What’s the ROI of a Healthcare Technology Startup Seeded with Your Tax Dollars?

The founders of No Gadget Too Complicated, LLC

I recently started working on a video about a new device that could help millions of patients confined to hospital beds by preventing the formation of pressure ulcers, more commonly known as bedsores. During the taping, I met and interviewed the four co-founders of the company behind the invention, No Gadget Too Complicated, LLC.

I can hear what you're thinking. "Adam’s producing one of those pharmaceutical or medical training videos he takes on to pay the bills when he's not working on cool stories about public education."

Nope.

"Well, surely Adam was at one of those neat e-patient conferences where they talk about all the latest innovations in Health 2.0 and online patient communities."

Wrong again.

On location at High Point Regional High School

I was actually on assignment for Classroom Close-up, NJ doing another story about the great things happening in New Jersey's public schools. This time I was at High Point Regional High School in Sussex and the four partners were all under the age of 20 (two of them still in high school). The students designed the device as part of a high school engineering project and are currently seeking a patent for their invention.

The device, known as the Pressure Sore Relief System (PSRS), uses sensors and special motors placed under a mattress to stimulate blood flow to different parts of a patient's body. PSRS has several advantages over other systems currently used to prevent bedsores, some of which still rely on nurses to physically move patients or simply work on timed intervals with no intelligence behind them. PSRS is also cost effective because it can be used with a standard hospital bed mattress.

After the project took first place in the electronic research and experimentation category at the 2009 National Technology Student Association Conference, the students were encouraged to patent their device by one of the judges who since has mentored the group and donated to their fledgling company. The students have also received guidance and help from their teachers, the community, and local legislators.

I think this story is just another example of how much public education has intensified in the last few decades. The engineering program at High Point is impressive and is providing students with a huge head start on their careers. Think about it, here are four teenagers that are on the verge of patenting a medical device. Their success and subsequent journey has also influenced High Point’s curriculum as the school plans to add lessons about business development and the patent process to guide future students that find themselves in similar positions.

I probably won't touch on this angle in the show, but another important theme in this story is the selflessness it takes to be a teacher. How many future business ventures will the faculty I interviewed at High Point directly or indirectly contribute to? No doubt many, and I know that none of the teachers or the school will try to claim a stake in those achievements or any subsequent financial rewards. Even when they put in hours of their own personal time and energy to help students achieve that success. Selflessness just comes with the territory when you're a teacher. (Just be clear, the school will brag to the world and hang plaques everywhere, but it will always be about the students.)

You could say that's not much different than the corporate world. Smart managers give the credit to the team. Sure they do, but the managers usually take home the fat checks and the companies take home the fatter profits. Of course, now that I've said that, I'm a little worried that some clever education reformer will demand schools like High Point cling to IP rights so the profits from student inventions can be used to offset property taxes.

I generally think that trying to treat education as a business is a flawed concept. However, with all the recent debate about how to best evaluate teacher effectiveness, maybe what we really need is to develop some kind of formula that can measure the true ROI of teachers? Do they have a standardized test that measures regional economic impact, new business developments, and relative health of a population?

What do you think? What other variables would we need to include in a teacher ROI formula? Would you support public schools profiting from the work of students if it meant lower taxes?

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If you're interested in public education, visit the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! To find out where I'm headed next, subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

I Wonder How Much 2,500 People Weigh?

Rob Causton looks like a gym teacher. I mean, he's got it all down. The shorts. The whistle. The commanding presence. He looks strong.

Archers at Oxford Central School.

At least that was my initial impression when I met him last month while covering a story for Classroom Close-up, NJ. The story (airing next season) is about the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) which helps bring the sport of target archery to millions of students in schools across the United States by providing a detailed curriculum, training to teachers, and affordable access to equipment.

More specifically, the story is about the archery program at Oxford Central School where Rob teaches. Oxford was able to start its archery program with grant assistance from the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife that helped to purchase the equipment. Now, in addition to giving every student in grades 4 through 8 a chance to learn the sport, Oxford boasts an archery team that recently won its fifth consecutive state title.

But before I go any further, let me tell you a bit about Oxford. It's a pretty small town. According to the 2010 census, the population is about 2,500 people. Oxford Central is the only elementary school in the district teaching about 300 students in grades K thru 8. Correction, it's the only school in the district period. Oxford doesn't have its own high school so students from Oxford go on to attend a regional high school or a private school.

The "Drive for Five"

Now, I'm not here to knock sending/receiving relationships, it's what small towns all over NJ do to make their school budgets work. However, I do think every town likes to have something to call its own. To "put-it-on-the-map" so to speak. In many places, that ends up being the local high school sports teams. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the Blue Streaks have a ton of fans in Oxford, but there's something different about having your town's name on the uniform.

