AI Skeptics, Take Heart: There Are Millions with You

 

Beware of AI Solutions in Search of Educational Problems

This review of another of Bellwether's AI propaganda pieces nails it. Founded by Andy Rotherham, Bellwether is a neoliberal non-profit sludge tank focused on generating reports for the purpose of bending educational institutions to the American corporate will. Rotherham got his start as an education advisor of then-President and neoliberal darling, Bill Clinton. Rotherham successfully leveraged his hanger-on status in the DLC to become a prominent propagandist for expanding the value of the education industry to enriching corporate America's bottom line. As such, he ably represents a long line of parasitic pandhandlers who make a living selling corporate solutions that are desperate for educational problems.

Vander Ark getting cranky regarding negative NEPC report

The true path to higher test scores is reading. — Dr. Stephen Krashen

Look up the word charlatan in any lexicon and it would be of no surprise if it features a photograph of Tom Vander Ark as the accompanying illustration. The former Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation executive has been a major player in the corporate education reform onslaught against the public commons. He has been gorging himself at the tax trough for some time now. His antics and blather have garnered quite a bit of ink here at Schools Matter, partly since few people are as adept at technobabble and doublespeak as Vander Ark.

Earlier this evening Class Size Matters and Parents Across America's Leonie Haimson posted an intriguing tweet from which I shamelessly lifted for the title of this post:

@leoniehaimson Vander Ark getting cranky re negative NEPC report on online learning; no research to support K12 virtual instruction http://goo.gl/19nN1

Cranky is an understatement, Vander Ark's childish rant against the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) had all the class and irrational ignorance of a petulant charter school student ignominiously dumped back to public school right before the CAHSEE. He's incredulous that anyone would question the unmitigated greed of these online swindlers (himself included). I left the following comments:

You're embarrassing yourself Mr. Vander Ark. National Education Policy Center at University of Colorado at Boulder School of Education is one of the most respected sources on education around. Its staff, including the celebrated Dr. Welner, are some of the most knowledgeable experts on education policy in the nation. What are your qualifications again? A businessman and former Gates Foundation executive?

If we want information on education, we'll turn to the experts at NEPC. If we want advice on get rich quick schemes, we'll turn to you and one of your profitable enterprises — oh wait, online learning is another get rich quick scheme, so perhaps your above comments make sense in that context.

The report that flimflamer Vander Ark is whining about? Online K-12 Schooling in the U.S.: Uncertain Private Ventures in Need of Pubic Regulation by the NEPC's Gene V. Glass and Kevin G. Welner. God forbid that respected academics suggest that an entirely unregulated industry sucking up public tax money faster than a shop vacuum be subject to a modicum of oversight. We're talking about one of Vander Ark's biggest cash cows after all!

UPDATE: It appears Mr. Vander Ark deleted my original comments. Seems he can't stand for anyone speaking truth to his power and privilege.

NEPC Review of Heritage Report

It's not difficult to find an edu-pundit or politician pushing reform proposals based on the so-called Florida model.  Jeb Bush pushed it as a governor and continues to push it through his foundation; Colorado Succeeds, the "business voice for education," wrote a policy paper titled, "Proving the Possible: A case study of Florida's K-12 education reforms and lessons for Colorado"; then-gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman boldly claimed "all roads lead to Florida" when it comes to education reform in bigger states; and the Education Equality Project teamed with Education Reform Now to author a review of all recent gubernatorial candidates that favored many of the same proposals.  The common claim is that Florida is closing the achievement gap with this "cocktail of reforms."

There may be some lessons to be learned from the reforms in Florida, but there's also reason to be cautious about the conclusions some have already drawn from the changes.  The Heritage Foundation, for instance, published a report, Closing the Racial Achievement Gap, praising Florida for making dramatic progress and urged other states to follow.  Here's a snippet from the abstract:

One state, Florida, has demonstrated that meaningful academic improvement—for students of all races and economic backgrounds—is possible. In 1999, Florida enacted far-reaching K–12 education reform that includes public and private school choice, charter schools, virtual education, performance-based pay for teachers, grading of schools and districts, annual tests, curbing social promotion, and alternative teacher certification. As a result of parental choice, higher standards, accountability, and flexibility, Florida’s Hispanic students are now outperforming or tied with the overall average for all students in 31 states. It is vital that national and state policymakers take the lessons of Florida’s success to heart. The future of millions of American children depends on it.

But, as you hopefully know, think tank research generally isn't peer-reviewed.  And that can lead to advocacy based on shaky grounds.  Proceed with caution.  It's always handy to keep Bracey's various literature around.  Another great resource is the National Education Policy Center.  Here's a description of Madhabi Chatterji's review of Closing the Racial Achievement Gap:

The Heritage Foundation report, Closing the Racial Achievement Gap: Learning from Florida’s Reforms, endorses a set of policies from Florida: vouchers funded by tax credits, charter schools, online education, performance-based teacher pay, grading of schools and districts primarily based on test scores of students, test-based grade retention, and alternative teacher certification. The report claims that Florida’s student achievement trends improved and gaps were substantially reduced for Black and Hispanic students because of this package of reforms. Based on these purported successes, it recommends adopting these reforms in other states. However, the central analysis compares average test scores of students in the nation versus Florida without considering key group differences, an oversight that leads to erroneous causal interpretations on effects of reforms using purely descriptive data. The report further ignores group differences resulting from the state’s mandatory grade retention policy for the weakest readers in grade 3. This policy-driven increase in grade retention rates spuriously inflated the average scores of grade 4 students on state and national assessments, making racial achievement gaps narrower. The report also fails to examine test score data on all subjects and grade levels, instead relying only on grade 4 reading, which showed the most positive results. Finally, although a great deal is known about the reform policies the report promotes, it neglects this research literature. These serious flaws call into question the report’s conclusions.

Do read the full report.