till on niphates top he lights

BostonBreakout Day 4 (Thursday) If we measure productivity of a day by how many new (of the staggeringly numerous) perspectives on education we encounter, today was crazy - super quickly, as tomorrow we have an even earlier start (6:00 a.m. say what – that’s bedtime for me sometimes back on campus!):

We got a full run-down (meetings, classroom visits, and tour) of the matchless MATCH Charter Public High School. Like KIPP schools, Match runs on a “No Excuses” philosophy, which pushes these underprivileged kids to achieve regardless of external factors like prior background or home situation. (In the broader world of charters, this prevailing philosophy seem to be a steady state to which many of the most successful programs are converging.) Match achieves this through a in-built tutor program for every student; each child receives 4 hours of classroom instruction and 2 hours of one-on-one tutoring from recent college grads (who live in-house on the third floor, and are recruited through a TFA-like 1-year program). We sat in on pre-calculus and chemistry classes and were really impressed by the level of discipline and engagement displayed by the students. My only regret is we weren’t able (in part due to the strictly orderly way the school was run) to speak to the students themselves. Our favorite Princeton moment: midway through our first meeting, with Ray Schleck, the Director of New School Development – MATCH is expanding – two Princeton alums (CEO Stig Leschly ‘92 and former CEO Alan Safran ‘80, who appears in the first picture on the second row) burst into the conference room, singing Old Nassau.

We’d all been dying to hear from the Boston Teachers Union, as teachers’ unions had often been discussed as working in opposition to school districts and innovators. Though we fully recognize that is very important to protect teachers’ interests from a legal perspective, we wanted to get a feel for the union ourselves, and to have it directly respond to some of these objections. We found the BTU to be progressive (tenure has all been but eliminated). This re-introduces the “stick” in arena of teacher motivation to excellence and effectiveness, but we’re still unsure whether denying districts the “carrot” (performance-based pay bonuses) is reasonable. Side note: Boston education in general is more progressive (be it in tech or otherwise) and high-performing compared to urban districts nationwide. Despite there being many unresolved problems in Boston, it’s been excellent to realistically evaluate what the forefront of education reform looks like.

District Management Council was a socially-driven for-profit consulting and technology solutions group with a mission. My computer is running out of battery, sadly, so I’m going to come back to this tomorrow. Just wanted to add lastly that:

The Venture Cafe - networking for start-ups in Cambridge - is such a wondrous space. Wish we had more time to explore, but we met with and dined with a host of Boston-based Princeton alum (in entrepreneurship or edutech, or just education) instead. It was surreal and satisfying and you’ll just have to wait to hear more tomorrow (or read the rest of the blog!)

Let’s bring it full-circle. Night!

“The ¼ Indian, ¼ Polish, ½ Irish twins are keeping us busy and we’re loving every minute of it,” Pudi, 33, said shortly after his now 8-month-old children’s birth in January.

“Here’s to being pooped and peed on!”