By Connie Matthiessen

In response to the events of 2020 and the growing outrage over racial injustice, many philanthropies are unveiling new racial equity and diversity programs. So the recent strategy rollout by the NewSchools Venture Fund has a familiar ring: The organization committed $100 million in diverse leaders and innovators working in K-12 education, while doubling down on racial equity work.

But one thing was different about NewSchools’ announcement: The organization simultaneously appointed Frances Messano, a woman of color who has held various leadership roles at the fund, as president. “We believe it’s crucial who leads the way into this future, which is why we will continue to focus on supporting a new generation of brilliant leaders of color,” wrote NewSchools CEO Stacey Childress in the announcement. “Here, that starts with the promotion of Frances Messano to president of NewSchools.” (The role of president is a new position; Childress will continue as the organization’s CEO).

NewSchools Venture Fund, which was created in 1998, applies venture capital principles to education philanthropy in support of K-12 leaders and new ideas. It was founded by venture capitalists John Doerr and Brooke Byers, along with entrepreneur Kim Smith, and receives funding from many big-name education philanthropies, including the Gates Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

Passion and purpose

Frances Messano’s commitment to racial justice in education is rooted in her own experience. She grew up in Coney Island in a working class family: Her father was a box sorter at UPS, and her mother, an immigrant from Colombia, was a school volunteer who later became a paraprofessional and then an educator.

When she was 10 years old, Messano participated in a nonprofit program called Prep for Prep, which enabled her to attend a private school. “It was at that age—I started going to a private school at 12, in seventh grade—where my eyes were opened up about the inequities that exist in our system, and how going to a high-quality school can fundamentally change your life trajectory in terms of the range of educational and professional experiences you then have access to,” she said in a recent interview.

Through the Prep for Prep program, Messano visited colleges and received a scholarship to a test prep program so she could improve her SAT scores. She also received navigational support from adults, like the college guidance counselor at her private school, who encouraged her to apply to Harvard.

Harvard was a goal that would never have occurred to Messano without the counselor’s encouragement. “I was like ‘whoa, wait!’” Messano recalled. “‘What do you mean? Do you mean that someone who came from my neighborhood in Coney Island—this is actually a dream I can aspire to?’ No one had ever said that to me. My parents had never said that to me, not because they didn’t wish it for me, but that idea was not one that was accessible. Kids like me didn’t do things like that.”

Messano attended Harvard and after graduation, landed a corporate job on Wall Street, where she worked for four years. But she didn’t find the work satisfying. “What kept on coming up for me was that my passion and my purpose was not being realized in what I was doing every day,” she said. “I was struggling to get up out of bed to do the work because I knew that there was something that was more important to me. And as I started to go through the journey we all go through in our professional lives, I thought, ‘What is the thing that really animates me?’”

Messano went back to Harvard and got an MBA at Harvard Business School, and then did consulting work, including at the United Negro College Fund, where Dr. Michael Lomax, the organization’s CEO, was a mentor.

Through various consulting jobs and a stint as a vice president at Teach for America, Messano’s goals gradually came into focus. “I knew I needed to play a role in expanding access to many more people,” she said. “So much of my time in my early career, and even going back to grad school, was that exploration, and then finally connecting to my passion and my purpose, which is educational equity.”

Broadening the tent

During her six years at the NewSchools Venture Fund, Messano has played a key role in the organization’s diversity work. She created the Diverse Leaders funding strategy and led the Innovative Schools team; she also headed the Foundation Working Group that created the comprehensive 2017 report Unrealized Impact, about diversity across the education sector. (See IP’s report on the study.)

In her new role, Messano will be overseeing all NewSchools investment areas (the fund’s term for its grantmaking programs), which she believes will strengthen the racial justice focus. “We started to think about what it will take for us to truly meet this moment,” she said. “We thought it could be really powerful to unite our investment strategies under one leader, because we had been operating a bit more siloed in the past. And we know that the work that lies ahead requires thinking across these individual focus areas, thinking about how they connect, thinking about the opportunities for collaboration.”

NewSchools’ former investment areas were Innovative Public Schools, Education Technology, and Diverse Leaders (which they nicknamed “schools, tools, and people”). Under the new strategy, Racial Equity was added as a separate investment area, and education technology will be incorporated into a new area dubbed Learning Solutions.

