WSJ: $5 Billion later, Bill Gates isn't making much headway in education

[mardi gras skin]

Was the $5 Billion Worth It?

A decade into his record-breaking education philanthropy, Bill Gates talks teachers, charters—and regrets.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903554904576461571362279948.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

It's hard to improve public education—that's clear. As Warren Buffett would say, if you're picking stocks, you wouldn't pick this one." Ten years into his record-breaking philanthropic push for school reform, Bill Gates is sober—and willing to admit some missteps.

"It's been about a decade of learning," says the Microsoft co-founder whose Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is now the nation's richest charity...

"...the overall impact of the intervention, particularly the measure we care most about—whether you go to college—it didn't move the needle much," Gates says. "Maybe 10% more kids, but it wasn't dramatic. We didn't see a path to having a big impact, so we did a mea culpa on that." Still, he adds, "we think small schools were a better deal for the kids who went to them."

The reality is that the Gates Foundation met the same resistance that other sizeable philanthropic efforts have encountered while trying to transform dysfunctional urban school systems run by powerful labor unions and a top-down government monopoly provider.

In the 1970s, the Ford, Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations, among others, pushed education "equity" lawsuits in California, New Jersey, Texas and elsewhere that led to enormous increases in state expenditures for low-income students. In 1993, the publishing mogul Walter Annenberg, hoping to "startle" educators and policy makers into action, gave a record $500 million to nine large city school systems. Such efforts made headlines but not much of a difference in closing the achievement gap...

On the fraught issue of school choice, his foundation has been a strong advocate of charter schools, and Mr. Gates is particularly fond of the KIPP charter network and its focus on serving inner-city neighborhoods. "Whenever you get depressed about giving money in this area," he volunteers, "you can spend a day in a KIPP school and know that they are spending less money than the dropout factory down the road."

...Mr. Gates is less enamored of school vouchers. "Some in the Walton family"—of Wal-Mart fame—"have been very big on vouchers," he begins. "And honestly, if we thought there would be broad acceptance in some locales and long-term commitment to do them, they have some very positive characteristics."

He praises the private school model for its efficiency vis-à-vis traditional public schools, noting that the "parochial school system, per dollar spent, is an excellent school system." But the politics, he says, are just too tough right now. "We haven't chosen to get behind [vouchers] in a big way, as we have with personnel systems or charters, because the negativity about them is very, very high."

It's a response that in some ways encapsulates the Gates Foundation's approach to education reform—more evolution, less disruption. It attempts to do as much good as possible without upsetting too many players. You can quibble with Mr. Gates about that strategy. You can second-guess him. You can even offer free advice. Or you can shake his hand, thank him for his time and remember that it's his money.

I find the private school issue to be the most fascinating aspect of this article. Gates acknowledges that they get greater value but he's still dumping money into the public system because of perception.

I've been a teacher in private and public schools and there is no question that the private school got far more bang for their buck. It wasn't close. There were so many financial advantages for schools partnering with local non-profits. More volunteer labor, a stronger base of community interest, a shared use of the physical plant dramatically cutting the cost of infrastructure for both school and non-profit.

I think this is where the greatest innovations could take place in education. And it doesn't just have to be churches, though there are phenomenally large numbers of church buildings going to waste from 8 to 4 Monday through Friday. You could form co-operative building projects with YMCAs, JCCs, etc. Junior Achievers of America has an awesome building right here in Owings Mills called "BizTown" that sits empty most the time.

http://www.jamaryland.org/programs/ja_biztown

And shared location would certainly promote greater volunteerism. People support the needs they see. Put kids and teachers in the same space as volunteer minded people and good stuff would happen. If we were more creative in our public/non-profit partnerships, we could save a ton of money and improve performance.

[Major Harris]

of course they got more bang for their buck in private school.

private school is a place that you don't go to if your parents aren't involved in your education. private schools also have the luxury of picking their students.

some school systems are very fractured, if not broken. most do a pretty decent job, a LOT more of it depends on the parents than we're willing to admit.

[mardi gras skin]

private school is a place that you don't go to if your parents aren't involved in your education. private schools also have the luxury of picking their students.

You can't just assume the worst of either system. Your characterization of the private school is as unfair as "dropout factory" or "cookie cutter" characterization of the public school. The private school I taught in specifically sought out problem students. They had a phenomenal volunteer base and a great track record with students. Cost per kid was half the local public school and they had a high number of scholarships for students who couldn't afford it.

