entrepreneur – NewSchools Venture Fund

Trends Emerging From Our First 62 Investments in 2021

eramirez — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 10:00:15 +0000

Here at NewSchools, we kicked off 2021 with the launch of a new three-year strategy, focused on four investment areas: Innovative Public Schools, Learning Solutions, Diverse Leaders, and Racial Equity. Our team is energized by the tremendous response from education innovators and leaders across the country. As we analyzed data from the first six months of investing, we see positive signs that we are on the right track. We are excited to share this update with you, which highlights three promising trends emerging from our first 62 investments.

We have increased diversity across our applicant pipeline, with a record-breaking response from diverse leaders and innovators.

In the past six months, we have reviewed 980 applications across our investment areas, which represents a 40% increase in applications over 2019, and there is more investment activity to come. This story is about more than just how many applications we received. It’s about who the applicants are and how they are finding us.

The team continues to spend countless hours deepening and broadening our pipeline and designing more inclusive and affirming processes for engaging with potential grantees. And it’s paying off. Our pool includes more Latino leadership, district representation and geographic diversity. Of the applications we received, 68% came from people of color. More than 80% of applicants were applying to NewSchools for the first time. In our innovative schools portfolio, close to 30% of applicants and funded school teams were from traditional public school districts, more than any previous year.

We are investing more intentionally in racial equity and diverse leaders to ensure students of color have equal access to a high-quality education.

The disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on people of color and the compounding effects of racially motivated violence have made deeply rooted and systemic inequities in our country hard to ignore. Bringing about real change requires schools and support organizations to do more than say they are committed to social justice. They must adopt new practices and approaches that meet the unique needs of students and leaders of color.

That’s why we made two important pivots as part of our new investment strategy: We created a Racial Equity investment area and expanded our Diverse Leaders work to include supporting parent advocacy organizations. Over 300 innovators of colors responded to our Racial Equity open funding opportunity. Now a council of educators, parents, and students is deciding which ideas to fund. It’s the first time our organization has experimented with participatory grantmaking, and we’re excited to see how the council’s investments will improve and equalize the educational experience for children of color in this country.

We are investing in ideas focused on meeting this moment and reimagining education today.

Our portfolio of innovators this year offers a glimpse into what could be the future of learning, one in which all students receive a strong academic preparation, robust social-emotional and mental health supports, and culturally rich and relevant learning experiences. The 39 teams opening schools this fall and next year are embracing an expanded definition of student success and building schools that center students’ identities, expose them to diverse content and teachers, and equip them with the academic and social emotional skills they need in life.

This focus on equity is also shared by the innovators in our learning solutions portfolio, where we have invested in 17 organizations who are either developing interventions to improve literacy education or creating comprehensive, equity-based solutions to meet the needs of school system leaders today.

Across both of these portfolios, we also saw more innovations targeting the specific needs of students who continue to be overlooked by the education system such as English language learners, students who recently arrived in the U.S., LGBTQIA students, and students with learning differences. These innovations will not only tell us how to support these specific student groups better, but also how to serve all students more effectively, lessons that can inform and reshape education and improve outcomes for every child.

Across our investment areas, we are excited about the momentum, passion, and fresh thinking our ventures are bringing at a time when we need innovation more than ever. We look forward to learning and sharing the lessons from these innovators as their organizations grow and have an impact over time. Stay with us on this journey.

EXPLORE OUR CURRENT VENTURES

Seeing the World Differently – A Summer Reading List (Summit 2021)

eramirez — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 17:36:47 +0000

To build connections during our virtual Summit event in May, NewSchools asked a diverse group of innovators, policymakers, funders, and educators to share the books that helped them make sense of the world or simply inspired them this past year. Here are the 145 books that were recommended to us, covering a wide variety of genres and subjects, all relevant to our work of reimagining education. Many of these books remind us that for all our differences and the time we were apart, we are still very much bound to one another.

Happy browsing and reading!

