It is crucial that the public understand the concerns that are frequently shared on this blog among readers about the corporate takeover of public schooling, in its many forms.
One version of this takeover is the close collaboration between the White House and the mega-corporations that sell software and hardware and testing to the schools, that is, the needs created by the politicians are satisfied by the marketplace. In education, the marketplace is dominated by one giant, referred to in this article as Goliath: Pearson. Parents are beginning to understand that Pearson owns the tests, the textbooks, and the curriculum, and it is all aligned with the Common Core. They also own the GED, in case students can’t finish high school (having failed the Pearson tests). Probably they will also fail the GED, because Pearson has aligned the GED with the Common Core and passing rates plummeted by 90%. Maybe Pearson will create a new service for young people and adults who failed high school and failed the GED. But will it too be aligned with the Common Core? Or will we have a permanent army of the unemployed and unemployable who can’t pass Pearson tests?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I would rather state, instead of “that is, the needs created by the politicians are satisfied by the marketplace” – “the needs created by the MARKETPLACE/corporations are satisfied by the bought off politicians and the US government, from the President, to the Secretary of Education, to the local governors, mayors, etc. and paid for by what used to be unsuspecting taxpayers – but now, we suspect, we know, we’re angry and WE want accountability for all our wasted funds being diverted to corporations and non-profit-for-profits, and the walking off of our real estate and tax-paid for supplies, furniture, etc. The testing and curriculum grab is just 1 very large facet of the manipulated monopoly to get at the bottomless well of our tax dollars.
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The word may be spreading, Diane:
What If Ed Reform Got It All Wrong in the First Place? – B. Raden, PS Mag
http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/what-if-education-reform-got-it-all-wrong-in-the-first-place
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And teacher certification tests created by Pearson too!
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The last section of the PhillyVoice.com article goes into detail about Pearson’s influence in teacher certification in Pennsylvania, including a proposal for either Pearson or ETS to film student teachers in the classroom as part of the certification process.
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I just shake my head at these “limited government” politicians and voters who rail against federalism, government programs, and public good while passively accepting or even actively embracing corporate control and governance. Corporations like Pearson are dictatorships. There are no rights, no votes, no voice. So-called free markets and unbridled competition are a thought experiment perpetuated by zealots worshipping a substandard Russian writer. The end game is anarchy, inequality, and misery. Why do so many Americans despise democracy, freedom, and a government by the People?
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MathVale:
Well and succinctly put.
😎
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Limited government would put an end to crony corporations. Not the other way around.
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Hi Diane,
It’s game over for the NYC Department of Education and its 80,000 public school teachers. On April 1st (ironically April fools day), you will see the billionaire reform finally pay off, for them. Cuomo will push through his agenda as he has no intention of listening to the parents, teachers, or students. It’s over in NYC. Glad I’m retiring in a few years. Cuomo is a real piece of shit. He has 4 years to destroy public education and he clearly will. The money is just to good for him to turn down.
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So what is the solution to eradicating the focus/proliferation of standardized testing? What is the solution for kids who are growing up in poverty?
I’m curious, and want to hear from others.
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The solution for kids growing up in poverty is to deal with poverty. Create living wage jobs. Make sure that families have access to adequate medical and dental care. Make sure that kids have enough to eat and a secure place to live.
Education is important, but it can’t cure poverty. And standardized testing has nothing to do with education.
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Unheardofwriter,
Start by reading Bob Herbert’s book Loding Our Way.” The best antidote to poverty is jobs. For other ideas, see my book “Reign of Error”
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Yes, Diane. Sitting around and getting paid for nothing – unless you are truly disabled – is not a happy scene.
But I’m afraid to have more jobs, there has to be a redistribution of wealth. Our tax system is based on trickle down economics with the BIGGEST counterfeit premise that if we don’t tax the rich and rich corporations, they will create more jobs and expand business because they will have more capital to do so.
This is a blaring lie, one of the worst in history. It does not work, and it only stands to make the overclass feel good about themselves when they add a few niggardly percentage points to the employment rate with an array of jobs that pay decently to ones that pay the rate of Walmart.
Taxes pay for a fair and equitable society. Taxes pay for the infrastructure that mobilizes society to be productive and competitive. We don’t even have a state of the art mass transit systems in most of our smaller and major cities, as they do in Paris and Bangkok. We don’t even have a robust mass transit system for intra-national travel, and stinky Amtrak does not count. It’s connecting network and coverage is more limited than the number of stents in Dick Cheny’s heart.
Jobs are critical, but taxes pay for a civlized society. The rich don’t pay any where near their fair share.
That’s a problem . . . .
