Stanford Educator - SPRING 2004

Spring 2004

Table of Contents

Celebrating and Promoting Quality Teachers and Teaching

Educators Invited to “Inspire Innovation" at Special Celebration Conference

SUSE’s Eisner
Awarded 2004 Brock International Prize in Education

Joint Degree Bridges Education, Business

New POLS Program Creates Change Agents

Special Cosby on Campus Performance Ticket Offer for Alums

Spring 2004
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While applying to Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), Barak Ben-Gal had to answer the classic admissions question,“What matters to you most and why?” Ben-Gal, who had six years of business experience and felt he needed an M.B.A. in order to progress further in his career, came to the conclusion that he was more passionate about education than the business sector. “I much preferred to dedicate my life to improving education than to improving a corporation,” he explained.
Photo: Joint degree students in Professor Myra Strober ’s pro-seminar in education are introduced to the field by SUSE faculty members who discuss their research. Standing from left to right: Safiya Daniels, Jason McMillan, Myra Strober (faculty member), Debra Meyerson (faculty member), Niambi Clay and Elliot Eisner (faculty member); Sitting from left to right: Mercy Montsi (visiting scholar from Botswana), Amy Howell Saxton, Hiram Perez, Katie Behroozi and Mike Rauta.		Stanford University’s School of Education (SUSE) and GSB joint degree program is the solution for students like Ben-Gal who want to apply their management skills to the field of education. “The joint degree program seemed like a perfect fit because it would allow me to learn about education, understand where I could best use [my] business skills in the education sector, build a network of contacts in education and identify job opportunities that could serve as an alternative mode of entry into the education sector,” said Ben-Gal, now a second-year joint degree student. The M.B.A./M.A. in Education program allows students to spend their first year taking primarily M.B.A. core courses. During their second year, students can take a variety of electives at SUSE and the GSB.
Although some M.B.A. students have also earned a M.A. in Education since 1969, the joint M.B.A./M.A. program began in 2002. The program has higher numbers of enrolled students than in the past, according to Professor of Education Myra Strober, who is also the director of the joint degree program. Currently, there are over 30 joint degree students.The program will graduate its first cohort this year. Eighty-nine prospective students applied for admission into the joint degree program for 2005. This was the first year that applicants could apply for admission simultaneously at the GSB and SUSE. Students must be admitted by both schools in order to pursue the joint degree. Strober said the program gives students insights into the business of education. “If [students are] interested in managing the business side of education, having the additional training in education is very valuable because, otherwise, it’s like trying to manage a health organization without knowing anything about the health system,” she stated. “So this [program] gives them in-depth understanding of the area they want to work in.” According to Strober, there are a variety of reasons why students choose to earn a joint degree. For example, some students are interested in learning the business side of K-12 education so that they can work in an already established school or start a charter school. Others are interested in starting education technology companies and come to the program to develop a more complex understanding of what students need from technology in education. “There is no typical student,” she said.“People make connections between education and business in so many different ways.” The joint degree program’s success has made it a model for other schools. “Other places have called to figure out how to do this.They haven’t been successful yet because running the program requires a willingness to blend two cultures, education and business, and it requires cooperation [by] the faculty of the two [schools]. Not every university has that kind of cooperation. Students understand that joint degree programs don’t spring up everywhere. Many of them feel fortunate that Stanford has such a program,” explained Strober. Ben-Gal said the opportunity to earn a joint degree was one of the main reasons he applied to the GSB. “To me, it seemed like an obvious choice – both SUSE and the GSB are consistently ranked at the very top of their fields nationally, and the combination of two top-tier schools seemed too good to be true.”