A Good Time for the Truth, edited by Sun Yung Shin
A Joyful Pause by Nicole Taylor
A Measure of Belonging: Twenty-one Writers of Color on the New American South, edited by Cinelle Barnes
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
A Search for Common Ground: Conversations About the Toughest Questions in K–12 Education by Pedro Noguera and Federick Hess
Acts of Faith (Daily Meditations for People of Color) by Iyanla Vanzant
All Students Must Thrive by Patrick Camangian, Tyrone Caldwell Howard, Earl J. Edwards, Andrea C. Minkoff
Always Running by Luis J Rodriguez
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
Awakening the Natural Genius of Black Children by Amos N. Wilson
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and It’s Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie Glaude Jr.
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces by Karen Catlin
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend, with accompanying workbook
Brave, Not Perfect by Reshma Saujani
Brown is the New White by Steve Phillips
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham
Change: How to Make Big Things Happen by Damon Centola
Charter Schools and Their Enemies by Thomas Sowell
Churchill by Andrew Roberts
Citizen by Claudia Rankine
Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson
Color of Law
Combined Destinies: Whites Sharing Grief about Racism by Ann Todd Jealous
Courageous Conversations About Race by Glenn E. Singleton
Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy by Gholdy Muhammad
Dare to Lead by Brene Brown
Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
Decolonizing Wealth by Edgar Villanueva
Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need by Sasha Costanza-Chock
Despite the Best Intentions by Amanda Lewis & John Diamond
Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen
Educated by Tara Westover
Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 by James D Anderson
Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker
Everyone Communicates, Few Connect by John C Maxwell
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Richard Harries, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Ola Rosling
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain
Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching by Jarvis Givens
Gather by Octavia Raheem
Ghosts in the Schoolyard by Eve L. Ewing
Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
High Conflict by Amanda Ripley
Home Body by Rupi Kaur
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
How Children Succeed by Paul Tough
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Language at the Speed of Sight by Mark Seidenberg
Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute
Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading by Heifeta and Linsky
Leapfrogging Inequality by Rebecca Winthrop
Looking Like A Language, Sounding Like A Race by Jonathan Rosa
Makes Me Wanna Holler by Nathan McCall
Mamaleh Knows Best: What Jewish Mothers Do to Raise Successful, Creative, Empathetic, Independent Children by Marjorie Ingall
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
Moral Leadership by Thomas Serviovanni
My Grandmother’s Hands by Reesma Menakem
Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen
No Justice in the Shadows: How America Criminalizes Immigrants by Alina Das
Panther Baby by Jamal Joseph
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique Morris, EdD
Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach
Radio Golf by August Wilson
Raising Free People by Akilah S. Richards
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
Reading With Patrick by Michelle Kuo
Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan
See No Stranger by Valerie Kaur
Shifting by Charisse Jones and Kumea Shorter-Gooden
Sisters of the Yam by bell hooks
Subtractive Schooling by Angela Valenzuela
Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle
Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks
Teaching with Fire by Sam M. Intrator
The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Diana Chapman, Kaley Klemp, Jim Dethmer
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker
The Black Excellence Project: Bard Early College D.C. written by 9th and 10th grade students
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Education We Need for a Future We Can’t Predict by Thomas Hatch
The Element by Sir Ken Robinson
The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and the Others In Your Life by Helen Palmer
The Essential Conversation by Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot
The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
The Gardener and the Carpenter by Alison Gopnik
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E Baptist
The Healing Wisdom of Africa: Finding Purpose through Nature, Ritual, and Community by Malidoma Patrice Some
The Inequality Machine – How Colleges Divide Us by Paul Tough
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
The Lost Education of Horace Tate by Vanessa Siddle Walker
The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G Woodson
The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Power Within Me: The road back home to the real you by Dr. Annice E. Fisher
The Price of the Ticket by James Baldwin
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail–but Some Don’t by Nate Silver
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
The Sum of Us by Heather McChee
The Sun Does Shine: How I found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
The Universe Has Your Back by Gabrielle Bernstein
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
The World According to Fannie Davis by Bridgett M. Davis
There There by Tommy Orange
Think Again by Adam Grant
Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice by Dennis Kimbro, Napoleon Hill
This America: A Case for the Nation by Jill Lepore
Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Waking Up White by Debbie Irving
We Got This by Cornelius Minor
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
We Want to Do More Than Survive by Bettina Love
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young
What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey
Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M. Steele
Who Do We Choose To Be? by Margaret Wheatley
Who Gets In and Why by Selingo
Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Tatum
Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas
Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Investors Often Ignore Entrepreneurs of Color. NewSchools Venture Fund Wants to Change That

NewSchools — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 18:44:26 +0000

By Sean Cavanagh. This blog was originally published by EdWeek MarketBrief on May 28, 2021 and can be found on their website here.

Frances Messano wants her organization to nurture promising, diverse talent within school districts — and within the education companies that serve them.

Messano is in her first year as president of NewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit venture philanthropy that accepts charitable donations and invests the money into schools, organizations, and private education companies.

NewSchools focuses its investments on early-stage companies, and provides them with guidance and support. Helping underserved communities is a core tenet of its work.

