More On NC’s ‘Partnership’ With The Gates Backed Hope Street Group

Yesterday, I mentioned going into more detail about the cozy partnership NC’s Superintendent and current CCSSO President, Dr. Atkinson, entered into with the Bill Gates backed non-profit called Hope Street Group.

Here’s the deal.

As previously mentioned, the big policy and partnerships person at Hope Street group is former NC Dept. of Public Instruction (DPI) employee Tabitha Grossman.

Grossman did a stint at the National Governors Association; she gave Governor’s a report that was basically Common Core implementation for Dummies packed with ready-made action plans and talking points.

Grossman shifted to Hope Street Group in 2013. In March of that same year, Dr. Atkinson was a participant at Hope Street event in Washington, D.C.

At that D.C. Hope Street event, participants included a number of interesting big names in Common Core as well as elected officials and federal officials from the FCC, Dept. of Education, office of Medicaid and the White House. One name jumps out: John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s right hand man.

In November of 2013, the CCSSO held it’s annual policy forum sponsored by the Success for All Foundation.

In attendance were all the big publishing and testing companies (AIR, PARCC, Pearson, ACT, College Board) and of course, representatives of Bill Gates and Hewitt Foundation. Also there were officials from non-profits run by some of Jeb Bush’s pals, Achieve Inc, The Hunt Institute, SAS Institute, WestEd and Ms. Tabitha Grossman of Hope Street.

Fun sidenote about that 2013 annual policy forum was one of the session leaders:

Governor Mike Huckabee will address the chiefs and engage in a dialogue around the current political landscape surrounding education policy.

Yeahhhh.

Jump forward to the March, 2015 State Board of Education meeting, where this following announcement is recorded in the minutes. Emphasis added is mine:

State Fellowship for Teachers NC DPI Partners with Hope Street Group to Support Teacher Fellows

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), together with the North Carolina Association of Educators, is embarking on a new statewide partnership with Hope Street Group, a national nonprofit organization known for its influential teacher engagement work.

Hope Street Group will bring its successful state teacher fellowship program for working classroom teachers to North Carolina in spring of 2015.

Funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the fellowship is designed to elevate the teaching profession and connect educators to education policy, the yearlong fellowship will provide North Carolina teachers with training and resources to identify teaching challenges and propose solutions to district and state policymakers.

The collaborative statewide program has already been implemented in Hawaii and Kentucky and will also be replicated in 2015 in New York and Tennessee.

Hope Street Group North Carolina State Teacher Fellows will have access to a variety of professional development and training opportunities, including peer engagement, data collection and communication strategies.

They will collect data from thousands of their colleagues to present to NCDPI. They will also serve as leaders within their own school communities.

Fellows selected will represent a broad range of outstanding teachers dedicated to working toward improvements for their colleagues and their students.

Did NO ONE on the State Board of Education question this?

Known for “influential engagement”? “Peer engagement”? ‘Collect data for NCDPI’?

No, from what I gathered from my contacts in other states where Hope Street Group has landed, they are known for bullying local school boards, doing end runs around parents, pressuring legislators and for informing on teachers who aren’t on their approved narrative bus.

Hope Street Group has infiltrated only five states so far, including North Carolina. Most people, myself included, have never heard of them until it is too late. That’s what they call ‘influential engagement’?

No, that’s a covert take-over reminiscent of the adoption of Common Core, only this time using our children’s teachers to accomplish educrat reformer goals.

Related: