Whether the Common Core standards are good or bad, one thing that is clear is that they have opened up multiple opportunities for entrepreneurs.
The textbook industry is retooling, at least adding stickers that say their products are aligned with the Common Core.
Pearson is developing a complete curriculum package in mathematics and reading, for almost every grade, assisted by the Gates Foundation. Children in some district will be able to take their lessons from Pearson products from the isearliest years right through to high school graduation.
Consultants are standing by, ready to sell products and services to school districts.
Here is one interesting list of what is available. There are many more.
What is happening now was not unexpected. Indeed, it is the intended result, it was planned for, hoped for, envisioned.
Joanne Weiss, who helped design Race to the Top and is now chief of staff to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, described the plan:
The development of common standards and shared assessments radically alters the market for innovation in curriculum development, professional development, and formative assessments. Previously, these markets operated on a state-by-state basis, and often on a district-by-district basis. But the adoption of common standards and shared assessments means that education entrepreneurs will enjoy national markets where the best products can be taken to scale.
Weiss spent many years as an edu-entrpreneur, engaged in the design, development and marketing of products for the education industry.
We don’t know yet whether Common Core standards will improve the education of America’s children. But of this we can be sure: They will be good for the education industry.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ah, the education industry-has a certain ring to it, eh???
All across the nation a made scramble has begun. Teachers and administrators, in an effort to do the right thing for their students are pouring through the CCSS, trying to decode the mysterious inner workings that have been promised to transform our country into one where even the good people in Lake Wobegon would envy.
Publishers and other entrepreneurs are offering their versions of the key that would unlock the CCSS.
You can almost here the cry, ‘There’s gold in them thar hills!” as the mad dash begins.
I just hope our dash doesn’t turn us into lemmings.
“There’s gold in them thar hills!” as the mad dash begins.
What an exceptional analogy for the introduction of a national market ready to be plucked and exploited.
How will it play out? I suggest one watches HBO’s miniseries Deadwood; 36 episodes about the Black Hills Gold Rush of the 1870’s. Viewer discretion advisement: be prepared for hard-core debauchery, scandals, and violence that accompanies greed in uncharted territories.
Still, the miniseries would prepare those in the education field for the likely eventual outcome: one or two big, big winners holding most of the gold, scores of others working for these winners, and a devastated landscape pocked with the scars of enterprise.
Sorry about the typos, the last post was written to early.
And it’s not just publishers, instructional coaches and program developers who will capitalize on the CCSS. It’s the entire realm of professional development organizations, IHEs, state education departments and nonprofits dedicated to “teacher leadership” and the “opportunity culture.” Not to mention teacher unions, who will build conferences and trainings on embedding the Common Core Everything into their members’ practice.
Everyone is invited to participate. It’s an equal-opportunity boondoggle, the Next Big Thing.
As teachers, we know that “the Next Big Thing” is really just “the Next Thing.” But some of us realize that the Common Core is even more invasive and potentially damaging than “the Last Big Thing.”
Districts are ill-equipped financially or time-wise to get teachers prepared to teach a CCS-based curriculum, and as Diane has said, and we, the choir, have preached, we don’t even know if the CCSwill have a positive effect on our students’ achievement.
I’ve been to several CCS staff development courses and I’ve read and researched, plus I know my kids (mostly ESL – English as a second language, high-poverty, plagued with emotional and behavioral issues). The CCS is going to crush them. Arne has to have some students fail miserably to prove that his Race to the Top is working. CCS and other misguided policies will give him that group of “losers” so he can crow about winners.
I fear that Common Core will be another in a long line of trends (high-stakes testing, charter schools) that have segregated and polarized the schooling of the haves and the have-nots. I’m curious to see to what extent schools in more affluent areas must alter their curriculum so that it’s aligned with the CC, or if only “low-performing” or “high-risk” schools will be scrutinized.
I’m not optimistic about Common Core. One spokesperson was quoted as saying, “Is it still necessary for kids to learn their times table when they can pick up their iPhone and ask Siri what is 20 times 2?”
As if
– every kid had access to Siri;
– kids memorized things because there was no other way to store information (um, what about books?)
– education is simply about “using tools” – and not about enjoyment, richness, conceptualizing the goals for which the tools might be useful.
I think we’re having a great crisis in education; we don’t know what it’s really for, and so are hammering on more and more about mechanical things.
The “spokesman” was Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. I quote from the AASA site, “Prior to joining AASA, Domenech served as senior vice president for National Urban Markets with McGraw-Hill Education. In this role, he was responsible for building strong relationships with large school districts nationwide.”
Consultants. Everybody these days need a consultant. They sure do come with a price! Cost could be put to so much better use. How about towards educators who provide direct services to students.
I smelled a rat from the moment one of our administrators promoted, pushed, forced and ultimately sucked us into this vortex, common core standards. It was especially absurd when this administrator said this would help us catch up to world class school systems like Finland. Finland takes a total and complete opposite approach to education: first they don’t torture their students with testing and assessments from 5 years old, they do not use high stakes tests until high school age, second they respect their teachers professionalism and grant them autonomy in their presentation of curriculum and third they do not have politicians attacking and demoralizing their teaching staff. So unlike America in 2012!
This whole scam is entirely about edu-business. Higher-ed professors and school administrators are on the take.
I agree that the whole scam is about edu-business, only most higher-ed professors are being crushed as well.
I agree that the whole scam is entirely about edu-business (i.e., profits), only most higher-ed professors are being crushed as well.
I have no love for textbook companies especially those that create “updated versions” of their textbooks with nothing new in them other than a few photos, a new cover design, and, of course, a new price in an attempt to devalue the previous version.
I hope with the advent of Common Core combined with new content publishing and delivery methods that entrepreneurs step in and put companies like Pearson out of business.
Entrepreneur is not a bad word. Let’s have some teachers jump in and innovate so we get great textbooks and teaching materials in the hands of schools (physically, digitally…) based on Common Core. Do it as a non-proft. Put those entrepreneurs you feel are exploiting children, parents, and teachers out of business.
It’s the American way !