Like other K-12 funders today, NewSchools believes that equity and diversity require reaching beyond the usual suspects and incorporating new voices into its decision-making processes. “We believe we need to expand our tent in education, where sometimes we can have a little bit of an echo chamber in that we’re talking to people with the same ideas,” she said. “But when it comes to innovation, it is so critical that we involve folks from the community—students, parents, other leaders—who may not view themselves as a quote-unquote ‘entrepreneur’ or ‘innovator.’”

The organization is currently putting together a panel of people from outside the organization to help them in their grant review process. “We know we can benefit from those who are more proximate to the issues themselves,” Messano said.

The current focus on diversity among philanthropists did not suddenly spring to life after the events of 2020, of course; in recent years, most ed funders, and many philanthropies overall, have identified it as a priority. Still, NewSchools has been a leader among its peers in its commitment, as IP reported in 2018. (Grantmakers for Education also chronicled NewSchools’ efforts to become a more diverse organization in a 2017 case study.)

Frances Messano makes it clear that racial equity isn’t just a priority area at NewSchools. “Racial equity is the work,” she said. “When you look at student outcomes, the fact that academic results are predictable by race, that says the system is designed in a particular way to get the outcomes that we see. The fact that 50% of public school students are students of color, and 40% are Black or Latino—that says we need to do our work differently, so it will meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population.”

This article originally appeared in The 74.

Despite pressure from President Donald Trump for schools to offer in-person instruction this fall, many students in states such as California and in 17 of the 20 biggest school districts in the nation will start the year online. As they reopen, schools and districts are taking care to avoid mistakes from the spring, like creating distance learning plans that disadvantage low-income students or focusing on academics at the expense of social-emotional learning. Yet there is one hidden pitfall that most reopening plans fail to address: plan continuation bias.

In the summer of 1999, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 airplane carrying 11 people approached a runway in Little Rock, Arkansas, amid thunder, lightning, heavy rain and gusting winds. The pilot attempted to land despite the dangerous conditions, resulting in a tragic ending. Why did the pilot ignore the obvious hazards and follow his plan instead of aborting the landing and making another approach or diverting to another airport?

Plan continuation bias, sometimes referred to as “press-on-itis,” is the human tendency to stick with a course of action even when conditions have changed in ways that make it no longer viable. It’s commonly discussed in the airline industry as a contributing factor to accidents, but it’s just as relevant for schools and districts that have invested huge amounts of time and energy creating complex plans for teaching students this fall.

The characteristics of plan continuation bias are what makes it so problematic. The bias compromises situational awareness so cues from the environment don’t figure into decision-making, which is particularly troublesome in situations in which conditions change rapidly. Plan continuation bias becomes stronger as one approaches the end goal. And it’s unconscious, so it often goes undetected.

School and district leaders have worked overtime to create complex plans for multiple scenarios that meet the needs of public health officials, parents, students, teachers and unions. Now, they’re sharing those plans publicly and implementing them with far-reaching effects on child care and employment decisions. At this point, altering or abandoning a plan would be a stomach-turning prospect.

But what happens when things change a few weeks into the school year? When guidance suddenly comes down from the state or district that schools must open? Or close again? What happens when attendance seems to be high in the morning but drops off dramatically in the afternoon? When students are thriving in one class but languishing in another? When personal protective equipment or cleaning supplies aren’t available? When an online platform is hacked? When teachers get sick or strike?

What happens when a principal discovers a wildly effective strategy, but it’s contrary to the plan in place?

Schools and systems will struggle if they’re not prepared to adapt in a constantly changing environment. Critical issues and risks won’t be identified and mitigated. Students and families might disengage or find other options that have adapted better to new conditions. And student learning and well-being might suffer.

Fortunately, there are ways to avoid plan continuation bias. Here are a few.

1. Implement continuous improvement cycles.
Schools should anticipate the need to adapt and build mechanisms for doing that now. For example, Kairos Academies, a 6–12 school in St. Louis, operates in cycles, with five weeks of instruction followed by two weeks off for students, during which teachers have one week of professional development. After each cycle, the team identifies a few ways to improve going into the upcoming cycle.

