Tech Companies Sponsoring High Schools

On Tuesday, June 29th, I wrote about Philadelphia’s School of the Future, a high school that Microsoft started in 2006. Today, I learned that IBM participating in the trend of corporate-sponsored education. With the help of the Gates Foundation, the City University of New York and IBM will open a new high school that is expected to teach 500 to 600 students. The school will extend to 14th grade, and upon graduation, students will receive an associates degree in addition to a high school diploma. IBM will have the opportunity to teach the students computer science in a way that will most benefit their company, but students are not forced into any sort of commitment with the company.

So, where is the money coming from to create this computer science-focused school..?

IBM is giving $250,000 to NYC to create the school.

New York City is among the four beneficiaries of the Gates Foundation's Communities Learning in Partnership grant. Each recipient received $3 million to fund innovative proposals to boost college completion rates. (San Francisco, Mesa [AZ], and Riverside [CA] were the other cities given the grant money.)

Finally, NYC was awarded $36 million Teacher Incentive Fund to encourage highly-skilled teachers to work in low-performing schools and to mentor their colleagues.