Bill Gates, founder and CEO of Microsoft Corp., co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Photo by Lonnie C. Major)

Three years ago, Bill Gates transitioned out of his day-to-day oversight of Microsoft Corp. to tackle important health and education issues. As co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates (who remains chairman of Microsoft) spends much of his time and considerable resources examining ways to help the world’s poorest people lift themselves out of poverty, investing in the development of vaccines to combat diseases, and improving education in the U.S. to increase the number of graduates—particularly in underserved communities. Since its founding in 1994, the Seattle-based nonprofit has committed to more than $25 billion in grants in these three areas.

Black Enterprise Multimedia Editorial Director Alan Hughes sat down with Gates following his discussion at the annual National Urban League Conference in Boston to discuss the state of American public schools and how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation can help improve education in the U.S.

Where can you best apply the resources at the Gates Foundation to really move the needle and help to improve inner-city public schools?
We have two big theories about how we might be able to change things. One is to help improve the quality of teaching. And that means really studying why some teachers are so much better than others and making it easily available for teachers to watch exemplars—exemplars who calm the classroom down, exemplars who include the kid who’s behind, exemplars who make a subject particularly interesting. There is some magic stuff being done by the best teachers. And yet there is not really an effort to transfer those skills to other teachers. One of the ways to change that is through the personnel system. You get feedback. You get peers to come in and see what you’re doing. If there is a digital camera in the classroom you can even review yourself. When did the kids start becoming inattentive? Asking another teacher to look at what you did [and] give you advice on that.

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So improving teaching is the biggest thing we’re doing. We have partnerships with school districts that are trying that out. It leads to a review system that is diagnostic, helps the teacher know what they’ve got to focus on. The second big [step] is that technology can be part of the educational experience and make it so that the learning is personalized, directed, and motivational. That, too, isn’t easy because there have been a lot of naïve views that that would come about in the past and it hasn’t really happened. Again, technology is far more powerful now. Putting great videos out on the Internet, and having the kids, either through their own computer or the library where there are computers they can check out, or at school, have access to that enabling factor is already there. Now we just need to build wonderful content that connects and isn’t isolated from what goes on in the classroom but is kind of complementary to it.

Access to that technology at the K­–12 level isn’t really where it should be, which sort of puts a lot of students behind the ball when it comes time to graduate and go on to the next level.
Right, but the key point is that the technology is only lightly connected to the classroom experience today. The view is that it could be used in a new way, and people like Sal Khan [founder and executive director of the Khan Academy, a free online education platform and nonprofit organization] are getting a lot of visibility for their work. You put these short lectures online for free and then you’re actually going to that lecture part outside the classroom. And so you use the classroom time for problem solving if there is something you are confused about, or sophisticated ways of looking at the concept. You are actually kind of inverting the way teaching is done—where it used to be that you’d sit and listen to a lecture in the classroom and solve problems outside, here you listen to the lecture outside and go do the problems inside. The early pilots on that are very, very good. You can even create the equivalent of an extended school day, so when your teacher is around you’re solving problems, but for a few hours at the end of the school day you’re staying connected, listening to lectures, trying out the sample problems. Everything you do goes into a report that your teacher can see for that whole class. How are they doing? How should they be grouped for the lesson time the next day?

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It seems that 30 years ago the public education system did the trick. Now our schools are really not where they should be to ensure that America can compete globally. What happened?
The main thing that happened is the other [countries] kept improving their school systems and made them a lot better than ours. They actually manage their teachers the way we manage sports players, where if you are not delivering you’re not on the team. And they are constantly studying who is doing well. They have more school days. They have a longer school day. That’s worked for them. Our school system has largely stayed the same. The achievement levels have not really moved. The amount of money being spent on schools as a portion of the economy or any measure has gone up a lot in the last 30 years—I mean massively. And the numbers of the people, adults being paid to the number of students—there are twice as many adults now as there were 30 years ago. The amount, the relative salary of those people compared to the average salary, is much higher today. It was below average. Now it’s above average. So there is this huge investment that’s been made, and yet achievement in the country—math, reading, and whatever you want to take—is flat. The reason other countries are ahead of us is they improved and we didn’t.

