In the News: AltSchool to Close Elementary School in Manhattan’s East Village

Leaders of AltSchool announced last week that they would close three of their seven private “micro-schools” at the end of this school year, reports Leslie Brody in the Wall Street Journal. The company wants to focus on developing their software platform, which is something schools and districts can purchase.

Brody explains

The small schools serve as laboratories for AltSchool to refine a platform that organizes students’ work and tailors assignments to their individual needs, officials say. Launched in 2013 in San Francisco, AltSchool officials say they have raised about $175 million in venture capital, including from high-profile funders such asFacebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs.

Michael Horn has been following “The Rise of AltSchool and Other Micro-Schools” for Education Next. (See also “Moving EdTech Forward” in the Winter 2016 issue.)

— Education Next

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