•A first essential task for our hypothetical educational startup is that it discover a market for education that is currently underserved by the existing dominant educational organizations. I use "discover" deliberately because Christensen's research indicates that disruptive startups usually need to go through a process of discovering who and what their initial market really is. It is rarely what they first believe, so it is very important that the startup be focused more on learning about/discovering the market than implementing a predetermined plan. Since the first idea of where the market lies is likely to be wrong it is also important that the startup not throw all their resources into developing their first idea, but instead to hold back resources for second and third tries. (Fred Bartels)

•Regarding your question of subsidiaries...I've been thinking about this for quite some time. I think one possible subsidiary could be a virtual school component of our brick and mortar schools. This component would help address some of the challenges we face in independent schools when our students take extended periods of time off for special interest/family activities. This has been happening for years, but our teachers always seem to have to put in more work than necessary to create assignments, worksheets, etc for these students who are going to be gone for extended periods. What if we had a virtual component for these students/families and somehow charged extra for it so faculty could be paid for building up the content??

Perhaps this is one type of subsidiary that we could add some immediate value by attempting to solve the challenges our teachers face in working with students and families who take off in the middle of the school year. (Matt Montagne)

•Interesting idea. Do you see the subsidiary (we could call it Virtual Country Day School or VCDS) as being an effort of one school or a group of schools? I would think there is quite a large overlap in the course offerings in our schools so, for instance, an online biology course at VCDS could probably serve students from many independent schools. Creating a VCDS could be a great opportunity for a group of tech-savvy teachers and innovative I.T. folk who, without giving up their regular jobs, still want to push the education envelope. (Fred Bartels)

•Perhaps indp. schools are too late to the game and we will outsource for our online schooling needs. This is already happening in the areas like computer sciences and other specialty offerings where we don't have the resources to hire onsite faculty. I would argue, though, that it is not too late and that we have the opportunity to build an independent school model that is unique from the other models out there right now (florida virtual school, etc). Many models out there right now seem to be very standards/NCLB driven...I see an independent school model that isn't bound by NCLB but instead can focus on the whole learner, enrichment, innovative thinking, etc. I could be totally wrong about this, but who knows.

I LOVE the idea of some sort of VCDS. Perhaps NAIS could establish some sort of virtual school model...I think it is worth bringing this thread to the attention of the good folks at NAIS so that they can put this concept to committee perhaps. Regardless of their interest, I think it is worth advancing the conversation centering around this concept of creating some type of VCDS model...I can't really finish my thoughts, so I'll just end here and keep an eye on this excellent thread. (Matt Montagne)

•I am only half-way through Disrupting Class but am already a follower. The timing of this book seems especially important given the economic situation. It's kind of frightening to think about the financial aid situation for next year (and the next few years). Our schools will really have to find a marketing niche that makes independent schools worth the tuition. Online courses may become a reality purely out of cost-cutting measures. I think the idea of a VCDS serving several independent schools is a good one - it would allow us to pool resources and serve our separate communities. (Page Lennig)

•One approach might be to gear a VCDS to NAIS schools, using teachers from NAIS schools and gearing the courses to students at NAIS schools. I think the main advantage of this would be the comfort provided by working within organizations that already share lots of information and are familiar with each other. Assessments could also easily be administered at participating schools. So you would really be looking at is a partnership between VCDS and the NAIS schools.

Over time, if the online approach really worked better, more and more courses could be taught this way and the schools could focus more effort on the things best done in groups. (Fred Bartels)

Here is another possibility. What about starting an NAIS/ISED VCS for summer school courses that students in our schools often take (many take courses such as health so they don't have to take the course during the school year). Or, the summer school courses could be more along the lines of enrichment courses, computer science, communications/radio, etc.

The draw to parents and students would be that their kids would still get the benefit of the 10 month brick/mortar experience, but could also get the chance to take an online course. And like I said above, perhaps a few of the courses could take care of some basic pre-reqs. I'm thinking we could offer 2 summer sessions that are 3-4 weeks in length each...and we could charge $150 or so per course or something.

I don't know, but I've been surfing through some of these online school catalogs and truthfully the offerings don't seem that sophisticated...and the courses seem to range from $250 on the low end to well over $1000 (Stanford online HS) for a SINGLE class!

I know there is an acquired skill set associated with teaching online, but offering NAIS online summer classes would give some of our teachers the opportunity to cut their teeth a bit with online instruction in a low-pressure environment.

Any thoughts?? How about a summer 2009 ISED VCDS?? (Matt Montagne)

•I've been thinking quite a bit about the VCDS idea. I believe there is some real potential. My inclination would be to create a virtual school that could flexibly adjust to provide educational services desired by independent schools. Disruptive Innovation Theory (DIT) predicts that the first markets disruptive innovators target rarely turn out to be the markets that eventually develop, so it would be important for our VCDS to take an exploratory approach.

Here are some additional thoughts I've had on the subject.


I'm fascinated by the idea of starting a virtual school and would be happy to work with others to develop the idea. (Fred Bartels)