Monday, May 7, 2012

The Big Philanthropic Shift: Now What? :: Frederick M. Hess

The Big Philanthropic Shift: Now What? :: Frederick M. Hess:


The Big Philanthropic Shift: Now What?

by Frederick M. Hess  •  May 7, 2012 at 8:43 am
Cross-posted from Education Week


I recently wrote a piece for Phi Delta Kappan exploring a couple of the key developments in edu-giving since 2005. That's the year I published With the Best of Intentions: How Philanthropy is Reshaping K-12 Education, in which I (in my usual mean-spirited fashion) used the dismal experience of the then-recently concluded $1.1 billion Annenberg Challenge as a jumping-off point.
Today, a lot has changed. Back in 2005, Gates Foundation officials were, for the first time, seriously considering whether to play an active role in shaping public policy. Race to the Top, the Common Core, Democrats for Education Reform, and StudentsFirst were unimagined. No one would seriously suggest New Orleans, Washington, D.C., or Newark as hotbeds of school reform. Diane Ravitch was still a champion of school choice and accountability, and few had heard of Michelle Rhee, Deborah Gist, Jon Schnur, or Geoffrey Canada. No Child Left Behind was still novel and fairly popular, and not a single state was trying to build teacher evaluation around value-added systems.
Today, the world looks real different. These developments all (for better and worse) owe something to policy-oriented giving. "New sector" philanthropy has helped shift the school reform landscape. For a quick glimpse of what's happened, just compare the biggest givers in 2010 and those a decade before.
According to the Foundation Center, the five biggest K-12 givers in 2010 were:
1. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- $209 million;
2. Walton Family Foundation -- $110 million;
3. W.K. Kellogg Foundation -- $58 million;
4. Michael and Susan Dell Foundation -- $55 million; and
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