Our Moral Imperative: Racial Equity and the Public School System
By Frances Messano, senior managing partner, NewSchools Venture Fund Educators are preparing for a fall as their school communities — and the rest of the world — grapple with the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic anti-Black racial injustice. As a national nonprofit that supports and invests in promising teams of educators and innovators who want to reimagine learning, […]
Schools can stay virtually connected to their families. Here’s how.
By Gabi Netter, Associate Partner at NewSchools Venture Fund It’s a critical time for schools to connect with their students’ families. Leaders and teachers are looking to support families with their economic, physical, and emotional needs in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Families need help with at-home learning. Schools in choice-based systems need to […]
How Leopards Change Their Spots: Five Attributes of Schools That Successfully Transitioned to Distance Learning
By Frances Messano, Senior Managing Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund As schools rapidly closed down their physical buildings across the country, we saw many of the leaders in our portfolio move quickly and nimbly to implement distance learning plans and provide critical support families need. Across them all, we found five common themes in the approaches they took. […]
What I’m Grateful for This Season: Education Innovators
By Miho Kubagawa, Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund November is my favorite month of the year because of its focus on gratitude. A few years ago, I began the tradition of sending handwritten cards to 30 individuals during this month to thank them for something that made an impact on me. It started as a ritual […]
Five Things We’re Learning from Schools in Our Portfolio
By Stacey Childress, CEO, NewSchools Venture Fund Enthusiasm for social emotional learning has reached a fever pitch among policymakers and funders. Whether it’s framed as a focus on the whole child, comprehensive student development or a richer vision for student learning, expanding beyond math and reading scores as markers of school and student success has […]
NewSchools Announces Up to $8 Million in Funding for PreK-12 Education Innovators and Entrepreneurs
Thinking of starting an innovative school or supporting diverse education leaders? We want to hear about it. (Oakland, CA, August 1, 2019) — NewSchools Venture Fund today announced open funding opportunities for two of their investment areas: Innovative Public Schools and Diverse Leaders. For teams of educators and entrepreneurs who are either dreaming of opening a new innovative public school, or are interested in growing, advancing and […]
AppleTree: How Social Innovations Scale to Become Model Providers
How do social innovations scale? KIPP began as a charter school, became a charter management organization, and then a network of charter management organizations. AVID started as a single school program, which grew to a countywide initiative, and eventually became a national non-profit. There are multiple pathways even for a single organization. More […]
News Release – NewSchools is Looking to Fund Up to $8 Million in New Investments
Starting an innovative school or supporting diverse education leaders? (Oakland, CA, August 1, 2018) — NewSchools Venture Fund is excited to announce funding opportunities are now open for two investment areas: Innovative Schools and Diverse Leaders. For teams of educators and entrepreneurs who are either dreaming of opening a new innovative school or interested in growing, advancing and supporting Black and […]
NEWS RELEASE: NewSchools is Looking to Fund Up to $8 Million in New Investments
(Oakland, CA, August 1, 2018) — NewSchools Venture Fund is excited to announce funding opportunities are now open for two investment areas: Innovative Schools and Diverse Leaders. For teams of educators and entrepreneurs who are either dreaming of opening a new innovative school or interested in growing, advancing and supporting Black and Latino leadership in education, this opportunity could provide the funding […]
Announcing NewSchools’ Latest Cohort! 23 New Investments = 11,000 New Opportunities
This blog was also posted on Medium. This year marks 20 years of investing in new, innovative schools here at NewSchools, and each new crop of investments brings its own excitement and inspiration. Today, my team is thrilled to announce investments in 23 teams of educators who are planning to launch new schools that will […]