Mercedes Schneider posts that Pearson is downsizing by 4,000 jobs worldwide. In addition, it is shedding its CFO. She attributes Pearson’s bad economic news to its bet on Common Core. A bad bet.

Here is the BBC account.

Categories Budget Cuts, Common Core, Pearson

26 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

virginiasgp says:

January 21, 2016 at 11:08 am

Diane, this is Econ 101. Standards reduce profit. They make it less costly to compete. My school buys licenses for unlimited lessons and tests throughout the year for each student for the exorbitant cost of ….. $35/student. That’s 0.27% of the annual pupil expenditure. That’s price competition at work.

Having standards makes it less costly to compete. It doesn’t encourage scale, it encourages diversification of suppliers. Now maybe if districts increase class size and leverage that $35/student investment, they can refocus more funds on their additional “wants”.

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- Dienne says:
  
  January 21, 2016 at 2:22 pm
  
  Well, I guess not all rephormers lack creativity. This is certainly a more creative explanation than I could come up with.
  
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- MathVale says:
  
  January 21, 2016 at 11:49 pm
  
  “Standards reduce profit.”. Econ 101? More like a reason to review Stats 101 and causation fallacies.
  
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Shelley says:

January 21, 2016 at 11:21 am

Shedding no tears. Think of all the teachers who have been fired because of Common Core _________ (you fill it in)–or never hired to begin with because funds went to pay for testing materials instead.

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- Raj says:
  
  January 21, 2016 at 8:07 pm
  
  “The Brookings Institution estimated in 2012 that states spend $1.7 billion on standardized tests each year. Brookings also noted the entire public education system spends more than $600 billion annually.
  
  Therefore if all standardized testing is ended the public schools will be able to hire 0.28% more teachers. Class size can be lowered by 0.28%.
  
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  - Susan Lee Schwartz says:
    
    January 21, 2016 at 8:56 pm
    
    HUH? Is this new math?
  - Shelley says:
    
    January 21, 2016 at 9:57 pm
    
    Yes. Common Core math–we are in big trouble!
  - dianeravitch says:
    
    January 21, 2016 at 9:06 pm
    
    Raj, that’s not true. Pearson has a $1 billion contract for PARCC tests. That’s only one of hundreds of contracts.
    
    Have you given up defending the cost-cutting measures in Flint that will cost the state huge sums?
- Ken Watanabe says:
  
  January 22, 2016 at 1:59 am
  
  A classic example of fuzzy math fallacy. Tragic.
  
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moeone2015 says:

January 21, 2016 at 11:26 am

It is also interesting that the Chair of the PARCC Governing Board has also changed. This happened in mid-November 2015. The new Chair is none other that NM Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera. Until just this week no news releases were put out on this topic. Guess Skandera, Pearson and Governor Martinez wanted to keep it a deep dark secret — at least from the very unhappy people in New Mexico over Skandera’s poor job performance. See the following URL for more details

https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/hanna-skandera-is-now-parcc-chair-there-was-no-press-release/

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SomeDAM Poet says:

January 21, 2016 at 12:18 pm

“Pearson is downsizing by 4,000 jobs worldwide. In addition, it is shedding its CEO and CFO. ”

Does that mean the Pearson cut score was set at 4002?

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Pearson Know it ALLs says:

January 21, 2016 at 12:44 pm

Pearson you silly little collection of teacher wanna bees…You did not listen to the real teachers out there telling you all that common core was a piece of shit created by stupid politicians. You did not listen Pearson and now you want to fire all these people including the CEO??? I feel so sorry for the corporation that was swimming in profits and saw $$ dollar signs at the expense of children. But, in life we all learn little lessons and in this case Pearson has learned the ole sayin….and we all know the sayin…..are you ready Pearson??? OK, I will give it to ya’ll..NEVER COUNT YOUR CHICKENS UNTIL THESE HATCH BOZO…Peace out…I am going for a walk with a smile on my face can you picture it??

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Susan Lee Schwartz says:

January 21, 2016 at 5:49 pm

Seriously. They fire the manager, but the masterminds at the EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Click to access eic-oct_11.pdf

get away? Reminds me of the banksters!

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Donna says:

January 21, 2016 at 8:32 pm

Good. May everyone at Pearson lose their jobs, just like the reformers have done to certified, qualified, licensed and veteran teachers. Good riddance Pearson; we won’t miss you.

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- NoReformNeeded says:
  
  January 22, 2016 at 12:57 am
  
  They didn’t fold up shop. Just a little re-org to cut costs. They will still have 36,000 employees.
  
