Publications
Part of NewSchools Venture Fund’s work links the efforts of education entrepreneurs with broader systems change. As such, we create and disseminate a variety of articles and reports in order to share lessons and insights with the field.
Charter Scale with Quality
Considering School Turnarounds: Market Research and Analysis
March 2007Across the country, an increasing number of states and districts are taking action to turn around their chronically underperforming schools. As a result, a new market is rapidly emerging for school providers willing to help school systems tackle this challenge.
Charter Schools and the Capital Markets
January 2007Although charter schools are a promising innovation in education, their growth is hamstrung by a lack of sustaining capital, which is required to fill the gap between the per-pupil funds charter schools receive and the amount they need to develop effective organizations that provide consistent and high-quality education services and back-office support for their schools.
full archive
Human Capital
Teachers for America: Catalysts for change or untrained temporaries?
March 2008Schools across the nation are confronting the challenge to place an effective teacher in every classroom. In the provisions of No Child Left Behind, alternative licensure programs, and teacher pay plans, education reformers seek ways to improve the quality of the nation's teaching workforce. One landmark effort to tackle this issue is Teach for America (TFA). The initiative famously launched by 22-year-old Wendy Kopp and a small cadre of allies in 1990 has brought thousands of talented young people into teaching.
full archive
Performance-Driven School Systems
Conditions for Student Success: The Cycle of Continuous Instructional Improvement
March 2007How can school finance better support student performance? This is the question in front of the National Working Group on Funding Student Success, a group convened by the School Finance Redesign Project at the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education. The group's purpose is to craft a vision of performance-oriented school finance and what it takes to get there.
Achieving with Data: How High-Performing School Systems Use Data to Improve Instruction for Elementary Students
February 2007This report is the second in a three-part research effort to investigate the prevalence of performance-driven practices in urban school districts across the country. The first study, “Anatomy of School System Improvement: Performance-Driven Practices in Urban School Districts,” analyzed the state of performance-driven practices within 28 leading school districts.
full archive
Education Entrepreneurs and Systems Change
Practices from the Portfolio, Volume 2
June 2008In NewSchools Venture Fund's engagement with the entrepreneurial education organizations we support, we have found that these entrepreneurs have much to share with – and much to learn from – one another. Our new Practices from the Portfolio series seeks to capture, synthesize and share this powerful knowledge residing within the NewSchools portfolio.
Practices from the Portfolio, Volume I
March 2008In NewSchools Venture Fund's engagement with the entrepreneurial education organizations we support, we have found that these entrepreneurs have much to share with – and much to learn from – one another. Our new Practices from the Portfolio series seeks to capture, synthesize and share this powerful knowledge residing within the NewSchools portfolio.
full archive