ed tech – NewSchools Venture Fund

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.

Top 10 Takeaways from the NewSchools-Gallup Survey for Ed Tech Innovators

Justin Wedell — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 21:00:47 +0000

Justin Wedell, Associate Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund

In 2019, NewSchools partnered with Gallup to release “Education Technology Use in Schools,” a comprehensive report to better understand ed tech’s perceptions and usage. This past summer, we conducted a follow-up survey of parents, teachers, and students to evaluate how ed tech’s engagement may be changing in the pandemic context. We also surveyed how these groups feel about the coming school year and the supports they’ll need to be successful.

Some of our findings are particularly salient for ed tech innovators — those building and deploying the education technology upon which schools and families must rely. We’ve highlighted these findings because we feel they are the most relevant for innovators to consider as they develop new features and supports to empower parents, teachers, and students right now. Some of the findings remain aligned to our 2019 ed tech innovator takeaways, but most represent the demands of our new normal.

Top Ten Takeaways for Ed Tech Innovators

Ed tech is still (obviously) everywhere, and teachers are here for it
Middle and high school students are feeling more disengaged
Personalized instruction is now the top priority across subjects
Parents and teachers have different ed tech selection priorities
Teachers are still the #1 most trusted resource when selecting ed tech, but the importance of evidence is rising
For special education teachers, perceptions of ed tech’s effectiveness have dropped significantly during the pandemic
Ed tech companies must do a better job providing support to a diverse user base
Access to devices and bandwidth at home remains a challenge for some families
Families’ biggest need isn’t device access; it’s clarity
Ed tech companies must turn parents from detractors to promoters

1. Ed tech is still (obviously) everywhere, and teachers are here for it. In 2019, 81% of teachers saw great value in using ed tech tools and were even more optimistic (85%) about its future value. In 2020, teachers have become more positive on ed tech’s value, with 85% of teachers seeing great value using ed tech tools now and 90% seeing great value in using them in the future. Ed tech use was commonplace before the pandemic and rapidly becoming a standard part of the day-to-day education experience. With the onset of distance learning for many of our nation’s public schools, ed tech’s increased role has not yet dampened the positive perspective that most educators hold on its utility. How is your company building on this trust to better serve teachers in this moment?

2. Middle and high school students still want better, not just more, ed tech. Only about one in five middle and high school students would like to use ed tech less in the upcoming school year. Both groups’ desires for improvements in ed tech quality remain similar to those voiced in 2019. Middle schoolers’ top requests still include ed tech that’s more fun, interesting, and game-oriented. Only three in 10 middle schoolers say that school makes them want to learn more. Ed tech tools must rise to the occasion to better engage them.

High schoolers’ top requests still revolve around how ed tech might empower their learning, including better saving and organizing their work, tracking their learning progress, and interacting with their teachers more. Like middle schoolers, about three in 10 high schoolers agree that their schoolwork makes them want to learn more. Only 35% of high schoolers say they can connect what they’re learning in school to life outside the classroom, compared to 44% of high schoolers in 2019. How might your product, now and in the future, better meet these expectations?

3. Personalized instruction is now the top priority across subjects. When reviewing teachers’ top selection priorities by subject, “personalized instruction” is now the number one selection criteria across all subjects. This is a departure from 2019, when personalized instruction was the top priority for core subjects, but not areas such as science and history/social studies. Except for reading, “easy to use” is also now present in the top three selection priorities for teachers across all subjects. How do your product and your messaging measure up against these priorities?

4. Parents and teachers have different ed tech selection priorities. Teachers and parents align on their top ed tech selection criterion — personalized instruction — , and both also look for products that are easy to use. However, whereas teachers are looking for tools that can provide immediate and actionable feedback, parents place more importance on student engagement and overall learning outcomes. How does your messaging and customer support align to these different user needs?

