Alliance for Learning: In Pursuit of 'All One System'

By Meg Sommerfeld

In the 1970's, the ARCO Foundation, like many other corporate-giving programs, awarded nearly 100 percent of its education grants to private institutions of higher education.

Today, the Los Angeles-based energy corporation gives 80 percent of the $2.8 million it gives away each year in education grants to school-reform efforts.

ARCO shifted philanthropic gears when it became convinced that the best way to respond to poor student achievement and high dropout rates was to target its funds on problems earlier in the educational process, the foundation's president,...