Anthony Cody draws a contrast between Lakeside Academy, where Bill Gates and his children were (and are) students, and the current model of education “reform,” which is driven by entrepreneurs and profit-seekers.
Lakeside Academy values the relationships between teachers and children. Greatschools like Lakeside, Cody writes, “emphasize experiential learning, empathy, and above all, relationships between teachers and students. And of course, class sizes are kept below twenty to make all this possible.”
Cody writes:
“The model offered by Lakeside is decidedly not efficient — at least when efficiency is defined as spending the least amount of money spent for a minimally satisfactory result. It requires experienced, expert teachers, small class sizes and excellent facilities. We could simply devote our efforts to making sure all schools got the funding they need to pay for these three basic things, and loosely monitor progress as such schools do, through occasional tests. But where would the profit be to “drive innovation”? So the drive for profits has led to a system redesign, with the introduction of new elements, required not for educational purposes but for the needs of the profit makers. Our education system is being remade to emulate a consumer-driven marketplace. What are the key components we must have?
1. A standardized testing accountability machine. In order for schools and various educational delivery systems to be compared, we must have a common set of standards and an efficient means of comparing the student learning that they produce.
2. A system by which schools that do not yield desired results are quickly dispatched, so as to create opportunities for innovators.
3. Standardized tests, test-aligned curriculum, and software designed to prepare students for tests.
Computer labs, laptops or tablets to allow for “personalized” instruction, delivery of computer-based instruction and assessment, and significantly larger class sizes.
4. Funding systems that allows money to “follow the child” to whatever form of schooling the parent might choose; including private, parochial, virtual, or home.”
Why don’t we do what the best schools do, instead of aligning our system for the benefit of what Cody calls “parasitic profiteers”?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I saw this in the Jacksonville, FL newspaper. A real math teacher offering instructional videos in YouTube. One of his goals is to have more videos in his library than the Bill & Melinda Gates supported Khan Academy.
http://jacksonville.com/news/columnists/charlie-patton/2013-06-24/story/one-us-mandarin-high-math-teacher-brian-mclogan
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I like that idea.
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“The model offered by Lakeside is decidedly not efficient”
That depends on what it pays its teaching staff, what kind of health benefits it offers, what kind of retirement benefits it offers, and how much discretion the school administration has to terminate teachers or modify their employment terms. Labor costs are the single biggest expense for schools. The idea that elite private schools are not “efficient” is malarkey.
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Is Lakeside in Seattle?
http://www.salarylist.com/company/Lakeside-School-Salary.htm
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Follow the link, everybody, and read Cody’s whole discussion. Follow Cody’s link to the Paul Krugman column that inspired it, think this through, and apply new insights to the pieces of the puzzle you can see from your own vantage point.
Krugman is discussing the deadly economic impact of “profits that don’t represent returns on investment, but instead reflect the value of market dominance. ” Cody concludes that such profiteers are parasites, that have been unleashed on our public schools by bad policy.
Read my description in the comments, please, of the infestation in my district. Add to that discussion, if you have similar new information and experiences.
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As someone working on next generation models and who is making no “profit” from the prospect of making learning more accessible, personalized, and, yes, efficient, I can say that the intentions behind these efforts are pure…plenty of people profit from the current system too. Lakeside is a better factory model, yes, but it’s not the answer. The principles driving our work are about giving the levers for learning to the learners themselves. It’s as democratic a pursuit as any in history. Can it be used badly? Absolutely. We’re not even close to “there”. But these efforts can and should be as populist and transformative as the printing press. I wonder what the Diane Ravitch of Renaissance Europe would have said after the first Gutenberg bible?
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Interesting. Can it really be so? A couple of days ago I called Diane a Leader of Luddites.
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No, Asa, its all a hoax.
There’s NOTHING personalized or accessible about the crap they’re forcing on kids. Pearson came into my building for 2 days last week to try to force every teacher to make our students accountable to their stupid little ap icons. The “levers of learning” you bloviate about are levers of profit that leave the kids crushed in their gears..
http://www.pearsonschool.com/?locator=PS1g4b
Last year, they reduced the ninth graders in my building to tears, failure, and boredom with this bunk. The young TFA teachers they recruited to sell it stood in front of us and explained that the majority of their students this past year wouldn’t do the boring and frustrating tablet assignments, and so to maintain control, they had to be sentenced to sit in front of the iPads during class, and miss interactive, interesting activities like debates and experiments as punishment.
You didn’t even bother to read Cody’s column, did you? Go there, and read it, and answer my specific comments with an actual positive example of any good products that will rescue my students from this forced death-march to terminal boredom. Pearson couldn’t show us any, in two days of their hype, lies and fraud.
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thanks chemtchr for insisting on the truth.
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Gates is his typical self, hypocritical. Good enough for me and your problem, in fact, I will make it so much worse for you I can be worth double what I am now and my friends. Why is anyone listening to him unless bought and sold?
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As an interesting aside there is news that Pearson is to become involved in the testing of students in Australia through the government mandated NAPLAN tests for years 3,5,7 and 9. This blog post investigates: http://darcymoore.net/2013/06/19/pearson-acara/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+darcymoore+%28Darcy+Moore%27s+Blog%29
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