Opinion: Depression taught us that education is key to recovery
Imagine this situation: The economy is facing a crisis with no recent parallel. Many Americans have lost jobs and homes. Yet even as the president takes dramatic measures to jump-start the economy, he lays the groundwork for recovery with measures to improve education and widen college opportunities, especially for low-income and minority youngsters.
NewSchools Venture Fund CEO Ted Mitchell Praises Choice of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education
SAN FRANCISCO, CA– December 16, 2008 – Ted Mitchell, CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund and president of the California Board of Education, praised the appointment of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education, saying Duncan is an advocate for bold, entrepreneurial efforts to improve education for low-income students.
Opinion: Federal Education Innovation – Getting It Right
When the Bush administration set out six years ago to create an office of education innovation, it did not envision spending millions of dollars on a museum dedicated to highlighting the importance of New Bedford, Mass., in the 19th-century whaling industry.
From Innovation to Transformation: Connecting Education Entrepreneurs to Systems Change
The NewSchools Venture Fund Summit 2008 marked an exciting milestone, as the year of NewSchools’ 10th anniversary and an inflection point for the entrepreneurial education movement. When Kim Smith launched NewSchools, she had a vision: to empower entrepreneurs to transform the educational opportunities for underserved children across the nation. Over the last decade, dozens of these entrepreneurs have created successful organizations that demonstrate that this vision can become a reality.
Brain drain: Why so many talented educators are leaving for New York
BOSTON—THE GREATEST SIN that any Red Sox owner can commit is to allow a star player to move to New York. From Babe Ruth to Johnny Damon, these defections are greeted with howls of outrage from the fans and columnists of Red Sox Nation.
NewSchools Venture Fund Invests $2.5 Million in Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – September 10, 2008 – NewSchools Venture Fund today announced an investment of up to $2.5 million in the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), a nonprofit organization committed to preparing new high-quality teachers and transforming public schools in Chicago. Over the past few years, through a strong and unique partnership with Chicago Public Schools (CPS), AUSL has taken on the management of underperforming schools in order to quickly and dramatically boost student achievement.
Beyond ‘No Child’
How to improve under-achieving schools in America’s poorest communities has vexed policy makers for generations. President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law insists on accountability. But critics charge it encourages teaching to the test at the expense of real learning.
The law still sparks a loud argument – but as one of our guests today writes in the current issue of Harper’s magazine, there’s debate that test-prep companies such as Kaplan are profiting handsomely from the federal mandate to test, and test, and test again.
Opinion: Better education through innovation
America’s educational system is falling behind. We must find innovative leaders with a vision who can prepare children for the future they deserve.
In the summer of 1918, as tuberculosis, bubonic plague and a flu pandemic threatened America’s newly crowded cities, the chemist Charles Holmes Herty took a walk through New York City with his colleague J.R. Bailey. Herty posed a question: Suppose Bailey discovered an exceptionally powerful medicine. What institution would allow him to take his breakthrough from lab experiment to widespread cure?
Bailey replied, “I don’t know.”
USA Today Editorial: Our view on education: Charter school successes supply a lesson plan
NATIONAL—When Philadelphia’s violence-prone Shoemaker Middle School morphed into Mastery Charter School at Shoemaker two years ago, it remained a public school with the same students. What changed dramatically were the adults in charge and their expectations.
Practices from the Portfolio, Volume 2
Education entrepreneurs have much to share with – and learn from – one another. Our Practices from the Portfolio series seeks to capture, synthesize and share this powerful knowledge residing within the NewSchools portfolio.