It is curious indeed that Pearson has been so effective at buying a controlling interest in American education. It is curious because in school we were always taught that heathy competition produces better products, that America reveres an open field for new products, and that monopolies are clumsy and inefficient. We were also taught that the public sector belongs to the public, not to private corporations.
This post, by Jennifer Job of UNC Chapel Hill, follows the money in trying to understand how Pearson inverted these axioms. How did Pearson become a dominating force American education? She examines the tentacles of power. Maybe the CEO of Pearson should be our next Secretary of Education. But no, that would mean taking a salary cut.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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Everyone needs to wake up. Pearson is backed by billionaire dollars to take down the public schools. I don’t shop at Walmart anymore. The Walton family has been injecting millions of dollars, along with Bill Gates, into this political movement to destroy public schools and have online and charter schools to “pick up the pieces.” It is all a set up. The new teacher evaluation system, VAM, letter grades for school systems (A-F), the new Common Core, “Race to the Top”,..are all gimmicks which are gradually chipping away our public school systems every single day. The Pearson testing based on the poorly developed Common Core will spit out junk data showing that our kids are behind and our teachers need fired. Jeb Bush has even been quoted saying that we will be shocked at the low scores. This will then enable our state legislatures to step in and get out of funding the public schools. It will be taken over by money making charter and online schools where executives will be making 500,000 dollars per year. They might keep one public school to educate the misfits that the charter and online schools will refuse to educate. It’s a huge mess. I’m thankful to be near the end of my teaching career. I am also thankful that my children are almost graduated from our public school system. I truly feel sorry for the teachers and the students. I’ve never seen anything like this in my 29 years of teaching. All of our industry is overseas. It is a last chance effort to make TONS of MONEY on something still located in the United States. So sad….I think you can see how we will become a third world country. It is becoming clearer to me every day.
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This is a very strong post, thanks for the link.
The lynchpin to all this in the long run, at least on the ELA and disciplinary literacy side (that is, by definition extending into all disciplines), is control of proprietary written essay algorithms. The Common Core reading and writing standards are designed to be computer score-able because they rule out analysis not based on reason and evidence from the specific test in question. This makes it easy to train automated scoring software because almost all unexpected input is by definition incorrect, because the answer must come from the text.
If you compare the Common Core standards to other standards this is the main difference. This is the real shift. It is a 100% valid score if the computer just ignores the student’s statements about historical context, personal experience, etc., because that is outside the requirements of the standard.
So then the testing company can use the same proprietary algorithm in their curricular products and essentially give students exactly the same tasks with exactly the same scoring that will be on their high states assessment, every day. And over time they should be able to without much trouble to also algorithmically generate the questions, so for whatever text they license, it should require no human input at all to generate perfectly Common Core aligned writing tasks and scores.
In the long run, writing and scoring written responses will be cheaper than writing multiple choice questions. That fits in nicely with how reformers like Arne Duncan rail quite specifically against “bubble” tests. If you want to get conspiratorial, every bad multiple choice question Pearson writes just drives demand for their essay scoring algorithms.
If students are using these tools as part of their curriculum, you don’t need all these pilot tests any more either.
Every other company will be at a severe disadvantage, especially since the testing company can change the algorithm whenever they want.
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No surprise that Pearson and its tests are a critical priority for the cage busting achievement gap crushing self-styled leaders of the “new civil rights movement of our era.” No, no surprise indeed, when massive amounts of $tudent $ucce$$ are at stake.
No less an education status quo insider than Dr. Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute is on board with your analysis:
[start quote]
In truth, the idea that the Common Core might be a “game-changer” has little to do with the Common Core standards themselves, and everything to do with stuff attached to them, especially the adoption of common tests that make it possible to readily compare schools, programs, districts, and states (of course, the announcement that one state after another is opting out of the two testing consortia is hollowing out this promise).
