An Unlikely Collaboration Prepares Leaders in the Business of Education
Photo by Farrin Abbott / Stanford News
Stanford’s two-year joint MA/MBA program melds the interconnected worlds of business and education, giving students insights into both—and valuable credentials when they graduate.
It’s been more than 50 years since Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Graduate School of Education first came together to establish a joint master’s degree, one that takes no longer than the usual two-year MBA program but grants both an MA and an MBA. The program — which has students taking a full course load at both schools, plus a summer internship or other independent study — has evolved over the decades as both fields have transformed.
“The story of this program is really one of persistence and change,” said Michael Kirst, a professor emeritus at Stanford GSE and former professor (by courtesy) at Stanford GSB, who oversaw the launch of the program in 1969 and went on to direct it for more than 30 years. “It took a lot of will on the part of the two schools to make it happen in the first place — and to make changes as the field morphed, and as students’ interests evolved. And it’s still flourishing.”
“Not a Lot of Affinity”
Launching the program in 1969 required a collaboration of a sort that’s exceedingly rare to this day, Kirst said.
“There’s typically not a lot of affinity and interaction between education and business schools,” he said. “Ed schools often have reservations about business and its profit-making motives, and business schools have reservations about the quality of education schools. There haven’t traditionally been very close ties between the two, and generally that’s still the case.”
For Stanford GSB, a stronger connection with the education school “fit into where they were going,” said Kirst. “And building a program with the business school really expanded what we were able to provide on our own.”
Combining Business Acumen with Education’s Technical Core
With both schools on board, the joint degree program launched in 1969, and Kirst secured funding from the U.S. Department of Education and the Ford Foundation to provide full scholarships for applicants who enrolled. Initially a master’s in educational administration (MEA), the program was designed mainly to prepare high-level administrators at large urban school systems and universities. But it was soon changed to an MA Education/MBA, a more recognizable set of credentials that became increasingly attractive as business opportunities in the education sector swelled.
Charter schools, foundations, venture capital firms, educational startups — “all of a sudden, the market really opened up,” says Kirst. “If [employers] could get someone with an MBA and an MA in education, that was gold.”
More Joint Ventures
The two schools have since partnered on other programs, including Stanford EdLEADers, a professional certificate program for K–12 district administrators, and the Stanford Educational Leaders Initiative, which focuses on professional development programming for community college leaders. The GSE has also developed a number of initiatives to build stronger connections between its education scholars and industry.
Today, the joint MA Education and MBA degree — informally dubbed “mamba” — is the GSE’s largest joint degree program, with some 20 students on average enrolling each year.
Some students have already worked directly in education when they enroll, but many come with other backgrounds, said Geoffrey Cox, director of the MA/MBA program at the GSE. “Some have done consulting,” he says. “Many come from families where maybe a parent was an educator, and they grew up with a passion for it. They have a strong commitment to improve education, and they see market-oriented approaches as being part of the mix.”
Read the full, original story to learn more about Stanford’s joint MA Education/MBA program.
