edvillageblog

“International Education Entrepreneurs Look to U.S.-Style Models” -Education Week

edvillageblog — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:34:45 +0000

Indian teacher hopes to import ideas to Mumbai

October 19, 2011
By Sarah D. Sparks

While much of the current policy discussion around international education focuses on how American students stack up against their peers in Europe and Asia and which international models offer lessons for American schools, one Indian educator is visiting the United States in search of models he can import to a slum of his hometown of Mumbai.

Gaurav Singh, a Mumbai teacher who plans next summer to open a free school in a slum more populated than New York City, is among a new group of international education entrepreneurs who suggest there may be value in U.S. schools exporting their own models to developing schools, too.

Mr. Singh is one of three education entrepreneurs spending six months to a year studying American schools as part of a residency program launched this year by the Washington-based EdVillage, which aims to help international educators set up networks of free public schools to share best practices. During his six-month stint in the United States, Mr. Singh has been visiting district, charter, and private schools for a few days to several weeks.

Mr. Singh said he has been getting numerous ideas from the 18 schools he’s visited so far, for everything from school finances to teacher training, pedagogy, and supplemental enrichment.

“Where do you go in India to see what’s possible for a kid who comes from a slum? Not at a comparative level of, ‘Let’s give them a few skills to work in a coffee shop,’ but on an absolute level, what’s possible?” he said. “There’s not much we can look at.”

‘Excellence Is Excellence’

The first visits to American classes full of desks and interactive white boards were a major culture shock, Mr. Singh recalled. As a member of the founding class of Teach for India, a nonprofit modeled after Teach for America, he had started teaching two years ago after five weeks of training with a 2nd grade group of 50 students ranging in age from 6 to 14. Classes took place sometimes in a classroom and sometimes in buildings or sidewalks.

“When you enter a classroom that’s very different from yours in terms of space, in terms of number of kids, … you just say, ‘This is not going to work in our country,’ ” he said. “You have to calm yourself and say, ‘This is useless; excellence is excellence,’ and then figure out how we can transfer these practices. We needed to hunt for the big nuggets. Now, I’m actually going back thinking, it’s not that different.”

Mr. Singh’s “3-2-1 School” will open with 120 students in kindergarten and 1st grade, adding a grade each year. And unlike most public schools in India, which operate for four hours a day, six days a week, Mr. Singh said his school will operate on something like an American schedule of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., five days a week. The school will start out with a student-teacher ratio of 30-to-1, in line with new national rules expected to go into effect in the next three years.

Students will enroll via a lottery, and Mr. Singh is planning for at least a two- to four-year age range in each grade, as well as considerable language diversity. The children, mostly from Mumbai’s slums, speak more than 16 languages. He said he has been choosing U.S. schools to visit based on specific practices—a character-development program in one, teacher professional development in another.

The educator said his goal is to have 100 percent of students scoring “proficient” on the Assessment of Scholastic Skills through Educational Testing, or ASSET, India’s standardized test, by the time the kindergarten cohort reaches 3rd grade.

There is no formula-based government aid for public schools in India; the government will decide whether to provide funding for the 3-2-1 School based on its academic achievement, said Mr. Singh, who has set a goal of having a network of 100 K-12 schools in 15 years.

He has some reason for confidence: During the teaching fellowship with Teach for India, Mr. Singh’s students progressed 2.6 grade levels on average in a school year. “Once we started overlooking the resource constraints that we had, we started finding that learning was happening, and happening on grade level,” he said. “When we started seeing that the kids could learn whether they had a blackboard or not, whether they had a classroom or not, it started teaching us a lot of things about learning and about joy.”

As Mr. Singh toured a Montessori school in New York City last week, a delegation of U.S. Department of Commerce officials and higher education officials were in Mumbai, New Delhi, and Chennai, looking at Indian schools and recruiting students to study at American schools. That mission focused on colleges and universities, according to Kristian Richardson, a senior international trade specialist for the agency, but he said the department would as readily export K-12 school models if American educators were willing to pitch them overseas. For the past eight years, Indian students have been the largest group of international students studying in the United States, and the department believes “this population will continue to grow as demand for education in India outweighs the supply of available institutions.”

