, whether the principal purpose of education was to develop critical thinking skills or a shared core of knowledge, was part of Dawn Eidelman’s inspiration for the Paragon curriculum.  At the time, two prominent university professors, Howard Gardner from Harvard and E.D. Hirsch from the University of Virginia, were publicly debating each other on that subject, and their acolytes and supporters were carrying on the discussion in evermore strident terms.  Dr. Gardner, best-known for his theory of multiple intelligences, argued that schools should focus on teaching students how to think – like, say, a scientist or an artist or a historian – in order to develop sound thinking on essential questions.  Dr. Hirsch countered that that type of “progressive education” had failed students, particularly disadvantaged ones, and that a school combining drill and practice with a demanding core curriculum would produce the most successes.  Dr. Eidelman saw that as a false dichotomy, and she developed Paragon and the rest of Mosaica’s Education Program to accommodate both scholars’ viewpoints into a lovely mosaic that has served us, our students and their families well over the past 13 years.

My point is not to diminish the passion behind our political disputes or our educational discussions.  Healthy debate is good for the soul in both quarters, and when done properly should inform the electorate and benefit the children.  But we need to conduct our debates without rancor and with civility and good humor, aiming toward a goal of generating more light than heat.  And if you don’t understand that, you’re an idiot.  (I’m obviously just kidding with that sentence – at least I hope it was obvious – but see what I mean?)

Enjoy your Memorial Day, as we remember and honor those who gave their lives in service to our country.

Michael J. Connelly

Chief Executive Officer

Mosaica Education, Inc.

Gene and I attended the NewSchools Venture Fund Summit in Washington last week.  There were 600 attendees, almost all educational entrepreneurs committed to systemic change.  One of the conference highlights was a discussion between Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Representative George Miller, Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, moderated by Ted Mitchell, NSVF’s CEO.  When they left the dais, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado (who was Superintendent of Denver Public Schools before his appointment to the Senate) and Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado gave their perspectives.

They all alluded to the increasing politicization of education and the need for “edupreneurs” and reform advocates to confront directly the politics of our work.  Education has been a hot-potato political issue since the days of Mark Twain (who famously said, “God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board”) and has been a major issue on the federal level since the Reagan administration (which proposed eliminating the Department of Education).  But Secretary Duncan emphasized that the current time is a “generational opportunity” for real change, and he pointed out that there is substantial bipartisan support for reform efforts, especially in chronically underperforming schools and underserved communities.  (“This isn’t about Democrats or Republicans. We’re doing this for the children.”)

But across the country, it is often about Democrats and Republicans.  In Texas, for example, Bill White, former mayor of Houston, is running for Governor and has made education a central theme, saying the government has done nothing to stop a third of Texas high school students from dropping out in the last decade and for allowing tuition at state universities to skyrocket.  Mr. White may be right about the drop-out issue – it’s a problem almost everywhere and of crisis proportions in many urban areas – but state universities in Texas have some of the most reasonable tuitions in the nation.  As the economic downturn has forced cutbacks and tuition increases at essentially all of the nation’s colleges (and threatens the survival of some), a year’s tuition at UT-Arlington, where Dawn Eidelman used to teach, is less than $4,300, and costs at its flagship campus in Austin are only a couple hundred dollars more.  In comparison, in-state tuition at my alma mater, Michigan State University, is almost three times that much, and MSU’s out-of-state tuition is close to $30,000.

Mayor White is hardly the only politician focused on educational issues.  To avoid draconian cutbacks in state funding for education in Arizona, Governor Brewer staked her political career on a sales tax measure, which the voters approved in a special election on Tuesday; at the opposite end of the country, Governor Crist of Florida vetoed a controversial education bill to pave the way for his campaign for the U.S. Senate as an independent; and one of the most influential political action committees in the country is the Democrats for Education Reform PAC, which only supports candidates who support charter schools.  The PAC has become so powerful in this new political landscape, the New York Times reports, the advice often given to candidates seeking campaign contributions is to “Talk to Joe” – Joe Williams is DFER’s executive director.

I am not sure that we need to talk to Joe, but we do need to speak to politicians, to reporters and directly to voters.  As speaker after speaker at NSVF’s Summit said, we need to make sure our stories are heard and that the great work that Team Mosaica and our colleagues in the education reform movement are doing is known, supported and nurtured.  Generational opportunities don’t come around that often.

Michael J. Connelly
Chief Executive Officer
Mosaica Education, Inc.
42 Broadway – Suite 1039
New York, New York 10004
(212) 232-0305, Ext. 201
Fax: (212) 232-0309
mconnelly@MosaicaEducation.com

Last week, Gene, Dawn, Tom Keane and I presided over a three-day session of the Mosaica Executive Leadership Institute in Atlanta.  Much of the time was devoted to the development of strategic plans and other cerebral pursuits, but a moment of clarity came for me came during a break, while I was talking about a less cerebral subject with Chad Carr, CAO of Columbus Preparatory Academy in Ohio.

