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Educators at Zeke Vandehoek’s New York City public charter school don’t have the typical job description.

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Zeke Vanderhoek:

Zeke is the founder and chairman of Manhattan GMAT, a national GMAT test-preparation company. The company employs over 100 administrative and instructional staff, has classroom centers in 7 major US cities, while serving over 6000 students in 2008. Zeke began his educational career as a 6th and 8th grade teacher at I.S. 90, a public middle school in Washington Heights, New York City. Zeke has a B.A. from Yale University and a Masters in Philosophy & Education from Teachers College at Columbia University.

In January 2007, Zeke stepped down as CEO of Manhattan GMAT and began the process of founding The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School, a 480-seat public middle school which will serve at-risk student in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. TEP was granted a 5-year charter by New York State in January 2008. In his spare time, Zeke plays piano and guitar and eats almond croissants at his local bakery. He currently lives in Harlem with his wife Stephanie and daughter Ella.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: How did you transition from teacher to administrator?

Zeke Vanderhoek: Well I don’t view the role of principals purely administrative. I also view it as the role of permanent substitute so I actually get to teach in all classrooms and I don’t think I’ll be happy if it was simply an administrative role. My hope is to be in classrooms a lot, helping teachers, providing feedback, teaching myself so I’m not that daunted by the fact that, “Oh, now I’m going into administrative role.” Because I don’t really view it completely in that way.

Question: How will Equity Project teachers balance their roles?

Zeke Vanderhoek: We’ve been very careful about planning a teacher’s day so that it’s not overwhelming so that’s actually more sustainable than what I experienced when I was teaching sixth grade and teaching four subjects and doing an after school activity etcetera. So, we’ve done few things. One, every teacher at the school only teaches one subject to one grade so they really do have to prepare one thing. If I’m the fifth grade math teacher I teach fifth grade math to four different groups of kids but only have to prepare that one subject. In terms of taking on an outside role every teacher takes on one and only one role that would normally be filled by an administrator. An example is one teacher on each grade level would be the director of assessment. Another example, one teacher on each grade level would be the director of parent involvement and attendance and so one of the ideas behind this is not only that of course we’re eliminating a bunch of administrative who cost money but also that it makes more sense for kids especially kids who are struggling to have fewer points of contact. If a kid is struggling and there’s a parent coordinator, there is an assistant principal, there is a dean, there’s the principal, there’s a social worker, there’s a guidance counselor, they’re are all the student’s teachers. It’s very hard to solve that problem where as if you sort of limit it to maybe the student’s teacher, a social worker and a principal there’s more effective communication in general and there are more pieces that are fit together as opposed to everybody having a tiny little piece which makes it very challenging to solve whatever the issue is.