9486 in the collection
Bill Gates And His Silver Bullet
On schools, there are no
quick fixes. Ravitch makes an excellent point
that all the small school hype has distracted
us from more important questions about
curriculum. And good for her for bringing up
the cherry picking of students.
Ravitch doesn't mention the excellent large
school programs that were sacrificed to give a
boutique "small school" a place in the
building.
by Diane Ravitch
Back in 2000, the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation had a big idea about how to fix the
problems of American education. Break up large
high schools and turn them into small schools
and "small learning communities" of 400 or
fewer students.
The foundation believed that its new small high
schools would lift graduation rates and student
achievement, especially among minority
students, because of the close relationships
between students and teachers.
In 2005, Bill Gates told the National Governors
Association that "America's high schools are
obsolete." The next year, I heard him in Davos,
Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum, where
he said that the key to the success of the
small schools created by his foundation was
that they made everything "relevant," through
hands-on activities and familiar topics.
The foundation spent some $2 billion promoting
the dissolution of large high schools and the
creation of small schools. Big-city
superintendents stood in line, ready to jump on
the Gates' bandwagon, and today there are small
schools in every urban district.
Funded by Gates, some 2,600 new small high
schools opened in 45 states and the District of
Columbia. New York City alone has more than 200
such schools, with high schools devoted to such
themes as leadership, the sports professions,
technology, health professions, the media,
diversity, peace and social justice.
On Nov. 11, the Gates Foundation convened a
meeting of leading figures in American
education to admit candidly that the new small
high schools had not fulfilled their promise.
The foundation acknowledged that "we have not
seen dramatic improvements in the number of
students who leave high school adequately
prepared to enroll in and complete a two- or
four-year postsecondary degree or credential."
The bad news about the Gates' initiative began
to accumulate in 2005, when a Gates-funded
study by the American Institutes for Research
showed that students in traditional,
comprehensive high schools were learning more
mathematics than those in the Gates' small
schools. The researchers also found that
"relevance" was not correlated with the quality
of student learning. Then in 2006, additional
research commissioned by the foundation
concluded that the Gates-funded small schools
had "higher attendance rates but lower test
scores" than other high schools within the same
school districts in both reading and
mathematics.
We must give the Gates Foundation and its
founders credit for their honest self-scrutiny.
Most proponents of education reform defend
their ideas against all critics, regardless of
what evaluations show.
At his recent meeting in Seattle, Bill Gates
pointed to New York City's Gates-funded small
high schools as a success because early reports
showed a 70% graduation rate compared to a
district-wide average of 50%. But what Gates
did not realize was that the small schools in
New York City were permitted to restrict the
admission of English-language learners and
disabled students, meaning that the large
schools got a disproportionate share of
students with high needs.
Last April, The New York Times revealed
that some of New York City's small schools
achieved higher graduation rates by practicing
"credit recovery," meaning that students could
get full credit for a course they had failed or
never attended by showing up for an extra class
for a few days or by finishing a project out of
school.
But even in New York City, Mr. Gates
acknowledged, less than 40% of the graduates
from the small high schools were ready for
their college classes at the City University of
New York.
The Gates Foundation's mistake was in believing
that there is a silver bullet to solve the
problems of inner-city schools, which enroll
large numbers of students who are poor, have
limited English language proficiency, and are
more likely to require special education. Small
schools are just right for students who need
intense remediation and lots of extra
attention, but they do not offer the same menu
of advanced courses and electives,
extracurricular activities and vocational
courses that most students associate with going
to high school. And many students have health
problems and issues related to their family's
poverty that even the smallest of schools can't
solve.
Our nation used to have huge numbers of small
high schools; they were rural schools, which
were unable to offer the same educational
opportunities as big-city high schools. The
press for small schools, now taken up by almost
every big-city district, has diverted our
attention from the need to strengthen
curriculum and instruction, beginning in
elementary schools.
Whether a school is small or large, the
essential questions in education cannot be
ignored: What should students learn? How should
they be taught? Are classes too large,
especially for struggling students? Are
teachers well-prepared in the subjects they
teach? Do teachers have the resources they
need? Do students arrive in school ready to
learn? Until we answer these questions, the
size of schools is not a relevant issue.
The good news is that the Gates Foundation,
with its vast resources, has pledged to devote
its attention to what happens in the classroom.
The first thing it will learn is that there are
no quick fixes. If it targets its dollars
wisely, exercises a measure of humility, and
continues to evaluate its efforts rigorously,
it can make a positive difference.
Diane Ravitch is a member of the Koret Task
Force at the Hoover Institution at Stanford and
a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in
Washington, D.C.
— Diane Ravitch
Forbes
2008-11-19
http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/11/18/gates-foundation-schools-oped-cx_dr_1119ravitch.html
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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