Q1 2020 Texas CEO Magazine

million for a six-year randomized study
that compared 500 kids who went into
our program and 500 who couldn’t get
into our program. Half the parents in DC
loved me because their kids got in, but
the other half hated me. But now we have
data to tell you that the program produces
results. The US Department of Education
uses that as the flagship research for
the value of academic programs after
school. Those parents are probably still
mad at me, but seven million other
kids will benefit from that research.
The third thing would be our commitment
to continuous improvement. We use
the data to improve: We do one thing
in the first school, learn how we can
make that more efficient in the second
school, then even more so in the third
school. If people share their resources
with us, they can trust it will address
real needs, that we will track the data,
and that we will use it to continue
our efficiency and effectiveness.
What were some of your aha moments on
this journey as a nonprofit leader? Well,
one is that a lot of people throughout
Texas still don’t see the value of highquality
out-of-school programs. There’s
a notion that schools can do everything.
But children spend just 20 percent of
their waking day in school, and the data
shows that children who have extra
learning support outside school do
better. Yet a lot of people are hesitant
to invest in afterschool programs.
“Why are we having reading mentors
come at three o’clock? Shouldn’t we
have done that during school time?”
We want to change that way of thinking.
One teacher in a class of 28 students
can’t respond to 28 different learning
styles, so you do need community
resources outside of school to facilitate
that kind of learning support. Now, I’m
not saying that out-of-school time should
replace schools, but many students
need that personalized attention.
Schools can’t have volunteer teachers,
but our program can have volunteer
mentors to work with those kids.
The other counterintuitive thing I learned
is that operations doesn’t necessarily
get cheaper the more you grow. That’s
probably true with McDonald’s and
Coca-Cola, when you have the same
product to manufacture, but as we
grow as a nonprofit, there is also more
personalized attention and time we’re
adding. At my previous job, at Higher
Achievement, we thought things would
be cheaper if we went to multiple cities
as fast as we could. We wouldn’t have
to hire another CEO to run Nashville,
another CEO to run Richmond. But I
learned that if I’m based in Washington,
DC, I couldn’t go to Nashville and raise
money there. We needed to build the
infrastructure that would facilitate
relationships. You’re always seen as the
DC guy coming here raising money for
his program. The relationship aspect
of this work is what makes it effective.
Once a kid realizes I forgot his or her
name, that breaks down that relationship.
So you have to grow smartly.
What do you think about the role of
technology in learning? Obviously, there
was great hype around technology in
education a while back. Then we went
through what Gartner calls the Trough of
Disillusionment. Then we came out the
other end with things like Khan Academy.
Technology is never a silver bullet, but
there are times when technology attracts
students’ curiosity. You can use that when
it’s appropriate. A teacher can use a video
to attract students’ attention and curiosity
as they learn coding, for example. And
you can have a laptop in front of you
to follow the instructions right there.
When you’re talking about art and
creativity, you can use technology, but
sometimes a kid banging an African
drum is just as important. So to me,
the key to technology is knowing
when it’s the most appropriate and
when it will spark curiosity.
I know you’ve focused on East Austin, but
what do you see the foundation’s scope
being like in five years? We started with
East Austin because of the opportunity
gap that still exists there. But we’re in
the middle of a strategic plan to double
the number of students we serve directly.
I want to see all 11,800 kids in East
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