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SEPTEMBER 2004

Bill and Melinda Gates: The Gates Foundation
by Joan Baum, Ph.D.

Say "Bill Gates" these days and it's likely that "education benefactor" comes to mind as readily as "Microsoft mogul." Gates and his wife Melinda French Gates have done more than put their money into a foundation to improve learning and health care, however, two issues that are intimately related. They understand, also, that publicity is the necessary handmaiden to philanthropy. In continuing media appearances and Website updates, Bill and Melinda Gates demonstrate that in the brief four years their $27-billion Foundation has been in existence, a development of an earlier Learning Foundation project to make technology readily available in public libraries, public education can indeed be improved if philanthropists commit, follow through, and open themselves to evaluation [AIR (American Institutes for Research in Palo Alto) is reviewing Gates projects]. As Melinda Gates said recently quoting William Butler Yeats, "Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire." The 3 R's are now: "rigor, relationships and relevance."

As much as Gates is a major force in technology initiatives, the goal of the Gates Foundation extends beyond training future workers. Where other organizations focus on pre K-high school, Gates has its sights on having all students "ready for college" and educated as well to be fully engaged citizens. There is no alternative for a democracy, Melinda Gates points out. Indeed, in the time it took her to deliver a speech earlier this year to the National School Boards Association, she noted, "two dozen students will drop out of high school." It might seem ironic that a technology giant that depends for its success on computer literate employees would argue so passionately for knowledge over vocational training. But when she speaks, Melinda says, it's as much as a parent as a co-founder of the Gates Foundation. "It is a grave social injustice that our high school system continues to steer low-income African American and Hispanic students away from college prep and college attendance."

High schools are crucial in redressing inequities that result in only 6 percent of young people from the poorest economic sector earning a four-year college degree-an interesting comment. Incidentally, in an election year when community colleges are high on some political agendas. The Gates Foundation works as a "catalyst" with a diverse mix of partners, private, public, government agencies, and it works mainly through grants which are evaluated for appropriateness of target schools, for achievement, according to increased attendance, test scores and college acceptances, and for broader impact on the education community, affecting changes in policies and procedures. Central in Gates Foundation efforts are transforming large schools into smaller units, supporting smaller and innovative high schools nation wide, and encouraging college attendance by way of scholarships in this country and at Cambridge, UK. Of course computers are involved in these efforts. Incredible but true: Gates reached its goal to provide Internet access and training in libraries in every state of the country.

Though selective in targeting schools and districts where it feels it can make the greatest difference, the Gates Foundation is universal in its promotion of best practices. Melinda Gates calls attention to the National Association of Secondary School Principals publication, Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform, which has been sent to "every high school principal in America." She cites particular successes that can be replicated, among them the San Jose School District where "all" students now take college prep courses and scores have gone up especially for minority youngsters. "It is better for a student to learn algebra in three semesters than to waste two taking low-level math." The Truman Center outside Seattle now boasts no bells, no lockers-and this in a school, which formerly received only unwanted teachers and students. Then there's Winthrow University High School in Cincinnati, now totally restructured and enjoying a tremendous attendance rate, a place where the 82 percent African American population attends a special Summer Bridge program in the 9th grade, where parents sign contracts, and where an on-site social service agency has visible presence. These are just a few of the turnarounds Gates has been able to foster, but they prove, Melinda Gates says, in the words of John Dewey that "Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself." For more information visit www.gatesfoundation.org.#

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