Gates Donates $3.6 Million to Broad Residency

From a recent press release:

Record Number of Broad Residents Take on Local, State, Federal Roles Managing Education Reform

Published: Wednesday, Sep. 8, 2010 - 5:13 am

By The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 8 -- Broad Residency Receives $3.6 million Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Help Execute Teacher Effectiveness Initiatives

This donation from one billionaire to another billionaire's corporate training program is tied, at least in part, to the $290 million Gates Foundation investment in pay per test score programs coming to three cities and a consortia of LA-based charters.

Here's the rest of the press release:

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Broad Residency in Urban Education announced today it has placed its largest class of 42 early career executives into 28 public education systems across the country, expanding for the first time into state departments of education.

The Broad Residency is a management development program that places talented executives with private and civic sector experience and advanced degrees from top business, public policy and law schools into two-year, full-time, paid positions at the top levels of urban school districts, state and federal departments of education and leading charter management organizations. Broad Residents work to improve central office management practices so that more money reaches the classroom, teachers receive effective support and students receive a quality education. During their two-year "residency," participants receive intensive professional development and access to a nationwide network of education reform leaders, which enables them to actively share their successes and experiences as they work to improve the delivery of quality education.

The Broad Center has received a $3.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to recruit and train as many as 18 Broad Residents over the next four years to provide management support to school districts and charter management organizations addressing the issue of teacher effectiveness. Broad Residents will help school systems dramatically improve the recruitment, selection, training, placement, and evaluation of teachers. The Gates Foundation grant is the first multi-million-dollar grant The Broad Residency has received from a funder other than The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

Also, for the first time since The Broad Residency began in 2002, two Residents will be working at the state level, for the Delaware and Louisiana departments of education, in which significant reforms are underway. For the second year, Broad Residents will be working at the U.S. Department of Education, supporting states and school districts in their efforts to improve student achievement.

"We are pleased that these bright managers will help large education systems – including state departments of education – use limited resources to better support teachers and deliver results for students, parents and communities," said Eli Broad, founder of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

To date, 215 Broad Residents have been placed in 32 school districts and 23 public charter school management organizations nationwide. Nine out of ten Broad Resident graduates have stayed in the field of urban education.

The 2010-2012 Residents will be working in the following school districts:

• Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, N.C.
• Chicago Public Schools
• District of Columbia Public Schools
• Denver Public Schools
• Detroit Public Schools
• Fulton County Schools, Ga.
• Hillsborough County Public Schools, Fla.
• Houston Independent School District
• Knox County Schools, Tenn.
• Memphis City Schools, Tenn.
• New Haven Public Schools, Conn.
• New York City Department of Education
• Pittsburgh Public Schools
• Prince George's County Public Schools, Md.
• Providence Public Schools, R.I.
• Washoe County School District, Nev.

In addition, 2010-2012 Residents will work in the following charter school management organizations:

• Achievement First, New York
• Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, Los Angeles
• Aspire Public Schools, Oakland, Calif.
• Green Dot Public Schools, Los Angeles
• KIPP, Houston
• LEARN Charter School, Chicago
• New Schools for New Orleans, New Orleans
• The College-Ready Promise, Los Angeles
• Uncommon Schools, New York

For a list of this year's Broad Residents, bios, photos and quotes, please visit http://broadresidency.org/residents/2010-2012.html. For examples of specific, quantifiable outcomes Broad Residents have achieved to improve operations and teaching and learning across the country, please visit http://www.broadresidency.org/about/results.html.

All Broad Residents have M.B.A.s or other advanced degrees. Seventy-four percent of this year's class, selected from a candidate pool of more than 2,500 applicants, come from leading business and law schools such as Harvard University, Duke University or the University of Michigan. Participants have an average of 10 years of experience, typically from a Fortune 500 or other major company. Fifty-two percent are people of color. The Broad Residency continues to be far more selective – at 2 percent – than the highest-rated M.B.A. programs.

The Broad Residency (www.broadresidency.org) pays 50 percent of each Resident's salary the first year, and 25 percent the second year, with the partner organization paying the balance, except where a Resident is already employed by that organization. The Broad Center also covers the full cost of professional development sessions for all Residents.

The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems, which operates The Broad Residency, is funded by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation (www.broadeducation.org), a national venture philanthropy established by philanthropist Eli Broad to advance entrepreneurship for the public good in education, science and the arts.

SOURCE The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems

The Gates Foundation also released their annual report yesterday.

Some recent grants:

• $275,000 to the Center for Education Reform "to support development of a new awareness tool, "The Bullpen", that will offer and analyze real time education news"
• $3.4 million to Stand for Children Leadership Center "to support education reforms, training, technical assistance, and tools designed to increase teacher effectiveness"
• $1 million to the Center for American Progress (sic) "to fund Empowering Effective Teachers advocacy grantees and an additional leading organization to communicate the importance of reforms and support progressive states to implement them".