"Fifteen community colleges and five states have been chosen for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's new program aimed at improving remedial education at the college level and raising graduation rates of low-income and minority students," the Associated Press reports. "The Seattle-based foundation announced nearly $16.5 million in grants Monday for the developmental education initiative. The foundation is working with MDC Inc., a Chapel Hill, N.C., nonprofit, and Lumina Foundation for Education of Indianapolis, Ind., which pledged $1.5 million toward the effort. The Gates Foundation announced its movement into higher education last year and made an initial grant to MDC to work on remedial education. The most promising of those ideas will be expanded with this round of grants."