History

Inspired by classroom experience

As a former 5th-grade teacher, Joel Rose was committed to providing all of his students with an education they needed and deserved. Despite long hours and extensive training, he struggled with how best to organize daily instruction around the unique needs and strengths of each of his students.

Joel Rose and Chris Rush
Chris Whiteboard

To address this challenge, Joel worked with Chris Rush to create School of One in 2009 while working for the New York City Department of Education. It was an innovative approach to math instruction named as one of the Best Inventions of the Year by TIME magazine. That model evolved into Teach to One and is now used by thousands of students nationwide.

In 2011, Joel and Chris co-founded New Classrooms Innovation Partners as an independent, non-profit organization in order to bring innovative learning products and models to more students. Since that time, New Classrooms has continued to develop Teach to One’s innovative learning solutions.

In addition to developing solutions, New Classrooms advocates for policies aimed at modernizing our public education system so schools can better meet the unique strengths and needs of each student.

It’s time to turn the page on the factory-model classroom and equip teachers with the tools required to truly meet each and every student where they are—so they can get to where they need to be.

— Joel Rose