New Classrooms Announces Launch

Over the past nine months, we've been working on an exciting project that will bring transformative innovation to K-12 classrooms across the country. Today, we're excited to share the news with you--our strongest supporters.

We are delighted to announce the launch of New Classrooms Innovation Partners ("New Classrooms"), a national, non-profit organization that helps schools to create adaptive, personalized learning models designed to support every student's success.

The Challenge
Today's model for delivering education--one teacher and 28 or so students in a classroom--assumes that all students arrive on the first day of school with the same academic foundation and ways of learning. For a teacher, this presents the nearly impossible challenge of trying to both teach grade-level curriculum while also meeting the needs of each student.

What We Do
New Classrooms will design new models for instruction that reimagine the role of educators, the use of time, the configuration of physical space, and the use of data and technology so that students can learn in ways that are personalized to their particular academic needs and strengths. We will then support the implementation of these models within traditional public, charter, and independent schools.

Our Plan
We will begin by developing and piloting a new middle school math model, which we call Teach to One: Math, in three U.S. cities during the 2012-13 school year. Our work in many of these cities will begin this spring as after-school programs and will convert to in-school models next fall.

Thus far, we’ve selected the following cities to host our initial Teach to One: Math implementations:

• Chicago, where we will work in collaboration with Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Public Education Fund, the Chicago International Charter School, and Distinctive Schools to open in both traditional district and charter middle schools.
• Perth Amboy, NJ, where we will work in partnership with the faculty and staff at McGinnis Middle School.
• An additional U.S. city that we will select in the coming weeks.

Work in New York City
In addition, under an agreement recently reached with the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), New Classrooms will be managing, operating and supporting the NYCDOE's School of One program including the next phase of expansion into the four NYCDOE middle schools participating under the i3 (Investing in Innovation) grant over the next 2 ½ years. New Classrooms will also be developing a system that, at a minimum, will enable NYCDOE to support the expansion of their School of One program to 50 NYCDOE schools after the i3 grant period is complete.

Looking Forward
Our near-term aspirations are to grow modestly at the outset as we continue to refine our model, improve our technology, enhance our school supports, and (most critically) learn about the measurable impact on student outcomes. At that point, we plan to make Teach to One: Math available more broadly while also designing innovative new models in other subject areas and grade spans.

Our Supporters
To help guide our work, we've pulled together a Board of Advisors that includes nationally prominent leaders from education, academia, and business. While their perspectives may sometimes differ on other educational matters, they all agree on the need to reimagine the classroom in ways that can improve student learning, support great teaching, and prepare students with the skills and competencies they need to thrive in the 21st century.

We are also fortunate to have the support of pioneering philanthropic organizations that provided start-up funding to our national efforts, including:

• The Bezos Family Foundation
• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• NewSchools Venture Fund

We thank you for your support and look forward to staying in close touch!