Sunday, 19 June 2011
Barbie: Princess Charm School
While there is a decided lack of rumble in School Rumble, there’s more hilarious humdingers than any single dinger can hum… Look that one up! And while there is a truck full of pigs, a giraffe, flying saucers and crazy dream sequences, none of that’s even close to what this show’s about. (Though I would probably watch that show, too!)Here’s what you need to know: Sophomore cutie Tenma is completely crushed on classmate Karasuma past the point of freakin’ out. Tough guy Harima, with his own delinquent style of freak, has a long-standing crush on Tenma… And Karasuma? Can you say clueless? He’s pretty much all about the curry. Mmm… Curry!
With enough tangled triangles for an entire semester of geometry, just keep in mind… School Rumble – The absolutely funniest show you’ll ever see that’s not about anything that rumbles… Ever!
Price: $19.98
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Highest-Paid MBA Alumni 2011
The following slides list the median cash compensation—base salary and bonus—for each school's MBA graduates with less than two years' experience, 10 years' experience, and 20 years' experience, as well as an estimate of their total earnings over a career spanning two decades.
The upshot? According to data compiled for Bloomberg Businessweek by PayScale, a Wharton MBA has 93 percent of the value of a Harvard MBA. University of Chicago, 81 percent. University at Buffalo? Just 49 percent.
On average, graduates from top MBA programs—Bloomberg Businessweek's Top 57 U.S. full-time programs—earned about $2.4 million each over a 20-year career, or $122,146 annually. You get what you pay for. Graduates of the 10 programs with the highest earnings brought home an average of just over $3 million apiece, or $153,568 a year, compared with just under $2.3 million, or $114,752 a year, for the remaining 47 schools. That's a pay premium of more than 25 percent.
Methodology Note: The salary data in this slide show were supplied by PayScale, which collects them from individuals through online pay-comparison tools. For each school, PayScale tallied the median cash compensation—including base pay and bonuses, while excluding stock and options—for MBA graduates at five points in their careers, three of which are shown here. Years of experience includes pre-MBA experience, and individual categories include MBAs with more or less experience. Most individuals with less than two years' experience are career-switchers. The data are based on a sample of 24,000 MBA graduates from the 57 top schools; most median figures shown represent approximately 100 to 300 actual salaries per school. Using the median salaries and average annual growth rates for each school, Bloomberg Businessweek calculated a very rough estimate of earnings over the entire 20-year period. Notable alumni include graduates with MBAs and other advanced management degrees, unless otherwise noted.
Top MBA Employers
Bloomberg Businessweek collected employment data from MBA programs with long histories of sending graduates to the biggest Wall Street banks and consulting firms.
Combined, the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business (Booth Full-Time MBA Profile), the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (Wharton Full-Time MBA Profile), and Columbia Business School (Columbia Full-Time MBA Profile) sent a total of 176 MBAs to Lehman in 2005, 2006, and 2007. We wanted to know exactly which employers have since made up for those kinds of hiring losses.
At the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business (Ross Full-Time MBA Profile), for example, Amazon.com (AMZN) eclipsed Citigroup (C) as one of the program's top three employers. And at Duke's Fuqua School of Business (Fuqua Full-Time MBA Profile), Apple (AAPL) increased hiring more than threefold, while Citigroup hired 37 percent fewer grads.
Most business schools expect to report hiring figures for this spring's graduating class by fall, offering a glimpse at the job scene to come. For now, here is a pre- and post-crisis hiring snapshot.
Note: Data were submitted to Bloomberg Businessweek by the schools. Harvard and Stanford did not participate. Hiring numbers are for all MBA programs at each school, excluding executive MBA programs, except where noted. Approximations are used where exact figures are not available.
MBA Journal: Nearing the Finish Line
In the middle of my final quarter, business school has kept its promise to provide me with knowledge, new skills, and an incredible network. As a result, Kellogg (Kellogg Full-Time MBA Profile) has meant a lot to me. These final weeks are like enjoying your favorite dessert; I'm making my best effort to savor every bite of cake that I can. Days are getting much shorter; sleeping is at a minimum. I'm back in the thick of the 'fear of missing out' stage that I experienced two years ago. When school started in the fall of 2009, I used to think about how I had two years to lead, listen to speakers, take on challenges, and build new friendships. Now I have only a few weeks.
This feeling started kicking in as I read the Facebook feed from a college friend, noting that he had been accepted into Kellogg's Class of 2013. I immediately reached out to congratulate him on the achievement and let him know that I was here. As I was talking to him, I realized how much I have learned in my two years. During "Day at Kellogg" our admit weekend, I took him to class and to a local restaurant. I not only felt nostalgic and went through my own DAK pictures, but also grasped that the end of my experience was quickly approaching. When I think of my time at Kellogg, I think of dancing at the Bollywood Bash, doing make-up for Special K (the school's musical comedy), and attending Battle of the Bands. I think of the arrival of Luciana, the baby girl of one of my Kellogg classmates.
Along with meeting great people, Kellogg has offered me experiences to further develop my leadership skills. The Luxury Goods + Retail Club recently co-sponsored a charity fashion show called "Dress your Best" to collect used business attire for donation to a nonprofit that helps people get jobs. I participated as a model and helped select the outfits. Everything turned out great, thanks to the generosity of students, faculty, and staff from Kellogg's full-time, part-time, and executive MBA programs. We collected 683 articles of clothing, which supported Volunteers of America-Illinois, Dress for Success, and the Salvation Army. Also, the club elected its new leaders. The winning slate is composed of three of my committee members and three classmates from my interview preparation group. I am proud of them and I am certain they will take the club to the next level.
In Catholics @ Kellogg, we've also had a lot going on, including a rebranding initiative. We recently launched our new logo and participated in the Kellogg Lipdub, a video with background music, multiple participants, and our C@K banner. Also, we have organized intimate lunches with professors and students in an effort to foster dialogue about topics of importance. We co-sponsored an Easter brunch in conjunction with the Kellogg Christian Fellowship and held a major interfaith event at which prominent members of the academic, private, and public sectors from different faiths spoke about the impact of their beliefs on their careers. This was one of the best events I have attended during my Kellogg experience. It was the result of cooperation among the Kellogg Christian Fellowship, the Jewish Business Assn., the Middle East Business Club, the Latter Day Saint Student Assn., and Catholics @ Kellogg—a great, collaborative effort by all.
On the academic front, I am currently taking four courses: Consumer Insights, International Finance, the New General Manager, and Wall Street, Private Equity, and Venture Capital. They have provided the opportunity to challenge myself. I will graduate with a finance degree, in addition to majors in marketing, management and organizations, and operations and design. I have come far in two years.
I have been exposed to many new concepts and lessons. For example, in Wall Street, Private Equity, and Venture Capital, thanks to Professor David Stowell, I have learned from impressive professionals such as Highbridge Capital's Doug Kass, Catherine Vaughn, and Chris Bieres, who have come in to share their insights.
It's also been a thrill to take Professor William White's class, the New General Manager. It's been one of my favorite courses, not only because I had read his book From Day One as I was starting my career at Cemex, but also because he is very knowledgeable and has forced us to reflect on what we have learned in every single course at Kellogg—from calculating breakeven points or rounds of financing to realizing what our leadership style is and what we want to achieve in the short and long term. I have found that this course is a great complement to Professor Harry Kraemer's class on Values-Based Leadership, with amazing speakers such as Jodi Glickman, author of Great on the Job.
