Bill Gates’ philanthropic organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is making an about-face on its education priorities to focus on networks of traditional public schools aimed at improving student achievement. The foundation long backed controversial education reforms, including retooling teacher evaluation and compensation systems based in part on student test scores and creating smaller schools.

Gates announced the switch in a speech before the Council of the Great City Schools, saying the foundation will wind down its work promoting teacher evaluation and ratings and cease to provide new funding for those projects. The foundation will also shift its focus from supporting the Common Core learning standards to developing content around states’ specific learning benchmarks.

The Gates Foundation plans to spend more than $1.7 billion over the next five years to fund new initiatives in public education, with 85 percent of the funding going to traditional public school districts and the remainder to charter schools.

About 60 percent of the new funds will be used to develop new curriculums and networks of schools that work together to identify local problems and solutions. According to Gates, about 30 such networks will be supported over the next five years. The first grants will go to high-needs schools and districts in six to eight states.

The Washington Post, Oct. 19