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Teaching Practice

This weekend, the Times ran a story on legal training that echoed recent reports on the shortcomings of teacher education.  In it, David Segal writes: Law schools have long emphasized the theoretical over the useful, with classes that are often overstuffed with antiquated distinctions, like the variety of property law in post-feudal England. Professors are rewarded for chin-stroking scholarship, like law review articles with titles like “A Future Foretold: Neo-Aristotelian Praise of Postmodern […] Read more

NewSchools Summit 2011 in video

NewSchools Summit 2011 led the conversation about what’s new and what’s next in education. More than 800 participants joined sessions including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, legendary venture capitalist John Doerr, and DC Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, as well as Khan Academy’s Sal Khan, Netflix founder Reed Hastings, and former New York City Public Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. We’ll be releasing full-length video of Summit keynotes sessions in the weeks to come. […] Read more

Guest Post: Fresh faces and ideas from the EdTech Entrepreneurs Lab

 Summit attendees got a special treat this year: the opportunity to witness, participate in, and contribute to the next wave of entrepreneurial organizations poised to make a difference in the lives of America’s students at the EdTech Entrepreneurs Lab Pitch Session. Following the Summit’s theme of discovering what’s new and what’s next in education, the rapid-fire format gave entrepreneurs real-world experience pitching their ideas and raising capital—both essential to growing a successful […] Read more

Summit 2011: Innovation, honesty, and muffins

Yes, there were some marquee names. Mark Zuckerberg. John Doerr. Joel Klein. Sal Khan. Kaya Henderson. Reed Hastings.  As Tom Vander Ark noted, “We don’t have many rock stars in education, but most of them were on the stage at the Summit.” But it was more than just star power that people were talking about in the hallways at Summit 2011, and in their Facebook posts and tweets. It was a spirit […] Read more

2011 Entrepreneur of the Year, Organization of the Year, and New Market Maker Awards

While more than 800 supporters of entrepreneurial change in public education gathered at the twelfth annual NewSchools Summit in Burlingame, CA on Wednesday, we announced the recipients of our annual awards, including Entrepreneur of the Year, Organization of the Year, and New Market Maker Award. The awards are designed to recognize and celebrate the achievements of this important class of social innovators, who are making a difference in the lives of students […] Read more

See you at the Summit!

Our 12th annual Summit and Community of Practice take place this week—and it promises to be a tremendous couple of days. From the moment you step onto the Astroturf (just trust us), you’ll see that this is going to be more engaging and more fun than any other event we’ve ever hosted. We’re working with the Aspen Institute for the first time and offering more choices, more time to network, and more […] Read more

NewSchools Story Booth at Summit 2011

“I am an education entrepreneur because…” How would you finish that sentence? At this year’s Summit on May 18th, we will be working with a videographer to conduct short interviews with education entrepreneurs, in the style of the wildly popular NPR Story Corps series. The NewSchools Story Booth will give participants the chance to share how they became involved in education and to reflect upon what gives them passion for their work. […] Read more

Bing Gordon on videogame design thinking

Only in one universe do the world’s farms produce more strawberries than corn, rice, sugar beets or soybeans. That universe is Farmville, the Facebook app whose other major product seems to be astonishing statistics. Statistics like that there are 30 times more people farming imaginary fields on Facebook than working on real farms in the United States. Or that the people doing that imaginary farming (including 18 million people who play this […] Read more

CoP Update: Competency Models and Organizational Success

A competency model is a framework that identifies the key skills, behaviors, and attitudes required to achieve individual professional growth and, by extension, organizational success.From 2003 to 2008, Google, Inc. grew in size from 1,000 to 15,000 employees. As a result, during this time Google faced difficult challenges vis-à-vis recruitment, skills development, and, in general, how to shape its young and inexperienced workforce into a pool of potential leaders. Yvonne Agyei, Google’s […] Read more

CoP Update: Developing Leaders in Growing Organizations

What is leadership? What does it mean to be an effective leader? How do organizations develop those among their ranks to become effective leaders?According to Jean Martin, Managing Director of the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), many organizations are unable properly to identify “high-potential” employees (those capable of becoming effective organizational leaders) among their ranks. Moreover, among those organizations that prioritize leadership development, most rely on false predictors of future success.For example, one […] Read more