5. Teachers are still the #1 most trusted resource when selecting ed tech, but the importance of evidence is rising. Teachers still overwhelmingly rank “other teachers” as the most trusted source for helping them decide what ed tech tools to use. Parents and students also consider teachers to be their most trusted resource for selecting ed tech. However, a notable difference in 2020 is the rising importance of evidence for ed tech selection. Whereas only 18% of teachers cited evidence-based reports in 2019, they are now considered a trusted resource by 27% of teachers. Case studies have seen growth in esteem with the teacher populations and are now cited by 13% of teachers compared to only 6% in 2019. Parents, meanwhile, rely much more heavily on evidence-based reports and case studies than do teachers. How are you engaging teacher influencers in your focus area? How are you making your efficacy portfolio more visible and accessible?

6. For special education teachers, perceptions of ed tech’s effectiveness have dropped significantly during the pandemic. Across the board, teacher perceptions of ed tech’s effectiveness dropped in 2020, signaling potential ed tech fatigue as well as a new understanding of ed tech’s limits in the context of the pandemic. These drops are most significant for teachers whose main subject is special education. When considering ed tech’s effectiveness in serving students with special needs or disabilities, teachers gave lower marks to digital tools’ ability to make content accessible, support the development of life skills, and encourage communication and collaboration with peers. What feedback have you received from your teacher users, and what are you doing to engage in equity-centered improvements?

7. Ed tech companies must do a better job providing support to a diverse user base. When asked about the types of ed tech tools to which they had access, the majority of teachers, parents, and students considered them to be excellent or good. However, these positive perceptions broke down when respondents rated the quality of support they received from schools and ed tech companies to use these tools. Roughly a third of parents and students say that the support they received from ed tech companies was poor. Even more concerning are the differences that emerge when accounting for income and race. Students from low-income households and Latino parents and students were least likely to rate the support they received from ed tech companies as excellent or good. What are you doing to differentiate your customer support to amplify positive outcomes for all users?

8. Access to devices and bandwidth at home remains a challenge for some families. In 2019, we reported on the variability in device access within schools, which could make scaling in multiple schools/districts more challenging if your product doesn’t flex well to different access models. In the context of distance learning, we wanted to explore this challenge through the at-home lens. Eighty-one percent of parent respondents say their child has access to a family-owned computer to complete school work at home, while 35% say their child has access to a school-provided computer. These numbers shift, however, when accounting for household income. In lower-income households, only 68% of parents cite having access to a family-owned computer compared to 88% of parents in higher-income households. With regards to internet access, a similar story emerges. While 96% of parents in higher-income households say their internet is reliable-to-very-reliable, only 81% of parents in lower-income households say the same. How is your solution working to meet the needs of those families with more limited access?

9. Families’ biggest need isn’t device access; it’s clarity. When asked what support their families and students most need to help them be successful in the upcoming school year, an overwhelming majority of teachers, parents, and students say “clear expectations for daily/weekly school work.” For parents and students, “consistent communication” and “regular access to teachers” round out their top three. While teachers rank device access as second-most important, it’s notable that it sits at the bottom of the list for parents and students — a potential reflection of that need for greater clarity and communication between the groups. How can ed tech companies facilitate more explicit expectations and dialogue between schools and families to support student success better this year?

10. Ed tech companies must turn parents from detractors to promoters. While teachers and students have maintained relatively positive perceptions of ed tech and its role in high-quality teaching and learning, parents have a decidedly negative view. In six of eight indicators, the majority of parents say that ed tech is less effective than non-digital tools. This is emblematic of broader parent dissatisfaction with ed tech that emerged throughout the survey results. We hypothesize that the less-than-ideal onboarding experience for most parents to these digital tools is one of the driving factors here. As schools and families dig in for a long and uncertain future of distance learning this year, we wonder how ed tech companies might improve their products and their support to win over parent users.

For access to the report’s expanded findings, please visit the report’s homepage on our website. If you have any questions about the data or NewSchools, please contact Justin Wedell.

School District Superintendents to Ed Tech: “Here’s how to work with us right now.”