But the Common Core will only make a dramatic difference if those test results are used to evaluate schools or hire, pay, or fire teachers; or if the effort serves to alter teacher preparation, revamp instructional materials, or compel teachers to change what students read and do. And, of course, advocates have made clear that this is exactly what they have in mind. When they refer to the “Common Core,” they don’t just mean the words on paper–what they really have in mind is this whole complex of changes.
[end quote]
Link: http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/the-american-enterprise-institute-common-core-and-good-cop/
Thank you for your comments about a business plan masquerading as an education model.
😎
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The article was written in 2012 which is probably why it did not mention the fact that the common core is “copyrighted” and has rights to “approve” publishers.
Talk about a huge Educational monopoly!
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Note that the Brookings Institution recently published on its website a call for the CCSSO/NGA to start acting as just such as centralized censorship office for textbooks and online materials–a national Censor Librorum to give its imprimatur to programs. And the doublethink thank the Thomas B. Fordham Institute just let slip in an op-ed the other day that “a group of foundations” is funding the creation of just such a censorship office–one that will determine which programs do and do not get the imprimatur.
Welcome to the era of the educational materials THOUGHT POLICE.
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cx: that would be Doublethink Tank
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Just a quick update for anyone wanting to continue the conversation on Pearson: I am now on faculty Oklahoma State University. I’m easily search-able there. Thank you for the post, Diane!
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Superb piece, Jennifer!
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This from the latest marketing email from Simba, a company that sells market research information to educational publishers:
“PreK standards are becoming more rigorous and are being aligned with state and Common Core K-12 standards, requiring more focus on core curriculum at the younger age groups.”
Full Definition of RIGOR
1a (1) : harsh inflexibility in opinion, temper, or judgment : severity (2) : the quality of being unyielding or inflexible : strictness (3) : severity of life : austerity b : an act or instance of strictness, severity, or cruelty
2: a tremor caused by a chill
3: a condition that makes life difficult, challenging, or uncomfortable; especially : extremity of cold
4: strict precision : exactness
5a obsolete : rigidity, stiffness b : rigidness or torpor of organs or tissue that prevents response to stimuli
MORE TESTS FOR TOTS!!!! Technology-enhanced constructed response for fetuses!!!!
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The definition of rigor is from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.
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“CC will make a dramatic difference (presumably on student success) if…teachers are fired…prepared differently…compelled to change students.”
So similarly, a major league team will having a winning record if, manager pay is changed, he is fired, his background is changed and/or force is applied to him so he makes players, be better.
No franchise owner has a view that is, that wrong-headed.
If, AEI, is quoted accurately, the organization’s work product has severe flaws that can only be corrected by compelling greater gray matter, grit, and/or
consistent, long-term conditions conducive to cognitive development. Distractions like hunger, interpersonal conflicts, and lack of environmental stability are likely present.
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Linda: I will save you a step. Below I provide the link to Dr. Hess that is available through the deutsch 29 link.
Link: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2013/12/common_core_and_the_food_pyramid.html
To reiterate: the quote is accurate. Read the rest of his piece for more of the same.
Thank you for all your comments.
😎
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Likewise, Krazy TA, although the moniker should be Astute, Well-Informed TA.
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In the very opening of his piece, Hess reveals himself to be clueless when he says that the CCSS is just a bunch of words on paper and in itself doesn’t matter much. EVERY EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHER IN THE COUNTRY is now BEGINNING EVERY PROJECT by making a spreadsheet with the items from David Coleman’s puerile list in the first column and the places in the proposed program where those items are “covered” in the next column over. In this way, the puerile list BECOMES THE CURRICULUM–drives it to an astonishing degree. And because that list is backward, hackneyed, unimaginative, and often prescientific, and because that list leaves out almost entirely the world knowledge involved in attainment in ELA and because it misconceives abilities that are acquired as ones explicitly learned, it narrows and distorts and makes grotesque the teaching reading, literature, writing, speaking, listening, thinking, and research.
