New Investment in Envision’s Network of Charter High Schools Boosts Efforts to Expand

SAN FRANCISCO -- Envision Schools today announced an additional $800,000 investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help expand a high-performing charter high school network to create eight academically rigorous schools for 4,000 Bay Area students by 2008. The new investment will further strengthen educational and operational support for Envision Schools, a nonprofit charter management organization that creates small, rigorous learning environments focused on high standards, a college-prep curriculum, and personalized support.

Envision Schools received a $3 million investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2003 to launch five charter high schools in the Bay Area. Today’s investment is recognition of the organization’s progress and will enable Envision Schools to accelerate its growth.

Envision Schools currently runs the Marin School of Arts and Technology in Novato, and City Arts & Technology High and Metropolitan Arts & Technology High, both in San Francisco. The organization has plans to open two more charter high schools next year, including one in Oakland, as it works toward its goal of opening eight small, college prep public schools in the Bay Area.

“It is an honor to have the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the leading advocate for high school reform in the country, recognize the potential of Envision Schools,” said Bob Lenz, chief education officer for Envision Schools. “This grant will help us reach our goal of getting all our students to graduate from college and be prepared to enter today’s challenging workforce.”

Envision’s City Arts and Technology High in San Francisco was recently recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as one of 12 exemplary charter schools in the country. The Envision model has already shown strong results with the Marin School of Arts and Technology (MSAT). This year MSAT achieved the fifth highest test score growth of the more than 500 charter schools in California, scoring over 800 on the state’s Academic Performance Index (API). With the 800 plus API score, MSAT reaches what the California Department of Education considers to be the gold standard for California schools, far exceeding the state average for improvement in just its second year.

While Envision’s schools in the Bay Area have demonstrated significant achievement gains, area high schools have had more mixed results. In San Francisco, about 70 percent of students graduate from high school, and the situation is even worse for minority students. A little more than 50 percent of

African American students, and fewer than 55 percent of Latino students, graduated from San Francisco’s public high schools in 2002, according to the Harvard University Civil Rights Project.  According to the Manhattan Institute, only one third of ninth graders in 1998-1999 graduated from California high schools in 2002 prepared for four-year colleges.

The latest investment by the foundation will help Envision Schools provide technical assistance, professional development, leadership training, and other tools necessary to effectively manage the organization’s growth to serve more students. The funds will also support the organization’s efforts to build additional partnerships to sustain the long term success of Envision Schools beyond the life of the foundation grant.  

“Envision Schools has developed what we believe is a strong formula for success,” said Tom Vander Ark, executive director of education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “By making it a top priority for its schools to provide a challenging curriculum, smaller, high-quality learning environments, and strong support for teachers and students, this program will help ensure that all students graduate from high school ready for college, work and citizenship.”

Envision’s schools are based on a nationally recognized model for excellence in secondary education. The high schools are small, academically rigorous public schools that engage diverse student bodies in challenging work that encourages critical thinking and creative skills. The schools also focus on mastering state standards and preparing students for college admission and graduation. Approximately 50 percent of the student bodies include first-generation-college-bound students.

To date, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested about $1 billion in efforts throughout the nation to support high school improvement, including the creation of more than 1,500 high-quality high schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia. As of this fall, more than 550 of these new and transformed high schools have opened.

Envision Schools’ partners include Stanford University; WestEd; the Small Schools Project at the University of Washington; U.C. Berkeley’s Career Academy Support Network; the Coalition of Essential Schools; Low Income Investment Fund and the California Charter School Association. The Stuart Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, the Gap Foundation, and the Taproot Foundation also support Envision Schools.

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Envision Schools is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit whose mission is to develop a cluster of small, high-performing public high schools in the Bay Area that engage diverse student bodies in rigorous academic work resulting in college graduation.