Gates $3.77 Million Grant A Major Endorsement of DISD

Posted on January 22nd, 2009 8:37am by Wick Allison
Filed under Education

The continuing turnaround of the Dallas public schools is one of the major stories of this decade. When the Dell Foundation last year came to the table with a $5 million grant to back the reform movement, one of whose goals is to give parents , administrators, and principals tools for measuring schools and students, it was a mark of confidence. The Gates Foundation today will second the motion, putting DISD squarely in the national spotlight. To see what this private money is buying for the public benefit, go here. To catch up on the full story, buy our special edition here.

6 comments

  1. Probably would have been an even 5M if Tim hadn’t been so mean to Melinda’s brother…

    @ 9:10 am on January 22, 2009

  2. I would have donated $1.80M… as in, what the DISD needs to do by way of degrees.

    @ 10:00 am on January 22, 2009

  3. Congrats to DISD. For all the problems attracting the attention of the media and chattering classes, there are lots of good things going on in DISD classrooms that never get covered. I’m tired of hearing the constant neysayers bashing DISD, but never offering to crawl into the fray and get their hands dirty.

    Hoorah to the Gates Foundation. This is great news.

    @ 10:08 am on January 22, 2009

  4. Has the dropout rate fallen below 50%? Get back to me when it does……

    @ 10:26 am on January 22, 2009

  5. Hopefully the funds will be earmarked “HINOJOSA DO NOT TOUCH”

    @ 11:11 am on January 22, 2009

  6. Doug:

    According to the Texas Dept of Education –

    graduation rates of 68.8 percent for Dallas and 80.4 percent for Texas for the 2005-06 school year, the most recent period for which data is available.

    Yes, there are other private foundation measures that show it lower.

    So I guess you are spending lots of time tutoring and mentoring those at-risk teens? Or not so much……

    @ 5:00 pm on January 22, 2009