1. Opportunity gaps and the opportunities to close them
Reinventing School: The 6,000-Hour Learning Gap Stops Here
October 31, 2013
Will Miller
President
Good morning, everyone. I’m Will Miller, president of the Wallace Foundation.
Thank you, Lucy, for the invitation to come speak to you this morning. I want to thank Daren Walker and Fred Frelow and the rest of the folks at the Ford Foundation for hosting us today.
You’ve been hearing this morning from people more knowledgeable than I am about the TASC model and the ways in which TASC is working to bring more and better learning opportunities to kids who might not otherwise get them.
I’m going to try to pull some of these themes together as a way of wrapping up.

2. Today’s presentation The Wallace approach The growing opportunity gap
A possible bridge: rethinking the school day
TASC’s take
Philanthropy’s role
I will take about 20 minutes to talk about the broader landscape of education and opportunity in our country, where the work of organizations such as TASC fits in to that landscape, and what philanthropies like The Wallace Foundation and others in this room can do to help make this work as effective and efficient as possible.
But first, for those of you who may not be familiar with The Wallace Foundation, let me tell you a little about the approach we take to our work.
Those of you in the funding myths breakout session heard Sanjiv Rao describe how the Ford Foundation uses targeting to increase the impact of its strategies, which makes lots of sense. Our strategic logic is slightly different, but we often find our methods are complementary – allowing us to collaborate in ways that enhance both our approaches.

3. The Wallace Approach (Our theory of change)
Understand the Context
(Engage with the external environment to identify knowledge gaps, field interest, and time lines)
Our approach to philanthropy is guided by a theory of how we can maximize the impact of our charitable activities.
We fund the work of our partners first and foremost to deliver services to their target beneficiaries – in this case, the kids in TASC schools. At the same time, we design our initiatives to develop knowledge and insights from our grantees’ work that can help strengthen policy and practice nationwide. Let me illustrate how this knowledge agenda informs all our work.
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We start by trying to understand the context, and identify what we call high-leverage knowledge gaps – unanswered questions that, when answered, can make significant contributions to the field. With TASC, we were interested in learning at a more granular level what it takes to make public-private partnerships addressing the challenges facing our least advantaged kids effective and how these partnerships can help children succeed.
Next, we work with our grantee partners both to help them generate improvements, and to generate insights and evidence on what works and does not work. Our work with TASC falls in the box on the right.
We then invest in dissemination activities – first translating research findings into useful and useable formats for practitioners and policy makers, then driving traffic to our web site, getting our messages out there through various communications partners, and putting on conferences. Our goal is to share as widely as possible what we and our partners have learned so that the field can benefit.
Experience has shown that what we learn often deepens our understanding of a field and leads to new questions that become the focus of additional initiatives or rounds of grants.
So at the heart of our approach to philanthropy is this idea that progress is often blocked as much by lack of knowledge of what to do as it is by lack of money to do it.
In sum, we aim to create social value in two ways:
first by supporting the work of our grantees to benefit the kids they serve directly, and
second to add value by advancing knowledge that improves policy and practice in the field as a whole.
To hold ourselves true to this second goal, we ask ourselves a simple question: What are we doing in each of our initiatives that has the potential to help those working in this area who will never get a dime from us?
This is the approach we are bringing to our work with TASC
Generate Improvements and Insights
(Build promising new approaches and new evidence/knowledge)
Catalyze Broad Impact
(Improve practice and policy nationwide)

4. Today’s presentation The Wallace approach The growing opportunity gap
A possible bridge: rethinking the school day
TASC’s take
Philanthropy’s role
The backdrop for this work – the problem we hope to address – is the growing opportunity gap between wealthy and poor children in our country that Darren Walker opened this gathering by focusing on.
Darren laid out the problem compellingly.
And TASC’s video gave the facts expressed in terms of hours of learning. What I would like to add is the economics underlying the opportunity gap.

5. Spending on education 1984-2012
First, the amount parents spend on their children’s education in the last 28 years.
These are inflation-adjusted numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure surveys. Take these numbers with a grain of salt – BLS methodology can change from year to year, so we may not be comparing exactly the same set of expenses. But the trends are pretty clear: The wealthy invest more in their children’s education – as one would expect – and that gap is growing over time.
The poorest 20 percent of the country – the blue line here – has spent roughly the same amount on education as it did in 1984: about $630 for the year in 2012.
The wealthiest 20 percent on the other hand – the orange line – have nearly tripled their spending on education, from about $1,200 in 1984 to $3,400 in The richest quintile is now spending more than five times as much on education as the poorest quintile.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

