Startup Schools, Fast Policies, and Full‐Stack Education Companies: Digitizing Education Reform in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley technology companies, entrepreneurs, investors and philanthropists are currently engaging in education with considerable enthusiasm. This chapter analyses the role of Silicon Valley as a major center of technology‐driven global education reform. It utilizes the concepts of “fast policy” and “policy mobilities” to advance the argument, and focuses specifically on “startup school” projects. The chapter situates Silicon Valley as a social, technical, economic, and political zone of innovation with particular aspirations to reform public education in its own image. It identifies and maps a particular “fast policy” network of Silicon Valley projects, funders, and practices associated with startup schooling. With the emergence of big data, startup schools such as AltSchool are increasingly applying algorithmic processes, such as machine learning, predictive analytics, and adaptive systems to engineer better‐managed and more efficient systems of personalized learning.