Nancy Bailey has discerned a pattern in the education grant making of the Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation: the deprofessionalizing of education. We are familiar, of course, with Teach for America, which peddles the wacky idea that any college graduate can be a successful teacher with only five weeks of training.
Gates has pushed that line of unreasoning into an attack on school counselors. The more training they have, the more ineffective they seem to be, goes Gates-thought. Why not try completely non-professional counselors.
Bailey sees this animus as a recurrent them in Gates’ philanthropy. Why pay a professional when a bright person with no professional training can do the job?
My response: Next time you need surgery, ask for a college graduate with a scalpel, not a surgeon.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Bill Gates has no clue. I don’t trust Bill Gates.
Has America become the playground for billionaires who steal from the public good?
If you are asking the question, then you know the answer.
And, let us not forget, Bill Gates is a college dropout. He couldn’t hack it.
I’ve disabused plenty of people of Teach for America worship by putting out proposals for Brain Surgeons for America, Airline Mechanics for America etc.
Hard to argue with that.
I have had numerous students in their second year of university education programs observe my classes. As part of their practicum, they were also required to work with a student after observing twice. These bright young people had good instincts, but they were not trained professional teachers. There is a reason for legitimate credentials in education and other disciplines. Professional teachers are much better prepared to tackle the many demands in typical a classroom..
I am naturally pretty slow, but it took me five years before I started feeling like I was conducting class in a way that was really defensible. Other teachers who are faster learners than I am have corroborated this experience.
That said, there ought to be a place in school for bright young children who want to help people. Teach for America is a good idea if the kids were placed in a position to put in their two years tutoring, supervising, or assisting in some other positive way. Lord knows we need more labor right now. What we do not need is more inexperience.k
I agree with your five years observation, Roy.
Even having been in a classroom for as long as I have now, it takes me at least four years to feel like I’m doing a relatively good job teaching a new course.
Of course, we’re living in a culture where “progress” (whatever that idea might be defined as this morning) is the be-all and end-all for so many people. And, Gates and so many of his smarmy, high tech know- it-all cronies value constant churn and burn; they live to break things.
Except, of course, for their own children.
I can really relate to this, Roy. For me it took longer than 5 yrs. It’s like any kind of maturity: some of it you just get from accumulation of experience, but it picks up speed/ depth with key experiences.
I started with good background (plus 2 yrs’ teaching hisch level), but I was always winging it, since I was doing something then new, for-lang for tykes [2.5-5]. It probably took me 5 yrs just to move from keeping them entertained to teaching them. Weirdly I learned a lot in year#8 when I was forced to “align” to “stds” by an annoying new ed-reformy director. (Funny: she had no stds for me! Luckily I had resources [ACTFL]). So, forced to articulate goals, & begin to think seriously about assessment [i.e., whether I was achieving them– then figure out how to assess pre-reading/ writing students on the fly during wkly classes].
Other turning points came by virtue of the oddities of my role– plusses that weren’t available when teaching hisch. Like, as clients became regular, being able to teach the same kids for 3 yrs in a row. And gradually acquiring a handful of older tutees for yrs on end, so I could sharpen my perspective on what would have helped them when young.
The one thing I’ve always lacked is colleagues to confer with. Did you get that in “regular” teaching, & if so did it help?
Lightweights! I had it all figured out when I was 23. Everything. Oh, to go back to that time of certainty. I feel like such an idiot now.
They could be teacher assistants and return for a real degree if they wished to become real teachers.
I always welcomed young people that were students of education in my classroom. I saw it as a way to give back. Teaching is a combination of certain understandings and a craft that develops with experience. We cannot just assume that a smart person would be a great teacher as there is much to learn. Some people are not cut out to do it, no matter how smart they are.
I find it very interesting that Bill Gates did not attend public schools. He is an alum of Lakeside School, a private school in the Seattle, WA area where he met Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. Gates children also attended and graduated from the Lakeside school. The price tag to attend that school is $33,280 a year. This information is from “Business Insider, 28 November 2017.