Its not just the parents. I've seen that extensive volunteer support from the community fill in gaps when parental involvement isn't there. Cooperating with local non-profits in the design of the broader education process (non-classroom) takes some strain off the teacher and helps make up for absentee parents.

[Burgold]

I think the key is parental involvement and volunteerism. I taught in a public school and I know that classes that the very few parent volunteers we had were invaluable, both indirectly and directly. Indirectly, when a parent models respect for the teachers, the students follow the cue. Active parents, not only produce kids that perform better, but ones that behave better. If a teacher has to spend forty percent of his time doing the behavioral maintenance then that is a lot of time wasted that could be used on instruction or enrichment. Lowering the teacher to student ratio, changing the mindset of the role a teacher plays (teachers are not respected in the community. The whole concept of "if you can... do, if you can't teach" is probably the mildest of the reasons kids are given to disrespect their teacher's daily.) Our status is defined by stuff and money far too often these days and therefore the teacher is not very high on the social ladder.

So, the chief advantage a private school has is that to these parents, education is important. Teachers are important. That's the subtextual or overt message the kids get and that should impact behavior and learning.

[mardi gras skin]

That's a part of it. Partner with volunteer organizations and you'll get more volunteerism. The other part is the tremendous cost of infrastructure maintenance. Partnerships could drive down these costs.

[SnyderShrugged]

another shining example of why throwing money at a problem isnt the answer

[Major Harris]

mardi gras, you make a lot of good points.

any student your school sought out, your school also had the option to let them go.

[TimmySmith]

Odd that his commitment is more to perception than education. Perhaps that is why he is not succeeding.

[Burgold]

another shining example of why throwing money at a problem isnt the answer

Gosh, you're against spending money in the public AND private sector.

[DRSmith]

If education in the public sector was treated the same way it is in the private sector as a privilage one can miss out on then maybe things would improve so much more

I went to pblic with kids who had been kicked out of private school it was way more difficult for them to get kicked of public schools for the same behaviour

[skinfan2k]

he needs to throw money at programs like teach for america who do an excellent job with setting up students for success

[twa]

If education in the public sector was treated the same way it is in the private sector as a privilage one can miss out on then maybe things would improve so much more

I went to pblic with kids who had been kicked out of private school it was way more difficult for them to get kicked of public schools for the same behaviour

I agree,but a alt ed program geared for them is a better solution than simply removal from schooling period...as is a path back

add

I like the Teach for America program as well

[Burgold]

I think twa is right to a degree here. The one size fits all model of secondary schools ought to be looked at. There are kids who just aren't college track. There are kids who demonstrate great skills in other areas and those should be cultivated.

[twa]

It goes beyond that...adding VOC courses and removing disruptive kids to both improve the learning environment and get them intervention (whether it is self discipline or remedial courses or simply more tutoring)

the one size fits all and teaching to the middle way of doing things is not working

innovation such as this can also be introduced to change our teaching models

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_khan/

[The Sisko]

I think probably the biggest mistake Gates and others seeking to improve public school systems made is in picking the wrong variable to improve. Had he spent the same amount of $$$ on early childhood education programs, he'd have done a lot to indirectly improve the schools by providing them with students more likely to succeed and less likely to be disruptive.

[zoony]

we don't have an educational problem in this country, we have a societal problem.

[Major Harris]

I think twa is right to a degree here. The one size fits all model of secondary schools ought to be looked at. There are kids who just aren't college track. There are kids who demonstrate great skills in other areas and those should be cultivated.

i've said it for years, our biggest mistake is pushing kids to college. college is not for everyone, and those that aren't really programmed for it and still go waste time and loads of money. if we put the right kids on vocational paths, we'd be much better off.

if everyone has a college degree, what's it worth?

[SnyderShrugged]

Gosh, you're against spending money in the public AND private sector.

No, I'm FOR addressing root causes of a problem in a rational and effective fashion. Simply throwing money at a problem rarely works to improve mnuch af anything and often enables the root cause to be hidden rather than addressed. Its quality 101

[PeterMP]

I think Gates choose an odd measure of success, especially considering the population he's dealing with in a lot of cases. I was going to put this in a thread where we discussed head start, but looking at that thread, I realized it wasn't an education thread, but a jobs thread that turned into an eduction thread.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6040/299.full?sid=9ea19245-823e-4263-b803-50121ed3fd4b

They've looked at people that are in their 20's now. They see less criminal convictions and better real life out comes for kids that went to a publically funded preschool program (not head start, but I think the evidence we have for headstart at this time seems to indicate the samethings) as compared to those that didn't.