Justin Wedell — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 00:14:18 +0000

By Justin Wedell, Associate Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund

What should ed tech companies keep top of mind as they navigate our new COVID-19 reality? NewSchools recently brought together a diverse group of current and former superintendents from around the country to share their perspectives on this question. Our guests included:

PJ Caposey, superintendent of Meridian CUSD in Illinois,
Kevin Chase, superintendent of Yakima-based Educational Service District 105 in Washington,
Joseph Davis, superintendent of the Ferguson-Florissant School District in Missouri,
Traci Davis, former superintendent of the Washoe County School District in Nevada, and
Danny Merck, superintendent of Pickens County School District in South Carolina.

Below, we’ve outlined the top takeaways from the discussion.

Be a partner, not a vendor. Across the board, superintendents voiced how impressed they were by their current vendors who had doubled down as partners in problem-solving through the crisis. These vendors became crucial in supporting their transition to distance learning and, in the process, built deeper loyalties in their relationships. It’s expected that these actions won’t go unnoticed as superintendents decide what to prioritize and expand in the coming years.
Trust in relationships. Superintendents are currently receiving a deluge of outreach from ed tech companies. It’s overwhelming, and superintendents were candid in saying that if a vendor isn’t already in their circle, it will be hard to break through. However, superintendents were amenable to recommendations from other administrators or educators. This reflects with findings from 2019’s NewSchools-Gallup survey on ed tech, in which more than 80% of educators said they trust “teachers” most when deciding what digital learning tools to use. Ed tech companies shouldn’t be afraid to ask their customers for recommendations or advice on who to reach out to — they may be surprised by how much a customer is willing to help.
Understand district priorities. The COVID-19 crisis has surfaced many new challenges and priorities for superintendents. Parent engagement was consistently top of mind throughout the discussion. Superintendents are now searching for new solutions to support keeping parents informed and involved as they take on new educator responsibilities within the distance learning context. Professional development for teachers is also a massive priority. Besides learning how to manage the features and functions of their technology, educators need to learn what best practice looks like for using it to create engaging learning experiences in both distance and hybrid learning scenarios. Ed tech companies should ensure that their customer support and professional development plans align with these unique needs.
Think beyond core subjects. While tools for core subjects are crucial, superintendents emphasized the importance of finding tools to support social-emotional learning and mental health. Students, parents, and educators are all going through a lot right now. It’s a high priority to find tools that align with their needs and ensure implementations and use that maintain a safe space for users. To the latter point, tools that require students to video chat may inadvertently expose them to social pressures based on their homes’ background. Both educators and ed tech companies must be mindful of such scenarios and bake them into usage best practices.
Plan for the long haul. Superintendents took care to emphasize that everything that was a problem before the pandemic is still a problem now. They caution ed tech companies against completely overhauling their products to fit the conditions of the current COVID-19 moment. Those core and supplemental learning needs that companies were previously seeking to address are not going away (and are likely being amplified). Superintendents will still be making these a priority, albeit looking for tools that can address them from various implementation scenarios. Finally, with an eye toward budgetary uncertainty, superintendents recommend that ed tech companies consider implementing multi-year subscription plans with potentially-higher first-year payments. This can mitigate risk for ed tech companies as our schools and economy enter an uncertain road to recovery,

The full recording of this discussion is here if you want to hear more great advice from these superintendents. At NewSchools, we’re focused on supporting a more equitable ed tech ecosystem. We hope that this and other resources can help educators, administrators, parents, and ed tech entrepreneurs do just that.

If you’re a school leader or a school system leader, check out our #DistanceLearningLessons webinar series for lessons and resources that can inform the decisions you’re making now to reopen schools safely in the fall.

NewSchools Venture Fund’s Ed Tech Experts on COVID-19 Distance Learning

Jason Weeby — Thu, 07 May 2020 09:55:37 +0000

By Jason Weeby

Modernizing today’s classrooms with accessible and effective technology in a way that increases student learning and decreases inequities is a critical component of our strategy at NewSchools and a requirement for improving education nationwide. But ed tech is typically a fringe topic in education circles where school governance, accountability, curriculum, and instruction take center stage. When the Covid-19 pandemic swept the globe threatening lives, closing schools, and sheltering us in our places, the 16 million U.S. households with school-aged children suddenly became very interested in the technologies that could engage learners and maintain their academic progress.

