BOOK REVIEW: Work Hard. Be Nice. by Jay Mathews
How the Founding of the KIP School Provides Lessons for Nonprofits
How can two young teachers, fresh off stints from Teach for America, create what has become one of the most successful models for a charter school in America? Work Hard. Be Nice. is the story of hard work, persistence, and above all, a deep-rooted commitment to helping kids in the face of an educational system that denies has written them off.
Since Red Rooster Group taken on the marketing of Child Development Center, a special needs school, and education is a particular interest of ours, I took a specific interest in this story, which combines the entrepreneurial drive with a mission-oriented passion.
A Story of Tenacity
The story starts with an unbridled belief in students’ ability to perform if given the right support. Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin take on the challenge of improving the test scores of the lowest performing minority students.
Modeling successful educators that they have the fortune to witness, they put their passion into action, dedicating long hours to refining their lessons, constantly talk to each other for feedback and support, and adapting their performance to improve their impact on a daily basis.
The book traces their struggle to recruit enough students to get their nascent program off the ground, their unyielding persistence in the face of educational bureaucracies, and their frustrations with staffing and their personal relationships as their grow their idea. Their hard work is rewarded with the opportunity to secure funding to develop the program in cities around the country.
Marketing Their Program
The central tenants of their program subverted the prevailing educational wisdom: High expectations for all students, a longer school day, a principal totally in charge, an emphasis on finding the best teachers, rewards for student success, close contact with parents, a focus on results and a commitment to preparing every child for a great high school, and even college.
To create a palatable message coalesced these ideas into what they dubbed the Five Pillars:
- High expectations
- Choice and commitment
- More time
- Power to lead
- Focus on results
Having a focused message and presenting it in a way that was easy to understand was essential in recruiting kids and parents, as well as getting the approval of school systems.
The Role of Branding
And branding played no small role in their success. As two young teachers, with no experience to trade on, they recognized the need early on to distinguish their fledgling program and establish credibility to develop their two-classroom program into a school. They hung a banner across the classroom reading “Welcome to Mr. Feinberg’s Fabulous, Fantastic Fifth-Grade Class.”
Knowing that names go a long way, they chose a unique name for their charter school experiment, calling it “Knowledge is Power,” referred to as the KIP School.
In addition, to smart naming, Mike and Dave employed other linguistic devices to help kids understand key concepts. One was a set of rules to guide students on a daily basis. They called these SLANT rules: Sit up straight, Look and listen, Ask questions, Nod your head, and Track the teacher.
Lessons for Nonprofits
So what lessons are there for nonprofits? From two kids who challenged the norm and came out on top, it is clear that bold solutions require audacious thinking. Mike and Dave were not looking for incremental improvements — they presented a new way to tackle a challenge that most people wanted to avoid. They personally invested themselves in addressing the problem and displayed a dedication to the mission at all costs – to the extent of visiting the homes of all the students to show the kids and their parents that they really care.
Their persistence was legendary. Instead of waiting for permission, or even asking for it, they went out of the way to demand and secure the classrooms, bus routes and resources they needed for their kids. This pro-active mentality, common in the entrepreneurial world, is a valuable lesson for nonprofits with a complacent corporate culture.
While Mike and Dave were largely alone in their crusade, they modeled their classroom activities from the best teachers. Fortunate to be across the hall from exceptionally talented teachers, they were smart enough to learn the techniques and enlist the support of others for help.
They also managed to make the right contacts leading to funding to grow their endeavors, and were smart enough to hire others in key positions. They realized that for their ideas to take hold on a national scale, they would need to build an organization that was beyond what they could accomplish on their own. In the end, their biggest lesson, was in knowing when to get out of their own way and pave the way for the success of the program.
