Rewriting the Rules: How to Make Teaching More Diverse, Rewarding, and Sustainable

By Mia Howard, Senior Partner, Innovative Schools Finding and keeping diverse and talented teachers is a growing challenge in many parts of the country. Years of disrupted schooling, political and cultural battles, and school shootings have taken a toll on educators. A study by the National Center for Education Statistics in March found that 44% […]

NewSchools Venture Fund and Walton Family Foundation announce 15 new grantees working to recruit, retain, and support teachers of color

OAKLAND, CA, March 24, 2022 — NewSchools Venture Fund today announced a new cohort of organizations receiving investments totaling $2.5 million to diversify the PreK-12 teaching profession.  This is the second year that NewSchools made investments in organizations seeking to advance educator diversity, with financial support from Alice L. Walton and the Walton Family Foundation. […]

Building a Thriving Community of Latinx Educators in a City with Fewer than 1% of Them

In Kansas City, Missouri, like in much of the country, the teaching profession is not as diverse as it should be. For every 200 Latinx students in the Kansas City area, there is only 1 Latinx teacher.  Edgar Palacios founded Latinx Education Collaborative on the belief that representation matters. Teachers of color can enhance academic […]

Increasing Teacher Diversity Through Innovation

NewSchools Venture Fund hosts a virtual event to examine the teacher diversity gap and solutions for closing it (OAKLAND, CA – July 13, 2021) NewSchools Venture Fund is hosting a virtual event with support from the Walton Family Foundation on July 14, 2021 to explore research, learning and best practices for diversifying the teaching workforce. […]

My First and Only Latina Teacher: Why Teacher Diversity Matters

Katiusca Moreno, Senior Partner             Most of us remember the teachers who made a powerful difference in our lives. I remember the ones who felt like family. For me, Ms. Heyward was one of those teachers. She was my seventh grade social studies teacher who kept a small Puerto Rican […]

Reducing Bias in Virtual Teacher Hiring

By Antonio Tapia, Senior Associate Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund It wasn’t too long ago that we sat around a table and asked teacher candidates questions in a face-to-face interview. We offered them coffee, took them around the classrooms, and introduced them to the teaching staff before settling in to get to know them. Since the […]