This morning, Amplify laid off two-thirds of its staff–some 800 people. Amplify is a division of Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp. Its CEO is education reformer Joel Klein. Murdoch invested $1 billion in Klein’s Amplify. NewsCorp has been trying to find a buyer for Amplify since it has never earned a profit in the five years of its existence. This past year it lost $371 million.
“In a tweet this morning, Alex Modestou wrote that Amplify Education laid off 800 employees today. The Observer has reached out to the company to confirm. NewsCorp has been looking for an investor to take over the division, as the Observer previously reported.
“Multiple sources inside and outside the company said that most of its staff lost their jobs today, effective immediately, at around 10:30 a.m.
“Mr. Modestou told the Observer in a phone call that he worked part time on the math curriculum for the company in its Durham office, before being let go today at 10:30 a.m. Mr. Modestou wrote the tweet, he told us, because full time employees had been offered three months salary in a lump sum in exchange for signing a non-disclosure agreement. He did not sign because he was not offered any kind of package.
“He said, “This is like the cold, inhumane hand of capitalism at work, and it seems wrong that they could stay in the shadows.”
“The 800 employee figure was based on an estimate Mr. Modestou made based on documents he’d seen before leaving. When Amplify announced it was first looking for a buyer, he said that people in the company had warned staff to expect layoffs of a sixth of the company. That rose to half over time. If 800 people were laid off, that would be roughly two-thirds of the reportedly 1,200-person company.
“Another source told the Observer in a phone call that employees in New York City were taken to meetings in the company’s Manhattan office and its Dumbo offices today. Employees in the Manhattan office were told that they were either keeping their job or they would be staying longer to help with the transition, in some new role.
“Mr. Modestou said that he and his fellow employees were told by Amplify CEO Joel Klein and Amplify Learning President Larry Berger via a conference call. We’ve also heard that this is how employees sent to the Brooklyn office were told. Mr. Modestou described the call for us, saying that “They didn’t say anything but ‘we’re letting you go’ in very lawyerly terms.”
“He added that the pair added a note of appreciation for their service and an apology that they had let the company grow larger than its revenue could support.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Oh, please, Diane, spare us. the “cold hand of capitalism”? As opposed to the warm embrace of teacher union hooliganism?
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Not my words, Peter. The words of an employee at Amplify.
So you think teachers are hooligans? That is sick.
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Diane, of course you need not take responsibility for the words of writers you promote, but it is disingenuous to pretend not to support them. And I refuse to respond in kind to your ad hominem, but will only say that I did not say that teachers were hooligans. Their unions, however, as I said, in my experience, certainly do not shy from lying and cheating in their pursuit of union goals. That’s hooliganism.
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Well, yes, i do agree with the employee at Amplify about the cold, inhumane hand of capitalism. When an employee is called in, fired, and told to clean his desk out and go, thats brutal. Union rules might stop that behavior. I am for a humane workplace.
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You ought to know: “argumentum ad hominem” is an actual logical fallacy in which a person makes an observation about a personal trait or association and then uses that to dismiss an argument. It takes the form of a refutation of an argument, but uses fallacious reasoning from the personal.
An insult is just an insult. You might be trying to claim you were subjected to a strawman argument although Dr. Ravitch further explained her meaning.
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At the grass roots, teachers unions are just classroom teachers. You cannot separate the two.
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pbmeyer2014 needs to learn about that thing called a dictionary.
“Lying” and “cheating,” claims made without any factual support, are not hooliganism, which is defined as violent troublemaking by the young, usually in gangs.
Is it that so-called reformers and their supporters are incapable of arguing with facts and reason on their side, or is not doing so a tactical and strategic choice?
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Surprising you would claim to be so upset about “union goals” since all too often the unions’ goals are the same as the rephormers’. Unions (at least their leadership) have a lot to answer for, but “protecting bad teachers” and other things your type object to are very, very far down the list.
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Take Murdoch’s hand held devices and tablets to a garage sale.
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Only those who control the revolving door labor system would agree with you.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the idiocy of conflating teachers joining with grassroots unions with some kind of big corporatized ones (e.g.,Boeing union) that behave just like a big corporate America.
And these people cannot tell the difference. Unions got to be different from corporations. They got to be antagonized in their good vs. evil mindset.
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You probably have not, will not pay attention but today on Democracy Now, watch it on democracynow.org, Robert Reich gave a most interesting analysis of capitalism. You will not agree with him for sure but it might be a bit edifying just to listen to what he has to say.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I’m not a big fan of Reich, but will it give a try.