  Plus, they have a fat bank account from selling the Financial Times and The Economist. They made several 100s of millions in profit for 2015. But that was still not enough to satisfy the investors and Wall Street. The Street is relentless in their drive for dollars.
  
  You sound like a lovely woman Donna. I hope you never lose your job due to the incompetence of your management team where you work. if you do I won’t celebrate it and I hope others don’t as well.
  
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Shelley says:

January 21, 2016 at 10:17 pm

I could care less what the Brooks Institute says, Raj. My school has a budget and x amount of dollars must be used to buy test materials, the paper, the ink, the hours for which both proctors and graders must be paid. What the school doesn’t directly pay for, the city does. Any way you look at it, excessive testing costs a lot of money, which could be much better spent in hiring more teachers, counselors, school aids and/or funding after school programs.

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- Abigail Shure says:
  
  January 26, 2016 at 4:56 pm
  
  NoReformNeeded,
  
  Pearson is full of former teachers trying to improve education? How is Pearson making education better?
  
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NoReformNeeded says:

January 22, 2016 at 12:44 am

John Fallon, Pearson CEO is not going anywhere right now. And the CFO either. If that was posted here it is not true. Now, should Fallon be gone, that’s another conversation. I personally think he’s on very thin ice right now.

The front line workers at Pearson, which many, a large amount actually, are former teachers. They believe in the mission, They believe in the products. They want education in America to succeed as much as anyone on this forum does.They are passionate about helping schools succeed.

They have quite lively debates within Pearson about what the goals are, profits or better education for the students. Most employees are happy if they break even. But Pearson is a publicly traded corporation, so they play by the Wall Street rules, which suck. There is no such thing as an altruistic publicly traded corporation.

Just like the contributors on this forum, mostly teachers I assume, Pearson employees have bosses they don’t always see eye to eye with. You all have bosses you don’t see eye to eye with, Principals, Superintendents, but you still go to work for the students do you not? How many of you have stayed at a district through several Superintendents?

You all have bills to pay I assume, mortgages to maintain, kids to send to college. So does the front line Pearson employee. There’s only one CEO out of 40,000 employees at Pearson. They’re not all rich over there. And John Fallon, even if he’s fired, he’ll go home with several million dollars in his bank account.

But those 4000 people getting sent home, what’s their fate? The economy is not good. Will they land on their feet? Will John Fallon care? He will send the typical email saying it’s out of his control, it’s the market, etc.

It’s a bit unsettling to see the animosity towards your fellow Americans and the joy at them being out on the street. I would expect that from a Fox News crowd, buts that not he vibe I usually get here. I thought this was a kinder place than that.

Sure Pearson is big. Maybe too big. They’re their own worse enemy most of the time. If I were running Pearson, I’d get out of the testing business yesterday. If nothing else just for the PR. And who is holding the gun to the districts head and forcing them to buy Pearson products? Can districts write and print their own books and curriculum? Have schools always purchased books and curriculum? Are teh better vendors to buy from?

I’m not 100% sure who wrote Common Core and what the agenda there is. I do doubt that Pearson single handedly created CC and are they are the only entity championing it.

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- virginiasgp says:
  
  January 22, 2016 at 7:48 am
  
  It’s not Pearson’s number 1 job to improve education. They are a for-profit corporation. Their goal is to satisfy their customers. To that end, improving education is the method they use to accomplish that goal. They produce materials and tests that assist K-12 districts to educate students. I am not saying Pearson hurts anyone. I’m just saying it’s silly to claim that Pearson should try to only do what’s best in your opinion for education and ignore their corporate goals. Remember, they likely completely disagree with you on what’s best for education.
  
  As for the CC and whether it increases profits. One of the big reforms of the financial sector was to standardize the trading of derivatives. Just like Pearson, Goldman Sachs was one of the biggest players in the derivative (education) market pre-financial reform (CC). Goldman opposed standardization of derivative trading precisely because it would make their trading business less profitable. It appears Pearson wasn’t as smart as Goldman because while CC did expand the testing business, it reduced margins and profits. That is what you are now seeing. It made Pearson’s work easier but it also made their competitors’ work easier as well.
  
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    January 22, 2016 at 9:13 am
    
    Virginia, you have just explained who for-profit corporations should not run schools. Their highest priority is profit, not education.
- Ken Watanabe says:
  
  January 22, 2016 at 9:49 am
  
  Ah, yes, Emperor Virginia. Now I got why they sold out Financial Times to Japan’s conservative Nikkei Shimbun last year. They wanted to give us the impression that they had plenty of money to make a for-profit goldmine–but it’s just simply not enough to cover-up their deficit. So, they decided to keep it under hat like Olympus(busted for cover-up in offshore investment loss, plus bashing a ‘gaijin’ whistleblower in 2011) and Toshiba(denounced for account padding in 2015). And now see what’s happening! Stock price!! It’s tumbling down on the hill like a rolling stone.
  
