District Administration - November 2006 - (Page 50)

COVER STORY f u l, supportive relationships. Gates' That is not an isolated victory. Gates Foundation name also crops up in scholarship Cesar Chavez Public Charter Fact Sheet programs and in conjunction with Schools for Public Policy in Wash- select early education initiatives. i ng t on, D.C., says 100 percent of its Guided by the belief that every A nd those figures are from before graduating seniors were accepted to life has equal value, the Bill Warren Buffett gifted the foundation a college or university. Eighty per- & Melinda Gates Foundation with $31 billion dollars, which the cent of these students are the fi rst works to reduce inequities and foundation must give away down to generation in their families to con- improve lives around the world. the penny starting in 2009 or face t i nue their education. Meanwhile, In the U.S., the foundation seeks tax complications. MetWest High School in Oakland, to ensure that all people have Never before has any individual California, had higher exit exam access to a great education and or foundation had so much power scores than its 24 competitors in to technology in public libraries. to direct the course of American the district. An impressive 83 per- education, Diane Ravitch, a senior cent of students who started school Grantmaking Areas fellow at the Hoover Institution and at Noble Street Charter School in Global Development Program a professor of education at New York Chicago, as freshmen graduated Global Health Program University, wrote in an editorial to there in June 2006. United States Program the Los Angeles Times. She claims Naturally these kind of results Headquarters Gates' $1 billion, handed out with- f low i n g from Seattle, begs the Seattle out any external review, means this question: Would Bill Gates the one man looms larger in the eyes of chairman of Microsoft who Leadership school leaders than the U.S. Depart- attended a strict private school Bill Gates, Co-chair ment of Education which she says and later Harvard University, a Melinda French Gates, Co-chair has only $20 million in discretion- kid who read Fortune magazine William H. Gates Sr., Co-chair a r y funds at its disposal. for fun and was debugging BASIC Patty Stonesifer, The department may have sticks, programs in exchange for free Chief Executive Officer but the foundation has almost all the computer time as a teen, the Statistics carrots, she wrote. In light of the mogul dubbed the richest man in Number of employees: 300 size of the foundation's endowment, the world make a better educa- Endowment: $31.9B Bill Gates is now the nation's super- t ion leader than Uncle Sam? Total grant commitments since i ntendent of schools He can support He certainly has the fi nancial inception: $11B whatever he wants, based on any means. To date, the Gates Founda- Total 2005 grant payments: theory or philosophy that appeals to t ion has supported more than 2,000 $1.36B him. No wonder she cautions fellow new high schools across the country, S ourc e : Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation educators to pay attention for clues including 27 in Chicago, 175 in as to how this will play out. New York, and 85 throughout Texas. Suc h talk doesn't f l a t t e r offi- Gates' network of early college high schools totals 170, allowing students in 25 states to earn c i a l s at the foundation itself. Bill has said himself that American education is a public sector function college degrees along with their undergraduate diplo- for a number of reasons, including the fact that our ma s. The foundation reports investing $1 billion to date schools are located in our communities, says Marie into facilities that offer what it terms the new 3Rs: rigor- Groark, a spokesperson for the foundation. American ous instruction; a relevant curriculum; and meaning- We are spending a mass amount of public money poorly, and what the Gates Foundation can do is not take it over but help direct it. He's simply adding a critical mass of fuel so that a large fuel-guzzling engine can be turned around in the right direction. He's not replacing the engine. Leon Botstein, president, Bard High School Early College 50 November 2006 District Administration Gates.indd 50 10/13/06 2:21:26 PM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - November 2006

Contents
Editor's Letter
Update
Inside the Law
Curriculum Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
SAT Trends
Broad awards top urban prize
Boston's Perseverance
NCLB's Purity
Why No Child Left Behind is here to stay
COVER STORY: Is Bill Gates a Good School Leader?
Does K-12 Make Sense?
Arthur Levine on teacher education
An IEP for every student?
Teacher Education: Time to Tame the Wild West
The Individual Academic Plan
Speaking Out
David Thornburg on
Professional Opinion
Problem/Solution
Research Corner
Computer Literature
New Products
By the Numbers

District Administration - November 2006