Pittsburgh schools polish final pitch for big Gates grant
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Invited by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to compete for half a billion dollars in teacher-effectiveness grants, Tulsa Public Schools in Oklahoma put about 80 people to work on a proposal.
Pittsburgh Public Schools, also invited to apply, invested hundreds of employee hours on its plan and worked so closely with outside technical advisers, McKinsey and Co., that it gave them office space at district headquarters in Oakland.
Hillsborough County Public Schools in Florida assembled focus groups of teachers, administrators and community members to gather input for a proposal, which has been through nine or 10 drafts.
The proposals had to be turned in by Friday, but the unusually rigorous application process isn't over yet.
In all, 10 invitees -- most of them urban districts in various stages of broad improvement campaigns -- will meet Wednesday in Seattle to make presentations to Gates officials. Then they'll wait to see who is selected for prestigious Gates funding -- and wonder whether Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his wife will have a hand in the decision-making.
"We're just kind of taking deep breaths right now," said H.J. Green, Tulsa's deputy superintendent for operations and high school reform. Tulsa will give a PowerPoint presentation and show a three-minute video.
Teacher effectiveness is a new focus for the Gates Foundation, coming after its highly publicized, large-scale investment in small high schools around the country yielded less-than-desired achievement gains.
Gates announced the new initiative in November, saying it will work with a "handful" of districts and charter schools on its five-year, $500 million Intensive Partnerships to Empower Effective Teachers program.
Only about half of the 10 applicants are expected to make the final cut. Besides Pittsburgh, Tulsa and Hillsborough, the applicants are Atlanta; Denver; Memphis, Tenn.; Omaha, Neb.; Palm Beach County, Fla.; Prince George's County, Md.; and a group of Los Angeles charter schools.
The goal is to improve student achievement by increasing the number of effective teachers on the front lines. With Gates' backing, applicants have the chance to try something bold and to do it in a big way.
Gates, noted Hillsborough County school spokesman Steve Hegarty, isn't interested in "more of the same."
The foundation has given no timetable for announcing which applicants will be selected for the initiative; nor has it said how much money would be invested in any one applicant.
Applicants studied such issues as teacher evaluation systems, pay-for-performance programs and special pay for teachers who accept extra-challenging assignments. Some applicants are looking at their own experiences and those of others, but Pittsburgh is doing only a little of that.
"I think, more, we're looking at the body of research around issues of hiring, recruiting, training, evaluating, deploying and compensating teachers," Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt said.
Mr. Roosevelt and about 15 staff members held a rehearsal Friday to iron out kinks in Pittsburgh's presentation.
The stakes are high. Without Gates backing, the applicants may be left with great plans, but no way to immediately implement them.
Gates did not have an open application process; rather, it approached districts it considered ripe for the program because of stability, good labor relations or other reasons. Before and after selecting the applicants, the foundation dispatched representatives to Pittsburgh and the other cities to check out the political climate, speak to community partners and determine the applicants' ability to manage a large grant and wherewithal to pull off a major project -- and sustain it once Gates funding runs out.
Applicants had about three months to prepare proposals, and Gates set certain ground rules:
• Each district's superintendent had to make a "significant, weekly time commitment" to the application process.
• Proposals were limited to 60 pages, plus appendices.
• Each district had to send a team of no more than five or six senior officials to three rounds of meetings with Gates officials, the final round set for Wednesday and Thursday. Gates is covering travel costs.
To make proposals as thorough as possible, each applicant had the help of a Gates-paid consulting firm. Pittsburgh used McKinsey and Co., the same firm that did early legwork for the Pittsburgh Promise college scholarship program.
Some grants require more work than others, but applicants said the Gates process was especially taxing.
Nat Harrington, spokesman for Palm Beach schools, compared it to an academic accreditation process.
The applicants said they'd been arriving at work early, staying late and pushing back other business to get the work done. Mr. Hegarty of the Hillsborough County district said at least one meeting was held at the home of Superintendent MaryEllen Elia, and he said he knows of one official who hasn't been able to avail herself of the district's four-day summer work week.
"She's doing seven-day work weeks," he said.
In Pittsburgh, foundations and community groups have given the school district feedback on its proposal ideas. The foundations, which have made significant investments in the district, also have written letters of support intended to bolster Gates' confidence in the district.
"Speaking for us, we are committed for the long run," Doug Root, spokesman for the Heinz Endowments, said in an e-mail. "That is important for Gates to know."
Correction/Clarification: (Published Aug. 4, 2009) MaryEllen Elia is superintendent of the Hillsborough County Public Schools in Florida. This story as originally published Aug. 3, 2009 confused her with Arthur Johnson, superintendent of Palm Beach County Schools in Florida.
First Published August 3, 2009 12:00 am