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NoReformNeeded says:

January 22, 2016 at 1:18 am

One thing I’ve thought about a lot is war. War with Iraq. War with Iran, Syria, whoever.

And the thing is, I don’t know anyone from Iraq, Iran, or Palestine. I guess in reality I have meet immigrants from those countries, but I have not visited those countries and known these people in their native lands.

Now having said that, since I don’t know these people, I have no desire to kill them. No desire to invade them and destroy their country and their lives. I bet if we broke bread together we have more in common that not. Our national leaders obviously have a different vision than I do, but they have an agenda where I do not.

It seems this reform and reform opposition landscape is a battleground. And maybe it is. But does it have to be personal? Do you truly believe Pearson employees are rooting for public teachers to lose their jobs? Rooting for failure? Now maybe the politicians, the oligarchs, the billionaire boys club, the school district and state level superintendents, and the Pearson top brass, maybe they are in cahoots together, maybe they have an agenda? But I bet if a school teacher sat and broke bread with a Pearson Curriculum Specialist, Educational Consultant, Technical Specialist, Program Developer, I bet you’d find you have more in common than not. And that would be having successful students.

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NoReformNeeded says:

January 22, 2016 at 1:57 am

“MELVYN BERNSTEIN
17 hours ago

Some 4,000 Pearson employees, along with an untold number of downstream non-employees, have lost or soon will lose their jobs. These and their family members will be hit hard – some will find other employment, many will not or will be forced into lower-paying jobs or will be forced onto public assistance rolls.

Employees are increasingly subject to adverse market and economic forces and are at relentless and fateful risk of poor upper-level management decisions, all beyond their control, and when they are “let go”, the employer’s stock value invariably rises.

The world can be very cruel.”

Pearson stock went up 17% today on the good news that 4000 people are being fired. And Pearson is the enemy?

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m4potw says:

January 22, 2016 at 3:59 am

To NoReformNeeded:

You must be newcomer in this website. All of your inquiry has been answered many times for the past few year.

However, in any job, job seekers should prepare to learn the background of the company and its ethics. Otherwise, just go with the flow due to job seekers’ negligence or blind faith.

In the same vein, all veteran educators in this website have fought very well by cultivating readers including new teachers, TFA, and parents the danger of the privatization in education.

These veteran educators are expertise in teaching and very knowledgeable in a whole child education concept. They protect the democracy for future citizenry. They seek the teaching profession because they train young learners to be good citizens who will fight for public education = democracy in their country.

Country is strong and prosperous = public education K-12 has appropriate-age learning level of curriculum = teaching profession has respected tenure.

Company is strong and prosperous = its products are thoroughly and transparently examined by related profession’s inputs = its work force has stable employment.

In short, please do not be upset if you lost job from Pearson, but you should be worry if you lost your freedom to learn, work and live in a democratic country. Back2basic

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- NoReformNeeded says:
  
  January 22, 2016 at 9:29 am
  
  A large number of Pearson employees are at Pearson through acquisitions, and had no say so in the decision. Sure they can leave, but like i posted above, no matter what Obama or anyone else tells us the economy has not recovered.
  
  Don’t be upset if one loses their job? The love and warmth here is just palpable isn’t it? Maybe i should celebrate every time a new charter school opens. One more victory for free enterprise. One more group of leftist unionist teachers unemployed. But you see, i dislike charter schools. I’m not a fan of privatization. Many things belong in the public domain, education being one of them.
  
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m4potw says:

January 22, 2016 at 5:49 pm

To NoReformNeeded:

As you agree that “Many things belong in the public domain, education being one of them.”, you would agree that we, people, workers should be careful to choose a WORKING career for company whose ethics should support public domain = support public education.

We DO NOT celebrate OR condone malpractice in charter schools (= looting public education fund in the coffers of hedge fund managers or greedy testing corporate)

In desperate economic needs, people need to do whatever to survive and to live with HUMAN CONSCIENCE. As a result, people need to find a way to stay away as far as possible from all greedy enterprises without human conscience BUT PROFITS and CONTROL.

It is easy said than done. For noble human beings, it is easy done without said. For all snobbish, materialistic, and selfish people, it will be very difficult and struggling SAID, left alone done.

Thank you for your precious time to voice your feeling. Back2basic

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