2. Manage expectations to include change
To smooth the path to flexibility, communicate to staff, students and families at the start of the year that they should expect change. Managing expectations will reduce external pressures and make it less jarring when schools switch things up.

3. Monitor what’s important
Knowing when and what to change requires establishing key performance indicators, collecting data and monitoring routines, and setting thresholds that will reveal whether a school is on or off track. Adhering to predetermined thresholds can be difficult in the fog of complex decision-making, but the alternative can lead to deleterious compromises.

4. Listen to your community
Continuously seek feedback or input from students, families and staff, through such avenues as virtual town halls, surveys, online or phone conversations and socially distanced home visits. Several organizations, such as Panorama, offer surveys that give leaders direct feedback from students on their experiences with distance learning.

5. Have options ready
Departing from a plan is a lot easier when leaders have promising and feasible alternatives. Without options, the difficulty of changing a plan is compounded with the burden of starting from scratch.

6. Don’t procrastinate
It’s tempting to delay a decision to collect a little more data or talk with a few more people. School and system leaders must be prepared to make high-stakes decisions with imperfect information. Be proactive to stay ahead of the curve.

New school models, new technologies and new ways of teaching and learning also mean that school and system leaders face new ways that things can go wrong. Plan continuation bias is a threat likely to arise as districts across the country implement plans for educating students amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Serving students well means steering clear of avoidable pitfalls that can make an already stressful situation worse for students, especially the most vulnerable.

This post was originally published on Ahead of the Heard, the blog of Bellwether Education Partners. 

With school starting in most places in a few weeks, school and network leaders are under tremendous pressure to finalize their reopening plans. With those leaders in mind, Bellwether just released a new planning resource that includes all of the components of a reopening plan, offers questions school leaders should address, and links to concrete guidance and completed plans as examples. We know it’s an overwhelming time, but we trust that these seven worksheets and linked resources will cut through the noise and set school leaders on a strong path for the fall.

Why are we so confident? Because the modifiable and customizable templates in our tool came directly out of our team’s work supporting two schools this summer to develop their reopening plans. Through a partnership with NewSchools Venture Fund (NSVF), we spent six weeks with Urban Act Academy (a K-8 campus in Indianapolis, IN) and Comp Sci High (a 9–12 campus in Bronx, NY), meeting regularly with their leaders to help them structure, develop, and refine their plans. Their completed plans are available to view: Comp Sci HS — Instructional Plan, Comp Sci HS — Operations Plan, Urban Act Academy — Master Reopening Plan.

In working side-by-side with these two school teams, the thing that struck us most was how much there is to do in such a little amount of time. School leaders are preparing for multiple back-to-school scenarios, and for each they need to clearly define and communicate what academics, culture, talent, and operations will look like. And they are often doing this without clear guidance from their state governments.

The tools and guidance in our new planning resource capture the approach and tools we used, and are intended to help other schools facing similar complexity accelerate their progress. Here are five lessons from our work:

1. Plan for the most likely scenario first: It is likely that leaders will need to shift between fully in-person, entirely virtual, or some hybrid model throughout the year as conditions evolve. School leaders need to prepare detailed thinking for the most likely “day one” scenario before building a contingency plan for a second scenario. For example, both Urban Act and Comp Sci developed their “hybrid” models before shifting focus to the “100% virtual” model in case conditions changed. Our workbook includes a worksheet for helping prioritize among these potential scenarios.
2. Get clear on what the plan must cover: School teams must focus their energy on developing their plans, not on figuring out the complete set of questions their plan must address. To help their teams work more productively and lower overall anxiety, school leaders must ensure the planning team is clear on the end product they are working toward. To support leaders in getting that clarity, we include a checklist of components and questions to address in any reopening plan.
3. Build on others’ good thinking: School teams should not be starting from scratch. Leaders in similar situations across the country have already poured a tremendous amount of energy into planning, but it may be challenging to find and sift through everything in the public domain. Through our collaborations with Urban Act and Comp Sci, we identified helpful guidance and examples as a concrete starting point for each essential question. If plans are already in-progress or complete, leaders can use our resources to check their thinking.
4. Aim for consistency; adapt as needed: Wherever possible, develop plans that are as consistent across scenarios as possible. This consistency helps reduce the amount of change staff, students, and families will face. Then seek to adapt for different scenarios in a way that reduces the amount of new work required. For example, when developing the instructional model, a school leader should start with defining the core instructional elements that should be the same across scenarios, and then adapt the delivery format (in-person or virtual), seeking as much consistency as possible in terms of resources being used and who is delivering those resources.
5. Ensure targeted support for students with the highest need: In striving for consistency and adaptability, we don’t mean there should be a “one size fits all” approach. One goal of simplifying wherever possible is to free up planning team time to design targeted interventions for students who need them most. School teams should know which students and families faced the greatest challenges learning remotely in the Spring. Meeting the unique needs of these students could include providing additional virtual check-ins, prioritizing students for in-person instruction, and ensuring technology and transportation needs are understood and addressed.

