EdVillage identifies and supports transformational school models and education entrepreneurs around the world that seek to provide a high-quality, university preparatory education to children from economically disadvantaged communities. We do this by providing world-class school leadership training and specialized school start-up and improvement services.
About Us
The EdVillage Model
EdVillage is uniquely positioned to bring together lessons learned from around the world, particularly focusing on leadership and school development, to launch and support high-quality schools that educate all children. Through world-class school leadership training and technical assistance to new and existing schools, EdVillage is growing the supply of high-quality university preparatory schools serving the world’s most impoverished communities. By linking these schools in a global community of education excellence, EdVillage is creating a powerful network for knowledge sharing and advocacy to affect systemic change in international education.
The Need
In recent years, the international community has mobilized around the critical issue of universal access to primary education, resulting in the additional enrollment of millions of children in the educational system in many countries. However, many public educational systems are ill equipped to serve all of these students, particularly those from economically disadvantaged communities. As a result, hundreds of millions of children around the world are in school but the quality of their school and overall level of learning remains very low.
Innovative School Models Expand the Supply
Successful initiatives in education reform have sprung up across the globe over the last two decades. New schools created through public-private partnerships between governments and non-government organizations offer hope in the effort to bring quality education opportunities to the most underserved segments of global society. These schools operate in the government sector, the private sector or the third sector – a middle ground between traditional government schools and expensive, exclusive private schools. While each of these high-quality schools is unique, they all share common and necessary characteristics: strong leadership and an unyielding focus on student learning.
School Leadership
Global Fellows Program
The EdVillage Global Fellowship Program recruits and trains education entrepreneurs and school leaders from around the world that seek to open high-quality university preparatory schools in economically disadvantaged communities in their home countries. EdVillage Global Fellows complete an intensive six-month long school leadership training program and then receive support through the start-up phase of their school or network of schools, and become members of a global alliance of excellent schools focused on the sharing of best practices to continuously improve student learning and provide solutions for education policy that will raise the quality of all schools.
Global Fellows spend their first six months training in the US then return to their home country to launch or assume leadership of a new school. The Global Fellowship is comprised of the following mandatory components:
Leadership Institute
EdVillage provides the Global Fellows access to a world-class school leadership development program. Through five weeks of intensive coursework in a university setting, education entrepreneurs establish the foundation for the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need for successful school leadership. This program addresses universally applicable management and leadership topics and is supplemented by country-specific contextualization.
School Internships
Global Fellows spend four months in residencies at high-performing schools across the United States and around the world to see first-hand what excellence in education looks and feels like. This immersion into the role of the school leader exposes the Global Fellows to a range of effective practices that they can incorporate into their own school designs. School Residencies are interspersed with ongoing professional development conferences for continued coursework and consultations with expert advisers for the development of their School Design Plans.
Individual Coaching
The job of a school leader is challenging and often isolating. As part of its ongoing support, EdVillage assigns each Global Fellow a School Leadership Coach who helps the Global Fellow tackle issues from managing adults to creating effective systems for monitoring student performance. The coach also helps contextualize the learning experience to the Global Fellow’s own country. As an experienced educational leader, the School Leadership Coach mentors and advises the Global Fellow for two years through regular phone check-ins and visits.
Meet the 2011 Global Fellows
Ross Hill – South Africa
A native of Cape Town, South Africa, Ross Hill became a teacher to bring social justice to a country with huge socio-economic and educational divides as a legacy of Apartheid. He was drawn to the LEAP Science & Maths Schools’ values-based reflective education model focused on character and leadership development for students from the townships. Hill has taught math, physics and chemistry at LEAP as well as authored a few science textbooks. He earned a BS in Applied Mathematics and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education at the University of Cape Town. After completing the EdVillage Global Fellowship in 2011, Hill assumed the role of principal at the newly launched LEAP 4 School in Diepsloot, a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Bonisile Ntlemeza – South Africa
Bonisile Ntlemeza was born and raised in South African township of Langa, a disadvantaged community made up of both informal settlements and established communities. On an athletics scholarship, he had the opportunity to attend the elite Pinelands High School where he was a student of John Gilmour, the future founder of the LEAP Science & Maths Schools. After earning a BA in Anthropology and Psychology focusing on Culture and Society from the University of the Western Cape and an honors degree in Psychology at the Stellenbosch University, Ntlemeza returned to Langa to work for Gilmour at LEAP. He helped develop and lead the school’s Life Orientation program, a core element of the school’s curriculum that develops students’ social-emotional security and empowers them to become role models in their homes and agents of change in their communities. Ntlemeza also worked as the International Liaison for the school, a role that involved establishing and nurturing partnerships with friends across the world. Having completed the EdVillage Global Fellowship in 2011, Ntlemeza is now the principal of the original LEAP 1 School.
