Waiting for Superman pledge turns up $5M for change in schools
Waiting for Superman, a popular documentary about America’s public school woes which drew particular attention from Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial class, comes out on DVD today, February 15. In September, Paramount Pictures announced that NewSchools Venture Fund had committed to investing $5 million in entrepreneurial education organizations if over 150,000 pledged to watch the film.
Future schools: Blending face-to-face and online learning
The way the 1st graders hurtle toward their computer workstations, you’d think they were headed out to recess. It’s an unseasonably warm winter morning in San Jose, California, and the two dozen students at Rocketship Mateo Sheedy Elementary School get situated quickly in the computer lab, donning headphones and peering into monitors displaying their names.
An in-depth interview with Eric Nee, managing editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review
In advance of the 2011 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, I interviewed Eric Nee, Managing Editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, about the evolution of the publication, the state and promise of social innovation today, how Stanford University thinks about these issues, gaps in sector-wide research, and more.
Teacher evaluations go mainstream: New York City releases teacher performance data
It started here in Los Angeles last month when the L.A. Times, using data it obtained from the LAUSD, ran its own value-added analysis of teacher performance and then published the results.
NewSchools launches $100M Innovation Fund
In its biggest effort yet to influence education reform, the San Francisco-based NewSchools Venture Fund is launching its fourth fund, a $100 million investment to spur innovation in teacher preparation, school turnarounds, and charter-school management.
The Hard Work of Innovation
Over the next several years, approximately $1 billion will be spent on innovation in education through federal grant programs, nonprofits, and community organizations.
Opinion: Common educational standards for common good
Strong academic content standards are critical to ensuring that all students, no matter where they live, are prepared for success in post-secondary education and the workforce. Standards do not tell teachers how to teach, but they do help teachers determine what their students need to know and when.
Standards help students, teachers and parents by setting clear and realistic goals for success.
Carnegie Corporation gives $10 million for education reform
The Carnegie Corporation of New York has announced $10 million in grants to be used in the development and implementation of new elementary, secondary and post-secondary school designs and systems.
Education inventors get boost under new programs
PHILADELPHIA — A movement is under way to make it easier for entrepreneurs to navigate the lucrative and sometimes-tricky education market and introduce new technology and products into classrooms.
An educator at the University of Pennsylvania wants to create one of the nation’s only business incubators dedicated to education entrepreneurs. The U.S. Department of Education is also getting into the act with a $650 million fund to boost education innovation.
The National Study of Charter Management Organization (CMO) Effectiveness: Report on Interim Findings
Charter management organizations (CMOs) are implementing many innovative practices, but they also face significant challenges in extending their reach, according to this report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) and Mathematica Policy Research.