Emily Talmage, Maine teacher and blogger, began to wonder whether there was a connection between Maine’s Common Core standards, its Smarter Balanced tests, and its proficiency-based tests. She did some research, and you won’t be surprised–although she was–to learn that behind everything was ………the Gates Foundation!
http://emilytalmage.com/2015/10/22/gates-undercover/
Whether it was the Nellie Mae Education Foundation or Great Schools or Educate Maine, the money came from Gates.
“Several months ago, while conducting some much overdue research into the back-story of Common Core, I stumbled across a document from the Gates Foundation that painted such a frighteningly clear picture of next-gen ed-reform that I actually wondered for a time if perhaps I was hallucinating.
I wasn’t, and within a very short time, it became unmistakably obvious that the Common Core Standards, our new Smarter Balanced test, and Maine’s one of a kind (but not for long if they have their way, so watch out!) proficiency-based diploma mandate were all linked like pieces of a puzzle to a corporate-driven agenda to transform our schools into “personalized” (digital!) learning environments. (If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, see here for more.)
Quite literally sick to my stomach, I emailed a union rep to ask if he knew anything about the paper I had found.
“It’s ghastly,” he replied, “but in Maine, it has been the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the Great Schools Partnership that has been behind these policies.”
Okay. So maybe I was mistaken. Nellie Mae sounded friendly enough. So did Great Schools. (Who doesn’t like great schools?)”
What’s the bottom line? Online digital learning for all, linked to online assessments.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Love this post, but it doesn’t seem to be finished. Is something missing?
http://emilytalmage.com/2015/10/22/gates-undercover/ Here is the blog in its entirety
The future!
The full post is here, with pictures! http://emilytalmage.com/2015/10/22/gates-undercover/
Thanks, just getting to it now.
Remember the Future: (way before Back to the Future)
I just wish schools would push back a little on this. There’s nothing wrong with questioning the stuff ed reform is always pushing. It’s not personal. It has nothing to do with whether they’re “good” or “bad” people in these foundations and lobbying groups. In fact, schools don’t have to examine motives at all. It doesn’t matter.
They’re quite obviously selling online ed hard and it just makes sense to step back and not follow them like lemmings. Why is pushing this into schools a good value for the public and students? Why such a hard sell where we’re ordered to buy, buy, buy lest we “fall behind”? If this is so great why do they need a billionaire and lobbying groups and state and federal governments to sell it?
They are bad people, Chiara. Open the whole post and read it.
They aren’t just selling their product, they are bribing and lobbying to inflict it on children by force of law.
Push back and you will be fired, unless your union has your back.
I would also note that if we find out in ten years that this big marketing push was NOT good for kids, all of the people who bought it will be responsible for it as much as the people who bought THIS are responsible for this disaster:
“Students who take classes over the Internet through online charter schools make dramatically less academic progress than their counterparts in traditional schools, according to a sweeping new series of reports released today.
The National Study of Online Charter Schools represents the first comprehensive national look at the roughly 200 schools in the publicly funded, independently managed cyber-charter sector. Such schools enroll about 200,000 full-time students across 26 states.”
This should have been questioned at the time these schools were being advertised all over the place. It wasn’t. A lot of adults in positions of power didn’t do their jobs, and now the online charters have captured state lawmakers and it will be all but impossible to regulate them, due to pay to play and blatant corruption.
“What’s the bottom line? Online digital learning for all, linked to online assessments.”
And that, folks, is one of the main goals of the edudeformers. There’s plenty of money to be made in them thar hills of computer learning plying the states with our tool$ of trade. (Sorry, Country Joe & the Fish).
Marie, click the link in the post and that will take you to the original where there is a lot more info.
All should definitely read Emily’s full post.
The folks (and that’s being nice) whom we are up against have the game and it’s one-sided rules down pat. Slicker than used crankcase oil!
I followed the link, and it appears that Gates has tried to figure out a way to cash in on some of the practices of Khan Academy. Gates was promoting Khan a few years back. He should stop acting like he’s a humanitarian, and admit that his goal is to sell products that supplant public schools.
See, the unions should be the ones informing teachers of these shady dealings. But instead, they ignore it. Because they take Gates money, too.
SIC ain’t it?
It’s Jeb! ‘s fault.
Rep. Gov. LePage imported FEE and Patricia Levesque from Florida to help speed up edu-deform in the Pine Tree state. He’s cuckoo (no insult to the bird!) and may yet be impeached for threatening a charter school with being defunded if they hired a Democratic opponent of his. (We can see how edu-deform is not the province of any one political party.) He’s appointed a creationist, William Beardsley, as acting commissioner of education, bypassing the confirmation process with a six month appointment. Just today, he declared that public funding of elections would be tantamont to “giving my wife my checkbook. I’m telling you, it’s giving your wife your checkbook. Go spend.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maines-lepage-thats-giving-my-wife-my-checkbook
As Maine goes, so goes the Nation? Heaven help us!
Well, ALL Gates has is $$$$$$. Sad.
Diane, this is the “less testing” engine that has been driving the ESEA revision. Are you rethinking NPE’s support for it?
I have to ask, because I keep getting a sick feeling. Do any of the contributors to NPE besides AFT and NEA take Gates money?
Colleagues, by the way, the program has entered my own name instead of my onscreen avatar. I’m still just chemtchr.