Earlier this year, the organization announced plans to invest $100 million in four investment areas that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools and among entrepreneurs.

Those four areas are nurturing diverse leaders, which includes supporting Black and Latino educators in school districts; promoting innovative school designs and learning environments; backing learning solutions, or efforts to support early-stage entrepreneurs; and supporting racial equity through investments that fall outside the other three priorities.

NewSchools unveiled those four focus areas in January, at the same time the organization announced the appointment of Messano as president. It was a newly created position in which she works with CEO Stacey Childress and guides all the organization’s investment areas.

Even before she took on her new role, Messano has taken a strong interest in the struggles of minority entrepreneurs to secure venture capital. She authored a report for NewSchools on the topic two years ago, and says it will be a priority for the organization.

EdWeek Market Brief Managing Editor Sean Cavanagh spoke recently with Messano about how her organization is trying to foster diversity within the industry through its investments, and what it will take to make progress across the broader K-12 market.

What was the overall thinking behind NewSchools Venture Fund’s plan to invest $100 million in these four investment areas?

Our new approach allows us to go deep on on work supporting diverse innovators with vision and skills, with new momentum, while erasing boundaries and focusing throughout our investments on the vital question of who leads the work. Some of the investment areas of focus you’ll recognize—innovative public schools and diverse leaders will continue to be central to our work.

We’re funding early-stage education innovators. What that means is we’re funding people who are creating new schools, in both charter and district contexts. We are funding organizations that are creating new learning solutions. That’s where our ed-tech work has sat–more for-profit companies. We are funding the creation of diverse leadership pipelines, so we can make sure there are Black and Latino leaders at all levels of education. And then also funding the creation of diversity, equity, and inclusion capacity-builders–such as service providers–people who are working directly with schools and systems and other education organizations to become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

How will the investment in racial equity play out?

In our racial equity work, what we learned from our diverse leaders portfolio over time is it’s important to have a cross-cutting priority on diversity, equity, and inclusion, but it’s also helpful for us as funders to have a direct focus on an issue where there’s a need, where we need to shine a brighter light. To be able to focus on diversity in a cross-cutting way, but then fund against it, we’re actually able to influence the field more, through other education partners, other foundations.

How will you make investment decisions with the new racial equity fund?

We are intentionally going to have a broad-based fund. And we’re going to use participatory grant-making, meaning we’ll have a steering committee of 15 individuals, innovators outside of our portfolio, including parents and students, to decide how that money gets allocated. Because our belief is, if racial equity is seeding power and making sure it meets the needs of students and families, we need to have a representative committee making those decisions.

We don’t know what ideas will come to us–because we’re going to have an open funding opportunity. [But] when we were doing the planning work, the kinds of ideas coming up seemed to be anti-racist curriculum, culturally responsive curriculum, youth leadership, more of a focus on social-emotional supports for students, as well as efforts to rethink school discipline.

What are some of the most essential kinds of support this funding will provide to founders of early-stage companies?

There were a number of trends and themes that kept coming up from innovators of color. One is that we have all these ideas of how work should be done differently to create a more diverse and equitable system, but we can’t find the funders. Basically, the parameters of a funder strategy don’t allow for that innovation to take root. They felt they had to sit in particular molds and ways of doing that work.

Are there areas where the K-12 market continually falls short, in supporting minority entrepreneurs?

We’re incredibly fragmented and segmented in terms of the work that’s done. You think about different companies–everyone has their own area of expertise and focus. But we’re not seeing a range of integrated solutions that are going to meet the needs of school systems so they can be on a journey to create more racially equitable experiences for students.

When I think of the work of curriculum providers, some might say, “I’m going to give you great, strong math curriculum.” But they’re not necessarily thinking about how to make sure that curriculum is culturally responsive–bringing the experiences of a diverse range of students and communities.

As you’re thinking about teacher professional development and support, you can focus on content. But it’s also about engaging students who might have a different race or ethnicity than you–how are you making sure you’re spending enough time on the engagement strategies to make sure it’s going to meet the needs of all students?

Does this lack of cohesion hamper diversity in the market in other ways?

I find [this fragmentation] even with diversity, equity, and inclusion service providers. You might have someone who could say, “I’m really great about doing an audit of your system to help you understand the approaches that will work today, and where you can grow your support.” But the people who are great on implementation might be a different group of folks.

We need to make greater levels of progress in thinking about wholesale solutions that school system leaders can engage in, and can address some of that silo-ing that exists. Because I find that system leaders are often having to bring together a patchwork of solutions.

What kinds of education companies do you envision NewSchools supporting through its racial-equity work?

