Our reader, Laura Chapman, was interested in the sponsorship of the Education Writers Association, whose annual meeting will feature Betsy DeVos. No matter how odious her views, journalists should hear her and question her.
She wrote:
You have to pay $125 to attend this Education Writers Association event and do some writing on education.
It is not surprising that the Education Writers Association has selected DeVos as a major speaker. I conclude that by looking at the list of “Current Sustaining Funders”—all known for undermining public education while posturing about saving children from “underperforming schools.”
Here are the current “Sustaining Funders:”
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Joyce Foundation, The Kern Family Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Pritzker Children’s Initiative, The Wallace Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation.
The Education Writers Association also invites groups to pay for programs like this one as well as its website, newsletters, blogs, and printed programs for regional meetings. Those who foot the bill are called “Sponsors.” The list of past Sponsors is a curious mix of non-profits, for-profits, and national organizations of educators. Following is my grouping and parenthetical comments on past Sponsors of the Education Writers Association.
Membership Organizations:
American Council on Education (leaders of about 1,700 accredited, degree-granting institutions); American Federation of Teachers (about 1.7 million members, all levels of education); National Education Association (about 3 million members, all levels of education); Council of Chief State School Officers (public officials in charge of state departments of elementary and secondary education, plus the District of Columbia, Department of Defense Education, Bureau of Indian Education, and the five U.S. extra-state jurisdictions—promoters of the Common Core).
Higher Education Institutions:
California State University; National University; Stanford Graduate School of Education; Strayer University; University of Connecticut Neag School of Education; University of Chicago Urban Education Institute; University of Nevada, Las Vegas; University of Southern California.
Academic Research and Advocacy Organizations:
American Institutes for Research.org (holding company for contract researchers in the social sciences); Learning Policy Institute (academic research, President and CEO Linda Darling-Hammond)
Organizations with Megabuck Funding:
Big Picture Learning, The Met School.org (network of career high schools);
The Broad Center.org (bang-for-the-buck corporate training for leaders in education); Data Quality Campaign.org (Gates funded to promote computer-coded national database on every student, teacher, and school); EdChoice.org (promotes market-based education, not public schools);
Education Trust.org (promotes high stakes tests to expand market for charter schools, choice). Say Yes to Education, Weiss Institute.org (software and metrics for college/career readiness programs in selected communities, read by grade three, etc. Weiss’ wealth came from money management): Strada Education Network.org (postsecondary career connections with this subsidiary—Economic Modeling LLC, offering predictive analytics about labor force needs and talent pipelines);
For-Profit Ventures:
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.com (promotes technology, data use in education); CollegeVine.com (college admission and SAT prep); GetaTutor.com (broker for online tutoring services); n2y.com (online resources special education); Pearson.com (marketer of instructional materials and tests); Scholastic.com (multinational publishing and media company in education)
Public Relations/Marketing Firms:
GMMB.com (PR firm, political messaging); HagerSharp.com (PR firm, branding and Messaging); Widmeyer Communications — A Finn Partners Company (PR firm, digital marketing);
Testing Organizations:
The College Board.org (marketer of SAT and AP tests and test-prep materials); Educational Testing Service.org (contractor/provider of tests—NAEP, GRE, PRAXIS, others)
Foundations:
American Financial Services Association Education Foundation (consumer education, especially about credit cards);
The Broad Foundation (supports the arts, medical sciences, and charter schools); Edwin Gould Foundation (helps incubate non-profits in education);
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (awards fellowships to emerging leaders for the academy and public service).
SPONSORSHIP FEES:
There are tiers of “sponsorship” for the website and other activities/events of the Education Writers Association. The highest fees are for website advertising— four-week purchase of announcement space options include: “Run of site – $ 5,000;
Blogs – $ 2,000;
Jobs – $ 2,000;
Events – $ 1,200;
Single overview page – $600.
For all of the advertising options the Education Writers Association “maintains editorial control over all programming and content.” https://www.ewa.org/sponsorship-info/sponsored-messaging
It would be interesting to see a timeline of the sponsors. I’d guess that the long list of “past sponsors” includes many short time and one-timers. I hope that this program will cause many sponsor to flee. Devos is menace to education.
DeVos and her brother Prince are the epitome of greed and power.
The very bright (sarcasm) DeVos family invested $100,000,000 in the Theranos company. The Waltons and Rupert Murdoch invested similarly. The founder of Theranos is facing fraud charges.
She honed her self-promotion skills at stanford.
Why the billionaire ed reform crowd failed to tap her potential for their schemes is a mystery.
Lucky for us.
Holmes of Theranos might have been a major leader in the charter world. She could have made millions and never been found out.
