In rolling out plans last week to revamp its high school strategy and launch a major new effort on the postsecondary front, the is undertaking a more sweeping approach to grantmaking that appears aimed at reshaping some core elements of the U.S. education system.
The philanthropy鈥檚 agenda on secondary schools aspires to transform both what students are expected to know to graduate from high school and the ways they acquire that knowledge, as well as how teachers are evaluated, retained, and paid.
At the postsecondary level, the foundation intends to help create an array of supports and incentives鈥攁nd even new institutions鈥攚ith the goal of ensuring that students don鈥檛 simply reach college, but actually finish.
To bolster its work, the foundation plans to put more money into research and data-gathering, along with advocacy aimed at building public and political will.
鈥淭his is an evolution,鈥� Vicki L. Phillips, the director of the Seattle-based philanthropy鈥檚 education division, said in an interview last week in discussing the revised high school agenda. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a 360-degree turn by any means. But it is a pretty significant evolution in our work, in that we believe that for our small schools and our past investments to be successful, these additional things are really important and needed.鈥�
The ultimate objectives, the foundation says, are to have at least 80 percent of low-income and minority students graduate from high school ready for college鈥攗p from a level it now estimates at 22 percent鈥攁nd twice as many low-income adults earn a postsecondary degree or credential than now do.
Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, and an expert on education philanthropy, sees the plans as reflecting an ambitious agenda from a foundation of 鈥渦nrivaled scale and scope鈥� to promote rethinking of key aspects of education. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 venture to guess as to how successful we鈥檒l think this is in five years or 10 years, but we sure as hell could learn a lot,鈥� Mr. Hess said.
The foundation鈥檚 high school agenda will focus on three pillars: identifying and promoting what the philanthropy calls 鈥渇ewer, clearer, and higher鈥� standards for college readiness, improving teacher quality, and fostering innovations to aid struggling students.
Gates officials did not provide estimates of how much in total the foundation would spend on the upcoming education work. But the officials said they expect to spend up to $500 million over five years on high-school-related research and data collection, as well as $500 million on demonstration projects in a handful of cities to set the teacher-quality agenda in motion.
The foundation has spent about $2 billion to date on efforts to improve high schools and increase graduation rates.
鈥楨ntwined Strategies鈥�
In explaining Gates鈥� postsecondary initiative, officials said the foundation wants to push the country beyond expanding access to higher education and instead put the spotlight on college completion, even as they build on the foundation鈥檚 previous efforts to prepare more high school students to enter college.
鈥淗igh school is not the end game, it is just one step on the journey,鈥� Ms. Phillips said. 鈥淭hey are entwined strategies; one鈥檚 success is dependent on the other鈥檚 success.鈥�
The Gates Foundation unveiled its plans at a gathering Nov. 11 here in Seattle that brought together some 130 people, including the superintendents of several big-city districts, such as Schools Chancellors Michele A. Rhee of the District of Columbia and Joel I. Klein of New York City; leaders of key nonprofit groups the foundation has backed; teachers鈥� union leaders; and others.
Some attendees, many of whom represent organizations that receive grants from the foundation, offered an upbeat assessment of the foundation鈥檚 plans. (Gates provides grant support for 91制片厂视频 Week鈥檚 annual Diplomas Count report on issues related to high school graduation.)
鈥淚t鈥檚 really quite remarkable to see a foundation that is actually in many ways looking at things very systemically, because usually foundations take off a small bite of whatever their slice is,鈥� said Linda Darling-Hammond, an education professor at Stanford University and an expert on teacher quality.
Kati Haycock, the director of the 91制片厂视频 Trust, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, praised the philanthropy鈥檚 plans to focus intensively on teacher quality and standards, as well as helping to develop better curricula and teacher-support tools. 鈥淚 came frankly a little skeptical, but I was actually quite impressed with the [secondary education] strategy that they laid out,鈥� she said.
