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I see i3 …

With 29 days until the application deadline, we got a first look this week at what the giant pile of applications might look like. April 1 was the deadline for applicants for the Investing in Innovation (i3) fund to turn in e-mails indicating their intent to apply for grants under the $650 million fund. Take this information with plenty of grains of salt, because these notifications are totally optional, plus, there’s no […] Read more

Guest Post: Of Evaluation and Transparency

Our latest guest blog post comes from Rick Hess, Resident Scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (and now also the blogger behind the eponymous “Rick Hess Straight Up” blog on Education Week’s Web site). The evidentiary standards for the Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund have stirred much conversation. On those standards, I’ve mixed feelings. On the one hand, the i3 criteria have healthfully prompted would-be applicants to […] Read more

Guest Post: Edu-Innovation, an Oxymoron?

As we edge closer to NewSchools Summit 2010, we will be featuring a series of guest blog posts from entrepreneurs and thought leaders in the sector, who will weigh in with ideas and suggestions related to the Summit theme. This first post is from Tom Vander Ark of public affairs firm Vander Ark/Ratcliff and private equity firm Revolution Learning. Acknowledging the difficulty of penetrating the complex decentralized maze of US public education, […] Read more

Just a Little Light Summer Reading

The Department of Education has put out a call for readers to judge entries in the Investing in Innovation Fund competition. (Applications for the fund aren’t out yet, but this call is a sure sign they’re coming soon.) This is crucial stuff: as with all jury trials, this depends on having smart, well-informed folks on the panel. You’ll need to be available for a total of four weeks between May and July. […] Read more

Another $4 Billion for Education: More “By a Factor of a Lot”

Way back in 2009, as the stimulus was taking shape, President Barack Obama made clear that results-oriented education reform was an essential part of his plan for national recovery. Over the past couple of weeks, President Obama has unveiled his vision for changing education, through his first State of the Union speech and through the unveiling of his 2011 budget proposal. The President’s budget represents a request – one that Congress must […] Read more

NewSchools Summit 2010: Let the Countdown Begin!

Welcome to the brand new NewSchools Summit Web site! We hope this site helps you navigate our flagship annual event before, during and after the in-person convening, and that this blog expands on last year’s (see 2009 posts below) by creating some momentum for the discussions that will take place in Washington, DC on May 12. Our team is hard at work planning the day, and we look forward to sharing more […] Read more

Can Innovation Drive Reform?

Stephen Colbert didn’t moderate, but Dr. Roland Fryer an economist at Harvard University and director of Harvard’s Education Innovation Lab participated in a plenary debate titled “Innovation as a Driver of Reform” at Summit. Fryer, a big proponent of innovation calls the achievement gap a civil rights issue and sees innovation as a way to drive reform. Right now he’s working in Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC and is implementing a […] 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

A new way of doing something

Innovation may refer to incremental, radical, and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations. A distinction is typically made between invention, an idea made manifest, and innovation, ideas applied successfully. (Wikipedia) It’s more than just departing from the status quo, and beyond mere experimentation. It’s easy to call to mind breakthrough innovations that have relegated past ideas and practices to obsolescence, as the telephone did to the telegraph and the car […] Read more