AltSchool

AltSchool is a San Francisco-based education and technology company founded with one school in 2013,[2] later expanded to additional schools in 2014.[3] As of June, 2019 AltSchool ceased operating schools directly and rebranded as Altitude Learning, a software company.[4] Recently AltSchool has changed its name to Altitude Learning.[5]

AltSchool
TypePrivate public benefit corporation
IndustryEducation
Fate2019 Rebranded as Altitude Learning, Ceased School Operations.
Founded2013 (1 school)
2014 (>1 school)
2016 (>6 schools)
Founders
  • Max Ventilla (CEO)
  • Bharat Mediratta (CTO)
Headquarters
San Francisco
,
United States
Area served
United States
Key people
  • Devin Vodicka[1]
    (Chief Impact Officer)
Websitewww.altschool.com

Founding

AltSchool's founder and CEO, Max Ventilla, left his previous career at Google in 2013.[6] He wanted to work in education and in 2014 raised $33M of venture capital funding to start AltSchool. The Series A financing was led by Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz, with follow-on investment from First Round Capital and Harrison Metal and participation from John Doerr, Jonathan Sackler, Learn Capital, and Omidyar Network.[3]

Series B

In 2015, AltSchool raised a $100M Series B round of funding. The round was led by Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz , with Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan also participating through their Silicon Valley Community Foundation.[7][8]

Coddy Johnson, former executive of video game company Activision, joined the company from 2016 to 2017. In 2017, the company hired Devin Vodicka, former Superintendent of Vista Unified School District in California to serve as its Chief Impact Officer.[9] Ben Kornell, former COO of Envision Charter Schools, joined the company as Vice President of Growth.[10]

Schools

The company has created a series of micro schools that focus on personalized learning, where children are involved in setting the projects they work on.[11] Students and teachers create individual "playlists" of tasks and projects for each student. Their progress is streamed to parents using a portal app.[12] By 2016, six schools had been opened in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Brooklyn.[13][14] In October 2016, Berthold Academy in Reston, the Greene School in West Palm Beach, and Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach partnered with AltSchool.[15] In 2017, AltSchool launched a tiny private middle school in New York City's Union Square.[16] In November 2017, Altschool said it would close a school in San Francisco's Palo Alto and a school in New York City's East Village at the end of the academic year.[17]

References
  1. Chang, Richard (April 10, 2017). "CA's Top Superintendent Leaves for Ed Tech Startup AltSchool". The Journal.
  2. "With $100 Million From Silicon Valley Elite, AltSchool Takes New Approach To Classroom Learning". Forbes. May 4, 2016. AltSchool opened its own private schools and has stocked them with top educators and technologists, beginning with a 20-student one-room schoolhouse type location in 2013.
  3. Leena Rao (March 18, 2014). "Former Googler's AltSchool Raises $33M From Founders Fund And A16Z To Reimagine Primary Education".
  4. Harris, Ainsley (2019-06-28). "AltSchool rebrands itself Altitude Learning as cofounders step aside". Fast Company. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  5. "AltSchool Gets an Alt-Name and New Leadership - EdSurge News". EdSurge. 2019-06-28. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
  6. "Silicon Valley billionaires created AltSchool" (YouTube Video). Tech Insider. 11 May 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  7. "With $100 Million From Silicon Valley Elite, AltSchool Takes New Approach To Classroom Learning". Forbes. May 4, 2016.
  8. "Mark Zuckerberg Joins AltSchool's Backers". Fast Company. May 4, 2016.
  9. Huard, Ray (April 22, 2015). "Vodicka Named Superintendent of the Year". The Vista Press.
  10. Riddell, Roger (April 7, 2017). "AltSchool adds 4 K-12 administrators to executive team". Education Dive.
  11. Hope King (March 20, 2016). "A morning at the AltSchool, an education startup that Silicon Valley is crazy about". CNN.
  12. Adam Lashinsky (March 7, 2016). "How AltSchool Experiments in Education". Fortune.
  13. Rebecca Mead (March 7, 2016). "Learn Different: Silicon Valley disrupts education". New Yorker.
  14. Gina Bellafante (December 4, 2015). "The Bold Idea Behind a Small Brooklyn School". New York Times.
  15. "Three schools partner with AltSchool". SFGate. Retrieved 2018-05-15.
  16. Brody, Leslie (October 10, 2017). "California Startup Opens Alternative Lab School in Manhattan". The Wall Street Journal.
  17. Kadvany, Elena. "AltSchool Palo Alto to close at end of year". Palo Alto Online. Retrieved March 13, 2018.


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