NewSchools Venture Fund

Students Are Calling for Change, and We’re Listening

bmiller — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 17:00:38 +0000

As 2024 comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on both the challenges and the opportunities we’ve seen in education this year. Across the country, young people are asking for something better — learning experiences that are meaningful, engaging, and connected to their futures. At NewSchools, we’re inspired by how educators and entrepreneurs are stepping up to this moment. They’re designing solutions that respond to the needs of today’s learners. In this first year of our new investment strategy, we invested $13.4 million in 54 early-stage ventures reimagining education. Here’s a look at some of the most interesting themes across our investing activity, as well as promising innovations that bring us closer to ensuring every student is prepared to thrive in school and in life.

New High Schools Bridge Classrooms and Careers

High school should set students up for success, but right now, it isn’t working for everyone. Nearly 15 million students are chronically absent, and 42% say they feel disengaged, sad, or hopeless. Yet 80% of students say they value on-the-job training more than traditional post-secondary options (Gates Foundation). Career-connected learning is one way to make high school relevant again. By teaming up with colleges, businesses, and community organizations, schools are giving students opportunities to explore careers, gain hands-on experience, and earn credentials that lead to good jobs.

This year, 52% of the school teams we’ve funded are creating new middle and high school models that connect learning to real-world opportunities. For example, Philadelphia Middle College Foundation is designing a school where students begin exploring career and college pathways in middle school, then continue in high school with internships, early college credits, and certifications in fields like healthcare and technology. In Georgia, Simple Vue Academy will help students take on real-world challenges and prepare for entrepreneurship and financial management with internships, business pitch competitions, and mentorship programs. These models will not only help students build durable skills, but also give them a clear path to meaningful careers and economic mobility.

Namahana Education Foundation

A Resurgence in Rural Innovation

With more students leaving urban centers, there’s a renewed focus on ensuring rural communities have great schools and access to economic opportunities. We’re seeing creative approaches in rural education that address the unique challenges and incredible potential of these communities. Schools like Namahana School in Hawaii and Sledge Institute in North Carolina are designing models rooted in competency-based learning and career-focused programs aligned with local industries like agriculture and advanced manufacturing to prepare students for high-demand jobs.

Beyond academics, rural schools are becoming hubs for critical services like mental health support, food security, and healthcare. These partnerships aren’t an afterthought — they’re being built into the design of schools from the very beginning. In some cases, nonprofit organizations are leading the way by pooling resources and talent across districts and creating shared models that bring robust career and technical education (CTE) pathways to life. These efforts show how constraints can spark innovation.

Literacy Solutions Designed to Unlock Learning for Every Student

Education should work for all students, but too often, “one-size-fits-all” approaches leave too many learners behind. Generative AI is changing that, enabling solutions that adapt to students’ unique strengths and needs in ways we couldn’t imagine before. The innovators we’re supporting are tapping into this potential.

Bili App by Bilingual Generation

They are creating solutions that bridge research and practice and place learners furthest from opportunity at the center of their designs. Take Project Read AI, for example, which uses generative AI to create personalized reading experiences grounded in the Science of Reading and explicit instruction. With accessible fonts and an AI tutor, it supports early readers, including those with dyslexia, through oral instruction and repeated readings.

Other innovators in our portfolio are addressing the disconnect students feel when learning materials don’t reflect their lives. For example, Bilingual Generation’s BiliApp features Spanish-language stories and phonics games that celebrate students’ cultural backgrounds while building literacy skills. By strengthening literacy in their home language, Bili helps students build a strong foundation for learning English. What makes these solutions stand out is their ability to combine research-backed practices with approaches that honor students’ identities and lived experiences, ensuring every student feels seen, engaged, and inspired to learn.

Innovations in Reimagining the Teaching Profession

This year, I’m especially proud of the launch of our Teaching Reimagined investment area, which supports solutions that make teaching a more sustainable, effective, and fulfilling profession. I was inspired to see that over half of the ideas submitted came directly from former and current classroom teachers — people who understand the challenges firsthand and are driving change from within. We funded a range of efforts, including ventures that are bridging divides across traditional education roles and positioning teachers and community members as equal partners in reimagining the educator workforce. You can learn more about them in our latest blog.

