The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has just announced a $1.7 billion education initiative aimed at building collaborative school networks. This new initiative will shift the foundation's focus from teacher evaluation and compensation to curriculum design and professional development initiatives aligned with state-defined standards.
A key part of the initiative will be the development of up to thirty networks, starting with a focus on high-need schools and districts in six to eight states where data collection and analysis are used to drive results.
One of the existing networks that the foundation highlighted as an example of how such partnerships might work is the Network for College Success. The foundation believes that NCS's approach, where groups of schools have the flexibility to propose the set of approaches they want, will lead to more impactful and durable systemic change that is attractive enough to be widely adopted by other schools.
At the Network for College Success, we are thrilled to see the Gates Foundation's renewed commitment to education reform and look forward to continuing our work with schools to help ensure that all students are able to succeed in college and beyond. Click here to read the full article.