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Interesting comment…
Perhaps I am missing part of your point, but I read Dr. Hess’s comments as “letting the cat out of the bag.” Among others things: that CCSS is critically important to the labeling, sorting and ranking of public school students and teachers—then punishing [many of] and rewarding [few of] them; that CCSS is critical to the pursuit of $tudent $ucce$$ by the companies delivering the high-stakes standardized tests; and that in truth the quality of CCSS is incidental, since what is in play is a cynical business plan that is masquerading as an education model.
Understanding, of course, that the above applies to the schools attended by OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN [the vast majority]. For the likes of, oh, say, the Lipscomb Academy—where edupreneurs and edufrauds and eduapparatchiks send THEIR OWN CHILDREN—I let Dr. Candace McQueen, fervid CCSS supporter/promoter and soon-to-be head of said institution, tell us in her own words how Kommoners Kore Soul Sucking figures into its future:
[start quote]
First, the Common Core State Standards have not been adopted by Lipscomb Academy. While the standards have been adopted by the state of Tennessee along with 44 other states, private schools have the freedom to determine if they will use all, some or none of the CCSS. To date, Lipscomb Academy administrators have not adopted the standards, but have encouraged the faculty to learn about the math and English/language arts Common Core State Standards that are changing the expectations of students not only in Tennessee but also across the nation.
Second, I have also not been in any discussions about formal adoption of the CCSS at Lipscomb Academy. Currently, Lipscomb Academy draws from a variety of quality national and state standards selected by the school leadership and faculty to set a vision for what content, instruction and curriculum will be used at each grade level. This has proven to be effective; thus, I don’t anticipate any changes to this process now or in the future. As is current practice, all standards available will be reviewed at set intervals by leadership and faculty to determine the direction of Lipscomb Academy.
Third, some of you have voiced concerns that the academy will adopt the PARCC test that will soon replace the current Tennessee standardized test or TCAP. Lipscomb Academy uses the ERB test, not the TCAP, and there are no plans to replace the ERB test with PARCC.
[end quote]
Link: http://nashvillepublicradio.org/blog/2014/02/10/lipscomb-academy-chief-advocates-for-common-core-but-not-at-her-school/
See also a posting on this blog of 3/23/2014: “This is an unintentionally hilarious story about Common Core in Tennessee. Dr. Candace McQueen has been dean of Lipscomb College’s school of education and also the state’s’s chief cheerleader for Common Core. However, she was named headmistress of private Lipscomb Academy, and guess what? She will not have the school adopt the Common Core! Go figure.”
Sometimes, even on lengthy threads, we can talk past each other. Excuse me if I misinterpreted what you wrote.
😎
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When a great many of a leading company’s customers being speaking of that company in the same tones that they use when speaking of, say, pedophiles and colorectal cancer, I would say that the company has a problem.
We recently had the 50th anniversary of the S&P. At that time, 70 percent of the companies originally on the S&P NO LONGER EXISTED. The mightier they are, the harder they fall.
Pearson needs to take a hard look at itself. It has cash cow businesses that damage kids and hurt and anger teachers, and this is going to get worse and worse. It just won (well, there were no other bidders) the contract to administer the PARCC (spell that backward) tests nationwide. So, what happens when those fail utterly, which they will? I suppose that Pearson can say, “Hey, we just administer the thing. Blame the consortium.” But that isn’t going to work.
It’s very, very difficult for large companies to change direction. They are like oil tankers. But this one is headed for a reef.
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cx: “When a great many of a leading company’s customers BEGIN speaking. . .”
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“The Common Core reading and writing standards are designed to be computer score-able because they rule out analysis not based on reason and evidence from the specific test in question. This makes it easy to train automated scoring software because almost all unexpected input is by definition incorrect….”
As a writing teacher for thirty-one years, this is anathema to everything I came to know in teaching my students how to first think, then translate that thinking into clear, engaging prose. And even more to the point, it runs headlong into everything I learned as a writing teacher. Though retired for three years, I clearly recall the giddy joy I felt, and it happened more often than anyone would believe, in reading a student’s essay in which the writer crafted a position or spoke with a voice far better than any I might have imagined in assigning the piece. I despair for the state of the art.
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