I do not have a problem with parent sending their children to private schools when they can afford it. More power to them. The majority of parents cannot. I don’t have a problem with private schools as long as they provide the students with a well rounded view of the world and not just one through rose colored glasses from the top of a crystal palace where the students do not see the world as it really is.
I do have a very big problem with people like Bill Gate, Trump, DeVos, and the like who have never attended a public school and do not have a clue as to what really goes on in a public school telling professional educators how to do their jobs. My acid reflux kicks in every time I read how Bill and Melinda Gates are going to spend millions and change the world for the better in our public schools. Remember the smaller high school failure Gates put out years ago.
Yes, there are many, many very wealthy people who do understand how the pubic schools work and the challenges faced by teachers everyday. I applaud what they do to actually help the schools to do better for out children. I welcome the work done by many wealthy people to help the schools but not the likes of Bill Gates and Betsy DeVos.
I could have sent my children to a private school but felt they would receive a well rounded grounded education in the public schools. And they did. They are now successful, loving, caring, giving, productive people who are giving as much to our society as they can. In my simple view, it is majority of children who have attended public schools established by the founders of this country that made it a great country and if given a chance will continue to do so.
I was privileged to attend a fine private school in my town when I was young. I got a lot out of it, including some dear friends. Even though they were far more wealthy than I was, not once do I recall being criticized for my poverty, which must have been more than evident. Nor have I ever been snubbed for being a public school teacher.
Nor have I ever heard that my old school ever took tax money away from the public trough. They got plenty in their own trough.
often it is clear that legislators and bigwigs who attended private schools dislike and attack public schools out of habit, not out of actual knowledge
Private school friends tell me there’s a mentality within the schools that promotes fear and loathing of public schools, and it’s really hard not to succumb even when you rationally know better. I’ve definitely seen this in local politicians from the parochial school community — they just ASSUME our public schools are “failing.” I had to get tough with a former city supervisor — San Francisco equivalent of council member, alderman etc. — who was like that to disabuse him of the misconception. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, also a product of San Francisco parochial schools is like that too. (Once I did an article on homeschoolers and I lurked on a homeschooler listserve, and learned that homeschool parents tend to develop fear and loathing of ANY school, public or private, so it’s the same mindset at work.)
caroline sf: Interesting note on homeschoolers. I hadn’t thought to lump them in w/ Catholic & other private-schoolers whose lack of pubsch experience causes them to believe every bad thing they hear– but that’s because I don’t think much about homeschoolers. Now that you remind me… the few friends I knew who were considering it when our kids were in preschool were uniformly worried about the effects of socialization on their kids. As though there were some lowest common denominator that would sully the sort of free spirit (or religion or whatever) they felt they’d inculcated on the home front. I felt those folks were insecure and controlling– not trusting in the strength of their own family culture to operate as a lens for their kids’ experience out in the world. Nor in their kids’ independent perspicacity to make good judgments.
As a wise man once said, “Ask not what Bill Gates can do for you. Ask what you can do for Bill Gates.”
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in data analytics, and dedicated to the proposition that William Gates III is king.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation treating all of us like lab rats.
I have to throw in a Bushism. “A leadership is someone who brings people together.” Make that: A leadership is someone who brings Gates and DeVos together.
Gotta love your mixing Lincoln with Gates and Bush.
Not related at all, but i’m watching two woodpeckers on the birch tree just out my window.
It’s very interesting the way they drill holes in the birch bark in a line like they are sewing (presumably chasing the insect as it keeps moving under the bark to get away)..
I see these woodpeckers regularly. Assume they are probably the same ones.Some of these woodpeckers undoubtedly spend their entire lives on just a few trees.
The birch bark is just covered with line after line of these holes.
It’s a wonder the bark just not just unzip and fall off.
Birch bark is very loose to begin with and just be just teaming with bugs, which is undoubtedly why the woodpeckers love it so much.
One of the woodpeckers must-have hit the motherlode cuz he has not moved from one spot in the last ten minutes.
Or maybe it’s a she.
I’m no woodpecker sexpert.
Maybe you can tell from the size of their peckers?
