Mercedes Schneider has been meticulously scouring the Gates website to see which groups are being paid to research, support, promulgate, evaluate, study, review the Common Core standards.
This is her sixth post on the subject. There will be more.
After you go through her posts, the question you might reasonably have is: Who was NOT funded to development, implement or advocate for the Common Core standards?
Should we call them the Gates Common Core standards?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Absolutely…..all roads lead back to Bill.
And his kids will never be part of his experiment. Opt out en masse.
I didn’t get my payday. Where do I sign up?
The cookie cutter style ed “reform” has got to stop. District after district is busy implementing strictly enforced “common core emphasized” pacing calendars such that little “Jose” in TX will be on the exact same topic as little “Jan” in Maine on any given day when school is in session. The idea of this is nonsense. We all know that each class has a different rhythm as well as each community. I do see the aftermath of this “rigid” agenda which ironically ignores the needs of kids. How about 5th graders who cannot use a ruler properly… not being able to line up points or to be able to measure. It is not bad parenting, bad teaching or lack of intelligence which is the underlying reason. It is coverage of information over understanding as a top-down directive teachers are ORDERED to follow. Students never have the opportunity to practice what they learn… in this case their measuring skills because the pacing calendar did not allow for time to practice. By gosh if the lesson needed to be done by September 20 then so be it because some no name fat cat with a bloated salary in the DOE “says so” and needs to pass this “data” onto another bloated fat cat in another DOE division to prove that all materials are being covered. The ability TO SAY it was studied is more important to the powers that be than actually students understanding it and having time to practice it. And Gates is none too upset about the implementation of standardization because title one students subjected to this are in public schools and are failing because of this. This only ensures that the Gates privatization agenda will continue to grow and move forward. Sickening…
Every time Eduschyster puts something out I carefully, slowly read it for all the detail. She is my kind of person. She is careful, documented, does her homework, analyzes it and then makes sense of this insanity so that people can see what they are “Really Doing.” We need more doing the hard work in all areas as Eduschyster does. This is how you bring them down and stop them. Exposing them and making them go through the public process so that they cannot continue to do their ill deeds in the dark of night protected by armed guards as it has been until Aquino resigned with no one knowing until it happened. Now is the opening. Take the crooks out at LAUSD and they tumble across the nation.
I appreciate these studies by Mercedes and find myself spending a lot of time wondering about Gates in comparison/contrast to other philanthropic names, mostly Ford. I am curious about the frequency of “Gates” name drops and how many find that an impressive name to drop and why. I am curious about what connection there is to people/leadership who have “signed us up” for Gates-inspired/directed/funded education endeavors and when that connection began. (At a deeper level than what chapter three of Reign covers). 🙂
My next question will then be why did that connection develop and why is everyone so snowed by Gates? Is it a matter of rubbing elbows with the wealthy? And if the answer is follow the money, I would ask what other alternatives did those who chose to jump on the Gates wagon have? What were their choices? I need a complete picture to be able to move on to my next pondering. And I am looking for an answer in tempered language. Not union organizer emotionally-appealing rhetoric. Facts. Observations. Reflections.
Searching for it.
I am not sure you are going to find hard evidence for the choices people made. I am sure they run the gamut. I have no experience in grant writing or in identifying the sources for grants on different projects, and I have no political clout or connections that can put a project on the fast track. It would be interesting to know what kind of action goes into identifying, planning and implementing a campaign.
I will watch with interest where the folks who daily still shout support for RttT end up after their duty to our state is up. I wish I could be a fly on the wall (in a time machine, no less) to the first decision to compete for that money. I go back and read the websites established when we applied for it and the enthusiasm our then governor had for it and I just want to know more. I do know that there were associations with Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education at that time. And also the notion of entrepeneurialism (sp? I always get that word spelled wrong) was being examined and touted by our governor at the time). But I am slow to assign corruption. I am more inclined to think leadership was blinded by either money or a curious commitment to the notion that our world really is a different place (global, connected, techno-savvy). While I understand that is “the world we live in” (another phrase I get tired of hearing), people are still people and childhood is still a special time where creativity and discovery must be nurtured (more, perhaps, than performance and compliance with standards). Was this a result of personal fear due to the economy? Was it a generation being a little more wowed by technology and multi-culturalism than the generation next (who sees these things as logical developments, but not tantamount to the quality of human life as biological beings).
I keep chickens and garden and I am insistent of creative reuse of materials, and personally I think those are more valuable skills to endeavor and share with my young son than his I-pad (which he has, but we limit its use and we still read 5 or 6 books at night). I am stunned by the fortitude with which a generation (those now in charge, supported by those who think they can make money or acquire status by agreeing) fights for us to standardize, technologize, and “globalize” (on paper) our schools.
My school is very global and we have a strong community base and it is more, I think, because we celebrate the cultures but we also work to create a common culture. And that comes from PTO dinners and music programs and festivals we have at the school. Not our test scores. I keep wanting to sing “give me that, old time education and schooling. . .it’s good enough for me.” There has to be a balance between the mysteries of individual development and character, the wonder of life itself, and the data that tells us what our next move should be.
“…childhood is still a special time where creativity and discovery must be nurtured…”
I think that statement says it all. I don’t see where creativity and discovery factor into the corporate reform model. I pray that you continue to be able to nurture that spirit in your students that connects with dreams. It should take them longer to figure out how to take the wonder out of music.
Yes, who didn’t take Gates’ money? There are people in the Yes We Took His $$$ who now need to answer for themselves. Historically, on the side of children but now gone off the rails and should be called on this.
it gets blurry, doesn’t it?
I know a retired teacher I respect a great deal (albeit this statement gave me a little caution on completely trusting her) who said, about Gates sponsored grants and so forth, “well, you may as well try and get some of that money because if you don’t somebody else will.” Still not sure what I think of that statement.
Good statement to think about. Looking back, I understand it is how things operate within the bureaucracy but it is also exactly the mindset that got us where we are today. That we must now change. Toxic to childhoods and teacher careers are tainted air, tainted water and tainted money.
I need to find out if my ESD (Educational Service District) here in Washington State is getting Gates funds. I’m pretty sure they do. We just got these emails from the Puget Sound ESD recruiting 40 “teacher leaders” to blog and tweet about how great the common core is, with $1000 stipend for each person. See the requirements at the links below.
Bloggers
Click to access BloggerPosition.pdf
Tweeters
Click to access TwitterPosition.pdf
Propaganda, anyone? Ugh. Both ads just make my stomach churn, and I hate to see which of my colleagues will actually apply.
Bribes in the form of a stipend take propaganda to the next level. You are correct about following the money and getting the financial facts related to PSESD and Gates.
The online brochures are more evidence the reformers are desperate. They are working together in a final effort to save the common core. They are scrambling to hire “teacher leaders” who will take a $1000 bribe to mislead parents and taxpayers about the common core.
http://www.psesd.org/index.php
According to the Gates grant search engine, there are 18 grants funded by the Gates foundation to the Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD) for over $16 million dollars.
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database#q/k=PSESD
Thanks. I figured as much, but seeing the database was the proof I needed. So the Gates Foundation owns my union and my ESD….
The Common Core prescribes getting rid of fiction in the curriculum just as scientists confirms that literary fiction (i.e., high quality) increases social intelligence. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/i-know-how-youre-feeling-i-read-chekhov/?hp&_r=0
These billionaires with their self-interested over-reach. How many times will we have to re-invent the wheel?
Have you all seen the White Paper on the pole of high level movers and shakers in D.C. on the lack of belief in the Common Core. They do not think it will work by a large percentage and yet they go forward with no proof of anything.