Innovating Education: An Interview with James H. Shelton III - Page 3

Written by John Kim

I imagine that most of the things you’re going to be looking at will fall into that gray area, or do you believe that it will be fairly clear for you?

I think that my biggest challenge is that most things won’t be clear. The decision-making process will make it even more challenging.

So, you will be concentrating on these three categories?

Yes. And that’s both for strategic reasons as well as for purely operational reasons. One, $650 million is not that much money. Two, the broader the scope, the more difficult it is to compare. It’s hard enough to compare the apples to the apples, let alone to compare the apples to the oranges, pears, and grapes. The wider the spectrum I allow, the more of those comparisons we’re forced to do.

When you talk about scale, do you think in terms of districts, states, or types of students? How do you think about scale?

I think first of the numbers of high-needs students touched.

Regardless of geography? Regardless of organization?

Right. To be honest, there are some kinds of innovations that are boundary-neutral. There are other innovations that do have those boundaries; then, it becomes a consideration. But I tend to think in terms of the ability to touch as many students as possible, and, in particular, the students who have some kind of disadvantage.