To meet the challenges ahead, we need more visionary leaders with bold ideas — and supporters ready to step up and make a difference. If you’re an innovator with a vision to create more meaningful and relevant learning experiences for students, we invite you to apply to our funding opportunity.

Finally, thank you to our innovators, supporters, and partners who joined us this year to unlock new possibilities for students. Your dedication fuels our resolve to ensure every student has a life of choice and opportunity. Across the country, students are asking for something better — and with your partnership, we’re ready to deliver.

Introducing Our First Teaching Reimagined Ventures

bmiller — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 18:30:55 +0000

America’s teachers face immense pressures, from high workloads to increasingly complex student needs, fueling a narrative of burnout and dissatisfaction. But what if we could change the story?

Through our Teaching Reimagined portfolio, we’re investing in a variety of solutions to a shared problem: how to make teaching a role where educators thrive — all in service of better outcomes for students furthest from opportunity.

From better scheduling to AI-driven coaching to new roles for teachers and communities, we’re working with innovators and educators to make the profession more sustainable, joyful, and effective. Here’s a closer look at some of the emerging ideas in our Teaching Reimagined cohort.

Reimagining how we organize time and talent in schools

Photo Credit: Teacher-Powered Schools

Master scheduling might not seem like a top priority for reimagining teaching, but Timely Schools recognizes its transformative potential. Using AI, Timely’s platform helps schools and districts more efficiently map out different scheduling scenarios to meet their goals, such as increasing collaborative planning time, balancing class sizes, and making staffing models more flexible. For teachers, this can mean more manageable schedules and greater collaboration, paving the way for dynamic roles and more effective teaching. One early adopter generated 17 options before selecting the schedule that best aligned to their priorities. This facilitates more creativity around use of teacher and student time, a critical building block for new school staffing designs.

While Timely offers educators a tool, Teacher-Powered Schools is launching a coaching initiative to give educators a stronger voice in decision-making. In this “teacher-powered” model, school decision-making is distributed. Teachers shape school culture and instructional priorities, an approach that has shown promise: a 2023 analysis of 45 schools in the Teacher-Powered Schools network found that teacher retention rates exceeded 90%, notably higher than the national average. Now, Teacher-Powered Schools’ new coaching initiative will help more schools transition to this model with new teacher job descriptions, org charts, and teacher leadership roles. Coaches are experienced teachers in hybrid roles; many support other schools 20%-30% of the time while continuing to serve their own students and school community. This creates new roles for expert teachers while ensuring they spread their expertise to more schools.

Engaging caregivers and community experts in new school roles

CommunityShare is rethinking what it means to support teachers by bridging the gap between schools and local experts. Through a digital platform, teachers who need support designing real-world projects are matched with community members whose skills fit the bill — think of it as a “library of human books” that teachers can access. CommunityShare has already had a positive impact: in the past year, 98% of participating educators noted an increase in student engagement and problem-solving skills, while 92% saw improved social-emotional outcomes. Our reinvestment in CommunityShare will help them to offer their platform and services to individual schools. By broadening the definition of an educator, CommunityShare is empowering teachers to create meaningful, real-world learning opportunities without taking on every task themselves.

Supporting teachers’ instructional practice with Generative AI

Photo Credit: Relay Graduate School of Education

Teachers want roles that are sustainable; they also want to feel supported and to grow professionally. To meet these needs, Urban Assembly and the Relay Graduate School of Education are designing tools with educators to make high-quality instructional coaching and professional learning more accessible. Urban Assembly’s Classroom Automated Feedback Environment (CAFE) uses AI to analyze teacher-student interactions and classroom dialogue, generating data and insights to enrich teachers’ coaching sessions. This is especially valuable in schools where traditional instructional coaching can be cost-prohibitive and time-consuming.

Relay Graduate School of Education, in partnership with UnboundEd, is designing an AI-enabled teaching simulator to enhance professional development. Rather than sitting through one-size-fits-all training sessions, teachers will be able to use the simulator to practice responding to classroom scenarios anytime, anywhere. Similar to Urban Assembly’s effort, Relay’s innovation is in the early stages of development. The team is co-designing with educators to ensure it addresses real needs and protects teacher and student data and privacy. By offering targeted, flexible professional learning, the simulator holds promise for improving teacher effectiveness and making better use of teachers’ time.

