In years of observing the behavior of staff at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and Institute I haven\u2019t noticed much of the \u201copen-mindedness and humility\u201d claimed on its website.[1] More common has been a proclivity to suppress dissent, shun or ridicule those who disagree, and promote their in-group as the only legitimate spokespersons for \u201ceducation reform\u201d along a wide range of education policy issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fordham\u2019s founder, Chester A. \u201cChecker\u201d Finn, waxes nostalgic about \nthe early days of Fordham\u2019s predecessor, the Education Excellence \nNetwork, and Diane Ravitch\u2019s key, co-founding role in both.[2] But, now \nthat she openly disagrees with them on some issues, Fordham President \nMichael Petrilli insults her as a \u201ckook,\u201d[3], and her long-standing \nrelationship with the Brookings Institution is revoked on an absurd \ntechnicality.[4] An Education Next<\/em> essay insults her personally and generally ridicules as an inferior intellect.[5]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert Pondiscio is \u201cSenior Fellow and Vice President for External Affairs\u201d at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. His Education Next<\/em>\n essay, \u201cLessons on Common Core: Critical books offer more folly than \nwisdom,\u201d typifies Fordham\u2019s \u201chumble\u201d approach.[6] Pondiscio \u201creviews\u201d \nsix books written in opposition to the Common Core Initiative. \nThroughout the essay, he liberally portrays himself as a cool, measured,\n reasonable fellow, with the public\u2014\u201dparents and taxpayers alike who \nsimply want a decent education for their kids\u201d\u2014on his side. The Common \nCore-critical book authors, meanwhile, are \u201ccarping\u201d, \u201cspleen venting,\u201d \n\u201cfear mongering\u201d, and \u201cconspiratorially minded\u201d \u201cexcitable enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pondiscio\u2019s essay is short on substance and long on selective and \ncolorful prejudicial quotations, adjectives and adverbs.[7] He \ncharacterizes Mercedes Schneider\u2019s exhaustively researched Common Core Dilemma<\/em>,\n for example, as \u201criddled with scare quotes and sarcasm.\u201d Other \ndescriptors employed for Common Core opponents include \u201cbombast\u201d, \n\u201coverreach\u201d, \u201cdark mutterings\u201d, \u201chyperbole\u201d, \u201cobsession\u201d, \u201cparanoia\u201d, \n\u201cfolly\u201d, \u201cfrets\u201d, \u201cparanoid conspiracy theories\u201d, and \u201coverreach\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Individuals Pondiscio agrees with, however, are \u201cthoughtful\u201d, \u201cserious\u201d, \u201csober\u201d, and \u201cprincipled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLessons on Common Core\u201d effortlessly contradicts.[8] For example, \nPondiscio supports the Common Core Standards for the \u201cdesperately \nneeded\u201d direction they provide teachers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a time when the nation\u2019s 3.7 million teachers At the same time, he argues that standards really don\u2019t matter much and good teachers ignore them completely,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Far more compelling arguments can be made not about how much Common Core matters, but how little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be upset by academic standards is to invest them with a power they Pondiscio eases up a bit on his own \u201coverheated\u201d rhetoric for one book\u2014the Pioneer Institute\u2019s Drilling Through the Core<\/em>.\n Perhaps not surprisingly, Drilling happens to be the only one among the\n six books written by authors one might legitimately characterize as \nelite\u2014people Pondiscio might suppose he may need to work with sometime \nin the future\u2014including a few individuals sometimes found inside his \neducation reform tent, such as Stanford\u2019s Williamson Evers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Early on in his Education Next<\/em> essay, and frequently in \nother venues, Pondiscio prominently brandishes his classroom teaching \nexperience to establish his bona fides as a front-line educator. \nMoreover, on its website, the Fordham organizations proclaim.[9]<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 we see much wisdom in \u201csubsidiarity\u201d\u2014 the doctrine that But teachers wrote the other five books Pondiscio reviewed, and he \nridicules them mercilessly as ignorant rubes lacking the understanding \nthat might qualify them to engage in a debate he believes to be beyond \ntheir intellectual reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also unfortunately typical of Fordham essays on causes it is richly \npaid to promote: never once does Pondiscio mention his conflict of \ninterest, nor those of Fordham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Joy Pullman, Managing Editor of The Federalist<\/em>, describes the general problem.[10]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Common Core\u2019s supporters are typically rich elites using their excess money to manipulate public opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, we have an obvious conflict of interest problem here. People Second, it indicates rampant cronyism, which is a form of political Arguably, the Fordham organizations are the country\u2019s most \ninfluential in education reform. Moreover, they have spun (or, \npurchased, depending on your point of view) a large, elaborate web of \ninstitutional and individual partnerships. A \u201ccommon core\u201d of people \nmoves in, out, and across the groups. People inside the web know each \nother well, they share friends and enemies, and they owe each other \nfavors. They are less likely to criticize others inside the network and,\n perhaps, more likely to criticize those outside the network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, the network is replicating itself through such training \nvehicles as Fordham\u2019s Emerging Education Policy Scholars Program.