Can you find out how the gates program is structured from an administrative perspective?
There has to be a coordinator or PM for your school. Can you contact them?
Thinking out of the box here, but perhaps the gates program people can become an advocate for you? In the short and long term? From what I have read in the last hour, they seem pretty dedicated to making changes.
I emailed several people at the Gates Foundation Thursday, but I only had names and had to guess at the email addresses. I think only 2 or 3 went though. Nobody has gotten back to me.
The permission slip contained the name of someone at the Gates Foundation and it looks like he is the academic in charge of the project. I sent him an email saying that either the school principal is misinformed (in which case, could he please clear this up) or that his study is not obtaining
informed consent. I would imagine that this accusation loosens the bowels of any reputable researcher.
I just hope he checks his email. I sent it to his university because I am not sure what the email convention is at the Gates Foundation. I also stole your point about Bill Gates being the beneficiary of exceptional educational opportunities and suggested he would not have intentionally funded a study that would prevent a bright child from appropriate placement.
So I threatened his reputation and his funding. To bad I can't follow through!
The school has not been helpful. They are either lying or confused. The school district is huge and has a bad reputation for bureaucratic nonsense. I think it would be a lot of effort with little return, but I'll probably do a email tomorrow with a lot of cc's.
I did NOT use the syphilis reference, but I enjoyed reading that!
