We have by now read about the independent Rand study of Bill Gates’ bet on Making test-based teacher evaluation the keystone of education reform. I distinctly recall Melinda Gates saying on PBS that “we now know” how to get a great teacher in every classroom in America.
Well, no, they didn’t.
The Gates put up $215 million and found willing suckers, I mean, partners to add even more of their own money to bring the total to $575 million to test the Gates’s shiny new idea.
It failed.
It exhausted the reserves of Hillsborough County in Florida, where MaryEllen Elia was Superintendent. She was fired but landed on her feet as State Commissioner of Education in New York. Believe it or not, the fiasco in Hillsborough County did not diminished her love of testing.
Valerie Strauss tells the sad saga here of Bill Gates’ latest failure.
“The six-year project began in 2009 when the foundation gave millions of dollars to three public school districts — Hillsborough County in Florida (the first to start the work), Memphis and Pittsburgh. The districts supplied matching funds. Four charter management organizations also were involved: Alliance College-Ready Public Schools; Aspire Public Schools; Green Dot Public Schools; and Partnerships to Uplift Communities Schools.
“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pumped nearly $215 million into the project while the partnering school organizations supplied their own money, for a total cost of $575 million. The aim was to create teacher evaluation systems that depended on student standardized test scores and observations by “peer evaluators.” These systems, it was conjectured, could identify the teachers who were most effective in improving student academic performance.”
There is a silver lining.
“In 2014, he gave a nearly hour-long interview at Harvard University, saying, “It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won’t know for probably a decade.””
It’s 2018.so far, nothing funded by Gates has reformed education. We have only six more years to wait, and maybe then he will invest in children’s health or something else where he has a chance of doing good work instead of messing up the schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s way more than 215 million. Both the federal government and states adopted Gates’ theory and poured billions of dollars of public funding int it.
That’s the consistent pattern in ed reform- billionaire makes private investment in public policy, ed reformers all adopt billionaires preferred policy, spend tens or hundreds of millions in PUBLIC funding on it.
That’s why the billionaire ed reformers are so powerful- they don’t just spend their own money- they influence lawmakers to spend yours.
It happens over and over and over. In Ohio the Dell billionaires made a small investment in a “choice” system in Cleveland. The Dell investment wouldn’t have been a big deal, what WAS a big deal was that lawmakers all poured PUBLIC money into the Dell billionaires chosen policy approach.
They’re making a relatively small investment and getting huge leverage from it, because it becomes public policy and then public funding pours in.
In my opinion, the problem really isn’t Bill Gates. The problem is lawmakers who slavishly follow Bill Gates. That’s when it goes from experiment to catastrophe.
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Think of it as a percentage of income. Who here never made a bad purchase decision. It’s not a waste. We all learned something. No matter what he would have done with 600 million for public education it wouldn’t work for all. just saying.
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Most of us learn from our bad purchase decisions. The only thing Gates ever “learns” is that his brilliant ideas are never implemented properly by us poor slovenly lessers, so he needs even more power and control.
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So Gates and his backers get to ‘learn’ from their failed invasions, while the devastations created for the kids, neighborhoods and teachers who have been used as guinea pigs will simply be swept under the rug — and don’t tell me this didn’t happen (and is not currently still happening). I speak from very direct and very painful experience.
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He could have air conditioned a lot of sweltering classrooms for half a billion dollars.
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Diane, you misconstrue what the money was for. The point was to de-personalize, demonize and demoralize teachers, so that the unions could be broken. So in that sense they have been quite successful.
And please don’t think that Gates money applied to healthcare would be used in a way that would guarantee universal healthcare and single payer insurance; they will fight tooth and nail against that.
Much better that they just leave the rest of us alone.
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Amen. Since Gates can’t seem to stop micromanaging how is money is spent to the detriment of us all, it would be better for us all if he’d just spend his money on a fleet of yachts or drugs or women or something. At least yacht makers, drug dealers and prostitutes would profit that way.
