A year ago, Diane Ravitch presented a pretty clear and almost scathing explanation of why the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation-sponsored small high schools initiative failed miserably.  Back in 2000, the Foundation thought it had found the “silver bullet” that would fix high schools with one fell swoop – make them smaller. After investing over $2 billion in 2,600 new small high schools, the Foundation concluded in November, 2008, that small schools were not the answer.  As Ravitch argued, the Foundation was mistaken in believing that the size of the school would answer the challenge of serving students who “are poor, have limited English language proficiency, and are more likely to require special education.” No doubt, Ravitch is correct in acknowledging the breadth and depth of factors that increase or diminish … Read entire article »

A year ago, Diane Ravitch presented a pretty clear and almost scathing explanation of why the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation-sponsored small high schools initiative failed miserably.  Back in 2000, the Foundation thought it had found the “silver bullet” that would fix high schools with one fell swoop – make them smaller. After investing over $2 billion in 2,600 new small high schools, the Foundation concluded in November, 2008, that small schools were not the answer.  As Ravitch argued, the Foundation was mistaken in believing that the size of the school would answer the challenge of serving students who “are poor, have limited English language proficiency, and are more likely to require special education.” No doubt, Ravitch is correct in acknowledging the breadth and depth of factors that increase or diminish … Read entire article »