edBurst Update
A Newsletter for Education Leaders
Mary Axelson, Editor This Update is revised regularly.
Current articles have been added (at the top) as older articles are dropped (from the bottom).
We encourage you to forward to others in your organization.
www.bsgtv.com
|
 |
The 2015 EdNext Poll on School Reform Public thinking on testing, opt out, common core, unions, and more...more>> Facebook is building free educational software Facebook became the latest technology company to enter the national debate over how to best educate children with the announcement of a partnership with a network of charter schools to build educational software that will be offered for free to public schools...more>> Brookings: Does money matter? The latest research suggests that money does matter. Of course, it matters how and where it is spent and it needs to be combined with accountability for results. But the whole notion that we can reduce spending on education and do no harm or that new resources don't have the potential to improve both the level and the distribution of student outcomes is just plain wrong...more>> Parents Spending Less on Back-to-School Season Despite Growing Lists of Supplies As a young student, Tom McMahon never had to bring scissors to school. "I remember there was always a giant box of scissors," said Mr. McMahon, now a 38-year-old father of three who teaches English in Mahopac, N.Y. "Now, we provide for scissors as parents and ask for scissors as teachers."...more>> Common Core results exceed expectations Scores from early rounds of Common Core-related testing are beginning to trickle in and they're higher than many anticipated...more>> Do Tablets Help or Hinder Childhood Literacy? These days would-be readers are wooed by screen time, book time and everything in between. But has the proliferation of tablets impacted young children's ability to read or their interest in opening up a good book?...more>> The Atlantic: The Demise of Private Schools In New Orleans and elsewhere, old-line parochial schools are seeing their enrollments plummet...more>> Christensen Institute: Tablets and disruptive innovation It used to be that most devices in schools were desktop machines of either the Windows or Apple varieties, but recently many schools have been switching to mobile devices like the iPad or web-based devices like the Chromebook...more>> Is Teach for America Flunking Out? As students head back to school in the coming days, the lowest number of new Teach for America (TFA) teachers since the start of the decade will go with them-just 4,100 new "corps members," down from an incoming group of 6,000 in 2013...more>> "Old School" Textbooks Out, Personalized Digital Learning In McGraw-Hill Education survey finds 91% of K-12 parents welcome digital learning as a performance-improving and more cost-effective learning experience for their children...more>> US News: There's No Revolt Against Common Core Headline-making polls suggest a full-blown revolt against school tests and the Common Core. But polls aren't always what they seem at face value...more>> The Melting of Mark Zuckerberg's Donation to Newark Schools The national debate over how to best educate our children is usually undertaken at a high level of abstraction. Constructive dialogue is often hampered by intense philosophical preconceptions that drive the perceptions and characterizations of all key players in the underlying drama: union leaders, charter operators, philanthropists, school administrators, politicians and teachers...more>> Companies, schools struggle with varying ed tech procurement practices Even as school technology becomes a more integral part of instruction, districts struggle to adapt antiquated purchasing systems to new approaches...more>> Polls Reveal Nuanced Views on K-12 Two high-profile public-opinion polls released this month offer contrasting snapshots on the public's support for common-core standards and mandatory standardized testing-intertwined issues that are arguably among the most divisive in K-12 public education...more>> The Tortoise and the Hare: An EdTech Tale What's taking the education technology revolution so long?...more>> Education Next: Common Core: How Much Do People Know About Its Real Impact? Earlier this week, my colleagues and I reported, as part of the opinion, that the level of support for the Common Core had slipped over the past two years from about two thirds to about half of the public. Yet opponents still number only about a third of the public, with the rest offering no opinion one way or the other...more>> Big Hype, Hard Fall for News Corp.'s $1 Billion Ed-Tech Venture The global media giant News Corp. sought to push its way into the K-12 marketplace five years ago by betting big on technology. Now, despite a $1 billion investment and a steady stream of brash promises to radically disrupt the way public schools do business, the company's education division, known as Amplify, is deeply in the red and on the auction block...more>> Getting Smart on Next-Gen Learning Platforms ...Getting Smart compiled a series of blogs first published on GettingSmart.com reviewing progress on next-gen learning platforms, as well as adaptive learning applications - particularly those supporting a large, diverse library of content...more>> Owl Ventures Is Betting $100 Million Fund on Education Startups The education sector may lack the blockbuster IPOs and out-sized acquisitions seen in