The following article indicates more control by the corporations. Only the experienced academic teachers will legitimately complain, to no avail, waiting to retire. And no one asks key question: Why are the corporations so interested in America’s children? I know. Do you?<\/p>\n
Another reader responded: “Gates is making millions from Common Core and this is just another tactic to embed it. He\u2019s already admitted he made a mess of it, but instead of allowing free exchange of curricula and methods that are traditional and researched based he demands control. We simply must take back our schools.”<\/em><\/p>\n The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to invest about $10 million to improve how teachers are taught to use and modify curricula that are well aligned to state learning standards.<\/p>\n “The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to invest in professional development providers who will train teachers on \u201chigh quality\u201d curricula, the philanthropy announced this afternoon.<\/em><\/p>\n The announcement fleshes out the curricular prong of the education improvement strategy the influential foundation laid out in late 2017, a major pivot away from its prior focus on teacher performance.<\/em><\/p>\n The investment, at around $10 million, is a tiny portion of the approximately $1.7 billion the philanthropy expects to put into K-12 education by 2022. Nevertheless, it\u2019s likely to attract attention for inching closer to the perennially touchy issue of what students learn every day at school.” <\/em><\/p>\n Among teachers, \u201cthere\u2019s still a huge resentment and backlash to the [common-core] standards, so if we\u2019re saying this is specific PD around a curriculum that\u2019s standards-aligned, there could be some reaction to that,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cBut my sense with teachers is that there\u2019s those vocal few online who kind of dominate, but on the ground most teachers, if you give them something that\u2019s going to help their work, they\u2019re pretty appreciative and don\u2019t care where it comes from.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Who Else Has Gates Funded on Curriculum?<\/strong><\/p>\n Apart from its newly announced grant competition, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has long supported some curriculum providers and quality-control groups. Here\u2019s a look at what it funded in that category in 2018.<\/p>\n RAND Corp.<\/strong> Open Up Resources<\/strong> Pivot Learning Partners<\/strong> Illustrative Mathematics<\/strong> EdReports.org, Inc.<\/strong> PowerMyLearning, Inc.<\/strong> Achieve, Inc.<\/strong>
\n$349,000
\nTo support curriculum<\/p>\n
\n$667,000
\nTo support capacity-building<\/p>\n
\n$1.23 million
\nTo support instructional materials<\/p>\n
\n$2.85 million
\nTo support student learning and teacher development<\/p>\n
\n$7 million
\nTo provide general support<\/p>\n
\n$500,000
\nTo explore connections between tier one and supplemental instructional resources<\/p>\n
\n$999,548
\nTo increase availability of high-quality science materials
\n
\nState Educational Technology Directors Association<\/strong>
\n$299,752
\nTo support state education leaders in their selection of evidence-based professional development and quality instructional materials<\/p>\n