It's been an exciting quarter from an academic, extracurricular, and social perspective and I am looking forward to savoring the weeks ahead. This is my last chance to further develop my leadership skills, listen to amazing speakers, study for midterms and finals, and have fun one last time with my peers.
Lorena Sanchez Garcia is enrolled in the full-time MBA and Master of Engineering Management program at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. Before business school Sanchez Garcia was an internal consultant for a Mexican company. She earned her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering with a minor in industrial engineering from ITESM at Campus Monterrey in Mexico in 2004. She has also interned for L'Oreal in Germany.MBA Pay: The $3.6 Million Degree
Michael Weymouth
By Geoff GloecklerNews flash: Grads from the top MBA programs make more money over the course of their careers than peers from lower-ranked B-schools. That's not much of a surprise, considering MBAs from programs like Harvard, Wharton, and Stanford command the highest salaries—$126,000, on average—upon earning the business credential. But what is surprising is how much more grads from these highly ranked programs will make over a 20-year career compared with grads from lesser-ranked programs. According to new research commissioned by Bloomberg Businessweek, the difference is more than $1 million.
Executive compensation expert Ken Hugessen isn't shocked at the disparity in MBA earnings. "The differences in salary at the beginning are hugely predictive of the 20-year accumulation," he says. "If you're at a top school, you must be pretty smart to get in. You're a stronger breed of cat from day one. That will follow you throughout your career."
For the third year, Bloomberg Businessweek asked PayScale, a company that collects salary data from individuals through online pay comparison tools, to use its database of MBA graduates at the top U.S. business schools to calculate their median cash compensation—salaries and bonuses—around graduation and after they have an average of 5, 10, 15, and 20 years of pre- and post-MBA work experience in the same industry. We then used those data to calculate an estimate of median cash earnings over the entire 20-year span.
Overall, grads from the 57 top programs earned an estimated $2.4 million in base pay and bonuses over the course of a 20-year career, according to the data. On the high end is Harvard Business School (Harvard Full-Time MBA Profile), where grads earned about $3.6 million.On the low end is the University at Buffalo (Buffalo Full-Time MBA Profile), where grads earned about $1.7 million.
After Harvard, grads from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (Wharton Full-Time MBA Profile) earned the most, with total cash pay of $3,340,334, followed by Stanford's Graduate School of Business (Stanford Full-Time MBA Profile) at $3,291,894.Of the 10 schools that boast the highest 20-year payoffs, eight are ranked in the top 10 of Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Business Schools ranking.
But not all of the elite programs fare so well.
MBA grads from the top-ranked Booth School of Business (Booth Full-Time MBA Profile) at the University of Chicago, made an estimated $2.9 million, on average, over a 20-year career, good for only ninth position overall. Julie Morton, associate dean of career services at Booth, says a lot of the difference has to do with the industry that students go into, specifically consulting. More grads at other top schools take consulting jobs than at Booth, where finance jobs are more popular, and that, she says, explains a lot. "Straight out of the gate, consulting firms' bases are about $15,000 higher than banking base salaries," Morton says. "From that perspective, a school like Harvard is going to have a higher base because they send more people into consulting than they do banks."
Live Chat: Tuck MBA Admissions
Chat: June 17, 2011, at 1 p.m. EDT
Guest: Dawna Clarke, admissions director at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business
Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business (Tuck Full-Time MBA Profile) is known for having a small, tightly knit community. If you're looking for that kind of business school experience, you won't want to miss our next live chat event on June 17 at 1 p.m. EDT. Our guest will be Dawna Clarke, director of admissions at Tuck. She'll be fielding your questions on everything from how to impress at the admissions interview to what kinds of jobs Tuck graduates are snagging.
Before joining Tuck in 2005, Clarke was the admissions director at the Darden School of Business (Darden Full-Time MBA Profile) at the University of Virginia and the associate admissions director at the Kenan-Flager Business School (Kenan-Flagler Full-Time MBA Profile) at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Fortunately, I knew several people at Tuck, and some of them reached out to me when the director of admissions position became available," she says. "It's an experience that has surpassed my expectations—particularly the positive momentum at the school, the leadership of the school, and the school spirit."
To participate in the chat, head to the Chat Auditorium about 10 minutes before the scheduled event.You may be prompted to create a user name and password.It's free and should take only a few minutes.Francesca Di Meglio (screen name: FrancescaBW) will be your host. If you cannot attend the event, you can send your questions ahead of time to Francesca at FDBloombergBW@gmail.com with the subject "Tuck Chat."
From Startup Dreams to a Cubicle Life
Getty Images
Mike Norelli, a 2010 MBA graduate from MIT, experienced a collegiate entrepreneur's dream when an investor pledged seed capital for the startup he and a few classmates had founded to convert food waste into fuel. Just as the venture was to receive that financial boost, however, Norelli backed out to accept a job at GE Energy, whose recruiter met with him after Norelli arrived at MIT's Sloan school of Management (Sloan Full-Time MBA Profile).
"No matter what I do afterwards, I'll be in a better position—and that includes doing a startup," Norelli says of his GE experience.
Like Norelli, numerous business students are experimenting with entrepreneurship while at school. But most of those who will do something entrepreneurial in their careers—join startups or venture capital firms, found their own companies, or become early stage investors in companies—are unlikely to do so until years after they have graduated. A growing number of large public companies are trying to appeal to this group, reframing job opportunities to align entrepreneurial ambitions with corporate interests and prompting schools to make entrepreneurial students more aware of those options as they decide how to pursue careers after graduation.
In a 2011 survey of second-year entrepreneurship students at the Harvard Business School (Harvard Full-Time MBA Profile), 70 percent said they expected to wait one-to-seven years after graduation before pursuing an entrepreneurial project.
"The question then becomes 'What is the best way to be spending the next five years or so in preparation for that?'" says Timothy Butler, director of career-development programs at Harvard Business School.
The topic resonates strongly with students, many of whom are exploring positions at startups, consulting firms, and large companies. The students from the 2011 HBS survey were enrolled in "Founders' Dilemmas," an HBS course started in 2009 by entrepreneurship professor Noam Wasserman after he had spent a decade researching early choices founders make that tend to cause problems later.
Enrollment in the class exploded to about 250 students across four sections in 2011, up from a single section of 42 students at its debut. The course won Wasserman an HBS Faculty Teaching Award.
A 2008 study of the collegiate backgrounds of more than 650 U.S.-born tech entrepreneurs also explored how long MBA graduates wait before starting companies. In that sample, the 31 percent who held MBA degrees started companies fastest, waiting an average 13.1 years after graduation. This compares to an average wait time of 14.7 years for all masters degree holders, 16.7 years for those with bachelor's degrees, and 20.9 years for those with PhDs.
Many business schools are seeing more graduates take startup jobs after graduation. In 2010, 7 percent of HBS grads went to work at startups, up from 3 percent in 2008. Surveys of about 90 business schools found that more startups recruited MBAs for full-time positions in spring 2011 than in 2010, according to data from the MBA Career Services Council.
