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See below for the latest news articles about NewSchools Venture Fund's work.

  • Opinion: Innovation will drive new federal funding for education
    By Ted Mitchell and Reed Hastings (for the San Jose Mercury News)Original Article

    The passage of the stimulus bill last week instantly doubled the federal role in funding schools, with an unprecedented influx of $95 billion. The question is, in education, what will that money buy? Most of the answer is jobs: fewer pink slips for teachers, and dirt finally moving on long-stalled construction projects. Yet in a welcome and farsighted move, the Recovery Act not only shores up the system, it also invests in fixing it where it's broken.

  • Obama puts spotlight on education deficit
    He wants U.S. to have highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.Original Article

    WASHINGTON-- President Obama on Tuesday laid out a series of challenges for the nation to meet in job training and college attainment, part of an effort to give every child a "complete and competitive education." The president, in his first address to a joint session of Congress, said his administration would provide the support needed to give the U.S. the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. He said there was a vital need for Americans to complete more years of education if the nation is to compete globally.

  • Rolling Up Their Sleeves
    Venture philanthropists pitch in for Chicago's schools.Original Article

    CHICAGO--Chicago has become a hotbed of "venture philanthropy" in education, as two local foundations contribute not only money, but also the hands-on work of some of the city's wealthiest and most influential residents, to help improve the schools in the nation's third-largest district.

  • Opinion: Depression taught us that education is key to recovery
    By Ted Mitchell and Jonathan Schorr Original Article

    Imagine this situation: The economy is facing a crisis with no recent parallel. Many Americans have lost jobs and homes. Yet even as the president takes dramatic measures to jump-start the economy, he lays the groundwork for recovery with measures to improve education and widen college opportunities, especially for low-income and minority youngsters.

  • Opinion: Federal Education Innovation - Getting It Right
    By Ted Mitchell & Jonathan SchorrOriginal Article

    When the Bush administration set out six years ago to create an office of education innovation, it did not envision spending millions of dollars on a museum dedicated to highlighting the importance of New Bedford, Mass., in the 19th-century whaling industry.

  • Brain drain: Why so many talented educators are leaving for New York
    Original Article

    BOSTON--THE GREATEST SIN that any Red Sox owner can commit is to allow a star player to move to New York. From Babe Ruth to Johnny Damon, these defections are greeted with howls of outrage from the fans and columnists of Red Sox Nation.

  • Beyond 'No Child'
    WBUR and NPR's On Point with Tom AshbrookOriginal Article

    How to improve under-achieving schools in America's poorest communities has vexed policy makers for generations. President Bush's No Child Left Behind law insists on accountability. But critics charge it encourages teaching to the test at the expense of real learning. The law still sparks a loud argument - but as one of our guests today writes in the current issue of Harper's magazine, there's debate that test-prep companies such as Kaplan are profiting handsomely from the federal mandate to test, and test, and test again.

  • Opinion: Better education through innovation
    By Cory Booker, John Doerr and Ted MitchellOriginal Article

    America's educational system is falling behind. We must find innovative leaders with a vision who can prepare children for the future they deserve. In the summer of 1918, as tuberculosis, bubonic plague and a flu pandemic threatened America's newly crowded cities, the chemist Charles Holmes Herty took a walk through New York City with his colleague J.R. Bailey. Herty posed a question: Suppose Bailey discovered an exceptionally powerful medicine. What institution would allow him to take his breakthrough from lab experiment to widespread cure? Bailey replied, "I don't know."

  • USA Today Editorial: Our view on education: Charter school successes supply a lesson plan
    Elite organizations lead the way in showing how to raise performanceOriginal Article

    NATIONAL--When Philadelphia's violence-prone Shoemaker Middle School morphed into Mastery Charter School at Shoemaker two years ago, it remained a public school with the same students. What changed dramatically were the adults in charge and their expectations.

  • Opinion: Expand college grants
    They're often small for low-income students, who are increasingly turning to loans and graduating with more debt.Original Article

    By Ted Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer of NewSchools Venture Fund and and Jonathan Schorr, Partner at NewSchools Venture Fund. As seen in the Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2008. Aisha Ford was a sociology major. But she was forced to take on a second course of study that doesn't show up on her college transcript. In addition to being a full-time student, she had to become a skilled fundraiser.