Tech billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates reportedly reads 50 books a year. Of the tens of books that make their way across his nightstand, Gates features his favorite picks on his blog, Gates Notes.
Thu-Huong Ha and her colleagues at Quartz manually compiled and categorized every book Gates has recommended on his blog, since it began in 2010. As the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates, unsurprisingly, recommends quite a few books on development, poverty, disease, and education.
Among the 186 books Gates has recommended on his blog, 13 are about education. We narrowed Ha’s education category further into books about higher ed or the American education system categories. Four of Gates’ recommendations tackle higher ed issues, such as online learning and affordability. The other nine dive into education policy reform and classroom pedagogy.
College affordability
- Why Does College Cost So Much?, by Robert B. Archibald and David H. Feldman
- Change.edu: Rebooting for the New Talent Economy, by Andrew Rosen
Learning on campus
- Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, by Richard Arum and Joshipa Roksa
- Unlocking the Gates, by Taylor Walsh
American education reform
- Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools, by Steven Brill
- Stretching the School Dollar: How Schools and Districts Can Save Money while Serving Students Best, by Frederick M. Hess and Eric Osberg (Eds.)
- Where Do School Funds Go?, by Marguerite Roza
- Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future of American Education, by Terry M. Moe and John E. Chubb
- Value-Added Measures in Education: What Every Educator Needs to Know, by Douglas N. Harris
- A World-Class Education: Learning from International Models of Excellence and Innovation, by Vivien Stewart
K-12 classroom pedagogy
- Work Hard. Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America, by Jay Mathews
- Who’s Teaching your Children?, by Vivian Troen and Katherine C. Boles
- Why Don’t Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions about how the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom, by Dan T. Willingham
If you plan to tackle Gates’ book recommendations this summer, you may want to heed some of his reading advice, as well. To read quickly and effectively, follow Gates’ four rules: take notes, finish the entire book, get comfortable, and read for at least an hour (Ha, Quartz, 6/5).
