School & District Management Series

Scaling Up, Scaling Down

Education Week’s two-part series takes a look at how districts are reforming in response to research demonstrating the positive role smaller school size plays in student learning.

Education Funding Gates-Financed Initiative Faces Instructional Hurdles, Report Says
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s campaign to produce small high schools is yielding schools with high academic expectations and personalized, collegial climates, a new report says, but the initiative should now turn more attention to day-to-day problems of teaching and learning.
Caroline Hendrie, June 23, 2004
3 min read
School & District Management In N.Y.C., Fast-Paced Drive for Small Schools
Determined to give thousands of teenagers a reason to come to school, education leaders in New York City are in the midst of what is arguably the nation’s most ambitious drive to "scale up" scaled-down schooling.
Caroline Hendrie, June 23, 2004
13 min read
School & District Management High Schools Nationwide Paring Down
As a strategy for reforming secondary education in America, small schools have gotten big. Includes a table, "Major Gates Foundation Grants to Support Small High Schools."

Caroline Hendrie, June 16, 2004
13 min read
School & District Management Personal Touches
There's a broad, $68 million effort across the 210,000-student Houston district to improve high schools and personalize learning..
Debra Viadero, June 16, 2004
11 min read
Education Major Gates Foundation Grants To Support Small High Schools
Place-Based Grants | Network, Replication, and Early-College Grants

Of the $2.2 billion in education-related grants made by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the past five years, about $647 million has gone to support the creation of smaller, more personalized high schools. The following list does not include $66.3 million the foundation has spent on policy, research, and evaluation projects related to the reform of secondary education. The grants listed do not add up to the total, partly due to overlap between the two categories of awards.

June 16, 2004
13 min read