consumer and enterprise tech, but that isn't slowing down Owl Ventures, which has closed a $100 million fund...more>> Federal Intervention in Schools? It Happens Less Than Critics Think Congress is entering final negotiations over the biggest piece of federal education legislation in over a decade. The House and Senate have both passed new versions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the controversial law that mandated standards, testing and accountability in public schools nationwide...more>> MDR: A Mixed Bag: Ed Funding and the 2015-2016 Budget Outlook The budget outlook for the 2015-2016 school year is a mix of good and bad news, which is an improvement over the past few years when there was very little good news to share. The federal budget for education, especially the K-12 segment, is slated for a big hit if Congress has its way. Most state education budgets, on the other hand, have seen at least some growth, reflecting the generally improved economic condition of the states...more>> Eight Ways Educators Help Parents Promote Powerful Learning We spent a year listening to parents and reading their stories that took shape in blogs on The Huffington Post and GettingSmart.com. From what we read and heard from parents through our yearlong investigation, they recognize it's a changing world and they want to make sure their children learn at their own pace and in ways that promote anytime, anywhere learning...more>> Spending on Instructional Materials, Construction Climbing in K-12 School spending on instructional materials and construction has risen over the past year, as public funding for K-12 continues to creep upward from the darkness of the Great Recession, a new analysis finds. The newly released 2015 Annual State of the Educational Marketplace report draws from different organizations and sources of data, and was published by the Education Market Association...more>> A Quick Letter to Ed-Tech Salespeople One of my bigger frustrations is getting form letter emails from companies trying to sell our school district something, particularly something that falls under the category of educational technology. As we head into another school year, I thought I would offer a bit of advice to vendors out there who would like to work with our school district...more>> MDR: Technology and Productivity in K-12 ...In the past two decades there has been a massive investment of technology in K-12 education. U.S school systems are spending $12 billion per year on hardware, software, and networking and have a ratio of 1 computer to 1 student...The big question: Does technology improve teaching, learning, and outcomes?...more>> News Corp. Announces Plans to Wind Down Amplify's Tablet Business Amplify, which has moved aggressively to market its mobile devices and curriculum to schools, told investors Wednesday that it is abandoning the tablet business, ending months of speculation about its intentions on that front...more>> Wired: This Robot Tutor Will Make Personalizing Education Easy Personalizing education can change a kid's life. It can keep the advanced ones from getting bored and the struggling ones from falling behind, because every kid, no matter their level of proficiency, is encouraged to move at his or her own pace...more>> Assessing the State of the K-12 Testing Market, As Dynamics Shift There's an assumption that a lot of people have been making about testing in the common-core era that goes something like this: As states have scrambled to roll out high-stakes online exams aligned to the standards, the testing industry has reaped the benefits...more>> Brookings: Lessons from the trenches on making school choice work In the United States, what school a child attends is determined in large part by where she lives. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly three-quarters of American children attend schools assigned to them based on their residence...more>> The Economist: Learning unleashed Where governments are failing to provide youngsters with a decent education, the private sector is stepping in...more>> Brookings: How improving education could pay off in economic growth In a recent Think Tank piece, I focused on two ways to boost long-term economic growth: more risk-taking by larger companies, and more start-ups. Neither is easy to accomplish, nor for government to immediately change...more>> Teachers and Data Results from two new surveys related to student data were released in July. Lexia Learning surveyed teachers at ISTE about their ability to access, interpret and use student data, while T.H.E. Journal surveyed K-12 education decision-makers on the use of data and its impact on student learning in their schools and districts and produced a very useful infographic that displays the result...more>> 'De-Identifying' Student Data: Next Front in the Privacy Wars? Hoping to shed light on a huge legal and technical gray area involving the sharing and use of student data, Washington think tank Future of Privacy Forum released this week a new paper on the "de-identification" of sensitive student information...more>> MIT Technology Review: Lessons from the Digital Classroom Technologists and venture capitalists are betting that the data online learning generates will reshape education...more>> As McGraw-Hill Education Leaves State Testing, Market Thrives for Classroom Assessments Many assumed-rightly or wrongly-that the common-core era would bring a windfall