NewSchools Venture Fund invests in entrepreneurs and teams of educators who are building innovative schools around the country. Their goal by 2020 is for 100,000 students to be learning in schools that provide a strong academic foundation alongside other mindsets, habits, and skills correlated with long term success.
An August 2018 report by NewSchools explored how improving and developing social-emotional competencies can correlate to improved academic achievement. In the first year of a multi-year project with a national portfolio of innovative schools, NewSchools found early evidence that suggested an increase in growth mindset—the belief that one’s abilities can improve with effort—is an especially valuable component of both academic growth and proficiency in reading and math. In the NewSchools portfolio of schools, this early-stage finding held true for students across grades and race/ethnicity. It also supports recent experimental research that links growth mindset to increased academic achievement. NewSchools will produce future insight briefs that further investigate whether this pattern holds true over time.
Overdeck Family Foundation supports NewSchools Venture Fund alongside individuals and foundations such as CZI, Walton, Arnold, Bezos, Gates, Carnegie, and Dell Foundations.
Enhancing each stage of childhood learning, from birth to high school.
Overdeck Family Foundation focuses exclusively on education, providing funding across four focus areas that encompass the whole child from birth through high school both inside and outside the classroom.