New investment to create 70 small high schools across the country

Foundation gives more than $40 million to enable students to graduate
with high school diploma and associate’s degree

Contact:

Carol Rava Treat
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Phone: 206.709.3400, E-mail: [email protected]

NEW YORK – To dramatically increase high school graduation and college
attendance rates for the most disadvantaged youth, the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation today committed more than $40 million to create 70
small high schools. These high schools will enable students to earn both
a high school diploma and an associate’s degree or two years of college
credit. The effort is a partnership of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Ford Foundation, and W. K.
Kellogg Foundation.

Eight organizations will share these funds and re-grant the money to
create "early college high schools" in communities throughout the country.
The intermediary grantees are Antioch University Seattle, Jobs for the
Future, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, Middle College High School
Consortium, National Council of La Raza, SECME, Inc., Utah Partnership
Foundation, and Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

"These new small schools will help bridge the gap between high school
and college, where we lose too many students," said Tom Vander Ark,
executive director of education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"The last years of high school are some of the most important
developmentally and often squandered academically. At these small
schools, students will receive the personalized and accelerated learning
they need to ensure a smoother transition to college or the workplace."

According to recent studies, college graduates earn 70 percent more than
high school graduates. Moreover, high school dropouts are four times
more likely to be unemployed than are college graduates. While
three-fourths of high school graduates now go to college, over half fail to
complete a degree, and one-third never make it to sophomore year.

"Within the big impersonal schools that most young people now attend,
too many students wander anonymously along a path of least resistance
and low expectations. As a result, many low-income students and
students of color either drop out of high school or quit in the first year of
college," said Hilary Pennington, CEO of Jobs for the Future, speaking on
behalf of the eight organizations receiving grants from the foundations.

"This is not acceptable in today’s economy, where a college degree, not a
high school diploma, is a ticket to the middle class," said Pennington.
Jobs for the Future (JFF), a Boston-based organization that promotes
innovative reform in education and workforce development, will serve as
the lead coordinator, manager and policy advocate for the effort. JFF will
receive $5.7 million.

By 2015, the traditional college population will increase by more than 4
million. The fastest growing part of the last two years of high school is
advanced placement and dual-enrollment courses, while the fastest
growing part of the first two years of college is remedial education. The
early college high schools funded by this grant will be designed to
address this dichotomy.

In New York City, the Middle College High School Consortium (receiving
$7.6 million) will open five new small high schools and redesign 15
existing middle college programs. Both new and redesigned schools will
be on community college campuses. Students will complete their high
school diploma and an associate’s degree in four to five years through
dual enrollment in college-level courses.

"Parents and students overwhelmingly support alternatives to the
traditional high school program such as the Bard High School Early
College model," said Dr. Judith A. Rizzo, deputy chancellor for instruction
for the New York City Board of Education. "Through the support of the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, along with several other partnering
foundations, we will be able to build high schools that provide our students
with models of choice and excellence, along with options to fully explore
any number of career interests."

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (receiving $5.8
million) will work with colleges and universities to start nine small high
schools and redesign one existing program. The foundation will support
the creation of early college models that encourage cooperation and
integration between high school and college programs around liberal
arts. The new schools will be based on various models, including the
Bard High School Early College in New York City, to which the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation contributed $1 million last summer.

Antioch University Seattle (receiving $3 million) will work with tribal
communities in Washington state to design eight early college high
schools serving students in grades 9-14. Students at those schools will
be able to receive an associate’s degree. Six of the eight schools will be
redesigned from existing high schools and two will be new.

In addition to creating a network of five early college high schools,
KnowledgeWorks Foundation (receiving $2.7 million) will develop a
state-level action research laboratory to develop and refine the small high
school models in Ohio. The foundation will work with large urban and
rural Appalachian school districts and diverse higher education partners.

The National Council of La Raza (receiving $7.2 million) will create 14 early
college high schools—eight new schools and six redesigned
schools—most, if not all, of which will be charter schools. All La Raza
early college high schools will enroll large percentages of low-income
Latino youth and challenge them with a rigorous and accelerated
academic program that bridges the traditional gaps between high school
and college.

SECME, Inc., (receiving $4.8 million) will establish eight early college high
schools of no more than 400 students each, beginning in fall 2003. These
schools, all in the Southeast, will be located on or adjacent to college
campuses affiliated with SECME, Inc., many of which are historically black
colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions.

Utah Partnership Foundation (receiving $3.5 million) will act as fiscal
sponsor of the New Century High Schools initiative in that state. Over five
years, the Utah Partnership Foundation will be instrumental in the creation
of six high-tech magnet schools that are state-authorized charter schools.

Including this effort, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed
more than $345 million to schools and districts throughout the United
States to create new small schools and transform large high schools into
smaller learning communities.

Contact information for participating organizations:

Antioch University Seattle
Mel Jackson
Phone: 206-268-4483
E-mail: [email protected]

Bard High School Early College
Mark Primoff
Phone: 845-758-7412
E-mail: [email protected]

Carnegie Corporation of New York
Susan King or Ambika Kapur
Phone: 212-207-6273
E-mails: [email protected] or [email protected]

The Ford Foundation
Thea Lurie
Phone: 212-573-4634
E-mail: [email protected]

Jobs for the Future
Carmon Cunningham
Phone: 617-728-4446 Ext.133
E-mail: [email protected]

KnowledgeWorks Foundation
Chris Hedges
Phone: 513-929-1136
E-mail: [email protected]

Middle College High School Consortium
Randy Fader-Smith
Phone: 718-482-5060
E-mail: [email protected]

National Council of La Raza
Jorge Naranjo
Phone: 202-776-1724
E-mail: [email protected]

SECME, Inc.
Ed Aebischer
Phone: 404-894-3314
E-mail: [email protected]

Utah Partnership Foundation.
Nathan Pierce
Phone: 801-538-1548
E-mail: [email protected]

W.K. Kellogg Foundation
David Cournoyer
Phone: 616-968-1611
E-mail: [email protected]

Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Beverly Sanford
Phone: 609-452-7007 Ext.18
E-mail: [email protected]

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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is dedicated to improving people’s
lives by sharing advances in health and learning with the global
community. Led by Bill Gates’ father, William H. Gates, Sr., and Patty
Stonesifer, the Seattle-based foundation has an asset base of $24.2
billion.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/education/schoolgrants/announcements/announce-020319.htm