Building Better Schools: A Proven Blueprint for Success
By
Despite signs of academic recovery, new data reveals that public school students, especially younger ones, are significantly behind, with achievement gaps widening between low-income and affluent students. As school leaders urgently seek solutions, it’s worth asking: What if the answers have been right in front of us all along — in innovative public schools with exceptional results?
- Reports
Students Are Calling for Change, and We’re Listening
By
Here’s a look at some of the most interesting themes across our 2024 investing activity, as well as promising innovations that bring us closer to ensuring every student is prepared to thrive in school and in life.
- Impact Story
Introducing Our First Teaching Reimagined Ventures
By
America’s teachers face immense pressures, from high workloads to increasingly complex student needs, fueling a narrative of burnout and dissatisfaction. But what if we could change the story? Through our Teaching Reimagined portfolio, we’re investing in a variety of solutions to a shared problem: how to make teaching a role where educators thrive – all in service of better outcomes for students furthest from opportunity.
- Impact Story
Funding Available for Education Innovators
NewSchools announces $10M in funding for visionary educators and innovators to transform public education. With a focus on reimagining what’s possible, NewSchools is committed to supporting leaders dedicated to creating new opportunities for students to thrive.
- Press Releases
- Reports
By
Despite signs of academic recovery, new data reveals that public school students, especially younger ones, are significantly behind, with achievement gaps widening between low-income and affluent students. As school leaders urgently seek solutions, it’s worth asking: What if the answers have been right in front of us all along — in innovative public schools with exceptional results?
- Impact Story
By
Here’s a look at some of the most interesting themes across our 2024 investing activity, as well as promising innovations that bring us closer to ensuring every student is prepared to thrive in school and in life.
- Impact Story
By
America’s teachers face immense pressures, from high workloads to increasingly complex student needs, fueling a narrative of burnout and dissatisfaction. But what if we could change the story? Through our Teaching Reimagined portfolio, we’re investing in a variety of solutions to a shared problem: how to make teaching a role where educators thrive – all in service of better outcomes for students furthest from opportunity.
- Press Releases
NewSchools announces $10M in funding for visionary educators and innovators to transform public education. With a focus on reimagining what’s possible, NewSchools is committed to supporting leaders dedicated to creating new opportunities for students to thrive.
- Press Releases
NewSchools Venture Fund today announced $13.4 million in funding for 54 ventures tackling some of the most pressing challenges in public education, from building innovative schools to rethinking how teachers work. This investment is part of NewSchools’ three-year strategy to create an education system that not only delivers for students today but also prepares them to lead and tackle the challenges of tomorrow.
- Impact Story
By
Learn why now is the time to reimagine teaching with innovative roles, AI, and new strategies to attract and retain a diverse, motivated educator workforce.
- Event Recap
NewSchools Summit is a premier annual event for social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and education leaders. This year's theme, "Education Fuels Progress," focused on equipping attendees with hope, optimism, and actionable ideas to build an education system that delivers on its promise to all students.
- Insight Briefs
By
Even as the shadows of the pandemic recede and schools invest heavily in recovery efforts, students across the country continue to navigate an array of obstacles. Supporting their academic, social, and emotional development remains paramount.
- Impact Story
By
Uncertainty about the future of K-12 education has ignited a debate: Should schools prioritize research-based instruction or an engagement-first strategy that centers student enthusiasm and curiosity?
- Impact Story
Ten years ago, Antoinette Banks was in Los Angeles navigating the educational system for her daughter with autism and ADHD. Her child, often seen through the lens of labels, was in reality brimming with untapped potential.
- Announcements
By
In America, it remains all too predictable who gets a fair shot at life. Our education system should be a gateway to opportunity, yet it often acts as a barrier. While there's no shortage of committed leaders and bright spots in communities across the country, we have yet to move the baseline for everyone.
- Insight Briefs
Insights and actionable findings from three years of research on the specific social-emotional and school culture factors that matter most for academi...
- Announcements
By
In America, it remains all too predictable who gets a fair shot at life. Our education system should be a gateway to opportunity, yet it often acts as a barrier. While there's no shortage of committed leaders and bright spots in communities across the country, we have yet to move the baseline for everyone.
- Announcements
NewSchools is in good company this year among peers in philanthropy and education who are celebrating milestone anniversaries or signaling deeper shifts in their strategy by announcing brand refreshes.
