Philanthropy Roundtable is usually a ‘no-solicitation’ zone but I had the opportunity to make a 4 minute pitch for a big idea–here’s a summary of “New Tools, New Schools, New Investment Vehicles”
| Problem | Global gap in access to quality secondary education- More than 500 million young people worldwide lack access to quality secondary education including millions in urban USA
Expensive and ineffective - Virtually no productivity improvement despite a substantial increase in investment; 2x in the USA over the last 15 years
- Print-centric batch processing of age cohorts is boring, ineffective, and unproductive
- Highly encumbered decentralized system can not meet objective of all students college/career ready
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| Opportunity | Engaging personalized digital learning- 2nd gen digital content is engaging and personalized-a big improvement over flat and sequential 1st gen content
- Powerful application development platforms and social networks are making development less expensive and delivery personalized
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| Thesis | Game changing productivity- Engaging personalized adaptive content will provide first significant change in learning productivity
- Personalized learning enables staffing & facilities productivity in environments that blend the best of online & onsite
- 90% students/families want/need physical school setting
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| Solution | Venture portfolio of tools & schools- Innovative adaptive learning tools
o Facebook-like customization/networking o World of Warcraft level engagement/customization o iTunes U lectures & videos from the world’s best - Hybrid formats that blend online/onsite learning
o High Tech High meets K12 o Potential for 2x staffing & facilities productivity |
| Partnerships | Philanthropic & private capital with public space to innovate - For-profit biz models encourage speed, scale, and quality
- Foundations have long time horizons and can mitigate risk
- Local, state & federal government creates space to innovate
- Advocacy efforts to shape public will and public policy
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| Evergreen | Profit recycle creates evergreen impact potential- Philanthropic investment in supporting org at NSVF
- Profit recycle creates long-term large-scale impact potential
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Engaging personalized learning and blended formats will create
the first significant productivity gains in worldwide learning