There are early-stage innovators of color who are saying, “I have this area of what can work differently in school systems around the country, but I haven’t really found the opportunity to get funding for it.”

We typically fund people who are in year zero through year three of developing new ideas, who might not have been able to get ideas off the ground. Because we’re using participatory grantmaking, that decision’s not up to us. It’s up the individuals on the decision-making committee.

But based on our learning solutions work, we’re going to fund people who are going to create new tools, new subject-area approaches, new ways of doing school entirely. I imagine we’ll have new curriculum companies or schools that feel they’ve figured things out and want to scale. We’re actually launching a funding opportunity focused on literacy solutions, specifically, where we’re hoping to have those sorts of players share their ideas for us for supporting literacy in a more equitable way.

You’ve done research on why entrepreneurs of color don’t get backing from investors. What do you see as the best ways to tackle that problem?

This is an issue that’s been getting a lot of focus recently, which I’m excited about. Number one, there’s a lack of understanding of both philanthropic and investment capital. When we asked entrepreneurs, “Are you familiar with the top 10 education funders,” less than 50 percent of them knew who the funders were. Just a third had reached out to get any capital at all. Part of it is a lack of understanding of who’s funding and how do you get access to the funding.

A lot of the questions we’ve seen coming up [from these company founders] were along the lines of, “Is that funder looking for someone like me? Do I fit the mold?” When you think of entrepreneurs, innovators, there’s typically an image that comes to mind. It might be someone who identifies as white, someone who’s male, who’s gone to a particular school. There’s some belief that, “You’re not looking for me in the first place.” There’s some opting-out.

How do you conquer those barriers?

What we’re hoping to do–and see others do–is figure out how we let people know we’re looking for diverse innovators. We’re looking for people who have fundamentally new approaches and new ideas. We’re not just trying to replicate what others would see as tried-and-true best practice. What we really believe now, as everyone is navigating the pandemic, and thinking about systemic racism in our system, is that we need new combinations of best practice or fundamentally different solutions.

It’s on us as funders to build pipelines of leaders in communities we might not be in touch with already. It requires capital providers to think differently about how they’re choosing who to fund. We believe diverse innovators are going to help us figure out what the work is that needs to be done, and how.

And I’m assuming you see broader benefits in entrepreneurs of color bringing new solutions into schools.

You have to look at our main customers in the education system–those who are the least well-served.

There is a distrust, a mistrust of education systems right now. We’re seeing this during the pandemic, [with parents asking], “Are leaders going to do what’s right for my kids?” There’s a lot of research that’s shown that if a student being taught by a teacher who shares his or her racial or ethnic background, academic results go up, suspensions or referrals go down, students are developing greater aspirations for themselves. There are all these benefits that accrue when we have diverse leaders in place.

Guest Post: Turning the Tassel – The Student Who Changed My Life

Guest — Wed, 21 Jun 2017 13:00:55 +0000

Guest Post by Oliver Sicat, CEO of Ednovate

Graduation is always a special time for me as a school leader. At Ednovate, our mission is to educate high school students who will use their college degrees and careers to enact Positive Multigenerational Change in their communities, nation and world. There are currently three schools in the Ednovate network. Each student in our community is so dear to me, and there are few things more gratifying than seeing them reach the important milestone of high school graduation.

But this year, it was a college graduation that was the most memorable to me. A former student of mine, Felicia, who I met long before I opened Ednovate, graduated from UMass Amherst this spring. A few weeks ago, I flew there from Los Angeles to see Felicia receive her Bachelor’s Degree, 11 years after I watched her graduate from high school.

As an educator, each student touches your life in a different way. I met Felicia in 2002 when I was a high school math teacher in Boston, and she inspired me to ultimately found the schools I opened in Chicago and Los Angeles. I remember those days when she would tell me: “I’m bored” or “I’m not being challenged.” Back then, I wished I had a way for Felicia to work at her own level without waiting for the rest of the class to catch up. Instead, I would tell her to go to the computer lab and research something she was interested in. The trouble was Felicia didn’t know what she was interested in because she hadn’t yet found her passion, and her school didn’t have a structure to help her discover it. That experience inspired me to create a model that would have better set her up for success.

I’m thankful to NewSchools Venture Fund for supporting us as one of our earliest funders, which was crucial to getting Ednovate off the ground. Ednovate is just five years old, but we’ve had a 100 percent graduation rate each year, and from last year’s graduating class, 93 percent are still in college in their second year.

