Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Request for Information – Bright Spots in Middle Years Math

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s K-12 Education program aims to significantly increase the number of Black, Latino, and low-income students who earn a high school diploma, enroll in a postsecondary institution, and are on track in their first year to earn a credential with labor-market value. Opportunity and support are particularly lacking for Black, Latino, and low-income students in the current public education system, and the Foundation believes that communities and the economy will be strongest when all students have the opportunity to achieve their full potential.
As part of the Foundation’s effort to support innovation in K-12 education, it is developing a focused research and development (R&D) program to support Black, Latino, and low-income students. One of its first projects is aimed at the achievement of high levels of performance in middle years mathematics (approximately grades 3-9). This R&D program aims to develop, test, and create mechanisms to support the use of a set of specific teaching and learning approaches that drive faster and deeper learning in mathematics, enabling Black, Latino, and low-income students to be fully prepared to be successful by 9th grade. The Foundation is looking for “breakthrough” approaches, which can support students to consistently:

• Gain substantially more than a year of learning growth in a single year, enabling those that are behind to accelerate their progress towards grade-level standards
• Demonstrate levels of student engagement and motivation in mathematics that show promise in driving significantly higher levels of knowledge and application
• Achieve high levels of proficiency on summative grade-level assessments

The ultimate goal is to dramatically improve middle years math instruction, so that every Black, Latino, and low-income student deeply knows, is able to use, and enjoys math by the time they are in high school.

To begin building the middle years math R&D program, the Foundation is issuing a request for information (RFI) that seeks to identify approaches that already have begun to show significant promise in supporting Black, Latino, and low-income students to achieve high performance in mathematics and/or approaches that support grades 3-12 teachers of mathematics.

Amount: Responses received from this RFI will help guide and refine the Foundation’s plans in how to invest in future math R&D efforts. It anticipates direct follow up may occur with select RFI respondents to discuss future opportunities to collaborate.

Eligibility: No limitations indicated.

Link: http://k12education.gatesfoundation.org/bright-spots-rfi/

Note: An optional webinar will be held on May 3, 2018; see the following link for more information and to register: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/qyrwbbdb

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