Gates Foundation announces more than $90M in grants for student achievement initiative

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is awarding more than $90 million in the form of 19 grants across 13 states as part of its Networks for School Improvement (NSI) initiative, a foundation official announced on Monday. The foundation received more than 530 grant applications to take part in the initiative, said Bob Hughes, the organization’s K-12 education director. An NSI is a group of middle and high schools that work with a central entity to improve outcomes for black, Latino and low-income students. One recipient is California’s High Tech High Graduate School of Education, which will partner with up to 30 schools and lead a College Access and Enrollment Network. Another is the Institute for Learning, which will team up with the Dallas Independent School District to increase the number of students proficient in English language arts. These 19 investments signal the start of a new, more collaborative movement to help students be successful, regardless of race, financial status or zip code, but it’s still a work in progress. The grants vary in amount and duration, depending on the size of an organization and how many indicators it’s focusing on, Hughes said. An indicator could be test scores, suspensions or grades, for example, and it’s evidence-based factors, he added, that help schools learn how to better serve students.