The complete planning toolkit can be downloaded here. Contact Bellwether for feedback and suggestions at contactus@bellwethereducation.org.

In a blog post out this morning, on Forbes.com, Stacey asks: “Which forces and trends will drive the next 20 years of K-12 education innovation?” She added, “We’re asking this question at NewSchools Venture Fund as we celebrate our 20th anniversary this year.”

Here’s what she thinks we should be asking:

• Is education technology poised for a new wave of innovation?
• An increased focus on social-emotional learning opened an innovation window over the last few years. Has it closed already?
• Will our renewed focus on career and technical education stimulate smart investments in ways to better prepare all young people for the future of work?

Stacey has an uncanny knack for probing on a kernel of an idea that eventually grows into something we’re all talking about. She says sometimes, it’s just as important to call out what we don’t know, so we can begin to notice trends that will lead us to the right answers. Her blog is definitely worth a read. Please check it out! And, we’d love to hear your ideas about questions we should all be asking.

Despite progress in integrating American schools following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, U.S. schools are less diverse today than in the 1960s. But as schools have grown more homogenous, our country has only become increasingly diverse. Struck by this contrast, a number of school leaders in the NewSchools portfolio have taken up the challenge to create schools that reflect the “melting pot” that is America. They are leading the field in creating intentionally diverse schools—those designed for racial, income and cultural diversity.

These leaders are not only creating more diverse school environments, they are preparing students for their futures as members of a diverse community. We recognize the value of supporting this work and are excited to release a new report, “Creating an Intentionally Diverse School: Lessons Learned.” We hope others who are creating intentionally diverse schools in their communities can benefit from what some of our ventures have learned. This report is the result of interviews with school leaders in our portfolio who are pioneers in this work, and they all have their own inspiring stories to share about why their diverse school communities mean so much to them.

The school leaders we interviewed expressed three key takeaways for creating an intentionally diverse school:

1. Creating a culture of belonging
2. Recruiting targeted populations
3. Reducing barriers to enrollment

Dig into the full report to learn more about each of these, and to meet the pioneers featured in the report below.

KASAR ABDULLA — Valor Collegiate Academies

Ms. Abdulla is the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at Valor and is a Valor founding member. She enjoys educating families about their school choice options and getting to know Valor families. Ms. Abdulla has been a Nashvillian for more than 20 years and is a native of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. A long-time social-justice educator, advocate, and organizer since experiencing life in a refugee camp with her family, Ms. Abdulla has received numerous honors for her community activism in Nashville. President Obama named her a Champion of Change in September 2013 for her work on immigrant integration in Tennessee. Ms. Abdulla has been featured in Nashville Public Television’s “Next Door Neighbor,” the Nashville Scene’s “The People Issue 2010,” SplashLifeMagazine’s “30 Under 30: Civic Leaders,” and featured in the StyleBluePrint Magazine’s 2016 “Faces of Nashville.”

NICOLE ASSISI, ED.D. — Thrive Public Schools

“We are learning to live together, to give everyone a sense of belonging in the community and to ensure that everyone has a voice.”