Creating a new reality

Over the coming years, we aim to build on these efforts, catalyze new approaches, and leverage generative AI to reimagine teaching. If you have an idea to reimagine teaching, we invite you to explore our funding opportunity. We’re especially interested in solutions led by educators — those who understand firsthand what it takes to make teaching empowering and impactful.

The challenges facing the teaching profession are real and multi-faceted, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. By supporting innovative efforts to reimagine teaching like those in our portfolio, we can create a new reality — one of hope, progress, and support. Teachers are the backbone of our education system, and when we invest in their well-being and professional growth, we invest in the future of our students and society as a whole.

Featured Photo Credit: CommunityShare

Funding Available for Education Innovators

bmiller — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 15:00:25 +0000

Wendy-Ann Dixon-DuBois
Director, Communications, NewSchools
wdixon-dubois@newschools.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Funding Available for Education Innovators

October 29, 2024 – NewSchools announces $10M in funding for visionary educators and innovators to transform public education. With a focus on reimagining what’s possible, NewSchools is committed to supporting leaders dedicated to creating new opportunities for students to thrive.

Applications for this opportunity are open October 29, 2024, and close on January 8, 2025. This is a chance for innovative educators and organizations to bring their bold ideas to life with financial and technical support from NewSchools.

NewSchools supports visionary leaders with innovative solutions in four key areas:

Innovative Schools: New innovative, public schools that support students to develop a strong academic foundation and skills needed for success in life
Learning Solutions: K-8 reading and math solutions that build foundational skills and personalize learning to support student success
Teaching Reimagined: Solutions that evolve how educators work, engage caregivers and community experts, and leverage genAI to make the role more sustainable and effective
Learning Differences: Enhance teaching and learning for students with diagnosed and undiagnosed learning disabilities within and beyond our three main focus areas.

Selected recipients will receive direct financial support in the form a one-year, unrestricted grant ranging from $150,000 to $250,000, personalized coaching and access to national experts, and connections with peer organizations across the country.

How to Apply

Interested applicants should submit their applications by January 8, 2025 at newschools.org. Submit an eligibility form by December 10, 2024 for full application support.

NewSchools Invests $13M in 54 Ventures with Bold Visions to Improve K-12 Education

bmiller — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 16:00:46 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Innovators are leading efforts to improve schools, teaching, and learning.

Oakland, CA — [October 15, 2024] — NewSchools Venture Fund today announced $13.4 million in funding for 54 ventures tackling some of the most pressing challenges in public education, from building innovative schools to rethinking how teachers work. This investment is part of NewSchools’ three-year strategy to create an education system that not only delivers for students today but also prepares them to lead and tackle the challenges of tomorrow.

“By supporting these visionary teams, we’re not just investing in schools — we’re investing in the future leaders and problem solvers our society needs,” said Frances Messano, CEO of NewSchools. “We couldn’t be more excited about the potential impact these ventures will have on students and communities across the country.”

The overwhelming response to NewSchools’ funding opportunities this year — drawing over 1,100 applications — demonstrates the sustained energy from entrepreneurs and educators to reimagine education. After a thorough review of applications, 54 of the most promising teams were selected to receive flexible funding and expert support for a year, with grants ranging from $150,000 to $250,000.

Of the venture leaders funded, 58% are people of color, 63% are women, and 85% are former educators. These ventures will operate across 29 states, with 16 organizations working nationally. The diversity among these leaders reflects NewSchools’ commitment to invest in innovators whose backgrounds and perspectives are essential for addressing the needs of all students, particularly those furthest from opportunity. NewSchools engaged advisory boards — researchers, educators, and parents — to make its funding decisions, ensuring that these investments align with the real needs of students and schools.

Funding and support from NewSchools will help leaders realize their bold visions for strong, sustainable schools and organizations that improve outcomes for all learners, including students of color, students with learning differences, and those experiencing poverty.

The cohort includes teams creating new schools that provide students with a strong academic foundation, along with essential habits, mindsets, and skills needed for success in life. Founders are designing schools that blend career and technical education, dual enrollment, and industry internships to give students more pathways to future careers. Many use project-based learning and competency-based education to help students build important skills, think critically, and solve real-world problems, preparing them for success beyond high school.