As interest in startup careers grows, schools are offering greater resources to help students consider all available career options. In Wasserman's class, for example, students examine two case studies: one of an entrepreneur who worked in a corporate environment for 25 years before starting a company and another of an MBA who turned down a job at a consulting firm to start a company right after graduation. Students examine the pros and cons of each path. "Being aware of the minuses will hopefully enable students to avoid them," Wasserman says.
Wasserman also polls his students to gauge their immediate career plans when the course begins. In 2011, 22 percent planned to take jobs at large private or public companies, 20 percent planned to join startups, 17 percent expected to enter consulting, 16 percent had plans to found a company immediately after graduation, and 12 percent planned to enter private equity.
MBA Jobs: Post-Crisis, a Brave New World
At Duke University's Fuqua School of Business (Fuqua Full-Time MBA Profile), the 2008 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers delivered a one-two punch. Not only did it lose the job offers Lehman bestowed on Fuqua grads every year, but in the economic chaos that followed, another big employer of Fuqua grads, Citigroup (C), slashed hiring as well—from 30 in the three years preceding the meltdown to 19 in the three years that followed. Other big employers, including Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Kraft (KFT), and Bank of America (BAC), also cut back.
At the same time, though, something interesting happened: New employers rushed in to fill the void. Apple (AAPL), which hired just five grads in 2005-07, more than tripled its hiring, taking on 17 Fuqua grads in 2008-10.
Similar patterns have continued to play out at the country's most selective business schools. In the wake of Lehman's collapse and the economic contraction that followed, hundreds of the most coveted MBA jobs in finance have been lost during what turned out to be one of the worst markets for MBA talent in history. Since then, more students have begun seeking nontraditional job opportunities and the job market for MBAs has diversified, with companies such as Apple and Amazon.com (AMZN), which never hired MBAs in large numbers before, suddenly rising to prominence.
The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business (Booth Full-Time MBA Profile), University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (Wharton Full-Time MBA Profile), and Columbia Business School (Columbia Full-Time MBA Profile) sent about 123 new MBAs to Goldman Sachs (GS) and 99 to Morgan Stanley (MS) from 2008 to 2010. That represented a decline from 207 and 125, respectively, in 2005-2007, according to employment data supplied by those schools.
The decline reflects an industrywide trend that has prompted business schools to better prepare students hoping for job offers from such firms.
In Goldman's securities division, for example, the firm has decreased new MBA hiring and instead hired more bachelor's degree holders, says Sandra Hurse, a Goldman vice-president in charge of campus recruiting. One area of the firm where MBA hiring has grown, she says, is in its private wealth management business. A side effect of the latter shift is that Goldman's new MBA hiring has become more spread out across the U.S. as its private wealth management offices are located in cities from Philadelphia to Houston, she says.
Summer School (Life's a Beach Edition)
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/22/2007 Run time: 97 minutes Rating: Pg13Price: $14.98
Forum Exclusive: Q&A With GE's Erin Dillard
Curious about working for General Electric (GE)? Erin Dillard, director of GE's commercial development programs, will be fielding questions about MBA recruiting and hiring from readers at the Bloomberg Businessweek Business Schools Forum from June 20 to July 1, 2011. The company recruits at about 20 U.S. business schools and seeks about 150 MBAs for the Experienced Commercial Leadership Program (ECLP), which targets MBAs with a focus on marketing, sales, and entrepreneurship. The company also hires MBAs for its Human Resource Leadership Program.
To ask a question about anything from what the company looks for in a hire to the kinds of projects newly minted MBAs take on, head to the Business Schools Forum and post a message with your question. If you're not a member, you'll be prompted to become one and create a login and password. It should not take more than a few minutes. Feel free to write Francesca Di Meglio at FDBloombergBW@gmail.com if you have questions or concerns about participating.
Q&A: SloanGear's Lorenzo Farronato
Lorenzo Farronato recently graduated from MIT's Sloan School of Management (Sloan Full-Time MBA Profile), where he served as a co-owner and chief marketing officer of SloanGear, a student-run business that sells school merchandise to the community. The concept of SloanGear, which has about a 20-year history on campus, is unique because it is student owned and operated, with no involvement by the school.
Each year groups of six to 10 second-year MBA students bid on the rights to the company and write a business plan in the hope of persuading the soon-to-be graduates to sell it to them. In the end, the graduates pick one team to run SloanGear for the next fiscal year, after which the new team chooses another and the cycle repeats.
The students use their own funds—garnered from personal savings, extended student loans, or money from family and friends—to purchase the company and get started, explains Farronato. They have to pay Sloan royalties to use the school's logo on merchandise, such as T-shirts and diploma frames. The team sells the items at tables in the lobby of the school once a month, on the SloanGear website, and through direct sales chiefly of customized products for specific events and clubs. And a nearby store selling university gear is SloanGear's competition.
Having enjoyed the experience so much, Farronato admitted he didn't want it to end. Alas, he and his classmates have sold the business to another group of second-year students, who Farronato says were not the highest bidders but had the most interesting plans for SloanGear in the future.
"We picked the group that provided the most interesting, thoughtful, and easy-to-understand business plan, which could enable them to do well in the future and make sure the company could be successful," Farronato says. "It's a great tradition, and by no means did we want to be the ones screwing it up."
Recently, Farronato, who will be working in management consulting at Booz & Co. in Cleveland, Ohio, talked with Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Francesca Di Meglio about what attracted him to SloanGear and the many lessons learned. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation:
Di Meglio: What originally drew you to SloanGear?
Farronato: I wanted to have a hands-on management and entrepreneurial opportunity as I was doing my MBA. It represented a chance to apply all the lessons I was picking up in class. You take SloanGear way more seriously, and it is way more fun. It's more serious when you have your own money on the line. I could test my knowledge, how well I was learning, and what I could further improve. Second, I wanted to have a practical leadership position. Everyone on the team was responsible and accountable for a specific set of deliverables. You were also accountable for the money everyone had invested. Third, I wanted to broaden my skill set, including improving my communication skills, while further bonding with my classmates.
What was the greatest learning experience?
I got to experience how it feels to be both a manager and investor. When I looked back and considered the work I was doing at Procter & Gamble before coming to Sloan, my point of view was very much focused on the deliverables that my organization and department had to achieve. I was disconnected from the greater company and the expectations of its investors. When I was working at Procter & Gamble, I was making mistakes and achieving success with the company's money. When I was working at SloanGear, I was making mistakes and achieving success with my money. It was a good learning opportunity to recognize another layer of perspective that I was ignoring before.
Inkling Publishes Textbooks for iPads
Timothy Archibald for Bloomberg Businessweek
Many college science students lug around Brooker Biology, a 1,438-page tome published by McGraw-Hill (MHP) that costs up to $150 and weighs close to five pounds. This fall they'll have a new option: Brooker Biology for iPad, a touchscreen textbook that runs on Apple's (AAPL) svelte tablet computer.
It's one of dozens of digital textbooks created by Inkling, a two-year-old San Francisco company founded by Matt MacInnis. Although some digital textbooks already exist—CourseSmart, a joint venture between major publishing companies, has a fairly comprehensive selection—most are basically scanned copies of print products. Inkling's offerings are more interactive. In its Brooker Biology, a 3D diagram of the human heart can be rotated with the flick of a finger, complicated processes such as cell co-transport are explained with videos, and dynamic quizzes reinforce lessons. It's social, too: Students can connect with one another to share marginalia or passages they've highlighted. The book's 60 chapters can be bought individually for $3 apiece, so professors can assign just the sections they want to teach.