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Not to be xenophobic…but they’re British. Not even American, (as if that would matter much..but still. keep it here at home) and they do most of the professional licensing in the U.S. Kind of a full-service tester. Perhaps a takeover of DMV/Motor Vehicle testing and licensing is in the cards? Will FOIA MoCo and the state of Maryland to see if they have a similar deal. Will post any findings if and when I get an answer.
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Call it what it is…Slavery. The aristocrats and plutocrats have the dominant voice and expect everyone to work under their supervision. Can you spell Walton? Can you spell Gates? Can you spell Broad? Can you spell Pearson? It’s not slavery based on skin color, it’s slavery based on your place in the economic pecking order.
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Yes…SLAVERY!
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I have been very careful not to call it slavery – but clearly the masters will have the rest of us be the serfs.
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I don’t know why anyone would object to parents knowing more about the testing groups and the testing contractor. When you’re “building a plane in the air” there are bound to be questions from the (involuntary) passengers “inflight”.
This is Smarter Balanced:
“Willits said her group uses student workers to do hashtag searches online to see if anyone is posting the test itself. Last year, when 4 million students took a trial run version of that test, she said about 75 breaches were discovered.”
“Student workers”. Hmmmm 🙂
http://www.nbc4i.com/story/28558589/test-security-now-means-checking-social-media-for-cheaters#.VQrWp2fAjt8.twitter
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Here’s a new piece on Wall Street and US public schools:
“The current push for education reform in New York is not an expression of the vast majority of New York’s parents and children but the result of a five-year-long billionaire hedge-funders’ campaign to realize their own vision for public schools.”
I don’t mean to be unkind, but given the finance sector’s track record with “helping” poor, working class and middle class people over the last 30 years, why would anyone in their right mind turn public schools over to them? That’s not just “reckless”. It’s insane.
We will deeply, deeply regret privatizing US public schools. It won’t end well for us.
http://www.thenation.com/article/201881/nine-billionaires-are-about-remake-new-yorks-public-schools-heres-their-story#
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You should all be scared.
Pearson provides support to School Psychologists Nation Wide
http://www.pearsonclinical.com/psychology.html
Collecting data to help with RSP, SST, and SDC Programs.
The data collection while “confidential” is never the less in Pearson’s Server Farm.
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Meanwhile Congress diddles.
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They’ll make some purely voluntary “best practices” suggestions to contractors.
They see themselves in mostly an advisory role to business.
“Regulating” is so adversarial and..icky. Better to be on the same side of the table with the entities they’re supposed to be regulating. One big happy family- business and their lower-level “helpers” in Congress.
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Pearson should should be obligated to create jobs for all of the people who cannot pass the tests and not receive a h.s. diploma.
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Pearson doesn’t “create” very good jobs. They’re paying college graduates 15 an hour to grade the millions and millions of tests kids are dutifully turning in.
You can make 15 an hour here with a high school diploma, and you’ll also get health insurance and a retirement savings plan.
I’m not sure we need more college graduates, listening to Pearson. They claim to use a very competitive process to hire scorers so they must have plenty of applicants.
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I retired from full-time teaching a few years ago, and now teach a small GED prep class at a local adult school. I am currently preparing my students for the HiSET (and/or the TASC) instead. All three tests are accepted in CA. After analyzing the two GED essays, I found them to be more appropriate…..maybe….for final exam questions in first-year college classes, not for high school equivalency. The questions are way more complex and demanding even than the placement essay for freshman entering a CalState.
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The most clearly laid out research I have ever seen on what the problem is with monopolies today (such as Pearson). Have a read of this, if you want to understand monopolies and where many of our problems have come from today. You can also read the whole book on it:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2010/1003.lynn-longman.html
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Not just parents–EVERYONE. If we tell EVERYONE about how much (taxpayer–ours!) money are states are absolutely WASTING (just like heroin going into an addict’s arm–that’s how I see Pear$on) on testing, test preps, etc., there WILL be backlash, believe me, like we’ve never seen. It’s just like when I inform people of the little known fact that–in my state–retired teachers DO NOT receive “free health insurance on the taxpayers’ dime for life” (we have to PAY for it–like everyone else–well, except for corporate execs. w/their golden parachutes). People are absolutely shocked when I tell them–they’d no ides–& are immediately sympathetic.
That’s what we have to do RE: Pear$on. Inform EVERYONE! (In fact, when you do your Pear$on research {& you’ll be–to use a British [!] term, absolutely gobsmacked} & find out all the down low, download it, & e-mail it to all your friends, relatives, neighbors–EVERYONE you know. Their money trail & earning$–on the backs of our children–are astonishing & sickening.)
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Pearson is filled with LOVE.
LOVE for your children . . . . Every child is a tender morsel of pure pecuniary love.
