Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Thursday, November 30, 2006
Bill Gates: Small isn’t so big anymore
(Bill Gates, education philanthropist)
There was a little rumble in the education world earlier this month that I’ve been meaning to write about because even a little tremor at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation can have aftershocks throughout the education landscape.
Tom Vander Ark, who built the foundation’s education program into the influential powerhouse it is today, is departing the organization. (A big nod here to my pal Alexander Russo at This Week in Education who’s been tracking the change in outlook at Gates for much of the year and predicted the Vander Ark departure.)
It was Vander Ark who really pushed the Gates emphasis on small schools as an antidote to failure. And, perhaps not coincidentally, just a few months ago the foundation backed away some from the idea that small schools by themselves can make significant change.
Recently, the Seattle Times recapped the Gates experience with small schools and their now realization that perhaps school structure matters less than curriculum and instruction.
As the story states, the original small school idea was born of studies that showed high performing high schools were often small. Gates himself sometimes cited high powered New England prep schools as examples.
The foundation began throwing tons of money as schools that would agree to be redesigned either into separate, small schools or as smaller “schools within schools.” Its even had an impact in Dayton, where new high schools are being designed with self-contained wings for up to 400 students with the idea each wing could virtually operate as an independent school, sharing common building space like the gym, cafeteria and media center but combining only for activities like sports teams and band.
But the bottom line is that so far these schools within schools have had trouble operating efficiently and the overall performance of Gates-influenced small schools has been disappointing. So now Gates is focusing on improving curriculum and Vander Ark is looking for work.
Teachers, what experience have you had with the small school idea?
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