for companies in the state testing business...more>> Scientific American: Researchers Find That Frequent Tests Can Boost Learning Too often school assessments heighten anxiety and hinder learning. New research shows how to reverse the trend...more>> How Davidson, edX, and College Board aim to scale AP access As MOOCs become increasingly popular as tools for facilitating blended learning, it's no surprise that they're also finding their way from higher ed to high school - particularly Advanced Placement courses...more>> AIM Expenditures, News Items MDR released its annual accounting of public school districts' spending for all instructional materials (AIM), confirming that the school market is finally in recovery. Total AIM expenditures for K-12 public schools were $11.8 billion in 2013-2014, a 9% increase and the first increase in AIM spending since 2007-08...more>> Brookings: How far apart are Democrats and Republicans on school reform? Last year, Education Next conducted a poll asking Americans about 17 education issues. On eight of these issues, there is no evidence that parties differ...more>> Michael Horn: Julie Young returns to online learning When Julie Young stepped down from the helm of Florida Virtual School (FLVS) after 17 years, I wrote at the end of my piece reflecting on what her contributions had meant that I wouldn't be surprised to see Julie "continue to play a leadership role in transforming schooling to put students at the center of their learning...more>> Introducing NewSchools Ignite: Accelerating Innovation in K-12 EdTech Market Gaps ...Today, we are excited to introduce NewSchools Ignite, a uniquely focused education technology accelerator that will support entrepreneurs tackling the most pressing gaps in K-12 education technology...more>> Digital Learning and its Impact on the Future How are educators working to prepare students to be successful? In her second podcast, Mickey Revenaugh, Director, New School Models and co-founder of Connections Education, discusses the future of digital learning and the tremendous potential that innovative models have to change the learning experience at every grade level, world-wide...more>> MDR's School Spending Update Infographic: Data reflects spending during the 2013-2014 school year, representing actual dollars spend (expenditures) rather than estimates of future spending (budgets)...more>> The Case for Charter Preschools It's a fairly straightforward proposition: If better preschools can help children succeed, and charter schools can help improve public education, then why not charter preschools? Except it's not that simple...more>> American Enterprise Institute: 5 questions every presidential candidate should answer on K-12 education edition Historically, K-12 education has been a local affair, with the federal government playing a supporting role. That role grew substantially with No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) under former president George W. Bush, and subsequently with the Race to the Top grants and NCLB waivers under President Obama...more>> |
|
The Atlantic: A College Without Classes Forget credit hours-in a quest to cut costs, universities are simply asking students to prove their mastery of a subject...more>> Washington Monthly: America's Ten Most Innovative College Presidents Higher Ed in the future may look a lot like what these leaders are doing right now...more>> Udacity, Coursera and edX Now Claim Over 24 Million Students Where are they now? Shortly after the "Big Three" MOOC providers launched in 2012, nearly everyone focused on user numbers as a sign of their scale and reach. For anyone still keeping tabs on the numbers race, Udacity, Coursera and edX recently shared new figures...more>> The New Yorker: College Calculus If there is one thing most Americans have been able to agree on over the years, it is that getting an education, particularly a college education, is a key to human betterment and prosperity...more>> Accreditors face critics on all sides, but Congress lacks real alternative The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act will certainly include some required changes of accreditors, but an entirely new system seems very unlikely...more>> Educause: The Brink of Closure: What Motivates Higher Education to Change? ... So, how do we motivate people to even consider the possibility that significant change is needed? I know one approach that will not work. It is complete folly to think that people will willingly change if we simply threaten their very existence...more>> New Google -like search technology is curbing course dropouts Brilliant minds at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) are developing an intuitive course-based multimedia search engine for students and faculty; say personalized search capability on the near horizon...more>> The Week: Why a college degree isn't worth what it once was There's an old joke that if you're being chased by a bear and you want to avoid being eaten, you actually don't have to run faster than the bear. You just have to run faster than the other guy...more>> Survey: Most Students Prefer Traditional Texts over E-Books Nearly three quarters - 72 percent - of college students prefer traditional textbooks to electronic versions, according to a new survey from Direct Textbook...more>> Why Silicon Valley Falls Short When It Comes To Education Despite Silicon Valley billionaires' remarkable track record