Surprise, Surprise: Ben Marcovitz

[caption id="attachment_2696" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Ben Marcovitz at Sci Academy"][/caption]

When Ben Marcovitz, Ed.M.’06, was invited as a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show last September, he thought it was simply to take a bow with a bunch of other principals of exceptional charter schools. Even so, he was excited and nervous to be recognized in front of millions of viewers for the accomplishments of the New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy, a high school he founded in 2007.

And then Oprah gave the principals the surprise of their lives.

“She said, ‘We’re going to give each of your schools …’ and then uttered the word ‘one,’” Marcovitz says. “‘And in my head I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, $100,000!’”

He couldn’t believe his ears when she announced a million-dollar gift. He remembers his jaw dropping involuntarily, but not much else.

“First there was a moment of complete shock,” he says. “Then came an enormous wave of joy when we thought about all the great things this meant our schools could do for our kids.”

When, 10 days later, the entire school and many community members watched the broadcast in a local auditorium, the response to Oprah’s announcement was deafening.

“The kids were screaming and experiencing something like pride, but also something of a catharsis,” Marcovitz says. “They had worked so hard for so long, and this was the first real external acknowledgment that what they did was truly special.”

Sci Academy, as the school is nicknamed, is governed by the belief that any child, no matter what age, can completely transform the trajectory of his or her education and achieve the highest possible goals.

“Whenever there’s a question about why we should do something, that’s what we look to. That principle streamlines our focus and allows us to make choices with a sense of confidence and surprising swiftness,” says Marcovitz.

He thinks of teaching in much the same way, with a highly optimistic and developmentally aggressive approach he credits to his experience at the Ed School.

“We always talked about teaching as a science that can continually be researched, improved upon, and often standardized for success,” he says. “I believe anybody can learn to teach if they are intelligent people who are willing to work hard at the craft.”

Marcovitz has hopes to create more schools like Sci Academy in the future.

“After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans became a place where education was incredibly vibrant and reform was in the air,” he says. “I really thought that the window for extraordinary ambition and change would have closed a few years ago, but it seems to have only grown.”