You hear a lot about schools being underfunded. Is it so much the funding, or the application of that funding?
That’s right. You compare the states that fund their schools very generously … it’s been said that parts of New Jersey spend $25,000 per student per year … their performance is much worse than in Utah, which spends $6,000 per student per year. So you don’t always find a correlation between an amount being spent and results. Now, I can think of lots of ways that more money would be helpful. And I’m all for spending more money on the K–12 and higher education systems, but it’s not the reality of the current budget situation that you’ll be getting more money for K–12. You won’t be getting more money. It’s not going to happen. We’re going to have to fight very hard to make sure we don’t get less money, because the claims, medical costs, and pension costs, and just debts run up from the past are commanding more and more of both state and federal budgets.

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So just to keep education [spending] flat … is a pretty tough assignment. We have the last 30 years where we doubled what we spent and achievement stayed flat. Our assignment for the next 20 years is to—with spending staying flat, if we do a really good job politically to make sure it doesn’t get cut—that we’re supposed to double achievement. Then you have to say, OK, what is the magic to do that? Well, a good personnel system. You know, if you took a baseball team that said everybody has tenure versus a team that really learns from each other and picks the people who belong on that team, there would be no contest there. So the personnel system can do amazing things. And we are already starting to see that. And the view is that technology can do some amazing things. But that’s the only way I can say with a straight face, yes, education in America can get better despite the financial constraints.

What else can we do to ensure or move the needle with regard to African American participation in the STEM fields?
Well, I think it all comes down to how good the teachers are in 5th through 12th grade. Inner-city schools have the least experienced teachers, the ones least likely to have a background in the subject they’re teaching. If I hadn’t had great teachers during those years I wouldn’t have learned how cool science and math are. In fact, I had a bad biology teacher and it’s only as an adult that I’ve realized, hey, biology might be the most interesting science of all. But I stayed away from it. So the science is interesting, and yet it can be made very uninteresting. If you want to look at the extreme case, the numbers for black males and their interest in that area are really stark. Some people talk about getting more black males to go into teaching. I agree with that. But the absence of teaching that can make it fun … you know, when you get confused, is it a discouraging experience, or does the teacher reach out and make you feel OK about it? How many times do you want to be confused before you figure, hey, this isn’t for me? Particularly if someone else makes it look as if it’s easy for them. 

Groupon elected Ariel Investments President Mellody Hobson to its board of directors (Image: File)

• Groupon Brings Mellody Hobson Onboard

In wake of Groupon’s initial public offering, the online discount-offering company elected Ariel Investments President Mellody Hobson to its board of directors, announced the company yesterday.

“Mellody is an advocate for savvy consumer spending and educated business decisions,” said Andrew Mason, the chief-executive-officer of Groupon. “We expect her insights to be invaluable.”

Hobson will add her latest position onto an already full career plate, which includes financial contributor on Good Morning America, the consumer finance expert on the Tom Joyner‘s Money Mondays radio program, and Black Enterprise contributor, to name a few.

• NAACP Suit Is Latest Salvo in Fight Over Schools

As states grappled with ways to reinvigorate the public education system, charter schools were offered up as an attractive alternative: a way to break outside the mold and offer the kind of innovative learning environment and accountability for results that is more often associated with private schools.

Some critics fear that this alternative is now crowding out the public school system it was meant to supplement, creating a two-tiered system that leaves children in more traditional settings with fewer resources and options. That argument is the crux of a lawsuit filed by the NAACP and the United Federation of Teachers against the New York City Department of Education. They charge the city with favoritism toward 18 charter schools that share space in public schools.

The suit, filed last month in New York State Supreme Court, claims that charter schools are getting more than their fair share of space within public school buildings and have better access to playgrounds, gyms and cafeterias. It also disputes the rationale for closing 22 failing schools, including 15 that were part last year by the UFT and the NAACP.

Read more at The Root…

• Diddy Settles Civil Suits Related to Club New York Shootings

In 1999, when Diddy was still known as “Puff Daddy” and dated J.Lo, Sean Combs was involved in an infamous shooting.  At the now defunct Club New York, Diddy, J.Lo and a large entourage had intended to celebrate the signing of the then-aspiring rapper Jamal “Shyne” Barrow. The night transformed from party to nightmare as a fight between this crew and clubgoer Matthew Allen resulted in three people being shot. The civil cases brought by these victims against Combs, Barrow and the former Times Square hot spot have finally come to a close, culminating in large monetary settlements for each victim.

Read more at The Atlanta Post…

• Twitter Could Put Promoted Tweets In Users’ Timelines

Twitter is considering placing its Promoted Tweets in consumers’ timelines and introducing Groupon-style offers, according to a report.

