A Corporate Reform group in Tennessee released its own poll claiming that most voters in the state approve of annual testing.
The group called SCORE was created in 2009 by former Republican Senator Bill Frist to promote the Common Core State Standards. Being fast to accept CCSS before they were finished or even released put Tennessee in an advantageous spot for Race to the Top funding. The state won $500 million from Arne Duncan’s competition. $100 Million was set aside for the Achievement School District, which gathered the state’s lowest performing schools, located mostly in Memphis and Nashville, and handed them over to charter operators. The ASD promised to raise the state’s lowest-performing schools into the top 20%. The ASD was a complete failure. It did not raise any low-performing schools into the top 20%. Most made no progress at all.
Tennesse’s SCORE is a member of the rightwing network called PIE (Policy Innovators in Education), created by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute to connect groups that were disrupting and privatizing public education. Like other members of PIE, SCORE favors charter schools.
The board of SCORE is loaded with millionaires and billionaires who should be supporting the state’s public schools, which enroll nearly 90% of the state’s children, but prefer to disrupt and privatize them.
Five years ago, a public school parent blogger called out SCORE for making money off Common Core products. Open this link to see some eye-popping financial transactions, where RTTT money goes into the coffers of corporations owned by board members, who in turn make campaign contributions to Republican Governor BillHaslam. (Former Governor Haslam is now on the board of Teach for America.) The Gates Foundation helped to fund SCORE.
In addition to the oligarchs identified in the preceding post, the SCORE boards includes these super-wealthy Tennesseans:
Apparently the only plan that SCORE has for Tennessee’s public school students is to inflict Common Core and standardized testing.
SCORE has lots of money, but no imagination and no sense of the public good.
It is committed to charter schools, privatization, and accountability (but only for public schools).
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The poll is from a Republican push-poll firm.
“Robert Blizzard is a Partner at Public Opinion Strategies, a national political and public affairs research firm described by The New York Times as “the leading Republican polling company.”
As one of the top Republican pollsters in the country, Blizzard has been described as a “blue-chip” name in Washington by Politico, has been recognized as one of the country’s top 40 under 40 brightest young political professionals, and was named a “Rising Star” in American politics by Campaigns & Elections Magazine.
SCORE has enough money to hire a top pusher of preferred information and results via carefully designed survey questions.
Pure PR for SCORE.
SCORE is emblematic of the fake education reform/research groups that popped up around the country following Race to the Top. Like SCORE, these groups fill their ranks with state wide ‘influencers’ – some ex-educators, ex-politicians, teacher union members & lots of marketing and business people. https://tnscore.org/score-blog/
SCORE funds teaching “fellows” across the state by paying young teachers to promote their version of reforms and serves as a pipeline inside of local districts. https://tnscore.org/tennessee-educator-fellowship/
Here is what worries me more.These groups that announce themselves as improving public education produce ‘data’ that their funders approve- ideologically bound to cooked-up results and spin. It gives them undeserved legitimacy with decision makers and, unfortunately, teachers.
SCORE peddles what Anand Giridharadas calls fake change. Fake change means the wealthy maintain their power. “Real change means the loss of power. You can’t fight for underdogs without reining in those standing on their necks.”
excellent summation: ideologically bound to cooked-up results and spin
jcgrim, I followed your link to the SCORE blog entries, and one of the blogs had this
SCORE and Middle Tennessee State University have just embarked on a ground-breaking partnership that we expect will bring dramatic, innovative changes to how teachers are prepared for their careers and how students are prepared for life.
https://tnscore.org/leadership-innovation-and-partnership-to-reinvent-teacher-preparation/
MTSU is the largest state university in Tennessee (has the most students) and just 3 years ago they had a new Koch institute established on their campus—-the same year MTSU and all the other state universities in TN each received their own separate boards consisting of businessmen appointed by the Governor.