Other teams are developing solutions to help K-8 students accelerate their growth in literacy and math during these critical years for building foundational skills. These innovations include tools, content, and models that personalize learning and leverage research and technologies to create student-centered classrooms that support every learner’s progress.

Additionally, ventures are reimagining the educator workforce by evolving how teachers work, using AI to make research-based instructional practices more accessible, and involving caregivers and community partners to support schools. These initiatives will make teaching a more sustainable, effective, and fulfilling profession that attracts diverse educators.

NewSchools also funded organizations dedicated to improving outcomes for students with learning differences. These teams are addressing key opportunity areas, including professional development for educators, postsecondary resources for students with disabilities, and strategies to recruit and retain special education teachers.

“Our investment in these 54 ventures is an investment in the power of innovation and entrepreneurship to shape the future of education,” Messano added. “We believe these solutions will drive meaningful, lasting change in classrooms and communities.”

The next funding opportunity opens on October 29. To receive an alert, join our mailing list.

Building Better Schools: A Proven Blueprint for Success

bmiller — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 13:49:29 +0000

This post has been updated with new information as of October 21, 2024.

Despite signs of academic recovery, new data reveals that public school students, especially younger ones, are significantly behind, with achievement gaps widening between low-income and affluent students. As school leaders urgently seek solutions, it’s worth asking: What if the answers have been right in front of us all along — in innovative public schools with exceptional results?

At NewSchools, our experience with 122 innovative public schools across the country demonstrates the power of breaking from traditional molds. Serving a diverse student body, including a higher percentage of students of color, low-income students, and English learners, these schools often outperform traditional models. They provide students with a strong academic foundation and cultivate essential mindsets, habits, and skills needed for success in school and life.

Before the pandemic, students in our schools were achieving impressive results, gaining the equivalent of an extra 91 days of learning each year. Like many, our schools faced challenges during the pandemic, with just 15% of students meeting their growth goals in math and reading in the 2020-21 school year. Now our schools are making a comeback. Over the past two school years, around 40% of our students have reached their pre-COVID growth goals, a statistically significant increase. This progress reflects the resilience and recovery of our students, driven by deliberate school designs, instructional practices, and approaches to educator development that can and should be adopted more broadly.

To better understand the success of our schools, we partnered with Bellwether, a leading education researcher. We went beyond test scores and student surveys to capture the full experiences of our students, teachers, and families. The Bellwether team conducted 29 school visits, 127 classroom observations, and 569 interviews. Through this process, we identified a common blueprint for success, built on four foundational strategies: visionary leadership, nurturing relationships, effective implementation, and learning and continuous improvement.

1. Visionary Leadership

Every successful school in our sample study is led by visionary leaders who understand that true educational excellence requires the involvement of all stakeholders — students, teachers, families, and community members — from the start. These leaders engage the community to co-create a shared vision of success that coherently aligns instruction, culture, and operations with the specific needs and aspirations of their community. They also ensure that this vision is clearly communicated and understood by everyone involved, fostering a culture of shared responsibility and commitment to the school’s success.

2. Nurturing Relationships

The foundation of any effective school is the strength of its relationships among students, among educators, and between teachers and students. In our schools, leaders prioritize building trust and creating caring environments that encourage both students and teachers to excel. By implementing practices such as student advisories, community circles, and regular feedback loops among staff, these schools create supportive and inclusive spaces that promote deeper learning and engagement. Positive relationships among staff and strong modeling are equally important as student-to-teacher relationships, as they shape the overall school culture and support interactions with students and families.

3. Effective Implementation

Visionary leadership and nurturing relationships are crucial, but without effective implementation, they remain just good ideas. The schools in our portfolio stand out for their ability to put ideas into action. At the most effective schools, systems tightly align to core instructional and cultural practices. This includes establishing clear, intentional routines, codifying practices and policies, investing in ongoing professional development for teachers, embracing distributed leadership – where responsibilities are shared among a network of leaders, and maintaining consistent standards for both students and staff. Effective implementation ensures that the school’s vision and commitment to strong instruction is realized in every classroom and every interaction.

