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Andrea Silbert named President of Eos Foundation

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BOSTON:  The Eos Foundation today announced that it has hired Andrea Silbert to become its first President, to lead it in its expansion efforts to become one of the pre-eminent philanthropic players in the fight to alleviate poverty in Boston’s inner-city. 

“I have spent much of my career in poverty alleviation and economic justice,” said Silbert. “This presents me with a wonderful opportunity as a social entrepreneur to leverage my past work at the Center for Women & Enterprise.”

The Eos Foundation, currently a $25 million foundation, expects to add significantly to its endowment in the next few years and hired Silbert to chart its Boston efforts.  In hiring Silbert, it also hopes to serve as a catalyst to bring other foundations and successful entrepreneurs to the table in fighting poverty.  One of the first projects the Eos Foundation will undertake under Silbert’s leadership is a feasibility study to consider replicating the model of the Robin Hood Foundation in New York City.  Robin Hood, one of the fastest growing philanthropies in the country, is a model of “engaged philanthropy” whereby it takes a hedge fund approach to developing a portfolio of community-based organizations that it supports in its efforts to fight poverty in New York City.  In 2006, Robin Hood invested $140 million dollars in 200 charities.

Facts on Andrea Silbert

Andrea Silbert is the co-founder and former CEO of the Center for Women & Enterprise which began in Roxbury and expanded to Worcester and Providence, Rhode Island.  Today the Center is one of the largest women’s business centers in the county.  Silbert was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor in the recent Democratic Primary.  She lives in Harwich, Massachusetts with her husband Craig Caldwell and their three children. For more information, visit www.AndreaSilbert.com.

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  1. One of the first projects the Eos Foundation will undertake under Silbert’s leadership is a feasibility study to consider replicating the model of the Robin Hood Foundation in New York City.

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    Robin Hood Foundation Education funding  Does anyone sense a common theme?

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    Achievement First
    Operates two charter schools in Brooklyn (eventually K-12) and will open two schools during fall 2006, all emphasizing sophisticated tools for student assessment.

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    Beginning With Children Foundation, Inc.
    Runs two charter schools in Brooklyn-an elementary school and one of the first kindergarten-through-eighth grade charters in the state.

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    Bronx Charter School for Excellence
    Educates elementary school students in the Bronx by relying on longer school days and longer school year to extend classroom time by 50 percent.

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    Bronx Preparatory Charter School
    Operates a middle school and high school in a very poor performing school district, enabling students to take Regents exams up to two years early.

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    Democracy Preparatory Charter School
    Opens in fall 2006 to offer 6th graders (expanding through 12th graders) an extended-day and extended-year program that will feature competitive debating.

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    Future Leaders Institute
    Educates students in a kindergarten-8th grade charter school that features an intensive high school placement program.

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    Harlem Day Charter School
    Brings all of its elementary-school students up to grade level in reading and math in a small-school setting with a low student-to-teacher ratio.

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    iMentor
    Brings its mentoring via e-mail to students at Bronx Preparatory Charter School, focusing on preparing students to apply and enroll in college.

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    KIPP
    Operates four charter middle schools in New York City, regularly sending graduates to private boarding schools.

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    Lighthouse Academies
    Runs a charter school in the Bronx for elementary-school students that injects art into its rigorous, skills-based curriculum.

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    New York City Center for Charter School Excellence
    Supports charter schools with planning grants and technical support.

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    Opportunity Charter School
    Educates middle-school students, many in special education, who arrive reading three to five years behind grade level.

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    Teach for America
    Recruits and trains 50 recent college graduates a year to teach in charter schools funded by Robin Hood.

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    Uncommon Schools
    Manages three charter schools in Brooklyn, with the goal of developing best practices for charter-management organizations that oversee multiple charter schools.

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    Wildcat Service Corporation
    Runs a charter high school for students who have dropped-out or been expelled from regular schools-combining coursework with paid internships.

    • but the real question is whether these NYC charters have been successful or not. If so, why not study this model?

      • Hoya:

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        While I agree with the general point that the thread should be more “Hooray for Andrea, who will be continuing her dedication to helping the least fortunate” (What’s Deb Goldberg up to these days?), I thought I’d respond to your question. 

