P-16 Community Investment Evaluation Partnership

Access to high quality education is critical to individuals’ economic mobility and communities’ success. Yet access to such opportunities is often marked by racial inequities, social, and economic resources of students and families—creating substantial disparities in educational readiness and attainment. In response, educational institutions, policy-makers and philanthropists have been exploring improving attainment through systemic approaches—fundamentally changing how educational systems operate, support students, and interact with their communities.

Seeking to further unify its own systems-level interventions in educational pathways, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is engaging Mathematica Policy Research and Equal Measure in a creative and flexible learning partnership to generate, reflect, and apply relevant evidence to refine the Foundation’s P-16 strategy and investment approaches.

The partnership’s iterative learning process is marked by a shared commitment to improving public well-being and advancing equity. The process will support ongoing dialogue between partners and the Foundation, promoting inquiry and providing all stakeholders with timely, useful information they can apply to their strategic and programmatic decision making.