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In early January 2004, in connection with its centennial, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching began a 30-month appraisal of relations between influential philanthropic foundations and educational institutions (both K-12 and higher education) with the goal of strengthening those relations. The authors, both co-directors of the project and editors of the book based on the project, summarize their findings in this brochure. They interviewed nearly three dozen leaders who had worked with and/or for foundations and educational institutions. Some of them were involved primarily in K-12 education or in higher education, some in foundation programming and leadership, and some in both spheres. The comments of these foundation leaders about higher education, K-12 education, and foundations are listed. The authors then present a set of six recommendations on how relations between foundations and institutions of education might be strengthened. These recommendations are: (1) Building Educational Capital; (2) Openness; (3) External Review; (4) Professional Development; (5) Collaboration; and (6) Putting Educational Capital to Work. This summary is based on the Carnegie/Jossey-Bass publication of the same title, "Reconnecting Education and Foundations: Turning Good Intentions into Educational Capital," [ED493650]. The overarching goal of the recommendations and the essays that comprise the book is to encourage a new look at how foundations work in education. [This project was also supported by the TIAA-CREF Institute.]

Noting that it is easy, especially for those inside higher education, to take it for granted, the writer notes that none of his grandparents had the opportunity to go to college, let alone graduate. Among parents, aunts and uncles, a single bachelor's degree was earned. It was the next two generations, benefited by the GI Bill, the subsequent knowledge explosion, and some luck, that caught the wave of opportunity afforded by higher education. Bacchetti notes, however, that while educational aspirations may remain high, many American families today cannot look forward to the same upward spiral. Three years ago, it was estimated that at least 250,000 prospective students were shut out of higher education due to rising tuition or cutbacks in admissions and course offering and nothing suggests that the number will shrink in the normal course of events. Education is irreversible, advocates the writer: having tasted the pleasure and hard work of learning, the joy of knowledge, one cannot imagine life without it. The education of any enriches all. On the front edge of a new century, the task before the nation is to make sure that young people get the opportunity to attend and complete college.