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        The cover story of the NY Times Magazine article from a couple weeks ago.  9 pages long.  In the education world, it’s been the most lauded and cited article of the year. 

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        Any BMGer who follows education at all will enjoy it. 

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        Relevance: starting on page 3, the writer profiles a few of the charter schools Pablo mentions – KIPP and Amistad/Achievement First – and describes how ALMOST nobody really questions anymore that these schools are amazing in driving minority student achievement through the roof. 

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        In short, to answer your question, yes these schools have been effective. 

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        For a long time, the teachers unions, like Pablo, have argued that the massive improvements were a mirage. 

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        However, more recently, even many union leaders are conceding the excellence of these schools.  Their new take — which I think is reasonable — is the degree to which these schools might be replicated since they rely on unusually dedicated teachers working crazy hours. 

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        For example, the NY Teachers Union, which has blocked charter expansion in NYC, has this take: 

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        So with what some charter schools, like KIPP, have shown us can be done, society has some choices to make. If we just want to pay lip service to the goals of NCLB without shelling out real money, we can allow charter schools to continue as exemplary but limited, non-unionized incubators of effective education strategies, and then continue to blame the teachers and their unions for preventing poor, black children from getting a good education. That’s the road many of those on the right have chosen because it kills several birds with one stone: it keeps taxes low and promotes their anti-union agenda.

        On the other hand, if we are truly committed to giving all our kids a decent education, we can make the major investment necessary to take those strategies to scale so we might actually have a chance of closing the gap by 2014 (a la NCLB) or even 2020.

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        I don’t fully agree with this analysis – not sure Bill Clinton created 3,000 charter schools b/c he wanted to “blame unions”, though I do agree that these schools (like mine) rely on workaholic, cherry-picked teachers. 

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        But the point is that they even union officials now are more likely to concede that standout, jaw-droppingly good inner-city schools do exist, and they are quite likely to be charters. 

    • Some of us Silbert supporters may just be interested in knowing what Andrea is up to.  It certainly is your prerogative to be an idiot and turn this thread into a anti-charter school rant.  Buy your myopic world view, which apparently begins and ends with the concept of charter schools, ignores the breath and depth of the Robin Hood Foundation’s mission.

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      The primary was almost three months ago.  We won the general election!  Stop stressing out about charter schools for at least today.  Just let a few folks catch up on what people are doing without being an… 

      • I don’t know anything about  the Eos foundation.  Who are these people?  I looked up their website, and got the barest of under construction pages.  Not much else on a Google search.

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        So I did look up the Robin Hood foundation.  Up front, lots of talk on the front page about fighting poverty.  Yeah, I would get out the credit card.  But a deeper look showed the education component to be a fundraising arm of the charter school industry, dumping lots of money into the charter schools and $0 into NYC public schools.

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        I don’t know what Ms. Silbert is planning to do with this Eos foundation, but I hope she is not setting up another organization that fronts as an anti-poverty organization but is really a funding mechanism for the charter school industry.

            • I gotta come to the defense of my fellow Silbert fan here.

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              This move proves to me one thing: Andrea Silbert did not want to have the LG job because she wanted good healthcare and a pension in 10 years.

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              She’s about creating impactful programs in underserved sectors. 

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              Boston is THE home of social entrepreneurism and venture philanthropy in America.  Many of the best programs in the country started or grew here (Jumpstart, New Profit, Greenlight Fund, Citizen Schools, CityYear, YearUp, Room to Grow, Horizons, Dimock, and on and on…).  And people are starting new ones all the time.  We have outstanding cultural and social institutions that are so much a part of the fabric of the city that we forget that they are charities doing good, good work.  We’re lucky to have those, and lucky to live in a place that fosters them and recognizes their importance.

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              To me, after financial services, that sector is the most exciting one in downtown Boston.  Stuff we do here makes huge differences across the country.

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              So, instead of taking the easy road to hackdom post-primary, she’s going to be following the model of someone I think we all know: Bill Clinton.  He’s arguably done more good post-presidency than during.  The power to change the world is facilitated by government, but implemented by the private sector. 

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              Good luck to Andrea as she goes out and makes things better.

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