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Headphones on, heads up

Driving down 101 on the way to one of three Seed Fund events NewSchools hosted yesterday in the Bay Area, my colleague Michael Staton (@mpstaton) demystified the allure of start-up culture: “Caitlin, it’s 14-hour days staring at a Mac with headphones on.” There it is. And when you multiply those long days by the coefficients of persistence and grit seasoned entrepreneurs like Alex Grodd and Bill Jackson relied on to build BetterLesson and GreatSchools, that’s […] Read more

Focusing on College Readiness

Exciting things happening in Minneapolis today. NewSchools Partner Deborah McGriff led a session at the National Charter Schools Conference entitled, “Accelerating College Readiness and Success in the Charter Schools Movement.” During this session Deborah highlighted the ambitious work of the College Achievement Network, a network of charter school organizations serving predominantly low-income communities, working together to ensure their students are prepared to enter and successfully graduate from college. One of the charter organizations that is part […] Read more

Personalized Learning: Racing Too Fast?

A few years ago, I read a column by Bill Simmons (the Sports Guy of Grantland/ESPN fame), wherein he described his inexplicable resistance to watching new television shows that friends recommend to him. Because of this trait, Simmons failed to watch The Wire or Breaking Bad until they were well into their third or fourth seasons, two shows that he now hails as masterpieces (because they are). Despite some furious Googling this […] Read more

Towards a Better Place

I recently spoke with an administrator at a large urban school district and he expressed his frustration with the sheer number of education vendors he is charged with managing. He has no idea which teachers are using which technologies and what’s working. Similarly, the infographic below depicts the numerous technology applications a K–12 teacher might be tapping into throughout his/her day.No doubt, most schools are in an awkward stage of technology integration […] Read more