And the Most Overhyped Edu-Entrepreneur of the Moment Is...?
by Frederick M. Hess • Jun 10, 2011 at 10:22 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
 Print |  Send |  RSS |
ShareI'm up here today at UPenn's "NEST" gathering (Networking Ed Entrepreneurs for Social Transformation). Last night, after the opening dinner, a slew of interesting folks headed out for shop talk and Game 5 of Heat-Mavs. Given my knack for annoying my friends, I found myself wondering aloud about a question that a person of discretion really shouldn't ask at a gathering of entrepreneurs: namely, who's the most overhyped edu-entrepreneur of the moment?
Now, I always say that you can't much blame the hypee for being overhyped. Any smart entrepreneur is going to take advantage of opportunities to extend their work, so they're hardly to blame for taking advantage of a hype machine that's mostly the product of lazy journalists, fad-embracing reformers, thrill-seeking philanthropists, and wishful thinking. Nonetheless, the disappointing reality is how often we've taken terrific ideas and turned them into disappointments by blowing them up into fads.
Folks had various thoughts on the matter. But I won't put anyone else on the spot. Instead, for what it's worth,