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Reich was a good (and short!) Secretary of Labor, but I simply can’t fathom statements like “there is no such thing as trickle-down.” America was built on trickle-down–and still produces great wealth for a majority of its citizens (compared to most other systems). America was built on income inequality — otherwise known the urge to “get ahead,” to improve your lot. The urge to level income outcomes through taxes and government policy is mostly unworkable, but I always love the hypocrisy of those who speak loudly about limiting the incomes of those who are richer than them while taking umbrage at giving up their perks so that those making less than them can have more! Churchill’s comment about democracy is applicable to capitalism: it’s a terrible system, except that there’s nothing better. Attacking people who make money is a very self-destructive (from a national point of view) path. As to federal tax policies, I’m unqualified — and too cynical — to comment. But thanks for the alert; always good to watch people wishing that government could wave a magic wand and make everything better.
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I;m just glad public schools resisted the sales pitch. Just remember! Tech is an industry like any other and they want to sell you, which is fine, but let’s not pretend they’re anything else.
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Klein is a typical Wall street capitalist who uses those who like his idea and show loyalty to work with him. He would not hesitate to dump them–if they don’t make enough investment in his Edupreneurship to earn his trust. He has no excuse for his screwed job, since he pissed his boss Rupert Murdoch in crumbling Amplify business.
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Chris Cerf must have seen the writing on the wall.
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“This past year it lost $371 million.”
Laying off most of its employees.
The rheephorm bidness-minded approach at work—
Failure writ large and painful.
But not to worry: to paraphrase the NJ Comm. of Ed, they will just dig in their heels and double down on whatevers.
Got any iPads and a MISIS system you’d like to buy?
😏
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Capitalism is warm and cuddly if you are in the 1%ers and know the right people. Those at the top get the rewards, true working Americans take the risk.
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As opposed to the warm and cuddly hand of union exclusionism and the 1%ers in that group who see to it that new union members are the first to be fired. Such hypocrisy.
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Sorry, you are not making sense. Conversation over.
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Peter,
I dont know any billionaires in the union movement. Gates, Bloomberg, Broad, Waltons, Fisher family, Arnolds, Dells, many more. Which billionaires support the unions. I know you love Goliath, but stop throwing stones at David. The billionaires don’t need your help.
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Peter,
Wireless Generation and Larry Berger cheated millions from Texas taxpayers via Texas Education Agency contracts outsourced to the UT System for the commercialization of “intellectual property” for hand held assessment devices that are as obsolete as a typewriter. Murdoch thought he had a cash cow when Klein offered up the opportunity to buy his way into school districts. Murdoch saw dollar signs with the goal of making millions off of fake tablets and bogus tests. Buyers did not want to buy the toxic snake oil that failed in Texas.
What did Murdoch pay for Wireless Generation? Wasn’t it 360M?
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The sneer, the jeer and the smear.
That’s all the rheephormsters have.
What a sad and pathetic bunch.
😎
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I hope they are at least offering some sort of job counseling, but I am not holding my breath. I can’t say the mass firings were unexpected. Firing well doesn’t seem to be a widespread strength although mass layoffs at least leave you the comfort of knowing you are not alone and the company blew it.
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Believe me, any layoff mass or not is no comfort and very personal. I still hope my former boss from years ago kisses a moving bus. And I was one of the few who took it well.
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As a part-timer working on math curriculum, I don’t think anyone at Amplify felt Mr. Modestou was due anything more than the memo from HR that he probably received.
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They probably didn’t. Cells on a spreadsheet, not people. But the dehumanizing of workers has accelerated in direct correlation to the decline of unions. If true working Americans do not have a voice in the economy and government, they are seen as expendable commodities.
Full timers are usually not treated much better. The “job counseling” is nothing more than a folder of shiny brochures and an address to a job site. People are herded into conference rooms, told they are gone, then the boss goes and hides in his office. Or an email goes out telling the person they are axed. Throw in a few security goons to treat loyal employees like criminals on the way out. Families are decimated, people are destroyed. Usually it is the oldest and newest employees canned in a Darwinistic top-management orgy. As always, the people doing the actual work at the company are the ones that pay the price, the hapless and incompetent executives and board members reap the rewards.
It is pretty clear our “free markets” in labor are badly broken. If not for low-information voters supporting paper candidates, we’d see a better life and economy in the U.S. for the majority. Instead, America just blames teachers and listens only to sound bites they want to hear.
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good riddance to amplify burst – a time consuming burdensome program that is heavy on testing – takes forever to test primary students individually and then the curriculum is weak to remedy any weak areas. what a headache… as I said in a previous post …I asked the trainer – could you show us a sample lesson ? She spent the whole time showing us how to get data, sort data, read data…yuck…Teaching reading is, as my fellow first grade teacher (38 years) says down and dirty…it is hard work and must be done hands on and face to face…
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Amplify trainers would not last one day in a classroom since they can’t teach. They only memorized talking points for selling purposes, bonuses and commissions – and to generate royalties for the UT System and of course investors!
