“If Pearson is writing the tests for the children and writing the tests for the teachers and writing the textbooks, isn’t it Pearson that owns our public education, and not our Regents and not our commissioner of education and not the people that we have entrusted to make these serious decisions?” -- Willa Powell, a Rochester school board member
Will the attorney general's investigation of former NYSED Commissioner David Steiner for accepting largesse from Pearson before handing them a multi-year testing contract ever be completed?
It seems Pearson really does own public education in NY State - as well as many state officials...
In some states, Pearson also designs the teacher certification assessments, tests, etc. Teachers send fees too Pearson, and then are certified or not based on Pearson's decision.
ReplyDeletePerhaps only a matter of time until NYSED Commissioner/rookie teacher John King decides to outsource certification and the like to Pearson here in NY State too - if they make the deal right by him, of course.
DeleteSo much of "All The President's Money" still stands - follow the money, follow the money...
Pearson has Newark all sewn up too. We have Power School and Power Teacher. At the training, one of the guys asked a pertinent question and he was told that the training was not designed to get into those specifics!
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable - Pearson consultants raking in the big bucks, but they can't answer questions pertinent to the training their supposed to be experts at.
DeleteActually, given how inept and incompetent Pearson has shown itself to be in the last few years, maybe not so unbelievable.
They sure are good at gobbling up contracts all over the country though.
I had two kids on my roster who had been classified special ed in Pre-K and "declassified" in K. It was
Deletea nightmare trying to resolve the issue. Finally, I was told to submit my report with the errors!
Wow. That's classic bureaucratic insanity. And yet, not only are they getting away with it, they're profiting greatly. I wonder how many teachers in how many districts how had similar experiences? Lots, I bet.
DeleteAnonymous, I don't understand the issue you couldn't resolve. What were the errors on the reports you were told to submit?
DeleteSomeone I graduated from HS with works for Pearson. I saw him at our reunion in October and gave him the business about him being with Pearson. He told me that Pearson has done a lot of good for Education. I asked him to share specifically what, and suddenly he was silent.
ReplyDeleteShall I name him?
I love it - you challenged him to provide an example of the "good" Pearson has done for education and you got cricket sounds.
DeleteNow if only we could get such honesty from John King or Merryl Tisch when we ask why the Pearson tests are so crappy yet high stakes will still be attached to them!
If only Cuomo's Moreland commission were to investigate the cash nexus between Pearson and the NYSED, Mr. King and Ms. Tisch.
ReplyDeleteEverybody out there reading this comment, contact the Moreland commission about Mr. King and his Pearsn large largesse.
From what I hear about the Moreland Commission, Cuomo hired a bunch of people with ethical issues themselves to look into other people's ethical issues.
DeleteCuomo himself is on the take from the for profit education industry.
We know he took a suitcase full of money from the DFER's, as it was reported in the Times, and you can be pretty sure that the Committee To Save New York PAC info Cuomo refuses to disclose has some education lobbyist cashola in it.
He's the guy who's supposedly going to shine a light on the funkiness in the state, but he'll never go after Pearson or the charter industry. They're too connected to his Wall Street/hedge fundie friends...
Sad, but true. I was hoping Scheniderman would do an honest job looking into Pearson/Steiner, but here we are, almost two years later and nothing.
Have to wonder, is Schneiderman on the take too?
Just added a post about the Moreland Commission executive director who was sued 17 times for election law violations.
DeleteShe's supposed to run the commission to root out corruption in Albany!
http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2013/07/cuomos-moreland-commission-executive.html
Pearson ran the National Board Certification exam in NY. Got their hands in every pie, and they're creating the pies.
ReplyDeleteYou're right - I didn't realize that had this test too:
Deletehttp://www.pearsonvue.com/nbpts/
Looks like they have it all.
Look at the email Walcott,sent to all teachers in late June regarding professional development? Who was conducting these sessions? Pearson and Houghton. The privatization is complete. All of the parties could probably be accused of RICO crimes if we had a real investigation.
ReplyDeleteThe problem, of course, is that the "cops" who are supposed to watching out over this are as corrupt as Pearson - Schneiderman is a crook, Cuomo is on the take - maybe Spitzer would take them on, though with the DFER's jumping on board his campaign, I'm not so sure about that anymore...
DeleteThis is what fascism looks like. Not to be conspiratorial, but this powerful monopoly is one way of getting control of hearts and minds via pseudo educational "testing". It's "soft" fascism without the apparent brutality of a Hitler or Mussolini. Physical brutality is reserved for people of color and victims of drones in faraway places where threatened "terrorism" is the mantra when waging war. It appears that the corporatization of education has been accomplished in New York state. The terrorism and brutality here is psychological; the outcome is the diminishing of analytical and critical thought on the part of the public, who reads the anti teacher propaganda in corporatized newspapers and most importantly with the children who are used as tools in this demonization and demise of public education. Learning no longer is a place to expand one's mind and world, but is a joyless, airless, darkened place where test items are "learned". There is no discovery or creativity. Pearson used to be a very respectable educational publishing company.
ReplyDeleteI really don't think Schneiderman will ever release information about his investigation into Pearson because they'd have to cart out the entire braintrust at the Regents and NYSED, as well as the education committees in the Assembly and State Senate, and most of Cuomo's education aides - perhaps even Cuomo himself.
DeleteThere is too much money to be made by these folks to ever do what's right here.
Soft fascism indeed - the NYSED goons will come after you if you divulge the shitty Pearson tests, take your license, fine you and perhaps throw you in jail.
All to protect Pearson's contracts and their own pipeline to Pearson after they leave "public service."