Why REEP?

As a successful educator, you’ve made significant gains in your classroom, developed crucial academic skills and inspired lives. But is it enough? If we want to change the lives of all students, we need excellent instructional leaders to become excellent school leaders.  We need people who can build a culture of achievement in the whole organization.
 
At REEP, we provide outstanding educators the tools and strategic thinking they need to lead high-performing schools.  We believe that business training, coupled with our innovative education entrepreneurship summer institute, is the best way to prepare educators to become excellent school leaders.

• Build the skills leaders need…To run an effective, innovative school: strategic thinking, managing teams, creating a high performance culture, rewarding success, evaluating budgets, marketing your school, and using data to drive results.
  
  
• Learn from the best practices of successful companies and non-profits, as well as successful district and charter school leaders. 
• Develop your strategic frameworks—the kind of critical thinking you’ll need to approach the unique problems in your school. 
  
  
• Explore the possibilities…For education reform
  
  
  • REEP is more than just an MBA, business training program, or principal certification program.  It’s a forum for change agents and entrepreneurs to challenge each other, incubate ideas, and develop solutions for actionable reform in the city that is ground zero for education reform.
  • REEP is an opportunity to ask: What is a leader?  How do I build an innovative school?  What are the possibilities outside the box?
    
    
• Make connections with a supportive network…Of inspiring, reform-minded colleagues and mentors in Houston.
  
  
  • Learn from renowned scholars in management and education, from Harvard Business School professors to leading practitioners and policy makers. The instructors will be an incredible resource, one that you won’t find in one single program anywhere else.
  • Gain new perspectives from the energy traders, operations specialists, and aspiring CEOS in your business classes.
  • Exchange insights with a select group of results-driven, entrepreneurial educators who are deeply committed to student success.  Connect theory to practice, share experiences, and find thought partners to help you in your career.
    
    
• Immerse yourself in the vibrant education reform community…At Rice University and in Houston, Texas.
  
  
  • Houston truly is at the heart of education reform in the United States.
    • Throughout its many independent school districts, there is great momentum around accountability, choice, and high quality human capital.  There truly is an environment galvanized for systemic reform.  
    • Two nationally-acclaimed, highly successful charter schools, KIPP and YES Prep, were started and are thriving in Houston.
  • Rice University is highly committed to K-12 education initiatives, and is the only business school to offer a school leader preparation program.
  • As a global city with a diverse population and leading centers of business, Houston is a city where entrepreneurism flourishes.
    
    
• Earn either a valuable degree or Executive Business Certificate…From a world-class business school, with the opportunity for full tuition reimbursement 
  
  

  The Jones School of Business at Rice University is:

  • Top 25 in the U.S.: The Economist 2008
  • Best in Texas: The 2009 Economist ranks the Jones School 1st in the Southwest
  • Top in Research: The Financial Times 2009 Global MBA survey ranked the Rice MBA Full-Time program 20th worldwide in faculty research.
  • Entrepreneurship: The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine recognized the Jones School as a top entrepreneurial graduate school in Texas.
  • Diversity Recognition: Expansión 2009 ranked the Rice MBA Full-Time program 14th in the U.S. and 26th globally.

For more information about the Jones School’s MBA for Professionals program, click here.

• Additionally, you’ll have the opportunity to receive your degree for free.  REEP offers tuition reimbursement if you take on a leadership position in  Houston-area public schools.  If you serve for five years, your tuition will be fully refunded.