November 12, 2008
Gates Foundation Puts New Focus on College Completion
By Ben Gose
Seattle
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to spend several hundred million dollars over the next five years to double the number of low-income young people who complete a college degree or a certificate program by age 26, foundation officials told an exclusive group of education leaders who gathered here on Tuesday to provide feedback on the ambitious plan.
If successful, the new postsecondary program would result in an additional 250,000 people per year with some type of higher-education credential. And it broadens the foundation’s already-generous spending on education, which previously has focused on secondary schools and college scholarships. Over all, the foundation plans to spend $3-billion on education during the next five years.
The foundation announced its new campaign at a conference attended by about 100 people, including current and former governors, prominent business executives and school superintendents, and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.
The new effort will initially focus on community colleges because of their relatively low tuitions and open admissions policies. Foundation officials said they would consider expanding innovative approaches to improve college-completion rates, such as using technology to allow a student to move quickly through remedial work, and forgiving a portion of debt each year for students who stay in college and are making progress toward a degree.
In a speech on Tuesday, Melinda Gates, a co-chair of the foundation, pointed to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that more than half of all new jobs in the United States will require more than a high-school diploma. Only about 20 percent of low-income black and Hispanic students earn any sort of postsecondary credential.
“Completing high school ready for college is a key transition point in the path out of poverty,” Ms. Gates said. “A second transition is earning a postsecondary credential with value in the workplace. If young people fail to make the first transition, it’s unlikely they will make the second. If they fail to make the second, it’s likely they will be poor.”
Hilary Pennington, the Gates official who is leading the effort, said the foundation would announce a small initial round of grants next month, and that within a year, it would select eight to 10 states in which it will focus its work for the next three to five years. Grants will probably go to networks of institutions and organizations, rather than to individual colleges, she said.
Regret at Being Left Out
The foundation took some risk by presenting its general ideas to a high-profile audience before announcing even a single grant. Ms. Gates asked for “candid feedback” during sessions moderated by the journalist Juan Williams, and the foundation received plenty.
Some conference attendees wondered why the foundation—which has by its own admission achieved mixed results in its eight years of trying to improve high-school education—wasn’t spending more on elementary and middle-school education, rather than college completion.
“We made a choice,” said Bill Gates, a co-chair of the foundation and a co-founder of Microsoft. He said the foundation was motivated in part by new approaches that are helping students make it through certificate programs and community colleges.
University officials who attended, including Charles B. Reed, chancellor of the California State University system, urged the foundation to broaden its initial focus to include four-year institutions. And representatives of for-profit institutions grumbled that the foundation’s age cutoff—26—would exclude the many proprietary institutions that focus on adult learners.
The foundation has hired Thomas J. Kane, a professor of economics and education at Harvard University, to oversee an initial research effort. Vicki L. Phillips, the foundation’s director of education, said it would spend $500-million over the next five years on data and research related to college preparation and completion.
The Gates Foundation, which gives away $3.5-billion a year, far more than any other American foundation, is already an important force in education. It has spent $4-billion over the past seven years on efforts to improve high schools and on scholarships for low-income minority students.
‘Big and Bold’ Endeavor
But the new postsecondary effort was touted by foundation officials as the modern equivalent of the GI Bill, which helped millions of returning soldiers attend college.
“We must be as big and bold as we were at the end of World War II,” Ms. Pennington said. “And we must do everything we can to make certain that postsecondary education is not just about access but success.”
Gates Foundation officials said they would work in partnership with other foundations, especially the Lumina Foundation for Education, which focuses on expanding access to postsecondary education, and they would look to expand successful programs that have already been created by colleges or industry.
They will also support efforts to use technology more effectively. In a speech on Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Pennington cited Rio Salado College, in Arizona, which has a rich online course catalog that is complemented by online tutoring and support services, and a graduation rate that, at 60 percent, is double the national average.
The conference focused on both college readiness and college completion, and the majority of the discussion focused on how to improve high schools so that students could succeed in college. Attendees included Joel I. Klein and Michelle Rhee, the school chancellors in New York and the District of Columbia, respectively, and politicians who have worked to improve education, like former North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell participated by teleconference.
The foundation’s first efforts in education focused on creating smaller high schools, but Bill Gates said the foundation would now put more emphasis on improving teaching through new standards, curricula, and instructional tools.
“It’s clear that you can’t dramatically increase college readiness by changing only the size and structure of a school,” he said. “The schools that made dramatic gains in achievement did the changes in design and also emphasized changes inside the classroom.”
