Laura Chapman writes here about “computer-based education” and who profits from it.
“Frankly, the scariest for-profit ventures are the tech companies that hope to replace teachers and schools with their “scalable” models.” Diane Ravitch.
Yes. Computer-based Education (CBE) is being marketed as personalized when it is exactly the opposite. Legislators in Ohio and elsewhere are counting on CBE to produce a radical reduction in brick and mortar schools and the need for educators who have college degrees and professional credentials.
CBE is part of the reason that we states are trying to install student-based budgets as the norm for schools and districts. Accountants are dissecting a district’s budget so costs can be allocated to specific schools, then to courses and grade levels in the school, including each teacher’s salary with benefit package, and the estimated cost of educating an individual student to a specific standard of mastery, given the student’s SES characteristics and the like. These estimates would take into account local revenues, the value of federal and state funds (usually less than 12% each), and so forth. The aim is to lay claim to CBE as the “best bang for the buck” while pointing to a system that “objectively” monitors student mastery of pre-determined content (delivered by computers).
Here are two maps that show the rapid uptake of CBE as if it is the new panacea for education. Look beyond the maps for excellent research on how CBE is being marketed.
Hoping to escape Competency-Based Education? Looks like Wyoming is your only option.
Here you will find amazing and disturbing stats and graphic illustrations of some interlocking initiatives, all designed to have a rapid and “collective impact” on the educational landscape. https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2017/05/02/knowledgeworks-the-every-student-succeeds-act-essa-and-the-push-for-competency-based-learning/
The Gates Foundation is investing in a program that would train adults to serve as “providers” of CBE, therby eliminating the need for state certification to teach. In fact the whole CBE movement is aimed at “deschooling” education. That requires demonizing place-based brick and mortar schools and grade-by-grade instruction as part of the antiquated lock-step factory model.
The International Association for K–12 Online Learning (iNACOL) aims to expand access to online formats for learning, with mobile phone access for some programs. See especially their publications calling for “innovation zones” that would provide for “competency-based, personalized learning” free of brick and mortar schools.
“Policy makers establish innovation zone authority or programs through legislation or rule-making to catalyze the development of new learning models. The innovation zone authority provides increased flexibility for a state to waive certain regulations and requirements for schools and systems beginning to plan, design and implement personalized, competency-based education models. Innovation zones offer state education policy waivers in order to support practitioners in the process of developing and implementing new learning models. As practitioners implement their models, any rules or regulations that impede the model development are brought to light and can be addressed through waivers in a state, which has provided such innovation zones. This shifts the role of the state agency from one of compliance enforcement to support in enabling new model development to occur in districts.”
iNACOL lists the states with favorable legislation: Arkansas, Colorado, Kentucky, Mississippi, and New York. INACOL is supported by the The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, and The Walton Family Foundation. http://www.inacol.org/resource/innovation-zones-creating-policy-flexibility-for-personalized-learning/
The work of iNACOL is closely connected with the National Repository of Online Content (NROC). NROC Project is a non-profit network focused on “college & career readiness.” It is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, and NROC institutional members. Members provide multi-media content and applications to websites like HippoCampus (six sources of online content in Math, Science, Social Studies, English and Religion) and EdReady (math to prepare for commonly used placement exams, such as AccuPlacer, Compass, SAT, and ACT). Membership in NROC keeps costs low for institutions, and free for individuals. NROC operates under the umbrella of The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE), a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation founded in 2003. MITE is staffed by three people. Taken as a group, they have worked for McGraw-Hill Education, CTB/McGraw-Hill, Harcourt Brace, in addition to having experience in corporate training, media, and financial management. MITE has received $16.2 million from the Gates foundation.
Although it is wise to keep attention focussed on the damage to public education being done by charter schools, vouchers, and the standardized testing requirements in ESSA, I think the larger threat to public education is CBE. Venture capitalists are investing in educational management systems and apps galore. KnowledgeWorks.org markets CBE as teacher-free, learner-centered education organized by playlists of “opportunities for learning” with for-hire “sherpas” to guide students on “learning journeys.”