Dr. Assisi is an accomplished school developer and leader in 21st century learning. In 2014, she launched Thrive Public Schools, a new breakthrough model for innovative learning in K-12 schools. Thrive is the result of years of research, experience and collaboration with some of the nation’s finest educators. In less than two years, Thrive was named one of the top 100 Schools Worth Visiting by Getting Smart and is a Next Generation Learning Challenges grantee for its innovative use of project-based, blended and social emotional learning. Prior to leading Thrive, Dr. Assisi was part of the founding teams for both Camino Nuevo Charter Academy and the Da Vinci Schools in Los Angeles. She also worked in the San Diego Unified School District and at High Tech High. In 2014, Dr. Assisi was named Voice of the Year by the Voice of San Diego. In 2016, Dr. Assisi was recognized at California Assemblymember Shirley Weber’s fourth annual Salute to Women Leaders, and named one of the “40 Under 40” by the San Diego Metro Magazine.

CHRISTINA CANAVERAL — New School of San Francisco

“It’s not just that our school is diverse, it’s that we are talking about equity and privilege and making sure our students, our faculty and administration, and others in the community are having those intentional conversations as well.”

Christina is the Director of Community at the New School of San Francisco. She has more than 15 years of experience in parent engagement, youth development and education policy work both in the States and abroad. She has had the opportunity to work with long standing San Francisco organizations, such as Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center and Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth.

JOSH DENSEN — Bricolage Academy

Josh Densen is the CEO and School Leader of Bricolage Academy, a New Orleans charter school with the mission of advancing educational equity and creating innovators who change the world. Josh began his career as a Teach for America corps member in Oakland, California in 2000. He relocated to New Orleans to open and lead the local office of The Achievement Network in 2009, a position he held for two years before starting to work on Bricolage, which opened in 2013. Bricolage Academy currently serves grades Kindergarten through 3rd grade and will extend to 8th grade by 2019.

DAVID RICHARDS — Growth Public Schools

“What does my four-year-old need in 15 years? He needs to know and understand how to work with people who are different than him.”

David is the Founder & CEO of Growth Public Schools—a charter management organization of K-8 schools in Sacramento, CA. He has been working with kids and communities for over 20 years as a teacher in Latin America and the U.S., a special education consultant, a curriculum writer, a principal, a board member for Voices Language Academy, and most recently as the founding principal of Growth Public Schools. David started teaching in Oakland, where he was inspired to put students at the center and help them shape their own paths. Through his experience, he saw the power of designing a student–centered model and has brought this vision to Growth Public Schools.

At NewSchools, we want all students to graduate high school prepared to achieve their most ambitious dreams and plans. And that means students need more than just a solid academic foundation—they also need strong social and emotional skills, including the ability to thrive in the diverse country we live in. If you’re thinking about opening an intentionally diverse school—or any type of innovative school—NewSchools still has funding available.

How do you find educators who want to completely rethink our notions of what a school is and design something entirely new?

That was the question gnawing at Scott Benson two years ago when he ran into his friend—and fellow senior leader in education—Aylon Samouha in a hallway at the iNACOL conference in Orlando.

“Aylon was in the early phase of founding what became Transcend Education,” says Benson, a managing partner for NewSchools Venture Fund. “And I asked him, ‘Aylon, how are you thinking about building pipelines for the kinds of teams that are reimagining education?’ And he said, ‘Good question. I’ve been thinking about it, but I’m not sure I have a good answer.’”

So their two organizations decided to work together, creating The Collaborative—a ten-month, intensive professional-development experience for ten school districts and charter school management organizations from across the country.

The ten teams met once each in San Francisco, Austin, and New York City and also worked with Collaborative staff and consultants locally over the course of the 2016-17 school year. At the end of the program, each had a plan of action.

A second iteration of The Collaborative started last month. Today, NewSchools and Transcend released a case study that looks at the first Collaborative. EdSurge talked to Benson about some of the findings in that study.

EdSurge: What did the school districts and charter networks typically focus on in the redesign work?

Scott Benson: I’ll give you three examples.

First, let’s talk about Gestalt Community Schools, which is a charter management organization in Memphis, Tennessee. They had already begun a process of designing a new middle school, called Nexus Middle School, to be a STEM-based school that incorporated personalized learning. They entered the program with a real desire to focus deeply on what it meant to have a more effective personalized learning experience in math—including everything from curriculum design and the use of technology to the roles of teachers and students in the classroom and the adoption of “passion projects.” They wanted to think about the entire school model, with an initial lens on math, but also thinking about the school holistically.