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please do not ask me the amount my district spent on amplify ….I might cry…in the meantime class size in primary is at 30 at some sites…
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I’m celebrating the failure of Amplify as a result of the fraudulent goods that could not be sold!
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Maybe those laid off Amplify employees should head over to US Dept of Ed; I hear Arne is always looking for data miners.
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NO surprise here. I remember that critter when he was NYC chancellor.
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So, if we were to measure his effectiveness on sales and profits, he would get a pretty low VAM score. This story put a smile on my face until I read that FB and Google were offering teachers free apps to help them with student grading. Doesn’t anyone out there understand that nothing is free. Data mining is an invasion of privacy!!
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YUP! I almost cried when my son’s teacher told us about the grant she got to provide each student with a chrome notebook for all writing…does no one see that you don’t get something for NOTHING!!!!!
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A must read: No Child Left Untableted
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People in government who are selling this should be called out on it.
There is absolutely no reason we need state or federal actors selling devices to public schools. That is NOT their role. We already have salespeople in these companies. We don’t need a publicly-paid sales force for devices and programs.
They need to back off. They’re basically marketing this stuff and that is wrong. For one thing we have no idea what role campaign donations play in all this hype. and for another there’s an obvious connection between ed reform funders and tech companies. Those are facts and there are ethical considerations here, even if people like Klein or Bush or Duncan choose to ignore them.
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Apparently, public officals shilling for private companies falls under the umbrella of “private-public partnerships” (in which the pubic takes the risks and private interests skim the profits) that in reality are takeovers of public resources.
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Too many politicians are unprincipled liars and thieves. That’s why billionaires can buy their support. The wealth of a typical member of congress increases a great deal during each term in office, and it’s not due to their salaries. http://blogs.rollcall.com/hill-blotter/wealth-of-congress-jumps-150-million-50-richest/
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“The Billionaire’s MO”
Start with little lie
And greatly AMPLIFY it
MO of the guy
Who thinks that he can buy it
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Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.
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I would like to share here, a letter I wrote to the NY TIMES, concerning the scandalous way they target unions…
I was reading a fascinating article on how prison guards abuse inmates
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/28/nyregion/guarding-the-prison-guards-new-york-states-troubled-disciplinary-system.html?emc=edit_th_20150928&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=50637717 when I came upon this statement: ”
“It is tough to get rid of a bad officer, just like it’s tough to get rid of a bad teacher. ”
What, you say? How does this malicious, untrue, quote from a prison official in any way pertain to the subject. Below is my letter to the NY Times
letters@nytimes.com, public@nytimes.com, publisher@nytimes.com, editorial@nytimes.com
Dear editors,
Do you imagine that this piece is ONLY about ending the dreadful abuse of some demented, malicious prison guards? Look closer!
LOOK at this sentence: which follows one which condemns unions! Mr. Robbins did not think anyone would see this boldfaced lie! After all, this is the time of mendacity in America.
“It is tough to get rid of a bad officer, just like it’s tough to get rid of a bad teacher. ”
WHAT?????
Dear editors,
Do you imagine that this piece is ONLY about ending the dreadful abuse of some demented, malicious prison guards? Look closer!
LOOK at this sentence: which follows one which condemns unions! Mr. Robbins did not think anyone would see this boldfaced lie! After all, this is the time of mendacity in America.
“It is tough to get rid of a bad officer, just like it’s tough to get rid of a bad teacher. ”
WHAT?????
This unnecessary political poison was inserted by author of this article, Tom Robbins, as if it was a legitimate opinion, as it is actually a direct quote, which Mr Robbins feels is an appropriate detail describing, the “frustration’ felt by “Brian Fischer, a former superintendent at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and the state corrections commissioner from 2007 to 2013” who tells Mr Robbins: “It’s very frustrating.”
Indeed it is frustrating, Mr. Robbins, to equate the savage beatings and actual murder of inmates to the false evaluations of teachers, which the unions, in fact have been negligent in fighting. Hundreds of thousands of wonderful veteran teachers, judged ‘bad’ by subjective evaluations, were sent packing as the unions looked the other way. The Esquith Trial in LAUSD, and the Sara Lederman suit in NY are the tip of the iceberg in the assault on the profession, and the careers of teachers. SHAME!
This is ‘yellow’ journalism, and The NY Times Public Editor needs to apologize to teachers…. and to deal soundly with Mr Robbins ’style.’
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