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Social Entrepreneurs Honored for Contributions to Public Education

NewSchools Venture Fund announces 2012 honorees for Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards at annual convening of education innovatorsOakland, CA – May 7, 2012 – Dedicated to honoring the individuals making a difference in the lives of students in low-income communities across the country, not-for-profit venture philanthropy firm NewSchools Venture Fund announced recipients of its annual awards, including Entrepreneur of the Year, Organization of the Year, and Change Agents of the Year Award. NewSchools presented […] Read more

Engrade Raises $3M to Unify Classroom Management into Single Platform

Santa Monica, CA—May 2, 2012—Engrade, which offers a comprehensive suite of online classroom management tools, announced today that it has closed a $3 million round of funding. The round was led by Rethink Education and joined by NewSchools Venture Fund, as well as individual investors Greg Gunn, Zac Zeitlin, and Richard Chino. The funding will allow Engrade to serve significantly more educators by expanding its academic and outreach teams and strengthening its […] Read more

Innovators, political leaders to headline NewSchools-Aspen Institute Summit 2012

 Silicon Valley event to highlight ideas that are changing education Contact:  Joe Ventura, (415) 615-6862/ jventura@newschools.orgOAKLAND, CA, April 18, 2012— Sen. Michael Bennet, Rahm Emanuel, Harvard’s Roland Fryer, and Dave Goldberg of SurveyMonkey will be among the 115 speakers at the nation’s leading event focused on education innovation in low-income communities. The NewSchools Venture Fund-Aspen Institute Summit takes place May 2 at the Marriott San Francisco Airport in Burlingame, California. NewSchools and Aspen Institute […] Read more

Education Elements raises $6 million to continue helping schools transition to blended learning

Palo Alto, CA—March 7, 2012—Education Elements, a pioneer in helping schools blend technology into everyday instruction, announced today that it has closed a $6 million round of funding. The round was led by Harmony Partners and joined by Rethink Education (which includes experienced educational technology investors Seavest Ventures, Jonathan Sackler, Matt Greenfield and Brian Olson) and individual investor Eff Martin of Anthos Capital, as well as by prior investors Tugboat Ventures, NewSchools […] Read more

NewSchools Venture Fund Announces Early-Stage Education Technology Fund to Accelerate Student Achievement

San Francisco, CA—January 25, 2012—NewSchools Venture Fund today announced the creation of an Education Technology Seed Fund, a new initiative to invest in entrepreneurs developing education technology tools, applications, content, and services that will significantly improve education opportunities for children from low-income communities. The Seed Fund was created to make investments in early-stage, pre-Series A education technology companies often overlooked by the traditional investing community because of their focus on schools.  The […] Read more

NewSchools Venture Fund leads $1.1 Million funding round for MasteryConnect

MasteryConnect Gives Teachers Real-Time Data on Student Progress and Provides Free Tools for Teachers to Collaborate Around Common Core Standards; the Funding Round includes Learn Capital, Imagine K12, and Angel Investors San Francisco, CA—December 7, 2011—NewSchools Venture Fund today announced that MasteryConnect, an education technology company that seeks to support teachers in the transition to the Common Core by making it simple and easy for them to find, administer, score, and track student […] Read more

NewSchools Announces $3 Million in Grants for Expansion of Four High-Performing Boston Charter Schools

Boston, MA—November 9, 2011—NewSchools Venture Fund today announced grants totaling over $3 million to four growing charter school organizations in Boston, as part of its Boston Charter School Replication Fund. The funding includes grants to Edward W. Brooke Charter School, Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, Excel Academies, and MATCH Public Charter Schools, each of which opened at least one new school this fall.  The grants are the first investments from the Boston Charter […] Read more

Statement by Jim Peyser on the Mathematica Study of Charter Management Organizations

For a dozen years, since the founding of Aspire Public Schools, charter management organizations (CMOs) have been a vital force in improving public education in this country, especially in low-income communities. A new report by Mathematica Policy Research, represents the most thorough examination to date of the impact and practices of those organizations. Here’s what we learn from it:The headlines:The nation’s strongest CMOs are delivering extraordinary results for students and families. Students […] Read more

Grockit Raises $7 Million to Drive Social Learning

Previous Backers Lead Round; NewSchools Venture Fund and Michael Moe of GSV Capital  Make First Investments in GrockitSAN FRANCISCO, CA. (October 17, 2011) – Grockit, a social learning company, announced today that it has received just over $7 million in Series D venture funding led by Atlas Venture, a current investor in the company. Benchmark Capital and Integral Capital Partners, both return investors, also participated in the round, along with new investors NewSchools […] Read more

Ed Tech Market Map Goes Live Today; Helps Investors, Donors, and Entrepreneurs

Visual Presentation of Ed Tech Ventures Cuts through Clutter Created by Highly Dynamic MarketSan Francisco, CA— October 12, 2011—NewSchools Venture Fund announced the release of a graphical, interactive representation of the burgeoning K-12 education technology market to help investors, donors, and entrepreneurs better evaluate today’s landscape of education technology ventures. After launching at The Philanthropy Roundtable’s K-12 Education conference today, the education technology market map of more than 230 companies is available […] Read more