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Author: NewSchools

Learn why some academic initiatives adopted by a school district might fizzle and others sizzle

Two women and a man working together in a conference room

Our team is headed by Scott Benson, formerly of DC Public Schools, where he evaluated numerous new academic initiatives being implemented (or so he thought) across the city’s schools. Some schools did indeed take a mandate from the district, run with it, and transform the way their students learned, just as he had hoped. Yet others left their new materials untouched. After scouring countless classrooms to understand why two differentiators surfaced; forming the eventual philosophy guiding our model provider strategy today. (5 min read)

What I’m Grateful for This Season: Education Innovators

By Miho Kubagawa, Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund November is my favorite month of the year because of its focus on gratitude. A few years ago, I began the tradition of sending handwritten cards to 30 individuals during this month to thank them for something that made an impact on me. It started as a ritual […]

What if Every Child had a Teacher Who Looked Like Him or Her?

By Tiffany Cheng Nyaggah, Partner I am unmistakably Asian American. A child of Chinese immigrants, I grew up in Oakland and was educated in diverse public schools. As I look back on my educational and career journey, much of it was guided by questions of creating belonging — for me and for others. I’ve studied, lived and […]

Why Everyone Can Be Good at Math

Announcing $9 million in funding for bold ideas to integrate executive function and math By Melina Uncapher, Ph.D., Director, EF+Math Program  I’m on a mission. I want to challenge the way people think about what students’ minds are capable of doing. The truth is, all students are powerful learners and students from all backgrounds are […]

How Entrepreneurs are Tackling Challenges in Ed Tech 

An Interview with Peter Gault, Co-founder and Executive Director of Quill.org, on designing for student differences We recently released an insight brief on what we’re learning from three years of ed tech investing. In the brief, we identified three consistent patterns we observed across all of our ed tech investments. This three-part blog series is […]

Looking Back on 2016 – Check out Our Highlights Video!

By Mark Boone, Chief Development Officer This has been quite a year, and a very memorable one in many ways. Around the country, student voices became more prominent on a range of issues – academic, social and political. States began working on plans under a landmark new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, […]

What I’m Thankful For — By Melissa Beck

In this season of Thanksgiving, I’m reminded of where I was three years ago at this time. I was a teacher, sitting in my 11th grade math classroom, just outside Atlanta. Red and yellow leaves fell from the trees outside my window, and I was feeling conflicted. On one hand, with Thanksgiving fast approaching, I […]