The ed tech team at NewSchools is composed of three top industry experts. Like us, they’ve been thrust into the current situation and left to reconcile the grief of a deadly contagious disease with their work and personal lives. Unlike most of us, they have keen insights into the role ed tech is playing right now and what involuntary nationwide distance learning might mean for the future of schooling. I had the chance to sit down with Tonika Cheek Clayton, Justin Wedell, and Cameron White to ask them some questions. Here are their answers.

For parents who have found themselves in the position of teaching their children at home, can you help them set expectations for how technology can and can’t help them?

Cheek Clayton: It’s helpful to remind ourselves that ed tech is not THE solution; it’s something that supports learning. You can’t just sit your child in front of a computer and expect them to learn math. You still need to know what they’re trying, their level of proficiency, and what they need to practice before utilizing a technology tool. When teachers provide you with tools and instruction on how and when to use them, it’s super helpful. When they provide a tool without guidance, it means you have to figure out the rest, which can be frustrating, especially if you must do this for multiple children while balancing work and other family obligations.

Wedell: Right. I feel that a lot of people think about ed tech tools as they might think about an Instapot. You put something in it, push some buttons, leave it alone for a while, and it comes out finished. But ed tech is much more like a kitchen knife, food processor, or — for all those current food hoarders out there — a can opener. It can make the process of cooking more efficient or effective, but you still have to choose the ingredients, prep the vegetables, preheat the oven, add seasoning, and have the awareness to adjust along the way.

White: Parents are coming at this from so many perspectives, and there are so many variables. Something nearly everyone can do is have conversations with their kids about their experiences with distance learning in the same way you’d talk with them about their typical school day. Ask them about what interests them, what’s working, and what’s not. That face-to-face human interaction is still essential, maybe even more essential now that we’re all more isolated physically.

NewSchools, in partnership with Gallup, surveyed thousands of teachers, principals, and administrators about usage in pre-K-12 schools. What did that research reveal that is relevant for this moment?

Cheek Clayton: As our CEO Stacey referenced recently, one thing that was true before the pandemic and is encouraging for distance learning is that 65% of teachers and 57% of students had already said that they used digital learning tools daily. Yet, the fact that 14% of children don’t have access to wifi at home is super relevant now as schools shift to distance learning. Their ability to engage in school work is compromised.

Wedell: When we asked teachers and students how they used ed tech in their classrooms, using it for student collaboration never ranked that high. Knowing that this muscle — using technology to facilitate collaboration — wasn’t exercised much before the pandemic, I wonder what that will mean for the shift to distance learning. Another finding that our analysis revealed was just how fragmented the ed tech market is. When we asked teachers to name the digital learning tools that they were using most often, it surprised us to see just how little overlap there was in what they wrote down. It means that for most teachers, their most commonly used digital learning tools were not the same as other teachers. Parents may encounter this if they have kids in different classes or schools and have to navigate two sets of ed tech tools.

As schools and districts scramble to implement distance learning plans, what should we be looking for in terms of equity?

Cheek Clayton: In an ideal world, people would have their basic needs met during a crisis so that they can focus on learning. Assuming they do, students should have access to devices and wifi so they can engage effectively with teachers and peers to continue learning. As districts shift to distance learning, they can use the moment as a testing ground for how to support ongoing education at home as a foundation for better and more equitable outcomes even after students return to school buildings.

White: I always come back to the equity conversation through the lenses of access, use, and outcomes. On the access front, districts are reaching out to identify families who don’t have devices and loaning them devices. We’ve also seen creative solutions for providing wifi in communities. Even with devices and wifi, there are still access issues when multiple people in a household are sharing devices or a data plan. On usage, parents are taking a much more significant role in how education is delivered. Technologies designed for trained teachers in a classroom don’t always translate well to use at home. Equitable academic outcomes are a priority for us, but in the short term, we have to think about it in terms of students being safe, healthy, fed, and sheltered. The possibility of widening equity gaps is real, and we must be ready to address it.