Gaurav Singh – India
Gaurav Singh left the corporate world as a software programmer with Accenture to pursue his passion for education equity as a member of the inaugural corps of Teach For India fellows. In his first year at a low income private school in Pune, he taught a class of 47 second graders (ages 6 to 13) and led them to a growth of more than one academic year in his one year with them. He also started teacher collaboration sessions in his school and worked on the teacher training. In his second year, Singh worked in a government school in Mumbai and took his 30 kids to 2.5 years of academic growth in one year (as measured on standardized TFI tests). He was also active in efforts by Teach for India to work with the municipal corporation of Mumbai with the aim of improving the 1,400 schools in Mumbai. Singh joined the EdVillage Global Fellowship to receive the school leadership training and support necessary to carry out his vision of establishing a network of excellent schools for underserved students in India. He has launched the 3.2.1 Education Foundation and plans to open his first school in Mumbai in May of 2012.
School Improvement
School Peer Reviews
Peer Reviews are one of the most effective means of analyzing a school’s effectiveness and creating a culture of continuous learning. A review by peers provides a safe environment to understand a school’s strengths and weaknesses and establishes a culture of seeking improvement and accepting feedback. The EdVillage School Peer Review model is developed and implemented with the support of Uncommon Schools, the Relay Graduate School of Education, and the 102 Group. Read about the South Africa School Peer Review.
News & Media
Mail & Guardian
August 17, 2012
Murray Thomas reflects on what drives the success of some American charter schools in this op-ed, which appeared in South Africa’s Mail & Guardian Newspaper. Murray, the deputy principal of Lebone II College of the Royal Bafokeng, was an eager and insightful participant in EdVillage’s South Africa School Peer Review Workshop in June.
“India Pushes Public-Private Ed. Partnerships”
Education Week
April 17, 2012
The India government announces support of public-private partnership school models to increase quality and expand access in the public education system. Education Week highlighted the importance of the work of EdVillage and India partner the Akanksha Foundation in the success of this new charter-like system.
“International Education Entrepreneurs Look to U.S.-Style Models”
Education Week
October 14, 2011
Education Week highlights EdVillage’s Global Fellowship Program and profiles Global Fellow Gaurav Singh.
“Forces outside gov’t crucial to boost Indo-US educational ties”
Rediff News
October 14, 2011
EdVillage recognized for the important role it has to play in Indo-US collaboration. “Educational collaboration is a driving force in our strategic dialogue with the government of India,” says Sec. Hillary Clinton.
“New Schools in South Africa Serve the Underserved”
New York Times
September 8, 2010
EdVillage Global Fellow Ross Hill profiled in this New York Times story about the powerful work of EdVillage partner LEAP Science & Maths Schools
“Redesigning Education”
The Times of India
November 25, 2011
The Times of India profiles EdVillage Global Fellow Gaurav Singh and his decision to leave the corporate world to join Teach For India and found the 3.2.1 Education Foundation.
“Speakers Seek Equality Through Education”
Colby College News
November 4, 2011
EdVillage Co-Founder Allison Rouse and Global Fellow Bonisile Ntlemeza join education reformer Bill Ayers on a panel at Colby College entitled “Revolutionary Pedagogies on a Global Scale.”
“Meeting Allison Rouse of EdVillage”
Zawadi By Youth Blog
November 3, 2011
Zawadi By Youth reflect on their discussion with EdVillage Co-Founder Allison Rouse during their trip to India visiting schools and education centers run by EdVillage partner Akanksha.