Dive Brief:
- At Fortune’s Global Forum, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said tech can help even out socioeconomic disparity in U.S. public schools, specifically when used to measure progress.
- Company founder Mark Zuckerberg is also concerned with education and has been financially involved in various endeavors aimed at improving schools.
- Facebook is currently working on developing free software for schools, in addition to other projects.
Dive Insight:
Sandberg may be following in Zuckerberg’s footsteps when it comes to her becoming more invested in education. AltSchool, a private micro-school steeped in student-driven learning and modern technology, was in part funded with $100 million dollars from Zuckerberg. The model has been gaining traction, and recently expanded in Brooklyn. Zuckerberg previously donated another $100 million meant to help Newark’s failing schools, with negligible results, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, is opening a new experimental school in East Palo Alto, CA, that blends healthcare and education.
Facebook is also already partnering with a California network of charter schools to help design software aimed at providing better personalized learning in public schools.
