ICYMI at Summit 2018: Failing Forward

Guest post by Cristina DeJesus, CEO of Green Dot Public Schools This is the second in a series of insights and reflections from panelists who spoke at NewSchools Summit 2018. The series can also be found on Medium. It’s really hard to talk about failure, but it’s also a personal credo for me in my work. Owning […]

ICYMI at Summit 2018: Moving Beyond Diversity to True Inclusion

Guest post by Xiomara Padamsee, Founder & CEO of Promise54 This is the first in a series of insights and reflections from panelists from NewSchools Summit 2018. The series can also be found on Medium. Leaders often shy away from public discussion of our work to deepen diversity, inclusion, and equity in our organizations for […]

Guest Post: What Does it Mean to Redesign a School?

Guest post by Yetta Lewis, CEO and co-founder of Gestalt Community Schools A little more than a year ago, I started out on a journey to reimagine schools. I joined nine other teams of educators from across the country for a 10-month program, the New Schools + Transcend Collaborative. Most of us had never met, […]

Repost – Why We Invested: NewSchools Venture Fund Early Learning Challenge

This post was originally published on Medium, and reposted with permission from Omidyar Network. Edtech is on track to be a $252 billion global industry by 2020, bringing more innovative education tools to the hands of students, teachers, and families around the world. However, early childhood education (ECE) is a chronically under-resourced area — with fewer for-profit funders, accelerators, […]

Guest Post: Turning the Tassel – The Student Who Changed My Life

Guest Post by Oliver Sicat, CEO of Ednovate Graduation is always a special time for me as a school leader. At Ednovate, our mission is to educate high school students who will use their college degrees and careers to enact Positive Multigenerational Change in their communities, nation and world. There are currently three schools in […]

My Journey as an Ed Tech Entrepreneur — By Heather Hiles

Guest Post by Heather Hiles, Founder of Pathbrite I recently spent time with a cohort of ed tech entrepreneurs supported by NewSchools Venture Fund through their NewSchools Ignite accelerator.  My friends at NewSchools asked me and a couple of other entrepreneurs to spend some time having “real talk” about what it takes to raise capital, get exposure for […]

The People There in the Beginning: Why Investing in Diverse Leaders Matters

Guest Post by Aaron Walker, Founder/CEO of Camelback Ventures   “Always remember the people who were there in the beginning.” This advice was given to me more than three years ago when Camelback Ventures was just an incomplete idea.   Today, having touched the lives of more than 24 diverse entrepreneurs, I know I can never forget. […]

Investing in Black and Latino Senior Education Leadership as a Key Lever for Change

Guest Post by Amanda Fernandez, Founder/CEO of Latinos for Education   One short year ago I decided to take a big leap of faith – I left my job to launch Latinos for Education, a new non-profit organization. I had a vision for creating an intentional approach to recruiting, retaining and advancing Latino leadership in education, […]

Summit 2015: Brené Brown Delves Deeper in Q&A

In Brené Brown’s opening plenary talk at Summit 2015, she explained how the findings from her research into vulnerability, courage, and worthiness present an opportunity for educators to help students experience emotion fully and acquire the strength of character they need to address challenges. In the hour-long Q&A session following her talk, Brené delved deeper into questions […]