Why We Work

Nelson Mandela once said that education is the most powerful weapon that can be used to change the world, and Albert Einstein once declared that imagination is greater than knowledge.

But today, a hundred million or more of children across the world, either out of school or in underperforming schools, have little opportunity to expand their knowledge or exercise their creative imaginations. When they become adults, they will likely lack the necessary educational foundation to enable them to contribute effectively to the welfare of their families, communities and countries. As adults without a good education, they will also likely be denied the opportunity to become world-changers like Mandela and Einstein. We cannot afford to let that happen.

As the many well-intentioned public and private school policy-makers and operators across the world work to improve the quality and outreach of education delivery, the greatest constraint for them, and the investors and donors that support them, is the absence of reliable, quality market information. As a result, many education investors and implementers are forced to make uninformed decisions.

Oftentimes, yet not for a lack of effort, these uninformed decisions lead to unsuccessful interventions that fail to respond effectively to market needs and prevailing socioeconomic realities. The result for students is poor learning outcomes and for investors poor returns.

Within this context, School Ventures exists to provide better information to help school operators and their domestic and international investors to make smarter investments. The company's works to reduce information asymmetries in three ways by:

• Helping investors understand what makes education markets as destinations for investment;
• Providing comprehensive private school performance ratings to help investors determine investment opportunities; and
• Delivering valuable public school evaluations to help public school authorities and administrators understand the complex relationships between education investment, school performance, and learning outcomes.