The Financial Times, citing “people with direct knowledge” of Twitter’s plans, reports that company executives plan to migrate Promoted Tweets from searches to users’ timelines, a move that is likely to irritate some users.

Read more at Mashable…

(Image: ThinkStock)

“Our biggest problem is us. We must own this issue,”  asserted Daryl Cobb, partner and vice president of  the Charter School Growth Fund as he challenged an audience of Black men and women to make a rock-solid commitment to fix America’s schools.  He was one of  five leading education reform advocates and experts on a panel I moderated at the 100 Black Men of America, Inc Conference in San Francisco this past weekend. All agreed thousands of urban public schools across the nation continue to fail millions of African American youth. Too many of these institutions churn out barely functional graduates or become dropout factories in which 60% or more of the freshman class don’t make it through four years to obtain a diploma.

Our nation has been wrestling with the deterioration of public education since I was a high school student some 30 years ago. In the late 1970s, the common refrain was “Johnny can’t read.”  We now gave large numbers of Jeromes, Tykishas and Juans who not only can’t read and calculate but won’t be employable for the 21st Century workplace.

Allan C. Golston, president, U.S. Program, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, confirmed that fact. After praising the 100 for creating a platform to tackle this massive problem, he then rattled off some rather alarming stats: Global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found that Black and Latino students are roughly two to three years of learning behind White students and 48% of Black and 43% of Latino fourth- and eighth-graders score below the basic level in math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress versus 17% of Whites. Although American students of all races and both genders have underperformed when compared to their counterparts across the globe—15-year-olds rank 25th out of 30 developed nations in math and 24th out of 30 in science—the overall graduation rate for Black males stands at 47%. If national leaders had worked to close the racial gap among U.S. students during the 1980s and 1990s, Golston maintains, the nation’s GDP would have increased by as much as $525 billion. To buttress his point, President Obama has placed education reform through this administration’s “Race To The Top” program at the top of his agenda in bolstering the future competitiveness of American businesses.

Fixing our schools, however, has come with its share of controversy. The most newsworthy issues have been related to teachers’ union mandates in which tenured educators—even the most unproductive—cannot be readily dismissed by school districts as well as whether traditional schools or charter schools offer the most efficient and effective means of educating our children.  Take the response to recent action of the NAACP and United Federation of Teachers Union after the organizations filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court to stop the closure of 22 New York City public schools and block 20 charter schools from opening. As a result, hundreds of parents stormed the state office building in Harlem to demand the nation’s oldest civil rights group withdraw from the suit.

Golston says it will require “the best ideas, best energy and best investment” to reverse the trend. My panel proposed the following steps:

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(Image: ThinkStock)

• Identify the right solution.

Nia Phillips, chief of staff of the U.S. Department of Education”s Office of Innovation and Improvement, says her department fully evaluates the condition of schools. Under DOE”s School Improvement Grants programs, districts seeking federal funds to revive an institution must choose four options: 1) closing a school while ensuring students can attend a better one nearby; 2) restarting an institution that’s usually taken over by a charter operator; 3) promoting a turnaround by replacing a principal and significant portion of the staff; and 4) undergoing a transformation in which a new principal is installed and major reforms are implemented. Parents and community groups should scrutinize their schools in similar fashion to determine the best course of action..

• Develop your own school.

To close the academic achievement gap for black children, Peter Groff, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, advocates development of more high-performing institutions. In some cases, this move can be led by non-profit and religious organizations. To launch such schools, individuals need to become familiar with state laws and policies, identify a core funding source and work with a charter school management organization to gain authorization. Groff and Cobb serve as great resources for such efforts. For instance, Cobb manages two statewide funds with $45 million for charter school development and served as former CEO  and co-founder of Chicago’s Urban Prep Academies—a model institution with a 70% graduation rate and 100% college acceptance rate of its graduates. Phillips says individuals can access the federal Charter School Grant Program.

• Promote school choice.

Ebony Lee, senior program officer for the Gates Foundation, says parents and students need “multiple models, ” including innovative charter schools and top-performing magnet schools. Panelists also promoted homeschooling in which students are taught by parents or tutors as another viable option.

• Develop top teachers and administrators.