Inkling expects to have 100 iPad titles ready by fall. This year's crop of 108 first-year students at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University will be required to buy iPads and use Inkling e-books for their anatomy and clinical medicine classes. "This ability to have it be interactive and test yourself is unbelievable," says Luba Dumenco, a course director at the school.
Digital textbooks will "have an appreciable impact on how well we educate the next generation of learners," says MacInnis, 31, who founded Inkling in 2009 after an eight-year gig running various education initiatives at Apple. He's assembled a team of more than 50 programmers and pedagogy experts and partnered with some of the country's largest textbook publishers. Two of them, McGraw-Hill and Pearson (PSO), invested millions in Inkling earlier this year. On each sale, Inkling shares the revenue with the publisher of the book.
Inkling has built software that speeds up the process of turning a print textbook into a digital one, says MacInnis, a Nova Scotia native and Harvard grad. "A 1,400-page textbook is way more complex than most people care to notice," he says. "We turn it into a formula." Ink-ling's computers scan through files provided by the publisher and automatically arrange text, images, and audiovisual elements in an intuitive interface.
MacInnis says digital textbooks are a new and welcome source of income for educational publishers worried about the expansion of the secondhand market, especially online book rental sites such as Chegg. "That future is scary," he says. "This future is actually welcoming and exciting."
The Harvard grad spent eight years at Apple.
Interactive, feature-rich textbooks for the tablet era.
Inkling is required for new med students at Brown.
Master's of Spin: PR Belongs in B-School Studies
Not a week passes without headlines that excoriate some corporate executive for mishandling an operational crisis that has mushroomed into a public relations disaster. Despite impeccable credentials and accomplished careers, many chief executives find themselves looking foolish after responding obtusely to common and inevitable threats to their companies' reputations.
From Warren Buffet attempting to explain away insider trading at Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A) to Tony Hayward, formerly of BP (BP), complaining about getting his life back, the litany of gaffes certainly changes public perceptions and corporate reputation—along with company valuations and career trajectories. Why then, aren't even the highest-ranked MBA programs doing better at preparing graduates for eventual responsibilities in reputation management?
An analysis of highly ranked MBA programs by the Public Relations Society of America showed that only 16 percent offer a single course in crisis and conflict management, strategic communications, public relations, or whatever label one chooses to describe management of a precious organizational asset: reputation. Even that course is likely to be an elective. So glaring is this omission that it's typical for MBA-holding executives to assume "reputation management" or "public relations" is the black art of spinning an alternative version of reality, as though that works in today's wide-open, relentlessly scrutinized, electron-speed information environment.
One can't blame organizational leaders for not understanding that the way they operate the business is inseparable from the way they communicate about the business, inside and outside the organization. They're not educated sufficiently to know these are inextricably linked leadership requirements: You can't have effective leadership without an effective communications strategy. The latter is based on authenticity and transparency because nothing else works.
The delusional separation that exists between what companies do and what they say is not examined in most MBA programs. Yet we wonder why so many company stakeholders—customers, shareowners, government officials, activist groups, community residents, employees, the news media, and so forth—don't trust businesses.
Trust in companies and their leaders has never been lower. Peter Peterson, co-founder of the Blackstone Group (BX), noted: "What matters is what the public thinks and the public trust is what's really crashed." Yet the course content that would directly address building trust, including ethics and communications strategies, is commonly absent or marginalized in MBA programs.
Ignoring the worth of reputation management is an entrenched academic tradition at most business schools, despite compelling reasons for change. Why? "Reputation" and "communication" are the soft stuff, referred to derisively in an environment where spreadsheets rule and financial measures take precedence over less immediate, nonfinancial indicators such as trust, despite the obvious connection between the latter and sustainable financial performance.
Higher education's rigid organizational silos separate the variety of academic disciplines needed to deliver even a primer on the related topics of ethics, social responsibility, reputation management, public affairs, interpersonal dynamics and organizational behavior. Therefore, typical MBA graduates have paid scant or no attention to their future responsibilities in forging and defending organizational reputation.
Sunday, 5 June 2011
Finding the Right Culinary School for You
Have you ever thought about the possibility of going to culinary school to become a professional chef or start a new career in hospitality management? Maybe you want to go to school just to be a better cook at home? The good news is there are a lot of great schools and colleges in every state to help you accomplish your goals.
Based upon the number of cooking schools opening each year, there must be a lot of folks interested in getting into the culinary world. I recently read an article in our local newspaper about the growth in local culinary schools, and the numbers surprised me. It appears that supermarkets, gourmet stores, local restaurants, colleges, ex-chefs, and just about anyone else who has the room and expertise is putting on an apron and opening a school.
Many of these schools are there for absolute beginners who just want to learn how to boil water and get around in the kitchen without hurting themselves. These classes tend to be more fun where you watch a professional chef prepare a meal and then you get to share it with the rest of the class. It's a good way to meet some interesting people, learn a few culinary tricks, and taste some delicious food.
And then there are schools for home cooks who have some experience but want to build upon their skills and learn some new techniques. These schools tend to have classrooms with individual stations where the students learn by doing. Often these classes will specialize in one particular technique or cooking style.
But what about the individuals who wants to make cooking their career and go back to school for a degree in culinary education? They may want to learn about hospitality management to master the skills needed to run a resort, restaurant, or theme park. Or they may want to become professional chefs and cook in some of the best restaurants in the country.
Lucky for them, there are now more than 500 vocational, college, and university programs scattered around the country with more schools opening each year that offer first-rate educational degrees in this field. The bigger question is: how do you choose the best culinary school for you?
Here are a few steps to help you narrow down the field and simplify your decision:
Step 1 - Figure out what you want to do after you graduate.
Do you want to start a catering company, make pastries and fancy desserts, or how about manage a restaurant? Once you have an idea of what it is that you would like to specialize in, you can limit your search to only those schools that offer the necessary classes.
If you have no idea what you would like to do in the culinary field, be sure to go to a school that offers a number of choices in every field of the industry- sort of like taking a liberal arts' approach.
Step 2 - Determine what's most important to you in a school. Some topics you may want to think about before choosing a school are:
Location
Entry requirements
Length of program and class schedule
Costs and financial aid
Class size and student-to-faculty ratio
Classroom facilities
Class schedules
The school's faculty and reputation
Degrees and accreditations
Externship opportunities
Location and housing
Schools contacts, job placement, and/or internships
Step 3 - Create a list of schools to contact for more information.
You can start with your local yellow pages but if you don't find a school close enough, or one that strikes your fancy, try doing a search on the Internet. Just type in "cooking schools in [your state]", or "culinary schools [your state]", and you will find hundreds of leads to schools worldwide. Type in culinary schools with a city and it will narrow down the field even more.
There is also a listing of top schools listed by state at The Reluctant Gourmet web site. Go to http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/cooking_schools.htm and click on the state of your choice and pick a city of interest.
Once you find a few schools that look promising, read a little about them to see what they have to offer. Most sites will provide a short form that you can fill out for more information. Once you fill out the form and send it back to the school, someone will call you within a day or two to answer your questions, provide you with additional information, and offer to send you some brochures and an application.