This is particularly true for kids from certain backgrounds. Two of the simple things they look at is did the mom graduate from highschool and the mom's criminal record. Kids that were in the program and had a mom that didn't graduate from high school or have a drug related criminal record do much better than kids that weren't in the program and have similar moms.

Gates need to look at the people in his program in their 20's and look at real life out comes.

[shk75]

A lot of people have trouble with the Gates foundation because they are so vehemently scientific and evidenced-based about everything. Some think this is the way you must carry out interventions to ensure your outcomes are measurable and understandable. I do not know too much about their involvement in education but in public health much of the field is not very happy with the way they bully everyone else into using their methods. I guess it really comes down to money and they have the most of it and until now they have not been willing to learn from other organizations. It is their way or the highway.

[oisn1]

As zoony said, our problem isn't in education but in culture. Early on, parents need to take an active role in their child's education, especially parents in lower income households. That's why it is so much harder for poor kids to succeed because they don't have the advantage of money and they need involved parents (which they may not have). This isn't a question of public or private schools, because places like Norway have amazing education programs and they are primarily public. It's about the parents and fostering an environment to learn.

[Thiebear]

Spend that 5billion in the Achieveable Dream Model from newport Virginia.

Put one in Ward8 DC

and another in each state.

Getting the parents, business, community to help support is the only way to succeed.

http://achievabledream.nn.k12.va.us/

[Sniffler]

I think the key is parental involvement and volunteerism. I taught in a public school and I know that classes that the very few parent volunteers we had were invaluable, both indirectly and directly. Indirectly, when a parent models respect for the teachers, the students follow the cue. Active parents, not only produce kids that perform better, but ones that behave better. If a teacher has to spend forty percent of his time doing the behavioral maintenance then that is a lot of time wasted that could be used on instruction or enrichment. Lowering the teacher to student ratio, changing the mindset of the role a teacher plays (teachers are not respected in the community. The whole concept of "if you can... do, if you can't teach" is probably the mildest of the reasons kids are given to disrespect their teacher's daily.) Our status is defined by stuff and money far too often these days and therefore the teacher is not very high on the social ladder.

So, the chief advantage a private school has is that to these parents, education is important. Teachers are important. That's the subtextual or overt message the kids get and that should impact behavior and learning.

Very well said. +1

[Wrong Direction]

I too am a big fan of KIPP.

On parents...everyone agrees they're the biggest problem. The fact is, we can't change the parents. So, how do you teach the students who have negative influences at home? I have thoughts on this, but it's obviously easier said than done. It starts with classroom management and high standards, and it ends with maintaining those standards. [Edit: BTW, I am also a big fan of vocational programs in secondary education.]

On early childhood education...one of the biggest complaints against head start is not that it doesn't produce better kids for k-12, it's that those "better" kids don't maintain the benefits in k-12. I'm all for head start, but it's a total waste of money if the benefits are just lost. So, the focus really needs to be on maintaining and building on those benefits in k-12. NCLB has helped this in many respects.

[Sniffler]

So, how do you teach the students who have negative influences at home? I have thoughts on this, but it's obviously easier said than done. It starts with classroom management and high standards, and it ends with maintaining those standards.

You are absolutely correct... it starts with high standards and exceptional classroom management techniques. The population of students I teach have very limited assistance at home... some with no support what-so-ever. Considering I also teach the lowest performing (2-3 years behind grade level) and most disruptive students of the student population, I have a minimal amount of time to get them up to speed for the state exams.

With that in mind, at the beginning of the school year I give every student and parent my cell phone number. When students have difficulty with their homework (and often there is no one home that can help)... they can call me.

If a parent does not understand how to help their student... they can call me.

If a parent heard of a conflict or situation that needs clarification... they can call me.

It solves alot of problems. It also takes an exuberent amount of my personal time BUT increases the amount of my time that can be devoted towards instruction, increases the frequency of the meaningful, invaluable, teachable moments, helps maintain my high standards in a consistent manner, AND (most importantly) eliminates any excuse a child may have for not doing their homework which ensures that they are engaged in thought provoking activities outside of school (one of the necessary components for a child's educational success).

While I'm considered crazy by my colleagues for doing this... the data I produce and the growth of my students speaks volumes about how much it helps... plus it helps make my workday less stressful and my classroom flow more efficiently.