John Katzman | |
---|---|
Born | |
Education | Birch Wathen School |
Alma mater | Princeton University (A.B.) |
Occupation(s) | CEO, The Noodle Companies |
Spouse | Alicia Ernst |
Children | Daniel and Lyra |
John Katzman (born October 10, 1959) is an American EdTech pioneer. He founded and ran Princeton Review, which assists students with their studies and career choices, and then founded and ran 2U and Noodle Partners, both of which use are tech-enabled service providers to universities. Katzman has also authored books on those subjects. [1] [2]
Katzman was born in New York City in 1959, and grew up there with brother Richard, and sister, Julie. Katzman went to Birch Wathen, a small independent school, from kindergarten through high school. He attended Princeton University, where he majored in electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) and then switched to the school of Architecture. He started tutoring in sophomore year to pay his expenses, and continued through college. [3] Katzman graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. in architecture in 1981 after completing a senior thesis titled "The Dead Tree Gives No Shelter." [4]
The Princeton Review (1981-2007)
Katzman was the co-founder of The Princeton Review, which initially taught SAT preparation to high-school students in New York City. [5] He started the company in 1981 shortly after leaving college, then partnered with Adam Robinson to develop it, and served as the company’s CEO until 2007. [6] He authored and coauthored a number of books for the company, including Cracking the SAT, a New York Times bestseller, [7] and created products and services in several media. [8]
2U (2008-2012)
In 2008, Katzman founded 2U, an educational technology company that partners with leading nonprofit colleges and universities, such as the University of Southern California, Georgetown University, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to offer online degree programs. [9] He served as the company’s CEO until January 2012. [10] [11] Katzman shifted to Executive Chairman in January 2012, and left in August to help build Noodle. Like The Princeton Review, 2U became a Russell 2000 company. [12]
Noodle (2010–present)
In 2010, Katzman created The Noodle Companies, a studio with multiple subsidiary, Noodle-branded education companies. [13] [14]
In 2016, he changed the focus of Noodle Partners, and became its full time CEO. Founded as an online program manager, Noodle Partners has evolved into a full-service strategy, marketing, and technical services provider to higher education. As of October 2023, it reported working with over 65 public and private universities [15] and has raised over $110 million through three rounds of financing. [10] [16]
Katzman has been involved in the founding of several other education companies, including Tutor.com, Student Advantage, and Eat New York, an early software-based restaurant guide. [17] He is an angel investor in two dozen education technology ventures, and has served on the boards or advisory boards of several others including the National Association of Independent Schools, the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools, The Institute for Citizens & Scholars, Carnegie Learning, and Renaissance Learning. [10] [13]
Despite being the founder of a business based on the preparation of students for a wide range of standardized tests, Katzman is an outspoken critic of the modern preoccupation with standardized testing. He has argued that many tests are no better indicator of achievement in the relevant fields than grades and scores on other tests (such as the Advanced Placement exams). He has also been outspoken in his opposition to the Common Core and tests based on it. He demands better outcomes from for-profit education providers. He often speaks on topics related to online education and the measurement of academic achievement. [18]
In 2008, Katzman and his wife pledged $1.5 million to help fund the Katzman/Ernst Chair in Educational Entrepreneurship, Technology and Innovation, an endowed chair in the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education to train and certify teachers for urban schools. [19]
Katzman was a co-recipient of a Cable Television ACE Award in 1995 for Princeton Review's Student Admissions Television, an education special about the SAT. [20] Princeton Review's Inside the SAT software was the recipient of a 1996 software CODiE award. [21]
Katzman was a recipient of the 2018 ASU GSV Lifetime Achievement Award, which "honors individuals whose lives have had a profound impact in changing the world for good". [22] In 2024, he was named one of the 100 most influential people in K-12 education by District Administration [23] .
At Princeton Review, Katzman was one of the first cybersquatters on the Internet. In 1994, he registered Kaplan.com, and then taunted that competitor by encouraging visitors to tell their stories about the company on that page. The case went to arbitration, where he offered to sell the domain for a case of beer; Kaplan declined, and was awarded the domain, leading Katzman to state that "The folks at Kaplan have no imagination, no sense of humor and no beer." [24]
As a founder of both 2U and its major competitor, Noodle Partners, Katzman is often mentioned in articles and discussions surrounding the Online Program Management (OPM) industry. At 2U, Katzman popularized the revenue-share model in which OPMs take a percentage of a university’s tuition revenue in exchange for program management. This business model is debated among higher education constituents and policymakers but remains popular today. [25] A 2019 article by Kevin Carey published in the Huffington Post names Katzman as the impetus for the development of the entire OPM industry and some of the issues that have since arisen, including revenue-share and runaway digital marketing costs. [26] [27] Katzman, Carey says, is now fighting to change the tuition-splitting practices that he created. In 2020, however, Noodle Partners teamed up with Strategic Education to use WorkForceEdge, a platform to connect employees with educational programs. Strategic Education is the parent company of Strayer University and Capella University. [28]
Katzman lives in New York and is married to Alicia Ernst. [29] They have two children, Daniel and Lyra. [30]
The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981, and since that time has worked with over 400 million students. Services are delivered by 4,000+ tutors and teachers in the United States, Canada and international offices in 21 countries.; online resources; more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House; and dozens of categories of school rankings. The Princeton Review's affiliate division, Tutor.com, provides online tutoring services. The Princeton Review is headquartered in New York City and is privately held. The Princeton Review is not associated with Princeton University.
