Fourth Annual Gathering of Education Entrepreneurs
Since 2005, NewSchools Venture Fund and the Aspen Institute have convened leaders in educational entrepreneurship, philanthropy, policymaking and research for the Annual Gathering of Education Entrepreneurs in Aspen, Colorado.
This year, participants focused on two key areas for opportunity and need for reform in public education: federal policy and R&D.
Acting on Data: How Urban High Schools Use Data to Improve Instruction
When data serves as the foundation and culture of school systems, curriculum and instruction can be more closely tailored to each students’ particular academic needs.
The key findings from this national, qualitative study are delineated in the report entitled, Acting on Data: How Urban High Schools Use Data to Improve Instruction. In this study, Dr. Amanda Datnow and her colleagues take a close look at how teachers are using student data to inform a more responsive and targeted instructional program. The study also examines how school systems, both charter and district, are supporting educators in their use of data. This research builds on our previous study of data-driven instruction at the elementary level resulting in the 2006 report, “Achieving with Data: How High-Performing School Systems Use Data to Improve Instruction for Elementary Students.” Both studies were conducted in partnership with the Center on Educational Governance at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education.
We believe the report will be useful to educators since it both illustrates effective practices and illuminates some of the challenges inherent in fostering a culture of data use in our schools. From the start of this research, we set out to make this report and accompanying materials useful to practitioners. To this end, we’ve collected the templates and tools from our research and compiled them into a practitioner workbook for easy copy, modification and re-use. Permissions have been granted from all participating schools and school systems to repurpose and/or modify these documents.
Full Report: Acting on Data
Compilation of Data-Driven Tools
*Compilation of Data-Driven Tools – Modifiable Word Documents*
I. Setting Goals 11
Document 1: Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD) District-wide Goals
Document 2: GGUSD Student Placement Goals
Document 3: GGUSD Bolsa Grande High School Class Analysis and Goal-Setting Worksheet
Document 4: GGUSDBolsaGrandeHighSchoolDataTeam Description
Document 5: Glendale Union High School District (GUHSD) Continuous Improvement Report
Document 6: YES Prep Public Schools’ Measure of Success
Document 7: YES Prep Public Schools’ Individual Management Plan
II. Instructional Sequencing and Planning
Document 8: Aldine Independent School District (AISD) Ninth Grade School Algebra Instructional Calendar
Document 9: AISD Ninth Grade School Math Department Meeting Calendar
Document 10: AISD Ninth Grade School English Calendar
Document 11: GGUSD Grades 7-12 Instructional Sequencing Options
Document 12: YES Prep Public Schools’ English I Standards
III. Instructional Evaluations
Document 13: Uncommon Schools’ North Star Academy Mid-Year Evaluation Rubric
Document 14: Uncommon Schools’ North Star Academy Teacher Reply Form for Mid-Year Evaluation
Document 15: YES Prep Public Schools’ Instructional Snapshot Tool
Document 16: YES Prep Public Schools’ Teacher Evaluation Summary Tool
IV. Data Reflection Tools
Document 17: AISD Ninth Grade School Student Analysis Tool
Document 18: AISD Ninth Grade Departmental Reflection Tool
Document 19: GGUSD Bolsa Grande High School Math Department Benchmark Reflection Tool
Document 20: Uncommon Schools’ North Star Academy Data Discussion Consultancy Protocol
V. Data Action Tools
Document 21: Achievement First Battle Plan
Document 22: AISD Ninth Grade School Language Arts Action Plan
Document 23: GUHSD Washington High School Program Improvement Plan
Document 24: YES Prep Public Schools Data-Based Action Plan
From Innovation to Transformation: Connecting Education Entrepreneurs to Systems Change
The NewSchools Venture Fund Summit 2008 marked an exciting milestone, as the year of NewSchools’ 10th anniversary and an inflection point for the entrepreneurial education movement.
When Kim Smith launched NewSchools, she had a vision: to empower entrepreneurs to transform the educational opportunities for underserved children across the nation. Over the last decade, dozens of these entrepreneurs have created successful organizations that demonstrate that this vision can become a reality.
As in past years, this year’s Summit presented an opportunity to step back and recognize the extraordinary work that these entrepreneurs have done for hundreds of thousands of children. It was also a chance to reflect on the growing visibility of entrepreneurs in major urban districts and to contemplate the next steps involved in translating that impact into broader systems transformation. In the words of NewSchools CEO Ted Mitchell, “We aim to bring together the nation’s education entrepreneurs with a common goal: to make America’s schools worthy of our democratic aspirations as a nation; to make those schools worthy of our children’s dreams and our dreams for them; and, above all, to make our schools worthy of the moral responsibility we bear for the fortunes and life chances of those children too often underserved and left behind by the current system of education.”
Practices from the Portfolio, Volume 2
Education entrepreneurs have much to share with – and learn from – one another. Our Practices from the Portfolio series seeks to capture, synthesize and share this powerful knowledge residing within the NewSchools portfolio.
