This morning, politico.com wrote about a new group that wants to be heard by the candidates for president. It is called Student Voice. At first, I thought this might be a group representing high school students, like the Providence Student Union, which effectively fought against standardized tests as a high school graduation test.
This is what politico reported:
“STRENGTHENING STUDENT VOICE: The non-profit organization Student Voice [http://bit.ly/1QhRJ1i ] has been touring the country in an attempt to raise awareness about the role of education in the race for the White House, among other things. They’ve been shadowing the presidential candidates and hope to get their attention in South Carolina later this month. Andrew Brennen, national field director for Student Voice, said he plans to visit eight school districts at the center of a landmark South Carolina 2014 court ruling [http://bit.ly/1T2EJ5N ], in which the state Supreme Court said the state was failing to provide a “minimally adequate” education to the state’s poorest districts. He’ll tour the schools with Merrit Jones, a high school senior and founder of the student-run South Carolina non-profit StuSpace, and listen to student stories. Brennen and Jones plan to invite presidential candidates along for the visits – they’ve already been in touch with staffers for Republican candidate Marco Rubio and Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders – stressing that they want the candidates to listen to students.
– They’re also hoping to ask a question during the Republican debate on Feb. 13. (Brennen said they’ve been in touch with moderator John Dickerson of CBS News, but they haven’t been confirmed to ask a question.) “We want to ask, what are you going to do to improve education?” Brennen said. “Not what are you going to take away, but what is one policy change that you’re going to make?” There are schools in South Carolina and across the country, like in Detroit, that “are literally falling apart,” he said. “The only education policy issue we’re hearing from the candidates is about Common Core … It would be a shame if they didn’t focus on this.”
Gosh, the Network for Public Education has been trying to get the candidates to pay attention to K-12 issues. Could this be an ally?
But then I went to the website and looked at the sponsors. Its sponsors: Microsoft, Intel, Dell, the Nellie Mae Foundation, Cengage, the Alliance for Excellent Education, and a few others.
Not allies. Whoever they are, they can afford to pay for a PR campaign. NPE can’t.
Wonder which questions they are eager to ask?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
They’re doing a fake grassroots campaign…that’s called astroturfing.
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This is a big like Eva getting her charter school students in front of publicity hounds.
The students have been duped into thinking they have “a voice” when they are on the payroll of these corporations and foundations.
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Your statement that students have been “duped” makes a big point. In my experience it has been those students and parents most in need of a protection from the abuses levied by test-based school reforms who are most likely to be duped into thinking that these very same school reforms have been implemented to serve them.
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I subscribe to Politico’s Morning Education email. I’m beginning to wonder if they’re on the Gates payroll, too. There is simply no critical observation made. It’s all the reformista program, all the time. Here’s a sample from today:
“FIRST LOOK: GROUPS TO HELP WITH ESSA TRANSITION: The Council of Chief State School Officers is partnering up with a number of groups in a new initiative this year to help states transition to the Every Student Succeeds Act. The group is teaming up with Chiefs for Change, Achieve and Ed Counsel to help states design new accountability systems, for example. A working group of state chiefs and district leaders will do a deep dive into the accountability design process, looking at ‘their vision for school improvement in their state, the systems they need to achieve that and the strategies they need to do it,’ Chiefs for Change CEO Mike Magee told Morning Education. Former Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman has also been tapped as a consultant for the new initiative. CCSSO said the groups hope to provide sample accountability models and best practices for states. And they’ll be holding meetings and conference calls with states in the coming months to provide guidance and feedback as states develop new accountability frameworks.”
CCSSO, Achieve, Kevin Huffman. Aaaarrrggghhh.
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There was an article recently about Politico’s right wing owners. The journalists who did the heavy lifting to get the website started, reportedly, have abandoned ship, to start a new venture.
Since msm is saturated with plutocratic messaging (which opened the door for Huffpo), I think we’ll see a new player, narrowing in on Huffpo’s target market.
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I wrote this before seeing Diane’s other post quoting the same excerpt. Sorry!
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Christine, Politico is a major conduit for press releases with some relevance to politics, so the pitch about the students who are concerned about education is probably not modified much. The White House has a whole operation with “fellows” placed in USDE positions and some out in the field for the purpose of pitching to a wider audience the virtues of Obama/USDE policies.
An outfit called something like PR News is being used by savvy public relations people to get their spin on topics into the news. I think there is little doubt that Politico recycles PR and that their PRO version at a cost gives them access, for a fee, to inside the beltway sources.
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Thanks for the explanation, Laura. Makes sense. So still the only reliable source for education reporting and news gathering is Diane’s blog, where we learn as much from Diane as we do from her regular commenters like you.
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Another such organization, Stand for Children (which we in Washington state have nicknamed, “Stand on Children”) is linked to CEO John Edelman, the Walton Family and Bill and Melinda Gates. It is disgusting how many people are looking to make a buck on the backs of our most innocent and vulnerable, the children. And these folks claim to support education. They should be ashamed!
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Agree. It’s egregious but, no list is complete without Goldman Sachs social impact bonds, in Utah, making money for Wall Street, on the backs of the poorest preschoolers. United Appeal’ s involvement adds a whole new layer.
