Bill Gates Wins Hearts for the Common Core By Lining Pockets
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spent millions to advance the Common Core State Standards in 2013.
From Valerie Strauss at The Washington Post:
Millions of Gates dollars were awarded this year for various Core-related activities, including to increase public support for the Common Core; a $3.2 million grant to the New Venture Fund is intended “to support successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards by building public awareness and understanding.” (The fund’s Web site says it is a nonprofit organization “offering domestic and international grant-making services, executing donor-developed projects, and providing full fiscal sponsorship including grant and contract management for innovative public-interest projects.”)Some of the grants are to help develop new standardized tests aligned to the Core; the Council of Chief State School Officers won $4 million in July “to support the development of high quality assessments to measure” the standards. Other grants are to help teachers develop materials for the Common Core. The NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education won a few grants in this regard, including one in July for $3,882,600 to “support a cohort of National Education Association Master Teachers in the development of Common