Posted on August 20, 2009

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Gates Foundation Commits Half a Billion Dollars to Study Teacher Effectiveness

Nine years and $2 billion into its work to improve America's public schools, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed an additional half a billion dollars to help quantify what makes a teacher effective and tie that data to student achievement, the Associated Press reports.

Over the next five years, the foundation plans to develop and test methods to rate teachers while conducting experiments at a handful of school districts around the country designed to explore new ways of recruiting, training, assigning, and assessing teachers. The foundation solicited proposals from school districts around the country for a share of the funding and has selected finalists in five cities and regions: Hillsborough County, Florida; Memphis, Tennessee; Omaha, Nebraska; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and a group of Los Angeles charter schools. The final grant decisions will be made in the fall.

Another five districts — in Atlanta, Georgia; Denver, Colorado; Palm Beach County, Florida; Prince George's County, Maryland; and Tulsa, Oklahoma — will be considered for smaller grants to support parts of their teaching plans. Earlier this month, the districts presented their ideas to the foundation on ways to place the best teachers in the most challenging classrooms, give the best teachers new roles as mentors and coaches while keeping them in front of children, make tenure a meaningful milestone, remove ineffective teachers, and use money to motivate people and schools to move toward these goals.

"It really is about an effective teacher for every student every year of their school career," said Vicki Phillips, director of the Gates Foundation's K-12 education program. "If we did that, we would make the kind of progress that we have all long dreamed about in this country."

Blankinship, Donna. “Gates Foundation Seeks Education's Magic Pill.” Associated Press 8/19/09.

Primary Subject: Education
Secondary Subject(s): Elementary and Secondary Education
Location(s): National

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