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At this very moment, he’s probably figuring to “help” the children in cages by giving them all I-Pads, etc. (taking a BIG tax deduction inthe process). Now. wouldn’t THAT be a great, big humanitarian gesture on his part?
We could call him “Bill, the Gate(s)keeper of the cages.”
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The ever arrogant Gates has been given too much access to our educational system. He has weaponized his wealth against the teaching profession and American students. Gates operates on false assumptions and bias and endlessly tinkers with that which he does not understand. Lame politicians step aside and allow him to impose his noxious ideas on our young people and teachers. Parents should actively oppose his use of our children as guinea pigs for his unsubstantiated notions and false promises.
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Gates= Predatory philanthropist on steroids bent on disrupting a system that has worked pretty well for most of our people.
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Betsy DeVos is back from her international tour of private schools.
Now that vacation is over I imagine she’ll be headed out on another campaign swing, bashing public schools and public school students, prior to the midterms.
I hope they stay out of Ohio. It’s all downside for our public schools when these people parachute in.
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This is just going to drive me crazy…I contacted Valerie Strauss on this, but here’s yet another article on the RAND study that doesn’t mention that the Danielson Framework is at the bottom of the whole mess. At the end of her article, Strauss says:
“Now, Rand has declared his massive teacher effectiveness project to have fallen short of his goals. The Rand report does say that “the initiative did produce benefits, and the findings suggest some valuable lessons for districts and policymakers.” What lessons? Well, the report’s authors say some teachers reported learning how to improve from the observations. They also said the project had succeeded in helping schools “measure effectiveness” but not how to “increase it.” Of course, that is a loaded finding, given that there are many definitions of “effectiveness.””
But the definition of “effectiveness” for these schools is what Danielson pushes–engagement and constructivist pedagogy! Until that changes and we get the DFF out of our education bloodstream, we’re going to continue to waste time, money and effort.
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Constructivism and discovery learning are debunked pedagogies.
They are slow, inefficient, and problematic teaching methods that do not work, often leaving students confused and frustrated. Students dislike it because it makes no sense to expect them to teach themselves using the most circuitous route possible, and often arriving at the wrong destination. You are absolutely correct in pointing out how subversive such a requirement is and how very little attention that the use of inflexible rubrics has constrained teachers.
Daniel Willingham is a cognitive scientists who debunks these methodologies in his book, “Why Don’t Students Like School?”
It should be required reading for all teachers, and Charlotte Danielson:
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Ed reformers are launching a big political campaign to get teachers to leave their union:
http://www.eclectablog.com/2014/06/breaking-mackinac-center-using-public-school-email-system-to-encourage-teachers-to-leave-their-union.html
LOL. More hard work on behalf of “the children”
They have nothing to show for how they;ve contributed to any public school, anywhere, but they sure have been effective at fighting labor unions!
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Does Gates REALLY want to be a LEADER?
Maybe he ought to make a major move and…..apologize.
Simply say he was wrong. He made a mistake.
It’s FREE.
And, he’d probably have a bigger impact than the cool $215 million he blew on school un-improvement.
Believe it or not, saying you’re sorry still makes a difference in this world (as long as you are not about to get your pants sued off for uttering those words.)
If more of our leaders admitted they had made mistakes, it would set the tone for the entire nation. Because along with admitting mistakes, often (though certainly not always) there comes forgiveness. And, boy, do the citizens of this country need to cut each other a break these days..
But I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting. Nope.
Especially with the pompous ass who is in the White House -the hombre who proclaims he is the “best” at everything in the world. He’s encouraged a type of macho, rub your nose in it, winner take all leadership that could be our undoing. This is not the generosity of spirit that made our nation respected worldwide.
America used to be great when it wasn’t fooling itself. (Fact: other countries around the world give a greater percentage of their national income as foreign aid. ttps://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/08/foreign-aid-these-countries-are-the-most-generous/
BTW I’m still waiting for Governor Andrew Cuomo to apologize for the crapstorm he unleashed on the children of New York State and the people who care about them. Hint to the Democratic Party and Cuomo and Arne and Obama. we lost the election in 2016. You need us.