Chad is a Kentucky horse-country guy, so I asked for his insights on Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.  I’d like to tell you that he gave me the trifecta and that I used the tip to clean out my local OTB branch.  But that’s not what happened.  Chad’s view was that none of the 20 horses in the race was enough of a standout to warrant being labeled the favorite.  Indeed, he said, the thoroughbred line has been so diluted by generations of in-breeding that mediocrity and fragility have essentially been bred into the gene pool.  There has not been a Triple Crown winner in 32 years, and if Chad’s analysis is right, we may not have another for a long time.  (Now that I’ve said that, you probably should put $2 on Looking for Lucky in the Belmont and Preakness.)

Chad’s observation about thoroughbreds is also relevant to organizations.  While stability, continuity and consistency are important, so is the need for fresh blood, new energy, and different ideas.  We are blessed at Team Mosaica with a good balance of veteran and novice members.  Look at the people who participated in the Leadership Institute:  Dawn and Gene, our co-founders, are here 13 years after the beginning of the journey; they asked me to join them 18 months later; Rita Chapin, our CFO, has been with us for a decade.  On the other hand, Tom Keane, John Q. Porter and TJ McGoldrick are still in their first month, and Geoff Fretwell and Stephanie Dunbar are in the inaugural year; Ebbie Parsons is coming up on his first anniversary with the company, but this was his first MLI as Chief Operating Officer.  Terry Gogerty, Kristin Jordison, Kinny Griffith and Dawn Linden have been senior leaders for several years, while Chad, Eric Dinnel, Lakita Little and Gareth Volz have recently been given new responsibilities in response to their exceptional performances as Chief Administrative Officers – and have brought new perspectives to our sessions.

The aesthetic is largely the same in our regional offices and our schools. We have schools we have managed for more than ten years, while Atlanta Prep and Mercury Online Academy just opened in September.  We have operated internationally for six years, are now seeking ways to bring the turnaround skills we’ve developed there to chronically failing schools in this country, and we’re starting a high school in Phoenix this fall.  Some of the Paragon development team members are old hands, while others are rookies, utilizing their skills to create an online version of the curriculum.

In other words, horse racing may be characterized by indistinguishable stables of horses and dingy betting salons that still smell of cigarettes smoked sometime in the 1970s – I walked by the paradigm of that kind of establishment, on Park Place near New York’s City Hall, earlier this week – but Team Mosaica is a dynamic work in progress, proud of its achievements but continuing to innovate and embrace new ideas.  Besides, the mood here is much friendlier than at the track, where, by definition, most of the people are losers.

Speaking of the improvements a fresh perspective and new energy can bring, Carol Bakst was kind enough to share this inspiring video: http://shmais.com/news.cfm?ID=44538.

Michael J. Connelly
Chief Executive Officer

I am very excited to announce one well-deserved promotion and two new members of Team Mosaica:

• Tom Keane is our new Senior Vice President,

• Ebbie Parsons is our new Chief Operating Officer, and

• John Q. Porter is our new Executive Vice President and COO of Mosaica Turnaround Partners

Tom Keane has been a member of Mosaica’s board of directors since 1999. A lawyer by training, he is also a columnist for the Boston Globe Magazine.  Tom was a partner in Murphy & Partners (a private-equity fund that is a major investor in Mosaica), a Boston city councilor for six years and has been a founder and senior manager of a number of start-up businesses. He was also acting chief financial officer of Mosaica for several months in 2001. Tom has a B.A. from Harvard College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia. He will be working in our New York office, and the Finance and Legal departments will be reporting to him.

Ebbie Parsons has been with Mosaica for the last year and currently oversees operations at our schools in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. He has a strong background in education, including a stint as acting chief operating officer of the Hartford Public Schools (where my daughter was his intern) and as the director of human capital for Teacher U (a New York-based professional development company for charter school teachers).  Ebbie previously worked at companies as diverse as American Express (where he was an investment strategist) and Medtronic (where he was an IT manager).  He has a BS from Florida A&M, an MBA from the University of Minnesota, was a Broad Resident (a prestigious program that provides professional development and training for business professionals interested in urban education leadership), and is currently completing his doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania. In his new position he will manage the RVP team, as well as well oversee student enrollment and talent acquisition departments.

John Q. Porter recently joined Mosaica after serving as Superintendent of Schools in Oklahoma City and, before that, Deputy Superintendent and Chief Information Officer for the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools. John Q has extensive experience in using technology and data to improve student performance. Previously, as a business executive for information technology companies and founder of his own consulting firm, he promoted the use of technology to streamline the operations of complex organizations. He has a B.A. from Catholic University and a J.D. from Ohio State. He is a Broad Fellow, having graduated from the Broad Academy for Superintendents, and is also a graduate of the Harvard University Public Education Leadership Program. In addition to overseeing Howard Road Academy in Washington, he will head up Mosaica Turnaround Partners, our new division that will work with schools districts across the country to improve underperforming schools under the federal school turnaround program.

Please join me in congratulating Ebbie on his promotion and welcoming Tom and John Q to the Team.

Michael J. Connelly
Chief Executive Officer
Mosaica Education, Inc.
42 Broadway, Suite 1039
New York, New York 10004
212-232-0305, Ext. 201