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Volume 5, Issue 11 October
17,
Gates Briefing On the New Schools Project
This past
Thursday over
State
Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Ward started the briefing with a call
to action describing high schools as the greatest challenge facing
education. The Executive Director of the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s education initiative Tom Vander
John Dornan, Executive Director of the Public School Forum,
explained the logistics of the project and the timetable. The first focus of
the New Schools Project will be on creating Health Science Schools in
communities with large or regional health care facilities. That phase has already begun with a briefing
of 11 school systems that will be invited to apply for planning grants.
Phase Two
of the project will begin as early as December with a briefing of between 12-18
school districts that are already considering creating middle college programs
that will allow high school students to finish their high school credit work
while accumulating credit toward two-or-four year college degrees. Phase Three of the project is a collaboration between the State Department of Public
Instruction and the Public School Forum.
That phase will focus on rural schools located in low-wealth counties
that serve large numbers of at-risk students.
The final phase of the project will begin in late spring or summer. This will be a much broader call for proposals that will
create innovative, small high school programs.
Staff for
the New Schools Project will be in place by December and an Advisory Committee
that will report to the state's Education Cabinet is now in place to work
closely with the project.
Delegation Examining High Schools in
For the fifth time, the Public School Forum
is taking a delegation of
The
focus of this year’s international studies program is
In
According to John Dornan,
the Forum’s Executive Director, “This study could not be more
timely. With
The 22-person delegation will spend a full
week visiting high schools, meeting with governmental officials, and hearing
from education leaders in