I worked with Felicia throughout her high school years and when she was accepted at college I was so excited to tour her around the campus. I went with her to freshman orientation and bought her and myself a Bridgewater State University t-shirt. But within the first semester, staying on top of classes and finances became too difficult and she left the school. Felicia told me, “I will graduate from college, I promise.” I said, “I’ll be there,” and that was 11 years ago. We stayed in contact and she kept me updated on her life – she had two kids, got married, and bounced between different community colleges and online degree programs until landing at UMass Amherst University Without Walls where she found her groove. Felicia realized she wanted to create an afterschool program to help students like her through high school, and finding this passion gave her a strong purpose to finish her degree.

One year ago she contacted me and said, “Here is my graduation date.” Felicia never asks for anything but I knew from her message that she remembered the promise I made. I kept that date on my calendar, and when she reached out again a few months ago, I booked a ticket to Boston. I had a great time seeing her after 11 years and meeting her husband and two beautiful kids, and I could tell she was filled with pride.

Felicia’s story is not unusual – many of her fellow students faced similar obstacles to obtain a college degree. Out of Felicia’s group of 20 students, only three graduated from college within four years. Often students left school because the academic requirements were too difficult to finish in four years, and the additional semesters created an impossible amount of debt.

Graduations are enormous accomplishments for students – many of whom have faced challenges you couldn’t even imagine – but we’re hoping high school isn’t the last graduation ceremony they attend. I’ve been to many graduations as a teacher, a principal and a founder of a network of schools, and I’ve learned that getting students to their high school graduation is just the first step. If the school has done its job right, we’ve set up them to succeed in their next chapter without us. Graduation at Ednovate is always a special day for me, but four years from now I’m hoping to be at a whole bunch of new graduations for our students who are on track to finish college.

Congratulations to the Newest Ignite Cohort

Tonika Cheek Clayton — Wed, 10 May 2017 10:00:34 +0000

We’re thrilled to announce $1.5 million in funding to the 15 winners of the NewSchools Ignite Special Education Challenge. This cohort of entrepreneurs brings a diversity of ed tech solutions with potential to impact the more than 6.4 million students with disabilities in the U.S. K-12 education system.

Congratulations to:

Students with disabilities disproportionately face challenges in the classroom. More than 50 percent of states need additional support to meet federal special education requirements, and nearly 40 percent of students receiving special education services do not graduate from high school. Based on interviews with dozens of educators, thought leaders, and special education experts, we believe technology can support students with disabilities in the following ways:

making rigorous academic content accessible to a wide range of students,
encouraging increased communication and collaboration among diverse learners,
supporting skills related to executive functioning and agency, and
using data to empower students, families, and educators.

Challenge winners address one or more of these needs by creating innovative tools designed to help improve student learning in preK-12 schools.

Several winners focus on specific areas of content, such as STEM. PhET Interactive Simulations, a non-profit based out of the University of Colorado, aims to make its popular library of online math and science simulations accessible to students with audio or visual impairments. Zyrobotics also focuses on STEM for a younger age group — preK through 2nd graders, with an emphasis on providing tactile interactions applicable to a range of students with motor disabilities. Enuma offers a range of online applications for young learners to build executive function, especially in the context of math.

BeeLine Reader’s research-backed technology helps students—especially those with dyslexia, ADHD, or other special needs—to read more easily and effectively on-screen, while Nearpod utilizes multimodal learning delivery methods such as virtual reality and video to deliver custom lessons optimized for students with a wide range of disabilities.

Timocco is an occupational therapy tool that gamifies learning through software that incorporates fine tuning of motor skills using everyday objects. Similarly, Kinems provides an interactive movement-based learning platform with customizable games that combine movement therapies with ELA and Math academic skills for K-3 students with disabilities.

This cohort also includes a mix of tools and platforms designed to help educators personalize learning and more effectively manage the individualized education plan (IEP) process. Goalbook’s established platform offers research-based instructional goals and strategies for special and general education teachers, while Education Modified gives teachers tailored content and a workflow tool from an extensive, vetted database of research-based teaching strategies for any disability or learning challenge that focuses on practical implementation in the classroom.

Newcomer LiftEd offers a mobile academic and behavior tracking tool designed to address key data collection pain points currently felt by many special education educators, while Branching Minds’ platform creates a more seamless process for Response to Intervention (RTI) and pre-referral to special education in addition to enabling educators to track and monitor interventions for literature, math and student behavior. A Brooklyn school principal who serves a student population in which nearly 40 percent of students receive special education services designed InnovateEDU’s Cortex platform to create personalized learning progressions for students to own their data and drive their learning.

