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A Gates Foundation Education Initiative Fizzles
theodp writes "Three years ago, Sarah-Palin-bogeyman William Ayers published a paper questioning the direction the small school movement was taking (PDF) with the involvement of would-be education reformers like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And now, after $2 billion in grants, Bill Gates concedes that in most cases his foundation's efforts in that area fell short. 'Many of the small schools that we invested in did not improve students' achievement in any significant way,' said Gates. Bill does cite High Tech High as one of the few success stories, but even there has to limit his atta-boys to the San Diego branch — the Gates-backed Silicon Valley High Tech High closed its doors abruptly due to financial woes (concerns about the sustainability of Gates-initiated small schools were voiced in 2005). Not surprisingly, some parents are upset about the capital that school districts wasted following Bill's lead."
...and say that nothing that Microsoft contributes to schools facilitates education, but that would be unfair. Gates is not the first, and will not be the last, businessman to try to give money to schools to encourage them down a path that he supports. I am sure they all mean well - but education is too big and complicated, and depends too much on local factors, to benefit from this kind of investment. It's been said that the only thing that businessmen should do is to take a leaf out of Carnegie's book and donate libraries. Not a bad place to start, especially if you are big enough to realise that you will profoundly disagree with some of those books, and that is actually a good thing.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
What does Sarah Palin have to do with anything? What the fuck is even the point? Protip: The election ended 3 months ago.
Shit like that really makes the site look bad.
...to ask a drop out for advice to government on how to spend education dollars?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
...after the following sentence in the first paragraph:
And you wonder why conservatives don't like Ayers?
The first high school class is graduating this year. Their high school graduation rate has gone from less than 10% under the old school to 96% in the new school, with all graduates going to college.
There are a lot of factors here of course. But that's what I'm saying. It's far, far too premature (and simplistic, and utterly reductionist) to say "well, small schools work" and "small schools don't work." Some small schools work well. Some don't. Some are more or less educationally sustainable than others.
But some Gates foundation schools have had dramatic success, and we should keep that in mind before we universally condemn that mode of education. Tagging OP as misleading here.
...you can't fix education by throwing money at it.
Perhaps you have to know what you're doing.
"William Ayers writes"
This kind of shit just bothers me. You know what? Anyone can claim something will fail and they have a 50/50 chance of being correct. Ok, so the guy is so brilliant, why isn't he the one with the multi-million dollar program trying to improve the school system?
Please, this isnt news...
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
Skimming through the articles, I saw LITTLE mention of just about the only thing that really works in education - parental involvement. We Americans are FAR too convinced that throwing money at education is bound to fix the problem, when we spend more than any other country per student and don't get half as good results.
It's not about wealth, equality, social justice, or any of that. It's about parents who care enough to push their kids to do well in school.
Take a couple million dollars and set a prize.
$100,000 for the best grades.
$50,000 for the second.
$25,000 for the third position.
$10,000 for ten more students.
etc.
Then, if you discover the grading system is completely flawed and tells more about the test passing skills than the knowledge... Well, you only spent a couple million bucks for a valuable knowledge.
... can a guy intentionally making homemade explosives that killed people, who had a role in major riots, who detonated bombs in public parks, and who never really apologized for any of it get cast as the GOOD GUY against Bill Gates!
Yeah, I voted against GOP last year too, in part because this was 40 years ago and and it was cheap for the Republicans to wait so late to bring it up. However, the fact that Ayers was criticized by some lousy political candidates doesn't that he deserves no criticism. This guy is a symptom of why the Left is a minority philosophy in the U.S., and can't win a Presidency without a major recession or impeachment just before the election.
You see stuff like this happening all the time in the private sector. Notable guy buys stuff, everyone else jumps in and buys the same thing he does. Notable guy sells stuff or stops funding everyone else does the same.
