Bill Gates may have dropped out of college, but he doesn’t want poor kids to drop out of high school. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is investing $9.9 million to underwrite the expansion of the Georgia-based Communities in Schools program to Virginia and three other states. CIS, which targets students who have dropped out or are threatening to drop out of high school, will set up shop in the Richmond region.
While less than half of low-income and minority students in the U.S.complete high school, 85 percent of CIS students earn their diplomas and two-thirds go on to some form of post-secondary education.
According to a CIS press release, the program supports at-risk students with community resources and services, balancing health, safety, and social needs with academic demands. Instructors work with students to create individualized learning plans, and equip them with the “CIS Five Basics:” (1) a one-on-one relationship with a caring adult, (2) a safe place to be, (3) a healthy start in life, (4) a marketable skill to use upon graduation, and (5) an opportunity to give something back to the community.
I don’t know if this program will work or not, but we need more experiments like this. The trouble with a top-down school system like Virginia’s is that it discourages localized experimentation and innovation. Let’s hope Bill Gates can succeed where so many others have failed.