Paying the Price
When it’s sweltering in Silicon Valley, no breeze blows in East Palo Alto. But there’s not even a murmur of complaint under the noontime sun at Eastside College Preparatory School, where eight graduating seniors make their way across the luxuriant lawn to an open stage. Parents, siblings, teachers and friends, clustered in folding chairs under canvas umbrellas, give a sustained ovation. It rolls on and on, an offering to the little miracle unfolding here.
Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist and Entrepreneur Jim Clark Donates $2 Million to the NewSchools Venture Fund
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., September 12, 2002 – The NewSchools Venture Fund today announces its most recent round of investment in the amount of $2 million from venture capitalist and entrepreneur Jim Clark and his wife Nancy Rutter Clark. New Schools is a $20 million fund that makes philanthropic investments in education entrepreneurship and creates a network to share best practices in education.
Investors go back to school: Venture capital votes yes on charter schools
New Schools Venture Fund seeks investors to look for gains in education
A venture capital firm not looking for a profit? Have the gods gone crazy? The New Schools Venture Fund, headed by Kim Smith, is a not-for-profit fund investing solely in early-stage K-12 profit and not-for-profit companies. The profits of these startups, which would normally go into the pockets of the investors or partners, are directed back into the fund for use in future ventures.
High School Will Never Be The Same
Reformers are pushing for a curriculum that uses technology to prepare students for the New Economy.
A Principal Crisis in Education
As predictions of a debilitating shortage of school superintendents and principals play out across the nation, dozens of school systems are taking an aggressive approach that fills vacancies while increasing the pool of qualified educators.
In the St. Paul, Minn., public schools, when 11 principal positions became vacant in the spring, system superintendent Patricia Harvey didn’t panic. She just gleaned candidates from the 23 participants in the first year of St. Paul’s Leadership Institute, an intensive program to prepare future and current principals for schools in the city.
Venture Philanthropists: The New Schools Fund
The anxious promoters of a start-up company, wearing their Sears suits and begging for an investment from clench-jawed venture capitalists wearing Brioni: there is a version of this scene in the founding myth of almost every tech firm from Sun Microsystems to eBay. Venture-capital financing is as embedded in the culture of Silicon Valley as integrated circuits and $ 750,000 tract houses. So perhaps it’s not surprising that this form of financing—and its results-oriented assessment of potential investments—has made its way to the nonprofit sector.
VC Luminary John Doerr: Education Reform Critical to Success of New Economy
Last February, in his first speech at HBS in six years, L. John Doerr (MBA ’76), a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and one of the world’s foremost venture capitalists, confessed that he stumbled into his line of work with no elaborate strategy in mind. “I just wanted to build a company with a few of my friends,” Doerr told an audience of nearly one thousand HBS students who had gathered for his presentation, offered as part of the Social Enterprise Speaker Series.
Kim Smith: Venturing Forth
“THE BEST EDUCATION INVESTOR REALLY BELIEVES THAT GOOD EDUCATION IS GOOD BUSINESS.”
In her two years as founding president of the New Schools Venture Fund, Kimberly Smith has learned a thing or two about what makes for a truly committed education investor.
Defying Convention, Superintendent Takes A Chance on Charters
SAN CARLOS, Calif. — Hurtling around central California visiting his start-ups;t alking business plans and deliverables; courting venture capitalists and angels; fretting how he’ll manage the corporate growth that’s still illusory at best, Don Shalvey could be any Silicon Valley entrepreneur hustling his product.
Except Mr. Shalvey’s product is schools. After 33 years as a teacher, principal and superintendent, Mr. Shalvey is launching what he plans will be a string of 100 charter schools to compete with the very same public schools he has long run.
Schools That Think
The Service School
University Public Schools, San Joaquin Campus, Stockton, California
Principal: Mary Welch
Grades: K-5, expanding to K-6 in September 2000
Number of students: 350
Founded: 1999
Mission: To bring the customer focus and sense of responsibility of a top-notch service organization or consulting firm to public education.