The mission of the Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) is to revitalize public education while reinventing professional education. CPRL conducts rigorous coursework, skills training, and research and consulting projects to ready talented graduate students for challenging twenty-first century careers. This work enhances the education sector’s capacity to improve the outcomes and life chances of all children.

This spring I took CPRL’s elective course called Public Sector Structural Change in K-12 Education. As part of this course, I enjoyed the opportunity to get hands-on consulting experience collaborating on a project for a new transdisciplinary higher education organization. Following the spring semester, I stayed on with CPRL as a Summer Associate and collaborated with fellow CPRL Summer Associates and Project Directors consulting on two education-focused projects. 

On one project, I worked with a Midwestern nonprofit place-based fund to assess the impact of its grant portfolio and school support strategy. I had the opportunity to facilitate workshops and group feedback sessions with the organization’s key stakeholders.

I also wrote a case study capturing the progress and achievements of a personalized learning nonprofit organization that received a grant from a New York foundation. As part of my research, I conducted interviews with the CEO and with executive directors of past partnership recipients to gather feedback on program successes and areas for future improvement.

This summer I had the opportunity to apply key concepts from my Operations Management, Managerial Statistics, and Public Sector Structural Change in K-12 Education courses. In addition to the consulting component of Public Sector Structural Change in K-12 Education, the lecture component focused on the study of P-12 organizational design, democratic accountability, and transformation. Throughout the course, we discussed and debated the merits of various organizational governance models, including the Evolutionary Learning model. The case studies from Operations Management prepared me well for those discussions and debates and the tools I developed this summer were grounded in the principles of Evolutionary Learning. The skills from Managerial Statistics were also useful as I worked to analyze student performance data and build a framework to measure ongoing school improvement efforts.

My primary challenge with my summer projects was to develop final work products that were satisfactory and suitable for all stakeholders. For both of my projects, my team’s final deliverables were intended for a wide range of stakeholders with varying short-term and long-term needs. My work required close collaboration with all stakeholders throughout the summer to ensure that all voices were heard and that our work aligned to stakeholder priorities.

As a Summer Associate juggling multiple projects, time-management was another challenge. CPRL staff were helpful in ensuring that Summer Associates were managing their time well and balancing the responsibilities of multiple projects. I was very impressed with how much both teams I worked on were able to accomplish over a ten-week timeframe, given our varying schedules and project commitments.

I appreciate all the support I received from the CPRL team this summer. The leadership team at CPRL did a wonderful job placing me on two projects that aligned to my interests in technology-enabled curricula, teacher development, and strategic planning. I especially enjoyed working with two CBS alums, Amanda Cahn and Art Benoit.

Between my spring consulting project and my summer work, I have now had the opportunity to work with three project directors at CPRL. It has been rewarding getting to collaborate with different project directors to see how each leader puts their own stamp on project management, while adhering to the high standards of work set at CPRL.

I look forward to continuing my collaboration with CPRL as a class TA this Fall. In this role I am eager to gain further project experience and take on more leadership roles in CPRL consulting projects, providing feedback to students on client-facing deliverables and collaborating directly with project directors and clients.