Gates Foundation Giving $37 Million to Small Schools

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said this week that it will donate $37 million to help create and sustain dozens of small elementary and secondary schools from Napa to San Diego.

The largest single grant, nearly $16 million, will go to the Bay Area Coalition of Essential Schools, a nonprofit group that plans to start 10 small schools in Oakland over the next five years.

Also receiving grants will be the High Tech High Foundation, which operates a fledgling charter high school in San Diego that aims to teach high-tech skills to a diverse group of students.

Another beneficiary is the National Council of La Raza, a leading Latino advocacy organization, which will receive funds to open 15 new charter schools throughout the Golden State.

With $22 billion in assets, the Seattle foundation started by Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp.’s founder and chairman, and his wife, Melinda, is the wealthiest philanthropic foundation in the world.

Last March, foundation officials said they planned to spend $350 million over the next three years on education programs. They have since been scouring the country in search of schools and organizations that strive for high achievement.

Among the attributes they seek are a common focus, high expectations for all students, devotion to teacher training, a personalized approach and effective use of technology, said Tom Vander Ark, the foundation’s executive director for education. In many cases, he said, those tend to be found in small schools.

“We believe that large, comprehensive schools don’t work for most students, particularly poor kids of color in urban centers,” Vander Ark said. Despite “outrageously high” dropout rates, he added, “we continue to build these large schools that don’t work.”

The small-school movement is gaining steam as research demonstrates that large schools are alienating and impersonal. In Los Angeles, for example, the size of the $200-million Belmont Learning Complex--in addition to questions of toxicity at the site--was a factor that led school board members to abandon the project.

A foundation statement said the grants announced this week will help create or support dozens of small schools in the state over the next five years.

Most of the grant recipients are secondary schools or school networks that have demonstrated a commitment to using research-based practices to meet students’ needs.

The Bay Area Coalition of Essential Schools, for one, leans heavily on research in its support of small schools.

“The research points clearly to the reality that the kids who would benefit most [from a small school environment] are those in larger schools in urban areas,” said Lisa Lasky, the group’s deputy director.

The group opened one small school in September, and design teams are developing others. Lasky said each school would be designed to accommodate about 300 students.

As part of its three-year commitment to education, the foundation is doling out grants totaling $100 million for leadership development in every state. Vander Ark said the organization hopes to announce its leadership grant to California soon.

Separately, it is providing $50 million for teacher training, mostly in Washington state, where software giant Microsoft is based.

Here is how the California grants were broken down:

* $15.7 million to Bay Area Coalition of Essential Schools in Oakland. Using the Gates money and funds from other sources, the coalition plans to create a network of 22 to 35 small public schools in traditionally underserved areas. The effort will begin in Oakland and spread to San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose and San Juan Bautista.

* $3.2 million to Aspire Public Schools, based in San Carlos, which plans to open five small high schools over the next few years. The nonprofit group now operates three charter schools serving kindergarten through eighth grade in Stockton, Oakland and Modesto.

* $4.9 million to the New Technology Foundation. The group will use New Technology High School, a public school in Napa, as a model in developing 10 small high schools in Northern California. Each student at the school has a computer.

* $6.4 million to the High Tech High Foundation. The group will use High Tech High in San Diego as a model to create 10 similar small schools where technology is a fundamental tool for teachers and students. High Tech High was launched in September by a coalition of technology industry leaders and educators.

* $6.8 million to the National Council of La Raza. Based in Washington, the advocacy group plans to help establish a network of charter schools serving Latino communities throughout California. Lisa Navarrete, a council spokeswoman, said the group hopes to open a school in Los Angeles but has not yet selected a partner.