If William Gates III finds out you enjoy nature he will find a way to monetize those woodpeckers and eventually destroy all of them. Do woodpeckers have any sort of representative officials he can bribe? Gates loves bribing public officials. Maybe he can buy Woody Woodpecker to be the public face of high stakes testing and test prep. Drill and kill.
That woodpecker is STiLL in the same spot. And it is actively pecking.
Must be an ant farm under the bark.
It just moved up a foot to talk to the other one
And then back down to the same spot.
I feel a staccato woodpecker poem…
By the way, having mentioned testing, hoorah: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-01/uc-may-not-use-the-sat-or-act-for-admissions-scholarship-decisions-for-now-judge-rules.
“ The University of California must immediately suspend all use of SAT and ACT test scores for admission and scholarship decisions under a preliminary injunction issued by an Alameda County Superior Court judge.
The ruling came in a lawsuit asserting that the use of standardized test scores is broadly biased…”
“…Seligman added that little data existed to show whether the tests were even valid or reliable indicators of their future college performance…”
Peter Pecker
Peter Pecker pecked a tree
Pecked for everyone to see
Pecked for hours in a spot
Pecked through showers
Pecked through hot
Pecked in line
And up and down
Pecked to dine
Where bugs abound
Peter Pecker pecked a tree
Pecked with pecker just for me
Ok, I ll admit I’ve had too many bears… I mean beers
Heh heh. Careful with the bears, don’t let Betsy see you.
Well, I guess his frame of reference is his own “career” and he has a disdain for training and education. He has never been part of a profession to understand what happens as you gain experience, knowledge and observe learners. Which takes time, empathy, critical thinking….. etc. Not just a “bright mind”
New teachers don’t have the experience to ask the types of questions that advance the profession and serve children well. It makes them perfect for the goals of Gates et. al…. and some school leaders. Much easier to have a newbie who just follows, says yes and eats what you are feeding them.
I think Nancy Bailey is absolutely right that Gates has little respect for professionals, especially when it comes to education. That’s obvious: he’s an amateur who buys his way into the professional ed discussion, looks only to businesspeople for input, uses $clout to push gimmicks.
But, unlike the libertarianized ed-reform echo chamber, I don’t see him as on a mission to deprofessionalize per se. There’s crossover there via the proliferation of econo-bizsch pundits that dominate our social coversation, so– close enough.
The idea of plumping the scarce force of college counselors w/ unpaid or low-pd amateurs is frankly ridiculous &I’m guessing will get minimal traction. About all recent grads can offer is anecdotes on the college experience & help filling out forms. That doesn’t begin to address the many issues outlined in Bailey’s cite, the 2009 Gates-funded Public Agenda report. Which BTW is worth reading despite its unfortunate & pejorative associated survey on college counseling. The barriers to completing college are well-summarized there: pretty-much intransigent obstacles for which even a plethora of experienced college counselors have no magic wand.
Bill Gates isn’t the first powerful person to come up with an idea like this. During China’s Cultural Revolution, Mao said anyone could be a doctor if they wanted to, and a lot of illiterate peasants were allowed to become doctors and surgeons.
Because many of those peasants couldn’t read, their training consisted of watching a short film before any surgery they conducted and/or looking at the illustrations in a comic style book with little or no dialogue clouds or written descriptions.
So many Chinese died, that in time if someone needed surgery, they’d refuse and go underground to find real doctors that were not allowed to practice medicine because they were labeled capitalist or imperialist dogs or some other insulting term.
The only success of Mao’s barefoot doctor program was the sanitation part. Teaching everyone in China how to sanitize and clean their houses, huts, or hovels properly actually increased the average lifespan.
Gates thinks he IS a doctor. He’s been giving medical advice for a long time.
Dr. Bill is carrying on the leg acy of these three
The de-professionalization of the career that lifted the most women into financial independence is what makes Melinda such a fraud when she claims she loses sleep over gender inequity.
Raised in an authoritarian, patriarchal church, she values the work that men do more than the work women do. Her husband has reinforced the notion.
