Writer and philosopher George Santayana famously said that those who don’t learn from the past are condemned to repeat it. As the economic impacts of COVID-19 on our education systems increasingly come into focus, this axiom should be applied to state budgets for higher education. Over the past generation, we…

One of the most enduring myths about young people is that they don’t know what they want to do. In fact, young people often have a much clearer idea of where they want to go in life than they are given credit for. …

At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we talk a lot about data. …

Taking a page out of Melinda Gates’s book (figuratively, I mean…but if you haven’t read Melinda’s book, The Moment of Lift, you should), I’ve decided that instead of a resolution for 2020 I’m going to focus on a word for the year. Choosing a word for the year, Melinda says…

Last month at the ExcelinEd National Summit, I joined a panel on the topic of ‘The Future of Education’. To kick off the conversation, we were asked what we think our country’s education system will look like 100 years from now. …

Last week, the New York Times ran an article looking back on the 10 years since more than 40 states started using the Common Core State Standards as benchmarks for what students should know and be able to do at each grade level. The article asked whether — in light…

If you find yourself driving along the southern edge of Texas in the Rio Grande Valley, you’re likely to see billboards promoting local colleges or educational partnerships with the word “Contigo.” I don’t remember much of the Spanish I learned in high school, but I do know that “contigo” means…

Earlier this week I wrote about a recent trip I took to Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) to learn more about the how the Gates Foundation’s investments in Baltimore schools were supporting the district’s broader Blueprint for Success. …

After nearly two decades of investing in U.S. education, our team at the Gates Foundation has learned a number of lessons that inform our current work and strategies. One of those lessons can be boiled down into three words: local context matters. We don’t believe in a one-size-fits all approach…