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The Microsoft founder sat down with Education Week at the National Charter Schools Conference in Chicago to discuss innovation technology and his foundations influence on school policy. The nations charter schools should use their freedoms to boldly innovate & create promising strategies and practices that can be used by all schools.
Gates the founder of Microsoft is the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which gives more funding to education than any other philanthropy in the nation. He expanded on his remarks and answered questions about a few more subjects in an interview with me after his public remarks.
The fact is the majority of children in the country are attending schools that dont work for them. So its imperative that we take the risk to make change Gates said to the audience at the National Charter Schools Conference in Chicago.
Not just small change at the margin but dramatic changes that are centered around the student. I believe the seeds of that new approach are being sown at those high-performing charter schools said Gates.
He called for the elimination of state caps on charter schools more equitable public funding for charters and better partnerships with school districts. The foundation this fall will announce a series of compacts between charters and district partners he said.
Gates challenged charter school authorizers and managers to make sure charters are high-performing and to close those that dont meet the bar after giving them a chance to improve.
I really think that charters have the potential to revolutionize the way students are educated. But to deliver on this promise its important that the movement do
even more to hold itself accountable for low-performing charters he said.
The deal that allowed for the autonomy has to be a real deal Gates continued. The freedom to perform in new ways means that if you dont perform things are shut down after you are given a chance.
In a one-on-one interview with Education Week after his speech Gates said he believes charters have largely lived up to their promise of creating innovative high-quality education for students but he wants to see more risk taking especially with creating new evaluation structures for teachers and using technology to make sure students have a firm grasp of what content they have and have not mastered.
The movement has to keep trying new things he said.
One concern in making better use of technology is making sure access exists not just in urban and suburban areas but also in rural areas.
The man who helped put personal computing on the map said he believes the digital divide is narrowing.
