Investing in Education: The Ideas Behind Venture Philanthropy and the Marketized Practice of Educational Improvement

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: The Role of Philanthropy and Capitalism in Educational Policy

Abstract

Many contemporary policymakers and philanthropists interested in fixing problems in urban education look to business practices and market-based reforms, reshaping the landscape of urban schooling. A model for improving urban education, known as venture philanthropy (VP), is drawn directly from the financial sector. It uses strategic investment to increase the capacity and achievement of funded organizations and to promote social goals. There is broad analysis of the field of education philanthropy but little empirical data on the specific meaning, ideas, and logic through which education is understood and investments are made. This study will use ethnographic methods in a case study design to examine a VP that invests millions of dollars in urban schools.

Author

• Samuel E. Conver, Temple University