$mile! Pear$on loves$ your kid$:
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He looks like one of the evil characters in a Lemony Snicket book.
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And he’s dying to encounter your children and your tax revenues. Hide them both . . . .
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Actually, Pearson already has a product for those who fail their PARCC and GED tests. It is called the GED Marketplace (I am not kidding). They have dozens of products costing between $100 to $500 which you can purchase to increase your odds of passing the Pearson GED. So last year a half million kids failed to pass the 2014 GED test compared to a normal year. This year it will be another half million kids whose lives are destroyed. If each of these one million mostly low income kids spends $1000 at the GED store, that would mean an extra billion dollars in profit for Pearson. No wonder Pearson is out to flunk as many kids as possible. For more on this scam and links to all of the sources, visit our website Weapons of Mass Deception (dot) org.
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Cha-ching!
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It doesn’t surprise me that all of this insanity is being brought to us by a program designed by a British company. I studied in England while in college and was horrified by the lack of opportunity afforded to British students who wanted to pursue higher education. I learned that because college and universities are subsidized by the British government, the dream of higher education is only available to a very select few, and no one objects to this arrangement. Brits as a culture readily accept the notion that only an elite handful will be deemed valuable to society in secondary school, and only a few are entitled to go on to do anything other than working class jobs. It’s really a reflection of a culture that is still a class based society. Kids live or die by “high stakes” tests in secondary school, which determine their entire future. It’s so unlike America, where people aren’t pigeon holed at a young age onto this or that track due to a test score. And look at the British economy, which pales compared to our own. Do we really want to mimic their system of identifying potential talent?
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But it’s not just kids in poverty that are being affected. If even the suburban school children (in NYS) are “failing” the assessments, who is going to actually be able to attend college, let alone graduate from high school. A state wide 70% failure rate means a lot of adults slinging burgers.
Ellen #ThisWholeIdea-IsUnsustainable
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This fact– that cut scores are set to fail the large majority of a state’s schools– shows that the scheme to fail/privatize is casting a wide net. They will not be satisfied to privatize just poor inner-city schools (where parents will scramble for any alternate to a crumbling and dangerous school for their kids).
It’s why I’ve been dead set against NCLB & RTTT from the start. Purely selfish. Corporations need to grow market share and grow profit; I see them coming.
The ONLY reason this scam has been allowed to proceed this far in 12+ years has been the passivity (“not my problem”) of upper-middle class parents who pay plenty for a good district school system.
The ONLY reason we’re getting the beginnings of a groundswell against the testing machine? It has finally begun to arrive at the doorstep of those with excellent school systems. They actually have something to protect, which needed no tinkering, and is now being dragged down by the arrival of PARCC/ SBAC.
I agree that American methods of funding public education are profoundly unjust (& always have been). But that’s not the battle I want to fight today. I agree that bought-off pols and their hedge-funders all send their kids to private school while mandating lousy ed policy for everybody else– but I don’t care!
The way to stop this leviathan in its tracks is to bring it into the homes and families of the high-mid & upper-middle classes. Though the income gap has widened, that doesn’t mean it’s the poor against the rich in this argument. There is a huge cohort of lawyers, doctors, engineers, & businessfolk who send their kids to public school & have a vested interest in maintaining local excellence.
They’ve been passive partly because of the declining economy: they’ve lost pensions & envy teacher benefits, their high school-taxes pinch. Many have already voted to forgo the niceties of primary-school foreign language, enough new turf-fields and jazz bands to accommodate increasing population, and even, reluctantly, allowed max class-size to increase a bit. But their school taxes keep increasing. Once they get that CCSS/ PARCC increases costs while a narrowing and lowering curriculum quality, the buck may stop there.
Some of these folks have enough to switch to private schools when they perceive the threat of ed-reform to their district schools’ quality. But private school openings could never accommodate a flight from the publics. And most will cough up their 20k in property taxes rather than 30k per kid tuition.
OPT-OUT is the obvious place to start. NJ suburbs are ripe for the sort of response we’ve already seen in upper NYC & LI suburbs.
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“In state after state, fewer people are taking the tests, and those who do are failing at much higher rates. In Rhode Island and Wisconsin, the number of people who passed the test dropped more than 90 percent.
In Kansas, only 807 people passed the GED in 2014, compared to 3,617 in 2013 and 2,806 in 2012.”
http://www.flatlandkc.org/education/1-year-ged-changes-kansas-students-lost-shuffle/
You can gather what this article is about from the title, but unfortunately it’s now behind a firewall:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/high-school-equivalency-degree-loses-its-dominant-position-1423521427
And this one:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2015/01A/fewer_students_take_and_pass_new_high_school_equivalency_exams.html
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