Alan Singer of Hofstra University is a Pearson-watcher, as we all should be. Pearson is the UK-based mega corporation that is swallowing up American educatiion. It creates assessments for many individual states (like Texas and New York) and Common Core PARCC. It writes curriculum for Common Core. It sells textbooks aligned with its tests. It owns the GED. It owns a virtual charter school chain called Connections Acadey. And it owns EdTPA, which evaluates whether aspiring teachers are qualified to teach.
Singer says that Pearson’s legal and financial troubles are piling up.
“Bad news for Pearson Education may be good news for the rest of us. The testing and publishing mega-giant is on the run, but it looks like it will not be able to hide. Pearson Education is closing its foundation; it is under investigation by the FBI for possible insider dealings in the Los Angeles iPad fiasco; the company is being sued by former employees for wrongful termination; and its PARCC exams are losing customers.”
Read on for the details.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good. And what of its ties to Libya? Why would America allow this? America is being bought by the highest bidder, and in the instance of Pearson, taxpayers in America are paying for the sale. Sickening. Here is hoping Pearson folds and its stockholders take beating.
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That’s a stretch Donna. If I understand it correctly, Libyas Sovereign Wealth Fund owns Pearson stock, 3% maybe? That’s far from a “Libyan connection”. I am as anti-reform as the next guy, but we don’t need Fox News level spin to win the war.
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We can hope and pray that this is true! What goes around comes around…..
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Reblogged this on LiterateOwl and commented:
Alan Singer of Hofstra University is a Pearson-watcher, as we all should be. Pearson is the UK-based mega corporation that is swallowing up American educatiion. It creates assessments for many individual states (like Texas and New York) and Common Core PARCC. It writes curriculum for Common Core. It sells textbooks aligned with its tests. It owns the GED. It owns a virtual charter school chain called Connections Acadey. And it owns EdTPA, which evaluates whether aspiring teachers are qualified to teach.
“Bad news for Pearson Education may be good news for the rest of us. The testing and publishing mega-giant is on the run, but it looks like it will not be able to hide. Pearson Education is closing its foundation; it is under investigation by the FBI … ”
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One small note (or correction)…”And it owns edTPA…” – this is not factually true. While Pearson is an operational partner with SCALE around edTPA, SCALE owns the intellectual property of edTPA. SCALE (along with numerous other teacher educators, both K-12 and higher ed) are the folks who created the rubrics, etc.
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Look into Schoolnet, for more disasters.
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I have it on good authority that Pearson has put in repeated calls to the Invisible Hand and the Invisible Hand is refusing to take the call, being out of the office “till further notice.”
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What a Merry Christmas it would be indeed if Pearson was suddenly forced out of existence! guess Mc-Graw Hill would be in line to take Pearson’s place, though…!
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I believe the U.K. says “Happy Christmas”. Soon, so will America.
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Pearson owns McGraw Hill.
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Sadly, I find neither of your replies surprising…
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Unless I’ve missed it, McGraw-Hill, including CTB McGraw-Hill, is still an independent company and Pearson’s largest competitor in the for-profit assessment space. DRC, Renaissance, etc. in a much lower market share.
Person did acquire Harcourt assessment a few years ago.
Pearson is still the Borg, though.
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Here’s what the Insiders in education reform think will happen in upcoming federal legislation. The surveys, conducted by Whiteboard Advisors, take the temperature of CEO’s who have an interest in education legislation and make predictions for investors and other insiders.
http://www.whiteboardadvisors.com/
“Education Insider is a free monthly report that provides real-time insights on federal education policy trends, debates, and issues—from the handful of decision makers that are driving the process. The Insiders include current and former White House and U.S. Department of Education staff, Congressional leaders, state school chiefs, and leaders of major trade associations, think tanks, and advocacy groups.”
Is this kind of collusion among industry and policy makers not a conflict of interest?
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