4. Learning and Continuous Improvement

Our top-performing schools are marked by a relentless commitment to learning and improvement. These schools use data — not just test scores, but also feedback from students, parents, and teachers — to continually refine their practices. This culture of reflection and data-driven decision-making allows schools to respond to challenges swiftly and effectively, always with the goal of better serving their students. A key part of this strategy is hiring people who are eager to learn and grow, and helping them become experts at collecting, analyzing, and responding to data effectively.

*The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The evidence is clear: when leaders embrace these four strategies, schools not only start strong but also sustain deep engagement and learning over time. Feedback from our schools speaks volumes: teachers praise the strong leadership and supportive environments, while students report a profound sense of belonging and engagement with more rigorous and relevant coursework. Parents and students alike commend the positive, inclusive climate and the preparation for college and careers.

In addition to capturing the four strategies that all school leaders are putting in place, Bellwether created a catalog of practices to surface a range of choices school leaders are making to achieve their goals. Teams are often weaving together complementary practices (e.g. small group instruction and data-driven decision-making) to achieve strong results. Bellwether’s research confirms what we have known all along: the best innovation combines new and proven practices, tailored to each school community’s needs. We hope schools can use these approaches to better organize their academic programs, build community, and support staff.

By investing in visionary leadership, nurturing relationships, effective implementation, and continuous improvement rooted in strong instruction, we do more than address learning recovery — we build stronger connections between schools and students, empowering them to reach new heights.

Read the full report: Building Better Schools: Insights from Innovative Public Schools, made possible with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation*.

Mia Howard

Mia Howard is a Managing Partner leading the Innovative Schools investment team. She and her team support educators with bold visions for new schools that embrace equity, innovation, and an expanded definition of student success.

Why Now Is the Moment to Reimagine Teaching

bmiller — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 21:00:02 +0000

The nature of work has changed, but the teaching profession has not changed with it.

Today’s high school and college students who are part of Gen Z are looking for careers that offer financial stability, flexibility, collaboration, and a sense of purpose. Yet, while teaching is one of the most meaningful careers, it lacks the flexibility and incentives that appeal to this generation. As a result, many young people are discouraged from entering the field, and those who do often leave because of the profession’s rigid structure and challenging conditions.

At the same time, the demands on teachers have only intensified. Inflation-adjusted pay has decreased, while students present more complex academic and socio-emotional needs, contributing to higher stress and turnover, especially in under-resourced schools. This turnover, estimated to cost over $20,000 per departing teacher, disrupts school operations and has a profound, detrimental impact on student learning outcomes. Additionally, despite efforts to diversify the teaching force, teachers of color are leaving at higher rates, often due to unsustainable working conditions.

At NewSchools, we are inspired by education leaders who are committed to changing these dynamics. That’s why we are investing in innovative ideas that evolve how educators work, create new roles for caregivers and community educators in schools, and leverage generative AI to support teachers’ instructional practice. By aligning the teaching profession with Gen Z’s values of flexibility, collaboration, and purpose, we can make it a more attractive and sustainable career choice and enable teachers to create more learning environments where students thrive. Our goal is to build on existing efforts and catalyze new approaches, making teaching a more effective profession that attracts a diverse group of educators. This comprehensive approach not only addresses immediate issues but also builds the foundation for long-term improvement. We’re especially excited to support ideas from those who understand the problem best — our educators.

We see great potential in new strategies and the efforts of a growing number of organizations focused on reimagining teaching. Here are a few reasons why.

Teach Indy Teacher Appreciation Event

Teachers are dedicated to the success of their students.

Surveys show that a significant proportion of teachers remain committed to their roles despite reporting high degrees of workplace stress and symptoms of burnout. In fact, 77% of all teachers and 90% of teachers of color say it’s “very or somewhat likely” they will spend their entire careers as classroom teachers. This highlights the deep sense of purpose that drives educators, particularly those from underrepresented communities. It suggests that the issue isn’t the core work of teaching itself, but the design of the role. By redesigning roles, we can improve conditions, and make the profession more sustainable. Organizations like Teach Indy and Teach Plus are bringing together teams of teachers to co-design new approaches.

Students thrive when teachers thrive.

Within our schools portfolio, we have observed a strong positive relationship between school culture and climate, teacher retention, and student outcomes. Recent international studies also reinforce the significant impact of teacher well-being on both their own success and the academic achievements of their students. We can learn and scale best practices from schools that successfully foster supportive environments where both teachers and students thrive.