Mate, I think MTSU is completely captured by wingnut, trickle down economics. They recently hosted a conference to celebrate the 100th birthday of James M Buchanan funded by Charles Koch. Alas, I had other plans than to spend a day with a room full of fascists.
https://mtsunews.com/buchanan-centennial-conference-2019/
They also hosted a presentation by that nut Art Laffer, inventor of the Laffer Curve.
All started after the new board was appointed, didn’t it?
UnKochMycampus.org is growing in influence.
Here is Anand Giridharadas’ full interview on power dynamics. SCORE is just one branch of the privatization network but, due to the nature of their community based structure, are seen as speaking for teachers & families, when reality is quite the opposite.
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/jonhru/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-anand-giridharadas—-winners-take-all–and-the-paradox-of-elite-philanthropy—extended-interview
Several year ago I had a friend that worked for the Ingram company that sold books and videos. This friend was close enough to the management to be present when one of the Ingrams was discussing education with some other member of the group that was informally gathered. She heard one of the Ingrams give the opinion that perhaps this young vice president, Dan Quayle, might be the answer to our national educational woes.
Nic Hanaur is right. You do not have to be particularly smart to be wealthy.
Good lord Tennessee, when are we going to fix the mess. The new Governor Bill Lee has NOT helped matters only made it worse.
Another problem- This -> Leaders of the Tennessee-based Beacon Center, the Florida-based ExcelinEd (Jeb Bush)and the Washington, D.C.-based American Federation for Children say the rule is unclear as written and could force private schools to run annual background checks, far beyond the requirements for public schools. Such a mandate, they say, could place an “undue burden” on private schools wanting to participate in Gov. Bill Lee’s education savings account program, as well as on their employees. https://chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2019/10/16/pro-voucher-groups-want-clarity-on-background-checks-under-new-tennessee-education-program/
They want public money but no rules for taking it.
Nonpartisan Education Review’s chronology of Fordham’s ascent to power shows how scum gains influence.
Chalkbeat (linked article) – superficial reporting that undermines democracy?
Actually, the reporting is not superficial but partial. I do not recall any article from her where she didn’t cheer for reforms.
Thanks- noted- reporters build a record that makes them undeserving of benefit of doubt.
It’s worth looking at the funders of the PIE network
Gates
Waltons
Bloomberg
Carnegie
https://pie-network.org/funding-partners/
Also Bloomberg and the Joyce Foundation
Quite the rogue’s gallery
Amusingly (in a sick sort of way), PIE has a “Senior Director of Educator Voice.”
In other words, we direct your voice. We tell you what you are allowed to think and say, and whatever it is, it must include the terms “data,” “STEM,” and “higher standards.”
Just as the oligarchs like it. There will be new thinking in US K-12 education when Gates reconvenes his Politburo in a few years to draft the next generation of the “higher standards,” which will be even more backward and insipid and vague and unscientific and mediocre and received and content free and curriculum distorting than the current ones are.
BTW, the term “higher standards” must be used whenever the puerile Gates/Coleman bullet list is mentioned, as per the Thought Police. This is a mandatory usage in the dialect of Ghoulish known as Deformish, or DeformSpeak, which is all that is allowed to be used in US K-12 schools under the Gates/Coleman occupation.
Higher standards. This is like saying that colon cancer is a higher state of being that we all should aspire to.
Another funder is “Yes. Every Kid,” which is the Koch Brothers.
The PIE summit is also sponsored by the College Board. What does that imply?
Birds of a feather
Post’s fourth paragraph from the bottom –
Pilot Gas…what a surprise. Their business dealings have been covered by media.
I hope AutoZone’s competition thrives and sinks them.
Not gonna happen. Pilot Oil’s upper management, sales manager & bookeeper are in federal prison for fraud yet Pilot Oil’s stock is booming. Being a billionaire means never having to say you’re sorry for defrauding your customers. (case in point see Rick Scott, now a Senator from FL)
Firing squads, guillotines?
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