When will people realize that even Notable people are human, are prone to mistakes just like everyone else. So except for blindly following what they are doing you should more carefully examine what they are doing. If you disagree with it, then don't follow, if you do agree with it then follow.
I am sorry there are no quick fixes in life. There is no Messiah who will make things all nice and easy (Even if you are Christian, Jesus actually made peoples lives more difficult then easier, forced them to think about ethics of religion vs just blindly following the rules). Sometimes people will get lucky and become successful quickly however for the most part hard work and dedication is the way.
To improve education there is no quick fix, small schools large schools, high-tech schools low-tech schools... All these are one detail in a more complex subject. If you say swap all the kids from an over achieving schools with those in an underachieving schools with the same budget you will find the overachieving kids will still overachieve. As they have parents who are more willing to participate in the child's education, they understand the value of education.
There is no quick fix for education you will need changes on all levels. Improved Parental involvement, Classes that help integrate other classes, ability to evaluate teachers and reward them for good performance, A grading system that rewards learning and allows mistakes as part of the learning process , not punishes the students for mistakes, Fair market pay for teachers with their skills (Pay Math and Science teachers as much as Engineers). And I know I am missing a much more.
Just putting money in education doesn't fix the problem, if that was true New York State would have the best education in the world. But how you wisely use the money and and work on changing the culture.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
What should be really obvious is that well run schools succeed and poorly run schools fail. What is a bit less obvious is that not every school can be well run in exactly the same way because the needs of the student body, community, and dare I say faculty (yes they have needs too!) differ from one school to another.
Much time, money, and ink has been spent on trying to find the magic bullet that will "reinvent our concept of education." Funny thing is, non-educators are rarely able to make their ideas work by imposing reform from the top down. What that suggests to me is that A) perhaps schools are harder to run than they appear to be, since outside "reformers" are no better at it than "insiders"; B) maybe professional educators are not the problem after all since no one else seems to be able to consistently do their jobs better than they can; and C) centralized mass production of education via curriculum mandates may not be the way to go (since when that approach is applied broadly, it still succeeds only narrowly).
Instead maybe it's time to look at schools one at a time and recognize that properly running a school is a management challenge like any other.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
In order for IT to succeed in small schools, there is one thing that is key to keep in mind: Technology, especially IT, is a TOOL for the classroom, it it not a be all and end all for making a class. If you do not have a use for a tool in the classroom, then it only gets in the way.
You can be as forward thinking and as technologically advanced, laptop/netbook in ever child's hands, but if you don't have lessons to teach that make use of that tool, ti's just dead weight.
In order to overcome this issue, you first have to have teachers and instructors in place who have a learning plan, lessons, and other means that will utilize technology, such as smart boards, 'clickers' and other items in their day-to-day lesson plans in transfering knowledge to children. If these teachers aren't trained, aren't educated with how to use these IT-tools in their classrooms, then we are indeed, just throwing away money.
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
For what it's worth, this is why the moderation, and perhaps meta-moderation system is so annoying.
The post is right (Ayers did bomb buildings) and may be wrong (I don't know about the communism part as of this minute). But it's just not a troll. At least not by any definition of "troll" I may understand.
Please don't use "umm" or "err" or "erm".
Boy talk about bad logic. Are you a reporter?
Just because there are two (more?) possible outcomes to a given situation/argument doesn't mean there is a 50% chance each one will come to pass.
Let me guess, you'd say "well evolution could be true or not true so there is a 50% chance that it's not true". Or maybe "global warming will either occur or not occur so there is a 50% chance it will not".
I can guess where you stand on both of those issues.
You know, even though I am a Microsoft basher I must say that at least Gates is big enough to realize that he was wrong/made a mistake. I'm glad he didn't let ideology blind him to reality unlike the previous administration. Or maybe that was just stupidity.
He is one of the multi-billionaires who is spending a large part of his fortune actually trying to make a (BIG) difference (Carlos Slim are you listening?). (I realize there are some who take a much more cynical view towards his contributions, sorry I don't know enough to judge).