Kaplan, Inc. is an international educational services company that provides educational and training services to colleges, universities, businesses and individuals around the world. Founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan, the company offers a variety of test preparation, certifications, and student support services. The company is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company.
Kaplan University (KU) was a private online for-profit university owned by Kaplan, Inc., a subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. It was predominantly a distance learning institution, maintaining 14 ground locations across the United States. The university was named in honor of Stanley H. Kaplan, who founded Kaplan Test Prep. It was regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, one of seven major accrediting bodies in the U.S., but some programs did not have the field-specific accreditation needed for graduates to obtain certification.
The Leonard N. Stern School of Business is the business school of New York University, a private research university based in New York City. Founded as the School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance in 1900, the school received its current name in 1988.
Penn Foster College is a private, for-profit online college headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was founded in 1890 as International Correspondence Schools and presently offers bachelor's and associate degree programs in 22 certified programs, as well as academic certificates.
HotChalk was an education technology company founded in September 2004. HotChalk ran an online community application designed for grade school teachers, students, and parents. In August 2007, McGraw-Hill partnered with HotChalk to make McGraw-Hill training and certification tools available to HotChalk users. NBC partnered with HotChalk as well to distribute NBC news archives to supplement educational materials.
Penn Foster Career School is a U.S. for-profit, regionally and nationally-accredited distance education school offering career diploma programs and certificate programs. It was founded in 1890 as International Correspondence Schools, or ICS. Penn Foster is headquartered in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Singularity Education Group is an American company that offers executive educational programs, a business incubator, and business consultancy services. Although the company uses the word "university" in its branding, it is not an accredited university and has no academic programs or accreditation.
Adam Robinson is an American educator, freelance author, and a US Chess Federation life master. He is the co-founder of The Princeton Review. He currently works as a global macro advisor to the heads of some of the world's largest hedge funds through his company Robinson Global Strategies.
edX is a US for-profit online education platform owned by 2U since 2021. The platform's main focus is to manage a variety of offerings, including elite brand bootcamps.
Michael McCullough is an American investor in healthcare and life science companies, social entrepreneur, and emergency room doctor. He was a Rhodes Scholar. He lives in Palo Alto, California.
2U, Inc. is an American educational technology company that contracts with non-profit colleges and universities to build, deliver and support online degree and non-degree programs. It is also the parent company of edX. On February 12, 2024, 2U announced "there is substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."
James H. Shelton III was most recently the head of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's Education division. He was formerly the Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Education. In this role, he oversaw a broad range of management, policy, and program functions.
For-profit higher education in the United States refers to the commercialization and privatization of American higher education institutions. For-profit colleges have been the most recognizable for-profit institutions, and more recently with online program managers, but commercialization has been a part of US higher education for centuries. Privatization of public institutions has been increasing since at least the 1980s.
Michael Li is an American data scientist, entrepreneur, and the founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Data Incubator, a data science training and placement company. Since 2023, he has also been serving as CTO at Aerial, a legal-tech start-up helping companies manage their corporate information and scale fast.
Purdue University Global, Inc. is a public online university that is separately accredited part of the Purdue University system. Its primary focus is educating working adults.
Trilogy Education Services is a New York City-based technology education company that offers non-credit technology training programs, colloquially known as coding bootcamps, through affiliate universities. In-person courses are held on the affiliate university campus. Revenue from the tuition is shared with the affiliate university.
Online learning offers freedom to progress at your own pace and the convenience to learn when and where it suits you. A student does not have to be on campus for an 45 minute lecture and can study when it suits them. The flexibility that comes with online education seems particularly well suited for life-long learning. While this flexibility and freedom has, over the past 15 years, supported teaching and learning for many students. Some are arguing that platforms challenge academic freedom and intellectual property (IP) rightswhere knowledge assetization prevails and public knowledge is privatized. Online enrollments have grown substantially, especially after the global shutdown. Convenience and flexibility is not the only explanation for this rapid growth. Universities, facing budget shortfalls, have turned to Online Program Managers, commonly known as OPMs to recruit these students and build online programs. OPMs provide bundled products and services to private and public educational institutions in exchange for a revenue sharing arrangement. Universities have come to rely on these services to recruit new students, design, develop, run online programs and more.
Guild, formerly known as Guild Education, is a private company headquartered in Denver, Colorado that is employed by Fortune 1000 companies to manage their education assistance benefits. Guild works for corporate employer clients to facilitate direct payment for courses to education provider clients and offers marketing services to the education provider clients.
RobotLAB is an American educational technology company that manufactures robotics and virtual reality products for K-12 and higher education, as well as business robots for retail, hospitality, and medical companies. The company distributes the Pepper and NAO humanoid robots developed by SoftBank Robotics. They are headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
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