So far, there is very little discussion of the Trump/Republican roll-back of privacy regulations that once applied to internet service providers. There is little discussion of the prospect that this administration may eliminate the principle of net-neutrality in delivering content. The former means that student privacy (already thin and fragile as a moth’s wing in school contracts) is open to confabulation by personal/parental choices of products and services. The latter means that the speed and cost of internet services, including the e-rate program for schools, may become strictly market-based–supported by ads or other pay-to-play schemes.
CBE promoters see education organized in an ecological landscape with informal learning centers (for working parents), abundant on-line resources; opportunities for learning via community organizations such as art museums, libraries, parks, zoos, courts; and local businesses/workplaces.
Each of these providers of education would offer a badge or credential symbolic of learning. The badges or credentials are “stackable” so students who may verify their competencies as needed in seeking a job or advanced education. There is not much talk about the actual costs of CBE, the shelf life of hardware, the quality of on-line instructional materials, and unlimited possibilities for commercial exploitation of children and their parents. Choice through vouchers and CBE are perfect partners for creating the illusion that all children can and will have access to the best education in the world and completely personalized.
Depressing. A lot of people BLAME computers for them not doing their jobs with statements like: It’s the computer’s fault. HUH? Question: WHO did the programming? Who did the debugging? And is what is on that computer program really worth the time and effort?
To me is this like putting a screen in front of our young to teach numeracy. Egads, give the kids blocks and other “materials” to manipulate. This is far better than any computer program to help kids understand numberacy.
We have lost our ability to think. SCARY.
CBE is a form of “reform” infiltration from within. It is another way to blur lines between public and private. Gates is bribing representatives to ensure that CBE will be adopted. This link contains a troubling graphic about the rapid expansion of CBE. Wyoming is the only state that does not currently offer some form of CBE. http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2017/05/hoping-to-escape-competency-based.html
The pervasiveness of CBE, accomplished in such a short time, is staggering. Quality is an afterthought.
Thank you for so much useful information.
This is part of the huge tech push before the LAUSD school board this Tuesday. I focused my criticism on the Unified Enrollment system, but the LMS includes CBE. That deserves a much closer look. As Peter Greene mentioned, the vendor, Schoology, is being touted as the choice of Uruguay–formerly of Ambassador Frank Baxter fame. Baxter is a huge proponent of CBE.
Schoology is an online grade book which has been described by my colleagues willing to pilot it as a social networking site. If so it has to be collecting massive amounts of personal information. I will have to inquire as to whether it requires credit card numbers like some other online grade books. If it becomes required, as my admin said confidently months ago that it would, it will be a great loss of privacy rights for the students, families and teachers of Los Angeles. And, this school board already, recently paid a pretty penny for an online grade book. It’s called MiSiS. You know how that went.
LCT,
We have Power School.
I did not know “how MiSIS went,” but I can see that MiSIS is a disaster from the website. This is a case of overkill in data collection in addition to programming so bad that updates are needed every three weeks. I kid you not, this is a case of building the airplane while flying it. http://achieve.lausd.net/misis
For people who have not lived the history of this LAUSD fiasco, in which Microsoft had a role, read this history—a narrative of the origin, revisions, and restarts. I was not able to locate the cost of this bungled effort. including the retraining of the people who are truying to use it. http://achieve.lausd.net/Page/7905
Sorry, it was called the Misis Crisis. The system caused expensive and distressing delays and errors in attendance, class schedules, report cards, special ed services, ELL services, gifted and talented services, college transcripts… It followed a switch to an online payroll system that caused expensive and distressing under- and over-payments to employees. Meanwhile, we were laying off teachers while paying to buy wi-fi and iPads, in addition to the aforementioned payroll website, the aforementioned student data website, the teacher evaluation website (a glitchy encumbrance) with its VAM component, and the not so much Smarter or Balanced testing website. And now that all these websites are the unimproved status quo, we’re looking to buy more websites. It’s futurey. It’s reformey. It’s technology. It’s dumb.
Just found out schoolology is not for grades, just for assignments.
Reminds me of the way kids are educated on Camazotz in “Wrinkle in Time”.
Me too!
I’ve been looking for a tesseract to carry me forward to a time when Trump is gone from office. 🙄
According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, you can actually do that if you have a rocket that can take you close to the speed of light first away from earth and then back.
