Is ASCD Embracing Market-Driven Education Reform?
Another day, another headline on ASCD's Smartbrief extolling some new Common Core strategy. ASCD has signed on as an endorser of Common Core, and in 2011, the Gates Foundation awarded ASCD a grant of $3 million "to provide teachers and school leaders with supports to implement the Common Core State Standards at the district, school, and classroom levels." In July of this year, ASCD won an additional $244,000, "to support implementation of the Common Core State Standards."
I have generally positive feelings towards ASCD. I recall in 2010, when ASCD's Gene Carter wrote apublic letter in response to Oprah's show on Waiting for Superman. He wrote:
As a career educator and the executive director of ASCD, an education association of 160,000 educators worldwide, I was dismayed that your show on education reform excluded a key demographic from the dialogue: teachers. Yet the research---and your high-profile guests---say a child's teacher is the most important factor to determining his or her success.Moreover, simplistically dividing a profession of 5 million people into "good teachers" and "bad teachers" misses an important opportunity to show how all educators must continue to learn,