A few tools focus specifically on improving students’ ability to communicate. VocaliD strives to give every student who is unable to speak a customized, age-appropriate voice at an affordable price. Designed to increase student engagement and replace more generic, robotic-sounding voices on communication devices in classrooms, VocaliD mixes students’ utterances with crowd-sourced donor voices to give non-verbal students a unique voice. iTherapy allows students, especially those with autism, to communicate via picture-based inputs and outputs delivered by an avatar bearing their image, helping to guide learners to form words and better express emotions.

Finally, ExceptionALLY seeks to empower parents to advocate and collaborate in the special education process by giving parents a personalized slate of accommodation, modification and goal recommendations for their child’s IEP.

Join us in congratulating this outstanding group of ed tech innovators. We believe these products can make a difference in the lives of students with disabilities and we look forward to supporting these entrepreneurs in the coming months!

Announcing our NewSchools Invent 2017 Cohort…and the Fantastic Journey to Find Them

Arielle Rittvo Kinder — Wed, 03 May 2017 10:00:40 +0000

Two years ago we launched NewSchools Invent. We wanted to invest in teams of educators who are reimagining learning, and looking to launch innovative public schools in school districts and charter networks. To create the future they want for themselves, we believe young people need a strong academic foundation along with other important mindsets, skills and habits like self-awareness, perseverance and problem solving. At NewSchools we call this an expanded definition of student success. So, we set out to find people who wanted to create schools like that.

Today, we are announcing $5.6 million in investments for a new cohort of 29 teams who are either beginning the planning process or getting ready to open new schools in the fall. It’s a phenomenal group, and I am as thrilled about them as I am about the process that brought us together.

When we started Invent in 2015, we were encouraged by our first group of investments. However, the euphoria was short lived. When we reviewed our second and third application rounds, there was a big drop in the number and quality of teams that applied. And, that’s when we realized to achieve the greatest impact for students, we needed to increase our application pool. Until this point our recruitment strategy had largely been based on the idea “if we build it, they will come,” so we took a step back and reexamined our efforts.

This led us to make significant changes to our recruitment and selection process over the next year, and started me on a journey to find these amazing potential school leaders. On the recruitment side, we knew promising teams were out there; they just didn’t know about NewSchools or this program called Invent. So, we became more proactive about promoting Invent, and worked to reach teams outside our echo chamber and beyond social media. We also adjusted our application timeline to better meet the needs of educators.

On the selection side, we had been hesitant to invest in teams considered risky due to gaps in their instruction, leadership or operations. However, some of our riskier investments had become the most prepared to launch new schools with our management assistance. So, we pushed ourselves to take more risks, knowing that we would need to increase our support, but that it could result in better school outcomes.

Finally, we expanded our definition of “reimagining the student experience.” We still help all of our teams design schools that personalize learning and foster student ownership, but we’ve also broadened our frame to recognize that at the application stage, teams might prioritize other ways of supporting an expanded definition of student success.

With these improvements applied to our pipeline process, we launched applications for our 2017 cohort. We were encouraged by the momentum and I am excited to tell you the results.

First, we attracted lots more teams. The number of applications doubled, and the number of teams led by leaders of color jumped from 30 to 50 percent.

We’re also finding schools and leadership teams in new regions and states. It’s great for the field, but more importantly it will impact tens of thousands of students who eventually will be learning in these schools every year.

Congratulations to the 2017 cohort!

Planning teams with the intent to launch schools in 2018:

Achievers Academy Early College High School (Trenton, NJ)
Altura Preparatory School (Albuquerque, NM)
Boston Big Picture Learning (Boston, MA)
Bricolage Middle School (New Orleans, LA)
Chicago Collegiate Charter School (Chicago, IL)
The CUBE (Denver, CO)
DC International School (Washington, DC)
Design School X, Oakland (Oakland, CA)
Digital Pioneers Academy (Washington, DC)
Equity Lab Charter Schools (Lynn, MA)
Future Public School (Boise, ID)
Impact Public Schools(Seattle, WA)
Learning by Design (Los Angeles, CA)
LEEP Academies of Texas (San Antonio, TX)
Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School (Washington, DC)
North Star College Preparatory Academy for Boys (Washington, DC)
PRIME School (Los Angeles, CA)
Promise Public Schools (San Jose, CA)
STAR Academy (Birmingham, AL)
Tulsa Legacy Charter School (Tulsa, OK)
Urban Assembly School for Computer Science (New York, NY)
Walkabout Consilient School (Ossining, NY)
Willow Public School (Walla Walla, WA)

Planning teams with the intent to launch schools in 2017:

Academy for Advanced Learning (Aurora, CO)
Accel Day and Evening Academy (Mobile, AL)
Big Picture Twin Cities (Minneapolis, MN)
Ignite Achievement Academy (Indianapolis, IN)
Purdue Polytechnic High School (Indianapolis, IN)
Treasure Valley Leadership Academy (Nampa, ID)

Teams interested in receiving support for the design and planning of an innovative school launching in 2019 or beyond can submit their ideas here; the formal application period will open later this summer. Those selected for planning support can later apply for launch investments, which offer select applicants funding to move from planning to implementation. The grants range from $100,000 to $500,000 across both categories.

