Gates Foundation Focusing on Community College Access and Student Success
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has redefined their educational mission to two key areas that they (and I) hope will have a huge impact on community colleges: first, ensuring that a high school education should result in college readiness, and second, that postsecondary education should result in a degree or certificate with genuine economic value.
The attached paper, “Postsecondary Success”, documents how a high school diploma used to be a ticket to middle class success, but that more than half of new jobs created through 2014 will require some level of postsecondary education.
The Gates Foundation is operating under four principles:
- Postsecondary education is the critical pathway to leading individuals and their families out of poverty
- Doubling the numbers will require innovation and performance improvements within the current system
- Effective innovations and improvements will put young people at the center, driving towards a system designed to ensure that students succeed
- Business partnerships are critical to success
Special thanks to a very good friend and Sierra College faculty member who sent this to me! You know who you are. 