AI holds potential to improve conditions and teacher practice.

When designed with and for teachers, generative AI has the potential to simplify and streamline time-consuming teacher tasks, such as grading and lesson preparation. Generative AI also has promising applications for teacher coaching and development, which could extend the reach of experienced mentors and enable more adults to receive feedback in schools.

A growing number of organizations support schools to reimagine educator roles.

Technical assistance providers like Public Impact and Next Education Workforce are supporting schools in adopting new structures that promote more collaborative and flexible work. For instance, schools with team-based teaching models are seeing improvements in both working conditions and teacher culture. And organizations like The Oakland REACH and CommunityShare are redefining roles within schools by involving caregivers and community educators. This approach not only enriches student learning, but also helps distribute workloads more equitably among staff, enhancing teacher satisfaction and retention.

In the coming weeks, NewSchools will announce our new investments and the innovators we’re supporting across three investment areas, including those focused on reimagining the educator workforce. If you share our passion for reimagining teaching, we encourage you to connect with us. Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media for upcoming funding opportunities and to learn how you can make a difference in shaping the future of education.

Pete Fishman

As a Senior Partner at NewSchools, Pete Fishman leads the Teaching Reimagined investment area. He supports innovators who are evolving how educators work and opening systems to involve caregivers and community experts in support of students.

Summit 2024 Sessions

bmiller — Thu, 30 May 2024 17:56:08 +0000

NewSchools Summit is a premier annual event for social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and education leaders. This year's theme, "Education Fuels Progress," focused on equipping attendees with hope, optimism, and actionable ideas to build an education system that delivers on its promise to all students.

How an Expanded Definition of Student Success Drives Learning: Three New Insights

bmiller — Tue, 07 May 2024 14:10:08 +0000

By Jason Atwood, Director, Research and Learning

Even as the shadows of the pandemic recede and schools invest heavily in recovery efforts, students across the country continue to navigate an array of obstacles. Supporting their academic, social, and emotional development remains paramount. At NewSchools, we invest in the design of new schools with joyful learning environments where students are supported to realize their full potential. Our expanded definition of student success framework helps us identify the specific factors that enable young people to pursue lives full of choice and meaning.

Our latest analysis of student data from our national portfolio of more than 120 public schools reaffirms what we’ve known all along: prioritizing essential mindsets, habits, and skills and strong school culture motivates students and leads to remarkable academic gains. These schools will serve more than 76,000 students across 31 states at full enrollment. Before the pandemic, our students gained the equivalent of approximately 91 extra days of learning within a typical school year. Recently, schools in our portfolio have made significant academic progress by implementing a combination of practices like cultivating a growth mindset in students, ensuring their physical and emotional safety, and fostering high expectations among teachers. And we are proud that students of color across our portfolio report a higher sense of belonging than peers in traditional educational settings — by an 11-point margin.

We are continually analyzing our student survey and academic assessment data to determine which specific mindsets, habits, skills and school culture factors drive academic results. In this blog, we highlight three important insights that emerged from our analysis of over 32,000 student surveys and 20,000 NWEA MAP Growth assessments administered at our schools from the 2022-23 school year. Combined with our previous findings, these insights reinforce a fundamental truth: students thrive best when they feel valued, secure, and connected to their school.

1. Student Connection in Elementary School Drives Success

Fourth and fifth grade students who establish strong bonds with their teachers, actively participate in classroom activities, and feel supported and accepted by both adults and peers, experience more than double the amount of reading growth compared to their peers in environments with low ratings of school culture and climate. These gains translate to more than four additional months of literacy instruction.

Additionally, fourth grade students who develop friendships across racial and cultural lines and perceive their school as affirming diverse identities exhibit 20% greater gains in math and 60% greater gains in reading compared to their peers with lower equity and inclusion ratings.

Implications for Educators

How Generative AI Can Engage and Empower Students

bmiller — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 19:57:30 +0000

Uncertainty about the future of K-12 education has ignited a debate: Should schools prioritize research-based instruction or an engagement-first strategy that centers student enthusiasm and curiosity? Framing these choices as a binary overlooks the important synergy achieved when students are both personally engaged and academically supported. As we chart a collective course for post-pandemic education, it is critical that we neither sacrifice the rigor of learning for engagement nor forgo the humanity of education for the sake of results.

