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Houston school district's search firm linked to KIPP
Business as usual in Texas.
by Jesse Alred
Secretary Duncan and Eli Broad by elepping
The search firm hired by the Houston Independent School District Board of Trustees, Heidrick & Struggles, has ties to KIPP charter schools, and to the charter-school movement.
Heidrick & Struggles is an international executive search firm with limited involvement in the area of K-12 leadership searches. According to the proposal the firm submitted to the district, most of its education-related searches have been in at the university level, or with educational non-profits.
Two exceptions were its superintendent searches for the Buffalo and Philadelphia school districts. In both cases the selected candidate was a well-known charter school advocate.
Richard Greene, former Chief Operating Officer for KIPP's national network, is currently a partner in Heidrick & Struggles Chicago headquarters office.
KIPP has a large interest in the outcome of the superintendent search, having secured $100 million in pledges to build new schools that will compete with HISD. KIPP seeks to grow from serving nearly 3,000 students to about 21,000.
The KIPP plan has the backing of many formidable figures in Houston business community, including Shaun Hurwitz, president of Maxxam, Inc. The Brown Foundation has given KIPP $8 million so far, and has made KIPP its priority in education philanthropy over other concerns.
The growth plans stirs controversy because critics say the least able students, who cannot or will not accept KIPP's strident discipline methods and added investment, longer school days and mandatory summer school, will make up an increasing percentage of kids left in neighborhood public schools in minority communities.
Mike Feinberg, Superintendent of KIPP-Houston, has said the competition will force public schools to improve.
Heidrick & Struggles has performed searches for the KIPP network, for two charter advocacy groups (the Arizona and Georgia state charter associations), and for the Broad Center for Superintendents.
The Broad Center attempts to produce superintendents favorable to reforms such as increasing the number of charter schools.
The Broad Center's benefactor, San Francisco billionaire Eli Broad, is a financial backer of KIPP and allied enterprises across the nation.
— Jesse Alred
Houston Education Reform Examiner
2009-07-27
http://www.examiner.com/x-16144-Houston-Education-Reform-Examiner~y2009m7d27-Houston-school-districts-search-firm-linked-to-KIPP
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