I’m glad you mentioned Holmes, Linda & Diane. As she has yet to be incarcerated (may never happen), she continues to be frightening. Part of her “punishment” to date was a small ($500k) fine & being told that she could never run a company again. (I think the “20/20” below reported her as looking to start up another company at the show’s end…even though ordered not to.)
However, the money grubbers/power grabbers find ways…just look at Michael Milkie…
I highly recommend the recent book “Bad Blood.” Also, watch tomorrow night’s HBO doc–“The Inventor: Out for Blood,” &/or last Friday’s 20/20–“The Dropout.”
Best for us to be informed & watch out for these people–like vampires, they keep coming back.
Laura Chapman is a treasure!!! Her intelligence and meticulous research are recurring pleasures on this blog!!!
Agreed.
I third that.
She knows more about how the billionaires spend their money than the billionaires themselves do.
We dance round in a ring and suppose, but Laura sits in the middle and knows — with apologies to Robert Frost
In fact, Laura knows more about how the billionaires spend their money than the billionaires accountants do
And tracking billionaire spending is like tracking neutrinos, which are very nearly invisible and can shift from one form to another in flight.
like neutrinos. lol. beautifully said!
Physicists call neutrinos ghost particles because of their elusive nature
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/looking-for-neutrinos-natures-ghost-particles-64200742/
That makes Laura Chapman a Ghost Buster aka Billionaire (Balloon )Buster
Who you gonna call? Billionaire Busters!! (like Laura Chapman)
Laura is a buster
Of Billionaire balloons
Bursting all their bluster
Exposing as buffoons
Laura tracks donations
Like physicists neutrinos
Like Job, she has the patience
To track the ghostly C notes
AGREED!!! Thanks to Laura for her dogged detective work & connecting the dots..
Due to her keen abilities, I was able to pass on some valuable info. about Advance ILL-Annoy (CAN member) to numerous people, & will continue to use her well-sourced info. to kick the CAN, & make A.I. (Artificial Intelligence, really!) LEAVE.IL.SCHOOLS.ALONE!!!
Yes, a treasure. Thank you, Laura, it’s like sunrise when you illuminate what’s what.
The fake reformers like Bill Gates pay people who are experts at subversion.
DeVos gives the same speech to every audience:
“Unfortunately, too much in education is built around industrial era thinking and needs.
Everything about our lives has moved beyond that era. But American education largely has not. To be sure, there are many educators who are doing great work to bring their methods and learning environments into the 21st century.
And we need more of them. Many more of them!
Why?
Well, the most recent Program for International Student Assessment report has the U.S. ranked 23rd in reading, 25th in science and 40th in math. That’s middle of the pack. Average. We should never be satisfied with “average.”
I couldn’t help but observe that after finishing 4th in the recent PyeongChang games, the U.S. Olympic Committee called for action and reform. If fourth demands action, 40th demands an education rethink.
Now, as you may have seen over the past couple of days, that seems to be a controversial sentiment — but it shouldn’t be. So, now that I have the opportunity to speak unedited, I’m not afraid to call out folks who defend stagnation for what it really is: failure.
That’s why I joined many parents in Michigan and fought hard for more choices. And Michigan families were among the first in the country to exercise their right to enroll their children in charter schools.”
Public schools are awful, charter and private schools are awesome.
Over and over and over. It’s the only work she does- deliver this same speech.
It’s good that she’s completely irrelevant to the 90% of students and families who attend the public schools she disdains, because if any of them listened to her they’d all drop out of school.
It’s ridiculous that we now have an entire federal agency devoted exclusively to promoting charter and private schools and bashing public schools. None of us should have to pay for this.
Well observed, Chiara!
They should rename it the Misleducation Department
Which would make Betsy (and Arne, before her) Secretary of Misleducation
Read any of her speeches yourself-blatantly political and solely devoted to promoting her personal ideological beliefs:
https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/prepared-remarks-national-parent-teacher-association-legislative-conference
She portrays public schools as rat infested nightmares full of low performing and violent students. It’s really outrageous that this is the federal government using tax dollars to promote this propaganda.
and so many legislators on both sides of the isle who have zero idea of what an inner city school system might be like buy into her every word: these schools are failing, their kids are incorrigible, their teachers are lazy and incompetent
I sometimes look for something, anything that the political appointees at the US Department of Education offer to support, improve or in any way impact ANY public school student in this country and I cannot find s single thing.
They’ve simply decided they don’t work for the 90% of students and families in public schools because we don’t meet their ideological requirements.
Read any of them, any day. Try to find a positive contribution to public school students, or indeed any evidence of any work or effort expended on behalf of public school students. There’s nothing.
You could run 3 lavishly funded high schools on what we’re paying the DeVos appointees every year, and it woud be a much better investment.
Good to know. Remember, too, when the Education Writers Association rejected Anthony Cody’s and Mercedes Schneider’s submissions? http://www.livingindialogue.com/education-writers-association-independent-bloggers-need-apply/
Bloggers aren’t real journalists, doncha know?
