A $1 billion Gates Foundation-backed education initiative failed to help students
— here’s how the foundation's next $450 million project will look
- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation spent more than $200 million on a teacher effectiveness initiative, and an independent assessment found that the program failed to help students.
- Now the Gates Foundation is trying a new approach: supporting local organizations that work directly with teachers and principals.
- Professors who specialize in education told Business Insider that the new initiative's focus on local groups is a step in the right direction.
- However, experts noted the Gates Foundation is funding some of the same groups as before, and one professor said many of the new projects are vague and broad in scope.
In 2009, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched an ambitious project to improve teacher effectiveness among certain primary and secondary schools in California, Florida, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania.
The goal was to reform teacher evaluations. More effective teachers, the foundation predicted, would improve student achievement, raise graduation rates, and help low-income and minority students get into college.
About $1 billion went into the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative, with the Gates Foundation itself pouring over $200 million into a group of school districts and charter school networks in the four states.
The initiative, designed to last seven years, ended in 2016. This year, the Rand Corporation released a report concluding the program had failed to dramatically improve student achievement or graduation rates. Bill Gates himself noted the initiative's poor results in a speech last fall, saying his Continue reading: A $1 billion Gates Foundation-backed education initiative failed to help students — here’s how the foundation's next $450 million project will look - Business Insider Nordic
