A Gates Foundation Education Initiative Fizzles 459
theodp writes "Three years ago, Sarah-Palin-bogeyman William Ayers published a paper questioning the direction the small school movement was taking (PDF) with the involvement of would-be education reformers like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And now, after $2 billion in grants, Bill Gates concedes that in most cases his foundation's efforts in that area fell short. 'Many of the small schools that we invested in did not improve students' achievement in any significant way,' said Gates. Bill does cite High Tech High as one of the few success stories, but even there has to limit his atta-boys to the San Diego branch — the Gates-backed Silicon Valley High Tech High closed its doors abruptly due to financial woes (concerns about the sustainability of Gates-initiated small schools were voiced in 2005). Not surprisingly, some parents are upset about the capital that school districts wasted following Bill's lead."
I stopped reading... (Score:5, Informative)
...after the following sentence in the first paragraph:
And you wonder why conservatives don't like Ayers?
Re:I stopped reading... (Score:5, Informative)
On the other hand (Score:5, Informative)
The first high school class is graduating this year. Their high school graduation rate has gone from less than 10% under the old school to 96% in the new school, with all graduates going to college.
There are a lot of factors here of course. But that's what I'm saying. It's far, far too premature (and simplistic, and utterly reductionist) to say "well, small schools work" and "small schools don't work." Some small schools work well. Some don't. Some are more or less educationally sustainable than others.
But some Gates foundation schools have had dramatic success, and we should keep that in mind before we universally condemn that mode of education. Tagging OP as misleading here.
Re:Who thought it was a good idea... (Score:1, Informative)
Do check out this article [cracked.com].
The relevant bits:
"First of all, the college Gates left was Harvard, not the community college that most of the people who cite his story are thinking of leaving. He entered Harvard by scoring 1590 out of 1600 on his SAT--the man was, and still is, a genetically mutated genius."
And "...Gates left college because it didn't provide the training in computer programming that he needed for the software business he was running on the side. It wasn't that Gates couldn't keep up at Harvard; Harvard couldn't keep up with Gates."
Re:I stopped reading... (Score:2, Informative)
And you wonder why conservatives don't like Ayers?
I hadn't before, but I am wondering now.. what is it about small schools, social justice, equity and community that conservatives dislike?
Nothing per se, but they object to the politics of the kind of person who would say that. Those are the classic pillars of the 60's progressive, who wants to tax the holy fuck out of the rich and give it back to the exploited masses. It's communism lite. You still find it in academia quite a bit.
You are not automatically 50% correct (Score:4, Informative)
Boy talk about bad logic. Are you a reporter?
Just because there are two (more?) possible outcomes to a given situation/argument doesn't mean there is a 50% chance each one will come to pass.
Let me guess, you'd say "well evolution could be true or not true so there is a 50% chance that it's not true". Or maybe "global warming will either occur or not occur so there is a 50% chance it will not".
I can guess where you stand on both of those issues.
Re:Only on Slashdot... (Score:4, Informative)
Also I read a lot of the allegations against Ayers during the election campaign, and the guy was obviously somewhat nutty and disingenuous in terms of how he described what he did, but I specifically have not heard any non-discredited allegation that he "intentionally made homemade explosives that killed people", unless you're misusing the term "intentionally" to just mean "he made explosives" rather than "that killed people". Indeed, I'm not even aware of a bomb he made that actually killed people, though bombs made by his collegues certainly did - Ayers' girlfriend Diana Oughton managed to make one, for instance. Unfortunately for Oughton, the victim of her bomb was herself.
Ayers was the leader of the Weather Underground, and as such, he ordered the bomb-making. He did nothing himself, he always had idiots more than willing to do his dirty work. You might be confused because of the fact that he never went to jail, but that's because the FBI decided to break the law in pursuing him and the case against him was dropped. His famous line was "Guilty as hell, free as a bird."
Re:I stopped reading... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent is not a troll. He did bomb gov't buildings, his organization did kill an innocent cop, he was planning to bomb a dance at a military base, he did dedicate a book to RFK's killer Sirhan Sirhan.
Not sure if he's a communist but he did some reprehensible things that cannot be forgiven nor should they be forgotten.
Re:I could be sarcastic (Score:3, Informative)
Ok, at what part of the process did someone come up with the plan to pass people for just showing up? I'm a little biased against public schools, but come on, this makes me think that there is no way Gates could have done worse.
Why Easy Grading Is Good for Your Career [washingtonpost.com]
washingtonpost.com â" New Jersey high school teacher
Peter Hibbard flunked 55 percent of the students in his regular biology class
the year before he retired. There were no failures in his honors classes, he
said, but many of his regular students refused to do the work. They did not show
up for tests and did not take...
Re:at least it was only 2 billion (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I stopped reading... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What? (Score:5, Informative)
It doesn't even do that.
Not everyone is a news junkie and not everyone is going to remember who Bill Ayers is, as the last time he was a regular topic of discussion in the proess in October of last year, nearly 4 months ago. Theodp was simply trying to remind the reader of who Bill Ayers and why he was noteworthy in the news.
If he was trying to remind the reader of who Bill Ayers is, he would have used the term "domestic terrorist" instead of invoking Sarah Palin. He's trying to head off any reasonable discussion of Ayers by acting like Ayers is a normal guy that that old meany Sarah Palin was using as a punching bag.
Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist. Perhaps many of you are too young to remember the Weather Underground, I barely remember as I'm just 40. But they set bombs, killed people, and only through their gross incompetence didn't kill many more. One of their foiled plans would have set a barrage of roofing nails into a black restaurant at lunch time.
Not to sound like a snob, but gentlemen do not associate with Ayers and his ilk.
Re:What? (Score:4, Informative)
William Ayers is chiefly known by most of the country as being "That guy who Palin said was a terrorist that Obama was palling around with". Describing him as "Sarah Palin boogieman William Ayers" is a fairly efficient way of ensuring that readers knew which person was being talked about.
"Palin said was a terrorist"? Why not type the guy's name into google and see if anybody besides Sarah Palin thinks that? Ayers own words: "Guilty as hell, free as a bird."
Re:What? (Score:2, Informative)
"f he was trying to remind the reader of who Bill Ayers is, he would have used the term "domestic terrorist" instead of invoking Sarah Palin."
I would have been satisfied with "controversial figure" or "professor and former member of the Weather Underground"
Let's face it - Bush will still be the bogeyman for the next 20 years, and Palin will still be a stock character for another 5. The Democrats have their Nixon again - why spoil their fun?
Re:What? (Score:2, Informative)
Grr, the /. system shows me logged in, but decided to post that AC anyways. Apologies. Wasn't trying to hide.