It’s a good question: was it MGates’ Catholic upbringing that caused her to value the work that men do more than the work that women do [like teaching, nursing, childcare]? I have to question that. Even though she’s nearly 20 yrs younger than me, in her generation– as now, in our culture, regardless of religious affiliation– professions traditionally dominated by men are far more prestigious, and better remunerated, than professions dominated by women.
Melinda Gates chose the “male” route from the get-go– a freedom she had thanks to the hard work of the women’s movement spearheaded in the ’70’s. Shame on her for supporting the de-professionalization of one of the careers still dominated by females. If she had an ounce of concern for gender equity, she’d be putting her billions behind raising it up. Hell, according to the Trumpsters, we can’t even reopen the economy w/o teachers. That alone should make their jobs pay as well as any man’s.
But MGates’ blinders are an American cultural phenomenon, shared around the globe. Some of our US religions reflect progressive, gender-equitable policies more than others, w/Catholics [& Prot Evangelicals] holding up the back end, but none of them can claim the same influence on how America rolls as ancient tribal patriarchy.
The 10 nations with the greatest women’s equality have a culture of Western European leadership. The U.S. is an anomaly at 19th in the ranking. Other democratic countries evolved. Influence of religion is a distinction between the U.S. and those countries. I’m interested in your alternative suggestion for the difference, remembering 40% of the U.S. population are members of patriarchal religions.
Btw, in the news today, the Speaker of the Calf. House, Anthony Rendon, denied a proxy to an assemblywoman who had a C-section one month ago. She drove from her Oakland home to Sacramento with her baby in order to cast a deciding vote on maternity leave legislation. The Speaker subsequently apologized for his denial, after public outcry, His mother was a teachers aide at a Catholic school.
Do you think it is fair for me to conclude that some people’s resistance to evidence should be a concern for the nation?
An analysis of the Nazi loss led to identification of a contributing factor, Germany never put women to work in the war effort as America did (Rosy the riveter). Germany relied on forced and POW labor which resulted in a great deal of sabotage. The cultural distinction between the two countries (both religious) would be interesting to study.
“The German Church and the Nazi State” (Holocaust Encyclopedia) reports about a 1933 document, “The Nazi Party upholds the point of view of a positive Christianity.” The Encyclopedia continues, “It was read as an affirmation of Christianity…The German Evangelical Church was the largest protestant church… it embraced nationalistic and racist aspects of Nazi ideology….In addition to their religious
beliefs, anti-communism and nationalism shaped their beliefs…Catholic leaders were initially more suspicious of national socialism than their protestant counterparts…”
To forestall, the name calling for my “attack” on religion, yes, there were individuals in the Catholic Church who made the ultimate sacrifice for their humanism. It appears on the whole, the religious leaders tried to keep a low profile knowing they couldn’t survive standing up to Hitler.
It should be alarming to more of the educated in America, that the evangelical and Catholic leadership are in alliance promoting Trump.
I make as many contacts as I can to bring visibility to it, not because I am anti-religion, anti-Catholic or anti-evangelical but, because I see the GOP legislation and policy that harms the 99%.
I’m looking at “Global Gender Gap 2020” – I don’t see the religious connection. Of the top 10, #’s 1-4 are Lutheran-dominated (Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden), #5 Nicaragua (Catholic), #6 New Zealand (no religion/ misc Christian), #7-8-9 Catholic (Ireland, Spain, Rwanda), #10 Germany (Catholic/ Lutheran).
I don’t know what you mean by “40% of the US population are members of patriarchal religions.” ¾ of US pop identifies as religious – which of them aren’t patriarchal?
tangential -a report identified the states of Idaho and Utah as 49th and 50th in women’s equality in the U.S.
Religion differs in nations and states. It can be liberal, humanitarian, and/ or have minimal impact on politics as in most developed countries. Or, it can be conservative with strong impact.
Different research data reviewed by you and me informed our different conclusions. Adding to the complexity, the data is not static in time. As example, Spain rose 21 places in rank in a short period of time, the U.S. fell rapidly. The criteria used for rankings varies.
