Education (cont.)
Meet The Players
Who's addressing education issues, and how?
School districts
Districts (like The New York City Department of Education) are the largest providers of public education in the U.S., charged with ensuring that all children have high-quality educational options regardless of demographics.
nonprofit organizations
Nonprofits address needs at various points along the education continuum. Increasingly, nonprofit organizations (like Kahn Academy) are using technology as a tool in the fight to bring a high-quality, differentiated education to students at scale.
- Direct service organizations like Beyond12 run programs that provide direct educational interventions.
- Policy and research organizations like WestEd work to ensure that data and research are available to inform education-related conversations at the policy level.
- Support organizations provide districts and other clients with services to address key needs, such as human capital (e.g. Teach for America) and facilities (e.g. Civic Builders).
- Charter Management Organizations (CMOs), such as KIPP and Uncommon Schools, operate public charter schools.
for-profit companies
Private sector companies also play a significant role within the education space.
- Large, education-focused companies (e.g. Scholastic) provide products and services to educational providers in the form of content, testing, and tracking tools.
- Other large companies view a well-educated population as critical to filling their need for talented employees, so make education a priority within their community involvement efforts. Many (such as Deloitte) often target underserved communities. Also see our Corporate Impact overview.
- Entrepreneurial start-ups are addressing gaps within the field of education in innovative ways. Some of these, like SkillShare, are using technology to provide new learning platforms. Many, like Revolution Foods, are social enterprises that manage and track multiple bottom lines (see Social Entrepreneurship for more).
- Technology and engineering companies (e.g. Intel) focus on improving science, technology, engineering, and math (also known as "STEM") education.
Funders
Providers of capital for education reform efforts include foundations that invest in nonprofit organizations (e.g. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), hybrid funds that invest in both for-profits and nonprofits (e.g. New Schools Venture Fund), and venture capital firms that invest in for-profit start-ups (e.g. Imagine K12). Also see the Philanthropy overview.
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