Dive Brief:

• AltSchool, an ed tech start up, raised $33 million in venture capital to transform the way elementary and middle schools are run.  

• Led by former Google executive and Aardvark founder, Max Ventilla, the 38-person startup aims to provide child-centered education rooted in technology. Leasing school building space and operating schools with its own personal and proprietary software, AltSchools plans to expand to 12 micro-schools in the Bay Area by September 2014.

• According to investor Brian Singerman, profitability is not the focus in the early stages, but rather creating systems that “strip out costs that don’t relate to better classroom experiences” and zeroing in on how technology can enrich classrooms.

• The micro-schools do cost money. Currently, they charge just over $19,000 for tuition; however, Ventilla says this number pales in comparison to the costs of comparable private schools. 

Dive Insight:

AltSchool's integration of systems and innovations from effective tech companies has its appeal.  Additionally, the fact that families pay tuition for the micro-schools removes AltSchool from the line of vision of critics who typically admonish districts that test new technology in low-income urban settings given its experimentation likeness. Hopefully, AltSchool will find and create some great K-8 procedures that they can pass on.