Teaching Reimagined

Students thrive when teachers thrive. We invest in ideas that redesign educator roles, bridge school and community, and leverage AI to strengthen instruction. Our goal is to build on what works and catalyze new approaches, making teaching a more sustainable, effective, and joyful profession that attracts a diverse group of educators.

2025 Investments

We continue to invest in new tools, approaches, and evidence-generation to better support teachers and ensure effectiveness. More than half of this year’s investments leverage AI.

$2.8M

invested

9

funded ventures

Impact Highlights

257,000 students and 33,000 educators reached by ventures

Ventures catalyzed our initial investment by 6x

What We’re Learning

Schools need an ecosystem of providers to support new staffing models

Aligned leadership and effective change management are essential to fundamentally redesign educator roles and accelerate student learning. Schools need the support of more providers as they redesign staffing and adult learning systems.
Building an evidence base will accelerate innovation

In the absence of actionable measures on teacher effectiveness and well-being, schools rely on lagging indicators, such as teacher retention and job satisfaction. This gap hampers understanding of staffing innovations and their impact on educators and students.
Preparing educators for AI is essential

The rapid spread of AI tools in schools has added complexity to educators’ already demanding work. Clear guidance, job-embedded professional learning, and hands-on practice are essential to help educators use AI safely and effectively.
Strong adult learning fuels student success

In schools where students thrive academically and socially, professional learning is designed with the same intentionality and coherence as student learning, making teaching more sustainable and effective.

Venture Spotlights

Support for Teachers Right When They Need It

Teaching is often described as collaborative work. But for many teachers, especially early in their careers, it can feel deeply isolating. When questions come up mid-lesson or planning falls apart the night before, support isn’t always there when it’s needed most. Uppercase was created to close that gap.

Founded by Beth Schmidt, a former classroom teacher, Uppercase offers timely, practical support grounded in real classroom experience. Drawing on more than 15 years in education, Beth designed the platform alongside teachers, listening closely to what they needed — and what they didn’t.

Uppercase combines an AI assistant trained on expert teacher knowledge, access to experienced coaches, and a community space where educators learn from one another. In its first pilot year, more than 4,000 teachers used Uppercase on a monthly basis. Many shared that it offered something they wished they’d had earlier in their careers: guidance at the moment it mattered.

With support from NewSchools, Uppercase is focused on strengthening the quality of its platform, measuring impact more clearly, and scaling through district and curriculum partnerships. Together, this work points toward a more sustainable model for helping educators improve their practice and stay in the profession.

When Communities Become Classrooms

In many schools, the responsibility for developing students’ skills and talents falls largely on classroom teachers — often without enough time, support, or connection to the world beyond school. CommunityShare is working to change that.

CommunityShare helps schools connect learning to their local communities. Through a digital platform and coaching support, it matches teachers and students with scientists, artists, tradespeople, and other local professionals, expanding who counts as an educator and what learning can look like.

In the past year alone, CommunityShare partnered with 15 communities, reaching more than 2,100 educators and 23,000 students across 12 states in urban, rural, and suburban settings. Teachers report stronger student engagement, deeper critical thinking, and clearer connections between school and future opportunities. Notably, 90 percent of surveyed educators say the experience increased their desire to remain in the profession.

Led by founder Josh Schachter, CommunityShare continues to grow and refine its approach. With NewSchools’ support, the organization has strengthened its growth strategy, adapted its model to better serve individual schools, and invested in internal systems to support long-term sustainability.

CommunityShare’s work shows how community expertise can ease the load on teachers while creating more relevant and engaging learning for students.