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.#
