The following is an excerpt from Bill Gates’ annual letter about the Gates Foundation. I wanted to point out a few items in his comments. High Tech High is the High School that Mr. John Shea, Spaulding High School Principal helped found. Please note that Bill Gates mentions that as one of the successful new schools from the Foundation.
It think we should also note the size of the school is not the determining factor in Gates’ opinion, but a change in culture, change in curriculum, and selection of teachers. Changing an existing school has been less successful than creating a new school.
Here is a link to the entire article: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annual-letter/Pages/2009-united-states-education.aspx
“Many of the small schools that we invested in did not improve students’ achievement in any significant way. These tended to be the schools that did not take radical steps to change the culture, such as allowing the principal to pick the team of teachers or change the curriculum. We had less success trying to change an existing school than helping to create a new school.
Even so, many schools had higher attendance and graduation rates than their peers. While we were pleased with these improvements, we are trying to raise college-ready graduation rates, and in most cases, we fell short.
But a few of the schools that we funded achieved something amazing. They replaced schools with low expectations and low results with ones that have high expectations and high results. These schools are not selective in whom they admit, and they are overwhelmingly serving kids in poor areas, most of whose parents did not go to college. Almost all of these schools are charter schools that have significantly longer school days than other schools.
I have had a chance to spend time at a number of these schools, including High Tech High in San Diego and the Knowledge Is Power Program, or “KIPP,” in Houston. There is a wonderful new book out about KIPP called Work Hard. Be Nice., by the education reporter Jay Mathews. It’s an inspiring look at how KIPP has accomplished these amazing results and the barriers they faced.”
Thanks for this information Mr. Hopkins…I think it’s great that the HS Mr. Shea was involved with starting was pointed out as a success…I’m hopeful that lightening strikes twice!…shoots holes in the smaller school theory a bit, but it’s good to know that we have a very good person leading the way on this!
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2668627&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
Four years ago at Clover Park High, nearly two-thirds of the students had dropped out or failed to graduate.
“When you look at numbers like that, its heartbreaking,” says Clover Park Principal John Seaton.
Most of the students at Clover Park are poor. Many come from single-parent homes in which they often face a host of other problems.
But thanks to a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the school system overhauled the way it does business.
It split a school of 1,300 students into four smaller “learning communities,” each with its own faculty.
The teachers now stay with the students all four years and create in effect surrogate families. Now 71 percent of students at Clover Park earn their diplomas.
Progress at this high school came from teachers getting to know their students and the challenges they face.
Next Test: Value of $125,000-a-Year Teachers
“The school, called the Equity Project (http://www.tepcharter.org/), is premised on the theory that excellent teachers — and not revolutionary technology, talented principals or small class size — are the critical ingredient for success. Experts hope it could offer a window into some of the most pressing and elusive questions in education: Is a collection of superb teachers enough to make a great school? Are six-figure salaries the way to get them? And just what makes a teacher great?”