Be sure to have a list of questions you want answered when you speak with a school's representative. You might also ask for a list of current students and graduates to contact for their assessment of the school.
This is also a good time to ask about scholarships and what the school has to offer. If financing is going to be an issue, it's better to find out alternatives now rather than wait until you have been accepted. Remember, the school representatives are there to help and most, I've found, don't push too hard--although it is their job to sell you on the school.
Step 4 - Narrow down the field.
Once you look over what the schools have to offer and have spoken with the representatives, start eliminating those that just don't fit in with your needs. Maybe a school is too far, too costly, or just doesn't offer the courses you are interested in taking.
Step 5 - Visit the schools that fit best.
In my opinion, this is one of the most important steps you can do to make sure that you are going to be happy at any cooking school. You want to see the actual classrooms you will be attending, see some of the teachers and students in action, and get a feel for the surroundings to make sure you will fit in.
I once made the mistake of taking a new job on Wall Street with a competitor without ever seeing the offices I'd be working in. Sure the money was better and I thought I would make faster advancement, but when I arrived for my first day of work, I couldn't believe the conditions they wanted me to work in. The office space was old, dirty, and outdated compared to where I was working. I was horrified and only lasted about four months!
So, make sure that the school in which you are thinking of investing your time and money is as good, if not better, than the brochure they send to you.
Step 6 - Apply to your top picks.
After you make your visits, narrow down the field to your top choices and prepare the applications you were sent. Be sure to be neat and complete, and provide the schools with everything they ask you for. If you have any questions about the application, pick up the phone right away and get answers. You don't want to be sending in incomplete forms.
Step 7 - Choose your school.
Once notified by the schools of your acceptance, you can decide which school works best for you. Because you did your homework and followed the steps above, this final choice should be easy.
Be sure to inform the school of your choice that you will be attending, and find out what steps are required to get you enrolled and what you will need to start school.
Although this article was written for those of you interested in going to culinary school, you can follow these same procedures when choosing any continuing education degree. If you think about it, it's just like getting everything prepped and ready to go (mise en place) before starting to prepare a meal.
Copyright © 2005 G. Stephen Jones, The Reluctant Gourmet
G. Stephen Jones created the Reluctant Gourmet back in 1997 as a hobby to assist other novice cooks who may find the art of cooking a little daunting. As an ex-Wall Street broker and Stay-at-Home Dad, he tries to explore cooking from a different perspective.
Visit http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/ for more tips, techniques, recipes and a great listing of culinary schools
Forum Exclusive: Q&A With Bain Recruiter Mark Howorth
Among MBA grads from top business schools, a job at the global business and strategy consulting firm Bain & Co. is one of the most coveted. If you've dreamed of working at Bain, then you don't want to miss your chance to get the ear (or at least the reading eye) of Mark Howorth, senior director of Bain's Global MBA Recruiting, who is based in Los Angeles. He will be fielding questions about MBA recruiting and hiring from readers on the Bloomberg Businessweek Business Schools Forum from June 3 to 17.
Bain typically receives more than 5,000 resumes from advanced degree holders but can only hire hundreds for full-time consultant and summer associate positions. Even though the company accepts resumes from about 50 MBA programs worldwide, it usually hires only from about half of them. The company says it expects double-digit hiring growth in the near future.
To ask a question about anything from what the company looks for in a hire to the kinds of projects newly minted MBAs take on, head to the Business Schools Forum and look for the folder labeled "Forum Exclusive: Q&A With Bain Recruiter Mark Howorth" at the top of the page.There you can post a message with your question.If you're not a member, you'll be prompted to become one and create a login and password.It should not take more than a few minutes.Feel free to write Francesca Di Meglio at FDBloombergBW@gmail.com if you have questions or concerns about participating.
Summer Reading List: The B-School Edition
The hazy days of summer are no time to be lazy if you're heading to business school in the fall. Getting a jump start on your studies by reading books that will inspire, motivate, and teach is never a bad idea, writes Janet G. Marcantonio, executive professor at Texas A&M University's Mays Business School (Mays Full-Time MBA Profile), in an e-mail. "If you're entering or headed back to business school, [books] will freshen your intellectual larder and spur your growth as a leader," Marcantonio says.
To create a summer reading list for business students, Bloomberg Businessweek asked top ranked B-schools to each have two professors share their list of must-read books. Business professors and deans have suggested everything from timeless literary (think Shakespeare) and modern business (think Thomas Friedman) classics to advice books on marketing, writing, and career-building. (To see an extended list of recommendations that did not make it into this story, check out this blog post.)
Four books appeared on more than one person's list. Each shed some light on what led to the recent financial crisis or upon human nature and behavior. Here's a roundup of the books that appeared most frequently on the more-than-25 recommendation lists we gathered:
With the recent financial crisis (and growing fears about the future of overseas economies, such as those in Europe) fresh on the minds of business professors, business schools are asking future business leaders to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. The book that appeared most often is The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (W. W. Norton, February 2011) by Michael Lewis, author of Liar's Poker (W.W. Norton, reprint, March 2010), an autobiographical account of his disillusionment while working on Wall Street during the heady 1980s, and The Blind Side (W.W. Norton, movie tie-in edition, October 2009), which was turned into an Oscar-winning film starring Sandra Bullock.
Like Lewis's other books, The Big Short, say professors, is a quick read because it's written as a narrative. It follows those who saw the economic implosion coming and shares their personal stories. Although some readers have criticized the book for being heavy on financial jargon, business students should have no trouble understanding Lewis.
"The Big Short describes the small set of individuals who saw what was about to happen and found a way to bet against the investments that almost brought down the economy," writes James W. Dean Jr., dean of UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School (Kenan-Flagler Full-Time MBA Profile), in an e-mail. "Truth really is stranger than fiction."
While everyone is trying to make sense of the mortgage meltdown, many are also looking to improve their lives—from financial portfolio to physique—as a means of getting over the current events. That might be why a few professors put the book Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Penguin, February 2009,) by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, on their lists. Essentially, Nudge is about helping people, even nudging them, to make better choices when it comes to everything from their finances to the food they eat by explaining why humans are simultaneously smart and stupid. Ideally, readers walk away from this book with greater self-awareness and motivation to lead healthier and wealthier lives. "It is a fun and informative read," writes Steve Walton, associate professor in the practice of information systems and operations management at Emory's Goizueta Business School (Goizueta Full-Time MBA Profile), in an e-mail.
Movie DVD
WAYSIDE:MOVIE - DVD MoviePublic School Prayer: How God Lured Me to a Small TexasTown
To begin with, my children already lived here with their mother and stepfather. The varsity football team, the Stephenville Yellow Jackets, was the winningest Texas football team in the 90's and my sons, along with their stepfather, urged me to come and see these kids play. "They are phenomenal!" I was assured. I went to watch them play as they won the Texas State Championships in 98 and 99. They WERE phenomenal! My youngest son played football at Stephenville High. His underclass teams won district and he played Varsity ball on a team that went to the Bi-District finals his Senior year. This was enough to get me to criss-cross the wide open spaces of Texas from Arlington, chasing after my son's football games for four years, including quite a few contests right in his home town of Stephenville.
Game by game, the town was growing on me.
