Giving Compass' Take:

• Philanthropists and investors are backing emotional learning programs and technology to help advance personalized learning models and tools that help cater to each student's specific needs. 

• Why is philanthropic support helpful for new education programs? 

• Read about why there needs to be accountability in education philanthropy. 

A comprehensive social and emotional learning program called Compass, developed by Valor Collegiate Academies, a public charter network in Nashville is a relatively new program created by a four-year-old charter network in Tennessee is showing up in another leading-edge charter school in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood.

The program shows how educators—backed by a new breed of philanthropists as well as investors—are taking chances to disrupt education as it has long been practiced. The goal is to create better academic results, and fuller, more successful lives for all kids, especially in tough, low-income neighborhoods like East New York.

In a personalized learning environment, “learning experiences are tailored to meet the needs of every single student,” says Stacey Childress, CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, an Oakland, Calif.–based venture philanthropy. Similar to a venture-capital fund in the private sector, a venture-philanthropy fund raises money for early-stage enterprises, but the focus is on nonprofits.

To scale innovative educational programming means that many personalized-learning initiatives rely on technology. Some platforms and programs are being developed by schools and nonprofits, but in other cases, they are created by for-profit companies. That’s leading to an interesting blurring of the lines between philanthropy and investing for social impact.

Both New Profit and NewSchools Venture are at the center of revolutionary efforts to change how education has been executed since the early 20th century, with a teacher delivering information to a classroom of seated students.

In the U.S., wealthy investors and foundations that agree that the traditional public school system isn’t serving most students have become attracted to personalized learning initiatives because, unlike innovations practiced at a single charter school, approaches to personalizing instruction can be adopted by any school—public, private, or charter.

Read the full article about philanthropy in education by Abby Schulz at Barrons