In 2001, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched a 10-year, multi-million dollar initiative, the Washington State Achievers Program (WSA), to increase opportunities for low-income students to attend postsecondary institutions in Washington State. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation granted funds to the College Success Foundation…

Although private philanthropic dollars in education make up just a fraction of overall education financial support, strategically targeted corporate philanthropic resources can serve as a vital catalyst for positive, lasting, and high-impact change in public education. Recognizing this, the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) and the Harvard…

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested in the development and dissemination of high-quality formative assessment tools to support teachers' incorporation of the Core Common State Standards (CCSS) into their classroom instruction. Lessons from the first generation of standards-based reforms suggest that intense attention to high quality…

This article explores the General Education Board, a John D. Rockefeller-led philanthropy, and its work during the first half of the twentieth century to improve Southern US public education. In contrast to most historical treatments of the Board that limit their investigations to its origin, this essay explores the full sweep of the Board's…

In the early 1990s, the National Science Foundation funded development of 13 comprehensive curriculum programs based on rigorous standards. Teachers, administrators, and parents should become informed about these curricula's unique characteristics and support structures to help schools adopt them. Sidebars list NSF programs and national…

Describes the multi-million dollar initiative announced by W. K. Kellogg Foundation in 1995 to support the Native American Higher Education Initiative, and how the Kellogg initiative deserves attention from the nation as a whole because it is attempting to fundamentally rewrite the way foundations do business with Indian communities. (VWC)

Highlights the role of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Foundation in promoting child development research and parent education in America during the 1920s. The author discusses the ways that the movement's stress on scientific objectivity help to increase its acceptance by both parents and educators. (AM)

BellSouth Foundation has supported various alternative teacher certification programs. Teacher development also requires that the school be at the center of talent identification, teacher preparation, recruitment, induction, and continuing education. (SK)

Philanthropy plays a visible but little-studied role in education reform, making it easy to both overestimate and underestimate its significance. The emergence of "new" givers in the last few years, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, has shifted the landscape of school reform. This article, based…

The Academy for Educational Development (AED) sent a research team to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) on October 23-24, 2008, to conduct interviews with individuals who play important roles in the university's teacher preparation program. These interviews, along with additional documentation provided by UNCG and identified by…

Reviews the role that philanthropic foundations have played in educational support, research, and reform since 1900. (GC)

Because their resources are inadequate, philanthropic foundations cannot bring about educational reform by themselves. Foundations are best when serving as midwives, parking garages, conversations pits, burning glasses (to focus thought), levers, and lighthouse tenders. The American people are responsible for acting voluntarily to support public…

Analysis of Bush Foundation regional programs in faculty development resulted in conclusions concerning the characteristics of successful development activities. It was found that grants encouraging teamwork are more productive than isolated grants for scholarship. Guidelines are also needed to assist in faculty evaluations and prepare faculty for…

Idaho has improved its historically poor career and technical education programs by changing priorities and increasing state support. A large grant from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation is being used to develop professional-technical academies and to train career and technical teachers. (JOW)

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Senators Introduce Graduation Promise Act: New Legislation Would Target Lowest-Performing High Schools; (2)…