Trends Emerging From Our First 62 Investments in 2021
By Frances Messano Here at NewSchools, we kicked off 2021 with the launch of a new three-year strategy, focused on four investment areas: Innovative Public Schools, Learning Solutions, Diverse Leaders, and Racial Equity. Our team is energized by the tremendous response from education innovators and leaders across the country. As we analyzed data from the […]
My First and Only Latina Teacher: Why Teacher Diversity Matters
Katiusca Moreno, Senior Partner Most of us remember the teachers who made a powerful difference in our lives. I remember the ones who felt like family. For me, Ms. Heyward was one of those teachers. She was my seventh grade social studies teacher who kept a small Puerto Rican […]
Students Assessments Aren’t Delivering on Their Promise for Accountability or Equity
Now is the Time to Reassess our Student Assessment Policies By Erin Harless, Manager of Research and Learning, NewSchools Venture Fund The education sector is in the midst of an overdue reckoning about its role in perpetuating systemic racism in this country, from curricula that perpetuates a Eurocentric worldview to an educator workforce that does […]
Do Black Lives Matter in Education Reform?
By Natalie Wilson, Associate Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund I have spent the past five years searching for a public school that I am not certain exists. I am a single mom to a lively, brilliant, rising fifth grader, Gabrielle, who embodies the phrase #BlackGirlMagic. Over the last five years, we’ve moved from Chicago to Philadelphia to […]
Eight Reasons I’m Hopeful for Racial Justice and Equity
By Antonio Tapia, Senior Associate Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund Image via KPFA My daughter, Samira, and hundreds of other young people were protesting the death of George Floyd at Oakland Technical High School some weeks ago. Despite the risk of contracting COVID-19, she ultimately decided that she needed to have her presence felt, and her […]
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, […]