Course Catalog

Fall 2008

B9477-001: Education Leadership Consulting (Master Class)

W Full Term, 02:15PM to 05:30PM

Instructor: amy rosen

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The K-12 education system in the United States is failing far too many children. As the gravity of the problem has become more and more obvious, an education reform movement based on collaboration among public, private and nonprofit organizations has materialized. The Mayor of New York City, who is responsible for a system with a $15 billion operating budget that serves more than a million students, has been a leader in this movement, implementing a comprehensive set of reforms built on three inter-related principles—leadership, empowerment, and accountability. The organizing theory is that schools need strong principals who are empowered to make decisions and are accountable for results. The reform effort, led by the Chancellor of the public school system has won acclaim – but there is more work to be done.

The Education Consulting Master Class offers students a rare opportunity to be part of the educational reform effort underway in the U.S. with unique access to initiatives occurring in New York City's public schools. Students will learn about U.S. educational systems as well as school districts, non-profit and private sector organizations engaged in reforming school systems. In order to provide a context for this work as well as introduce students to the rapidly growing education consulting sector, experts will appear as guest speakers and also work directly with student teams.

Students will also apply a full complement of operational and consulting skills to help school leaders and school support organizations manage the real-world challenges they are facing in building and managing effective schools. Students will be placed in teams of four to five and assigned a client project. Clients will be leaders of public schools, school management organizations or school support organizations responsible for supporting principals. Projects will center around “systems-level” school needs, involving a functional area such as operations, human resources, program development or financial planning/budgeting. Each team will develop a business plan for replicating and/or scaling a ‘best practice’ systems while leveraging newly available data and tools and incorporating an understanding of academic achievement targets, financial resources and accountability metrics.

Required:
• Pre-term assignment: Advanced readings and brief survey to be distributed via Angel in early August
• Attendance of Friday 9/19/2008 half-day (from 8am-11am) off-site meeting at NYC Department of Education headquarters (Tweed Courthouse, 52 Chambers Street)
• Attendance of Social Enterprise Conference Education Panel on Friday 10/24/2008

Class Limits:
• 36 student limit (including up to 6 Teachers College Education Leadership Program, SIPA Master of Public Administration students and Columbia Law School students)
• 2nd year MBA and SIPA MPA and final year Teachers College and Law School students eligible only

Amy Rosen

Amy Rosen

Adjunct Professor

Amy Rosen joined New Visions for Public Schools as Chief Operating Officer in February 2007. She is responsible for leading the senior management team and has direct reporting responsibility for day-to-day operations, programs, policy, fundraising, communications and long-range planning. Working collaboratively with the president, department heads and staff, Ms. Rosen establishes relationships with key constituents in New York City public education, philanthropic circles, community organizations and civic government. Through her leadership positions in the private and public sectors, Ms. Rosen has led many organizations through transformational change and has applied her management skills and experience with complex constituencies to provide advice to large urban districts. As the founding partner of Public Private Strategy Group, a management advisory firm, she served as the project manager for the design and launch of the Empowerment Zone Project for the New York City Department of Education.

In the field of transportation, Ms. Rosen has been a leader in changing the way public agencies conduct business. Her experience in managing a state transportation department, her tenure as a leader of the NJ Transit Board of Directors, her service on the Amtrak Board of Directors, as well as her ongoing role providing consulting services to transit agencies, has earned her a national reputation as a change agent in this field. She has lectured and received numerous public recognitions of her work including induction into the NJ Transit Hall of Fame and being named Board member of the Year by the American Public Transportation Association.

Ms. Rosen is a founding member and principal of the Council for Excellence in Government, an organization whose mission is to improve the performance of the federal government through the involvement of former state and federal officials. Her other board memberships include: current chair of the board of directors for TEAM Academy, a group of highly successful charter schools in Newark; NJ SEEDS, a statewide nonprofit organization that identifies and provides high-achieving, low-income students with academic enrichment opportunities; and a member of the executive committee, as well as treasurer and secretary, of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Montclair, NJ.

Ms. Rosen has served as an advisor to local, state and federal political leaders, including policy advisor for the current mayor of Newark, NJ. Ms. Rosen holds a B.A. in political studies from Pitzer (Claremont) College in Claremont, CA. She completed the Executive Management Program at Harvard Business School, and was a Fellow at the Broad Urban Superintendents Academy.

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