...A POLITICO investigation has found that Pearson stands to make tens of
millions in taxpayer dollars and cuts in student tuition from deals
arranged without competitive bids in states from Florida to Texas. The
review also found Pearson’s contracts set forth specific performance
targets — but don’t penalize the company when it fails to meet those
standards. And in the higher ed realm, the contracts give Pearson
extensive access to personal student data, with few constraints on how
it is used...
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NOTE: The MCPS - Pearson curriculum deal was cut without competitive bids. Previous Superintendent Jerry Weast made the Pearson deal with authority from the Board of Education to enter into such a contract, without an Request for Proposal and without taking bids from other companies. MCPS falls squarely into the discussion in this article.
Pearson has aggressive lobbyists, top-notch marketing and a highly skilled sales team. Until the New York attorney general cracked down in late 2013, Pearson’s charitable foundation made a practice of treating school officials from across the nation to trips abroad, to conferences where the only education company represented was Pearson.
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earson wields enormous influence over American education.
ReplyDeleteIt writes the textbooks and tests that drive instruction in public schools across the nation.
Its software grades student essays, tracks student behavior and diagnoses — and treats — attention deficit disorder. The company administers teacher licensing exams and coaches teachers once they’re in the classroom. It advises principals. It operates a network of three dozen online public schools. It co-owns the for-profit company that now administers the GED.
A top executive boasted in 2012 that Pearson is the largest custodian of student data anywhere.
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A rival test developer is fighting the contract in court, alleging the bidding was rigged so only Pearson could plausibly compete. Pearson, which was the only bidder, says the process was fair. The bidding was run through New Mexico; state officials also defend the process.
ReplyDeleteBut New Mexico has refused to produce any correspondence between Pearson and state employees in response to a public records request that POLITICO filed last August.
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Pearson also used its charitable foundation to put its sales reps in front of potential customers. The foundation sent state officials to conferences in London; Helsinki, Finland; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Singapore, where they had plenty of time to mingle with the Pearson sales team.
ReplyDeleteA POLITICO investigation last year found other instances of Pearson’s charitable work intertwining with its business interests. The company announced in November that it was shutting down the foundation.
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Early reviews of the curriculum, meanwhile, have been poor: An independent team visited 245 classrooms in the fall and found just one using the Pearson lessons.
ReplyDelete“All the things that supposedly were so attractive about what Pearson was offering have not come to fruition, at least for me,” school board member Steve Zimmer said. He described his vote to buy the iPads loaded with the curriculum as “the worst vote I’ve ever made in my life.”
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The industry is changing,” said Mark Edwards, superintendent of the Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina. Pearson has hailed Edwards as a partner and a visionary, but he recently discontinued the remaining Pearson curricular product in use in his schools. Edwards said he couldn’t imagine ever again investing in a “one-size-fits-all” curriculum when “there’s so much rich new content coming online all the time.”
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