Ford Foundation to Give $100 Million for Education

The Ford Foundation has pledged to make grants of $100 million available to improve public education. The new program will target seven cities — Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Newark, New York, and Philadelphia, and will focus on four goals: raising the quality of teaching, exploring the idea of how lengthening the school day and year can improve learning, using new ways to measure school and student performance, and examining why states often do not offer adequate financial resources to poor school districts. Luis A. Ubiñas, president of the foundation, said that the new grant-making effort will seek to “shake up the conversations surrounding school reform.” 

JDC