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The Gates Effect. The world’s biggest private foundation wants to fix American high schools. Is it laying its enormous bets in the right places?

From the moment you step off the elevator onto the third floor of a former National Cash Register building in Dayton, Ohio, you can tell you’re not in any ordinary public high school. For one thing, Dayton Early College Academy (DECA) looks like, well, an old NCR office. Low cubicle walls divide a maze of classrooms and workspaces. There’s no gym or even a library.

The atmosphere here seems strangely relaxed. In one spot, four girls sit quietly on the floor, building a sculpture of colorful paper pyramids. Teenagers joke with teachers in intimate classes. In the bathroom, principal Judy Hennessey casually greets a girl by name, asking, "How’s your mother doing in her classes? How are you doing with the kids?"

From: Fast Company Issue 102 | January 2006 By: Wendy Zellner

Full Story: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/gates-effect.html

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