News

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

Social Entrepreneurs Try to Offer Solutions to K-12 Problems

Competition for financial backing is intense…“These people are fueled by passion, drive, and commitment, and we can see evidence of their work all over the educational landscape,” Jennifer Carolan, the seed fund co-director at the NewSchools Venture Fund, based in Oakland, Calif., said of social entrepreneurs. “They’re making meaningful social change—we often say they’re trying to scratch their own itch—and putting pressure on the existing entrenched system to start doing the same.”The […] 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

Goalbook – Social IEPs for everyone? Actually, yes

Goalbook could revolutionize how we approach differentiated instruction and outcome-based education.Four of my five kids have been on IEPs (Individual Education Plans) at one point or another. Two of them still are and I have little doubt that my youngest will be too once she hits school. She’s only two, but she’s already dropping her s’s just like her brothers did. I don’t have a problem with this. To be honest, everyone […] Read more

Potential Benefits for Education Startups Seen in U.S. Bill

Congress last week passed a bill that makes it easier for startup companies to raise capital and go public, two oft-cited barriers for new ventures looking to enter the education market.….A ‘New Resource’Formal and informal mechanisms are already in place for early-stage companies to raise money. In education, the NewSchools Venture Fund, based in San Francisco, for instance, invests in companies that may be too risky for venture capitalists. It is financed […] Read more

LearnZillion, One of the Scrappy Startups Making D.C. a Hotspot

A new Washington, D.C., incubator, The Fort, debuted its first cohort of startups today. TechCruchnotes, “The program, which gives founders anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 in seed capital, was lured to the area from nearby Arlington thanks to a $100,000 grant from D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray.”The D.C. metro area is home to many of the first gen eLearning giants: Blackboard, Connections, Discovery, Kaplan, and K12. Later this month Mayor Grey will visit […] 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

The Educators

Christina Hall and Jennifer Green work to train better prepared, better informed city teachers.“Staggering.” That’s the word Jennifer Green uses. And she repeats it: “It’s staggering to realize you have students who have made it to the eleventh grade without being able to decode words on a page.”…The problem that UTC seeks to solve, says Julie Mikuta, a partner at the San Francisco-based NewSchools Venture Fund, which provided $1.9 million in startup […] Read more

Startups Seek to Master the Education Market

The increasing flow of venture capital into K-12 and heightened interest in educational technology are creating opportunities for market newcomersLess than a year ago, Sam Chaudhary and Liam Don met at the University of Cambridge in England during a so-called startup weekend, an event where would-be entrepreneurs, Web designers, and software developers gathered to brainstorm for 54 hours straight.The two had coffee in London about a month later and hatched an idea. Within […] Read more

NewSchools Venture Fund Launches Education Technology Seed Fund

The NewSchools Venture Fund in San Francisco has announced the launch of a fund that will provide support to entrepreneurs working to develop education technology tools, applications, content, and services designed to improve opportunities for children from low-income communities.Unlike NewSchools’s Innovation Fund, which invests in organizations based on their potential to influence broader systems, the Education Technology Seed Fund will provide money, guidance, and advice to early stage companies in the educational tools marketplace.[Read the full article […] Read more