Common Core is all about the money. Remember this as you read this article.
Mark Johnson emerged out of the primary as the Republican candidate for Superintendent. He is not my first choice at all.
He knows this.
He knows I know he knows this.
Having said that, he’s the nominee, so onward.
Here’s at question for Mark Johnson to ask June Atkinson about when they debate — and they should indeed debate. Education is far too important for candidates to just shuffle along until November.
Bear this in mind — The NC Race To The Top application specified the use of Common Core by name and was submitted 6 months before the standards were even released to the public or adopted by the NC Board of Education.
Johnson should ask Dr. Atkinson why she allowed an out-of-state, multi-billion dollar consulting outfit which was “supported” by the Bill Gates Foundation to guide the writing of the NC Race To The Top application?
Think I’m kidding? I’m not.
It’s right in the grant application:
” In several of these efforts, NCDPI has received strategy and planning assistance from the Boston Consulting Group, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The capacities and team structures developed, as well as the lessons learned from these large projects, give the NCDPI a solid foundation upon which to build the NC RttT project governance and management plan.”
What does “support” from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation look like?
It looks like a company that last year alone reported over $5 billion in profits and has been involved with Gates for the better part of the last decade and a half. In fact, they’ve apparently been partnered since 2003. (See the related reading at the bottom for specific recent ventures.)
Many staffers have gone back and forth between Gates and BCG; Too many to count, but have fun searching LinkedIn.
According to Power Base, “Boston Consulting Group(BCG) is a global management consulting firm and a leading advisor on business strategy founded by Bruce Henderson in 1963. BCG has 66 offices in 38 countries.”
Read the whole Power Base profile. This company is a monster.
Education Historian, Diane Ravitch, is not a fan.
Neither is Peter Greene of Curmudgucation.
Boston Consulting Group was also brought in to investigate “UNC system’s administrative operations” prior to Margaret Spellings landing here, according to the News and Observer.
Related Reading
Teacher Professional Development (Current)
“The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was engaged by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct a research study on professional development for teachers to help identify needs and opportunities for improvement.”
Link:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/edtech-production/reports/Gates-PDMarketResearch-Dec5.pdf
Teacher Knows Best (2014)
The goal of Teachers Know Best is to bring the perspectives of teachers to developers who are creating digital tools for the classroom. Moving from anecdotes of what digital instructional tools teachers want and need to actual, solid data, will help us to better understand how teachers use digital technology in the classroom, and how these tools can be improved.
Technology can be an accelerator of gains in education as long as it’s understood that technology must not be elevated above its purpose—which is to support the teacher and improve instruction. So how do we make sure technology supports teaching? Ask the teachers.
Recently, we released the findings from Making Data Work, the latest report in our Teachers Know Best series, Making Data Work.
Lasting Impact: A Business Leader’s Playbook for Supporting America’s Schools (2013/14)
All about how business can push Common Core
Link:
http://www.hbs.edu/competitiveness/Documents/lasting-impact.pdf
LL1885 
Tennessee did the same thing. We used one of the Gates funded organizations to create our application too. And gee what a miracle TN was one of the first 2 winners of the RTTT. Delaware was the other state. Gee TN gets help from Gates and Delaware the home of our VP. What a coincidence. Not!!!
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