6. Spending on enrichment 1972-2008
We can also see this gap if we look at enrichment over the last three decades, activities such as music, arts, sports and theatre.
Greg Duncan of the UC Irvine, and Richard Murnane, of Harvard, examined BLS data on household expenditure and calculated that in inflation-adjusted dollars, the most affluent parents’ spending on enrichment activities for their children grew about two and a half times from to That compared to an increase of only 57% for the least well-off parents. This widened what was already a substantial gap.
This data includes spending on private schools, which may go beyond what many consider enrichment. But again, the overall trend is clear. The opportunity gap as measured by spending on enrichment is growing and it is growing rapidly.
Source: Whither Opportunity?, 2011, Greg Duncan and Richard Murnane, ed., p. 11

7. The opportunity gap today
And where does this leave our country’s kids today?
According to the 2010 census, between 38 and 44 percent of children from higher-income families – families with a annual income of $72,000 or more shown in the green bars – were enrolled in lessons, clubs or sports outside of school. For children from the lowest income families – that’s families with annual income of less than $18,000 shown in the blue bars – that number falls to 20 percent or less.
Many experts conclude that the habits of persistence, teamwork and imagination – so-called non-cognitive skills – are developed at least in part through these sorts of enrichment activities. I myself am here today in no small part because of my experience in the theatre from middle school through college, which is where I learned how to tell a story and to speak in public.
When 80 percent of low-income kids do not get these kinds of experiences, that’s a loss.
We don’t have firm data to say that arts and enrichment lead to better grades or success later in life. But upper income parents seem to believe they do, as evidenced by the fact they’re putting their money behind it.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau

8. The achievement gap
At age 17, African-American and Latino students read and do math at the level of white 13-year-olds
Of 100 white students, 37 will get B.A. degrees; African-Americans, 20; Latinos, 12
As of 2005, U.S. one of only two OECD countries where children’s educational attainment did not exceed their parents’
Despite some progress in recent years, we still have an achievement gap that splits the country down racial and socioeconomic lines.
17-year-olds African-American and Latino end up reading and doing math at the level of 13-year-olds whites.
When they make it to college, 37 percent of white students end up getting B.A. degrees compared to only 20 percent of African-American students and 12 percent of Latino students.
The implications for our country as a whole are distressing. According to a 2005 survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- the global group of relatively advanced economies -- the U.S. was one of only two of its 34 member states where children were unable to exceed the educational attainment of their parents.

9. Today’s presentation The Wallace approach The growing opportunity gap
A possible bridge: rethinking the school day
TASC’s take
Philanthropy’s role
So how do we close this gap?
One option is to rethink the school day – to bring together schools and communities to give lower-income children in school the opportunities wealthier children get out of school.
And how do we do this?

10. It’s complicated It’s not just about time; quality matters
How can we make time count?
How much time to add?
How to balance academics and enrichment?
Who’s paying for this?
Well, it’s complicated. Research has shown that simply extending time in school doesn’t guarantee better grades and smarter kids. It has to be the right kind of time.
As Elena Silva -- formerly of the think tank Education Sector And now at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching -- had said, “not all time in school has the same impact on learning.... There is an enormous difference between time that is technically allocated for instruction and time spent authentically engaging students in learning.”
Exactly how we do that is less clear. The inputs are complex and there are a lot of open questions:
How much time is necessary and how do we make it count?
What’s the right balance between academics and enrichment?
And how do you build a sustainable financial model?
These aren’t easy questions. They’ll take time to answer. And we’ll all have to pitch in.
Indeed, a number of educators have concluded that [NEXT SLIDE] ... Schools can’t do it alone.

11. Schools can’t do it alone
“We have seen that school reform is necessary and enormously potent in boosting student success, but that, on average, it is insufficient to the task of closing achievement gaps.
I believe that our experience demonstrates, as Richard Rothstein and others have argued, that schools alone, conceived in our current early-20th- century model, are too weak an intervention, if our goal is to get all students to high levels of achievement. … What's needed is a new model of child development and education—a learning system that makes sense for the 21st century.”
-- Paul Reville, former Massachusetts, Secretary of Education, professor of education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Education Week, June 4, 2013
Paul Reville
Paul Reville, the former secretary of education in Massachusetts, which leads the nation in its student achievement results, surveyed his own state’s efforts and concluded that the school reform that produced those best-in-class results is necessary but not sufficient.
In an op-ed this year, he wrote: “Schools alone, conceived in our current early-20th-century model, are too weak an intervention, if our goal is to get all students to high levels of achievement. … What's needed is a new model of child development and education—a learning system that makes sense for the 21st century.”
Schools and communities have to work together to, in Paul Reville’s words, provide for poor children what all of us provide for our children. We need partnerships between schools and community organizations. BUT…

12. But collaborations are not easy
Problems can stem from:
Insufficient resources
Activities tangential to mission
Tension between partners
Such partnerships aren’t easy. The road to a successful collaboration is a rocky one, especially if it is among players from different sectors of society.
As the researcher Francie Ostrower has noted in this publication available on the Wallace Web site, collaborations can stumble badly when there are:
Insufficient resources,
Activities that are not central to the missions of the organizations involved, ... or 
Tensions resulting from mismatches that partners have over priorities, data, culture and metrics.