Announcing the NewSchools Ignite Special Education Challenge

Esther Tricoche — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 13:00:13 +0000

We’re excited to announce the NewSchools Ignite: Special Education Challenge, which opens today. This challenge – the fourth in the NewSchools Ignite series – is open to entrepreneurs developing engaging, technology-enabled learning experiences, instructional content, assessments, administrative tools, and other digital products that support students with disabilities in Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade. Applications are open through March 12.

Informed by both special education research, as well as interviews with approximately 40 educators, experts, and entrepreneurs across the country, we’ve focused our scope on tools that meet one or more of the following areas of critical need for special education:

Making rigorous academic content accessible to a wide range of students: Special educators emphasize the importance of tools that reduce or remove barriers to rigorous instruction and help to personalize learning based on individual students’ strengths and needs.

Encouraging increased communication and collaboration among diverse learners: Increased social interactions across students with varying strengths and needs are beneficial for all members of a classroom community. For example, young adults with learning disabilities are twice as likely to struggle socially, and four times more likely to have issues with self confidence.

Supporting skills related to executive functioning and agency: Technology can help students with disabilities build executive functioning skills like impulse control, flexible thinking, and self monitoring, which are transferable across settings and learning objectives, in and out of school.

Using data to empower students, families, and educators: Data can provide special educators with critical insights that enable targeted instructional interventions tailored to each student in a learning community that includes families and educators.

As with past Ignite challenges, the NewSchools Ignite Special Education Challenge is open to for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations in both early and growth stages and will award $1.5 million in funding to up to 15 ventures developing digital tools with the potential to improve special education in PreK-12. Challenge winners will receive individual investments ranging from $50,000 to $150,000, management assistance, and access to research expertise as part of the ed tech accelerator’s unique virtual program, with no equity asked in return.

In partnership with education research nonprofit WestEd, Special Education Challenge ventures will have highly customized ongoing support and guidance through product development and growth. Access to valuable small-scale research studies, feedback from special education experts, and field testing opportunities and evaluations are all part of the six-month long program.

We hope entrepreneurs who answer the call to the Special Education Challenge will help millions of students across the country receiving special education services to achieve their most ambitious dreams.

News Release – Got an Idea for an Ed Tech Tool to Support Special Education? NewSchools Ignite Might Fund it!

Debbie Veney — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 12:30:33 +0000

Contact:

Debbie Veney dveney@newschools.org | 415-375-8262

Elly Stolnitz estolnitz@newschools.org | 415-371-6034

Announcing up to $1.5 million in new funding opportunities for ed tech entrepreneurs

(Oakland, CA, February 16, 2017) — NewSchools Venture Fund is excited to announce the launch of its next ed tech funding opportunity: the NewSchools Ignite Special Education Challenge. This challenge targets ed tech entrepreneurs with a product that supports Pre-Kindergarten through 12^th grade students in special education. The opportunity will be open from February 16 till March 12.

NewSchools Ignite is a virtual ed tech accelerator that focuses on market gaps in education, and supports entrepreneurs interested in developing products that help schools and teachers tailor learning for students, and make the best use of instructional time and resources. While some segments of the ed tech market have grown rapidly in the last few years, other market segments are still lagging in innovation that meets critical student and teacher needs. Tools for students with disabilities is one of those areas, and is the focus of this current ed tech challenge.

“We always begin by listening to educators,” said Tonika Cheek Clayton, managing partner, NewSchools Venture Fund. “It seems intuitive that students with disabilities might need significant academic support, but we talked with experts and gained a much better understanding of the higher incidence of adverse outcomes for these students – such as significant gaps in student achievement when compared to their counterparts, and lower graduation and employment rates. More importantly, we learned how ed tech tools could help.”