Exporting Schooling

The Commerce Department “actively promotes U.S. education as an export” through education missions like this one, and it considers education to be one of the country’s top 10 service exports. International students accounted for more than $18.8 billion in tuition and living expenses while studying in the United States during the 2009-10 school year.

Yet there are relatively few opportunities for education leaders like Mr. Singh to get a firsthand look at U.S.-style learning, according to Robert Spielvogel, the chief technology officer and vice president for research, evaluation, and policy for the Newton, Mass.-based Education Development Center, a research-and-consulting organization that helps establish basic education in developing countries. And, while numerous American colleges have created satellite campuses in other countries, the idea hasn’t caught on yet in the K-12 sector beyond the international schools that generally serve children of American diplomats. In Mumbai, Mr. Singh said the American international school costs $15,000 per year—far more than the $1,000 U.S. dollars the average Indian earns in a year.

“There’s been surprisingly little of that in the [United States],” Mr. Spielvogel said. “The charter networks in the U.S. … have focused more on states, not spreading themselves internationally.”

Norma A. Evans, an EDC senior research and development associate who builds literacy programs in Africa, said much of the research that undergirds her development work comes from the United States, but “we haven’t tried to transfer a packaged or predefined school model for a number of reasons, the most obvious being the need to recognize and respect the curriculum and instructional setup mandated by the host countries.”

“We try [to] weave our instructional practices and models into existing frameworks. That said, we do hope that over time and as ministries see the impact of the new practices on student learning, they will begin identifying how to mainstream the practices and models,” Ms. Evans said.

Edvillage was founded this year by two former leaders from the Knowledge Is Power Program Foundation: former KIPP business director Mark Medema, the current Edvillage president; and former KIPP outreach and institutional advancement director Allison Rouse, the group’s chief executive officer.

“We’d both opened a number of charter schools in the states in the last decade and then spent some time overseas,” Mr. Medema said. “We noticed the huge demand for education reform initiatives in other countries. The stories weren’t much different from the problems we were facing here in the United States, so we came back to the U.S. and thought hey, maybe there’s an opportunity to share the lessons—the good, the bad, and the ugly—that we’ve learned here in the U.S. about education reform with other countries.”

The nonprofit got a two-year, $700,000 start-up grant from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Mr. Singh and two South African educators were recruited to be the first program residents, and the group is now recruiting 16 educators from India, South Africa, and Latin America for next year.

The EDC’s Mr. Spielvogel predicts the Internet will accelerate international interest in American educational practices.

“Even in the poorest countries, there is a desire to be up to date and incorporate 21st-century learning,” he said. He also expects that accreditation programs like the International Baccalaureate and open-source education services will continue to grow. “As people get familiar with educational materials they might start to get interested in more of the pedagogy.”

Coverage of leadership, expanded learning time, and arts learning is supported in part by a grant from The Wallace Foundation, at www.wallacefoundation.org.

Vol. 31, Issue 08, Page 11

Spread the Word – Job Opportunities with EdVillage!

edvillageblog — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:00:28 +0000

We are excited to announce that EdVillage is expanding and has three unique career opportunities to share with you and your network.

As you may know, EdVillage, in partnership with the KIPP Foundation, successfully launched the Global Fellows Program. The program provided educators from India and South Africa access to KIPP’s world-class school leadership training including classroom courses and experiential residencies at high performing schools. The first year of the fellowship has been a tremendous success thanks to the hard work of the Global Fellows, Bonisile Ntlemeza and Ross Hill from South Africa and Gaurav Singh from India. In 2012 we plan to double the number of Fellows in the program and seek your help in getting the word out.

Second, given the need to develop the next generation of Indian school leaders, EdVillage in partnership with Teach For India, the Akanksha Foundation, the KIPP Foundation and an Indian philanthropist, is planning to launch an India School Leadership Program in 2013. This is an exciting addition to our work. We are looking to hire a dynamic, hard working, education entrepreneur to lead this effort – a founding Executive Director for a new India School Leadership Program.

Finally, given our work in India over the next year, EdVillage is looking to hire a Director of Operations that will be based in India. This person will work closely with Mr. Gaurav Singh as he starts his first school in Mumbai as well as lay the foundation for EdVillage in India.

We appreciate your help in spreading the word about these opportunities!

