For-Profit DeVry Regains Edge - Some Lessons for Public Education?

Some Lessons, Yes,
And Some Reasons to Reauthorize NCLB

In a piece that has great relevance to improving public education, Mike Cottrill at Smart Business recently portrayed Daniel Hamburger and his success at DeVry Inc. The parent company of DeVry University, Ross University, Chamberlain College of Nursing and Becker Professional Review, DeVry Inc. had recently hit a market downturn.

After 10 straight years of at least 20 percent revenue growth, the company took a big step backward in 2005. Fiscal year 2004 had ended with $784 million in revenue and net income of $52 million. The downturn in 2005 saw a slight drop in revenues to $781 million and a 65% drop in net income to $18 million.

Turning Things Around
In the article Hamburger describes the process of turning the business around and notes the toughest part was getting personnel to admit that there were problems that needed fixing.
Hamburger noted the obvious, “When things are going really well, there’s that tendency to say, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ whereas in turnaround time, it’s very clear that you need to take action and you need to take action now — not tomorrow, today.”

Ultimately, the CEO stated that his key challenge was to get rid of the feel of a stagnant company and to push the need for urgency. Doing so was very difficult, noted Hamburger, but it was essential to getting the operations turned around.

To make that happen, Hamburger focused on the need for communication. He stated, “Communicate with candor, so call it like it is, embrace reality rather than sugarcoat it. We were an organization that was sort of used to always doing well.”

But in getting people’s attention he avoided using the term slump with employees. Rather he instilled in workers to see the change process as an opportunity to grow.

As he moved forward he also noted another key to organizational improvements, the need to adjust the staff and placing people in the proper positions. To put the right people in the right places it was necessary to assess a person’s performance “relative to the objective that had been set out” as well as “their capabilities and competencies relative to the challenges at hand.”

The Message for Public Schools
The parallels for public schools are easy to see. The first is the admittance that there might be a problem, that there are issues to be fixed. For public schools today that message should also parallel Hamburger’s thoughts, that most schools have actually done well in the past but the expectations are changing. Schools are being asked to educate more children than ever before and the goal is to also take more of them to higher levels of achievement. The expectations are actually to obtain achievement levels previously unseen in public education.

It means taking a thorough look at all instructional results to determine areas of improvement. And once those areas are defined, it demands a plan of action to address those areas, with all staff on board and implementing the plan of action.

NCLB helps schools towards that path through the process of mandatory testing and desegregating data. Test results can help schools truly define a path of action.

In addition, attention to those results and the subsequent plan of action create the most important aspect of the process, the sense of urgency. In fact, it is the constant sense of urgency that often defines the quality classroom teacher, the educator who seizes every moment available to bring learning to their classroom.

Yet if only NCLB were to have realistic goals for schools the sense of urgency would be far more meaningful. Instead, along with the testing NCLB sets a demand of 100% proficiency for all students in all major subjects by 2014. This is not a goal mind you, it is a demand complete with punishments for schools that fail to meet the standard.

We noted in a prior post the amazing story of Mary Barrera-Gomez. But within that story is a compelling fact, the administrator in charge of instruction who returned to the classroom could not get all of her students past the proficiency standards in all subjects despite working with these children for six consecutive years.

If the the person in charge of instruction could not do it, even though she produced some of the best scores in the school district, can all teachers be reasonably expected to have their students rise to that level.

DeVry Provides Lessons But….
Identifying areas of improvement, eliminating stagnation, creating a sense of urgency, putting the right people in the right place - all represent good messages to those trying to improve public schools. But if we want the full dedication of those asked to bring about the change, the goal must be one that is obtainable and sustainable.

Ultimately the punitive nature of NCLB and its unrealistic objectives undermine the educational reform process at its very core by insisting on objectives that no entire grade of students at a school could ever obtain never mind the entire school or school district.

That is why for reform to continue, the current standards under NCLB must be reworked and its punitive nature eliminated.