I just finished reading your letter, What if? Thank you for the update on your work. The introductory paragraph is stirring:
What if infectious diseases could no longer wreak havoc on poor communities? What if women and girls everywhere were empowered to transform their lives? What if all children - especially the poorest - had an equal opportunity to reach their full potential?
I’m on board. What’s not to like? Well, I’ll tell you, Sue.
As you note, some of the Gates Foundation initiatives are working better than you thought, while others require course correction “to tackle complex challenges.” You address the latter category in the section “U.S. Lessons in Education”:
Deep and deliberate engagement is essential to success. Rigorous standards and high expectations are meaningless if teachers aren’t equipped to help students meet them.
Unfortunately, our foundation underestimated the level of resources and support required for our public education systems to be well-equipped to implement the standards. We missed an early opportunity to sufficiently engage educators - particularly teachers - but also parents and communities so that the benefits of the standards could take flight from the beginning.
I appreciate your reflectiveness. You’ve been at your post for two years—long enough, I’m sure, to have noticed the scathing critique of the foundation’s signature domestic initiative. Much of it has come from teachers, whom you’ve insufficiently engaged. Education is in their “wheelhouse,” as you in industry like to say, but their expertise has been roundly dismissed.
To continue reading this essay by Susan Ochshorn, founder of ECE PolicyWorks, go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...ndhe_b_10131360.html
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