At the same time, Ms. Haycock and several other participants said they wondered what the advocacy work by Gates would entail.
鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 much talk about what does that look like, and what does a foundation that has limits on what it can do [in the political realm], do?鈥� she said.
In a last week for , Chester E. Finn Jr., the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington think tank, argued that while 鈥渢wo cheers鈥� are deserved for what he views as 鈥淰ersion 2.0鈥� at Gates, he has some reservations about the plans, and questions how far the foundation will go in the political and policy arena to achieve its ends.
鈥淚 wonder if they鈥檙e prepared for the conflict and pushback that invariably accompanies any effort to disrupt the established regime,鈥� he wrote.
Changes at the Top
The new plans follow recent leadership changes at the world鈥檚 largest private foundation.
In August 2007, Ms. Phillips, a former superintendent in Portland, Ore., and before that the state schools chief in Pennsylvania, joined the foundation to oversee its secondary education work.
Bill Gates this past summer formally stepped down from his leadership post at Microsoft Corp.鈥攖he computer-software giant he co-founded鈥攖o turn his attention to the foundation.
And Jeff Raikes, the former president of Microsoft, in September became the philanthropy鈥檚 new chief executive officer.
In at last week鈥檚 gathering, Mr. Gates said the foundation had seen success with some of the small high schools it helped create through its emphasis on that school improvement strategy, but that much of that work did not deliver the academic gains the foundation had hoped for.
鈥淭o be successful, a redesign requires changing the roles and responsibilities of adults, and changing the school鈥檚 culture,鈥� Mr. Gates said. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 dramatically increase college readiness by changing only the size and structure of a school.鈥�
Over the past several years, the Gates Foundation has been steadily broadening its focus beyond small high schools, through advocacy initiatives to influence policy, for example, and working directly with districts to improve curriculum and instruction. (鈥淕ates Learns to Think Big,鈥� Oct. 11, 2006.)
The foundation鈥檚 push for college-readiness standards aims to help promote a 鈥渃ommon core of standards鈥� across states, Ms. Phillips said.
The foundation notes that 33 states have already pledged to adopt college-ready standards and tests as part of the , a Gates-backed initiative led by the Washington-based group Achieve Inc.
The foundation will also aim to 鈥渂uild the public and political will to achieve college readiness for all,鈥� the strategy says, and help to develop and share tools that teachers and students can use to help meet higher standards.
鈥楾eacher Effectiveness鈥�
On teacher quality, Gates will support work to design 鈥渕easures, observational and evaluation tools, and data systems that can fairly and accurately identify effective teaching,鈥� the foundation says.
It also will work with districts to develop systems that retain and compensate teachers based on their effectiveness in educating students, and help ensure that high-quality teachers are placed in schools that need them the most.
Ms. Phillips said the foundation wants to identify 鈥渄eep dive鈥� sites across the country to test and study many of the teacher strategies at the same time and place.
鈥淥ver the next five years, we will work with a handful of urban districts and their unions鈥攁s well as networks of charter schools鈥攖hat are willing to try to define what it means to be an effective teacher,鈥� she said at the meeting, 鈥渢o figure out how to identify, develop, evaluate, and reward those teachers; and, yes, how to get ineffective teachers out of the classroom.鈥�
Policy initiatives affecting teacher evaluation and pay often generate controversy, especially from teachers鈥� unions.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who attended the meeting, responded cautiously: 鈥淚t鈥檚 good that I鈥檓 here, and I thought they were being very thoughtful about wading into teacher-quality issues.鈥�
The third area of giving will focus on fostering innovation in efforts to support and engage students, especially those who have fallen behind academically. That strand will include grants to 鈥渓everage new technology鈥� and support the development of new school models to take advantage of those technologies, the strategy document says.
鈥淲e will be searching for some real breakthroughs around next-generation school models, around how do you accelerate learning, around some of the tools that help teachers be more productive and effective,鈥� Ms. Phillips said.
