Trends Emerging From Our First 62 Investments in 2021

By Frances Messano Here at NewSchools, we kicked off 2021 with the launch of a new three-year strategy, focused on four investment areas: Innovative Public Schools, Learning Solutions, Diverse Leaders, and Racial Equity. Our team is energized by the tremendous response from education innovators and leaders across the country. As we analyzed data from the […]

Seeing the World Differently – A Summer Reading List

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. Here are the 145 books that were recommended to us, covering a wide variety of […]

News Release – NewSchools Ignite Announces “Middle School & High School Math Challenge”

NewSchools Ignite, an initiative of NewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit venture philanthropy firm, is now accepting applications for its Middle and High School Math Learning Challenge, which will offer grant funding to edtech startups addressing market gaps in secondary mathematics. “Right now, one of the toughest math problems is figuring out how to get innovative […]

A closer look at K12 edtech venture funding in 2013

Venture investment in K12 education technology was up 6% in 2013 totaling $452 million.  Over half of these investments were seed stage transactions mirroring the overall venture trend of increased financing from non-traditional sources (angels, super angels, micro-VC’s, incubators) at the seed stage.  The NewSchools Seed Fund led and/or participated in nearly a quarter of […]

Building 550, Studio 2: “Design Thinking” Within Reach…

This weekend 25 aspiring education entrepreneurs convened in Building 550, Studio 2 (the beautifully industrial-designed workspace at the Stanford d.school) for the kick-off workshop of  The EdTech Entrepreneurs Lab, an initiative of NewSchools and Teach For America. Saturday’s workshop was the official launch of the Winter-Spring 2011 cohort, which represented a diverse cross-section of participants across […]

New investments… and a new video!

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/18677353 w=500&h=281] Back in September, we made a promise that if 150,000 people pledged to see the movie Waiting for “Superman”, we would invest $5 million in entrepreneurial organizations that improve public education for low-income kids. The movie gets viewers outraged—as they should be—at the fact that in some communities, a quality education is […]

Summit 2011: What’s New? What’s Next?

The first NewSchools Summit took place in Silicon Valley in October 1999. That gathering brought together 200 education entrepreneurs to learn from each other and discuss ways to build ventures that would provide excellent educational opportunities for all children. Eleven years later, talk of education innovation is everywhere – from network television to blogosphere debates […]

More Summit 2010 session videos now available

At the NewSchools Summit in Washington, D.C. in May, the day started out with heavy-hitting dialogue about the progress of education reform, and ended with an urgent call to keep pushing to address the achievement gap. But what happened in between? Breakout sessions addressed tactical challenges for education entrepreneurs to pursue in the year ahead, including […]

Now available: videos from NewSchools Summit 2010 general sessions

Were you paying attention at the NewSchools Summit in DC this spring? Think you know who makes what plea to the entrepreneurial education movement? Then match the speaker with the memorable quote: 1. “No more Mister Nice Guy.” 2. “All means all.” 3. “The challenge before you now is to make these extraordinary successes a […]

Bridgespan’s Susan Colby: “All means all”

Bridgespan has posted Susan Colby’s presentation from the NewSchools Summit 2010, in which she implored the audience “to focus relentlessly on the destination of all children having the means to achieve their dreams.” The remarks surveyed what education entrepreneurs have accomplished and what lies ahead, and kicked off a session on what it will take […]