of innovation, it appears they have decided to throw in the towel on higher education...more>> The time is ripe for competency-based higher ed Just about three dozen higher education institutions offer competency-based programs now but hundreds more are developing them, indicating explosive growth is on the way for the nontraditional approach...more>> Why we need the 3-year college degree In rolling out an ambitious higher education plan this month, Hillary Clinton put a genuine national dilemma -- America's ballooning student debt crisis -- at the center of the 2016 debate. What a refreshing contrast to her Republican opponents...more>> Fortune: Harvard Business School really has created the classroom of the future Whether they're in Beijing, Warsaw, or San Francisco, every student in Harvard's HBX Live! virtual classroom now sits front and center...more>> PC Magazine: General Assembly Gives Higher Education a Start-up Vibe I recently visited General Assembly's headquarters, four palatial floors of an office building in New York's enviable Gramercy neighborhood. At first blush, the campus is exactly what one would expect from a 4-year-old start-up that specializes in tech-centric instrumentalist education...more>> edSurge: The Unwinding Begins: Amplify Sells Computer Science MOOC Even before News Corporation announced it was negotiating with potential acquirers for Amplify, the digital education company began selling assets. In July 2015, Amplify sold its computer science MOOC, which has since been rebranded and reorganized into its own company, Edhesive...more>> The Hidden Force in For-Profit Closures The messy unwinding of Corinthian Colleges was an unprecedented dance among various actors: the U.S. Department of Education, state attorneys general, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and buyers like ECMC's Zenith Group -- not to mention members of Congress and student and consumer groups...more>> Harpers: " The Neoliberal Arts How college sold its soul to the market...more>> Where to start? These are the basic technologies to improve retention Instead of operating in crisis mode to curb dropout rates, institutions can use web-based services to improve learning in a way that naturally supports students staying in school and completing coursework...more>> Assessing competency-based education in terms of outcomes Higher education has long been consumed with access rather than outcomes, but developing metrics for monitoring competency-based programs could provide an opportunity to change that...more>> Establishment Goes Alternative Traditional colleges have been mostly on the sidelines for the early development of online microcredentials or badges -- the kind that aren't linked to conventional courses and the credit hour... new prototype from a group of seven brand-name universities could change that...more>> Pittinsky: Digital transcripts' 'quiet revolution' just the beginning Matthew Pittinsky calls it the "quiet revolution." The CEO of Parchment and co-founder and former CEO of Blackboard has watched the relatively rapid shift from paper to digital transcripts with at least a bit of awe...more>> Following the Money in Ed-Tech Investment: Number of Mergers Grows Investors are rushing to buy into higher-education-related companies these days, and there's plenty of consolidation in the market as well...more>> Strange Bedfellows: How to Think about Innovation in a World of Regulation Disruptive innovation has become one of the most overused phrases in the discourse of change and upheaval in higher education...more>> Pioneer of Ed-Tech Innovation Says He's Frustrated by Disruptors' Narrative George Siemens is a key innovator in higher education, having coined the term "MOOC" and worked to study the effectiveness of online learning...more>> TIME: Is Student Debt Really Keeping Millennials from Growing Up? Evidence is mixed, but a new survey indicates it's having greater impact now than on previous generations...more>> These 20 schools are responsible for a fifth of all graduate school debt Getting an advanced degree doesn't come cheap, which is why graduate students carry nearly half of all student debt. But it turns out that a handful of schools are responsible for a large share of that money...more>> Why Women Dominate in Online Programs Women say online learning gives them more flexibility to tackle their work and family commitments...more>> How Nanodegrees Are Disrupting Higher Education New "micro" online certification programs are changing the educational pathways to success in certain industries...more>> To cut crime, turn jailbirds into bookworms: Loretta Lynch & Arne Duncan Few interventions have been shown to reduce recidivism and prepare people in prison to lead law-abiding, productive lives like access to quality postsecondary education and training...more>> Forbes: Disruptive innovations in higher ed emerging from outside mainstream Yesterday I had the opportunity to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee about the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act to explore the barriers to and opportunities for innovation....more>> University Ventures launches $5M seed fund for higher ed innovators New York City-based investment fund University Ventures has set aside $5 million to invest in startups serving colleges and universities, especially in their career services efforts...more>> National Student Financial Aid Profile Report