Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students Case Study Analysis & Solution

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Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students is a Harvard Business (HBR) Case Study on Strategy & Execution , Fern Fort University provides HBR case study assignment help for just $11. Our case solution is based on Case Study Method expertise & our global insights.

Strategy & Execution Case Study | Authors :: William F Meehan, Davina Drabkin

Case Study Description

During his second year as a high school teacher in South Carolina, Reid Saaris noticed that a highly academically capable student was not registered for advanced classes. The student was African American and Saaris observed that most African-American students at the school were enrolled in lower-level courses. As Saaris walked down the hallway, he could see "on one side a 12th grade English class playing an all-class game of hangman and half of the kids asleep with their teacher saying, 'Who wants to guess the next letter?' And on the other side, kids debating and discussing interesting literature and ideas about citizenship." He and the student went to the school office where Saaris switched the aspiring young man into advanced-level courses. The following year, Saaris was promoted to running the school's advanced programs. Inspired, he led an initiative to "find all the missing students" from the Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, meeting with every 10th grader at the school. The initiative had a stunning impact. Within one year, the school's AP and IB programs had doubled in size, with the number of African-American students in advanced classes tripling. At the same time, the success rate for all students on the AP and IB exams increased by 20 percent. This case recounts the subsequent path that Saaris followed to take his efforts to a national level. He established Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS) with the aim of closing the access gap to advanced courses for minority and low-income students. The case details the organization's outreach and application process as well as the successes that EOS achieved and the challenges that it faced. It culminates with the announcement of the Lead Higher Initiative for which EOS would dramatically increase the number of schools with which it partnered over the next three years. Students are asked to propose a growth strategy, consider whether EOS should modify its funding model, and articulate the messages and approaches it should employ to gain the attention of school districts.

Branding, Growth strategy, Race, Sales

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[10 Steps] Case Study Analysis & Solution

Step 1 - Reading up Harvard Business Review Fundamentals on the Strategy & Execution

Even before you start reading a business case study just make sure that you have brushed up the Harvard Business Review (HBR) fundamentals on the Strategy & Execution. Brushing up HBR fundamentals will provide a strong base for investigative reading. Often readers scan through the business case study without having a clear map in mind. This leads to unstructured learning process resulting in missed details and at worse wrong conclusions. Reading up the HBR fundamentals helps in sketching out business case study analysis and solution roadmap even before you start reading the case study. It also provides starting ideas as fundamentals often provide insight into some of the aspects that may not be covered in the business case study itself.

Step 2 - Reading the Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students HBR Case Study

To write an emphatic case study analysis and provide pragmatic and actionable solutions, you must have a strong grasps of the facts and the central problem of the HBR case study. Begin slowly - underline the details and sketch out the business case study description map. In some cases you will able to find the central problem in the beginning itself while in others it may be in the end in form of questions. Business case study paragraph by paragraph mapping will help you in organizing the information correctly and provide a clear guide to go back to the case study if you need further information.
My case study strategy involves -

• Marking out the protagonist and key players in the case study from the very start.
• Drawing a motivation chart of the key players and their priorities from the case study description.
• Refine the central problem the protagonist is facing in the case and how it relates to the HBR fundamentals on the topic.
• Evaluate each detail in the case study in light of the HBR case study analysis core ideas.

Step 3 - Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students Case Study Analysis

Once you are comfortable with the details and objective of the business case study proceed forward to put some details into the analysis template. You can do business case study analysis by following Fern Fort University step by step instructions -

• Company history is provided in the first half of the case. You can use this history to draw a growth path and illustrate vision, mission and strategic objectives of the organization. Often history is provided in the case not only to provide a background to the problem but also provide the scope of the solution that you can write for the case study.
• HBR case studies provide anecdotal instances from managers and employees in the organization to give a feel of real situation on the ground. Use these instances and opinions to mark out the organization's culture, its people priorities & inhibitions.
• Make a time line of the events and issues in the case study. Time line can provide the clue for the next step in organization's journey. Time line also provides an insight into the progressive challenges the company is facing in the case study.

Step 4 - SWOT Analysis of Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students

Once you finished the case analysis, time line of the events and other critical details. Focus on the following -

• Zero down on the central problem and two to five related problems in the case study.
• Do the SWOT analysis of the Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students . SWOT analysis is a strategic tool to map out the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats that a firm is facing.
• SWOT analysis and SWOT Matrix will help you to clearly mark out - Strengths Weakness Opportunities & Threats that the organization or manager is facing in the Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students
• SWOT analysis will also provide a priority list of problem to be solved.
• You can also do a weighted SWOT analysis of Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students HBR case study.

Step 5 - Porter 5 Forces / Strategic Analysis of Industry Analysis Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students

In our live classes we often come across business managers who pinpoint one problem in the case and build a case study analysis and solution around that singular point. Business environments are often complex and require holistic solutions. You should try to understand not only the organization but also the industry which the business operates in. Porter Five Forces is a strategic analysis tool that will help you in understanding the relative powers of the key players in the business case study and what sort of pragmatic and actionable case study solution is viable in the light of given facts.

Step 6 - PESTEL, PEST / STEP Analysis of Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students

Another way of understanding the external environment of the firm in Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students is to do a PESTEL - Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental & Legal analysis of the environment the firm operates in. You should make a list of factors that have significant impact on the organization and factors that drive growth in the industry. You can even identify the source of firm's competitive advantage based on PESTEL analysis and Organization's Core Competencies.

Step 7 - Organizing & Prioritizing the Analysis into Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students Case Study Solution

Once you have developed multipronged approach and work out various suggestions based on the strategic tools. The next step is organizing the solution based on the requirement of the case. You can use the following strategy to organize the findings and suggestions.

• Build a corporate level strategy - organizing your findings and recommendations in a way to answer the larger strategic objective of the firm. It include using the analysis to answer the company's vision, mission and key objectives , and how your suggestions will take the company to next level in achieving those goals.
• Business Unit Level Solution - The case study may put you in a position of a marketing manager of a small brand. So instead of providing recommendations for overall company you need to specify the marketing objectives of that particular brand. You have to recommend business unit level recommendations. The scope of the recommendations will be limited to the particular unit but you have to take care of the fact that your recommendations are don't directly contradict the company's overall strategy. For example you can recommend a low cost strategy but the company core competency is design differentiation.
• Case study solutions can also provide recommendation for the business manager or leader described in the business case study.

Step 8 -Implementation Framework

The goal of the business case study is not only to identify problems and recommend solutions but also to provide a framework to implement those case study solutions. Implementation framework differentiates good case study solutions from great case study solutions. If you able to provide a detailed implementation framework then you have successfully achieved the following objectives -

• Detailed understanding of the case,
• Clarity of HBR case study fundamentals,
• Analyzed case details based on those fundamentals and
• Developed an ability to prioritize recommendations based on probability of their successful implementation.

Implementation framework helps in weeding out non actionable recommendations, resulting in awesome Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students case study solution.

Step 9 - Take a Break

Once you finished the case study implementation framework. Take a small break, grab a cup of coffee or whatever you like, go for a walk or just shoot some hoops.

Step 10 - Critically Examine Equal Opportunity Schools: Finding the Missing Students case study solution

After refreshing your mind, read your case study solution critically. When we are writing case study solution we often have details on our screen as well as in our head. This leads to either missing details or poor sentence structures. Once refreshed go through the case solution again - improve sentence structures and grammar, double check the numbers provided in your analysis and question your recommendations. Be very slow with this process as rushing through it leads to missing key details. Once done it is time to hit the attach button.