A second influence affecting our opinions must be different understandings about the source of legislation and court decisions that are (1) anti-gay (2) anti-abortion (3) pro- funding for religious schools (4) pro- exemptions from civil rights employment law for religious organizations (5) pro-funding for non pharmaceutical birth control to replace funding for pharmaceutical birth control (6) anti-insurance coverage for birth control and, (7) anti- prohibition of conversion therapy, etc. My reading leads me to conclude that they are the result of legal efforts by firms created specifically for the purpose of advancing a theocratic agenda.
I am interested in hearing whether you think religious conservative leaders, who believe in both social conservatism and economic libertarianism are attempting to have greater influence politically and, if you think they are succeeding with their agenda. I’d like to hear whether you think the leadership of the evangelical and Catholic Churches are working to narrow the economic and legal rights gap between men and women, with the goal of Iceland’s model or, if they want to maintain the disparity or, are apolitical on the issue. I’d like to learn what you believe the cause for only 13 GOP women in the U.S. House (and 186 men) is. I’d like to know if you think exploring causes for women’s inequality and the paths to change it, are worth the effort.
In answer to your question about the “ones that aren’t patriarchal” , I offer the D,C, Episcopalian church (led by a female bishop) from which peaceful protestors were routed by Bill Barr. And, as 2nd example – the ones that don’t have a huge lay organization that frames loss of male privilege as a “crisis of masculinity” that can be remedied by shooting guns and, by using power tools.
The role the state Catholic Conferences (political arm of the bishops) played in defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment…
Undoubtedly, Bill Gates and many wealthy people like him believe they have the world figured out and have educational solutions that the minions should follow (if they want to be rich!) The approach does de-professionalize the field of education but this de-professionalization lives in many other places in America, including the standards movement; testing expectations; teacher merit pay; poor teacher-ed programs; the list goes on. In other words, systemic de-professionalization is a core element of the U.S. system that Gates (and many even in the trenches) promote. My vote is to bring in a new administration and hire Pasi Sahlberg as the Secretary of Education…it might take three or four similar administrations, but the U.S. could shift a paradigm that is buried deep within the current zeitgeist.
David,
One of the blog commenters who founded a charter school in Minnesota paid himself a salary with a 50% premium to market, ignoring his lack of qualifications.
How many of those managers attached to charter schools wouldn’t be hired by the boards of public schools because their credentials are unrelated to education?
How many self-serving people are sidling up next to public schools for market opportunities?
Linda, You’re right – there is a problem with hiring unqualified people for educational positions — thus the de-professionalization of the field. Sadly, this is happening much more broadly outside of charters. AZ just passed a bill (SB1042) that allows any public district to hire an uncertified teacher…as a matter of fact, they don’t even need a college degree! Over a dozen states across the country don’t require superintendents to have any formal classroom experience and several don’t require any sort of superintendent licensure. Teacher shortages and a perspective that the complex task of teaching and learning can be solved solely with business acumen are part of the fuel that Gates and others use to promote their destructive perspectives.
A major difference between public schools and contractor schools is the former have elected school boards i.e. some measure of local control by the community who pay taxes for the education of their kids
(enriching grifters is not their goal). Gates managed to take much of local control away through oligarchy at the state and federal levels.
The shortage of teachers is in part the result of a sick libertarian strategy that demonizes the profession and, a plot to starve public education of funds.
So many white male pretenders of expertise in education, out to make a buck.
Gates is not the only player in de-professionalizing work in education, including the role of high school counselors. My high school counselor was superior. She dealt with pregnant teens, kids who liked and expected fights with knives, and kids/families like mine where college was not a great prospect until the counselor intervened, finding free digs and a part time job for my freshman year along with some scholarships.
Here’s what I mean about Gates and amateur hour advisors for college. Nancy Bailey mentions College Advising Corps. College Advising Corps had one major initial funder from 2005 to 2011–the Jack Cook Kent Foundation at $12 million. The Lumina Foundation added two grants from 2007 ending in 2010, about $900,000.