Second, there’s an organization called Hiawatha Academies in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And a lot of their focus was on making sure that they listened to their students, teachers, families and their community in an authentic way. They invited all of these stakeholders to be a part of a large team that came together to design a new middle school to be opened in 2018. And there was a big focus on how to make the curriculum speak to students while allowing them to express their own interests, desires and passions.

And then there’s the Spring Branch (Texas) Independent School District, which made a long-standing middle school its focus. They started with this idea of doing a fundamental redesign of the entire school and they may ultimately go there. However, their innovation for this coming year is a micro-school, a school within a school, that will allow them to test different components of a new kind of model. These include self-directed learning time, expeditions and executive coaches. In addition, the district is running its own version of the program for ten other schools in the district in hopes that others will follow a similar path.

Were there any elements that all the participants wanted to introduce to their schools?

There’s a consistent theme around interdisciplinary learning, trying to figure out how to more effectively collaborate across different subject areas. They are all keen to use technology to help personalize learning for students. And the last thing is increased opportunities for students to engage in leadership opportunities.

You used a lot of approaches—visits to innovative schools, guest speakers, readings, etc.—to get your first cohort thinking about substantive change. Which seemed the most effective triggers?

Number one, listening. Taking the time to listen to students, taking a step back and hearing from a wide variety of voices with an ear toward what is leading these students to success and where are the gaps and the limitations of the way that we are currently doing things.

Number two, just being in a cohort-based experience is powerful. Doing this alongside others over a course of time that allows you to develop real, authentic professional relationships with a wide variety of people is valuable.

Number three, undoubtedly learning visits to schools and other organizations. No one went to a school and said, “This is it. I simply have to implement this particular model.” More often it was the case that people were inspired by different elements of different schools. They would then come back as a team and talk about how they might incorporate those elements into their vision.

Tell us about some of the outcomes that most excited you.

In terms of its impact on what these schools are actually doing, nine of the ten are moving forward in some way with new innovations they weren’t planning to do before the program. So that’s a success.

Among this group, there were some—like Hiawatha, Gestalt and Citizens of the World (a charter network with six schools in three regions)—that used this opportunity to radically rethink the way they are operating at least one school over the coming year. Others were more comfortable making smaller adaptations.

Is there anything from The Collaborative experience that can be generalized for other schools or organizations that might be contemplating school design change?

Absolutely. One lesson we took away is that having a lens on equity in the design process is a helpful frame. You can look at it in a number of ways. We did it through empathy interviews with students and families, and that helped our school leaders develop empathy for the end user.

Our second lesson is to push people out of their comfort zones a little bit.

How’d you do that?

We did this a lot, but one way was through an exercise we called “The Probable Versus the Possible.” The way this worked was you had teams imagine they continued to do everything they’re doing now. What would be the probable outcome for students in their schools? Typically you would see a line of incremental improvement. “We’re getting better,” they’d say, “but we’re not getting better fast enough.” Then we’d ask them to imagine not just the probable but the possible. Where might they go if somehow they had a step change in improvement with some kind of newfangled technology or new curriculum or better student engagement?

That exercise proved powerful for a lot of people and helped them create a case for change.

Any takeaways about the people doing the work or how to support them?

We found that the composition of the team—making sure you have the right people on the bus, a team that is engaged in this work and that has the time to really focus on it—is instrumental. And having that team not just design in the abstract but actually having tangible goals that are time-bound.

The second point is around customized coaching. If people expect that teachers will just go to a seminar, learn about something, and walk away and then magic will happen—I’m not sure that theory of change works particularly well. We found that the combination of in-person experiences alongside custom coaching and an ongoing support mechanism between these sessions was valuable.

So my advice back to the broader field is don’t expect teams to create breakthrough innovations after a single big event. Try to find ways to keep the conversation alive, continue supporting and pushing people along their journey because they’re going to need that support.

Collaborative Learning

It wouldn’t be an educational exercise without homework. Here are some of the readings and other materials that Collaborative participants were asked to study last year:

Remember the days when Farmer Eddie taught youngsters what the pig and cow says by pulling the See ‘n Say string? Edtech for early learners has come a long way since then, but our just-released compilation of research—what we call a Market Gap Snapshot—makes clear there is still a lot of room to expand and improve edtech solutions to address obstacles facing our youngest students.

