Trends Emerging From Our First 62 Investments in 2021
By Frances Messano Here at NewSchools, we kicked off 2021 with the launch of a new three-year strategy, focused on four investment areas: Innovative Public Schools, Learning Solutions, Diverse Leaders, and Racial Equity. Our team is energized by the tremendous response from education innovators and leaders across the country. As we analyzed data from the […]
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 […]
New Research: More Principals of Color May Be the Key to Diversifying the Teacher Workforce
By Erin Harless, Manager of Research and Learning, NewSchools Venture Fund One of the biggest talent challenges facing the education sector today is the demographic mismatch between the students attending PK-12 public schools and the teachers and leaders who serve them. Today’s students are the most diverse in the history of our nation. Yet, the […]
Do Black Lives Matter in Education Reform?
By Natalie Wilson, Associate Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund I have spent the past five years searching for a public school that I am not certain exists. I am a single mom to a lively, brilliant, rising fifth grader, Gabrielle, who embodies the phrase #BlackGirlMagic. Over the last five years, we’ve moved from Chicago to Philadelphia to […]
Beyond survival: Planning for a world where equity work thrives
By Tiffany Cheng Nyaggah, Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund Equity-minded entrepreneurs gravitate to the exciting work of creating something new because they are deeply committed to building a more just and compassionate world. Earlier this year, few leaders would have imagined a threat to their organization arriving in the form of a pandemic, which would upend […]
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 […]
Walton Family Foundation Announces $3.5 Million in Funding to Diversify the PreK-12 Teaching Profession
In collaboration with NewSchools Venture Fund, 14 grantees will receive funding and management assistance to recruit, develop and retain underrepresented educators nationwide BENTONVILLE, AR, October 23, 2019 – NewSchools Venture Fund, with financial support from the Walton Family Foundation, today announced the first round of grant recipients through the new competitive funding opportunity to diversify […]
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 […]