What If Schools Ran Like Startups? Rethinking Education Through an Entrepreneurial Lens

March 2025 - There’s a question that keeps pulling at me; one that’s not just theoretical, but deeply practical: What if schools, especially charter schools, ran more like entrepreneurial companies? I don’t mean adding more spreadsheets or corporate jargon. I mean what if we brought the best of entrepreneurial thinking such as clarity, adaptability, trust, creativity, and aligned autonomy, into the way we structure and lead schools?

Having worked in both education and human services, I’ve seen what happens when committed people are doing important work without the structure to support them. I’ve also experienced how powerful it can be when an organization operates with clarity, hires people who align with its values and vision, and helps every team member understand and own their role in advancing that mission. That’s why, when the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) was introduced to our leadership team at Rudolph Community and Care, I took the lead in bringing it to life.

EOS is about efficiency, consistency, and discipline in how we manage the business side of things (and like it or not, schools are businesses). One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen in education is the tendency to overcomplicate. We end up micromanaging every detail or layering initiative upon initiative with no real system for authentic accountability. EOS brings simplicity and just enough structure to provide clarity while giving educators room to be creative, thoughtful, and professional in how they approach their work with students. It’s built on a simple but powerful concept: when you get the right people in the right seats, those who align with your values and GWC (Get it, Want it, Capacity to do it), you can stop managing every step and start trusting the process.

Compliance Should Be Designed, Not Assumed

Compliance is a reality in both education and human services. Whether it's IEP regulations or licensure audits, the stakes are high. But here's the problem: most schools don’t design for compliance; they hope for it. It's left to the school leader to chase signatures, ensure timelines, and track fidelity, or worse, it's silently expected that everyone will just keep track of everything. That’s a recipe for burnout and missed details.

What if, instead, we reimagined the Executive Director or Superintendent role through the lens of EOS and explicitly treated it as the Integrator function in the school system? In many charter schools, the board often acts as the Visionary, setting bold goals and defining the mission. But the day-to-day leadership requires someone who can align the moving parts, hold accountability, and keep the team focused on execution. That's the role of the Integrator in EOS and it’s often assumed, but rarely defined as such, in education.

In this model, the Integrator drives accountability, manages cross-functional priorities, and ensures that the big picture translates into coordinated daily action. Rather than assigning compliance, operations, and problem-solving to scattered administrators, or worse, to no one at all, this leader owns the structure. At Rudolph Community and Care, when EOS was introduced, it allowed each department to function more autonomously while still working toward shared priorities and common company goals.

In schools, this could look like the Executive Director explicitly stepping into the Integrator seat, or it could be supported by a Director of Operations or Compliance, someone tasked with overseeing communication flow, follow-through, and scorecard indicators across the site. It’s not about consolidating power. It’s about creating a system in which nothing gets lost, and everyone can focus on what they do best.

EOS and PLC: Complementary Models That Deserve Each Other

While EOS brings structure to the organization, I’ve also been deeply influenced by the work of Rick DuFour and the Professional Learning Community (PLC) model. In many ways, the PLC framework was one of my earliest introductions to the power of collaborative culture. The beauty of PLCs lies in their simplicity: a shared vision, a commitment to learning for all, and a relentless focus on results.

In practice, both EOS and PLCs aim to create cultures of ownership, shared responsibility, and mission alignment. They both value data, communication, and empowerment. But they come at it from slightly different angles.

PLCs are rooted in instructional practice. They ask the questions: What do we want students to learn? How will we know if they’ve learned it? What will we do if they haven’t? EOS, on the other hand, asks: How do we ensure the people, systems, and processes are aligned to make that learning possible?

At first glance, EOS might seem overly corporate for a school. But when I implemented it in human services and began adapting it to education, it was never about turning staff into numbers. It was about giving people the clarity they deserve. Educators, like all professionals, do their best work when they know where the organization is going and how they fit into that journey.

When I led a school transformation that dramatically improved graduation rates and restored community trust, we didn’t have EOS in place, but can you imagine what could have happened if we did?! The teachers had dedicated PLC time to reflect on student work, and we worked hard to maintain systems for feedback loops, communication, and alignment. But much of it relied on personal effort and informal systems. EOS would have given us the tools to hardwire that alignment of clear goals and a shared vision across the organization. PLCs ensured our students remained the heart of the work, and with EOS, we could have built the kind of operational clarity that would have made that heartbeat even stronger.

The Six Key Components of EOS in Schools

EOS isn’t just a management tool, it’s a framework that, when applied to education, creates sustainable, empowered environments. Here’s how the six key components apply:

1. Vision

Everyone in the school, from leadership to paraprofessionals, to parents and families knows where the school is going and how their work connects to that vision. It's not a mission statement in a drawer. It's alive, visible, and revisited often. For example, when we restructured our transition program, we brought every stakeholder into that conversation. That kind of shared vision turns resistance into ownership.

2. People

Great outcomes depend on people being in roles where they thrive. EOS uses the "right person, right seat" principle, and in schools, that means hiring and retaining team members who not only meet qualifications but share your belief in possibility. I’ve built teams this way, and the difference is night and day. Retention goes up, and staff culture becomes contagious.

3. Data

Weekly scorecards don’t just belong in the business world. In schools, we can track metrics like IEP goal progress, reading growth, behavioral referrals, or family engagement. The key is keeping it simple and actionable. At RCC, we tracked retention, hiring speed, and training completion. In a school, this could look like a 10-point weekly review that keeps the pulse of the building without overwhelming it.

4. Issues

Entrepreneurial schools don’t avoid problems; they surface and solve them early. EOS teaches teams to identify root causes and prioritize what truly matters. In a school using restorative practices or Responsive Classroom, this fits perfectly. You’re already asking, "What’s beneath this behavior?" EOS helps ask, "What’s beneath this system breakdown?"

5. Process

One of the most overlooked components in education. Schools often have strong practices but poor documentation of essential organization processes. EOS pushes you to clearly outline your "way of doing things," whether it’s onboarding new staff, documenting accommodations, or holding family meetings. This clarity is key to sustainability and alignment.

6. Traction

This is where it all comes together. Quarterly "Rocks" (priority goals) and weekly Level 10 meetings ensure the vision isn’t just talked about — it’s acted on. When I brought this to my leadership team, meetings became something we looked forward to. They gave us space to align, track progress, and build trust. In schools, Rocks could be focused on behavior support systems, literacy intervention, or reducing referral response times.

Putting It All Together

DuFour taught us that schools should be communities of continuous learning. EOS reminds us that they also need to be organized to support that learning.

The PLC model is the heart. EOS is the spine. When used together, you create a school that not only dreams big, but delivers.

And isn’t that what our students and staff deserve? Let’s reimagine schools.

All content on this blog belongs to the author, Bert Strassburg. If you'd like to share, modify, or distribute anything, please reach out for written permission. Feel free to contact me with any questions at:  bert.strassburg@gmail.com.