Some unusual things were happening there that caught my attention from my apartment in Arlington. For starters, on a Christian radio show I used to listen to, the host, Dawson McAllister, mentioned he would soon be speaking at a rally in...where else? Stephenville! Hmm. Intriguing. Turns out, my kids attended that rally. I found out later, most EVERYBODY's kids attended.
Another happening that the Holy Spirit used to lure my attention to Stephenville was the war against prayer in the schools, particularly at sporting events and graduations. The reports were on virtually every nightly newscast. I noticed during my brief visits to town that there were many kids wearing a bright yellow t-shirt with the words "I Pray before I Play" emblazoned boldly upon the front. Following are some pieces of articles I found on the Internet, the likes of which I seemed to be hearing regularly back in the late 90's. They speak for themselves, painting an accurate picture of the climate of those days:
"...the athletic field is rapidly turning into a culture war battle zone, as it did Friday night at a game in Stephenville, Texas, over the issue of school prayer. Education boards and school principals across Texas are struggling with federal guidelines on religious activities, including the ban on official school prayer. Earlier this year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that some religious references were permissible at school events like graduation ceremonies, but were inappropriate -- not sufficiently sacred -- during other activities like athletic contests. Jurists ruled that the hootin' and hollerin' of a down-home football standoff lacked the "singularly serious nature" of other functions, such as a graduation event.
"That didn't stop a small group of 15 students on Friday night, though, from smuggling a portable public address system into a high school game in Stephenville, Texas, to lead supporters in public prayer...
"One of the "prayer warrior" students at Friday night's game told the Stephenville Empire-Tribune paper, "This was not about football, it was about God. We decided to pray for God (sic)." According to an Associated Press report, local high school superintendent Larry Butler said that the impromptu prayer rally did not have support of authorities from the district. "With that being said," added Butler, "I applaud them for doing something that they feel really strongly about. I think the entire community of Stephenville believes in school prayer."
"So far, there are no other reports of spontaneous prayer outbreaks at weekend football games. News accounts suggest that most school district throughout Texas are abiding by the Circuit Court guidelines..."
FROM ANOTHER ARTICLE...
"A number of "spontaneous" protest at football games have taken place in Stephenville. Last week, the Board of Trustees of the Stephenville Independent School District grappled with a policy which would permit a student selected by popular vote to deliver a pre-game "message," provided certain rules were observed. The local Empire-Tribune newspaper noted: "The rules are that the purpose of the message is to encourage good sportsmanship and student safety and to promote the proper environment for the competition... The message may also be used to welcome or greet fans and the opposing team and/or to commend them for their achievements.
"While one board member mused that the new policy "would legally create an open forum for a period of time designated for the message and designate a place for the student message," another member saw through the obfuscation. Referring to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court decision disallowing pre-game prayer, he told fellow board members: "This is the law today whether we like it or not. Until this is cleared up, I personally think we go against the law if we allow student prayer, or any prayer, before the game..." "
HERE'S ONE MORE FROM '99...
Students Defy Federal Judge on Prayer at High School Game
Stephenville, TX - The August 27th football season opener for the Stephenville High School Yellow Jackets was not only memorable for the lop-sided victory they had, but also for the courage shown by the student body and the fans in the crowd. A district federal judge had issued a decision forbidding prayer at public school gatherings, even if initiated by students. The students of Stephenville High believe this is a violation of their constitutional right to freedom of religion. The student body not only takes pride in being the defending 4A state champions, but in exercising their constitutional rights.
Before the opening kickoff, one of the students of Stephenville High grabbed a microphone and led a "spontaneous" prayer. Several students joined the young man on the sidelines, but what was even more powerful was the fact that not some, but all of the people in the stands stood up, removed their hats and joined in the prayer. Local news stations were there to cover the game and questioned the police and high school administrator as to what they planned to do about the "illegal" praying. There was no response from the police, but the high school administrator simply said that no actions were to be taken against the students. School officials also pointed out that since the school had not officially sanctioned the action, it could not be held legally liable for what happened.
The federal judge, upon hearing about the public prayer, said that the prayer was in violation of the constitutional separation of church and state. Some supporters of the students pointed out that the Constitution does not demand separation of church and state, but guarantees that there will be no laws made establishing any official religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion. Students interviewed said that they planned to pray publicly at their next game.
One thing that most local reports on the event failed to mention was that it was not just the Stephenville students and supporters, but their football adversaries as well that stood up to be counted. The Weatherford High School Kangaroos, and all their fans, honored the brave individuals that dared to challenge the edict of a federal judge by standing with them during the prayer. With reporters scouring the crowd for an opposing view, not one person was found whom the prayer offended. Still the judge finds this act illegal and irresponsible!
What happens going forward from here depends on how determined the judge is to force his will on the people, and how determined the citizens of Stephenville are to defend their constitutional rights. For one night at least, this was seen as a victory for Texans in the exercise of their rights. As for Weatherford High, it was the one bright spot in a night that resulted in a 34-7 loss to the Yellow Jackets.
AND ANOTHER...
MORE SCHOOLS IGNORE FOOTBALL PRAYER BAN
North of Dallas, Celina high school football fans prayed before a football game with a Christian school. The apparently coordinated prayer by fans, football players, cheerleaders, and band members violates the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ban on school football prayers because football is not properly solemn enough for God.
Rev. John Mark Arrington, pastor at Lighthouse Full Gospel Church in Garland distributed 250 T-shirts with the slogan, "Celina Bobcats Pray Before They Play." Arrington want students to obey "God's law," which justifies the growing rebellion of evangelicals against the U.S. Constitution.
In Stephenville, students brought their own sound system to football games and delivered a religious message using the equipment. There was no report that school officials took any action to prevent it.
In Midland, student-led prayers at football games still happen. School officials said the prayers would continue until someone filed a lawsuit to make them stop.
FINALY, THIS FROM U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT...
To pray--or not to pray" by Robert Bryce.
U.S. News & World Report, Sep 13, 1999 (Vol 127, No 10). Page 26.
Joel Allen and Alan Ward, two Stephenville, Texas, high school students, refused to be denied the tradition that surrounded their school's football games. So to circumvent a federal court order barring use of a school's public address system for prayer before high school football games, the two students borrowed a small speaker system and led the crowd in prayer, much to the fans' delight.
The court ruling that affects Stephenville, Texas, handed down in February 1999, by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has revived a national furor over the place of prayer in public school events. The court's decision stated that student-led prayer during graduation ceremonies is allowed, but prayer during events such as football games is not since they do not represent a "solemn" enough occasion.
This latest ruling is one of several conflicting federal decisions on school prayer in recent years. In July 1999, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an Alabama school district could not ban student-initiated prayer at school activities, even when attendance of the event is mandatory.
The Fifth Circuit Court's decision will most likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime, some school districts in Louisiana and Texas say they will hold a moment of silence in lieu of prayer. Others vow to ignore the ruling altogether.
YOU GET THE PICTURE.
I was fascinated, waiting with baited breath for the next act of civil disobedience to come from the kids from this li'l ol' town in Texas I'd never heard of until my kids moved there.
Finally, I became very ill and was faced with a difficult decision. I had to leave Arlington, a place I'd lived for 14 years and a Church of which I was a Charter Member and Assistant Pastor as well as a good-paying job where I held a prestigious position. But I couldn't bend over to load my dishwasher, walk a flight of stairs or carry groceries to and from my car. I needed my children's help.
