Why not let students join as co-owners of virtual and actual schools?

In many poor communities, learning has been paralyzed by a combination of poor teaching, peer pressures that undercut academic success, and/or outright disruption of classrooms.

Is it possible that healthier outcomes by realigning the fundamental incentives?

One way to do so would by be engaging students as designers -- and stakeholders -- of for-profit learning ventures -- actual and virtual -- that would compete with under-performing schools.

A new framework for success-sharing

Entrepreneurial schools are growing as an alternative to failed or failing public schools in impoverished communities. Researchers such as James Tooley have estimated at least 1.5 million private schools for the poor are now operating around the world.

Although such ventures to date have been typically structured along standard business lines, their ownership might be broadened to vest students and their families with equity interests.

For students and parents alike, the size of the shareholding and the annual dividends might be linked to criteria such as the following:

* Measurable gains in overall skills during the previous year by students attending the entrepreneurial school; and

* The success of each student’s chosen peer groups during the year in gaining skills, and/or in staying out of trouble. (Each student annually might make or renew a pact for this with four or five friends.)

Such an approach would help align the near-term, as well as long-term, interests of students and their families with learning success.

Meeting and surpassing standards -- by partnering with virtual schools?

To offer enriched curricula, entrepreneurial schools could draw upon a growing range of online resources. In addition to YouTubeEDU and MIT's free high school courses, than 30 "virtual charter schools" are now offering online solutions to improve the quality of learning resources..

Online core courses offered by these sources could be enhanced, over time, by new material from students in entrepreneurial schools who learn to record and share eLearning materials (created through affordable digital cameras and/or camera phones). A growing number of sites such as StudentsKnow.com, Learnhub.com, and Wiziq.com enable students to create -- and earn revenues from -- online learning materials.

These sites, along with similar, downloadable authoring tools, could be used by students to steadily enrich the available curriculum..

As the range of (highly-rated) new student-created learning resources grew, further audiences could also be reached by the interactive online learning system.

Prize-winning content created by students the co-ownerships schools could be offered online as a free learning resource for those who remain caught in poorly-performing public schools, and who desire access to higher quality learning opportunities.

Microvoucher and microscholarships coupons - similar to those used to spread Internet skills in Kyrgyzstan at the HorizonLanka school in Sri Lanka -- could help public school students in poor neighborhoods afford after-school internet costs, if they lacked other ways to connect with the new online learning resources.

Awards for the best student-created plans

How could entrepreneurial schools co-owned by students emerge?

One option would be to launch competitions to recognize and reward public school students who prepare market studies and business plans for entrepreneurial schools.

Outstanding proposals to launch new for-profit learning ventures -- schools featuring results-focused systems to promote peer-learning and discourage adverse peer pressures -- could earn prizes and other rewards for their creators.

The best of the proposals could be the basis for private investors to launch new entrepreneurial learning ventures, with a pre-set equity share for the students who contribute to the market studies and business plans, as well as for families whose students enroll in these learning ventures.

Next steps

Openworld is interested in exploring opportunities for student co-owned actual and virtual learning ventures. We have some "Seeds of Change" microscholarships available for students to do online work-study projects about the idea, and upload video clips on their findings.

We hope you'll explore background on the opportunity (at www.entrepreneurialschools.com and www.openworld.com) and share ideas on ways to proceed.

Mark Frazier, Openworld
www.openworld.com
@openworld (follow on Twitter)