Product details

A privately-funded, non-profit summer education enrichment program aimed at junior high school students takes root in San Francisco during the 1980s, pointing its students, including many from less-than-affluent backgrounds, toward good colleges and careers. In the late 1980s, however, Summerbridge is discovered by a major corporate donor, who believes strongly that the local program should be replicated across the US. This case focuses on a decision faced by the Summerbridge board of directors about the ground rules for such replication-specifically on the decision of whether to allow the program, founded as a partnership with a leading San Francisco private secondary school, to house new local chapters in public schools. In joining this question, the case allows for discussion of the issue of whether and how a small, non-profit should attempt to expand, as well as discussion of the relationship between paid staff and a board of directors. The B case describes events which occur after the Summerbridge board reluctantly allows expansion into one public school system and allows for evaluation of that decision.