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Posts by Jordan Meranus

Education Entrepreneurs: Joel Rose & Chris Rush

Joel Rose and Chris Rush launched the first School of One program in New York City in 2009 at a time when few had heard about the promise of blended learning. Combining teacher-led instruction, technology-enabled individual tutoring, small group learning stations, and a unique scheduling algorithm that helped create a personalized learning program each day for each student, the program demonstrated the power of technology to customize learning based on each student’s […] Read more

DC to VC: Boston

There is a fast growing ecosystem of early-stage ventures focused on education. However, for those ventures working in and selling to the traditional K-12 system, access to capital remains challenging. There are venture philanthropies (like NewSchools) and an expanding network of angel investors that provide capital to many of these young companies. Yet most traditional venture capital firms continue to take a wait-and see-approach having concluded that long sales and adoption cycles, […] Read more

Rethinking the for-profit model

For many years, for-profit education organizations have faced fairly pervasive skepticism. Why? In part, you can blame the very mixed performance of for-profit school operators. Some, understandably, wonder whether every possible dollar is being directed toward the benefit of students (although it’s important to note that for-profits typically have to raise private funding, which results in more dollars over time being used for education). Yet for all that skepticism, it’s seems there’s […] Read more

Turn around a failing school, or start a new one? Yes.

In 2005, Shoemaker Middle School in tough west Philadelphia was a place the police knew too well. Its violence rate was staggering: 8 assaults for every 100 students, including attacks on teachers and a police officer. So, when a pair of beat cops strolled by in the fall of 2006 and found the school silent, they tried the doors, figuring it must have suddenly been closed. But the school hadn’t closed. It […] Read more