Education is the path to opportunity
Around 3 in 4 high school seniors in the United States say they want to head to college after graduation, but only about 60% currently enroll and go on to earn a degree or credential. For many students who face greater barriers to opportunity, such as those from low-income backgrounds and Black and Latino students, that gap is even wider.
Education is one of the most powerful forces for opportunity in the United States, but for millions of students, it still isn't delivering on that promise. Too many young people don’t get the support they need to navigate critical moments, miss key milestones and fall behind, and never reach a credential that leads to a good job and a better life. The Gates Foundation is committed to changing this.
Decades of research point to specific moments in a student's journey—particular grades, courses, and transitions—where the right support makes all the difference. For example, students who pass Algebra I by 9th grade are far more likely to graduate high school and pursue higher education. Students who complete their
first year of college courses successfully are far more likely to earn a degree.
When those milestones are reached, a student's trajectory changes. That’s why we are investing in evidence-based approaches that meet students at those moments—supporting the teachers, advisors, and institutions that know them best, and funding tools that help educators and advisors do their jobs more effectively. We believe AI has a role to play in this work, but only when it is designed to strengthen teaching—keeping student safety, well-being, and the human connections at the center of learning and support.
Our goal is to help every learner access an education that leads to a postsecondary degree, certificate, or career qualification that reflects in-demand skills and opens the door to meaningful economic opportunity. If successful, we believe we can double the rate of growth of Americans earning a credential of value by age 34—resulting in 10 million more learners achieving those credentials by 2045.
Helping students reach key learning milestones
Success in foundational math
More than 6.7 million students in grades 3–8 are more than a full grade level behind in math. That gap has real consequences: students who are not on track in math by the end of 9th grade are about half as likely to graduate high school on time—and significantly more likely to need costly remediation that further delays or derails their path to a credential. But if students understand foundational math, it opens doors to advanced math in high school and beyond—giving learners more opportunity and agency about their future.
We are funding high-quality instructional materials and digital tools that help teachers identify where each student is struggling and respond in real time—giving them better, faster information so they can do what they do best: build relationships, adjust instruction, and meet students where they are.
But tools alone are not enough. We also invest in the conditions that allow them to work: supporting schools in aligning curriculum, coaching, and assessment into a coherent system, and helping district leaders and classroom teachers use data to act before students fall too far behind.
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Transitions from high school into and through college
The path from high school into and through college is full of decision points—exploring career pathways, choosing a program, completing financial aid applications, selecting the right courses, determining whether they’re on track to graduate, balancing school with work and family responsibilities, and more. Too many students navigate this alone. While the national average student-to-counselor ratio in many states is below the recommended target of 250:1, progress hasn’t reached every student equally. Students at high-caseload schools see lower rates of college advising, and potential first-generation students remain the least likely to receive the advising support they need.
There is clearly a need among learners for more individual support in high school, and also once they are enrolled in postsecondary. Strong college advising is critical to helping students persist on their path to a credential of value.
We are funding advising tools that expand access to personalized guidance—meeting students where they are, answering questions when counselors are unavailable, and helping them understand their options in clear, accessible ways. These tools are designed to handle high-volume informational needs so that counselors and advisors can spend more time on the high-touch, relational work that technology cannot replicate.
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Completing first-year college courses
As many as 30% of college learners receive a D or F grade or withdraw from introductory college courses like calculus, chemistry, and statistics, and we see even higher percentages in students of color and first-generation students. In college math alone, that represents nearly 1 million failed course attempts every year. When so many students are struggling, we have to ask ourselves: is the system truly working for them?
We are funding redesigned gateway courses that help engage learners in the material while also providing built-in supports—offering step-by-step guidance, immediate feedback, and personalized 24/7 access—while giving faculty the data they need to see where students are struggling before it is too late. We are also partnering with institutions to build the advising and support systems that connect this classroom-level work to the broader student experience.
Credits and learning that transfer and count
More than 40 million Americans have some college education but no credential. Many stopped because of life circumstances, financial pressure, or the frustrating reality that when students transfer institutions or return after a gap, their hard-earned credits often don't come with them. Transfer students lose an average of 43% of their credits. That lost progress translates to lost time, additional debt, and lower completion rates.
Our grantees are building tools and data systems that help students and institutions understand how credits apply and make the transfer process simpler, faster, and more equitable. This is the first step in building toward a system where all learning counts, and learners can paint a comprehensive picture of their skills and experiences as they move through institutions and into the workforce.
Investing in better tools, better information, and better outcomes
Every day, more students and educators interact with emerging technologies. But, the reality is, some of the tools they are interacting with, including many commonly used Large Language Models (LLMs), were not designed for education, and these interactions can be frustrating and concerning for users.
Our goal is to champion the safe, responsible design and development of AI to strengthen institutions and uplift all learners. That centers on two things: making the tools students are already using safer and more effective, and getting better information to the educators, advisors, and leaders who support them.
On the tools side, we are investing in the development of shared safety and quality standards to keep student safety at the top of everyone's priority list. We are also funding open-source evaluation infrastructure and independent evaluations that measure whether tools actually meet these standards, and, in turn, help set shared benchmarks for what good AI-enabled
learning actually looks like. And, we are working with partners to define what human-in-the-loop oversight means in practice—not just in principle.
But safer tools are only half of the equation. Learners, educators, and leaders also need better information to make good decisions.
The world learners are preparing for is changing faster than the systems meant to guide them—and that's not just a technology problem, it’s a data problem. Better decisions require better information at every level. We are investing in real-time data that flags when students are struggling before it's too late, clearer information to help learners navigate key transitions, up-to-date signals about job trends, and better evidence for schools, college leaders, and policymakers about what's actually working. AI creates new ways to solve these longstanding problems. We are committed to making sure those solutions reach the students who need them most.
