Southwest Washington Education (K-12)

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Who financially benefited/s with Common Core?

education_policyFact or Fiction? Those who make the money push the policy?

Who has benefited from the restructuring of K-12 education in the United States (aka Common Core)?

We found a study written by academics that analyzes the various parties involved and who stand to gain (either power or money). This may include private businesses AND it may include government. The article is long and you may or may not want to take the time to read it in its entirety. If you do here’s the link: (you can download the PDF file): https://greatschoolwars.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/2221-10513-2-pb-1.pdf

For those of you who don’t have the time or inclination we’re grabbed the Abstract and the Conclusions here:

Abstract:
The Common Core State Standards Initiative seeks to prepare all students to graduate high school without remedial needs, to improve transparency across states’ accountability systems, and to foster efficiencies in the development and distribution of educational resources. The reform was adopted in more than 40 states and has been described as state-led. We examined federal and philanthropic funding for the reform through a conceptual lens of resource dependence theory. Our document analyses surfaced eight pathways along which funding for the Common Core traveled into, through, and around the public education system. We consider clusters of pathways according to their purposes and the consequences of such clustering for the reform. We conclude by
discussing benefits derived from this funding for different types of entities that grant and receive it.
Conclusions (as to who benefited):
  • Philanthropic foundations benefitted in several ways from their spending on the Common Core.
  • Spending to advance the Common Core also benefitted the federal government, at least to the point of ESSA’s enactment.
  • For-profit grantees that provided Common Core tests, aligned curriculum, or other resources benefitted through increased sales and revenue
  • Non-profits that received direct or indirect funding to advance the Common Core benefitted by securing staff and other resources to sustain or grow their organizations
  •  However, in some cases, Common Core funding came partly at the expense of a non-profit’s mission or integrity.
  • School districts and schools may have benefitted by obtaining funding to secure resources to implement the Common Core.
Summary:
An analogy to the Gold Rush may be useful here: The claim stakers are the federal government and philanthropies that have staked out the Common Core for public policy. To work that stake, they incentivize states and school districts to mine the Common Core and get higher measured achievement. To do so, the miners need equipment. The vendors who sell the equipment profit in the short-term, even if their tools rarely enable the miners to get the sought-after results. In essence, those who set directions for the Common Core and those who provided resources for its implementation has benefitted, even as potential benefits to schools, educators, and students are elusive, and the entire claim may ultimately be empty.

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