Through the postsecondary effort, the foundation is bringing its resources to bear on a problem that states and colleges have been grappling with for more than a decade, with little to show for it. Twenty years ago, the United States ranked first in the world in the percentage of adults between the ages of 25 and 34 who held a postsecondary credential. It has now fallen to 10th place, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The country’s financial crisis may aid the Gates Foundation as it tries to persuade states, school districts, and colleges to embrace structural changes and experimental approaches. The federal government and many states won’t have the money to lead a reform effort, noted Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and a former president of Teachers College at Columbia University.
“That means the Gates Foundation could become the most powerful force in American education in the years to come,” he said.
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This sounds like it was an interesting conference, does anyone know where to find a transcript?
— MJ Nov 12, 03:01 PM #
For this to succeed, The Gates Foundation will have to work with some people who are experienced in First Generation to college issues. The public university down the street from our Salvation Army office is 30% First Gen to college and its orientation / integration programs are completely different from what I participated in as an undergrad … For starters, students AND parents are both tracked in orientation activities that last more than a full semester. We need to acknowledge how challenging it can be for some families to consider the possibility of a child substantially outlearning and outearning their parents, so we can help the parents value and support the child’s advancement. Otherwise, you just get more youngsters under the kind of family pressures we sometimes see in this neighborhood: Mom quit after 10th grade and it was good enough for her, so why does her son need to finish high school?
— Carlene Byron Nov 12, 04:40 PM #
What an exciting concept and opportunity! Partnering with Community Colleges, especially those now offering Baccalaureate degrees with economical tuition is an outstanding idea. I hope our college is one of their choosen partners! :)
Dr. Jean Wortock,
Dean, College of Nursing
St. Petersburg College
— Jean Wortock Nov 14, 01:59 PM #
The Gates Foundation’s new endeavor to support college placement for primarily our underserved communities and their partnership with the Lumina Foundation is a bright light for “low-income young people.” This commitment gives hope and can lead to success for students such as those enrolled in NativityMiguel model schools. NativityMiguel’s Graduate Support standard requires schools to insure high school and college placement for middle school students. The drawback has been financial resources to make this happen.
— John Jordan Nov 19, 11:59 AM #
My past history is that I have been able to run a business, but also I went to school in business management and finished in got my degree but the hardest part was that perception is everything in business, my only desire is to help people that are disabled get a job and keep it without the aid of the government and work within ADA law but not abuse it. I have done everything from courtesy clerk sales but that which I am qualified for. I would like to be able to bridge the gap between business and qualified people that are disabled, able people sometimes do not know how to relate with us because we are different and don’t want to hurt our feelings and I too sensitive and on the other hand there are people that are disabled that are too sensitive concerning their own disabilities that they don’t have a sense of humor or know how to relate and because I am disabled I am able to come in and decipher the problems and relate to other disabled people one on one and also almost teach or let everybody else know who we are as a population and that we are no different we just have different challenges in life. I am looking for a foundation that is willing to support this cause because not all people that are disabled can go up in life because of their disabilities but to be able to meet everybody’s needs accordingly. Andrew
— Andrew Ellis Nov 19, 04:51 PM #
I feel this initiative is of utmost importance in helping increase the retention rate among not only minorities but also first generation students. However, money is not the only obstacle to their success. I finished college at age 32, came from a low income Latino family, neither parent graduated from high school and neither of my parents cared if I went to college. I had to learn life skills that would help me navigate through the challenges of college the hard way but prayed and persevered and eventually with the help of my husband was able to complete a bachelor’s in Kinesiology with a minor in Chemistry. This was certainly miraculous as I had failed high school. I’m a strong believer that college is for any individual who wants it, regardless of financial obstacles as it takes more than money to stay in school. A student must learn to prioritize and see the big picture and light at the end of the tunnel. They need mentors who will be honest with them and walk along side them through the process. They need to be saturated in the environment they are heading towards. The parents of the student need to be educated on how they can be a support to their child. My husband is an engineer and both of his parents have masters degrees. I asked him “How did you know you were going to college?” he said in his family your education didn’t end until you finished college. Interesting. Some years ago I drafted a proposal to start a scholarship specific to academically poor students. Those who couldn’t rise above a C average. Being Latina I researched the graduation rate for Latinos in Chicago and found that around 10% of high school Latinos continue to college. Many drop out by the end of their first year. Even less pursue higher education upon completion of a bachelor’s degree. The last census found that the Latino population was the largest minority in this country. So what happens to the other 90%? I hope to one day start up the scholarship fund as it proposes support systems to help a student complete that long saught after bachelor’s degree.
— Anani Moy Nov 20, 11:18 AM #