Ventures Academy

The School for Startups

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Post-graduate/Gap Year programs available with Ventures Academy!

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Starting a School - Government Regulations

By Dr. Matthew Colpitts, Head of School & President, Ventures Academy

There is a myth that independent/private schools do not have oversight from public agencies. While there is less regulation about the scope and nature of the education for private schools, there are regulations that school founders must be aware of navigating. These are different from the requirements for public schools, but need to be given attention.     For example, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) in Washington State has several requirements in order for private schools to operate. In Washington State, a private school must do the following:  

Complete the application and get approval from OSPI;  

One licensed teacher to supervise the teaching of faculty is needed in the school;  

Inspections from Fire and Health Departments must be submitted to the OSPI.

You may not think much about your county government or the fact that they may have regulations that affect you and the services that could support the school. Regardless, you should check and find out what they may require depending on where you live in the country.    

There are additional requirements based on whether the institution is a non-profit or a for-profit organization. There are also federal and state business registrations, tax issues, unemployment insurance, and other business operations-related requirements. If you are working as a nonprofit, you must apply for that status as soon as possible.    

Don’t forget the building code and zoning rules for the municipality where you are located. They will have requirements for educational occupancies and what is needed will vary by how a specific geographical area is listed on the city zoning maps.    

Even though they will likely not have authority over a private school, check with the local school district where you are located. They may have resources that you and your students can use and a relationship with the district is necessary for your school to have over the coming years.    

As you work through these regulations and relationships, check from multiple angles; do not trust any single source by itself. Consider getting additional help in the form of specialized staff or consultants to aid in navigating these regulations and applications. When verifying what you still need to do in terms of regulation and compliance with government rules, ask yourself (and others!) what regulations are in play for a school or our type, organization, and location?

Reach out and make connections to others doing similar work or who have started schools in the past. Of course, this includes other founders and heads of school, but make sure to include facilities, operations, and real estate people. Education leaders may not know the operational and compliance requirements that will be essential. I have had some learning moments on this point, such as the need for local authorizations, zoning rules, and traffic studies.

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Starting a School – Resources

By Dr. Matthew Colpitts, Head of School & President, Ventures Academy

Although there are many resources with advice on starting projects, business, etc., when I started working on Ventures Academy, I found pieces of what I needed but little that was related to what we were working on. There are some straight-forward resources on starting a school, the ones I found that ended up being valuable are:  

NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools)  

https://www.nais.org/ - General website for the association.  

https://www.nais.org/statistics/pages/nais-independent-school-facts-at-a-glance/ - These “Facts at a Glance” contain data helpful for thinking about many distinct aspects of independent schools, including salaries, enrollments, etc.  

Starting and Independent School: Founder's Handbook - https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Independent-School-Founders-Handbook/dp/B001C24XNK    

The Head's Handbook: A Guide for Aspiring, New, and Experienced Heads of School -  https://www.amazon.com/Heads-Handbook-Aspiring-Experienced-School/dp/1893021890  

Web Resources  

https://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Private-School - A little silly, but has a good overview of the process and recommended steps for starting a school.  

https://www.thoughtco.com/starting-a-school-2774038 - I like this one. It has a thorough list of steps as well as some other tips. I especially like their advice about being conservative regarding enrollment and budget projections. You would rather have more students and tuition than you planned on versus the other way around.  

TED Talks  

Seth Godin - STOP STEALING DREAMS at TEDxYouth@BFS - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXpbONjV1Jc  

Sir Ken Robinson - Changing Education Paradigms - https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms  

You can also learn from other people including Heads of School, Nonprofit Founders, Business and Startup Founders, etc. Learn from what has been done before. Find schools of all types (charter, private, etc.) and related organizations. Do not be afraid to reach out! Include organizations and schools that are unlike yours. For example, I have learned lessons from K-6 schools and even a bakery franchise!

Read the classics in your area! Read the essentials. Also, read the critics (but not too much). Especially read the leading and serious ones. Alife Cohn is always good for some alternative views to education. But at some point, stop when they get loony.

Don’t forget to do the work!

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Young #entrepreneur here! He helped his awesome bonus-dad/our Head of School ⁦@mcolpitts⁩ with signs. He negotiated a sweet deal, $1 per sign, plus extra for being adorable :)

Let us know if you see our signs in #Bellevue, #Kirkland, and #Redmond. 