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Student Voice should familiarize themselves with Bridge International Academies, America’s future.
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I don’t believe this is an astroturf group, but their funding does raise questions. Student Voice was actually founded–and is apparently run–by students. The executive director is also a founder, a university student named Zak Malamed, @zakmal on Twitter. In August of 2012 at the Save Our Schools conference in Washington, DC, he was on a “student voice” panel with several other students, including Nikhil Goyal (who while in high school wrote a book on education and has another one coming out), and Stephanie Rivera (who has been featured on this blog).
Here’s a 2012 article by Nikhil Goyal that refers to the founding of the “StuVoice movement” (which morphed into Student Voice) and quotes Diane (“When the students awaken, the national conversation will change.”):
https://www.good.is/articles/best-of-2012-the-five-most-extraordinary-things-to-happen-in-education
A couple of months ago I noticed that the executive director retweeted something from @GatesEd, and I impolitely suggested that he not let Gates Education co-opt any student voices, including his, and wondered if his group was Gates-funded. His response . . .
Zak Malamed @zakmal
@NewNarrative No co-opting. We work with a diverse set of stakeholders who have chosen to support student voices. No funding from Gates tho.
Randal Hendee @NewNarrative 3 Dec 2015
@zakmal Thanks. But realize they ARE trying to co-opt you & your group. They’re looking for young resume builders. #SOSConference #StuVoice
Zak Malamed @zakmal 3 Dec 2015
@NewNarrative Hope you’re not calling us resume builders. I know, at the end of the day, we both want what’s best for students.
Randal Hendee @NewNarrative 3 Dec 2015
@zakmal I’m saying they will try to use you any way they can. I was impressed with the #StuVoice panel at the #SOSConference. Keep that up!
Randal Hendee @NewNarrative 3 Dec 2015
@zakmal Maybe reconsider @GatesEd is a stakeholder in American ed. They want to RUN it, but they don’t rep ANY of the key constituencies.
After that exchange I realized that the group was already enmeshed in the nonprofit world and that I’d been taking for granted that they might want to remain independent of the so-called reformers. Still, it looks to me like Student Voice really does want to help students take charge of their own learning. Just as teachers have lost autonomy through the current bogus reforms, students are losing whatever say they had, which was small to begin with.
The people running Student Voice seem ambitious and must have been very active in signing up partners. Their website contains some suspicious rhetoric about personal learning with technology and data, as well as “global education reform,” but other than that, it looks like they’re trying to do good work. Not everyone will agree with every point, but their Student Bill of Rights is worth reading–it does not advocate GERM:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gendiy/11-rights-all-students-should-have_b_7548654.html
I believe that if fundraising were a priority, NPE could also get funding from sympathetic groups and individuals with money to donate. Student Voice appears to have reached out to potential funders in a big way. Hopefully their original intentions won’t be compromised.
Reading this over, I’m not sure if I’m being skeptical enough. Could it be that the students at Student Voice are simply being manipulated by moneyed interests? To buy that I’d need more evidence.
What seems clear is that a group of students came up with the idea of organizing to let students be heard, and they ran with it. Student Voice emerged from the ground up. Not so with Stand for Children and Students First.
Has Student Voice since been hijacked by the usual “reform” suspects? That’s debatable.
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Thanks for the information and, for the contact with Student Voice, to let them know Gates money taints whatever it touches.
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Randal,
I hope you are right.
NPE doesn’t get any corporate funding because corporations don’t support our goals.
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Not to slight the accomplishments and ambitions of the young people behind Student Voice, but it doesn’t take much digging to find the connection to big money.
Here’s a link to the Student Voice website with bios of its “Team”.
http://www.stuvoice.org/about/team/
Just randomly selected Andrew Brennen, who is listed as Student Voice’s “National Field Director.” Brennen is on a full scholarship at UNC Chapel Hill.
http://www.unc.edu/spotlight/andrew-brennen/
The scholarship is the “Robertson Scholars Leadership Program”, whose benefactor is Julian Robertson a wealthy UNC alum.
http://robertsonscholars.org/about-us/our-benefactors/
According to Wikipedia, Robertson is a “retired American billionaire former hedge fund manager…Forbes estimated his net worth at around $3.4 billion in May 2015.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Robertson
In April, 1996, Business Week ran a cover story that reported on some of Robertson’s questionable business practices.
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/1996-03-31/fall-of-the-wizard
The point of this exercise is to illustrate, yet again, how deep the tentacles of big business reach. I’m sure the Student Voice “Team” thinks they are part of a noble cause. I bet if I did some similar digging on other members of the “Team”, I’d find links to other big money “benefactors”.
I come across like sour grapes casting aspersions on the noblesse oblige of a billionaire philanthropist.
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old dog learning new tricks:
It doesn’t sounds like sour grapes to me. I think it’s important to find out what’s really going on. I don’t begrudge a billionaire’s efforts to help promising students, if that’s all he’s doing. The problem as I see it is that so many of these “philanthropists” are up to no good.