[12] If\n the graduates of these programs turn out to be just as censorial and \nclannish as some of those training them, our country can look forward to\n more narrow-mindedly conceived and hugely expensive white elephants \nlike the Common Core Initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n References<\/p>\n\n\n\n [1] https:\/\/edexcellence.net\/fordham-organizational-values<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [2] Finn, C.E. (December 1996). Farewell\u2014And Hello Again. Network News & Views<\/em>. https:\/\/edexcellence.net\/about-us\/farewell-and-hello-again.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [3] The Education Gadfly<\/em>. (March 29, 2011). \u201cFordham Dancetitute: Mike Petrilli takes the Fordham Institute in new directions,\u201d YouTube. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wjh9hpJqsrs<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [4] Ravitch, D. (June 11, 2012). \u201cThe day I was terminated.\u201d Diane Ravitch\u2019s Blog. https:\/\/dianeravitch.net\/2012\/06\/11\/the-day-i-was-terminated\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [5] Greene, Jay P. (Spring 2014). \u201cHistorian Ravitch Trades Fact for \nFiction: Latest book indifferent to the standards of social science,\u201d Education Next<\/em>, 14(2). https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/historian-ravitch-trades-fact-for-fiction\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [6] Pondiscio, R. (January 5, 2017). \u201cLessons on Common Core: Critical books offer more folly than wisdom,\u201d Education Next.<\/em> https:\/\/educationnext.org\/lessons-on-common-core-critical-books-pondiscio\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [7] See also, Phelps, R.P. (July 2019). \u201cCommon Core\u2019s Language Arts,\u201d Missouri Education Watchdog<\/em>. https:\/\/nonpartisaneducation.org\/blog1\/2015\/09\/common-cores-language-arts\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [8] See also, Gass, J. (June 4, 2014). \u201cTo Be a National Curriculum, or Not to Be a National Curriculum: More Fordham-Finn Flip Flopping,\u201d Pioneer Institute Blog. https:\/\/pioneerinstitute.org\/news\/to-be-a-national-curriculum-or-not-to-be-a-national-curriculum-more-fordham-finn-flip-flopping<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [9] https:\/\/edexcellence.net\/fordham-organizational-values<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [10] Pullman, J. (January 5, 2015). \u201cTen Common Core Promoters Laughing All The Way To The Bank,\u201d The Federalist<\/em>. https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2015\/01\/05\/ten-common-core-promoters-laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [11] https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/answer-sheet\/wp\/2013\/09\/27\/bill-gates-it-would-be-great-if-our-education-stuff-worked-but\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n [12] https:\/\/edexcellence.net\/about-us\/emerging-education-policy-scholars-eeps.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In years of observing the behavior of staff at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and Institute I haven\u2019t noticed much of the \u201copen-mindedness and humility\u201d claimed on its website.[1] More common has been a proclivity to suppress dissent, shun or … Continue reading \n
desperately needed help, when \u2018What should we teach?\u2019 was at long last
being asked in earnest\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
neither have nor deserve. In my five years of teaching fifth graders, I
never\u2014not even once\u2014reached for English language arts standards when
deciding what to teach. \u2026 First things first: What is it you want to
teach?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
important matters ought to be handled by the competent authority that\u2019s
closest to the action, which in education usually means parents,
teachers, and schools.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
deserve to know when a prominent official or self-proclaimed \u201cexpert\u201d
who is testifying before state legislatures or writing op-eds is making
money from their persuasive efforts. It means their judgment is not
entirely independent, even if they feel it so. Basic ethics requires
someone with a financial or personal stake in the outcome of a public
decision to recuse himself from participating in that decision. That has
not been happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and social corruption. We see that Common Core is infested with
essentially the same set of people rewarding each other with taxpayer
dollars and huge private grants, decades before there can be any proof
that all this money laundering produced a genuine public good. Common
Core is a giant experiment, remember. Bill Gates says he won\u2019t know if
his \u201ceducation stuff\u201d worked for \u201cprobably a decade.\u201d[11] Former public
officials (or semi-public officials, which is what I label the Common
Core coauthors, because while we did not elect them we all must live
with their decisions) are amply rewarded for doing what the rich and
powerful wanted with sweet compensation packages following their \u201cpublic
service.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n