- Announcements
This month Bright Spots, a new live, interactive series hosted by NewSchools debuted on LinkedIn. We’re excited to connect with more education innovators and stakeholders in real-time and lift up what’s working during this time of rebuilding and reinvention in education.
- Announcements
NewSchools’ Racial Equity Council has selected a group of innovators to receive $1.5 million in funding. These innovators are disrupting racial inequities and advancing the wellbeing and achievement of students in Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities.
- Announcements
By
Even in normal times, raising money from philanthropy for a new organization or innovative idea is an arduous and intimidating process. But things aren’t normal right now, and for many innovators, fundraising feels harder than ever.
- Announcements
By
This is a tough time to be in education. For teachers and school leaders navigating a third wave of the pandemic and fighting to deliver an excellent education, there are no “time outs.” Education philanthropy has a shared responsibility to support educators who are responding to unrelenting demands every day.
- Event Recap
NewSchools Summit is a premier annual event for social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and education leaders. This year's theme, "Education Fuels Progress," focused on equipping attendees with hope, optimism, and actionable ideas to build an education system that delivers on its promise to all students.
- Event Recap
By
Earlier this month, my organization, NewSchools Venture Fund, gathered venture leaders, staff, funders, and supporters from every chapter of our history to celebrate twenty-five years of impact.
- Event Recap
At NewSchools Summit 2022, more than 2,000 people pulled a seat up to our virtual table ready to reimagine education. Together we amplified powerful, innovative voices, and advanced our collective understanding of what’s possible in the education realm.
- Event Recap
To build connections during our virtual Summit event in May, NewSchools asked a diverse group of innovators, policymakers, funders, and educators to share the books that helped them make sense of the world or simply inspired them this past year.
- Event Recap
By
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, NewSchools is well-situated to help educators cope with the onrushing wave of change.
- Event Recap
- Impact Story
By
Here’s a look at some of the most interesting themes across our 2024 investing activity, as well as promising innovations that bring us closer to ensuring every student is prepared to thrive in school and in life.
- Impact Story
By
America’s teachers face immense pressures, from high workloads to increasingly complex student needs, fueling a narrative of burnout and dissatisfaction. But what if we could change the story? Through our Teaching Reimagined portfolio, we’re investing in a variety of solutions to a shared problem: how to make teaching a role where educators thrive – all in service of better outcomes for students furthest from opportunity.
- Impact Story
By
Learn why now is the time to reimagine teaching with innovative roles, AI, and new strategies to attract and retain a diverse, motivated educator workforce.
- Impact Story
By
Uncertainty about the future of K-12 education has ignited a debate: Should schools prioritize research-based instruction or an engagement-first strategy that centers student enthusiasm and curiosity?
- Impact Story
Ten years ago, Antoinette Banks was in Los Angeles navigating the educational system for her daughter with autism and ADHD. Her child, often seen through the lens of labels, was in reality brimming with untapped potential.
- Impact Story
By
If you're only seeing the negative headlines about education, you might be missing out on the inspiring stories of progress and potential in the field.
- Insight Briefs
By
Even as the shadows of the pandemic recede and schools invest heavily in recovery efforts, students across the country continue to navigate an array of obstacles. Supporting their academic, social, and emotional development remains paramount.
- Insight Briefs
Insights and actionable findings from three years of research on the specific social-emotional and school culture factors that matter most for academi...
- Insight Briefs
By
Across the country, educators, policymakers, and innovators are urgently working to help schools recover from the academic and mental health impacts of Covid-19 and pandemic-related school closures. As they make the necessary investments and develop programs to accelerate student progress, it’s imperative to make decisions based on what works.
- Insight Briefs
Earlier this year, we released an analysis of the tools teachers said they were using most often in our 2019 survey with Gallup on “Education Technology Use in Schools.” In that analysis, we found that most teachers were using different digital learning tools, painting a picture of a highly-fragmented marketplace.
- Insight Briefs
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 not reflect the student population.
- Insight Briefs
In 2019, NewSchools partnered with Gallup to release “Education Technology Use in Schools,” a comprehensive report to better understand ed tech’s perceptions and usage. This past summer, we conducted a follow-up survey of parents, teachers, and students to evaluate how ed tech’s engagement may be changing in the pandemic context.
