Up to this point, Peter Greene has described. “Pearson’s new world order,” as explicated by Michael Barber and John Hill in their 88-page document.
Here he reveals the plans for implementation.
1. Think long-term. “So we have to think long term. The arrival of the assessment renaissance, like the Second Coming of Christ, will appear on a day unlooked for. Everyone best be ready.”
2. Build partnerships. “They particularly like the example of a competition to propose solutions (competitions are great because you can get lots of people to work for you, but you only have to pay the winners).”
3. Create the infrastructure, preferably by getting government to pay for it.
There is more. Read it and be informed.
“If you’ve never read Barber before, know this– he speaks repeatedly about changing the world’s education system not as a business opportunity, but as a moral imperative. He is, in fact, carrying the white man’s burden, fixing all the schools in the world because he Knows how they are supposed to work.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Not feeling that “second coming of Christ” comment.
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As usual, my intent is to reflect the disrespect inherent in Pearson’s point of view and not offer disrespect of my own. It’s admittedly a fine line, but I meant no offense to people of faith.
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I thought I’d seen the end of British colonialism in “Zulu” ( a great film) when Michel Caine’s character, a British officer prig , is knocked off his horse by a Zulu spear. In their arrogance and self-defined sense of superiority, they so underestimated the Zulu force. Let’s hope in this instance they have failed to grasp how strongly Americans want to protect their children and how firmly Americans will work to ensure that their children can reap the benefits of a comprehensive education with exposure to the arts and, yes, humans, with all their flaws.
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“Balance pressure and support”
Ugh. Good cop/bad cop. So manipulative and patronizing. I really think they don’t know how this sounds to the average person. There is this pervasive TONE, that the dopes in the cheap seats will resist because they are simple-minded, and cling to “old ways” but with careful leadership they will eventually come around. If not with “support” well then with “pressure”!
I wonder if they’re ready for the parental blowback from the Common Core because it isn’t going to come with sanctions on teachers. It’s going to come with sanctions on STUDENTS.
The Common Core is high stakes for students. They’re already finding that out with the Common Core GED and they’re about to find that out when states start using the Common Core to make high-stakes decisions for ALL students.
They should have explained that to parents. “Obviously. we anticipate states will use these tests to make high stakes decisions for students”. Graduating from high school is pretty damn “high stakes” for students.
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Peter’s analysis is great and commentary his feisty commentary on the mark–like Comedy Central satire–putting some of the assumptions and true beliefs on stage, stripped free of jargon designed to convey superior knowledge on all matters of education and proper human conduct.
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I do have a feeling of meeting many of these ideas before, not Pearson branded, but from KnowledgeWorks, a local foundation with national funders (e.g., Gates) and a history of doing for-hire “future scenarios.” The latest one for the decade ahead envisions no teachers, just “learning agents,” and a bunch of new roles for specialists and entrepreneurs who earn their keep by providing assessments, learning opportunities, and an “ecology of performance-based personalized “learning journeys” and individualized learning “playlists.” KnowledgeWorks is keen to be aligned with the international organizations supporting online instruction.
The Pearson people are monopolists who see profits in a fully mapped curriculum in the manner of WWII training and trouble-shooting manuals where tasks, concepts, and “skill sets” are stripped free of deliberations and ambiguity, and the need to question authority.
Peter has done a brilliant job. I hope he can get his hands on some some corporate reports on earnings, follow the trails of money and consultants and foundations that are supporting Pearson-friendly research and the rest. In the case of edTAP tests for teachers, the R& D work was done by academics who handed the product off to Pearson to market. That whole process has received little public analysis and criticism.
Pearson will be a darling of investors who want data, data, data on outcomes and darling of legislators who will think they are getting more bang for a buck from “more efficient and effective” delivery system than is being provided by pesky teacherswho keep blaming poverty for the achievement gap…a gap that is constructed from test scores designed on the cheap.
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Chiara, I hope you are right! The more revolting this sounds, the more the people will revolt against it. I hope they go bankrupt. Just as rampant oligarchy and capitalism give rise to black markets to better fill the expanding economic niches, so we may see schools made of homeschoolers guided by real teachers providing an unsanctioned but real education. It may be grim for a while, but this type of control can not be maintained. All throughout history these types of schemes and regimes show a lack of staying power.
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Nobody reads it outside of education circles.
Imagine if they had approached health reform like they approach education reform:
Everyone working in it health care now is self-interested, mediocre and clinging to outdated ideas only because they’re too stupid to see our self-evident brilliance. How far would they have gotten with that?
I mean it about the Common Core and “high stakes” for students. The whole discussion has been about whether the tests are high stakes for teachers. That’s only because we haven’t gotten to Round Two, where states use the Common Core tests to make decisions for students.
They should have warned parents about that, because it’s inevitable. States aren’t going to pay a boatload for the Best Test in the World and then NOT use it. Of course they’ll use the test scores, and they’ll use them in ways that are high stakes for students. That’s a huge omission on the part of Common Core proponents and will be a really rude awakening.
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This is really sad:
“York County Judge Stephen Linebaugh issued his decision Friday, less than a month after the Pennsylvania Department of Education filed its petition for a receivership – as a state takeover is called.
State officials have said they would, if approved for a receivership, bring in Charter Schools USA to operate the district.
So this means York likely will be the first city in the Commonwealth – and only one in the nation – where public education is provided exclusively by a private company.”
This was overwhelmingly rejected by the people who live there, but ed reformers rolled right over those people and took their public schools.
It’s absolutely appalling. So much for “choice”, huh? A national for-profit charter chain or no public education That’s the “choice”.
Such a flat-out lie to call these anti-democratic strong arm tactics “choice”. These local people were completely and utterly ignored. They had no input whatsoever.
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So, we have articulated the problem. What do we do about it? We have to “Pearson-Proof” OUR profession. We teachers have to become the drivers within our own profession. We can only do this by ACTIVELY fighting back. Look at the consistent fight by Seattle teachers as our example.
Instead, we have far, far, far too many of us who are unwilling to fight. They simply cry and whine about the devastation wrought by the reformers but refuse to help in the fight, fearing that they will “get in trouble”. These teachers may as well be counted among our enemies due to their fear and inaction.
We must ALL refuse to administer tests! We must ALL refuse to teach to the tests! We must ALL refuse to use any published materials from Pearson! We must ALL take the lead by teaching our content area courses as WE know must be taught!
To paraphrase Marx, “Teachers of the nation unite! WE have nothing to lose except our souls!”
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I didn’t need to read but one thing to know the problem. “Like the Second Coming of Christ”. These people regard themselves as a Messiah for Education. That is quite worrisome.
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