Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Sends Grant to Iowa City's ACT

ACT, Inc. to Receive More Than $578,500 Over 2 Years

DALLAS, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced more than $22 million in investments in research and data systems. The grants are intended to help schools, districts and states gather and effectively use data to have maximum impact on teaching and learning and create evidence-based links between students, educators and policymakers. The grants are part of the foundation's efforts to ensure that all students can graduate from high school college-ready and earn a postsecondary credential with real value in the workplace.

The foundation announced grants to support research into the impact of teacher-level characteristics on student achievement to ACT, Inc. and Teach For America, as well as to the Educational Testing Service for an unprecedented research collaboration with the RAND Corporation and the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.

"As a country, we need to build an evidence base that will inform decision making at all levels in the system and lead to dramatic improvement in student achievement," said Vicki L. Phillips, director of education at the foundation, in remarks at a news conference at W.T. White High School in Dallas. "Useful data and solid research about what works will help empower teachers, schools and districts to more effectively keep students on the path to success in college and beyond. Our education system must be grounded in reliable data that assesses what works best in the classroom and serves the interests of all students."

The grants announced build on the new strategic direction of the foundation's education work: on supporting the work that students and teachers do in the classroom; empowering effective teachers through professional development, reward and recognition; innovation in engaging and supporting students of all achievement levels in the classroom and beyond; and ultimately doubling the number of low income young adults who earn a postsecondary credential. Underlying all of these strategic goals is a commitment to invest in research and data systems to inform decision making across the education system.

The foundation's emphasis on data and research is reflected in the recent appointment of Thomas J. Kane, Ph.D., as deputy director of education for data and research. Kane is a nationally recognized education policy expert and professor of education and economics at Harvard University, where he and his colleagues have been working with school districts around the country, using data to evaluate hiring and certification policies for teachers, public school choice systems, and the effect of charter and pilot schools on student outcomes.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its partners are working to ensure that all students graduate from high school prepared for college and go on to successfully earn postsecondary credential with value in the labor market, with a focus on low-income and minority students. Since 2000, the foundation has invested more than $2 billion to this end, supporting more than 2,600 schools in 45 states and the District of Columbia.

Grants to fund research on teacher effectiveness and its impact on student achievement ($9.8 million):

ACT, Inc. ($578,531 over 2 years) to explore the relationship between high school teacher characteristics and student learning outcomes. Using new data collected from a large national sample of students and teachers, ACT and a team of university-based researchers will examine high school teacher qualifications, including certifications, educational record, subject training, years teaching, and other experience variables. Results from this study will be made public in 2009. ACT is an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides more than a hundred assessment, research, information, and program management services in the broad areas of education and workforce development.