1. Global Fellowship Program for School Leaders

EdVillage is now accepting applications for the 2012 cohort of our Global Fellowship Program. The EdVillage Global Fellowship provides a six-month long program of world-class school leadership training in the United States. We need your help in identifying promising international education entrepreneurs interested in leading transformational schools serving economically disadvantaged populations in their home country. We are looking for exceptional leaders with a passion for ensuring all children have access to a high-quality education and the entrepreneurial vision to create and lead an excellent school.

Please visit our website for more information about the EdVillage Global Fellowship Program including the Frequently Asked Questions section. Candidates can apply online by completing the Statement of Interest, which is due by January 31, 2012.

2. Executive Director, India School Leadership Program

EdVillage is expanding in India! With the success of our 2011 Global Fellowship program where school leaders from India and South Africa participated in a joint EdVillage-KIPP leadership program, our partners at Teach For India and the Akanksha Foundation and our supporters have encouraged us to create the India School Leadership Program. Our goal is to train a greater number of India’s educators in school leadership. We are launching a search for a passionate and talented founding Executive Director for the India School Leadership Program. We need your help to identify excellent candidates for this position.

We are looking for someone who has a demonstrated track record as a highly effective educator and the proven ability to develop leadership potential in adults. This leader should have international experience, preferably in India.

If you know of potential candidates, or people who know potential candidates, please forward this email and the attached job description. The Founding Executive Director will spend 4-6 months learning from excellent educators and school leadership directors in the US, and then return to India in September 2012 to start the local program with its first cohort starting in Spring 2013.

3. Director of Operations, India

This position will be a key member of EdVillage’s team. This person will directly work with our India partner, the newly formed 3.2.1 Education Foundation, and its founding School Leader, Mr. Gaurav Singh (one of the 2011 Global Fellows) to drive a culture of excellence and a high level of student achievement at the Foundation’s first school and help the organization plan for future expansion. This a full-time position based in Mumbai, India. The Director of Operations will report directly to EdVillage’s COO and is also accountable to the 3.2.1 Foundation School Leader.

4. EdVillage Intern and Volunteers

Throughout the year, EdVillage brings on interns and volunteers to conduct research and help us develop international programs. If you know of students or seasoned professionals with a passion for international education and international development, please refer them to us.

Complete information about these opportunities can be found on our website, www.edvillage.org

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

EdVillage envisions a world where all children, regardless of their socio-economic status, have access to a high quality school that prepares them for higher education and a productive and fruitful life.

Our mission is to identify and then support transformational school models around the world that provide a high quality, university preparatory education for children from economically disadvantaged communities. We do this by providing specialized school improvement services and world-class school leadership training.

EdVillage is dedicated to equal employment opportunities and fair labor practices. EdVillage provides equal employment opportunities to all individuals based on job-related qualifications, and the ability to perform a job without regard to gender, age, race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, veteran status, marital status, or disability. It is our policy to maintain a non-discriminatory environment free from intimidation, harassment or bias based upon these grounds.

What Will I Do About It?

edvillageblog — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:49:03 +0000

Look around you. Find something that moves you. Find something that you feel passionate about. Find something where you think you can have maximum impact. And find something where you think there is a big need. Then basically ask yourself, “What will I do about it?”
–EdVillage Global Fellow Gaurav Singh

Meet the 2011 EdVillage Global Fellows

edvillageblog — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:12:09 +0000

Ross Hill - Johannesburg, South Africa

Ross Hill has just opened a new LEAP school in Diepsloot, a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa. As an inaugural recipient of an EdVillage scholarship that includes being an international Fisher Fellow, Ross believes that this program will make all the difference for his underserved children in his growing school. LEAP Science and Maths Schools are low-fee paying secondary schools in South Africa with very similar values to KIPP schools. Starting out as a Math teacher, Ross has been teaching Physics and Chemistry before moving into leadership. He has co-authored a few science textbooks. He obtained a BS in Applied Mathematics and completed a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education at the University of Cape Town. Having grown up, studied and worked nearly all his life in Cape Town, he relocated to Johannesburg with his wife this year to start the school. Ross is motivated to bring social justice to a country with huge socio-economic and educational divides as a legacy of Apartheid. He is very grateful for this opportunity to grow and has great hope that this will help change the lives of his students and himself.

Bonisile Ntlemeza – Cape Town, South Africa

Bonisile Ntlemeza is currently the principal of LEAP1, the first of the four LEAP Science and Maths Schools in South Africa. LEAP Schools are achieving significantly better results than government schools serving a similar student population. LEAP1 is located in Cape Town and serves students from the township of Langa, a disadvantaged community that is made up of both informal settlements and established communities. Bonisile has held a number of posts at LEAP. He started his career at LEAP as a member of the schools Life Orientation, a subject that develops in students’ social-emotional security as well as a way for them to become role models in their homes and agents of change in their communities. He also worked as the International Liaison for the school, a role that involved establishing and nurturing partnerships that the school has with friends across the world. Bonisile was born and raised in Langa. He attended Pinelands High School prior to matriculating into the University of the Western Cape. There he earned a BA in Anthropology and Psychology focusing on Culture and Society. He also completed his honors degree in Psychology at the Stellenbosch University.

Gaurav Singh – Mumbai, India

Gaurav Singh is the Founder of the 3.2.1 Education Foundation. Prior to this starting the 3.2.1 Education Foundation, Gaurav was a Teach for India fellow from its first batch (2009-2011). In his first year, he taught in a low income private school in Pune and handled a class of 47 2nd graders (ages 6 to 13) and led them to a growth of more than one academic year in his one year with them. He also started teacher collaboration sessions in his school and worked on the teacher training. In his second year, he worked in a government school in Mumbai and took his 30 kids to 2.5 years of academic growth in one year (measured on standard TFI tests). He was also part of an effort by Teach for India to work with the municipal corporation of Mumbai with the aim of improving the 1,400 schools in Mumbai. He was Teach for Indias lead on administration systems improvement and was part of the McKinsey team working on this effort. He worked in getting technology into the schools to improve administrational efficiency. He also worked on School Leader and teacher training projects both in his school and at the city level.

Learn more about the EdVillage Global Fellowship Program on our website, http://www.edvillage.org/#!global-fellowship-program

Apply to the 2012 Global Fellowship now. Applications are due by January 31, 2012.
http://www.edvillage.org/#!apply-now

EdVillage Celebrates Int’l Education Week at Harvard

edvillageblog — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:42:14 +0000

The Harvard Kennedy School Education Policy Interest Council and EdVillage invite you to a discussion in celebration of International Education Week…

Third Sector Solutions To Increasing High-Quality Education
Opportunities Around The Globe

Wednesday, November 16
4:00pm – 6:00pm

Harvard Kennedy School
Malkin Penthouse in Littauer Building (4th Floor Room)
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Over the past two decades, the international community has mobilized around the critical issue of universal access to quality primary education, resulting in the new enrollment of millions of children globally. However, educational systems are ill equipped to serve all of these students, particularly those in economically disadvantaged communities. As a result, a “third sector” of education providers – a middle ground between traditional government schools and expensive and often exclusive private schools – has emerged in the form of no fee schools, low-cost private schools, and charter schools, run by NGOs, public-private partnerships, and companies.

Is this “third sector” the solution to increasing the capacity of the global education system to provide an excellent education for all children? In celebration of International Education Week, please join the founder of EdVillage, Mark Medema for a discussion about the role of the third sector and education entrepreneurs in increasing excellent education opportunities for the world’s most impoverished communities.

EdVillage supports education entrepreneurs from around the globe that seek to start high-quality schools in economically disadvantaged communities. We provide access to world-class school leadership training and support the start-up of their schools by linking these entrepreneurs to the knowledge gained by others in the field and to a global network of excellent schools. EdVillage is currently working in India and South Africa with plans to expand to other countries around the world. www.EdVillage.org

Read about EdVillage in Education Week’s recent article, “International Education Entrepreneurs Look to U.S.-Style Models” goo.gl/dqg9g

EdVillage Partners Are International Education Innovators

edvillageblog — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:51:37 +0000

LEAP Science and Maths Schools, South Africa

It is 1989, South Africa was still a nation where over 80% of the population did not have the right to vote. This was still apartheid South Africa. In that year, a progressive white educator determined to reach out to his Black neighbors, started an exchange program called Africa Week that involved bringing students from a local township, Langa which is near Cape Town, to the all white suburb of Pinelands. Children from two very different and segregated worlds, met and began to talk. In apartheid South Africa that was success. However, for John Gilmour, simply bringing kids together was not enough. He saw how the apartheid system robbed Black and Colored South African children of a good education so he started the Langa Education Assistance Program, LEAP in 1990, the same year that Nelson Mandela was released from prison. LEAP provided 100 students from Langa township extra lessons in English, Maths, and Science. The students were bused from Langa to Pinelands High three afternoons a week for 20 weeks. John, along with a number of other educators from both Pinelands and the township, worked tirelessly on a program that they later deemed a failure. Simply providing tutoring was not enough to change the life trajectory of students from Langa. The students in the LEAP Program and similar programs were not performing well on the high stakes high school exit and university admission exam call the “matric.”

John’s conclusion was that the teachers needed more time to work with the students. An after-school program was not enough. He needed the students for the entire school day. He began discussions with a local wealthy private school, Bishops College about a partnership to create a new school model that could begin to address the inequalities caused by apartheid’s education legacy. By October 2003, John had secured start-up funding from several sources including the Shuttleworth Foundation. With some funding, a partnership with Bishops, and the blessing of the Western Cape Education Department, the first LEAP Science and Maths School opened its doors to 72 high schools students from Langa Township in 2004.

Since then, LEAP Science and Maths Schools have expanded. They now operate two schools that serve students from Langa, Gugulethu and Crossroads Townships near Cape Town and two schools near Johannesburg serving the communities of Alexandra and Diepsloot Townships. They have had great success. Last year, 98% of the LEAPsters passed the matric exam and over 60% passed with a mark that qualifies them to attend a university in South Africa.

Akanksha Foundation, India

Akanksha began in 1990 with then eighteen-year-old Shaheen Mistri’s pairing children from “slum” communities with volunteer college students in an open space in schools to for extra tutoring and full lessons. Shaheen believed that every child deserved the opportunity to learn and to have space and time to be a child. Holy Name School in Mumbai provided space for the first Akanksha center. One site soon became several dozen.

Maximizing existing resources, the Akanksha after-school centers began to effectively fill many of the educational gaps children had as they progressed through the government school system. Each center utilizes trained teachers and volunteers to teach English, Math and Values to 60 children for 2 ½ hours a day, five days a week. The program focuses on the goals of providing a strong educational foundation, a good time, self-esteem and values. In addition, the curriculum addresses successful completion of secondary school and job preparation to help them plan how they can earn a steady livelihood as a step towards improving their standard of living. Today there are 46 centers in Pune and Mumbai serving over 2,500 children.

Recognizing the staggering statistics of a 50% drop out rate between grades 1 and 5 and a 90% drop out rate by grade 10 and the insufficient number of effective schools available to low income students, Akanksha decided to step back and redefine its approach to its mission of equipping all children with an education that has the power to fundamentally transform their life path. In 2006, Akanksha approached the Pune Municipal Corporation to adopt a school. From this partnership, The School Project emerged and the first school opened in June 2007. The mission of The School Project is to create a model for high-performing schools that redefines what is possible for children from low-income communities. Akanksha Schools have the potential to drive wider systemic reform. The promising improvement in student performance on a third party assessment called ASSET built confidence that children from low-income communities could perform at higher levels in the right educational environment. Akanksha decided to work within the government system because of the potential to reach more children and possibly advocate for broader, system-wide education reform. There are now 9 Akanksha Schools operating in partnership with local municipalities in Pune and Mumbai.

How We Help – Our Work with LEAP and Akanksha

EdVillage is helping LEAP in two ways and learning from them on another front.

First, we are providing access to the world-class KIPP School Leadership Program to two of their existing principals through our Global Fellows Program. Bonisile Ntlemeza and Ross Hill are currently in the United States having spent 5 weeks in KIPP’s Leadership Institute they are now “interning” at high performing schools learning best practices from Instructional Leaders like Michael Mann and Juliann Harris at North Star Academy College Preparatory High School in Newark, NJ; Tammi Sutton and Kevika Amar of KIPP Pride High School in Gaston, NC; and Natalie Webb of KIPP NYC College Prep High School.

Second, EdVillage is providing targeted consulting and support services to the LEAP network. The newest addition to the EdVillage team, Mike Rettberg, is working on the ground with LEAP’s leadership team on improving instructional practice.

And finally, each innovative school model we partner with demonstrates excellence in a variety of ways. Since the doors of its first school opened in 2004, LEAP Science and Maths Schools have used a values-based framework as a way to empower their high school aged students. LEAP’s Life Orientation program is unlike any in South Africa. Life Orientation strives to provide the learners with a sense of self, develop their genuine voice, and empower them to take action in their communities. What we are learning from LEAP is that students arrive with a resiliency that provides a strong foundation ion which to build. We plan to support LEAP in their efforts to share what they have learned with schools around the world.

EdVillage is helping Akanksha in two ways and learning from them on another front.

First, we are helping Akanksha develop a stronger human capital pipeline including the ability to support, mentor and develop their teachers and principals.

Second, working along side Akanksha’s CEO, Vandana Goyal, we will conduct school reviews and create an improvement plan for each school. We will then work with the Central Office to ensure they have the right systems and personnel in place to support their schools and centers.

However, Akanksha has lots to share with the world. One of the things Akanksha does better than their peers in India is to fully engage the community in their schools. They have done an amazing job of working with parents, reaching out to community members, opening their schools so that people in the community can use them and supporting other children through their centers. This multi-pronged approach to improving education is a community is something worth emulating. We plan to help Akanksha share the lessons learned from their community building and engagement activities with schools around the world.

Siya namkela nonke Mike!

edvillageblog — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:42:13 +0000

EdVillage loves great teachers! We are so excited to introduce you to the newest member of the EdVillage team, Mr. Michael “Mike” Rettberg. Mike’s role is Instructional Leader and will be based in Cape Town, South Africa. He will work closely with LEAP in establishing an even stronger culture of excellence and high levels of student achievement. Working in partnership with LEAP principals and other leaders, he will help improve teaching quality from the planning stages to individual lessons. He will support EdVillage trained school leaders as they implement the academic and cultural improvements outlined in their School Design Plans as well as monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of programs and acquire program resources in partnership with the School Leader. Finally, Mike plans to work with LEAP in aligning curriculum and assessment across all schools.

Mike comes to EdVillage from KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy where he taught science for the past 5 years serving as the Department Chair. During his time at KIPP, Mike was Grade-level Chair for both the seventh and eighth grades. In 2010, Mike was one of 10 teachers nationwide to receive the KIPP Excellence in Teaching Award.

Siya namkela nonke (welcome) Mike! EdVillage is excited to have you on our team.

Letter from Allison and Mark

edvillageblog — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:53:09 +0000

While working for the KIPP Foundation we became deeply involved in the education reform movement in the United States. We committed ourselves to providing high quality education to all children. After leaving KIPP we both took on other jobs and even traveled the world. During our travels through Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America we met people working hard to improve education within their communities. We observed first-hand the challenges they face in providing high quality education to students from low-income backgrounds. These educators worked mostly in isolation and achieved outstanding results. Inspired by our work in the US, we wondered if we could help educators from around the world building stronger schools and organization by sharing the lessons we learned. We also recognized that our partners in India and South Africa had a great deal to offer American educators. After lots of conversations and hard work, EdVillage was born.

We started EdVillage to support educators from around the world and to do our part to accelerate and catalyze change. We have entered into a partnership with the KIPP Foundation and also found innovative school models with which to work. The first two school models were LEAP Science and Maths Schools in South Africa and Akanksha Foundation in India. Each believes that kids, regardless of their social economic environment, have the ability to achieve at the highest levels. Each believes that high quality teaching, and more of it, will have an indelible impact on children. We each believe that collectively we will demonstrate what is possible!

Join us on our journey to improving educational opportunities and outcomes for children across the globe.

Warm regards,

Allison Rouse and Mark Medema

Co-Founders, EdVillage

We have lift off! EdVillage is now working in India and South Africa!

edvillageblog — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:10:30 +0000

We wanted to briefly update you on the exciting things that have been happening since we first reported the founding of EdVillage and the generous start-up support we received from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

First, we were thrilled to have signed an official partnership with the KIPP Foundation creating the Global Fellows Program. Our first class of Global Fellows, Bonisile Ntlemeza, Ross Hill, and Gaurav Singh, completed the KIPP School Leadership Program’s Summer Institute and are now rotating through “residencies” at high performing schools. EdVillage truly appreciates the warm welcome bestowed upon our Global Fellows by principals at KIPP, E.L. Haynes, Noble Schools, and Uncommon Schools. The Global Fellows will continue to work in and learn from their experience at these schools over the next few months.

Second, we are excited to have established official partnerships with LEAP Science and Maths Schools in South Africa and with the Akanksha Foundation in India (see the brief introductions below). LEAP Science and Maths Schools has established four schools serving high school students in townships near Cape Town and Johannesburg. The Akanksha Foundation operates nine schools and forty-six afterschool centers in slum communities in Mumbai and Pune, India. Both organizations believe that all children are capable of achieving at the highest levels given a school environment grounded in high expectations, quality teaching, and empowerment of the community. EdVillage is helping our partners gain access to the world-class leadership training the KIPP Foundation offers and helping them improve all aspects of their schools and operations by providing targeted trainings and consulting services.

Finally, we wanted to share with you the recently released video of EdVillage’s first TEDx presentation. EdVillage was invited to participate in two conferences in Mumbai, India; TEDx Nariman Point and InspirED. Our hosts, Teach For India, Akanaksha Foundation and The American School of Bombay, did an amazing job bringing together education reformers interested in advancing transformation in India. We were happy to share stories of inspiration from our experience in the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa and India. You can now watch Allison’s September 2nd presentation at the TEDx Nariman Point in Mumbai.

Please note, there is one correction. The combined enrollment of Uncommon Schools and YES Schools is approximately 9,000 not 11,000.

Thank you for your support over the last several months. We are looking forward to a tremendous year helping our partners achieve amazing results for kids. We appreciate any comments, thoughts, connections, or ideas that result from this email and your viewing of the presentation. Stay tuned for more extensive updates in the coming weeks!

Warm regards,

Mark Medema and Allison Rouse
Co-Founders
EdVillage – A better education for every village

About the KIPP Foundation (throughout the United States)
Founded in 2000, the KIPP Foundation is a national non-profit organization created to teach a selected group of promising teachers and educators how to open and run schools based on the KIPP model. Since its creation 2000, the KIPP Foundation has helped trained over 500 teachers and educators and supporting the opening of 99 KIPP Schools throughout the United States. The KIPP Foundation recognizes that teaching excellence and high quality school leadership training is essential to the creation of high performing schools, particularly those that work with students from traditionally disadvantaged background. KIPP school leaders are the backbone of any KIPP school. They are instructional leaders with a track record of making an impact in their communities. They come to KIPP from diverse backgrounds and a variety of experiences, and all are committed to working in educationally underserved communities to help close the achievement gap. For more information, please see http://www.kipp.org/.

About LEAP Science and Maths Schools (Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa)
LEAP Science and Maths School started in 2004 with the aim of creating a model that could begin to address the inequalities in the South African education system. The values-based framework of LEAP creates an empowering educational environment that enables each learner to develop fully as a human being with a positive, caring lifestyle and healthy work ethic. LEAP consists of three high schools serving students from townships in South Africa including Langa and Gugulethu in Cape Town and Alexandra in Johannesburg. LEAP also offers a Teaching Tranining Program, a Learning Center and Community Outreach Program. LEAP actively seeks to share its innovation and entrepreneurial approach with other schools and contributes positively within the national education framework. For more information, please see http://www.leapschool.org.za/

About Akanksha Foundation (Mumbai and Pune, India)
The Akanksha Foundation is a non-profit organization with the vision to one day equips all students with the education, skills and character they need to lead empowered lives. Akanksha works primarily in the field of education, addressing non-formal education through the Akanksha centre and also formal education through the Akanksha Schools. Over the past 20 years, the organization has expanded from 15 children in one centre to over 3500 children in 58 centers and 6 schools. A commitment is made to support each child by giving him or her a strong educational foundation, a good time, self-esteem and values, and to help them plan how they can earn a steady livelihood as a step towards improving their standard of living. For more information, please see http://www.akanksha.org/.

Allison Rouse’s talk at TEDxNarimanPoint 2011

edvillageblog — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:23:48 +0000

TEDxNarimanPoint 2011 took place on Friday September 2nd, 2011 at YB Chavan Auditorium. At TEDxNarimanPoint ideas were shared by eminent speakers on ways to transform the educational landscape in India and beyond. The speakers came from varied backgrounds of being educators themselves, social entrepreneurs in the education sector, policy makers, leaders in CSR etc. to present a view of the concerted effort required to change the educational landscape of a country.