The schoolhouses that Gates built

Even the smallness of schools - which the foundation is most often associated with - is less a goal in itself than a means to an end. It's not so much that he thinks small schools are the answer, Mr. Vander Ark explains, as that he believes large high schools have been proven ineffective.

"They're starting to realize that size isn't the only factor," says Paul Hill, director of the Center for Reinventing Public Education at the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. "They started on an important problem and are learning on their feet.... I'm not sure if theirs is the only model of philanthropy, but it's a good one."

At Northtown Academy, a charter school that set up shop last year in a closing Catholic girls' school here in Chicago, there's little that's flashy. No outside internships or experiential education - just rigorous academics (students have both longer days and longer school years) and a structured environment.

Other elements, though, make it a classic Gates school: Teachers are committed to the school's approach, which includes making the curriculum interdisciplinary and relevant to current events; the staff know nearly every one of the 550 or so students; and the school's model has succeeded in improving achievement for low-income and minority students.

While an English class reads "The Color of Water," for instance, students learn about political identity in their social science class and about genetics in biology.

"You see how it works in the world today," says Ashley Dinzey, an articulate sophomore who writes for the school newspaper and is trying to get an after-school French club started. "Last year we got to create our own civilization in advisory, and in the classes, we learned how other cultures had done it. It's harder work [than my old school], but the teachers are really encouraging."

A $4 million grant from Gates helped start Northtown - and will be used to open three similar schools in coming years. These days, in fact, a lot of Vander Ark's time is spent on replication. "One of the most important things we're trying to understand in our work is how to scale up success," he says.

The leadership hurdle is a particularly tough one. It's one thing to create one or two successful schools, but efforts to replicate them on a large scale frequently fail.

"I'm not naive enough to believe you could put this curriculum into every school across the country and have it work," says Megan Quaile, CEO of Civitas Schools, which manages Northtown. "You have to have both pieces" - the curriculum and the leadership. Ms. Quaile has been stymied in her efforts to copy Northtown - finding facilities has been tough.

Gates, of course, isn't the first foundation to give heavily to education. Most notably, the Annenberg Foundation gave half a billion dollars in 1993, but with a more scattered approach. The Carnegie Foundation supports projects that often overlap with Gates's. Many experts agree the outside money can help districts take risks, but wonder if there's ever a point where philanthropy becomes too influential.

"The real trick has to be this: The funding needs to be mediated by some kind of democratic process. It can't just be something that comes in, and because it's large and substantial it completely changes the direction [of reforms]," says Henry Levin, a professor of education and economics at Columbia University's Teachers College.

Others say private funding is not only positive, but essential. "That's the glory of our system, really - that it's possible to have a significant political effect without being part of a political entity," says Theodore Sizer, the founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools.

Some of the most conservative associations of educators in the country are now spotlighting small schools, and holding up successful Gates schools as examples.

"None of this would have happened without the adroit investment over the last quarter century of places like the Carnegie Foundation, that allowed people to try something different," says Mr. Sizer. "And Gates has been able to really build on that."

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