So, you’ve decided to attend NewSchools Venture Fund Summit 2014. We are so pleased to welcome you to our community! We’ve put together this short post to answer some frequently asked questions and to help you make the most of your time at Summit.
Once you arrive, the NewSchools staff will be eager to meet you and answer additional questions about Summit or our work. We’ll be wearing blue badges and throughout Summit Day, we’ll be available to talk with you at the Registration Desk and in the San Ramon Lounge, on the ballroom level. If you are looking for ways to connect with us or with new colleagues at breakfast or lunch, please look for the table signs that say “WANT TO MEET NEW PEOPLE? SITE HERE!”
WHO WILL BE AT SUMMIT?
Education entrepreneurs from the NewSchools portfolio and beyond, reform advocates, community leaders from across the country, national and local education leaders, funders, policy makers, government officials and members of the media.
HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE REGISTERED FOR SUMMIT?
This year we’ll have 900+ attendees with close to 40% attending for the first time.
HOW IS THE DAY STRUCTURED?
Click here to view the Summit 2014 agenda
WHAT IS NEWSCHOOLS’ PURPOSE?
NewSchools partners with entrepreneurs to provide all students —regardless of where they come from or live – with an excellent public education and the promise of a bright future.
Believing that entrepreneurship is the key to reimagining public education, we provide startup and scale-up capital and hands-on support to entrepreneurial teams so they can test, refine and scale promising new ideas. We define the success of our investments by their ability to make positive changes to teaching and student learning and to wider public education systems.
HOW DOES NEWSCHOOLS WORK?
Like a venture firm, we embrace risk and are often the first to invest in cutting edge ideas. Our diligence model borrows from venture capital as well: we perform extensive diligence on all investments and seek teams with outsized talent, vision and grit that share our unyielding commitment to student success.
Once we invest, the New Schools team uses every asset at our disposal to propel the success of our entrepreneurs. We play an active role in their companies –often as members of their governance boards– and leverage our networks to connect them to customers, partners, funders, thought leaders and policy makers who can fuel their success.
WHO FUNDS NEWSCHOOLS?
As a nonprofit, NewSchools is funded by visionary individuals and foundations who share our mission to provide an excellent education and the opportunity for a bright future to all students. Through their generosity we are able to invest in nonprofit and for-profit companies that can grow to achieve both scale and financial sustainability. Our donors do not seek or receive financial returns, but are rewarded by the life changing impact of our entrepreneurs on students, educators and public education systems. Any returns from our investments recycle back into our funds so we can support more entrepreneurs in creating the immense change that is needed to get public education working for all students.
WHICH AREAS OF EDUCATION DOES NEWSCHOOLS FOCUS ON?
NewSchools is at the leading edge of some of education’s most promising new practices including high-quality public charter school networks, practice-based teacher preparation, and a new generation of technology-based learning tools.
WHAT IS YOUR IMPACT?
Check out one of our Annual Reports below (Click to view full screen)
