Gates grant would provide additional supports for 12 secondary schools

Students at 12 Dallas ISD secondary schools may have the opportunity to make continuous academic improvement with the help of a $7.4 million Gates Foundation grant awarded to the Institute for Learning (IFL), an outreach of the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center.

Upon the Dallas ISD Board approval in September, the IFL would like to partner with Dallas ISD to provide professional learning and support services to teams of teachers and administrators from the selected secondary schools. The focus of the partnership would be to increase the number of African-American, English Learners, Latino, and low-income students identified as on track for high school graduation at by the end of ninth grade.

The Networks for School Improvement (NSI), an initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, awarded the grant today to the IFL. NSI will support schools in their efforts to improve and better serve students through curriculum development and best practice implementation.

While the grant was only recently approved by the Gates foundation, more details about the potential partnership and benefits to the district will be shared during the September board briefing.