Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Major philanthropic foundations have a prominent and controversial influence on democratic governance. In the education sector, in particular, the increased pace of grant-making towards K-12 issues at local, state, and national levels evidences the increasingly active and contentious role of philanthropy. Yet, little quantitative research addresses the influence of philanthropy on public schooling. In this paper, we provide evidence on the reach, causes, and consequences of philanthropy by examining the efforts by a major foundation to shape leadership in public education. In particular, we examine the Broad Foundation's leadership programs, which provide superintendents and other district leaders throughout the US with reform-minded training.

Our analyses rely on a novel data set which identifies participants in Broad leadership programs, their attributes such as demographic characteristics and employment spells, and the characteristics of their employers. We find evidence of substantial reach of the Broad superintendent-training program into large public school districts. Almost one-third of the largest 100 districts had hired a graduate from the Broad leadership program by 2015. During 2015, one out of every ten students in the largest 100 districts was served by a Broad superintendent, which was down from the high of 20% in 2012. We find that a substantial number of Broad superintendents have business or military experience, and that they have a relatively short average tenure of 3.5 years.

We also apply an event study framework to examine the dynamic effects of Broad-trained leadership. We find that districts that hired Broad superintendents already experienced comparatively large declines in white and black enrollment and substantial increases in charter penetration in the years prior to this hire. These district trends that precede the arrival of Broad superintendents continue during and after their tenure. That is, we do not find clear evidence that the Broad superintendents meaningfully influenced these prior trends. Taken together, the evidence suggests that Broad-trained leaders have taken leadership positions in many of the biggest school districts in the country but that these hires are more a reflection of the unique challenges these districts faced rather than a factor that influenced their key attributes.