H O W W E W O R K
Harnessing bold ideas and on-the-ground experience to drive transformative results for students.
Founded in California, Silicon Schools has built an engine for growing innovative schools and partnering with education leaders to launch breakthrough ideas since 2012. We’re taking that experience nationwide to find and support high-potential solutions across the country.
WHY
Today’s world is changing faster than our schools.
Students are entering a world that demands new skills and new ways of thinking, but our K–12 system remains rooted in the past. Too many students are being left behind—especially those furthest from opportunity. We’re building a bridge from where schools are today to what students will need tomorrow.
BELIEF
We believe the purpose of education is to give every young person the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to shape their own futures.
Learning should be rigorous and engaging, building not only academic knowledge but the confidence and agency to apply what is learned beyond the classroom. Achieving this requires a willingness to rethink long-standing assumptions about how education works.
HOW
Every investment at Silicon Schools begins with outcomes for students.
We ask what needs to change to achieve meaningfully better results, and we make room for experimentation in pursuit of those results. We believe great leaders can build great things, and we work alongside them on the ground to turn promising ideas into scalable impact:
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We raise philanthropic capital and direct over 80% of funds raised to support our grantees with both seed grants and multi-year financial commitments. Our team is intentionally small but nimble—leveraging expertise, curiosity, and a relentless focus on results.
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We conduct rigorous due diligence on every investment opportunity, assessing the quality of leadership, potential for impact, and path to scale. We’re committed to setting and measuring student outcomes for each investment in our portfolio.
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Our team forms deep relationships, working shoulder to shoulder with education leaders. We see both the messiness and the promise firsthand, letting what we see on the ground inform our work. These close partnerships help ensure promising ideas are shaped by real needs.
Our investments span great schools, great tools, and breakthrough models, giving us multiple ways to test ideas, learn from the evidence, and build on the most promising approaches.
OUR IMPACT OVER TIME
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Philanthropy raised
$150M+
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Schools launched in california & beyond
Over 100
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Innovative Educators & Leaders in our Network
300+
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Students Impacted by our work, and growing
350,000
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Kids have one shot.
We need schools to be better for the students sitting in classrooms today while simultaneously building toward a future system where all students achieve exceptional outcomes. That means being ambitious about what’s possible, and disciplined about what actually works in practice.
Caitrin Wright CEO