So it was really wasn't that surprising to learn how much the people of Oxford love their five-time champion middle school archery team. It's the only game in town. One of the great stories I heard was about the return from their first trip to nationals, when their late night bus pulled into Oxford. Not only were they met by parents and families, they were met with a police and fire department escort.

What else did I witness in Oxford? 

I saw middle schoolers shooting bows and arrows with amazing accuracy. An archery scrimmage with a visiting school. A shoot-off to decide both the individual male and female state champions... with all five participants from Oxford. Lot's of awesome "thrill of victory" stuff.

Shoot-off in Oxford.

I also learned how Rob was able to bring a sport to his school that everyone gets to be a part of regardless of physical ability. I watched Rob working with a visually impaired student so that she could target shoot right alongside her classmates (and in case anyone is wondering, the student can hit a bullseye). I heard about higher student test scores related to the concentration skills students develop through archery. I talked with another student whose best memory wasn't her team's state titles, trips to nationals, or her own individual success, it was seeing her dad (also a team coach) on the sidelines watching her compete. I saw alumni, now in high school, returning to cheer for their team along with parents and teachers in the stands.

So I think my initial impression was pretty accurate. Rob Causton is strong.

He's a strong teacher who's mastered the art of teaching to the point that he can use it to lift up a student, a class, and an entire school. With the help of his students and colleagues, he's even able to lift up an entire town.

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If you're interested in New Jersey's public schools, visit the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! To find out where I'm headed next, feel free to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.

This Post Will Not Be Written in Trisyllabic Meter

Last week, you probably had at least one friend who swapped out his or her profile picture for an image of the The Cat in the Hat. Maybe they even started tweeting end rhymes in trisyllabic meter. If I had to guess, those friends are probably teachers.

Guest reader, Dr. Lesley Morrow, visits Bradley Elementary Shool in Asbury Park, NJ for Read Across America

March 2 was Dr. Seuss's birthday which is the date NEA chose to coincide with Read Across America, an annual reading and motivation awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading.

Read Across America is a pretty big deal and Classroom Close-up, NJ covers the event at one or more schools every year. So last week, I headed down the shore to check out the festivities at Bradley Elementary School in Asbury Park. Amid a seaof red and white striped hats, a rally of guest readers and educators had no problem getting the students excited about reading.

I'm not going go on and on about the importance of developing early reading skills. You can Google up all the details later if you want, but the summary is this:

A child that isn't reading at level by fourth grade, probably never will. This will greatly reduce the odds of that child achieving a successful and happy life.

Story book village was just one of the fun activities going on at Bradley E.S. last week.

A few weeks ago, I was feeling a bit guilty about not always teaching while I read with my kids. Last week I sat across from a teacher whose voice cracked a little when he told me about children who had never had a book read to them at home. About children that had no books at home. About children who couldn't name a favorite book.

Now if that sounds like some kind of attempt to put blame on parents for struggling schools, believe me it's not. I don't know every family's situation and Asbury Park is a complicated place faced with a lot of challenges. It was what I saw in the face of some of those challenges that really stuck with me.

I like to ask about the schools I visit on location. How old is this building? How many elementary schools do you have? How many kids in this school? I'm not keeping a record, I'm just curious. It was during one of these casual chats near the end of last week's shoot that I learned that the district was in the midst of deciding whether or not to close one of it's three elementary schools,  Barack H. Obama Elementary School, the first school named after the current president. The final decision, whether it's closure or reorganization will have a tremendous impact on the students, the staff, and community.

I've never worked in a school, but I do know from my own experiences what it's like when a company reorganizes, closes its offices, and let's people go. What happens when they move the cheese all over the place. The mice run around like crazy. They  freak out. They get distracted. Things don't get done or at least they don't get done well. Last week at Bradley, I never would have known anything like this was going on. All I saw was educators getting kids excited about reading and a community proud of their school.

Who doesn't?

I try hard not to delve too deeply into the politics of public education when I write about Classroom Close-up. It's not what the show is about. But this simple little story about a reading celebration suddenly has my mind turning about things like the value of programs such as Head Start and current socioeconomic policies. Thinking crazy ideas like maybe it would be better to cut out twelfth grade so we could spend that money on universal preschool. That maybe if we stopped calling it "pre" school, people wouldn't devalue it so much. I mean, when my four-year-old and I talk about it, we just call it "school" because that's what it is.

Before I started this post, I hunted around for some memorable Dr. Seuss quotes to sprinkle around. This was one of the first I found:

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple." 

"Great!" I thought. "I can definitely make this work."

Then I realized that in this case, Dr. Seuss was only right about the complicated part.

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If you're interested in New Jersey's public schools, please head on over to the Classroom Close-up, NJ Facebook page and click the 'Like' button! You can also follow the show on Twitter.  And to find out where I'm headed next, feel free to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter.