Vander Ark and Shelton; Parents; Checker Joins EEP
Recently, leading corporate school reformer guru and former Gates Foundation ed head, Tom Vander Ark, posted a draft of a report, "Good Urban Schools: A Portfolio Approach," on his blog. The final edition of this white paper, published in 2005 by the Gates Foundation, had the title, "High-Performing School Districts: Challenge, Support, Alignment, and Choice," but did not name Vander Ark as an author.
But what really struck me about Vander Ark's draft was that he co-wrote it with Jim Shelton, the former Gates/NSVF official now in charge of Duncan's i3 fund. Take some time to read the report: it helps explain the advocacy positions and programs of the Gates Foundation (and, by extension, many of their followers in the philanthropic sector), not to mention the current DOE.
Before I point out a few things about the white paper and draft, let me say that Twitter can be a beautiful tool for understand the point of view of of those you disagree with. Although the 140 character limit can