Finds Dramatic Increase in Need As Congress debates reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, a national organization of financial aid professionals has issued its latest "National Student Aid Profile" to help policymakers understand what they're making decisions about...more>> The Shrinking Sector As enrollments tumble at for-profit colleges, the number of proprietary institutions is dwindling, too...more>> edSurge: 5 Questions With Mark Cuban on Higher Education and His Newest Edtech Investment We reached out to Mark Cuban to ask about his latest investment in educational technology startup, Copley Retention Systems...more>> Caution and Competency In recent years the U.S. Senate has done plenty of hand-wringing over "bad actors" in higher education, many of them for-profit and online. And that tension goes back to policy debates on distance education in the 1990s...more>> Are MOOCs the 'Digital Albums' of Education? From Standard Education to 'Marginal Learning' Once upon a time, there were physical CDs. The order of each song mattered, for the album was often played as an uninterrupted piece. Then came the computer and music became digital...more>> MIT looks to stay in vanguard of digital education One way to find the future of higher education is to track the brainstormers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who often seem to be a step ahead of the pack. So it matters when L. Rafael Reif, the MIT president, says that an idea for digital innovation is "on the table."...more>> The Atlantic: A College Without Classes Forget credit hours-in a quest to cut costs, universities are simply asking students to prove their mastery of a subject...more>> Ed Dept weighing aid options for alternative credentialing The U.S. Department of Education is continuing to study how best to offer federal aid eligibility to alternative credentialing programs like coding bootcamps and MOOCs...more>> Blackboard unveils LMS redesign Blackboard has announced the New Learning Experience at its annual user conference in Washington, D.C., and the new platform, focused on student user experience, unites all of its disparate tools and services in a single place...more>> Adaptive learning for the next generation MBA American InterContinental launched its redesigned MBA with Intellipath in April 2014. The online program gives MBA students a chance to skip ahead in lessons teaching skills they have already mastered and allows them to slow down the course during unfamiliar sections...more>> When it Comes to Strategy and Growth in Difficult Market Conditions, It's Complicated. Colleges and universities that serve traditional undergraduates are facing a diminishing addressable market in certain parts of the country, particularly the Northeast and Midwest...more>> The Street: The University of Phoenix Shrinks Student Body as ED's Gainful Employment Rules Take Effect University of Phoenix (UOP) said last month that it will close most of its associate degree programs and, for the first time, set academic requirements for admission that will lead to a reduction in the number of students...more>> Experimenting With Aid The U.S. Department of Education continues to work on its plan to grant experimental federal aid eligibility to partnerships between accredited colleges and alternative providers, such as job skills boot camps, coding academies and MOOCs...more>> TechCrunch: Make School Wants To Build The Product University For The Masses College has failed, or so many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs believe. Not only are tuition costs spiraling out of control, but students are leaving college without the ability to produce ... anything. We are living in the era of code, and yet, college students are graduating barely able to read or write an essay - let alone make an app...more>> Moody's Upgrades Higher Ed's Outlook From 'Negative' to 'Stable' Moody's Investors Service has upgraded its outlook for the higher-education sector from "negative" to "stable," citing expected increases in state funding and federal research funding. Higher education had been assigned a "negative" outlook since January 2013...more>> CNN Money: Spending on college soars 16% The most expensive colleges in the nation are charging close to $50,000 a year in tuition and fees alone. That doesn't even include the cost of room and board...more>> Brookings: Does a for-profit college education pay off? As a number of scholars have pointed out, on average, college still pays-even in light of the relatively high debt levels we see today. The lifetime earnings gains from attending public and non-profit four-year colleges and community colleges have been shown to be consistently high enough to outweigh the costs of attendance...more>> Closure Concerns and Financial Strategies: a Survey of College Business Officers Nearly one in five college and university chief business officers are worried their institutions are at risk of shutting down in the foreseeable future, and skepticism over the financial model of their institutions continues from last year, according to a survey by Inside Higher Ed and Gallup...more>> Pricing online vs. on-campus courses All institutions offer online courses at a lower price than on-campus courses, but the size and scope of the institution often affects how low the prices will go...more>> For-profits looking to adapt in shifting marketplace Some analysts believe the for-profit higher education sector is rebalancing amid the current decline, finding new niches for continued success...more>> Does a for-profit college education pay off? ...In a recent paper, Latika Chaudhary and I assess the earnings gains to associate's degree programs in for-profit colleges...more>> Reshaping the For-Profit The large for-profit college chain isn't dead. Stop the funeral dirges -- or celebratory hymns, depending on where you fall on the political spectrum...more>> |