The difference in elapsed time for the person in the rocketship and those on Earth is called the “Twin paradox” because the thought experiment was originally proposed about the difference in aging of two twins, one who rocketed off and back and one who stayed behind on Earth.
So, just find a very fast rocket!
Of course, it might be easier on everyone else who stayed on earth if you just put Trump in the rocketship and made it a one way outward bound trip to the stars.
The principle involved is that clocks (including aging of the human body) in the speeding rocketship run slower — and hence advance less — than the clocks on Earth.
So the Twin that rockets away and then back at close to the speed of light (relative to earth) ages less than the stay behind twin.
It’s called a paradox because all motion is relative and one might therefore expect either twin to say “I was the one who was at rest and you were moving and therefore your clock went slower than mine”
While that would be true if one twin were simply flying by the other in a rocketship never to return to earth, it’s not true in this case because the Twin in the rocketship experiences acceleration to get up to close to light speed when he blasts off away from earth and also when he slows to a stop, turns around and then again accelerates to close to light speed for the return trip.
In other words, it’s not a symmetric situation and the rocketship twin actually would age less than the stay on Earth twin.
Hence, this actually is a way of travelling into the future (though relativity still forbids travel to the past)
So going back in time to ensure that Donald Trump’s parents had never met is not possible.
Sad! 😔
Should have said “it’s called a paradox because a naiive understanding of special elativity makes it appear that all motion is relative”
Special relativity actually only applies to uniform motion (with constant speed in a constant direction).
But in this case, one twin experiences acceleration and one does not.
Off-topic
The reason “government schools”, a right wing labeling attempt, didn’t work out was because it made clearer that religious schools receiving tax money violated separation of church and state.
Sister John Paul, the principal of St. Michael school in Worthington, Ohio spoke at the school choice rally outside the Ohio statehouse last week. According to the reporter, the purpose of the rally was to thank lawmakers for tax money.
FYI- Sister John Paul. I and people like me are the taxpayers to thank and we’re angry that we are paying for ECOT, with its reported 70% truancy rate. We resent the oligarchs’ use of “parents choosing the best schools ” as a ruse for their naked greed. And, we ask you to review the reason that Kellogg’s gave money to Detroit’s public schools, specifically explaining why K-12 school choice, in reality is unrelated to a decision about the criteria of “best school”.
Walk into most Waldorf or Montessori schools and you will not see computers. Maria Montessori developed wonderful hands on experiences for children and they flourished. The social interaction between children is precious and cannot be replaced by a screen.
“Personalized Hacking”
If humans had evolved
With chip inside our head
Our problems would be solved
We’d “dump” to get ahead
A data dump a day
Would keep us on the track
And keep the Teach away
With personalizing hack
Rare that The Federalist should be on the same page as Diane’s loyal readers, yet here is a denouncement of CBE:
http://thefederalist.com/2017/05/04/competency-based-education-will-deepen-americas-education-crisis/
“Despite his failure at presidential politics, Jeb Bush emerged from the recent campaign with perhaps unparalleled influence on K-12 education. Minions with ties to his Florida-based, Bill Gates-funded Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE) are populating the U.S. Department of Education (USED) under Secretary Betsy DeVos, and FEE leverages Bush’s education legacy to push its preferred policies in multiple states. One of those policies is competency-based education (CBE).
FEE says CBE ‘is a system of instruction where students advance to higher levels of learning as soon as they demonstrate mastery of concepts and skills regardless of time, place or pace.’ FEE’s slick videos claim CBE is superior to traditional education because it personalizes learning, ensuring that a student understands each concept before moving to the next. What’s not to like?”