One key to quality education is attracting high-caliber talent. In fact, the Gates Foundation recently provided a $7.6 million grant to Education Pioneers, a national non-profit group, to  recruit and train more than 500 professionals and graduate students for leadership positions outside the classroom, positioning them in school districts, public charter organizations and state departments of education.  Even though unions have largely been resistant to teacher tenure reform, Lee says some local branches of the National Education Association have been receptive to “merit pay” models and programs that stress “educational effectiveness versus teacher longevity.”

• Let your voice be heard.

Kevin Chavous, chairman of the Black Alliance for Education Options, says community members “must show the courage to take a stand for the kids” whether it means becoming more politically involved, engaging in protests or connecting with influential supporters. That’s how Chavous, in part, was effective in pushing the charter school movement and funding the first federal scholarship program to allow 2,000 low-income children to attend private schools in the nation’s capital. Daryl Cobb warns such activism will likely ruffle government officials, school administrators and educators so “be willing to lose friends. We have to remember that this fight is not about adult agendas but the education of our kids.”

Women are in the lead, according to a recent Census Bureau report (Image: Thinkstock)

• SMH: Tonya McDowell Could Face 20 Years in Prison for ‘Stealing’ Her Son’s Education

Not again. First Kelly Williams-Bolar was jailed for sending her daughters to the “wrong” school; now Tonya McDowell, a Connecticut homeless woman, may follow suit. She pleaded not guilty today at her arraignment in the Connecticut Superior Court.

McDowell is being charged with larceny and the pursuit to commit larceny for allegedly stealing $15,686 from Norwalk Public Schools for enrolling her six-year-old son in a Norwalk elementary school instead of his zone school in Bridgeport. She was moving from shelter-to-shelter and used her friend’s Norwalk apartment address to get her son into a neighboring school.

“I wanted to send my child to a great school. What kind of crime are you committing by doing that” McDowell said to the Hartford Courant. “I want the best education possible. All I wanted was the best for him.”

The NAACP has stepped in to represent McDowell. It’s the first case in Connecticut where a parent is being prosecuted for sending a child outside of their district. If convicted, the concerned mother faces up to 20 years in prison.

• (Almost) All May Be Forgiven in the Case of Morris Brown

The US Department of Education has a pending agreement with Morris Brown College to settle almost $10 million debt for pennies on the dollar, according to a letter obtained by the Associated Press.

The Education Department has agreed to forgive more than $9.4 million in debt if the HBCU can manage to pay the remaining $500,000.

“We have been working on getting this debt addressed for a year,” said Morris Brown College President Stanley Pritchett. “This is a game-changer for the college. There are other financial challenges, but this will help to open the door … to resolving our other issues.”

The historically black institution has dealt with various financial issues in the past; including the city’s threats to turn off the college’s water supply. If the deal goes through, the historically black institution will be able to start fresh.

• Census Shows Women Advance Past Men in Education

New data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau shows that for the first time in history women outnumber men when it comes to finishing college and holding advanced degrees.

Congress May Miss Black Farmers Settlement Deadline

National Black Farmers Association President John Boyd, Jr., fears that Capitol Hill lawmakers won’t meet the March 31 deadline to appropriate funds for the settlement agreement reached last month with the Agriculture and Justice departments to compensate black farmers for past acts of discrimination. With only 10 days left on the legislative calendar before Congress breaks for Easter recess, it’s easy to understand why.

Boyd says bipartisan support for the settlement seems to have fallen by the wayside amidst partisan bickering over healthcare, jobs and other issues. Democratic lawmakers and administration officials continue to offer their support, but Boyd–and NFBA members, who understand little about the legislative process and thought it was a done deal—are more interested in action.

“They say they’re supportive, but that has to turn into results and I’m not seeing that right now,” said Boyd. “I know they’re busy on healthcare and other issues, but we need them to act. We need the president to be more vocally active on this issue, too.”

USDA spokesman Justin DeLong said in an email message that the agency is “actively working with Congress to ensure the settlement agreement is funded, and Agriculture Secretary [Tom] Vilsack has made personal phone calls and sent a letter in support of the president’s budget amendment to communicate the administration’s commitment to resolving this issue.” The timing, however, is up to Congress.

Georgia Rep. Sanford Bishop, a Congressional Black Caucus member who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, said this week that while the White House included the settlement in its budget request, it didn’t indicate how to pay for it. Both he and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) suggested that President Obama give the settlement an emergency designation, as it would a natural disaster, to fast track the process.

“If that’s done, it’s done,” Thompson said matter-of-factly.

