Bill Gates Tries A(nother) Billion-Dollar Plan To Reform Education (washingtonpost.com)

theodp shared this article from the Washington Post: Bill Gates has a(nother) plan for K-12 public education. The others didn't go so well, but the man, if anything, is persistent. Gates announced Thursday that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would spend more than $1.7 billion over the next five years to pay for new initiatives in public education, with all but 15 percent of it going to traditional public school districts and the rest to charter schools... He said most of the new money -- about 60 percent -- will be used to develop new curriculums and "networks of schools" that work together to identify local problems and solutions, using data to drive "continuous improvement." He said that over the next several years, about 30 such networks would be supported, though he didn't describe exactly what they are...

Though there wasn't a lot of detail on exactly how the money would be spent, Gates, a believer in using big data to solve problems, repeatedly said foundation grants given to schools as part of this new effort would be driven by data. "Each [school] network will be backed by a team of education experts skilled in continuous improvement, coaching and data collection and analysis," he said, an emphasis that is bound to worry critics already concerned about the amount of student data already collected and the way it is used for high-stakes decisions. In 2014, a $100 million student data collection project funded by the Gates foundation collapsed amid criticism that it couldn't adequately protect information collected on children.
"In his speech, Gates said that education philanthropy was difficult, in part because it is easy to 'fool yourself' about what works and whether it can be easily scaled," according to the article. It also argues that big spending on education by Gates and others "has raised questions about whether American democracy is well-served by wealthy people pouring so much money into pet education projects -- regardless of whether they are grounded in research -- that public policy and funding follow."

By 2011 the Gates' foundation had already spent $5 billion on education projects -- and admitted that "it hasn't led to significant improvements."

Comments

How much does Bill Gates understand about...

[Futurepower(R)]

"The others didn't go so well..."

Has Bill Gates been successful in spending his money? Is there evidence he has deep knowledge about technology? Is there evidence he has deep knowledge about programming, for example?

Over many years, I have seen almost no evidence of Bill Gates having depth of thinking.

Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold wrote a very poor book together, The Road Ahead. Quote from the Wikipedia page:

The New York Times review called the book "bland and tepid" and reading "as if it had been vetted by a committee of Microsoft executives"; it is "little more than a positioning document, sold in book form with accompanying CD-ROM and designed mainly to advance the interests of the Microsoft Corporation."

That New York Times book review suggests that Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold were deliberately engaged in fraud, and deliberately eliminated anything of value from the book before it was printed.

Re: Here's a billion dollar idea:

[jeff4747]

Yes. https://www.theatlantic.com/bu...

The parents at "bad" schools are much, much poorer than the parents at "good" schools.

Poorer parents are far more likely to both be working, and work longer hours. Thus they have less time to raise their children. They also have less resources when a child has trouble - for example, middle-class and up can afford tutors/tutoring services.

Finally, the local property taxes bring in more money around "good" schools because the houses are worth more. That gives these districts more money, leading to better-equipped schools.

Re:Here's a billion dollar idea:

[ranton]

Teachers are paid ok.

You and others like you are the problem. You endorse payment of crap wages and get exactly your money's worth. They lost control of the classrooms because they don't get respect and adequate pay is part of that.

GP is right.

Those who continuously say teachers are paid crap wages are the problem, because you push people away from a very lucrative career. While teachers will never reach the $200k+ salaries that around 5% of college graduates could eventually make in the private sector, teachers overall are very well paid. Every state is different (and some states do pay teachers crap wages) but on average teachers make about $56k per year. They also get a pension which would take about $5-10k per year in pre-tax income above what a private company would contribute to a 401k. They work about 10% more hours per working week than most professionals, but work 20% less weeks per year. They also get health benefits which are far more generous than nearly any private company plans.

To compare teacher pay to corporate pay, average teacher pay is closer to $70-75k per year when factoring in their benefits. Average bachelor degree salary is $60k and average masters degree salary is $78k. Figures for average teacher pay and average professional pay vary widely, so take these figures with a grain of salt, but it is obvious to see that teachers make a very competitive wage.