Gates Foundation awards $40 million to city schools (Pittsburgh: school districts, bill)

[dugdogmaster]

Gates Foundation awards $40 million to city schools

Gates Foundation awards $40 million to city schools

In what officials said would be the largest grant ever made directly to the Pittsburgh Public Schools, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has offered the district $40 million for sweeping initiatives to maximize teacher effectiveness.


The school board will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. today to vote on accepting the grant, which would help finance an $85 million-plus campaign to improve the way teachers are recruited, inducted, evaluated, recognized and compensated.


The district would be one of the Gates Foundation's four "intensive partnership sites" for teacher-effectiveness initiatives nationwide.
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[BrianTH]

Great news! We discussed this a bit back when Pittsburgh made the finalist list, and the bottomline is that research has shown that funding targeted directly on instruction can in fact make a significant difference in outcomes, particularly after adjusting for the relevant characteristics of the student body. So that is why the Gates Foundation adopted this focus, and it is fantastic that they have chosen Pittsburgh to be on the leading edge of these efforts.

[pman]

in some ways, pittsburgh is choosing to be part of the research no? DC was trying to implement performance pay but I know the national teachers union showed up to pressure the local union to reject it. either way, it sounds like a positive development. improving urban schools would go a long way to solving some of pittsburgh's (nay, all cities) problems which, of course, is why the Gates foundation is doing this.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by pman

in some ways, pittsburgh is choosing to be part of the research no?

Absolutely, and in fact part of the process of getting the grant involved Pittsburgh persuading the Foundation that all of the relevant stakeholders, including the teachers' union, were on board with participating.

[Geeo]

It was refreshing to read this morning that everyone is on board with this, from administration to unions. I'm sure that was one of the conditions of the grant. This is great news for Pittsburgh.

[Sideblinded]

WTG! This is a big deal!!

So many school districts in declining population cities are still declining at a rapid pace. Pittsburgh is being proactive, rebounding and doing better.

Not many cities can say that.