The Commons

The Commons is a startup technology business on a mission to improve educational outcomes for students and promote student mental health by removing the negative aspects of cellphones while preserving parental contact and important safety features during the school day. The Commons also educates teachers and students on digital citizenship.

There is mounting evidence that cellphone use during the school day negatively impacts both educational outcomes for students and their mental health. As a result, 40 states now mandate that school districts and charter schools adopt a policy on students’ possession and use of cell phones in school to minimize the impact of cell phones on student behavior, mental health, and academic attainment. At the same time, complete bans are unviable because parents are concerned about their children losing access to their cellphone in the case of an emergency or, for those students who use medical related apps, losing access to those critical supports. 

The primary purpose of this PRI is to assist school districts in meeting these state mandates, to advance public education outcomes, and to promote student mental health. Specifically, The Commons will use Venn’s PRI capital to (1) further implement its pilots with up to 25 public schools using its proprietary technology at a significantly reduced or subsidized cost designed to be affordable to public, and particularly lower-income school districts, enabling The Commons to test its MVP and gather qualitative and quantitative feedback; (2) integrate learning gained from the pilot into the proprietary technology to make its effectiveness more robust, including improving educational and mental health outcomes; and (3) share insights with school administrators to facilitate data driven policy enhancements to minimize the impact of cell phones on student behavior, mental health, and academic attainment.