The Academy for Urban School Leadership
a teacher-training Residency ExECutivE dirECtOr: Don Feinstein
if you applied the medical-residency model to urban schools, you’d have the auSl’s teacher-training program: mentoring,
grad school, 49 weeks shadowing a veteran teacher, and four years teaching in Chicago’s neediest classrooms. “many teachers aren’t prepared for an urban setting, so they drop out,” says executive director don feinstein. “our graduates come out
with real practical experience.” Since 2005, the number of students meeting state benchmarks has soared 66% in schools
run by auSl. the good news for kids nationwide: the newSchools venture fund just gave auSl $2.5 million to grow, and
the program is expanding. Barack obama has called for 200 such training academies to be established. —Kate Rockwood
;XkX;pe\
<g`Jlim\pfi
fOundErs: Rose Donna & Joel Selanikio
Data collection in developing Donna explains how Epi-nations usually involves heaps Surveyor can be more
of paperwork and maddening effcient than paper surveys:
data entry. But public-health “With a question like, ‘Are
workers in 15 sub-Saharan you male or are you female?’
nations are using pioneering people were being asked if
software from the D.C.-based they were pregnant even if
not-for-proft DataDyne to they answered male. Elimi-digitize and streamline the nating those problems
process. Cofounder Rose strengthens the quality of the
114 Fast company December 2008 / January 2009
Civ iC PrEsidEnt: Marc Freedman
v entures In the not-for-
SIl ICon proft sector, the
VAlley severe shortage of enCore managers is esti- In ITIATIVe mated to grow to 640,000 by 2016.
Among baby
boomers, there’s
increasing interest
in “encore careers,”
especially in not-for-profts. Civic
Ventures wants to
“help supply and
demand fnd each
other,” says Marc
Freedman, president of the group,
which is sponsoring this program
to ease the transition for retiring
Silicon Valley professionals through
mentoring and,
yes, internships.
The frst class of
fellows, from HP
and Agilent, will
be placed as early
as January.
—Sara D. Anderson
data.” The technology has
been so successful that the
World Health Organization,
the UN Foundation, and the
Vodafone Foundation
announced in September that
they will help DataDyne
disseminate it in 22 African
countries by the end of 2008
and in Asia next year. —KR
illustrations by Jillian tamaki
