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Education is in the news, thanks to a national organization and Melinda Gates.

By: Jake Solochek The Center for Education Reform selected Downtown Academy of Technology & Arts in Fort Lauderdale as one of the top two percent charter schools this year in the USA.

Fifty-two schools were chosen out of more than 4,000 charter schools. Criteria included achievement and parental involvement.

Downtown Academy last year went from an F to an A school based on scores in the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT), and the school integrates the use of compact disks (CDs) in its delivery of information to the students. CDs provided by CDsForParents.com include over 400 books on one CD, derived from the Gutenberg Project (Gutenberg.org).

On the same day that the award was announced, Melinda Gates, wife of the billionaire founder of Microsoft Inc., was interviewed on National Public Radio. Here are some extracts from her talk:

SUMMARY
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has put a new emphasis on education with its most recent charity initiative.
Robert Siegel spoke with Melinda Gates, co-chair of the world's largest philanthropic organization and wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, about the new $60 million initiative to ensure education reform has a prominent place in the coming presidential campaign.
The program, Strong American Schools, is a jointly funded effort with The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.
In her interview, Gates said that Americans don't talk about the fact that millions of students drop out of high school each year – and that number jumps 50 percent when looking at the African-American population.

NPR: Is the problem lack of awareness of the problem of school dropouts, or is it that people attribute that to the students and not to the schools?
Gates: I think it goes both ways. I think the Americans need to understand that a lot of times the children are bored in school, and that is why they are not staying in. But people don't realize that schools can do the right things to support students, that if the high expectations of students with great curriculum, if they are attracting and retaining the best teachers, if they are supporting the students in the schools, that there is a solution. It is fixable.
NPR: From the material that I have seen, Strong American Schools has no official stand on vouchers, on charter schools, on No Child Left Behind, or on any other bill in Congress. It sounds like you're going to be taking a – well, making a great effort to put the question to the public and to provoke answers. Why not, with all of the experience that you have from educational grants that you have made already, get behind and answer it?
Gates: Because I think it's more important to get the American people demanding of the presidential candidates that they address these issues. The thing that we are talking about is bigger than any specific one piece of bill or one legislation; it's having Americans rise up and say, 'Let's collectively do something about it; let's debate the issues; let's come up with the right solutions.' We're not trying to dictate a solution. We don't think we have all of the answers, but we think the American people should make sure that their candidates lead on this issue and come up with the right answers.
NPR: Gallup polled Americans last month, and they were told that education ranked as priority number seven for people, and in that poll, people said that to improve public education we need, more than anything else, more teachers and better teachers. Do you accept that as a given, that we need more teachers and better teachers?
Gates: Yes, we accept as a given that we need better teachers. There are absolutely lots of teachers who are trying to come into the profession, but they are not attracted enough to say, 'I'm going to switch careers to do it,' or they are often not retained … because the salaries and the compensation aren't there to make it happen.
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In a speech in February 2005, given to the nation’s governors, Bill Gates emphasized the importance of focusing on small schools:

The new three R’s, the basic building blocks of better schools: The first R is Rigor – making sure all students are given a challenging curriculum that prepares them for college or work;
The second R is Relevance – making sure kids have courses and projects that clearly relate to their lives and their goals;
The third R is Relationships – making sure kids have a number of adults who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve.
The three R’s are almost always easier to promote in smaller ... schools. The smaller size gives teachers and staff the chance to create an environment where students achieve at a higher level and rarely fall through the cracks. Students in smaller schools are more motivated, have higher attendance rates, feel safer, and graduate and attend college in higher numbers.

-- from a speech by Bill Gates, Feb. 2005

Do you see were you and I come in here? We are mentors, but we just haven't been going to where the kids are. We need to be more involved with kids. We can be the adults "who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve."
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The bottom lines:
1. If you want to make a difference in education, visit a small school wherever you are traveling. You sometimes have more time when you travel to participate in a school than when you are busy with your daily life. The principal will often want you to answer questions from children. The school in the article is located at www.downtownacademy.org
2. Charter schools might be one way to spend public dollars more effectively to get the small school effect.
3. We can get there if we follow the suggestions of the Gates Foundation (which spent four years collecting suggestions from school advocates). The summary is given at www.findasmallschool.com

WEB RESOURCES
Steve McCrea, http://www.findasmallschool.com
Founder, http://www.roadlovers.com/
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-c3bdig_24apr24,0,394618.story
www.npr.org and search on “Melinda Gates”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9821578
http://www.Gutenberg.org, http://www.Cdsforparents.com