K-12 Education
About K-12 Education Programs
Dedicated reformers have made remarkable gains in improving K-12 education over the past two decades, from expanding high-performing charter school networks to investing in excellent teachers and school leaders. Strategic philanthropy has been one of the most effective tools in advancing these breakthroughs. The Philanthropy Roundtable seeks to further increase and improve K-12 education reform philanthropy by connecting thought-leaders, practitioners, and donors with one another.
K-12 Donor Resource Library
Our K-12 resource library provides you with quick access to our latest K-12 education guidebooks as well as resources from past K-12 meetings and events. Go here to view and download these free resource materials.
Lasting Investments in Education
Chester Finn Jr., president and CEO of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, names the current, private, charitable investments in education that people will be talking about a century from now. Read this special excerpt from our Winter 2011 symposium.
Blended Learning
Sometimes the best innovations are accidental. A small online tutoring project launched by Sal Khan in his spare time quickly turned into an online teaching sensation. The Khan Academy’s fast-growing digital library of free tutorials—covering everything from basic addition to advanced calculus, physics, chemistry, and biology—has become an invaluable resource for students of all ages. Now Khan is beginning to change the way students learn in traditional classrooms. With philanthropic support, he and his colleagues are integrating self-paced computerized tutorials with live instruction and daily computerized assessment in model schools. The results could revolutionize teaching.
Five Achievable Breakthroughs in K–12 Education
The breakthroughs in education reform over the past several years are well known: Teach For America has provided leadership for the K–12 education reform movement, and charter schools like KIPP and YES Prep are on their way to scale. But what will the breakthroughs of the next decade be? And how will they build on past achievements? At a Philanthropy Roundtable conference in Houston, donors laid out the game plan for new breakthroughs.
An Episcopalian, an Atheist, and a Jew Walk into a Catholic School. . .
No, it’s not the setup to a joke. Donors of many faiths (and none at all) are stepping up to support America’s inner-city Catholic schools. Why? Because they see these schools as a vital national resource. For these non-Catholic “patron saints” of Catholic schools, it’s all about giving at-risk children a chance to achieve.
Growing Up Fast
Jay Mathews reports on the dramatic success of Houston’s two largest charter school networks, KIPP and YES. By 2017 they intend to be serving roughly 15 percent of all Houston public school students. Will Houston’s charter school expansion revolutionize urban education?
Guidebook — k 12 education
Saving America’s Urban Catholic Schools
Catholic schools nationwide—and especially in the inner cities—face a series of escalating challenges which continue to threaten their future viability. If these schools are to continue their mission of providing high-quality educational options for the families that need them most, urban Catholic schools will need strategic philanthropic support from donors of all faiths.
Guidebook — k 12 education
Investing in Charter Schools: A Guide for Donors
While charter schooling remains one of the nation’s most promising efforts to produce more excellent public schools, especially for low-income and minority students, the question is now one of expansion. How can donors help take the best of the charter sector to scale—while at the same time maintaining high standards of quality?
