HKS in the News July 17, 2012

1. Can Science Plant Brain Seeds That Make You Vote? (Rogers) NPR

2. Maine Ranks Next-to-Last in Student Achievement Growth Maine Public Broadcasting Network

3. Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital years pose a target (Gergen) The Boston Globe

4. Stephen R. Covey dies at 79; wrote influential self-help bestseller (Kellerman) The LA Times

Can Science Plant Brain Seeds That Make You Vote?

NPR

July 16

Quoted: Todd Rogers, Center for Public Leadership

Topic: Psychology and voting

In 2008, just a few days before the Democratic presidential primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, a large group of Pennsylvania voters got a very unusual phone call.

It was one of those get-out-the-vote reminder calls that people get every election cycle, but in addition to the bland exhortations about the importance of the election, potential voters were asked a series of carefully constructed questions: "What do you think you'll be doing before you head to the polls on Tuesday?" recipients of the call were asked. "Where do you think you'll be coming from that day?"

These questions were designed by a Harvard professor named Todd Rogers. Rogers, among other things, is a behavioral psychologist, and he says he chose those questions for a very particular reason.

"We borrowed that from cognitive psychology," he says, "There's a lot of research showing that thinking through the actual moment when you will do something makes it more likely that the behavior will pop into your mind at the appropriate time." …

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Maine Ranks Next-to-Last in Student Achievement Growth

Maine Public Broadcasting

7/16

Cited: Taubman Center Study

Topic: Study on student achievement growth

This study was also cited in the Bangor Daily News

Maine has ranked next to last in a Harvard study of student progress during the past two decades. The Harvard Kennedy School study, released today by the journal, Education Next, shows Maine besting only Iowa in the rankings.

Maine Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen says he's disappointed by the findings. "While Maine's test scores are high for the nation, we are just not moving the needle," he says in a statement. "And as this study makes clear, other states are making considerably more progress. The status quo is simply not working."

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Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital years pose a target

The Boston Globe

July 17

Quoted: David Gergen, Center for Public Leadership

Topic: Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign

President Obama and his reelection campaign are betting heavily that American voters are not ready to elect a wealthy wizard of the global economy to the highest office in the land.

Mitt Romney is not the first Republican presidential candidate with a background in business to run, but the challenger is the first who became rich in the exotic realm of private equity investment. The Democrats are trying to take what Romney has offered as his top credential for the Oval Office during a sluggish economy and use it to discredit his candidacy. …

“We’ve come a long way from the time when the United States was proud of the fact it was the finance center of the world, but I think private equity and these new forms of wealth creation have in too many cases been abusive and what the Obama campaign seems to be trying do to is play a game of guilt by association,” said David Gergen, a professor and administrator at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and former adviser to both Republican and Democratic presidents.” …

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Stephen R. Covey dies at 79; wrote influential self-help bestseller

The LA Times

July 17

Quoted: Faculty, Center

Topic: The work of Stephen R. Covey

Stephen R. Covey, a former Brigham Young University business professor who blended personal self-help and management theory in a massive bestseller, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," died Monday at a hospital in Idaho Falls, Idaho. He was 79. …

"His timing was perfect. He really caught the wave … as people were becoming increasingly fascinated with leadership. He addressed ordinary people's desire to succeed through leadership and management," said Barbara Kellerman, a lecturer on leadership at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. …

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