Cornering the market in common-standards curriculum?

05-06-2011

Blog by Catherine Gewertz/Education Week

Last week's announcement that the Gates and Pearson foundations are teaming up to provide online curriculum for the common standards has prompted interesting new rounds of dialogue. We reported some folks' reservations in our story, but more are still ricocheting around the blogosphere. Take, for instance, a post by EdWeek opinion blogger Diane Ravitch, who cites the Gates-Pearson deal as the "outrage of the week." The comments section of Ravitch's post neatly captures key strains in the debate about developing curriculum for the common standards: resentment about the roles of corporations, big foundations, or the federal government; worry about too little teacher participation in developing common curriculum (although the AFT went out of its way to point out that its own teachers will be involved in the Gates-Pearson work); recognition that teachers need help with curriculum, but varying views on the best ways to respond to those needs. Many teachers are worried, too, about how such curricula will restrict their professional judgment and creativity. One strain of concern I heard as I reported the story was the aspect of the Gates-Pearson arrangement that seemed to give Pearson, the for-profit company, the right to market the 24-course sequence to be developed by the Gates and Pearson foundations. (more...)

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