I’d always believed that the best education is a requisite for success and that self-investment in your skills is probably the best investment you can ever do.

In here, Gates argued that identifying and measuring the best instructors will give the best payoff.  So does identifying and measuring your best employees in a company.

Bill Gates: Better data mean better schools by AP: Yahoo! Tech

Gates suggested that developing data to identify the best instructors should be a priority for legislators even in a tight economy. Better teachers are more likely to result in higher achievement than other approaches such as lowering class size, he said.

“The way I see forward is to use measurement to drive quality,” Gates said.

The Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spent nearly $4 billion between 2000 and 2008 to improve America’s high schools and award scholarships, primarily to low-income and minority students.

Its aim is to increase the U.S. graduation rate from about 70 percent to 80 percent and to double the number of low-income adults who get a degree or certificate beyond high school by age 26.