Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Small Schools Grant

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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Small Schools Grant


•	Overview
•	Objectives
•	Draft Performance Indicators & Benchmarks
•	About the Foundation
•	Related Resources

Overview
On November 23, 2003, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded an $11 million grant to San Diego City Schools, in partnership with New American Schools. The purpose of the grant is to transform three large San Diego high schools into high-performing small learning communities. The under-performing high schools will be reorganized into small schools designed to increase student achievement and high school graduation rates. The grant will also support strategies for redesigning the district's alternative education system, including the development of middle college high schools.

The two primary goals of the grant are to:

Increase the number of college-ready SDCS high school graduates, particularly among low-income and minority populations
Improve students' post-secondary options, whether college, technical training or the workplace

Breaking down large, impersonal high schools into small learning communities is one aspect of San Diego's high school renewal plan. The renewal plan also focuses on:

Providing rigorous, challenging coursework
Enhanced teacher and administrator leadership
High-quality resources
Increased parent and community involvement

Why change to small schools? Research tells us by moving to smaller learning communities, we will be able to better address these issues. Evidence shows that good small high schools offer increased personalization, provide rigorous coursework, cultivate positive adult-student relationships, and better prepare students for college and work. According to multiple studies, students in good small high schools pass more courses, graduate, and go on to college in greater numbers than those in large schools. These positive outcomes appear to be greatest for low-income and minority students.

According to a Manhattan Institute study, just 62 percent of SDCS high school students graduate, and only one in three leave high school prepared to do college work. The situation for Hispanic and African-American students, who total over 55 percent of the school district, is even grimmer. Fewer than half of Hispanic students and only 54 percent of African-American students make it to graduation day. We believe by moving to a smaller learning community model, we will address and correct these discrepancies in achievement.

Objectives
The grant will help SDCS move to a 'portfolio' model of school management that offers students and their parents an array of high-quality school options while providing responsible oversight that is outcomes-oriented. This model stresses building system capacity by rethinking the district's central office systems and processes.

The project goals will be achieved by closing three large schools, and replacing them with up to 18 new small schools designed to foster student achievement and preparation for continued education or training. Central office operations will be reviewed to reconfigure them to support and provide needed resources for the new small schools.

Objectives for the implementation of the new small schools include:

Develop a comprehensive design/development plan for each new small school; succeed in obtaining Board approval of each development plan. These plans will be based on student needs identified through site-based research, including student surveys, focus groups and meetings with students and parents, as well as on identified design principles. Teacher leaders and community partners will be involved in the planning process for each new small school.
Establish a support structure for the design and startup of new small schools that identifies specific responsibilities at the district, educational complex site and individual small school level.
Leverage the delivery of expert technical assistance leading to a network of robust and sustainable new small schools.
Analyze resource needs; allocate resources and staffing, develop systems for providing student choice of school, and prepare staff, students, parents and the community for change.
Develop, in partnership with school staff, explicit milestones and benchmarks of progress for the early implementation phase.
Open up to 18 new small schools during the period of the grant.
Develop, in partnership with the new schools' staff, a long-term accountability plan, encompassing both site-specific, mission-based goals and system-wide indicators, consistent with federal, state and district accountability standards.

Proposed objectives for the development of the district's Office of Secondary School Innovation include:

Review and reconfigure central office operations to support and provide needed resources for the district's portfolio of new small schools.
Facilitate a data-driven learning and community outreach process for the new schools at the Lincoln educational complex, Morse High, and the district's alternative schools. In collaboration with parents, teachers, students and community members, the process will result in a specific set of recommendations and an action plan for new schools development.
Develop a system to track, analyze, and report new school and system performance on all accountability measures

Read the complete grant proposal narrative.

About the Foundation
The foundation was created in January 2000, through the merger of the Gates Learning Foundation, which worked to expand access to technology through public libraries, and the William H. Gates Foundation, which focused on improving global health. Led by Bill Gates' father, William H. Gates, Sr., and Patty Stonesifer, the Seattle-based foundation has an endowment of approximately $27 billion.

For more information, visit the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation website.

Related Resources

From the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

•	Fact Sheet: Making the Case for Small Schools
•	Report: High Schools for the New Millennium
•	Evaluation: National School District and Network Grants Program

•	The School Redesign Network at Stanford University
•	New American Schools

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