This July 23, 2012 file photo shows Co-founder and Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates during the 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC. (AFP | JIM WATSON)
 Bill and Melinda Gates, whose foundation has poured $10 million into a Colorado program testing ways to combine new state standards and teacher evaluations, flew here this week on a semi-secret visit to assess how the work has progressed.
On Monday, they visited Eagle County, one of 13 districts participating in the Integration Project, which seeks to identify best practices for implementing a recently legislated set of education reforms.
Then the billionaire couple returned to Denver to meet with representatives from other districts and Colorado Department of Education before spending time in Denver Public Schools.