Stephenville, here I come!
Crippled and in pain, finding a job was nearly impossible. I came very close to filing Medicaid papers and becoming a ward of the state. I couldn't bring myself to do it. Where God guides, He provides and He regularly sent ravens to take care of my needs. My old college roommate lived in Dublin just 12 minutes away. He directed a publishing company to contact me as they needed an illustrator for a series of children's books. That job alone, a job I could do from my kitchen table or even from propped -up pillows, was enough to help me make ends meet. Between chapters, recipients of my weekly email Bible broadcasts would occasionally come through with a love offering.
I was living from miracle to miracle until I received a call from my old college pal informing me that the local Chamber of Commerce was in need of a receptionist. I did not even know what a Chamber of Commerce actually did but I was feeling miraculously better, well enough to have applied for work at a local dairy reading the ear tags on cows just the day before. Funny, I can't recall a job interview where a prospective employer asked if I'd mind occasionally getting "splattered with manure." (I replied that it sounded like my last job. He didn't laugh.) Any way, I went right to The Chamber and I'll be there 5 years this July 7th. It's a great job and the Lord has allowed me numerous opportunities to tap into the spiritual roots of the community from my position.
UNITY IN THE COMMUNITY
At the Chamber, I've been privileged to work for and with wonderful Christian people. Several years back, one lady I worked with had the idea of putting on an event that would give teens something to do after school ended in may. as we brainstormed, the event evolved into "The Extreme Thing." In no time, other church members and ministers jumped on board. In the end, we had 29 churches involved, 9 bands, bouncy toys, organized games, 1,000 attendees and several ministers. The event was closed by a wonderful Church of Christ choir and their pastor. It was awesome!
In 2002 and 2003, I organized a July 4th parade entry which I called "The Declaration of Dependence." I designed a T-shirt and matching banner and about 50 Christians suited up and took part. The next year, over 150 Christians took part from 11 different churches - including Hispanic Churches. We had the largest entry in the parade that year.
One day, a man from the Assembly of God Church took me to lunch. He had an idea for a door to door prayer ministry he called "Operation Jesus." I designed a logo for a T-shirt and, in the past two years, hundreds of participants have prayed for virtually every dwelling place in town. We're about to start over and the numbers of participating churches is increasing every time we go out.
A young Youth Minister from the Disciples of Christ had the vision to organize an event he called "The Unity Conference." In the end, hundreds of believers attended from various denominations to listen to seven different ministers speak on a variety of subjects and worship together in song with several church worship teams. I was honored to have been one of those who ministered. Just a few months ago, I actually preached the Sunday morning services in that same church on two consecutive Sundays.
My own ministry has expanded to include opportunities to speak at the high school and the local college where I recently participated in a panel discussion on homosexuality in a grad level counseling/psych class. Last Sunday, I completed my 6th and final week of teaching at the First United Methodist Church. I've been invited back. The Pastor called me at work just today to thank me for "sharing my gift" with his congregation. Nice man.
The pastor from the local Cowboy Church - a Baptist group that has blossomed to 500 members in its first year - has asked that I come and teach the Cowboys about the cults. Though I'm not Baptist, I have taught too many times to count at the Sunday meetings of the local Baptist Ministry. I attend a weekly house church meeting that includes several Pentecostals, some Baptists and a couple of Catholics. We've prayed together and ministered to others and have seen miracles and spiritual gifts in operation.
Jesus prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one. Unity commands a Heavenly blessing.
THAT'S MY STORY...
That's how I got to town and what God's shown me in the mean time. Has it been without its trials? Hardly. Aside from hate mail via my computer, I once visited a woman in the county jail and even helped arrange her release. She later accused me of a crime and filed a restraining order against me. Not only did that case never make it to trial, but that woman has been sent to the state jail for another crime. On top of that, there have been a few people who wouldn't allow their kids to sit under my teaching because they learned I've been divorced. At least no one's shooting.
Oh, one last bit of good news is this: I moved to a cabin in the woods and, when I met my wonderful wife, Barbara, we not only moved here and love it, but we bought a Victorian home in town that my parents moved into from Las Cruces, New Mexico and are managing as a rooming house. We call it Vanderbilt Place. Barb is a registered nurse and got a job at the hospital located just 2 blocks from my downtown office at The Chamber. I see all 4 of my kids, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren regularly. I can recall the times that I was always so all alone and sickly.
I'm not sure what it is the Lord is doing here in this wonderful little town but, knowing Him, I know it's gonna be great! I encourage anyone reading this now to grow where you're planted, regardless of circumstances. I've learned that anything we can see with human eyes is subject to change. Even at my sickest, I was mailing Christian Gospel tracts to Middle Eastern-sounding names from the phone book on the chance the recipients might be Muslim. I made it to the letter "J" as I recall. My stamp-licking tongue wasn't broken, after all. Later, a dear friend gave me a good used computer and my email ministry was on its way. I STILL only type with one finger (40 wpm, not bad, huh?).
Now, scroll down and FORWARD the message. Rate it if you like.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pastor Michael is founder of t.e.a.m. ministries (team1min@aol.com). His eMail broadcasts, known as "Your Town for Jesus" (SEARCH it!) are reaching tens of thousands WEEKLY. He ministers by way of email and Instant Message, too. Write him at team1min@aol.com if you'd like to SUBSCRIBE to receive his messages directly.
Michael's mission is to bring Discipleship and Encouragement to the Body of Christ. Michael is the author of numerous booklets on a variey of subjects that will interest the thinking Christian. Since 1999, he has written and broadcast hundreds of inspirational articles and a dozen booklets, all designed to accelerate the process of spiritual development in God's people.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Public-School Excuse #1 - Give Us More Money!
If more money meant better education for our kids, our public schools should have vastly improved over the last 75 years. Yet the reverse is true. In dollars adjusted for inflation, public schools spent about $876 per year for elementary and secondary school students in 1930, when student literacy rates were close to 90 percent. In contrast, in 2003 public schools spent about $7500 per student, while literacy rates fell to the 50-70 percent level in many public schools.
In the year 2000, the five states whose students got the highest SAT scores were North Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota. Yet, per-pupil spending in North Dakota ranked forty-first among the states, in Iowa twenty-fifth, Wisconsin tenth, Minnesota sixteenth, and South Dakota a lowly forty-eighth.
In contrast, the District of Columbia had the fourth highest per-student spending of all the states but ranked almost at the bottom of the list (50th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia) in student achievement. Clearly, there is little correlation between money spent per student and student achievement.
A 1990 Rand Corporation study showed that private Catholic schools do a better job educating children than public schools. The study compared thirteen New York City public, private, and Catholic high schools that had many minority students.
Yet, the average annual tuition costs for Catholic and Protestant-affiliated schools for the 2002-2003 school year were approximately $3500-$4000 per elementary-school pupil and $5500-$6000 per Secondary school pupil. The average public-school cost per pupil was approximately $7500. Catholic and Protestant-affiliated schools therefore give their students a better education for less money than public schools spend.