In addition to these large College Advising Corps start-up grants, The Jack Cook Kent Foundation has given over $2.6 million more to eight programs focused on other programs to launch “talented” students from low income backgrounds on a path to college. By 2013, the College Advising Corps had evolved into the present non-profit organization and become a member of the National Partnership for Educational Access (NPEA).
NPEA is an initiative of the Steppingstone Foundation which is also a proud member of NPEA’s “Data Counts.” https://www.educational-access.org/about-us/history/ The Steppingstone Foundation offers several college prep programs for students who hope to be admitted to the Foundation’s portfolio of “placement schools.” These are independent, Catholic, and public exam schools, many in New England and including for example, the Phillips Academy and Choate Rosemary Hall. The history of NPEA”s Data Counts initiative shows that NPEA is in the service of members of the National Association for Independent Schools and so is the College Advising Corps.
The “Data Counts” program is a Gates-inspired program designed to show that “near peers” who do college counseling are more “effective” on ten data points than professional counselors who work in public schools. https://www.educational-access.org/npea-data-counts/background/
The 990 IRS Form for College Advising Corps shows that it is largely a fundraising and grants-making organization. In 2019 it sent money to 23 universities in addition to the Stepping Stone Foundation. Most of these grants average about $200,000, but New York University received a grant of over $1.6 million.
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/461192687
In the B&M Gates grants database, I found only 3 grants for the College Advising Corps, all this year (2020) totaling $875,000.
Of course, professionally educated school counselors are doing work well beyond those data points, and in this era–with the pandemic, high unemployment, pending evictions and losses of homes, unconscionable racism, online everything possible in education–organized efforts to discredit professionals are also proliferating.
Nancy Bailey is exactly right in calling out the super rich who are part of all of these problems and pontificating about helping the underserved…if they are talented and might well succeed in college.
Mighty fine connecting research Laura Chapman. Thank you for adding. It is an eye-opener.
Agree- eye opening
Ugh–& B.G. has been on msm for his “views” on covid-19, because he’d been so masterful in solving health issues in the U.S.
(Melinda was just on a show that was supposed to be celebrating the women’s movement as to the Ratification of the 19th, & she was on as an “enterpreneur.”)
& then, I’ll get hot under the collar that Anderson Cooper chose to interview Arne Duncan about in-person vs. remote schooling.
Grrrrr! Someone told me, today, that both he & Paul Vallas (don’t they ever.just.go.AWAY?!) were being interviewed on our “progressive” talk radio? (I know, Diane, you’d told me to tell them Vallas is not a progressive, but the host really isn’t one, either. (& she’s not the only host on that station who has Vallas on.)
&, actually, everyone in Chicago & IL knows P.V. isn’t a progressive: he’s been CPS head, run for Guv, run for Lt..Guv, (& left a cash-strapped university in the lurch to run for Lt.Guv) & ran for Chicago Mayor.
Ick!
Duncan, the champion of closing down all public schools and firing all teachers in NOLA. Vallas, the master of privatization.
Arne Duncan is such an idiot.
And so is anyone (including Anderson Cooper) who would interview him and not ask him about all his idiotic policies.
And that’s not ad hominem.
Just a statement of fact.
His work on education makes me shudder when he makes pronouncements about vaccinations & other public health issues.
Oh, Some DAM up there. We live across the street from the forest preserves. In an odd spring & summer (& I probably shouldn’t say anything), where we had so many birds (& they did find West Nile + mosquitoes in our area, so seeing lots of bird has been rather weird), our woodpecker(s) has/have not been around. This one (or those, but we do suspect it’s the same one), does not seem to like the trees of the forest, but the wooden shingles on our house (cedar–yep, ‘peckers love them some cedar).
So–don’t know if it has to do w/the coronavirus thing (the deer have been coming back, which we hadn’t seen out in the neighborhood for at least the last few years)–but everything, it seems, is a bit strange.
I do know, however, where the cuckoo is…in the White House, of course!
There’s a meme going around: a photo of the White House with the SARS-CoV-2 virus above it.
Caption: One flu over the cuckoo’s nest.
oxymoron. n. a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g., Trump Library)
oxymoron. n. Trump receiving supplemental oxygen