Someone in the mainstream media finally asked Bill Gates straight out what his role was regarding Common Core. What a concept! Until last week, those of us who pointed out the trail of greenbacks leading to his door were often dismissed as 鈥渃onspiracy theorists.鈥�
Those of us who have been writing about education from a critical perspective have been aware of Bill Gates鈥� big project for several years. I wrote about his growing influence in 2011, in this post: . It turns out the answer is, 鈥渏ust about everything.鈥� This finally drew back the curtain for the mainstream media, detailing what many have refused to notice. Layton writes:
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation didn't just bankroll the development of what became known as the Common Core State Standards. With more than $200 million, the foundation also built political support across the country, persuading state governments to make systemic and costly changes. Bill Gates was de facto organizer, providing the money and structure for states to work together on common standards in a way that avoided the usual collision between states' rights and national interests that had undercut every previous effort, dating from the Eisenhower administration.
But Common Core is just one part of Bill Gates鈥� role in education policy in the US. His foundation has its fingerprints on almost every major corporate reform initiative that has taken hold in the past five years.
- Challenges to due process for teachers: The Vergara trial yesterday dealt a blow to due process for teachers in California. advancing the winning argument was Tom Kane, former director of the Gates Foundation鈥檚 Measures of Effective Teaching Project. In 2010, Gates stated on Oprah that if we were able to rid our nation鈥檚 schools of ineffective teachers, our schools would go right to the top of international rankings. The Gates Foundation spent $2 million on promoting 鈥淲aiting For Superman,鈥� which carried the same message. The Gates Foundation has also sponsored 鈥渢eacher voice鈥� groups such as Teach Plus and Educators 4 Excellence. Teach Plus mobilized teachers in Indiana, and Educators 4 Excellence requires members to stating their opposition to seniority, and support of the use of test scores to evaluate teachers.
- Attacks of schools of education: Next week will release its second round of 鈥渞esearch鈥� compiled largely from perusing course catalogs, and based upon this 鈥渞igorous study鈥� will assign letter grades to such schools. Those insufficiently obsessive over test score data will be marked way down. .
- Expansion of charter schools: Gates has long argued that charter schools are superior to public schools - more innovative! So the Gates Foundation has promoted them. In 2004, the Gates Foundation provided support to. [note: an earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the Gates Foundation had sponsored the creation of the CRPE.] This organization has promoted the creation of 鈥減ortfolio districts鈥� in which charter schools can proliferate, and public school administrators actively assist the charter schools that are replacing their own public schools. Twenty districts have signed which are also referred to as 鈥淕ates compacts,鈥� because they make the districts eligible for from the Gates Foundation. Gates himself personally to pass a 2012 ballot measure allowing for charter schools in the state of Washington, and the Gates Foundation is their expansion there. The US Department of Education has followed the Gates Foundation鈥檚 lead in this, as in many areas, and made the removal of caps on charter schools one of the factors for Race to the Top grants. Many states complied.
- Expansion of the use of Value Added Models (VAM) for purposes of teacher evaluation and dismissal. The Gates Foundation鈥檚 Measures of Effective Teaching project has spent several hundred million dollars researching these ideas, and continues to promote the use of these , though independent researchers such as the American Statistical Association have for such purposes.
- Mayoral control of schools: Gates promoted mayoral control of schools in places like New York, Washington, DC, and Chicago, though this has in the way of results.
This week we heard an unusual backtrack from the Gates Foundation鈥檚 Vicki Phillips. She wrote 鈥� who now must include just about every educational organization in the country. Phillips, while still insisting that teacher evaluation should include test scores, suggests that we delay the use of these scores for two years as we make the transition to the new Common Core tests.
This statement comes the same week that several states acted to back out of the Common Core, and the same month a (disclosure - I will be among the speakers there). This suggestion echoes one . It is important to note that it does not go as far as Weingarten now suggests we ought to. Weingarten鈥檚 recent suggestion is that VAM systems and school closures be completely removed as consequences for test scores.
But as, the problems with Common Core go much deeper than the harshest consequences for test scores. And two year鈥檚 delay will not make this work any better.
The letter is a defacto acknowledgement of the Gates Foundation鈥檚 role behind the scenes promoting these policies. If the Gates Foundation was not advancing them so effectively, then their calls to backtrack would not rate .
But the media still shows great reluctance to tread on the toes of one of the wealthiest men in the world. An said this:
There are other somewhat conspiratorial tones in the piece, from the idea that the standards were promoted without pilot testing and that Microsoft stands to benefit from the common core's embrace of technology, something Gates vehemently says is not his motivation.
Again, critics are accused of 鈥渃onspiratorial tones.鈥� I must have missed the pilot tests for Common Core Standards that preceded their adoption, because apparently pointing out that there were none makes you a conspiracy theorist.
The question of motivation is a far more complex one. It is undeniable that in creating Common Core-aligned curriculum to be sold for profit. Given that a large part of Gates鈥� personal wealth is still in Microsoft stock, he will stand to gain if these investments are successful. But given his , it is quite possible he is content and not seeking to expand his wealth - at least not in this arena. However, Gates believes that the source of innovation in education - and everywhere else, is the profit motive. In my 2012 dialogue with the Gates Foundation this . This ideology is behind the promotion of charter schools, as more competitive than traditional public schools. Much of the rationale for Common core standards comes from the way this will supposedly unleash competition that will that will improve outcomes, as well that will enable such competition. So while Gates himself may not be motivated to make money from Common Core, a big part of his own explanation for why it is needed is that the opportunity to make money will be the key to improving education.
Let鈥檚 hope reporters stop calling those of us who question or criticize the Gates Foundation 鈥渃onspiracy theorists.鈥� This is typical mainstream 鈥溾�� which has served to inflate the standardized testing bubble beyond reason, by marginalizing independent voices. And thank you to Lyndsey Layton for simply asking Gates the right questions. The Common Core is indeed a Gates-funded project, but it is just one of many 鈥渞eform鈥� projects transforming our schools.
What do you think? Is Gates鈥� role in driving market-based education reform finally beginning to come to light?
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