Take the money?

Mega-rich foundations are always looking for a good investment.  In the late 1960s, the Ford Foundation supported community schools.  In the early 90s the Annenberg Foundation demonstrated its support of education reform with $500 million.  In the early 2000s the Gates Foundation supported small schools.

The Gates Foundation, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates, had an admirable reputation prior to its work with schools.  The foundation was a frontrunner in global health issues, supporting researchers across the globe.  This reputation ensured that the Gates foundation was reputable and powerful.

Not long after, the Gates Foundation decided that high school graduation rates and college entry rates could be improved.  Their weapon of choice: creating smaller schools with a $2 billion budget.  Money was pumped into public schools.  Large schools were broken into several smaller institutions and some were operated as "schools within a school", where multiple, independent schools ran in the same building.  In some cases, resources were scarce and tensions were high.

Data demonstrated the the Gates Foundation's reform had little impact on academic achievement.  Curriculum continued to lack rigor and math scores continued to unimpress.  Small schools quickly became stereotyped and segregated.

Several years later, Bill and Melinda gates abandoned their small school push and opted for a new, accountability approach.

Trying reform after reform is not going to change the American education system.  Countless innovative systems have been installed and abandoned in schools, none of which has been the solution to the problems teachers and students face.  As Ravitch (2010) puts it, "With the best of intentions reformers have sought to correct deficiencies by introducing new pedagogical techniques, new ways of organizing classrooms, new technologies, new tests, new incentives, and new ways to govern schools" (pg. 224).  The Gates foundation is proof that all the money in the world is not going to fix education.  The American schools need a change from within.  The insiders, the teachers who work with students first hand, need to have their voices heard if we want an effective change to take place.

Ravitch, D. (2010) The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education.  Philadelphia, PA: Perseus Books Group.