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Bill Gates has had more time than a few years to prove his theories are the way to go. The Gates Foundation was launched in 2000 and the primary aims of the foundation at that time were, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in America, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology.
However, it is obvious the real goal of the Gates Foundation was as a tax shelter where Gates could avoid paying taxes and grow his fortune. The rest of it is his own personal brand of insanity.
“A key aspect of the Gates Foundation’s U.S. efforts involves an overhaul of the country’s education policies at both the K-12 and college levels, including support for teacher evaluations and charter schools and opposition to seniority-based layoffs and other aspects of the education system that are typically backed by teachers’ unions.[121] It spent $373 million on education in 2009.[121] It has also donated to the two largest national teachers’ unions.[121] The foundation was the biggest early backer of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.[121] In October 2017 it was announced that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would spend more than $1.7 billion over five years to pay for new initiatives in public education.[122]”
Gates’ education initiatives have already been repeated failures for nine years going on ten. Allowing Gates another decade or two would mean the end of public education as we know it and when the smoke cleared, what’s left would be a broken and fractured education system that only serves to make someone like Gates wealthier. The teaching profession would be gone. Teachers’ unions a thing of the past and many children wouldn’t even go to school. We’ll be back in the 1900’s but worse.
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In the State of Oregon, the voters passed Measure 98 in 2016. This measure has the veneer of legitimacy as it is alleged to increase the graduation rate in Oregon. The measure was championed by Stand for Children with over $3 million dollars provided by the Gates Foundation. Funding for the measure is to come from increased state revenues and must be used in career and tech programs ok’d by the State and a group highly influenced by Stand for Children. So, budgeting by ballot has arrived in Oregon—not a good idea. Also, local control takes a major hit along with firefighting, roads, police and the rest of the commons that are dependent on state funding. This is a failed policy in the more rural areas that need school buses more than more tech. How about using any increases in funding to increase the number of school days from 165 days on the average in Oregon compared to the 180 day average in the nation? How about using extra money to increase the number of certified school librarians in the schools (there were over 800 certified librarians in Oregon schools in the mid 80’s with the number as of 2 years ago being reduced to 144)? What is the end game here? Do away with unions? Control of the schools so that the narrowed curriculum is meant to produce laborers that in turn can be used and discarded by the decision-makers? People are watching, what are they learning and what are they willing to take a stand to regain control of our public schools?
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Any law which is championed by Stand for Children and funded by Gates must be viewed with suspicion. Caveat emptor.
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What’s in a name? If the name was designed to mislead and fool people, then the name worked.
“Critics of Stand for Children assert that it represents business interests.[16][17]—major funders include the Walton Family and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations. Education policy analyst Diane Ravitch criticized the group for opposing teacher’s unions and seeking to impose standardized testing on public schools.[18] Susan Barrett, former volunteer co-leader of a Stand for Children team in Portland, Oregon, left the organization due to concerns that corporate donors and wealthy board members influence reforms.[19] In 2009, Stand for Children volunteers in Massachusetts witnessed an organizational change in favor of promoting charter schools. The former volunteers organized to protest a ballot initiative filed by Stand for Children. Former Stand for Children volunteers said the ballot measure puts the careers of teachers at the mercy of a rating system while doing nothing to improve teaching in schools.”
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Page 17 of David Kay Johnson’s book, Perfectly Legal, tells how Gates set-up his faux Foundation using highly suspect maneuvers in regard to their legality—but then our regulators have been depleted and do not have the resources to do an effective job. So, this predatory philanthropist has used a heck of a lot of money to disrupt a public school system that has been weakened by lack of funding. So, how do we push back against Gates, Broad, the Waltons and their bought legislators and leaders??