|
These 10 trends are shaping the future of education It's an exciting time to be in education. The longstanding operating models for both higher ed and K-12 are both in a state of flux, and while demands for innovation probably won't create an all-new landscape, the resulting product of ongoing changes is likely to be unrecognizable compared to that of the last several decades...more>> HBR: The Future and How to Survive It ...It has been a remarkable era, but it's coming to a close. Although corporate revenues and profits will continue to rise, the overall economic environment is becoming less favorable, and new rivals are putting the Western incumbents on notice...more>> McKinsey & Company: Why US education is ready for investment As education transforms, the traditional and highly limited openings for private companies are growing wider. Investors should take note...more>> The Surprising Way One Of The Most Popular Silicon Valley Founders Built His Network Ryan Hoover hates the word networking. The 28-year-old founder of product recommendation site Product Hunt, Hoover moved to San Francisco from Portland, Oregon in 2010. A Silicon Valley outsider, Hoover relied heavily on social media and blogging to get connected in the startup scene...more>> Getting Smart: New Thinking On Leadership Development: Mindsets, Investment, Diversity, and Responsiveness We often hear school leaders describe how difficult it is to find qualified candidates to fill open positions. Rising stars leave too soon, and high-performing organizations are understandably hesitant to hire unless the fit is just right. There is no shortage of passionate, smart, and talented professionals in the industry...more>> Three Ways To Reframe A Problem To Find An Innovative Solution A Stanford engineering professor challenges our ideas on imagination and creativity with a new approach to problem solving...more>> edSurge: It's Never Too Early for Edtech Predictions: Trends >From SXSWedu 2016 Session Proposals Forecasting education technology trends eight months in advance can be a science as complicated and volatile as meteorology. Still, many people take their best shot as they propose sessions for SXSWedu, Austin's annual education technology extravaganza...more>> WISE Ed.review: Can Venture Capital Unlock Innovation in Education? Tech investors and entrepreneurs will often tout venture capital as a vehicle to enable innovation in education. But that's not what venture capital does, although innovation might at times be one of the side-effects...more>> The Largest EdTech Opportunity No One is Tackling There are 36 million adults in the United States -- nearly 15% of the adult population -- who read at what are called "basic" and "below-basic" levels. While these individuals struggle to use the written word in work and life, as many as 3 in 4 of them have a smartphone...more>> Steve Blank: Why Corporate Entrepreneurs are Extraordinary - the Rebel Alliance I've spent this year working with corporations and government agencies that are adopting and adapting Lean Methodologies. The biggest surprise for me was getting schooled on how extremely difficult it is to be an innovator inside a company of executors...more>> Moneyball For Startups - CB Insights Lands $1.15M From National Science Foundation And Launches Mosaic To Assess Startup Momentum, Health Mosaic is an evidence-based, statistically-driven approach to objectively assess private company health...more>> Pearson looks to the future with focus fully on ed In the past several weeks, Pearson has sold off its media-related business to refocus on its education ventures. The company has faced some setbacks in its testing business in particular, with troubled rollouts of federally-mandated tests and its shrinking hold on the market...more>> Instructure reportedly planning IPO Education software company Instructure, which created the Canvas learning management system, is said to be planning an initial public offering for later this year with the help of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs...more>> The 120 companies, VCs, corporate investors, and acquirers defining the HR tech industry. Investor interest in human resources technology companies continues to rise, especially in light of the impressive pace of funding and valuation jumps seen by prominent companies like Zenefits, a cloud-based HR automation tool valued at $4.5B in May 2015. We used CB Insights data to create an industry periodic table to highlight major players in the HR tech space...more>> National push for career, technical education creates new requirements It's no longer just about the degrees an individual has, but it's more about what skills he or she can provide to a business that will catch the eye of today's employers...more>> AIR Education Policy Center: Deeper Learning: Improving Student Outcomes for College, Career, and Civic Life To prepare for the demands of postsecondary education and the workforce, students