Although public education sorely needs innovation, the funding that accompanies it – whether through public agencies, philanthropic sources or private investors – rarely encourages such innovation to flourish. In this paper, education entrepreneur Kim Smith and innovation writer Julie Petersen explore the ways in which the public, private, and nonprofit sectors might steer their capital toward products, services, and approaches that improve educators’ productivity and students’ learning outcomes. By analyzing the way capital markets operate and drawing inspiration from social change efforts in other fields and countries, Smith and Petersen illustrate what a more “innovation-friendly” capital market would feature, such as agreed-upon goals and metrics for success, effective use of research and development (R&D), an emphasis on evidence-based decision making, and diverse sources of investment capital.

TIME.com -- An enormous amount of energy and anxiety is expended in trying to get into college, but the truth is that the admissions process is much more haphazard than people like to think. The good news? In the long run, it’s generally less important too. Here are the five biggest myths about this annual angst-a-thon.

TIME.com -- Teacher effectiveness matters more to student learning than anything else schools do, and there are substantial differences between teachers.

TIME.com -- The attention to low-graduation rates among some athletic programs should not distract us from the more systemic problem of low graduation rates for college students overall.