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RAVITCH: Apathy about growing monopoly in education materials
Public education curriculum is becoming the next big monopoly. If a handful or only one company sell s the testing, textbook, and other curriculum materials to schools, how much say will parents and teachers have about what's in them?
And if parents and teachers have legitimate gripes, who are politicians more likely to listen to, them or the monopoly that can put a big chunk of change in their pockets?
Robert Shepherd on Apathy about the Death of Competition for Education Materials
by dianeravitch
It is curious that though many supporters of the Common Core standards want choice among schools but celebrate the standardization and lack of choice among suppliers of education materials. They want to multiply choices of schools while standardizing learning and standing back while only two, perhaps three at most, mega-publishers create nearly identical products for the nation's students and schools.
Robert Shepherd posted a comment about the death of competition in the marketplace for educational materials. Consolidation started years ago as large companies bought up small companies, and as small companies found they were financially unable to compete with the giant corporations. Those trends have accelerated to the point where only two or three corporations control the education publishing industry. He wonders if anyone cares. I say yes, but no one knows how to stop this monopolizing trend. We feel powerless. To whom do we direct our complaints? This is not an oversight. Creating a national marketplace for vendors of goods and services was an explicit purpose of Race to the Top.
Joanne Weiss, who was Arne Duncan's chief of staff and who directed Race to the Top, wrote in The Harvard Business Review:
http://wp.me/p2odLa-7c3
by dianeravitch
It is curious that though many supporters of the Common Core standards want choice among schools but celebrate the standardization and lack of choice among suppliers of education materials. They want to multiply choices of schools while standardizing learning and standing back while only two, perhaps three at most, mega-publishers create nearly identical products for the nation's students and schools.
Robert Shepherd posted a comment about the death of competition in the marketplace for educational materials. Consolidation started years ago as large companies bought up small companies, and as small companies found they were financially unable to compete with the giant corporations. Those trends have accelerated to the point where only two or three corporations control the education publishing industry. He wonders if anyone cares. I say yes, but no one knows how to stop this monopolizing trend. We feel powerless. To whom do we direct our complaints? This is not an oversight. Creating a national marketplace for vendors of goods and services was an explicit purpose of Race to the Top.
Joanne Weiss, who was Arne Duncan's chief of staff and who directed Race to the Top, wrote in The Harvard Business Review:
"The development of common standards and shared assessments radically alters the market for innovation in curriculum development, professional development, and formative assessments. Previously, these markets operated on a state-by-state basis, and often on a district-by-district basis. But the adoption of common standards and shared assessments means that education entrepreneurs will enjoy national markets where the best products can be taken to scale.
http://wp.me/p2odLa-7c3
