The Gates Foundation.

I respect Paul Hill and his work. However, he mistakenly interprets the Gates Foundation's new direction ("A Foundation Goes to School," features, Winter 2006) as a move away from the ideas of "Progressives" and a victory for the moderates/conservatives. I do not speak for the Gates Foundation, but from my vantage point, Tom Vander Ark [director of the foundation's education programs] and his staff have always been highly eclectic and pragmatic in their grant-making. (For the record, I am not "gone" from the foundation, as Hill claims. I have had a continuing consulting contract with it since 1999, and my current title is "senior fellow." I work with grantees and coach Gates program officers on strategies for strengthening instructional leadership.)

But I wonder what Hill means by "Progressive." I am troubled by the tendency in education to oversimplify problems and pigeonhole people. For myself, I have indeed been influenced by the work of Ted Sizer and Deborah Meier; they and their associates have done some of the most important education R & D of the past quarter century. However, I have advocated "conservative" ideas, such as a national literacy/citizenship assessment and new approaches to strengthening school and district accountability. And the "populist" side of me has urged educators, parents, and business and community leaders to work together to rethink what students need to know in the 21st century and to "reinvent" schools, teaching, and curriculum in order to motivate all students to want to achieve success.

TONY WAGNER

Codirector of the Change Leadership Group

Harvard Graduate School of Education