Education Overview

Since 2000, the foundation's Education Program has focused on increasing the percentage of students, particularly African Americans and Hispanics, who graduate from high school with the high-level skills they need to be successful in college, work, and citizenship.

America's public high schools are obsolete. They were designed for a different time. Their failure to redefine themselves and their mission has left today's students ill-prepared to meet the pressing economic and civic demands of the 21st century. According to recent reports from the Urban Institute and the Manhattan Institute, nearly one third of all incoming high school freshmen do not graduate. More than half of those who do earn a diploma don't have the skills to succeed in college or hold down a family-wage job. For the sake of our economy and our democracy, we must redesign the American high school.

To that end, the foundation's investments have helped support the creation of hundreds of rigorous, new, high-quality high schools and the conversion of large, struggling ones into dynamic smaller schools. These schools come in many forms, but all of them give students a rigorous, relevant curriculum and foster close relationships between students and adults. More than 400 such schools had opened in 40 states and the District of Columbia by the start of school in 2004.

In 2004, the Education program used ongoing, in-depth evaluations of our work to refine our grantmaking strategy. Our overarching goal remains the same: to raise graduation and college-readiness rates, particularly for African American and Hispanic students. But we have expanded our efforts from an emphasis on school-level investments to a broader and more deliberate strategy that focuses on every level of the system. This includes supporting district-wide strategies that embrace the mission of preparing all students for college and work; forming partnerships with districts and states to improve existing schools and develop new schools; supporting statewide education policies that reinforce the goal of giving all students access to a top-notch education. We also pursued ongoing work with intermediaries to help them replicate proven new school models and strategies for improving schools.

We continue to invest in research and evaluation, which will inform our own efforts and provide tools for others. The work is challenging and complex, but we know success is possible—schools and districts across the country prove it every day.

To learn more about a few of our grantees, click through the milestones at the top of this page. And to see a complete list of all the foundation's grants, go to our Grants Highlights page.