Wedell: Education in the United States wasn’t equitable to begin with and it’s not going to be equitable now. If anything, this crisis is further revealing the deep and painful inequities upon which our society is built, and education is no exception. But equity can come from what we learn from this moment. Looking ahead, I’m optimistic that this might spur more significant policy change for how we serve all of our nation’s students. I’m hopeful that not only policymakers at all levels, but also we as community members will look at the inequities that this crisis has laid bare and commit to making a change. If this crisis isn’t enough to spur such action, I don’t know what is.

Is this moment challenging any of your fundamental beliefs about ed tech?

Cheek Clayton: The focus of our work to date has been on ensuring that students’ learning experiences in classrooms would lead to equitable outcomes. We focused less on home ed tech because there’s so much variability in access to devices and wifi across homes within underserved communities. Now that I’m seeing some positive signs of communities working together to provide an infrastructure for all students to access devices and wifi from home freely, I’m thinking about the home learning environment differently. How can ed tech work in both school and home contexts involving teachers and parents as educators? The answer could reshape how teachers and parents connect around their students’ learning and have a real positive impact on education in the future. Many products already focus on in-home learning, but many require subscription fees, which favors families who can afford them. So current and new products adapting to home-based education need to ensure equitable access and participation.

Wedell: From the perspective of an ed tech funder, this moment is making me reflect upon the imperative for us to think more collectively in terms of our impact. Ed tech funders, developers, and implementers often operate in a silo ignoring the critical interdependencies that our success relies on like health, safety, food security, and strong community relationships. If we widen our aperture as funders, we can change our perspectives on ed tech as a workaround for other systemic issues and perhaps be more accountable to how it might complement or amplify the efforts of those working on different critical community needs.

White: There’s always been the idea that there needs to be a certain level of customizability in the implementation of ed tech products. What the shift to distance learning has illuminated for me is just how critical considerations of the learning environment are when every home is different. Every school and district is handling this crisis differently. Product developers have to think about how to balance building for a specific instructional context with enabling flexible use in the face of uncertainty.

When the pandemic subsides, do you think American pre-K-12 education will be different? If so, how?

Cheek Clayton: Yes, I do think it’ll be different. I think a lot of things will be different. We were all blindsided by the pandemic and mass school closures. They forced schools and districts to create and implement distance learning plans very quickly. We don’t know if this will subside or be an ongoing health crisis, but I assume districts will take their distance learning plans much more seriously. As a result, schools and districts will purchase ed tech tools partly on their ability to work in the classroom and at home.

Wedell: For so long, school life and home life have been siloed. Distance learning will help bring them closer together. Unfortunately, what probably won’t change in the long run is respect for the average public school teacher. As a former teacher, I worry that people are going to be real quick to forget about the lessons from this experience of just how complicated and nuanced effective teaching really is. This is a big concern for me, and I hope I’m proved wrong.

Cheek Clayton: That’s where we disagree. Speaking from experience, the struggle to teach one’s children is real. For those of us who don’t consider ourselves good teachers, we’ll appreciate teachers even more when schools are open again.

SEL Has Never Been More Important: Three Equity-Focused Tools to Use at Home

Cameron White — Thu, 07 May 2020 01:34:01 +0000

By Cameron White, Senior Associate Partner

Even before the COVID-19 public health crisis, equity-minded educators recognized the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL) in supporting students’ growth. In a survey conducted by EdWeek before widespread school closures, almost 90 percent of K-12 district leaders had already invested in products designed to support SEL. COVID-19 has reinforced — or perhaps revealed — a range of equity-related challenges to implementing these plans. Remote learning may not represent the “new normal,” yet for the time being, it has increased distance between students, their peers, and educators. Resulting educational gaps are compounded by an economic downturn that affects many households’ finances in the short term, as well as school funding in the longer term.

While limited time and tightening budgets may create pressure to narrow the focus of education — for example, to limit learning loss in core subject areas — there is also a renewed urgency to empower students from all backgrounds through SEL. According to the National Equity Project, integrating SEL into instruction can help educators “create inclusive, liberatory learning environments in which students of color and students living in poverty experience a sense of belonging, agency to shape the content and process of their learning, and thrive.” Building resilience can also help to mitigate the risks of prolonged stress, which if left unchecked can create “a cumulative toll on an individual’s physical and mental health — for a lifetime.” In a world where caregivers’ time and capacity to support students’ SEL development varies widely, there is an opportunity for educators to develop shared expertise and practices that can form a foundation for healthy relationships, at school and home, in the years to come.

Technology itself is not the solution to these complex challenges, and its potential is limited by the persistent effects of the “digital divide.” Nonetheless, in times characterized by widespread isolation, thoughtful integration of high-quality ed tech can create powerful opportunities to strengthen human connections within and across diverse communities. Below I share three examples from NewSchools’ Ed Tech portfolio of technology-enabled, equity-informed solutions that can support educators in addressing these areas. Like many of our investments focused on an expanded definition of student success, these tools are rooted in the experiences of Black students, Latino students, and students in low-income communities.

Yoga Foster — Mindful Remote Learning Platform

Yoga Foster, Meditation for Kids: Anxiety

One method that has shown initial promise in supporting students’ mental health is the integration of mindfulness techniques, which can help students and educators from all backgrounds stay grounded in the face of uncertainty. Stress-reduction expert Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as “awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally … in the service of self-understanding and wisdom.” Yoga Foster’s Mindful Remote Learning Platform combines pre-recorded meditation videos with offline journal reflections exploring key topics such as anxiety, difficult emotions, and gratitude. The platform also offers accessible opportunities for “mindful movement” through short (15- to 45-minute) yoga breaks, many of which are led by educators of color. These resources — available in both English and Spanish — are free for teachers and parents. For those interested in taking these practices deeper, Yoga Foster also offers monthly subscriptions for families, as well as professional development for educators.

Stop, Breathe, & Think — Classroom Toolkits

Stop, Breathe, & Think, Classroom Wall Art

Another product offering support for students’ mental health is Stop, Breathe, & Think’s Classroom toolkits, which provide access to more than 100 mindfulness and yoga activities. Exercises are designed to help students work through stress and anxiety while strengthening relationships and communication. A recently added “For Youth of Color” category addresses topics such as “celebrating our black and brown bodies,” “feeling connected,” and “rediscovering the good in me.” In the words of one fifth grade teacher who has used the product: “I was so impressed with the cultural sensitivity of these meditations. I am Latina, and all of my students are Hispanic. We are a Title 1 school. I never thought before about meditation in communities of color until I listened to the new set and realized how much better it could be for us.” Lifetime educator subscriptions are currently free.

Sown to Grow — Tools to support student reflection

Sown To Grow, Check-in, planning and reflection modules

A third approach supporting students’ SEL growth is Sown to Grow’s student goal-setting and reflection tools. Newly released learning modules — which can be completed online or through a printed version — facilitate a simple morning check-in and afternoon check-out. The tools are designed for flexibility, enabling students to engage with topics related to psychological development as well as academic planning and reflection. In designing the updated tool to address gaps related to “social-emotional well-being, personal planning, and self-motivation,” the team considered the importance of routine amid uncertainty, especially for students in underserved communities. According to co-founder and CEO Rupa Gupta: “This time cannot be just about academic continuity. Our students’ social and emotional health and well-being through this crisis likely have far greater implications for their outcomes than their grades.”

At a time when many schools will likely be operating with reduced resources, our hope is that the implementation of high-quality, accessible tools concentrated on mental health and SEL can support continued efforts to increase equity, during school closures and beyond.

News Release – What’s New in Ed Tech for Early Learning?