Early learners—students in pre-kindergarten through second grade—have developmental needs that are markedly different from older students. These children can certainly benefit from edtech, but they must also have a supportive and age-appropriate environment that helps them develop meaningful interactions with teachers and parents. With an eye toward managing this delicate balance, NewSchools began exploring the promise and potential of edtech tools for early learners.

We recently announced the NewSchools Ignite Early Learning Challenge – Pre-K – 2nd Grade, which is informed by research we conducted on early childhood education, and which is supported in part by Omidyar Network. Our initial research revealed a number of interesting findings:

• Only 40 percent of four-year-olds are enrolled in publicly funded preschool programs, which means many children enter kindergarten developmentally behind their peers in social-emotional and academic skills.
• Children’s learning experiences in pre-kindergarten through early elementary are shaped by many factors, including race and income; consequently, they often face school readiness gaps that could be addressed with technology solutions.
• Educators want to see more pre-K through early elementary alignment, specifically around academic, social-emotional, and executive function skills.

Before landing on an area of focus for an edtech funding challenge, we always begin by interviewing educators, researchers, edtech entrepreneurs, and other subject matter experts. They give us important insights on how we might approach the challenge focus area—their perspectives on what teachers and students need most and how technology might support learning.

We learned that while technology is less accessible in early childhood centers compared to K-12 settings, early childhood practitioners are quite comfortable using technology. In fact, 90 percent of respondents in a 2015 survey by digital solutions provider Teaching Strategies confirmed early childhood educators have access to technology in some capacity in the classroom and feel that they use it effectively; some 88 percent said they use it once a week, mainly for documentation and instructional purposes.

The early learning edtech market is still nascent, partly due to the fragmented nature of the early childhood market. Yet, it is exciting to hear from educators, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs about the various ways technology can play a part. Teachers we spoke with are using technology in a variety of ways:

• for professional development purposes; they are watching videos of high-quality instruction, recording classroom observations and receiving real-time feedback from coaches to seamlessly adjust their instruction.
• for student-facing learning; they are fueling creativity by building stories with audio and visual components, and supporting non-academic developments like social-emotional learning and executive functioning.
• as a classroom management tool, especially in observation and assessment documentation—allowing educators to spend more time focused on quality instruction.

In our conversations with educators, we also heard a strong call to be mindful when developing edtech tools for early learners—including being thoughtful about screen time and discouraging passive, non-interactive use of devices. There’s an opportunity to think differently about edtech for early learners and to connect edtech developers to the latest research and learning science on how children learn best with technology.

Rather than simply being a tool for students, we believe technology can also be a vital bridge for communication between teachers and parents. It can be used to not only communicate what is happening in the classroom, but also share best practices and activities that can be used at home to reinforce learnings in school. Edtech can provide rich content that parents can access together with their child; interactive features can engage the entire family. Technology also makes it easy for parents to provide communication back to the school and provide feedback based on their child’s performance in school and at home.

Information gleaned from our early learning research has been summarized in a new Market Gap Snapshot on Early Learning, which lives on our Ed Tech Research Portal. If you’ve not yet had a chance to check it out, we encourage you to visit. The portal contains a trove of information that we’ve learned over the past two years while conducting challenges in Science Learning, Middle & High School Math, English Language Learning, Special Education and now, Early Learning – Pre-K – 2nd Grade.

This challenge application will remain open through the end of the month, so if you or someone you know has an idea for an edtech tool for early learners, tell us about it! NewSchools is offering grants of $50,000 to $150,000; applications are due by August 31st and winners will be notified by October 16th.

August is often a sleepy month, when many are focused on enjoying the last bit of summer before the busy fall season begins. But we’re hoping teams of educators and entrepreneurs with bold ideas in education will step away from their vacations to seize a great opportunity from NewSchools Venture Fund.

Young people have incredible aspirations for themselves, and they deserve the preparation and support it takes to reach those aspirations. To achieve this goal, we invest in three areas: innovative schools designed to meet the needs of every student, tools and services that students and teachers in such schools need, and more diverse education leaders who will create innovations that are more effective and sustainable.