Funding Unclear for Proposed Jobs Bill

House Democrats and U.S. mayors introduced a jobs bill on Wednesday that would direct $100 billion over two years to states and localities to help them save or create government jobs and fund salaries for job-training programs.

The Local Jobs for America Act would provide more than $24 billion to governors to support education and public safety jobs; $75 billion would go directly to struggling communities to help them hire or retain employees.

But Rep. George Miller (D-California), who heads the House Education and Labor Committee, acknowledged that he doesn’t know how the bill would be paid for.

Bill co-sponsor Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) said that sometimes “the right kind of circumstances can come together to make [such bills] a hot issue.”

Ellison and other black lawmakers want Obama to publically acknowledge that black communities have been hit the hardest by the recession and that something must be done about it.

“I want the president to stop saying ‘We are the world, one size fits all’ in terms of the jobs situation,” Ellison said. “The misery that this country is facing is hitting everybody, but it’s hitting some much worse than others and we need to be real about that.”Department of Education to Step Up Enforcement

Duncan

Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced on Monday plans to amp up the agency’s civil rights enforcement to ensure equal educational opportunity and access in schools and colleges. Duncan unveiled the plan before participating in a marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to commemorate the “Bloody Sunday” civil rights protest.

According to agency statistics, white students are six times more likely than African American students to be college ready in biology and four times as likely to be college ready in algebra. They also are more than twice as likely to have taken advanced placement calculus classes.

“This is the civil rights issue of our generation. The battle for a quality education is about so much more than education. It’s a fight for social justice,” said Duncan in a conference call with reporters. He also said that the agency’s Office for Civil Rights has not been as vigilant as it should have been with regard to combating gender and racial discrimination and protecting the rights of the disabled.

“Every child is entitled to a quality education,” Duncan said. “Today we’re making it clear that we will enforce laws to ensure that all children have a fair chance at a good future.”

Government Pledges Support and Debt Relief for Haiti

Préval

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Debt Relief for Earthquake Recovery in Haiti Act (H.R. 4573) that seeks the cancellation of Haiti’s debt to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other multilateral development organizations. And in a departure from its usual lengthy procedural process, the Senate is expected to Rep. Maxine Waters’ (D-California) bill very soon.

Waters said that while she is pleased that her bill will soon become law, the US and other nations must continue to address Haiti’s more immediate needs in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake it experienced on Jan.  12.

“We must also keep in mind the immediate needs of survivors who, without adequate shelter, will be further subjected to the elements and to disease during the upcoming rainy season,” said Waters.

After meeting with Haiti’s President René Préval on Wednesday, President Barack Obama pledged continued financial and humanitarian support. Like Waters, he warned that the conditions there remain “dire,” and that preventing a second disaster remains a challenge.

“We know many graduates are concerned about their ability to repay student loans in the current economic environment,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “This new plan addresses the issue head on by giving them the option of a monthly payment tied to their income.”

The federal government’s program is aimed at helping student borrowers who cannot feasibly repay their loans in a 10 year period. Program enrollees who do not repay their loans after 25 years will have their debt forgiven. Under the program, those working in the public service sector – fireperson, police officer, librarian etc. – will see their debt forgiven after 10 years of repayment.

“Students who owe more in loans than they make in a year are probably going to be eligible for a reduced payment under this program,” says Haley Chitty, spokesperson for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

To apply for income based repayment, students should contact their lender directly. Students with Direct Loans from the Department of Education can apply directly to the federal government online. To find out who is servicing your loans, borrowers can visit the National Student Loan Data System database.

To remain eligible for the program, borrowers must certify their family size and resubmit tax information annually, which will also be used to determine if lenders should change borrowers’ monthly payment based on the updated information, Chitty said.

The Department of Education would not speculate how many borrowers will benefit from the program.

But the new program doesn’t mean students will be driving down Easy Street. Stretching out payments could result in increased interest paid on loans over the long run. Also, the program does not include private loans, which have become more necessary with rising tuition rates.

The Department of Education also announced other major student loan changes:

– The maximum Pell Grant will increase to $5,350 for the 2009-10 school year, a 13% year-over-year.
– Stafford loan rates will drop to 2.48% from 4.21%, on loans that originated before July 1, 2006.
– The fees to originate a new loan will fall by half of a percentage point. Next year, it will fall by that much again.

For more tips and tools visit:

Income Based Repayment Calculator
Studentaid.ed.gov
IBRInfo.org