Since 2019, 34 states have passed legislation rooted in the science of reading, reflecting a nationwide commitment to evidence-based practices in foundational learning. This momentum extends beyond reading, with growing interest in similarly research-informed approaches to math instruction. Yet, the drive for academic rigor must not eclipse the importance of re-engaging students in their learning, particularly after the isolating effects of the pandemic. Now that students have returned to school, embracing a more human-centered approach to education — where learning is asset-based, collaborative, and tailored to each student — is not just a compassionate choice; it’s a pragmatic necessity.

The challenge for educators, policymakers, and communities is not choosing between rigor and engagement, but actually integrating both to serve all students effectively. This is especially important for students furthest from opportunity, including students of color, students experiencing poverty, and students with learning differences. The goal should be to engage and empower students, leveraging their unique identities and experiences as strengths to accelerate their learning and growth. This is where generative artificial intelligence (AI) can come in — not as a panacea but as a catalyst to increase access and make engaging, empowering learning experiences a reality for every student.

Innovating with Generative AI: Examples from the NewSchools Portfolio

The NewSchools portfolio includes compelling examples of how generative AI can be a bridge to more personalized, research-based learning experiences. These innovations recognize and harness each student’s unique strengths and interests, offering a glimpse into a future where technology elevates the human aspects of education. In this future, learning environments support students not only as learners but also as creators, critical thinkers, and problem solvers equipped for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.

Integrating student interest in phonics lessons

LitLab uses generative AI to help young readers create their own personalized decodable texts, which are important for learning to read. These texts provide practice that supports each child’s phonics development. By allowing students to create stories about their own topics, LitLab enhances reading practice and fosters student agency. This approach aligns with the science of reading and values students’ choices and interests, boosting motivation and learning. AI’s role here is transformative, turning reading exercises into interactive, student-centered experiences.

Supporting teachers to extend and strengthen high-quality instruction

Diffit uses generative AI to help teachers seamlessly create and adapt high-quality instructional materials that enhance student learning. The solution is flexible, saving teachers time while enabling them to expand access to grade-level content across a range of topics, reading levels, and languages. In addition, the tool extends learning through activities that encourage connections to students’ lives, offer multiple means of expression, and invite discussion and collaboration across peers.

Activating families to propel reading and math growth

Paloma Learning uses generative AI to bolster family engagement in students’ academic journeys, which research shows is critical for student success. This solution helps families build and sustain a simple yet powerful habit of daily, at-home tutoring. Personalized communications and resources empower caregivers to play a more active and informed role in their children’s learning, bridging the gap between home and school to support student growth in reading and math.

As we consider the possibilities of generative AI, we should carefully balance the urgency of the moment and the necessity to go slow and get it right. Introducing AI into education comes with significant risks. It is critical that developers, educators, and leaders center student well-being and ensure that AI-powered solutions are implemented equitably, ethically, and in alignment with students’ academic and social-emotional growth.

We don’t have to choose between rigor and engagement. Instead, we can work toward a K-12 education system that is both deeply human and highly effective, where generative AI serves as a bridge between these two critical educational needs, and ensures our approaches are as diverse and visionary as the students we serve.

Cameron White

Cameron is a Senior Partner at NewSchools. He leads a team that invests in learning solutions designed to improve K-8 reading and math outcomes. These efforts aim to benefit millions of students who are furthest from educational opportunities, specifically targeting students of color, those experiencing poverty, and students with learning differences.

A Cognitive Scientist Turns a Personal Struggle into a Mission for Inclusive Learning

bmiller — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 17:17:41 +0000

Photo credit: JMartin Visuals / (L-R) Felecia Hatcher, CEO of Black Ambition; Leo Creer, Co-Founder and CTO of Expert IEP; Grand Prize Winner Antoinette Banks, CEO and Founder of Expert IEP; and Pharrell Williams, Founder of Black Ambition

Ten years ago, Antoinette Banks was in Los Angeles navigating the educational system for her daughter with autism and ADHD. Her child, often seen through the lens of labels, was in reality brimming with untapped potential. Confronted by a system that struggled to see beyond these diagnoses, Banks was propelled into action and developed a tool that would enable her child, and eventually many others, to thrive beyond conventional expectations.

