Pittsburgh Schools Receive Teaching Grant

The Gates Foundation has announced a new initiative to improve teaching in American schools, with $290 million in grants and $45 million toward effective teaching research. The grants are focusing on four communities; Pittsburgh Public Schools has been slated a $40 million grant. Hillsborough County, Florida, Memphis Tennessee and Los Angeles College-Ready Promise charter schools have also been chosen for the grant.
“Each of these sites will implement groundbreaking approaches to recruit, retain and reward effective teachers,” Gates Foundation Co-Founder Melinda Gates said. She added that this is the largest domestic investment the Gates Foundation has made since its inception in 2000.
“The work that they do over the next few years has the potential to serve as national models for boosting teacher effectiveness,” Gates said.
There were many reasons cited as to why Pittsburgh Public Schools were one of the chosen communities. This included the observation component to teacher evaluations, the equitable distribution for the pay for performance plan and the Pittsburgh Promise.