For this second volume of Practices from the Portfolio, we identified four critical challenges faced by charter management organizations (CMOs) as they grow to scale. For each challenge, we profiled the practices that three organizations within our portfolio have developed in response. We then collected relevant documents and templates used by these organizations. We believe the resulting set of tools, which are detailed below and cover challenges that range from human capital to performance to home office operations, will inform practitioners as they grapple with these same challenges.
Full Report: Practices from the Portfolio, Volume 2
*Individual Cases*
Practices from the Portfolio, Volume I
Education entrepreneurs have much to share with – and learn from – one another. Our Practices from the Portfolio series seeks to capture, synthesize and share this powerful knowledge residing within the NewSchools portfolio.
This first volume of Practices from the Portfolio includes some of the most effective practices in use by the organizations in our portfolio, many of whom are working to create new systems of public charter schools. With the help of FSG Social Impact Advisors, NewSchools documented the details of how these practices were developed and implemented, and collected tools and templates used by these entrepreneurial organizations along the way. The result is a set of case studies that we believe will inform practitioners who are looking to improve practice within their own organizations across three areas: human capital, organizational growth, and educational curriculum and quality.
Full Report: Practices from the Portfolio, Volume I
*Individual Cases*
Section 1 – Human Capital: Recruiting, Training and Supporting Teachers and Leaders
Section 2 – Home Office: Strategies for Managing Scaling Organizations
Section 3 – Education Program: Curriculum and Quality
Teachers for America: Catalysts for change or untrained temporaries?
Schools across the nation are confronting the challenge to place an effective teacher in every classroom. Founded by 22 year old Wendy Kopp in 1990, Teach For America (TFA) has brought thousands of talented young people into teaching.
In this forum, Education Next asks Julie Mikuta and Arthur Wise whether Teach For America is a valuable strategy for recruiting the best and brightest into education and energizing school improvement, or a distraction and a device for sending ill-prepared neophytes to serve some of the nation’s neediest students.
Third Annual Gathering of Education Entrepreneurs
Since 2005, NewSchools Venture Fund and the Aspen Institute have convened leaders in educational entrepreneurship, philanthropy, policymaking and research for the Annual Gathering of Education Entrepreneurs in Aspen, Colorado with the support of E*TRADE Financial.
The objectives of the Annual Gathering are to create fellowship among these entrepreneurial change agents and ensure that the whole of these change agents’ work is greater than the sum of the parts by creating a long-term agenda for change.
This year’s Gathering focused on two of the priorities that had come up at the original Gathering in 2005 – human capital and public policy – and also followed up on the geographic concentration work begun at the 2006 Gathering. This report – written by participant Bryan Hassel of Public Impact – describes each of these three discussions in turn.
Social Purpose Capital Markets: Financial Capital for Social Entrepreneurs in Education
Like entrepreneurs in any other sector, education entrepreneurs must rely on a variety of resources in their quest for the money, people, and ideas they need to turn their vision into reality.
This paper – written by Kim Smith and Julie Petersen of NewSchools, for a conference on the supply side of school reform convened by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in October 2007 – focuses on the “social purpose capital markets” that provide funding to these entrepreneurs. It includes descriptions of the types of investors that comprise this complicated market and how they operate, the flaws in the market’s structure, and the ways in which these limitations could be remedied so that education entrepreneurs may realize their full potential.
This article will also be included as a chapter in a forthcoming book, The Supply Side of School Reform and the Future of Educational Entrepreneurship, edited by Frederick Hess of AEI and slated for publication by Harvard Education Press in summer 2008. This book follows up on a volume released in 2006, Educational Entrepreneurship: Realities, Challenges, and Possibilities, which contained a chapter written by Smith and Petersen that defines education entrepreneurs.
Envisioning New Public Education Systems for the 21st Century: A Report on the Eighth Annual NewSchools Summit
Each year, the NewSchools Summit provides entrepreneurs, educators, policymakers and philanthropic leaders with a venue to share promising practices and tackle common challenges.
In 2007, NewSchools partnered with New Leaders for New Schools to host a National Education Summit in a location befitting that spirit: New Orleans, Louisiana. In the wake of a devastating storm, this city has begun to develop a new, high-quality system of public schools designed to better meet the needs of its students. As NewSchools CEO Ted Mitchell explained at the outset of the event, our hope was that bringing 1000 leaders together in this way would enable us “to focus a spotlight on the needs and opportunities in this great city, to learn from each other, and to be inspired to carry out the huge, difficult and essential work of transforming education in America so that all children, especially those least well-served by the traditional system, will have a high-quality education.”
Indeed, the dramatic change taking place in New Orleans today provided Summit participants with an extraordinary opportunity for national education leaders to reflect on what has worked (and what hasn’t) in other cities, and to learn from the new structures and institutions being created in the wake of the storm.
Considering School Turnarounds: Market Research and Analysis
An increasing number of states and districts are taking action to turn around chronically underperforming schools—resulting in a rapidly emerging market for school providers willing to help school systems tackle this challenge.