I don’t know about this particular billionaire, but if any of the funders try to use the organization to spread misguided and self-serving ideas about education, there’s a hazard that what started as a grass-roots effort to empower students will end up giving more power to the powerful and end up oppressing students instead. So the whole enterprise deserves scrutiny.
Still, it’s important to give the students their due. Yes, by accepting the funds they’re giving up some independence. But hopefully they’ll stay with their original purpose and think for themselves. After all, financial support doesn’t automatically constitute bribery. And even if the students are in it partly to get started on a career, I wouldn’t begrudge them that. Especially if their efforts pay off. Kids do need to be heard.
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Randal,
I appreciate your optimism. I don’t share it. It has been clear these last few years that corporations and foundations invest in ideology of the free market kind. None of the grassroots student groups ever got their money. For the finders, this is a investment, not a gift. Let’s see what the students say about testing, charters, and VAM. We will judge their independence by their acts
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Diane, I wouldn’t call it optimism. I’d call it hope that the young people involved don’t end up betraying the goals of listening to students and empowering them.
This may not happen, of course. Funding does come with strings attached. The website features business jargon with a reformist tinge:
“At Student Voice events, students, thought leaders, and change makers tackle some of education’s biggest issues and engage in community-building discussions to strengthen ties between students, teachers and policy makers to make the education ecosystem symbiotic for all involved.”
I’m all in favor of symbiosis. Not sure about these “thought leaders” and “change makers,” though. They could drown out the students. Real students need to be heard, and they need to be allowed to hold the thought leaders’ and change makers’ feet to the fire. If that happens, then Student Voice could make a difference.
Many of the items in the group’s Student Bill of Rights do sound good:
“1. Free Expression. Want to know what schools are really like at the classroom level? Letting students speak out will give you far more insightful and detailed answers than relying solely on tests. Schools should be held accountable by their students, too. Students should be able to express their ideas and speak out about their experiences without fear or suppression.”
In many schools today the teachers can’t speak out, let alone the students.
“5. Institutional Agency. Any discussion about student rights needs to include students at the table. Students need to inform policy and contribute to decisions. The difference between experimenting and innovating in education is the difference between students as guinea pigs, and students being authentic partners of change. We must have the right to help shape our institutions and future.”
Schools will be better if this happens. But lots of people, including some who fight the “reformers,” don’t believe in it.
“8. Civic Participation. Duly noted, we’ve got a republic to preserve here, people! Want citizens who vote, know the issues, and give a general damn? Let them get started while they’re still in school. Students have a right to learn by improving their communities and society, we don’t need to wait until after graduation to make things better.”
Again, not everyone considers this a priority. The “reformers” don’t.
“9. Fair Assessment. Assessment helps ensure we deliver on the promise of public education; that truly no one gets left behind, despite the baggage that phrase carries. Current assessments can be inadequate, even detrimental, to that goal. For example, only half as many students with learning differences (such as dyslexia) score average or better on standard assessments than students without LDs, and it’s not because they’re more stupid. Assessment should lift us up, not put us down. Students should have the right to demonstrate mastery in a way that respects and supports them as unique learners.”
This one starts badly but ends well. The standardization the “reformers” want doesn’t respect and support students as unique learners.
If this group is able to raise awareness of these issues, it will have succeeded in spite of all the corporate funding.
I’m taking the time to comment because the concept of “student voice” means a lot to me. When I was a teacher it wasn’t often that students were asked their opinion. Or when they were, they weren’t always taken seriously.
Any effort to give students a chance to speak their mind and make a difference is worth supporting. If this one turns out to be a sham, then it will deserve all the bad press it gets.
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Rhetorically, what conclusion should be drawn about the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (based at U. Of Penn.?), in terms of the breath and balance of its research? The CPRE website states that its research is aimed at policy makers. It’s affiliated with 6 universities, which the public infers to mean lofty ideals, serving the greater good.
CPRE was founded by the Pres. of Columbia Teachers College, featured in an article, “Teachers College Students Urge President to Cut Ties With Pearson (InTheseTimes.com, by George Joseph, June 13, 2013) …serves on the Board of-and holds 12,927 shares-in Pearson”. CPRE is funded by Pearson, Gates, Goldman Sachs, Hewlett and Joyce Foundations,….. One of CPRE’s researchers is on the Broad Prize Review Board for Charter Schools and, recently co-authored a paper with Fordham, which was funded by John Arnold and the Waltons.
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http://thewaronkids.com/?page_id=179 I don’t know all about this “Student Voice” organization.
But I do have this handbook that I printed in 2012 (I do a lot of that – costs me much ink – but it’s always there at my fingertips, and never lost in the “cloud”).
I’ve been very concerned since 1989, when I took my youngest child out of public education.
Times change, but are still the same. Laws get passed (in the middle of the night!) and “voices” from all over speak.
I appreciate what is on Diane’s blog here.
Despite the fact that I was “laid-off” in June of 2014 (the only one in the district, I might say), I continue to learn about the state of public education through many resources.
Let’s just keep on going. We can call it optimism or we can call it hope. But words are important.
It’s called the “language” now, legally.
Got to use the “right” language.
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The Student Voice website states, “We read every comment submitted.” Who is “we”?
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