CURMUDGUCATION: The Walton Billion Dollar Plan

CURMUDGUCATION: The Walton Billion Dollar Plan:

The Walton Billion Dollar Plan

It's only eight pages long, but it is simultaneously depressing and disturbing. It's no fun to read, but if you want to understand how the charter boosters are coming at pubic education, you need to read it. It's the Walton Family Foundation 2015-2020 K-12 Strategic Overview, and yes, I've read it so that you don't have to, but you probably should, anyway.

This is the story of how The Walton is going to spend $1 Billion-with-a-B on charter schools over the next  five years (twice as much as Eli Broad is spending to take over the Los Angeles school district). And when that much money talks, we need to listen. Here's what it's saying.

The Baloney Kickoff

The plan kicks off with some basic background, and we know immediately that we've entered a zone high on spin and low on reality. What's the WFF mission?

They aimed to improve lives by expanding access to educational and economic opportunity. Since then, the Walton family has carried forward this vision — working to foster equal opportunity and build a more just society. 

They believe they are "uniquely qualified" for this work. You know what the largest private employerin America is uniquely qualified to do? Make sure that all of its employees have a great living wage CURMUDGUCATION: The Walton Billion Dollar Plan:

Pearson's New CBE Product

Performance Based Education (or Competency Based Education or Outcome Based Education or personalized learning-- I do hope the industry comes up with standardized jargon for this soon) is coming. It has been given an extra boost by leveraging the anti-test movement in a clever ju-jitsu manuever. "Yes, we should get everyone out of that testing frying pan," declare policy makers and thought leaders and test manufacturers, as they usher the fleeing mob straight toward the CBE fire.  Instead of one Big Standardized Test, why many standardized tests and quizzes and worksheets, all hooked into a giant data-hoovering monstrosity. 

If you want to watch the onslaught arrive in agonizing detail, I recommend Emily Talmadge's Saving Maine Schools blog; Maine has been on the forefront of this, and Talmadge is on the forefront of catching it all.

But for the moment, let's just look at one particular example, courtesy of the folks at Pearson (because you know they are not going to be left out of the Next Big Goldmine).

Meet aimswebplus. It's "an efficient and effective formative assessment, data management, and Pearson's New CBE Product