A Foundation Goes to School: Bill and Melinda Gates Shift from Computers in Libraries to Reform in High Schools

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a philanthropic organization created by the Microsoft founder and his wife in 2000, has already invested nearly a billion dollars in an effort to redesign the American high school. It supports some 1,500 existing schools; 450 of them are either restructured o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Education next 2006-12, Vol.6 (1), p.44
Main Author: Hill, Paul T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Change
Change Strategies
Charter Schools
Economically Disadvantaged
Education
Educational Change
Educational reform
Educational Technology
Finance
Forecasts and trends
Heuristics
High Schools
Institutional Mission
Management
Philanthropic Foundations
Politics of Education
Private Financial Support
School Administration
Small Schools
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Summary:The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a philanthropic organization created by the Microsoft founder and his wife in 2000, has already invested nearly a billion dollars in an effort to redesign the American high school. It supports some 1,500 existing schools; 450 of them are either restructured or brand new. But the foundation's focus was not always on high schools. In fact, in the beginning it wasn't even about schools. This article details the shifting focus of the foundation, from investment in Internet access in libraries, to an emphasis on Internet-based teacher learning and the integration of technology into the classroom, to its current concern with the content and quality of the education itself. It also discusses some of the strategies the Gates foundation has pursued in its recent attempts to reform high school education. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)
ISSN:1539-9664