When we compare the academic record of home-schooled vs. public-school students, the cost vs. achievement differences are even more startling. In 1998, the Home School Legal Defense Association commissioned Larry Rudner, statistician and measurement expert at the University of Maryland, to do a study on the academic achievement levels of home-schooled students.
The study tested 20,000 home-schooled students on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). The study found that home-schooled students did extremely well on the test compared to public school students. Home-schooled kids scored in the 75th to 85th percentile range, compared with the 50th percentile national average for public-school students across the country.
The study found that in every subject and grade level of the ITBS battery of tests, home-schooled students scored significantly higher than public and private school students. On average, homeschool students in the first to fourth grades performed one grade level higher than comparable public and private school students. By the fifth grade, the gap began to widen, and by the eighth grade, the average home-schooled student performed four grade levels above the national average.
Home-schooling parents not only give their kids a superior education, but spend far less than public schools. For example, some excellent phonics reading programs cost less than $150. Even if we assumed that an average homeschooling parent spent about $1500 a year on learn-to-read or learn-math books, computer learning software, and other learning materials, that is about one-quarter the average $7500-a-year that public schools spend per student. Clearly, once again, it is obvious that more money does not guarantee a better education.
For over 40 years they have been trying to "fix" the public schools. That's long enough. I think that after 40 years we can safely conclude that the government bureaucrats who run these schools are not up to the task of giving our kids the great education they deserve.
Public schools are beyond repair and can not be fixed, ever, simply because they are a government owned-and-operated coercive monopoly that strangles a free market in education and parental choice. Throwing more hundreds of billions of tax dollars at these schools is a complete waste of time and a criminal waste of precious resources, including our children's minds and future.
It's time we scrapped the public-school system. Let's just bury this education dinosaur, once and for all. Once public schools were scrapped, we can then give parents back the thousands of dollars a year they now pay for school taxes or income taxes that propped up the public schools. With these tax refunds, parents can then pay for their own children's education in a fiercely competitive education free market in which the quality of education for our kids keeps getting better, while tuition costs go down.
Joel Turtel is the author of ?Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children" and "The Welfare State: No Mercy For the Middle Class." He is also a syndicated columnist and education policy analyst.
Website: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com,
Email: lbooksusa@aol.com,
Phone: 718-447-7348.
Article Copyrighted ? 2006 by Joel Turtel.
NOTE: You may post this Article on another website only if you set up a hyperlink to Joel Turtel?s email address and website URL, http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com
Recess - School's Out
The Third Street Elementary School kids are teaming up to save summer vacation for kids all over the world in Disney's RECESS: SCHOOL'S OUT -- the hit theatrical movie that The Washington Post calls "Great Fun!" The school year is finally ending, and T.J. Detweiler is looking forward to summer. But boredom quickly sets in when his friends leave for camp -- until T.J. uncovers an evil plot to do away with summer vacation! A crazy former principal, Dr. Benedict, is planning to use a laser beam to alter the weather and create permanent winter. Faced with the dire threat of year-round school, T.J. rounds up the RECESS gang and bands together with some unexpected allies -- Miss Finster and Principal Prickly -- in a nonstop adventure to save everyone's summer break. As the kids discover the heroes inside themselves, a platoon of wacky characters, far-out music, and sci-fi surprises turn this madcap mission into a major victory for fun!Price: $9.99
Choosing a Primary School for Your Child
Where do our children spend six hours a day, five days a week and 35 weeks a year between the ages of three or four and eleven - that's about 8000 hours? At their primary school!
What happens in this school matters. The adults they meet play a significant role in their lives. If our children are in the wrong school, there is unhappiness, poor achievement, worry and even bad feeling. We blame the school, ourselves or our children. They are unhappy - not just in the school but also in the evening worrying about tomorrow and feeling wretched on the journey to school. This is not the recipe for the best learning and growing into a confident, healthy person. We waste precious time visiting the school in unhappy circumstances instead of feeling proud and pleased.
With a bit of care you can set the scene to avoid this and help to give your child a good school career.
Plan of action
Think: what do you want for your child? The more detailed you can be the better. Consider your own values. Yes you want the best - but what does that mean? There are three key areas you might consider:
1. you want your child to be happy
2. you want a good education for your child
3. you want to be able to trust the school
Happiness
Happy children learn quickly and grow confidently. They are happier to participate and get the most out of the educational and social opportunities in a school. Children are happy if they feel purposeful and appreciated; praised for their successes; encouraged through their mistakes; and treated fairly along with their school-mates.
Visit the school and watch the children. Do they look busy, interested and happy? Is there an air of purposefulness? Watch them at playtime. Are children playing happily together in groups? Watch the oldest children - the ones who have been in the school the longest. How well behaved are they? How many isolated children can you see? Is there a sufficient number of adults supervising and are they engaged in conversation or activities with the children? You know your child. Consider how your child will fit into this.
Education
Check the school's test and assessment results. Are they average or better than average? Are the results improving over time?
The subjects that are tested or assessed at the age of seven are reading, writing and maths; English, maths and science at age eleven. These are vital to success in schools - but does the school promote good learning in the other subjects? Is your child going to be able to enjoy physical activity through organised games, dance and gymnastics? How important does the school consider creative activities such as art and music? Will your child learn about the world and what happened in the past? What about a foreign language?
Will your child be taught effectively and treated fairly? How well does the school support those pupils with special educational, physical or emotional needs? Do pupils have the chance to achieve to their fullest ability?
Read the most recent inspection report. It will tell you about standards and whether the pupils make good progress. Read the most recent governors' report which should include test results as well as tell you something about the school's broader activities and recent improvements. Read the prospectus. What does it tell you about its character and values?
Trust
How can you recognise a good school that you can trust? Visit the school; be friendly and open. Many teachers can be very sensitive so do your probing in a non-confrontational way otherwise you'll learn nothing.
Do you feel welcomed by the secretary and the headteacher? Has the school made an effort to look bright and cheerful? Are there attractive displays showing off the pupils' work?
As they show you round the school, ask if you can look in the toilets. You can often see how much the school values its children by the quality and cleanliness of the toilets.
What do the classrooms look like? How do they feel? Is there a nice working buzz? How do the teachers talk to the pupils? Are there after school activities?
Does the school have a clear policy on responding with parental complaints? Is the school a safe place for children to be in? What does the school do about bullying?
Are children given responsibilities around the school? The best schools get pupils involved thoroughly. Some have a "school council". Others have different ways of knowing how the children are feeling.
Talk to as many other parents as possible - especially those whose children have been there a long time. Ten minutes before the end of school is a good time. How do they feel about the school? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Don't forget practical issues
Is the distance from home convenient? What will the daily journey to and from school be like? Will it create difficult strains in the family?
Make sure you have all the information you need from the local authority so you can make your application to the school before the deadline - otherwise you may be disappointed. The school you have your eye on may be over-subscribed.
Taking this care will give your child the best opportunities. It will then be up to him to make the most of them ... with your continuing encouragement and support. But that is another story.
If you want to know more about this subject, contact Clive who has worked with children in primary schools for over 30 years as teacher, headteacher, coach and mentor. He now applies his knowledge, skills and understanding to helping others fulfil their dreams. You can find out more at: [http://www.clivegrahamcoaching.com] If you want to share your thoughts or ask any questions, he would be very happy to hear from you. Contact him: info@clivegrahamcoaching.com
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