Getting Real About ROI in Education

Policy-makers, funders and researchers are increasingly focused on better understanding the programs that help their participants build stronger careers and better lives. But determining the return on investment of these programs is harder than it sounds. Do we measure higher earnings,job stability, upward mobility over time? What do we do when data is fragmented or plays out over many years? And how do we assign credit when the participants, coaching, credentials, and the economy itself all shape outcomes?

Please join us for an invite-only discussion with leaders from three different perspectives who are tackling these questions and the practical challenges of measuring what works.

Panelists:

Ira Handler is the Founding Partner and former Chief Investment Officer of New Holland Capital, a New York–based investment firm. Now focused on philanthropy and impact investing, he brings a data-driven approach to measuring ROI in education and social mobility programs.

Stig Leschly is the founder and President of the Postsecondary Commission, a new accreditor of outcomes-focused and innovative colleges. Formerly, Stig was the CEO of Match Education, an education-related nonprofit that runs charter schools and trains teachers. Stig has been a Senior Lecturer teaching entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School on and off for more than 20 years. Early in his career, Stig was a high tech entrepreneur and an executive at Amazon.com.

Marty West is the Academic Dean and Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is Editor-in-Chief of Education Next and Deputy Director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard Kennedy School. His work focuses on K-12 education policy, how reforms affect student achievement and social-emotional development, and the intersection of political processes and education outcomes.

*Breakfast will be available.

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