Obviously, Bill Gates is bringing the same skill and insight to his charitable efforts that made Windows what it is today.
What most impresses me, ignoring all the Ayers stuff, is that Mr. Gates was willing to admit publically that parts of his initiative failed, and retool it. There's a little whining (some schools 'did not take radical steps', etc), but overall it was pretty frank at saying "we need to change some of our approach". I wish more school districts would take that approach, rather than requiring you remove the school board before they'll change off a destined-for-doom plan.
A.
Anyone who dedicates a book to Sirhan Sirhan is worth castigating and maybe stringing up in my book. Killing innocent cops and idolizing Sirhan Sirhan should be reprehensible in everybody's views but of course it isn't....
This guy is way out there
IANAFOBG, but I do appreciate his initiative in attempting to help our school systems. It may not have worked out but we certainly know what doesn't work now.
I would attribute the failure to something similar of lottery shock. When people win the lottery they feel the urge to make up for a lifetime of pent up consumerism. These school districts suddenly had a ton of money thrown at them to buy and use new technology. (i.e. See the 2nd and 3rd Matrix Movies) Unfortunately it wasn't a slow, gradual, introduction. Instead the district, teachers and student were overwhelmed with trying to implement a brand new way of learning and it failed outright. In itself this is a lesson in teaching.
As an example look at laptops on a college campus. There is not doubt in any students mind how helpful their laptop can be during class. It can also be equally distracting. Now the reason why laptops work in college is because they were introduced at the rate the market would bare. There was a trickle down effect as laptops became more affordable and portable. If you went out and bought MacBook Air's for an entire class of freshman high school students I doubt you would see any positive side effects because the students would once again be overwhelmed and not know how to manage such a valuable asset. In my opinion high school teachers would end up spending a large amount of the first couple of years too heavily policing what the students were doing with their laptops. After this cultural issue is conquered I believe laptops (or tablets) would be a wonderful resource to high school students. The problem I for see is the school district not having the patience to wait out those first couple of years. Another option would be to introduce personal laptops at an earlier age to help gain more respect for them.
IMAGE VERIFICATION IS EVIL!
This man was leading a group that bombed the US Capitol and the Pentagon. He's a terrorist, and has only a legal technicality to thank for the fact that he's alive much less running around free and publishing papers as a "professor".
Indeed, the fact that Ayers IS employed in academia itself is far greater argument that the US educational system is broken beyond repair. Why is he bitching about Bill Gates? Even if you argue that his school projects are failing/have failed, at least Gates is using HIS OWN MONEY and not spending taxpayer money on failed government schools. IMHO, a true stalin-lefty like Ayers is probably harping on this more as a reason to promote government solutions to the problem with education (despite it being the main problem) over private ones.
Corporatism != Free Market
Not just private money. Some money was pumped into schools that should shutdown because of population shifts. Now we have thirty or so schools in the district that are less than half full and a bunch of money pumped in them for technology upgrades. Now they are just pissing money down the drain and will continue for years to come. The money wasted on these schools far exceeds the money that they were given by the Gates foundation.
Sic Semper MicroSoft
Disclaimer: I went to a "progressive" school in the UK. My first form teacher was a Communist who had thrown bricks at Fascists in the 1930s, but many of the staff were socialists, Catholics or both. House prices went up in the area all the time we lived there because parents wanted to be in the catchment area for that school. You see, a real Communist or socialist believes that education can transform society. Whereas it's the right wingers who want everybody else to be poor and uneducated, so they can profit.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
We all know /.'s opinion of Bill and his company, but let's take a moment to acknowledge that the Gates Foundation is a somewhat different animal. It has a track record of spending money on un-glamorous causes where there is big bang for the buck (e.g., malaria). Here, we see it checking the performance data and dropping a program that just wasn't working. Love 'em or hate 'em, that's the smart thing to do.
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)