Evidently, EWA has a community member advisory board. One of them, a former AP reporter, “reflects on going over to the so-called dark side”, in, “The Grade” (2-20-2019), at Phi Delta Kappan, which self-describes as “journal of educators”. (The photo accompanying the article is one of the author with Arne Duncan and John King.) She says in her article, “My transition from reporter to flack felt strangely natural.”
Linda, could you name the writer?
Dorie Turner Nolt is identified as the article author at the Phi Delta Kappan website. Twitter – @dorieturnernolt.
Politico reported (2017) that Turner-Nolt went to Strategies 360, a marketing firm based in Seattle, after her time in the U.S. Dept. of Ed.
It appears she may no longer be with the firm.
In 2018, Chris Korsmo, former CEO of the reformers’ League of Education Voters, joined S360. The description of her hiring, “S360 Deepens Education Practice”.
Gates.
It wouldn’t be much of a transition from Arne to the profit making sector if many of us are right that Duncan never met a tech billionaire who didn’t match up with his school agenda.
I’m not going to defend all of EWA’s ties and don’t agree with everything it does, let alone everyone it gets money from. But I am a member and have found a number of its services, such as a journalists only listserv, various webinars and meetings very useful. (Disclosure: I have received scholarships from them to attend events and won a writing award from them in 2012.) Journalist members have a range of opinions on the key issues facing education today.
As to DeVos, as Diane comments, it’s important journalists hear and question her. She is going to be questioned by Erica Green of the NYTimes, an outstanding reporter. All previous ed secretaries within memory have spoken to EWA and certainly not gotten a free ride. I first attended an EWA national seminar in 2013 where Arne Duncan spoke. He got tough questions and tried unsuccessfully to dodge them. As someone new to national ed policy then, his poor performance, evasions and lack of depth certainly opened my eyes.
Gail,
If you have contact with the conference organizers, direct them to this and the former blog post about the event.
BTW, Arne Duncan is a false equivalency. He didn’t work for Pres. Donald Trump, a politician that racists support.
Linda–Never underestimate Arne. He’s involved in his own, personal Race to the Top. I’ve written, before, that in, “How Schools Work” (I read it so y’all don’t have to!), he was under some kind of delusion that Paul Vallas would quite naturally run for office, having left as CPS CEO on a wave of popularity (not exactly those words, but words to that effect). Insofar as he, Arne, is concerned, it would appear that he believes the same of himself. Again, his name was brought up as one possibly running for mayor.
In so many instances I really do hate to be right, but I’d bet anyone at least a fin that he’ll be running for something in the not-so-distant future.
Good to be the fly on the wall, Gail. Keep us posted!
Will this event be videotaped or live-streamed? If they indeed ask tough questions this could be extremely newsworthy. Will they ask:
How is your ESSA implementation not a contradiction of Trump’s campaign vow to “End Common Core out of Washington”?
Why did you say you weren’t involved in an anti-gay organization if you were listed as the organization’s contact?
Why didn’t you provide your full ethics disclosures? Is your family currently invested in firearms manufacturing as you approve new funding streams for weapons in schools?
How do you square vouchers for religious schools with the Establishment clause in the First Amendment?
How much is it costing taxpayers to create state-level licensing agencies to deal with the predatory student lenders you unleashed by rolling back consumer protections?
Why did you impose a new punishment for schools in NY with high opt-out rates?
Why did your brother lie to investigators about setting up foreign backchannels for the Trump campaign?
Any other questions you might ask ?
I actually did a search for the 2013 conference to see some of those tough questions that Arne Duncan was asked, but came up empty. Maybe they asked Arne about his free throw percentage?
Perhaps they have videotapes of all their conferences, but they do not appear to be sharing them online, at least not for free. Why am I not surprisec.?
They exclude bloggers like Mercedes Schneider who is far more of a journalist than many journalists — probably MOST education journalists.
Thank you, Laura. Thank you, Diane for posting Laura’s fine sleuthing and reporting.
Here’s one for ya’ll….from the trenches …
A person I know (a good person, but ignorant about so much) told me that s/he BLAMES the immigrants for the sad state of affairs in this country. I was appalled with this person’s STUPIDITY, but knew where this person’s views come from … listening to propaganda and not questioning those in charge, like politicians.
This person blames the immigrants for their ignorance re: basic cleanliness standards when working in restaurants re: handling food.
I had to tell this person, that it’s MANAGEMENT’s problem. I had to propose the following questions:
1. Was there training?
2. Did management over see the worker(s) as they were being trained and after training and for “how long” in order to make sure the worker washed hands, used gloves to prepare food, and not sneeze all over the food? And even after training, management needs to check and work along side the workers.
