Gates Foundation Plans $57-Million in New Grants to Help Struggling Students

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation intends to spend an additional $57-million over the next two years to improve classes designed for college students who have fallen behind academically, Melinda Gates told an audience of community college presidents and others who work in education.

Speaking today in Seattle at the convention of the American Association of Community Colleges, Ms. Gates said the foundation would award grants to conduct research on remedial programs and expand ones that are effective.

The Gates fund has already paid about half of a $110-million commitment to remedial programs. The remaining $57-million in grants will be guided by what the foundation has learned through its past investments, such as the importance of promoting collaboration among middle schools, high schools, and colleges and offering programs that are flexible and tailored to fit the needs of individual students.

A recent report by a group called Jobs for the Future found that up to 60 percent of students enrolling in community colleges must take at least one remedial course to catch up with their peers. But only 25 percent of students who take these courses earn a degree within eight years of enrolling.

Ms. Gates called remedial programs an “afterthought” on most community college campuses.

“Either [community colleges] can keep doing what you’ve been doing, in which case you will gradually find yourself able to meet fewer and fewer of your students’ needs, or you can innovate,” she said. “You can educate your students according to new models that yield dramatically better results for a fraction of the cost.”