need to master content and build skills that allow them to collaborate with others, and then apply that knowledge to new situations...more>> edSurge: US Edtech Brings in $73M in July KA'CHING: US edtech raised $73M in July 2015, according to analysis by EdSurge. The funding was spread across 14 different deals; at least 43 unique investors participated...more>> Fewer Good Jobs for College Grads? Not So, Says New Study The emerging conventional wisdom is that America's post-recession recovery was dominated by the rise of low-paying, part-time service jobs. But a new analysis challenges that narrative, finding that 2.9 million of the 6.6 million jobs added in the recovery were "good jobs" providing high pay and, in many cases, benefits...more>> ICEF: Investments in education technology reaching new highs in 2015 You can count investment deals in the education technology sector a number of different ways, particularly depending on how you define "ed tech" in the first place. The latest figures for the first half of 2015 certainly reflect this variability, with some of the more prominent investment tallies ranging from US$1.6 to US$2.5 billion worldwide...more>> Daniel Goleman: How Leaders Build Trust I spoke with my friend Bill George, Senior Fellow and Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, about what it means to lead ethically. His responses struck me as especially salient in our current business landscape, so I've paraphrased them below...more>> What Happened to the 'Innovation, Disruption, Technology' Dividend? Seems like productivity benefits from the new economy should be flowing in about now, what with all the talk about robotics, Uber-like disruptions, and flowing big data. But James Heskett is still waiting to see those benefits...more>> edSurge: Why Edtech Exits Will Defy Historical Trends When we ask education entrepreneurs "Who will buy your company X years from now?" the answer, more often than not, is either limited or defies reality...more>> Love of learning is the key to success in the jobless future Not long ago, school children chose what they wanted to be when they grew up, and later selected the best college they could gain admission to, spent years gaining proficiency in their fields, and joined a company that had a need for their skills. Careers lasted lifetimes...more>> MIT's 50 Smartest Companies of 2015 The MIT Technology Review just released this year's list of the 50 Smartest Companies, a ranking of what the publication considers companies offering some of the most innovative technologies and business models...more>> Myths about millennials One of the perks of getting old is that you are allowed to talk nonsense about the young. Plato was said to have complained that young people "disrespect their elders" and "ignore the law". Peter the Hermit griped that they "think of nothing but themselves" and are "impatient of all restraint"...more>> Education Sector Hot for Merger, Acquisition Deals, Investment Banker Says Strong investor interest in mergers and acquisitions for education companies is likely to continue for the second half of 2015, after a record-setting first half of the year in which the value of transactions reached $6.11 billion-29 percent higher than the same time last year...more>> First Round Ten Year Project Venture capitalists are constantly telling the entrepreneurs they invest in to make data-driven decisions. But as an industry, we haven't been very good at doing it ourselves. Now that we have the analytics and numbers to take a closer look at ourselves and our business, we decided to give it a try...more>> That 'Useless' Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech's Hottest Ticket In less than two years Slack Technologies has become one of the most glistening of tech's ten-digit "unicorn" startups, boasting 1.1 million users and a private market valuation of $2.8 billion...more>> Who's Who In Ed Tech? Top Investors And Their Board Seats VCs from Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital and Sequoia Capital are among the most prominent board members in ed tech...more>> Reuters: Exclusive: Education company Blackboard seeks $3 billion sale - sources Blackboard Inc, a U.S. software company that provides learning tools for high school and university classrooms, is exploring a sale that it hopes could value it at as much as $3 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter...more>> See also, Chronicle of Higher Education...more>> Carnegie Mellon project revives failed inBloom dream to store and analyze student data LearnSphere, a new $5 million federally-funded project at Carnegie Mellon University, aims to become "the biggest open repository of education data" in the world, according to the project leader, Ken Koedinger...more>> Corporate Deals To Ed Tech Are Up More Than 3x In The Last 5 Years After years of lackluster activity, corporate investors are rushing into the education technology space. Funding to ed tech that included corporates grew 238% in 2014, even as deal flow slipped to 34 deals, after reaching 39 in 2013...more>> HBR: Break Your Industry's Bottlenecks If you want to create a successful business, you have to do more than win your share of customers or control costs-you have to break the rules and overturn the received wisdom about how things work...more>> HBR: How to Live with Risks ...New research from CEB highlights the concern. Fully 60% of the corporate strategy