Giving Compass' Take:

• The New Schools Venture Fund is a venture philanthropy firm that provides human development models for schools so that they can improve learning and utilize tools and resources from the firm. 

• How sustainable is venture philanthropy funding? How will schools be able to keep implementing models? 

• Read more about how venture philanthropy works. 

Schools all across the country face similar challenges: gaps in achievement, student absenteeism, diminishing student interest in school from one grade to the next, out-of-school trauma that affects the way students learn, and the list goes on. But while these challenges are shared, many schools attack them as though they are facing them alone. They develop unique solutions to common problems.

New Schools Venture Fund is among the organizations trying to support a different path. The venture philanthropy firm funds “model providers” that have not only come up with solutions that seem to work but also want to help other schools adopt them, too.

Model providers include schools and companies that want to export successful elements of a program or entire school designs. The model provider, for New Schools Venture Fund, must truly partner with schools to improve learning by offering the instructional resources, technology tools and teacher supports that will help schools actually do that.

Scott Benson, managing partner of New School Venture Fund’s Innovative Schools team, pointed to the Valor charter network in Nashville as a promising new example. Valor, which operates two middle schools and a high school, is particularly known for its focus on social and emotional learning. It created a human development model for teachers and students called the Compass and is now working to export it to other schools around the country.

“Rather than having to reinvent the wheel every time, if a school really sees a model out there that meets their needs, it makes a lot of sense for them to adopt it,” Benson said. “It saves the cost and energy associated with trying to build something from scratch while they’re also trying to operate a school and teach students.”

Read the full article about human development model for schools by Tara Garcia Mathewson at The Hechinger Report