BLAMING the VICTIM (workers without proper training and oversight) seems to be the problem. Rich people get A PASS. (Example: Someone I know gave DUMP a pass for not knowing much of anything except: “You’re FIRED.” This person was actually BLAMING 45’s tax accountant for no TAX returns from 45. I told this person, “Are you insane? This is 45’s TAX returns, and 45 does not get a PASS from me. Then, this person finally “got it.”
I don’t understand the stupidity and this mental set.
I have example and example of how every day Americans BLAME victims of a dysfunctional system.
Good GAWD.
And now we have DeVoodoo. Sorry, DFERS, but YOU DO NOT GET A PASS from me.
The sponsor of the EWA conference is Johns Hopkins School of Education. JHU’s mission- “our single aim is to make scholars strong, bright, useful and true”…to foster …independent research…
The School of Education’s mission is to make “candidates (for graduation?) aware and ethical…socially and culturally conscious…committed to fostering social justice…to understand their own privileges.”
Speaking as a JHU outsider, I speculate if I was a professor I would understand my privileges if I received millions in grants from Gates and Arnold.
Assuming I supported my employer’s mission, I would object to Betsy DeVos’ invitation in light of (1) the HBCU’s strong protest to her comment that they were the first “choice” institutions of higher ed. (2) her association with Donald Trump
(3) the conclusion in a Detroit News article that Michigan charter schools have been “brutal on Black families” (Michigan is the state that reflects the DeVos education agenda most clearly. 80% of charter schools are for-profit. One-fourth of students enrolled in virtual schools fail to complete even one class) and (4) The NAACP, ACLU,And SPLC publicly recognize the threat of billionaire colonial exploitation in education since minority communities have been the first target of unrelenting attacks.
Priviledges? Independent research? But here is the Johns Hopkins reputation killer for me.
Johns Hopkins School of Education (JHSE) offers research-for-fee services. David Andrews, former Dean of JHSE and one of the founders of Deans for Impact was also a leader of, and honored by, the (now defunct) Education Industry Association (EIA).
Beginning in 2012, Andrews offered members of EIA a fee-for-service program of market-worthy research at a discount. The service was to help members of EIA sell their products/services as “research-based” or “evidence-based” with the imprimatur of credibility for those claims coming from Johns Hopkins.
That program of pay JHSE for your marting research is still available, even though Dean Andrews moved on to become President of National University in 2016 and EIA vanished (with memberships convertible to the Software & Information Industry Association of the Software & Information Industry Association).
In 2016, JHSE offered these discounted fees for research to help EIA members market products and services.
Instructional Design Review: $3500-$5000.
Short-Cycle Evaluation Study: $10,000-$13,000.
Case Study: $15,000-$20,000.
Efficacy Study: $20,000-$35,000;
Effectiveness Study: $38,000-up.
Here is a website where the really crass initial marketing and fees for these “research” services is still available for view, along with a description of the kind of research you get for each tier of pricing https://statusbcps.wordpress.com/2016/04/09/johns-hopkins-university-certification-for-sale/
Here is the current description of the pay-for-your-research program and some examples of who has contracted for these evaluations… fees are not indicated http://archive.education.jhu.edu/research/crre/Evaluation%20Services/index.html
Thanks, Laura
JHU is accredited by the Maryland State Dept. of Ed where Chester Finn is a board member.
Every American should read the content of your first link.
My problem with the Education Writers and these sponsors is that the promote and encourage “bad” top of the head writing, promote standardized writing, and discourage real writing for assessment purposes. They also encourage two sides, either or fallacy writing. For example if someone is interviewed about the problems with serial killers, they must present the side for serial killers. I know, maybe an extreme example. Some sides of an issue must be challenged and often they are not. There also almost always more that 2 sides any issue. These people also promote approaches to reading that just do not work, such as phonics only or other one size fits all reading programs.
Chuck,
The right wing benefits from the strategy you describe. For example, education has been positioned as a conflict between altruistic billionaires (an oxymoron) and union members. It’s easier for the neoliberals and GOP to vilify working people than it is to vilify parents, community taxpayers and democracy’s proponents.
The pattern you describe is very widespread.
Many other journalistic organizations also apply the Faux/Fox Fair and Balanced criteria to their reporting, holding that as long as they present two sides of an issue (which might actually be almost the same) they have done their job as so called journalists.
But unfortunately, presenting only two cheery picked views usually excludes views that are outside the Democrat/Republican mainstream.
Education Writer$ A$$ociation
Follow the money
Where it goes
River of honey
How it flows
Follow the funding
To it’s source
Hardly astounding
Gates, of course
As a former reporter who covered schools in a big district, I always thought the Education Writers Association was an OK organization. Now that the know the $$$ truth, I am grateful to you Laura for shedding light on backers. Thank you and to Diane for sharing with all and for the 39+ comments