13. Today’s presentation The Wallace approach The growing opportunity gap
A possible bridge: rethinking the school day
TASC’s take
Philanthropy’s role
Which is why it is noteworthy that TASC has found a way to successfully manage collaborations with public schools.

14. Early results in NYC Attendance is up
Lucy Friedman mentioned this morning that TASC has been getting positive early results in attendance since the ExpandED program began in Here’s the data: Attendance rates are up in New York City, suggesting that TASC’s programs are engaging enough to keep kids and their parents interested.

15. Early results – Gains in achievement
Lucy also noted there have been some increases in English and math scores in New York. The pattern is clearest in math, with somewhat lesser effect so far on reading scores at the middle school level. Encouraging early signs, though it’s probably too early to make definitive claims about a cause and effect impact on student achievement.
This is not unique to TASC. As Roland Fryer noted in his video, Houston found the reading needle tougher to move than math. Michael Wienstein called this the “high-hanging fruit.”

16. What we can learn from TASC
Broadening the curriculum, not just extending it
Cost effectiveness
Expanded time by 35 percent for 10 percent of the cost of the school day
Scale and sustainability
TASC has demonstrated its willingness to help us learn
These results are particularly interesting to Wallace because of the opportunity to study what TASC does to achieve them.
TASC is well positioned to add to our knowledge about best how to balance academics and enrichment, a knowledge gap that is keeping us from using learning time as effectively as we can across the country – and from getting the best return on our investments. TASC has expanded learning time by 35% for just 10% additional cost. All of these insights are critical to learning how to scale programs and to making them more sustainable.
It is worth noting that underscoring all these strengths is TASC’s commitment to transparency.
As Michael Weinstein described, TASC is undergoing a thorough third-party evaluation of its programs, using a randomized controlled trial, to see where they are successful and where they are not. It isn’t always easy to take a candid and objective look at your own programs because it is always possible you’ll find things you may not like. But TASC is committed to taking take a thoughtful, introspective and objective approach.
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The fact that TASC shares this commitment with us to learning for the benefit of the field is what makes them such an attractive partner for Wallace.

17. Today’s presentation The Wallace approach The growing opportunity gap
A possible bridge: rethinking the school day
TASC’s take
Philanthropy’s role
So let me close here by reflecting on the role of those of us in the room who represent funders in this effort – on what philanthropies can do to encourage innovative solutions such as TASC’s

18. Social risk capital
“Free of market and political constraints, [foundations] are uniquely able, if they choose, to think the unthinkable, ignoring disciplinary and professional boundaries. They can take risks, consider approaches others say can’t possibly work – and they can fail with no terminal consequences.”
Helmut Anheier [AN-higher] and Diana Leat, authors of the book Creative Philanthropy, note that philanthropies are largely free of market and political constraints.
We are not subject to the pressures of the next quarterly earnings report or the next election. This is sometimes cited as a indication that we lack accountability because we can’t be voted out of office by shareholders or the electorate, which somehow makes us suspect or even undemocratic. But it also gives us a unique opportunity to create social value
My personal view is that, with some important provisos, our society is made stronger by having at least one sector with substantial resources whose purpose is to add social value independent of the required rate of return for a market-based investment and not captive to partisan politics.
My personal list of provisos include:
First, that the actors in this sector embrace accountability by being transparent about how they use the resources and what the results of these efforts are, and
Second, that we use our unique position responsibly and creatively by taking risks or – as [AN-higher] and [Leet] describe it, by considering approaches others say are not likely to work but which, if successful, could add real social value.
TASC is trying new approaches to help figure out what works. And it’s studying the outcomes of those approaches. Whatever the results, positive or negative, TASC’s experience will build our knowledge of the field. It will show us how we can most effectively and efficiently help the poorest kids in the country get a fairer shot at success in adulthood. That to me seems well worth the risk.
Thank you very much.
-- Helmut K. Anheier and Diana Leat,
Creative Philanthropy