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Introducing Ventures Academy: The High School for Startups

Head of School, Dr. Matthew Colpitts

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New body, who dis? Thanks to @ThePrincetonRev for the great professional headshot @NACAC #NACAC2021 in Seattle. Thanks to Christine for modeling our mascot head!

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VENTURES ACADEMY: MISSION AND WORLDVIEW

The Ventures Academy mission is to enable gifted young people to realize their full potential through the power of technology, media, and business by giving them the skills, experiences, and opportunities to innovate and build products and businesses.

We believe that gifted people are naturally creative, each in their own unique way. We further believe that the role of the school is to be a place that allows each student to discover their unique talents, interests, and passions and help them develop into innovators, creators, and entrepreneurs.

Ventures is designed to allow each student to shine, innovate, harness their unique talents, learn important life skills, and gain the experience to build products, businesses, and value in the real world—all in their own unique way.

At its foundation, the Ventures Academy school system is founded on individual empowerment, innovation, and diversity of thought.

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INNOVATION

We believe that innovation is critical to society’s wellbeing. Over the last two centuries, innovation in science, technology, and business has enabled humanity to rise from abject poverty, double its life expectancy, live fuller and happier lives, protect the environment, and transition to national wealth creation from a process driven by violence and war into a process powered by peaceful commerce.

The United States is an amazing innovation powerhouse. Although its traditional education system is often a subject of ridicule, our country has been able to innovate itself into a prosperous global power. Its innovation engine is powered by a culture of freedom, meritocracy, and entrepreneurship.

Innovation is driven by gifted individuals who have creative new ideas and the ability to execute on them. These talented individuals flourish in a culture that encourages them to follow their own passions, harness their own unique talents, make their own decisions, and follow their own paths.

To innovate means to do things differently than they have been done before. We believe an innovator should always challenge the status quo and look for new ways to think about the real needs of people and markets, as well as how to fulfill those needs. An innovative mind must always question consensus, authority, and common perceptions. It will always investigate if there are alternative ways to look at any problem and if new data can be used to invalidate old concepts and raise new ideas and solutions.

We instill in our students the courage to challenge the status quo. We want them to dare to go against the grain, to take risks. We expect them to learn to question everything and take nothing for granted. We ask them to do research, collect data, validate assumptions, evaluate alternative approaches, and test their hypotheses. We do this repeatedly to enable our students to build a habit of looking at the world with a questioning fresh look every day.

We believe in the power of the scientific method as the best way to drive innovation and optimized outcomes. We will teach our students to look objectively at any given problem and regularly use research and data to test their assumptions.

The noble laureate Richard Feynman famously said that “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts”. We will teach our students to look and analyze raw data themselves and validate their own hypotheses instead of accepting experts’ authority. By learning to research and think for themselves, new ideas will emerge.

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The mastery learning system

What is the purpose of high school?

Unfortunately for many students, the answer seems to be "to earn good grades so I can attend a good college".

For so many, high school is just a four-year period where the only goal is to get a perfect transcript and then move on to the next phase in their life.

Even worse, the chase for the “A” leads to terrible and unhealthy behaviors: Cramming material to midnight, cheating, and brown-nosing are all too familiar. Adversarial relationships with the teachers are an inherent part of this process as the teacher holds power over the student's prospects. Stress and anxiety are commonplace.

Some of the worst effects are felt by the most gifted of the students. Those who are creative, who are different, and aspire to do something great, are coerced into a system where they are expected to be like everyone else. Those students hate every moment of school, but they know they have to go through the motions, so they get on with their lives.

What a terrible experience for the gifted. What a terrible waste of time.

Ventures Academy believes that school should be a place of learning and mastery. Instead of chasing the "A," by any means necessary, every student should earn the perfect grade by simply mastering the material.

With the mastery system, we provide every student with unlimited time to demonstrate full comprehension of the material. There are no semester limits or final exams with this system. Instead, students continue the learning process until their mentors observe full mastery, and then - and only then - they earn their “A”.

Our students are never graded on a curve and, they never feel threatened by a punitive low score. They also cannot cheat their way to an A or cut corners.

The deal is simple: whenever they can demonstrate mastery, the perfect grade is guaranteed.

With mastery learning, we not only ensure that our students truly use their time in school to learn, but we remove the stress and anxiety from the process. This is essential since we need to allow their gifts to shine as they build their startups, and the stress of anxiety of the academics must not inhibit their creativity.