The Education Industry Group & EIA Release: The Education Industry, 2002-2012: The Era of Resilience

BOSTON - June 11, 2013 - PRLog -- Michael R. Sandler of the Education Industry Group (http://www.educationindustrygroup.com) and Steven Pines of the Education Industry Association (http://www.educationindustry.org/) are pleased to announce the release of The Education Industry, 2002-2012: The Era of Resilience, a white paper for the Education Industry Association. The Era of Resilience details the stories of the new generation of entrepreneurs who are exploring new business models and innovative applications in education.

“Documenting the history and future of social entrepreneurship in education is both a professional charge and a personal endeavor. I remain committed to answering the question: How could the strength of America’s strongest asset – private sector – contribute to the improvement of the country’s greatest need – education? I am grateful for passionate innovators – named and unnamed – who have brought this asset to bear to continue to improve the state of education and make the industry what it is today,” said Sandler.

The authors present the evolution of the education industry over the last 20 years as a trilogy. With the first two chapters behind us, this paper posits that we are about to embark on the third chapter, in which a sustainable and vibrant education industry will not only exist, but become truly vital and scalable.

The initial years of the industry were detailed in a 2002 EIA whitepaper, The Emerging Education Industry: The First Decade (http://www.educationindustry.org/assets/documents/Knowled...). Some of the pioneers of the industry continued to innovate and flourish in recent years while others faced insurmountable challenges. They were the visionaries who were prepared to pave the way to create opportunities for themselves and others.

The Education Industry: Era of Resilience endeavors to capture the stories of those entrepreneurs who embarked on a path driven by new business models and innovative applications of technology and the Internet, and certainly influenced by public dissatisfaction with our nation’s schools.

This chapter is titled The Era of Resilience because these challenges and obstacles required endurance on the part of the industry pioneers and provided new opportunities for the trailblazers that continue to influence the industry. Capital and funding models, the dot-com bust, and recession presented a variety of obstacles for industry players. This breed of trailblazers is committed to the long-term sustainability of the industry as its entrepreneurs and enterprises weathered the storm of trials and built a solid infrastructure of innovative solutions through business models that secured access to capital while providing positive outcomes for our nation’s students.

The challenge presented in The Era of Resilience is a call to action for established and new players in the education industry to unite and shape the next chapter of the education industry. It will be in this time period that its sustainability is bound to be tested.  Now more than ever, education entrepreneurs will be compelled to prove their outputs, outcomes, and accomplishments. Investors, philanthropists, government regulators, district and school leaders, and even parents and students will increasingly pressure companies operating in the education industry to present evidence of their effectiveness.

To read The Era of Resilience in its entirety, please visit: http://www.educationindustry.org/assets/documents/KnowledgeCenterDocs/the_education_industry-era_of_resilience.pdf

About the Author
Michael R. Sandler is Senior Advisor to The Parthenon Group (http://www.parthenon.com/), a global strategy consulting firm focused on education and based in Boston, MA. Sandler is a lifelong entrepreneur, who has built a successful career both in business and education. Sandler is also Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Education Industry Group (http://www.educationindustrygroup.com/), and authored the book, Social Entrepreneurship in Education: Private Ventures for the Public Good (http://www.socialentrepreneurshipineducation.com/).

About the Education Industry Association (EIA)
EIA (http://www.educationindustry.org/) serves as the leading voice for education entrepreneurs, advocating for the interests of businesses in the PreK – 12 market and serving as the knowledge center, which integrates best practices and research that raise student achievement through innovation and improvement strategies.