Elly Stolnitz — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 10:00:20 +0000

NewSchools Launches Challenge Based on New Findings

(Oakland, CA, August 7, 2017) – NewSchools Venture Fund recently conducted market research on early learning and uncovered unmet needs in ed tech tools tailored for preK-2^nd grade learners. This research – generated through interviews with educators, school leaders, entrepreneurs, and funders – inspired the NewSchools Ignite challenge for innovative ed tech tools to support students in PreK-2^nd grade. The “Early Learning Challenge – PreK-2^nd Grade” runs August 1-31, 2017 and is supported in part by Omidyar Network.

“NewSchools Ignite is rooted in research, and we always start by talking to people in the field who are doing this work,” said Tonika Cheek Clayton, managing partner, NewSchools Venture Fund. “We heard from both educators and ed tech developers about the lack of high-quality tools to support academic and social development for young students. They also emphasized the importance of limiting the hours spent on devices and promoting interaction with parents and teachers.”

“Given NewSchools Venture Fund’s track record of sparking new ideas and activities in education for nearly 20 years, Omidyar Network is proud to help support the NewSchools Ignite challenge focused on early learning,” said Isabelle Hau, US Education Lead and Venture Partner, Omidyar Network. “We want to foster greater innovation in early learning and create quality early learning solutions for all children, their families and their teachers.”

Among key findings of the market research:

60 percent of four-year-olds are not enrolled in publicly funded preschool programs.
Children who don’t attend preschool are developmentally behind by almost a year or more by the time they enter Kindergarten.
Educators want to see more PreK through early elementary alignment, specifically around academic, social-emotional, and executive functioning.
Children’s learning experiences in pre-kindergarten through early elementary are shaped by many factors, including race and income, creating school readiness gaps that could be addressed in part with technology solutions.
Parents want to use educational technology to understand their child’s early learning goals in school and better assist their children at home with learning challenges.

Full findings of NewSchools’ market research on early learners will be released in a Market Gap Snapshot, the first of many to be developed in tandem with NewSchools Ignite ed tech challenges. This Market Gap Snapshot will be available beginning August 12 on the newly released NewSchools/WestEd Ed Tech Research Portal, which features a collection of market research insights, literature reviews, webinars, a product rubric and a growing collection of resources developed by other organizations.

The “Early Learning Challenge – PreK-2^nd Grade” offers companies and nonprofits a unique opportunity to create ed tech tools that address the needs of young students during this crucial time for social and academic development. NewSchools is looking for tools that can be used by students, teachers and/or parents to address one or more of the following critical needs:

Enhance interactions between students, parents, and teachers;
Enable engaging, interactive experiences that support academic development while reinforcing essential mindsets, skills and habits for success in college, career and life;
Thoughtfully consider and optimize students’ screen time while providing teachers and parents with helpful information to guide learning; and
Expand opportunities for families to discover and take advantage of developmentally appropriate early learning experiences.

In addition to funding in the range of $50,000 to $150,000, winners of NewSchools’ ed tech challenge will receive management assistance and participate in a virtual accelerator. We also provide grant recipients with targeted support and feedback from researchers, educators, investors and other experts. Submissions are due by August 31, and winners will be selected by late October.

About NewSchools Venture Fund

NewSchools Venture Fund is a national nonprofit that supports and invests in promising entrepreneurs and teams of educators who want to reimagine learning. We help 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 investments, management assistance, network building, and thought leadership, NewSchools helps to reimagine PreK-12 education.

About Omidyar Network

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, the organization invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic and social change. Omidyar Network has committed more than $1 billion to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual participation across multiple initiatives, including Education, Emerging Tech, Financial Inclusion, Governance & Citizen Engagement, and Property Rights. To learn more, visit www.omidyar.com, and follow on Twitter @omidyarnetwork #PositiveReturns

Contact:

Debbie Veney

dveney@newschools.org | 415-375-8262

Elly Stolnitz

estolnitz@newschools.org | 415-371-6034

Live From Summit 2017: Delivering on the Promise of Inclusive Classrooms: Special Education Technology

Estefany Delgado — Thu, 18 May 2017 02:18:25 +0000

This thought-provoking session was moderated by Steve Drummond, Senior Editor at NPR. Joining him as panelists were Renee Hill (Assistant Superintendent at Riverside USD), Christina Barganza (VP at Achievement First), Ben Marcovitz (CEO at Collegiate Academies), and Tonika Cheek Clayton (Managing Partner at NewSchools Venture Fund). The session defines the most critical needs of students with disabilities and identifies areas where technology could be a catalyst for change.

