shadow

By Anthony Cody. A fresh debate has emerged in the aftermath of the Los Angeles Times’ critique of the Gates Foundation’s education reform project. As I noted here, they seem to have forgotten their own role in promoting the Gates Foundation’s efforts – namely, their “Teachers investigation,” in which …

shadow

By Anthony Cody. This week the Los Angeles Times published an editorial chastising the Gates Foundation for their role in education reform. The editors wrote: …the Gates Foundation has spent so much money — more than $3 billion since 1999 — that it took on an unhealthy amount of power in the setting of …

shadow

By Anthony Cody. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the CEO of the Gates Foundation, has released her first annual letter, describing the foundation’s work in a number of arenas around the world. In the US, their focus has been K-12 education, so here we have their appraisal of their own work. This summary is notable more …

shadow

By John Thompson. Diane Ravitch observes that “reformers almost always have a soft landing in a cushy job, even when their previous endeavor was a dud.” Chris Barbic failed in leading the Achievement School District in Tennessee but, “No matter. Barbic now works for the John Arnold Foundation in what must be …

shadow

By Anthony Cody. As the corporate reform project begins to fray around the edges, one of the main sponsors is resorting to more overtly political tactics. The Gates Foundation is ostensibly a charitable enterprise, and enjoys significant tax benefits as a result of this status. Bill Gates himself described the …

shadow

By Anthony Cody. Alexander Russo is an unlikely ombudsman for education journalism, given that he is paid to blog by publishing giant Scholastic. But he has taken on the role, and in this column, he argues that the Broad Foundation sponsorship of education coverage at the Los Angeles Times is not worthy of the …

shadow

By Anthony Cody. This was a big year for education. We saw the tortuous end of No Child Left Behind, replaced by a new law that will be subject to many future battles over the amount of tests and the stakes placed on them. Charter schools continued to be darlings of the corporate world, but diligent reporting and …

shadow

By John Thompson. Even as I tried to distance myself from the computer over the holiday season, edu-politics kept drawing me back. Since my book, A Teacher’s Tale, has been released, I reread the manuscript’s my first draft. Mostly, I did so to revisit the stories of students that were edited out, but I …

shadow

By Anthony Cody. I was recently invited to speak at a conference in another state. Since I could not make it there in person, I recorded my thoughts on this video. Here is the text of my remarks: Privateers and Profiteers: How and Why are they Undermining Public Education? As we near the end of the Obama …

shadow

By John Thompson. Perhaps because I’m an incorrigible supporter of President Obama on almost every non-education issue, I grasped at straws hoping that his and Arne Duncan’s staffing of the Education Department with former Gates Foundation true believers in market-driven reform would not create a mess. …