Antoinette with her daughter. Photo by Sam Kempf of Coastal Farms

“They woke up the mama bear in me,” Banks said. “People were not honoring who my daughter was as a student. They were more focused on the overall diagnosis,” rather than recognizing her strengths and potential contributions.

Years later, this experience fueled Banks to champion a personalized, inclusive educational approach for children with learning differences. Motivated by her daughter’s transformation into a high-achieving student, Banks, now a cognitive science student at the University of California, Davis, created a more sophisticated solution. Leveraging her background and expertise, she built an app that customizes Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) to each child’s strengths and needs, breaking free from traditional models.

Designing Expert IEP: A Tool for Empowerment and Inclusion

Through her work, Banks, who is Black and Latina, sought to address another significant gap she had encountered while navigating the IEP process — a glaring lack of research and resources on autism tailored to families like her own. She made the app to not only meet the diverse needs of families but also to acknowledge and embrace the rich and unique experiences of underrepresented communities.

Banks spent many months researching and seeking feedback from educators, parents, and experts in special education and technology. As Expert IEP began to take shape, its potential became increasingly apparent. By integrating machine learning algorithms, Expert IEP could adapt to a child’s progress over time, suggesting adjustments to keep them on track toward achieving their full potential. The algorithms were built from a database of IEPs shared by families of color. But it was Banks’ human-centered approach that truly set Expert IEP apart. She understood that technology was only part of the solution. The other equally important part was empowering families to advocate for their children. Expert IEP was designed to demystify the often complex and opaque IEP process, providing parents with the knowledge and tools they needed to be active participants in their child’s education.

A Leap Forward: The NewSchools Boost

NewSchools was drawn to Banks’ bold approach to reimagining the IEP process and, in 2022, awarded her a $150,000 grant to elevate her project. “The grant from NewSchools represented the first significant investment from a national funder in both my vision and the potential of Expert IEP,” Banks said. With it, she was able to recruit additional talent to help her expand the capabilities of Expert IEP.

Banks also gained access to a network of experts and resources that could help refine and scale her vision. She noted that NewSchools’ approach to supporting founders was like a “breath of fresh air.”

“I was given a platform to share my vision and collaborate with other education leaders who are really interested in moving the needle for diverse learners,” she said. Banks described the NewSchools network and communities of practice as a “powerful think tank” that helped her grow as a leader and make better choices.

Changing Lives: Expert IEP’s Success

One of the most significant indicators of success has been the academic progress by students using Expert IEP. In a pilot program in Oakland, California, students with IEPs at three schools demonstrated substantial improvement, with many advancing at least one letter grade in reading and math. Teachers and parents alike noted the app’s role in facilitating more meaningful, personalized educational experiences that resonated with students strengths and interests. Expert IEP helped students like Adam improve his reading and public speaking skills, culminating with him being able to confidently read a book aloud to his peers by year’s end.

Beyond academic achievements, Expert IEP fostered a sense of empowerment among families. Parents who once felt overwhelmed by the IEP process now reported feeling more equipped and motivated to advocate for their children. “What matters most to me is that we put families at the heart of what we do”, Banks said. “If we want a student-centered education system and better outcomes, then we must empower and amplify the voices of families.”

Reaching New Milestones: A Vision for the Future

Banks’ work has caught the attention of other philanthropic organizations and investors. In 2023, Expert IEP received a $100,000 award as a YASS Prize quarterfinalist and the prestigious Pharrell Williams Black Ambition grand prize of $1 million. Banks is set to publicly launch her app, Expert Parent, in fall 2024 and is committed to expanding the reach of Expert IEP, aiming to serve an additional 10,000 families on a waitlist. As her business expands, she plans to introduce new products for both students and educators.

Banks’ goal is not just to improve academic outcomes but to foster a more inclusive and equitable education system that recognizes and nurtures the potential in every child. Through Expert IEP, Banks has changed the trajectory for her daughter’s life and is laying the groundwork for all children, regardless of their learning differences, to have the opportunity to achieve their fullest potential.

Check out our impact report for more stories of innovation and impact.