officers surveyed said that their company's decision-making process is too slow, in part because of an excessive focus on preventing risk. They added that if this "organizational drag" were reduced, the rate of revenue growth might double...more>> Chief Learning Officer: Close the Skills Gap - Once and for All Companies are to blame for the perpetual, pervasive skills gap. But changing recruitment strategies and investing in on-boarding and ongoing training can help...more>> edSurge: Education Technology Deals Reach $1.6 Billion in First Half of 2015 Keeping tabs on education technology dealflow can be as confounding as counting calories: there are "good" and "bad" numbers, and some numbers mean more than others. As part of our funding coverage, EdSurge keeps a close watch on funding of edtech firms...more>> Project Designed to Test, Develop Ed-Tech Opens for Business A new university-meets-private sector partnership designed to bring research-tested education technology into the market has picked its first company to test and showcase. The Jefferson Education Accelerator announced that Echo360, a higher education tech platform designed to help students ask questions anonymously in class, take notes, and revisit lectures, will be the program's first official company partner...more>> The 5 Types Of Innovation For The Future Of Work, Pt. 1: Employee Innovation ...For most companies, innovation is handled behind closed doors in a secluded part of the company that only a few have access to. This type of innovation is no longer practical, scalable or effective when thinking about the future of work...more>> WSJ: The Daily Startup: EdTech Investments Set Record in Second Quarter Investments in educational training, media and services, also known as edtech, grew to $367.4 million across 24 deals in the second quarter of 2015, a record for venture dollars flowing to the sector in a single quarter, according to Dow Jones VentureSource data, Lora Kolodny reports for VentureWire...more>> Ed tech investment tops $2.5B in first half of 2015 Investment in the worldwide educational technology sector is breaking records this year, already having surpassed the $2.42 billion invested in the entire 2014 calendar year...more>> Forbes: Expect Education To Be Big Issue In 2016 Presidential Campaign, SurveyShows What's the most important issue facing the country? As usual, it's the economy and jobs, according to the latest annual survey from the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. But education is the second issue on the minds of Americans who have been bombarded over the past year with news about Common Core curriculum standards, soaring student debt and standardized test opt-out movements in schools across the country...more>> Pearson selling some investments to be '100 percent' focused on education Pearson, the world's largest education company, the one that testing critics love to hate, wants to get much, much bigger. It is selling other investments so that it can focus entirely on its education business...more>> Ed Tech's Funding Frenzy With $2.51 billion invested in educational-technology companies during the first half of 2015, investors continue to defy fears that interest in the sector is waning. Yet analysts say the staggering figure distracts from what and who isn't being funded...more>> 10 Of The World's Hottest Ed Tech Startups We used CB Insights' Company Mosaic score, which uses public data and predictive algorithms to assess the strength of private companies, to analyze the top education technology startups globally...more>> HBS Working Knowledge: Enabling Versus Controlling Widespread adoption of Internet and mobile technologies has made it possible to build marketplaces and platforms for a rapidly increasing variety of services, from house cleaning to programming, consulting and legal advice. Highlighting the tradeoffs, this paper studies a firm's choice between two modes of organization-a traditional mode versus a platform mode...more>> VCs investing in more education technology startups More venture capitalists last year bet on startups in the education-technology space than ever before. Edtech startups, according to CB Insights, raised $1.6 billion during 2014, a 71 percent increase compared with the previous year, when edtech startups raised $944 million...more>> Education Sector Hot for Merger, Acquisition Deals, Investment Banker Says Strong investor interest in mergers and acquisitions for education companies is likely to continue for the second half of 2015, after a record-setting first half of the year in which the value of transactions reached $6.11 billion-29 percent higher than the same time last year...more>> |
To be removed from the mailing list or to make suggestions for improvement, respond to: Remove
Feel free to circulate to others in your organization.
The digest is sent to a limited mailing list of senior executives.
Rights to all articles are reserved by copyright holders.
Copyright ©2015 by BSG Team Ventures
Contact Editor
Ralph Protsik
Co-Founder and Managing Director
ralph@bsgtv.com
Todd Hand
Managing Director
todd@bsgtv.com
BSG TEAM VENTURES, LLC
Boston Search Group, Inc.
224 Clarendon Street, Suite 41 | Boston, MA 02116
100 Spear Street, Suite 1125 | San Francisco, CA 94105
1140 Avenue of the Americas, 9th Floor | New York, NY 10036
205-207 High Street | Cottenham | Cambridge CB24 8RX | UK
phone 617-266-4633 cell 617-913-9617
www.bsgtv.com
