Education Entrepreneurs: Joel Rose & Chris Rush
Joel Rose and Chris Rush launched the first School of One program in New York City in 2009 at a time when few had heard about the promise of blended learning. Combining teacher-led instruction, technology-enabled individual tutoring, small group learning stations, and a unique scheduling algorithm that helped create a personalized learning program each day […]
DC to VC: Boston
There is a fast growing ecosystem of early-stage ventures focused on education. However, for those ventures working in and selling to the traditional K-12 system, access to capital remains challenging. There are venture philanthropies (like NewSchools) and an expanding network of angel investors that provide capital to many of these young companies. Yet most traditional […]
Rethinking the for-profit model
For many years, for-profit education organizations have faced fairly pervasive skepticism. Why? In part, you can blame the very mixed performance of for-profit school operators. Some, understandably, wonder whether every possible dollar is being directed toward the benefit of students (although it’s important to note that for-profits typically have to raise private funding, which results […]
Turn around a failing school, or start a new one? Yes.
In 2005, Shoemaker Middle School in tough west Philadelphia was a place the police knew too well. Its violence rate was staggering: 8 assaults for every 100 students, including attacks on teachers and a police officer. So, when a pair of beat cops strolled by in the fall of 2006 and found the school silent, […]