The needs of special education students are wide and varied, and we need tech tools that are accessible to all students. The critical areas of need for students with disabilities, as identified by NewSchools, are: 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; using data to empower students, families, and educators. Technology can provide students with physical disabilities a way to more fully engage in the classroom (e.g. VocalID provides a literal, custom voice to those students who cannot speak).

Some key points from the discussion:

More than 6.4M students have IEPs, and 35% of these students don’t graduate from HS
Students of color are disproportionately represented in the special education population (e.g. 22% of Brownsville, TX is classified as requiring special education)

Live From Summit 2017: Is EdTech the Great Equalizer? Designing Products for Equity

Esther Tricoche — Thu, 18 May 2017 01:46:55 +0000

This interactive session was led by Cameron White of NewSchools Venture Fund. Joining him as panelists were Babara Wade, Dr. Richard Charles, Daniel Munda, Eileen Murphy, Sunny Washington, and Gabriel Aduato. The session discusses equity in edtech products and how teachers use these products to create authentic, real-word classroom learning experiences.

Barbara Wade from Chicago Public Schools showed Ashburn High school students using ThinkCerca to learn about constitutional amendments and debate social issues using claims and evidence.

Dr. Richard Charles from Cherry Creek School District in Colorado showed how his elementary schools do near-space balloon launches using Ardusat, which does science experiments in space using micro controller boards with sensors for caputuring data input real-time. At the end of the year, Dr. Charles’ fourth graders will have launched 90 near-space balloons. His school even made the nightly news with a story about STEM coaches who have helped kids reach the edge of space.

Daniel Munda of The San Francisco School showed how he used Motion Math’s interactive games to make math come alive in the classroom.

NewSchools Ignite entrepreneurs from each of these companies – Eileen Murphy (ThinkCERCA), Sunny Washington (Ardusat) and Gabriel Aduato (Motion Math) shared how they think about equity as a part of product design and pricing.

Live From Summit 2017: Achieving Breakthroughs with R&D

John Terada — Wed, 17 May 2017 19:18:07 +0000

This thought-provoking and discussion-based session was moderated by Stacey Childress, the CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund and Russ Shilling from Digital Promise.

The session discussed the need to emphasize R&D within education, how it might work, and then had small breakouts to gather insights from session participants on problems an R&D organization should prioritize and focus on solving. The session began with Stacey sharing out key insights from the R&D concept paper, followed by a discussion between Stacey and Russ. (See video and slide presentation) Joining them were Nancy Lue, Meghan Amrofell & Tonika Cheek Clayton from NewSchools Venture Fund, and Mary Jo Madda from EdSurge who helped facilitate the small group breakouts. Some of the major learning challenges participants shared included having a widely adopted definition of what success looks like for students, examining the whole ecosystem from birth to career, rethinking the traditional brick and mortar school, and enhancing parent engagement. Ideas generated by 110+ participants will certainly push education R&D forward.

A Q&A session followed with some thought provoking questions prompting a discussion on some underlying challenges in R&D:

What’s the role of policymakers in this? School board members and politicians will play a role; how to translate R&D and into policy?
How do you apply methodology affecting hearts and minds vs. outcomes that are in measurable/quantitative metrics?
Building on hearts and minds: In terms of sustainability, how do we properly frame for those outside of the network?; Why house this in a non-profit space knowing the challenges as opposed to embedding this into the Dept. of Ed.?
How to bolster sustainability and risk-taking culture?

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!