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Join the Network for Public Education. Join state groups exposing the failed policies of Gates, Broad, Hastings, Arnold, etc. get connected to your allies. Come to the NPE Conference in Indianapolis in October and get fired up.
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The Danielson Framework has NO research bearing on its validity for use in every grade and subject where it is used…none, nada. It is one person’s view of good teaching extended into rubrics which are themselves ratings that cannot be added up to create a meaningful score. The fraud begins with that. The original MET study was a farce designed by Economists.
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Bill Gates said class sizes were too small. He wanted to shrink the size of the teaching force. He used big data to get teachers fired in heavily populated (high poverty) cities. He said, Let them have TFA, and CBE on tablets! He also said the human population was too big. He used big data to reduce fertility rates in heavily populated (high poverty) countries. He said, “Let them raise chickens!” He was successful on both counts. He’s proud of himself, bragging on his blog, for his elitist, racist, fascist successes. He does not know how to share. He wants it all for himself. When people lose their basic civil and human rights, and starve, he says, Let them eat cake! He met with Trump and walked away smiling, full of compliments. Taking his money is akin to making a deal with you know who.
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TOO SMALL???????????????? I expect to have 40 students per class next year (9th grade geography). I expect to have about 300 total students.
Gates needs to come to Utah, and see what is REALLY going on with huge class sizes.
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It doesn’t matter what Gates sees, he will twist it as evidence that will support what he wants to do. Gates is like all fools. He is blind, mute and deaf.
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Such a waste of money – there is so much that could have been done in education with that money. When you ask a principal, a superintendent, a district , to look at their teachers in terms of good teacher – bad teacher, it just does not turn out well. We have worked hard to get degrees and credentials and teaching is hard work. There were already procedures and policies in place for evaluation but administrators do not always use them. Of course a good teacher makes a huge difference as these studies have shown but to emphasize that above all and not address the environments we must meet is shortsighted. Thrown your big money at class size, teacher pay, universal preschool, science labs, art and music rooms at elementary, even school gardens- lots to learn there actually, reading specialists, homework groups …there is so much that does work…why does Gates pick the things that don’t ?
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“why does Gates pick the things that don’t?”
Because Bill Gates has convinced himself that because he is successful as measured by his great wealth, that makes him a superior human being. It’s obvious like any psychopath, he thinks highly of himself. In short, he is an arrogant, ignorant, destructive pun/devil with a good PR department tasked with making him look like a saint.
Strip him of his wealth, what would he do?
Bill Gates would be a good real estate or car salesman. He’s nothing but a salesman.
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It’s nice that Bill Gates is willing to spend his millions for charitable purposes. Unfortunately he has come into public education with no background in it and with pre-conceived notions about how to improve it. The bottom line of his “reforms” always requires a greater (constant) use of computers to assess and manage children and adults as so many digital components. Sadly, Gates’ efforts influenced federal policy for all public schools and have contributed mightily to a nation-wide teacher shortage.
When Microsoft tried to copy some of the micro-management techniques Gates helped impose for managing teachers, Microsoft lost a sizeable proportion of their creative talent – even though that talent was well paid with lucrative benefits.
Bill Gates would do well to ask front-line educators what they need to do the best at their jobs and help them do it. He could start with efforts to help families bring children to the classroom who are ready to learn as in housed, washed, fed, clothed, medically served, educationally supplied and with parents educated how to stimulate brain development in their new baby from ages 0 to age 5 before they leave the hospital with that infant.
Then Bill Gates could help solve environmental problems that impact brain development like lead contamination of soil and water in Flint Michigan and other communities.
Then Bill Gates could help turn schools into full-service family centers with social workers, medical clinics, food stamp and welfare offices, unemployment ombudsmen, job training centers, senior centers, and more.
For school communities with declining enrollment, Bill Gates could help use closed school buildings as homeless shelters, groceries and food pantries for communities without either, job training sites for displaced workers, or shelters for domestic abuse victims.
All these problems impact school test scores. Bill Gates – you have miles to go before you sleep.
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