- Media Coverage
This blog was originally published by EdWeek MarketBrief on May 28, 2021 and can be found on their website <a href="https://marketbrief.edweek.org/ana
- Media Coverage
Participatory grantmaking: It isn’t a term that rolls off the tongue, and yet many people in the philanthropy world are talking about it these days. It describes the process of including community members in grantmaking decisions. As GrantCraft put it in a 2018 report, “participatory grantmaking cedes decision-making power about funding—including the strategy and criteria behind those decisions—to the very communities that funders aim to serve.”
- Media Coverage
By
In response to the events of 2020 and the growing outrage over racial injustice, many philanthropies are unveiling new racial equity and diversity programs. So the recent strategy rollout by the NewSchools Venture Fund has a familiar ring: The organization committed $100 million in diverse leaders and innovators working in K-12 education, while doubling down on racial equity work.
- Media Coverage
Despite pressure from President Donald Trump for schools to offer in-person instruction this fall, many students in states such as California and in 17 of the 20 biggest school districts in the nation will start the year online.
- Media Coverage
With school starting in most places in a few weeks, school and network leaders are under tremendous pressure to finalize their reopening plans. With those leaders in mind, Bellwether just released a new planning resource that includes all of the components of a reopening plan, offers questions school leaders should address ...
- Media Coverage
Everyone likes to give their predictions at the start of a new year. And, while those prognostications are often fun and sometimes even accurate, our
- Press Releases
NewSchools announces $10M in funding for visionary educators and innovators to transform public education. With a focus on reimagining what’s possible, NewSchools is committed to supporting leaders dedicated to creating new opportunities for students to thrive.
- Press Releases
NewSchools Venture Fund today announced $13.4 million in funding for 54 ventures tackling some of the most pressing challenges in public education, from building innovative schools to rethinking how teachers work. This investment is part of NewSchools’ three-year strategy to create an education system that not only delivers for students today but also prepares them to lead and tackle the challenges of tomorrow.
- Press Releases
NewSchools Venture Fund introduced Frances Messano as its new Chief Executive Officer today. In 2022, Messano was appointed as successor to outgoing CEO, Stacey Childress, who stepped down after an accomplished eight year tenure.
- Press Releases
How can ed tech tools help students acquire a strong academic foundation and other mindsets, skills and habits they need for success? NewSchools is looking to find out.
- Press Releases
NewSchools Venture Fund is excited to announce funding opportunities are now open for two investment areas: Innovative Schools and Diverse Leaders.
- Press Releases
NewSchools Venture Fund is excited to announce funding opportunities are now open for two investment areas: Innovative
- Reports
By
Despite signs of academic recovery, new data reveals that public school students, especially younger ones, are significantly behind, with achievement gaps widening between low-income and affluent students. As school leaders urgently seek solutions, it’s worth asking: What if the answers have been right in front of us all along — in innovative public schools with exceptional results?
- Reports
Schools, students and families will need to work together in new and creative ways this fall as millions of students go back to school virtually. In n...
- Reports
Based on knowledge developed through the Science Learning Ed Tech Challenge, “Promising Developments in Ed Tech for K-12 Science” is a summary report of...
- Reports
The following is a synopsis on the current landscape of special education within U.S. public education. While realizing technology is the not the pana...
- Reports
NewSchools Venture Fund commissioned research from Betsy Peters and Doug Roberts from Educational Solutions Consulting to (1) understand the key chara...
- Reports
As part of our research partnership, WestEd conducts a literature review for each NewSchools Ed Tech challenge. The literature review is meant to prov...
- Resources
This research-backed toolkit is designed to help districts, and CIOs, make strategic decisions about their needs. Through research with school, policy...
- Resources
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a highly competitive program that encourages U.S. small businesses to engage in innovative re...
- Resources
As part of our ed tech virtual accelerator program, NewSchools and WestEd co-developed an ed tech product review rubric that has been modified for eac...
- Video Stories
By
As schools unveil their reopening plans for the fall, the need to address student and educator mental health and wellbeing must take priority, even before concerns about getting students caught up academically. Students will have a harder time learning and teachers will not be as effective if schools don’t tend to the trauma and stress that many of them lived through this past year. Here are three ways that your school can support students and educators when they return to school.
- Video Stories
- Video Stories
In this virtual convening, Dr. Osnat Zur and Dr. Faith Polk, Senior Program Associates from WestEd, began with a review of the benefits and challenges...