This may read as heresy to some: While I would agree that in many cases, the unfolding of competency-based is interlocked with online learning, much of which is merely worksheets on line and is a model that does not serve students well nor respect teachers, there are also progressive models of competency-based education. In its simplicity, competency-based education is focused on two concepts: (1) broad learning targets instead of the endless list of standards that often lead to fragmented learning; rather, broad learning targets can facilitate more in-depth and interdisciplinary curriculum; and (2) students progress as they demonstrate proficiency over competencies as opposed to seat time and age; in true competency-based schools, students demonstrate proficiency not through standardized, paper and pencil tests, but through rich performance assessments that replicate what they will be expected to do in the real world, which also means that much of the learning students do is through project-based learning. Boston Day & Evening Academy is a good example of a competency-based, progressive school that does a terrific job in serving students who have previously experienced frustration and lack of connection to school. Many of the ideas behind this version of competency-based learning – depth over breadth; student as worker, teacher as coach; trusting relationships between students and teachers; demonstration of proficiency – are rooted in the old Coalition of Essential Schools philosophy.
Because corporations capitalize on and corporatize what they view as financial opportunities does not mean progressives need to abandon the core ideas and values of a concept.
Dan French
Long-revered pedagogical precepts have been blue-penciled by classroom-allergic theorists now leveraged by profiteers who see public schools as the next sustainable profit-producing mother lode.
Never has American education been in such a moment of willful destruction. Never before have the wishes and concerns of those most vested in public schools been so summarily disregarded by bureaucratic double-speak and political bunk.
Beyond the view of skirmishes now underway across an array of states, is an emerging reality that … in a very short while … this destroying reform will have razed an American institution to rubble.
And in its place … for as far as the eye can see … will stand drive-thru learning centers offering kiosk-educations from a B. F. Skinner touch-screen that will supply the finger-pointer with all they need to succeed in a life of rich monotony.
Kindergarten will soon become the Boot Camp Moment. Classroom drill instructors seem unbothered shoving 70 month-olds into a rush-hour of academic traffic … because some basement gnome alleges it’s the ideal moment to vaccinate them with “grit” and “rigor”.
These academic tykes will be denied recess and songs and giggles … because those would be indicators of unseriousness. And education is, above all else, an extra-serious business. Even for cherubs still ill-at-ease knotting their own sneakers.
The elementary time os destined to be called the Tablet Years. The Mario Bros. Educational Principles will rule the day as students win points and pile up Magical No. 2 Pencils as they are prompted from one level to the next. Competency-based-education will erase all of those annoying human variables and every learner who reaches Level Extreme will see their names glitter in on-screen pixie dust. And an 8 X 10 screen-shot of that conquering moment will become the new moving-up document.
Middle school will usher in The Skinner Stage … when on-screen accountability and specially-tapered curricula designs will suffocate all of those aggravating teenage twitches and quirks. School magistrates will homogenize this stage of maturity so that no nail stands up … and individuality is mocked as antithetical narcissism that is thoroughly unacceptable. Creativity will be dubbed a day-dreaming activity … time-consuming musing more symptomatic of a sloth than of genius.
High school years will be The Divergent Time… when, at long last, the future of every young adult will become crystal clear. Youngsters will be endlessly nudged in this or that career pathway … justified by the overwhelming mounds of data that can be Hansel and Greteled all the way back to the days when joy was first run out of their very brand-new lives.
And at every level, parents will lose more and more control of their children. They will be less and less invited by school authorities to take part in the joy-remembering rites of passage we all associate with growing up. And that is all by design because the very last thing these new educational absolutists want is any mother or father acting as though they have any regency at all over their own child’s education.
Orwell yourself beyond the moment and come to terms with what awaits us all on the horizon of touch-screen scholarship. Huxley yourself into the world of tomorrow when your children will have been programmed and plugged into lifetime situations based not on their passions but on some algorithmic prescription burped out by some electronic-ouija-motherboard.
If you are doubting of this … and too, too many are … examine what the last half-decade has wrought. In the blink of an eye, schools have been systematically transformed, childhood recalibrated, and parents richly tattooed as adversaries. Government now dictates to the schools, and politicians have morphed into carnival barkers for every profiteer determined to get their slice of the Big Education pie.
And all the while, half-a-generation has already endured this child-abusing gauntlet of educational malpractice as they are guinea-pigged into blazing trails in the brave new world of scholastic madness.
And that is the great tilt.
And if you decide to do nothing … then stand ready to watch their lives topple into misery in a very grave new world that will last for as long as their earthly eternity.
Denis Ian
Denis Ian,
Someone on Twitter sent me links to your FB page. Maybe it was someone else with the same name?