To help inform the specifications of the NewSchools Ignite Special Education Challenge, the team at NewSchools conducted market research with approximately 40 educators, thought leaders and entrepreneurs. Market research showed ed tech tools have potential to address several critical areas of need for students with disabilities:

making rigorous academic content accessible to a wide range of students
encouraging increased communication and collaboration of diverse learners
supporting skills related to executive functioning and agency
using data to empower students, families, and educators

For this challenge, the team is seeking a diverse set of entrepreneurs to create exceptional special education tools for students, with funding in the range of $50,000-$150,000. Funding will be accompanied by management assistance and collaboration within a community of practice of other organizations that receive funding in this challenge. Ventures will be notified by April 28. Interested entrepreneurs can apply at www.newschools.org/ignite/special-education-challenge.

NewSchools finds, funds and supports teams of educators and entrepreneurs whose bold ideas have the potential to achieve outstanding results for students. Previous NewSchools Ignite challenges have been focused on science, middle and high school math, and English Language Learning.

NewSchools Venture Fund is a national nonprofit that supports and invests in promising and innovative education entrepreneurs and leaders, and helps them accomplish their missions to achieve outstanding results for the schools, students and educators they serve. We are committed to helping students graduate high school prepared and inspired to achieve their most ambitious dreams and plans. Through our investing, management assistance, network building, and thought leadership, NewSchools helps to reimagine K–12 education.

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Looking Back on 2016 – Check out Our Highlights Video!

NewSchools — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 22:07:38 +0000

By Mark Boone, Chief Development Officer

This has been quite a year, and a very memorable one in many ways. Around the country, student voices became more prominent on a range of issues – academic, social and political. States began working on plans under a landmark new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, and the nation saw its highest ever graduation rates.

But even with all these changes, some important things remained constant. The NewSchools team continued to make investments in entrepreneurs whose bold ideas can dramatically impact learning and student achievement — ideas that can help ensure all young people have the freedom to create the lives they want for themselves.

As we reflect on 2016 at NewSchools, we have a great deal to be thankful for, and, we’re proud of what we have accomplished. After launching a refreshed strategy in 2015, we fully implemented it across all our investment areas this year. Our investment teams for Innovative Schools, Tools & Services and Diverse Leaders invested in and supported a total of 78 ventures this year.

In 2016 we supported passionate teams of educators who are launching new innovative schools and redesigning existing ones in districts and charter networks. Since 2015, we’ve supported the launch of 31 new schools that will serve 15,000 students when fully enrolled. We held two ed tech challenges this year – one for middle and high school math, and another for English Language Learners. And, we invested in 11 organizations that are creating stronger pipelines of diverse leaders in education – leaders who truly reflect the communities they serve.

As national thought leaders, during Summit 2016 NewSchools convened more than 1,100 educators, entrepreneurs, and opinion leaders to wrestle with some of the most pressing challenges in the field. And, just this past month, we released Reimagining Learning: A Big Bet on the Future of American Education. This paper and its interactive web site were produced by the NewSchools team, but the concepts in Reimagining Learning reflect the thinking and hard work of many in education who share this vision.

We are incredibly thankful for the support of our generous donors, without whom none of this work is possible. With that in mind, please take a look at our 2016 highlights video to see what we’ve accomplished this year.

With gratitude and best wishes for the New Year!

Mark

What Would You Do With $4 Billion?

Debbie Veney — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 18:37:47 +0000

Now, I don’t want to name drop. So, let’s just say a “well-known education philanthropist” posed a fascinating question to our CEO early this year. He asked what she would do to improve education with about $400 million a year for the next 10 years. Stated differently, he was asking what she would do with $4 billion.

That got her attention. But more importantly, it got her to thinking and talking to some other people about this very provocative question. From the start, it was clear the answer had to include much more than NewSchools. It had to have innovation at its core, and it had to involve many more people. From there, lots of conversations got started.

All that thinking, research and discussion has culminated in a new paper we are formally releasing today. Reimagining Learning: A Big Bet on the Future of American Education is co-authored by our CEO, Stacey Childress, and our COO, Meghan Amrofell. Although we’re producing the paper at NewSchools, the concepts in “Reimagining Learning” come from our collaboration with educators, school leaders, funders, researchers and other thought leaders over the past several years.

Many bright minds have been working on great ideas with one common thread: how to design and implement innovative school models that work better for all students. This shared vision is reflected in “Reimagining Learning,” which is an interactive web site with a downloadable version available in PDF form.

Stacey and Meghan began writing the paper last summer, and quietly socializing a near-final draft in the fall. Today, we’re releasing it broadly.

We are all very excited to have folks digest the ideas and begin to develop their own. Maybe you’ll even be inspired to reach out and keep the conversation going. What would you do with $4 billion to improve education over the next 10 years?