Reimagining Schools as Lean Startups

A few weeks ago I was hanging out in Austin, TX at the third annual SXSWedu conference.  This conference has grown tremendously since it’s first year and this year it more than doubled in attendance from last.

Just like in the spirit of the rest of the SXSW festival, SXSWedu delivered a powerful and energetic environment, passionate and inspiring participants, insightful speakers, and thought-provoking themes and topics.  After four days I was exhausted from all of the inspiration, stimulation, and excitement.  This is the kind of exhaustion that I enjoy!

Over the next several weeks, I plan to write several posts about the great ideas I learned about that week so that I can share it with my readers.  Today I want to focus on one of the ideas that excite me within the education space.

At this year’s SXSWedu, I learned a lot about schools operating on the fringes of the educational system.  These schools, whether private or charter, are testing new models, measuring results, learning, and making adjustments as they go.  Essentially, there are schools that are developing in the same way lean startups do.  They remain flexible enough to learn from their mistakes and make changes in real-time.  Furthermore, they are attracting teachers with diverse backgrounds that include corporate, startup, performing arts, academic, and other types of experiences.

When you consider their approach and diversity, you begin to have the makings for a dynamic and inspirational culture.  This is the type of culture where people celebrate mistakes and find new and exciting ways to solve them.  This is also the type of culture where teachers, students, and administrators collaborate and treat each others as peers.

I’m very excited about these developments in education and look forward to their results.  I have no doubt that they won’t get it right the first time, but that’s ok.  They have the culture to process that mistake, iterate, and move on with a new solution.  Here are two schools that I met through my trips to SXSWedu.

Lawton Chiles Prep students showing off their new class pet.

Lawton Chiles Preparatory School (LCPS) – I came to learn of this school when I met founder, Christine Ortiz.  At the age of 26, Christine turned her vision of what a school should be like into a reality by creating this school.  Located in the suburbs of Orlando, FL, LCPS is a place where teachers and students come together to form an exciting and inspiring learning community.  LCPS embodies the try, measure, learn, and iterate process.  Currently, LCPS is hiring for a few positions (admin assistant and physics faculty, and American sign language faculty).  Check out their awesome benefits – you’ll have a hard time finding a culture like theirs.  If you are interested, send your resume and cover letter to Admin@ChilesPrep.com.

Venture Academy (VA) – I had the pleasure of meeting the Chief Entrepreneurship Officer, Jon Bacal, and Chief Learning Officer, Kerry Muse, of Venture Academy a few weeks ago.  Venture Academy is designing a school starting with the desired outcome.  Their mission is to “ignite the passion of all young people to become innovators and entrepreneurial leaders who will change the world.”  Starting from this desired outcome, they began building a school that empowers students to direct their own learning and work in collaboration with teachers and administrators.  Like LCPS, Venture wants to create a culture where students and teachers, alike, are empowered try, measure, learn, and iterate.  Their vision is to lead from the bottom up by empowering teachers as leaders of the organization.  Ultimately, teachers have the best understanding of the student environment and as such should play a critical role in leading the school.  This is not your typical teaching position.  In fact, the role title is Edupreneur, not teacher.  That speaks volumes of what they expect from their educators.  Venture Academy launches this fall, starting with its first 6^th grade class and plans to add a grade each year.  There are still a few Edupreneur positions available for math/science, English language learning, and special education teachers.  To apply for one of these awesome roles, email Venture at Opportunities@VentureAcademies.org.