The Seattle Times – Katherine Long
“Working on reforming the U.S. education system is the hardest job they’ve ever tackled, Bill and Melinda Gates said Wednesday — even more difficult and complex than trying to find a cure for malaria. In the first major address assessing their educational-philanthropy work in seven years, the couple that lead the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation acknowledged that many issues surrounding education have become politicized. But they said they think they are on the right track by focusing on teacher training as the key to improving education, defended the use of testing as one way to measure teacher and student performance, and said the Common Core state standards are starting to show results. Each spoke at length during a Gates Foundation-sponsored event,a two-day conference in downtown Bellevue that is bringing together about 250 national education leaders and politicians. The forum marks the 15th year the foundation has been involved in U.S. education philanthropy.”(more)