In the New York Times Education Life pull out today there is a listing of "10 Master's of the New Universe" profiling ten masters degrees that will be popular, I guess, in the coming years.
The link above is about masters programs that combine the MBA with a traditional masters in education. Harvard has a new program, Stanford has offered one for quite some time evidently. The point is, the piece makes a point of stating that these degrees are about getting people to turn troubled schools around.
Seems that, according to the tone of the piece, that the big problem in failing schools, especially urban schools is leadership. So of course as we have watched the business world crumble over these last two years, the university elites who teach teachers and rarely get into a classroom themselves decree that what we need in the public schools are MBA trained leaders. You know, the ones that lead great companies such as Enron, AIG, and Lehman Brothers. This is not to say that all MBA recipients are crooked operators or in some way not appropriate candidates to become educators. But, this perception that education needs to be saved from educators is specious at best.
Does medicine need to be save from doctors? Does the law need to be saved from lawyers? (OK...may be you got me on that one.) The piece does not offer one educationally sound reason an MBA trained principal of a school would be preferable other than the ability to fundraise and talk with other MBA type people. The Harvard Program wants to attract people that may be were thinking of going on to law of b-school but instead want the chance to change education. The toxic environment that currently exists in many schools between faculty and administration will surely be changed for the better by someone with that background.
What is an MBA any how? Does it really hold as much cache now as an MD or a JD? Am I to believe that a recent MBA graduate from one of these programs has as much or more to offer than an administrator that came up through the ranks and possesses a Ed.D.? Having worked in the corporate world, and seen what the environment is about, what it does to people, I can say, I am not so sure.
May be, a better way to fix education is to take its best practitioners and see if they are up to the task of leading? May be principals, central office administrators, and school boards can be on the look out for those motivated, goal directed self starters that want to change education (they do exist) and enable, encourage, and guide them in ways that can be of assistance to themselves and the education community as a whole. Yes, the system has problems and hopefully all of those people out there that are changing careers will bring in some will become good, effective educators. But, please spare me the condescension. We need and deserve better than that.