Today we are launching open funding opportunities across all three investment areas. Each area has its own investment criteria, and each opportunity has its own timeline. But all have potential to make an impact on schools and students; taken together, the available investment funding totals up to $8 million.

Last year was the first time we opened all these funding opportunities simultaneously. We attracted a great deal of interest from potential ventures, and over the past year, we learned a lot. Our investment strategies are now more mature, and they are shaped by experiences with our ventures, feedback from the field, and market research. Let’s dig deeper into each strategy.

Innovative Schools

Over the past year, NewSchools has invested in teams of educators with plans to open 34 schools by 2019. With this funding opportunity, we are excited to launch a new recruitment season for prospective teams in school districts and charter school networks all over the country. We are seeking teams of educators in every corner of the nation who have the passion and potential to create learning environments that equip every student to graduate prepared and inspired to achieve their most ambitious dreams and plans.

Too many students will start school this fall in classrooms that were designed for a different time and purpose. NewSchools wants to support a new generation of school leaders who are thinking about how to create more personalized learning experiences that provide students with strong academic preparation as well as the mindsets, skills and habits they need to be successful in college, career and life.

Our team created a video that we hope will inspire people who are thinking about opening a new, innovative school to take the leap and begin the process. In addition to funding, NewSchools provides management assistance and participation in a cohort experience. We can’t wait to see who will be in the new cohort.

What We Offer: Investments from $100,000 to $200,000, plus management assistance and participation in a cohort

Who We’re Looking For: Teams of educators with plans to open their first or second innovative school with a school district or charter network

Timeline: Apply here by January 12, 2018

Tools & Services

Edtech tools are a great resource to both teachers and students—providing real-time data, individually paced access to content, and adaptive learning supports. While there is certainly no shortage of edtech products for the classroom, there are some areas where the market has not developed adequately to meet the need—such as early learning. We listen carefully to educators and conduct market research to help uncover these gaps. Informed by their input, the area we are focused on now is the Early Education Challenge—Pre-K through second grade.

For this challenge, we are looking for companies and nonprofits creating tools to support young learners’ academic and social development in Pre-K through second grade. We have a specific interest in support for the development of self-regulation, literacy and numeracy—which set the foundation as students learn to read, write and understand information. We provide ventures with the risk capital and support they need to create new tools, while creating a cohort experience for them.

Our previous grant challenges have focused on science learning, middle and high school math, English Language Learners and students with disabilities. Check out our new edtech research portal that illuminates many of the lessons we’ve learned.

What We Offer: Investments from $50 to $150,000, plus management assistance and participation in a six-month cohort

Who We’re Looking For: Edtech entrepreneurs developing classroom tools for students Pre-K through second grade

Timeline: Apply here by August 31

Diverse Leaders

Just last week, we released a landmark study—titled Unrealized Impact—on the state of diversity, equity and inclusion in the K-12 education sector. The release of the report was timely. Going into this new funding cycle, the study findings bolster our commitment to strengthening the pipeline of more Black and Latino leaders in education.

In fact, it prompted us to increase our goal for Black and Latino leaders in the education sector—from 30 percent to 40 percent—by the year 2020. With this open funding opportunity, we hope to attract an outstanding cohort of new Diverse Leaders ventures to help get us closer to achieving our goal.

With input from more than 200 education organizations and more than 5,000 staff from those organizations, Unrealized Impact is the largest study of its kind ever done and provides an important benchmark for where we sit as a sector. Among key findings, the study confirmed that the percentage of Black and Latino education leaders is well below their white counterparts—even as the population of PreK-12 students in America becomes more diverse every year.

What We Offer: Investments from $75,000 to $150,000, plus management assistance and participation in a cohort

Who We’re Looking For: Entrepreneurs with early stage ventures (0-2 years) or new initiatives at existing organizations to attract, recruit, develop, retain and/or place Black and Latino senior leaders in education

Timeline: Apply here by September 15

The entire team at NewSchools is buzzing with excitement. We can hardly wait for all the great ideas to start pouring in. If you or someone you know has an idea that fits into one of our areas of investment focus, we’d love to see it. Maybe that little idea could be the next big thing!