Pearson Co. joins Duncan, Obama at WH education summit. Just paid 7.7 mil fine for breaking law.

[madfloridian]

That's odd to me. Pearson is making huge profits off their education reform ventures. It seems that even when they break the rules to the tune of millions they are still welcome in high places.

From the PR memo from Pearson this month:

Pearson Joins President and Mrs. Obama, Education Secretary Duncan for White House Higher Education Summit

Pearson today joined President and Mrs. Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and leaders from across higher education to share best practices and explore additional ways to support more low-income students in achieving college readiness and success. As part of today’s summit, Pearson has committed, over three years, to help 50 higher education institutions analyze how low-income and remedial students learn and where they struggle.

“Pearson’s mission is to help students of all ages to make progress in their lives through learning. We are honored to join President and Mrs. Obama, and Secretary Duncan, for this important discussion about how the entire higher education community can help more low-income students achieve their educational goals. Working together, we will find new and more innovative solutions to overcome this challenge and, in the process, reinforce the ideals that are the bedrock of our great country,” said Greg Tobin, Managing Director of College Foundations at Pearson North America, who represented Pearson at the event.

Here's more about their fine paid in New York City:

From December 2013 New York Times:

Educational Publisher’s Charity, Accused of Seeking Profits, Will Pay Millions

The Pearson Foundation, the charitable arm of one of the nation’s largest educational publishers, will pay $7.7 million to settle accusations that it repeatedly broke New York State law by assisting in for-profit ventures.

An inquiry by Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York State attorney general, found that the foundation had helped develop products for its corporate parent, including course materials and software. The investigation also showed that the foundation had helped woo clients to Pearson’s business side by paying their way to education conferences that were attended by its employees.

....“The fact is that Pearson is a for-profit corporation, and they are prohibited by law from using charitable funds to promote and develop for-profit products,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement. “I’m pleased that this settlement will direct millions of dollars back to where they belong.”

Pearson and their associates have huge power in the new education "reforms". Here are some examples from a Daily Kos thread.

Scrutinize those who write and grade the tests that judge teachers, students, schools.

In the summer of 2010, Lu Young, the superintendent of schools in Jessamine County, a Lexington, Ky., suburb, took a trip to Australia paid for by the Pearson Foundation, a nonprofit arm of Pearson, the nation’s largest educational publisher. Ten school superintendents went on the trip.

.... Six months later, in Frankfort, Ky., Ms. Young sat on a committee interviewing executives from three companies bidding to run the state’s testing program. While CTB/McGraw-Hill submitted the lowest bid, by $2.5 million, Ms. Young and the other committee members recommended Pearson.

..."For several weeks, New York State’s attorney general has been investigating similar trips involving two dozen education officials from around the country who traveled to Singapore; London; Helsinki, Finland; China and Rio de Janeiro as guests of the Pearson Foundation. The trips, and the fact that most of these officials come from states that have multimillion contracts with Pearson, were the subject of two of my columns this fall.

Last month, the attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, issued subpoenas to the Manhattan offices of the Pearson Foundation and Pearson Education. Mr. Schneiderman is looking into whether the nonprofit, tax-exempt foundation, which is prohibited by state law from undisclosed lobbying, was used to benefit Pearson Education, a profit-making company that publishes standardized tests, curriculums and textbooks, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

I give myself permission to quote more paragraphs from that thread, since it is mine and since it is from a different article:

Pearson was fined about 15 million in 2010 for late scores on the FCAT. That is the state test of Florida which is being phased out....only to be followed by more tests also contracted out to Pearson.

Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith told Pearson he expects the damages to be paid by Aug. 6.

"Pearson's usage of unproven technology systems this year has caused great turmoil for our parents, teachers, administrators and other education stakeholders and I remain committed to holding the company fully accountable for these disruptions," Smith said in a written statement.

"It is our intent to make good on our previously stated commitment to reimburse the department and Florida districts for substantiated, unexpected costs due to the delay in reporting FCAT scores," Pearson spokesman Adam Gaber said in response.

Again this has proved to be true....accountability is only for public school teachers. Everyone else gets a pass.

[defacto7]

1. Pearson is the bottom of the barrel

in education. Why the fuck do they exist? They are front and center in ripping cash from education. I have a major bent against that company.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Hey. Guess what. So are Obama and Duncan.

>>>>Pearson is the bottom of the barrel

in education.>>>>>

[liberal_at_heart]

3. I whole heartily agree.

[madfloridian]

4. Yep...Arne got his priorities all wrong. It's corporations like Pearson...NOT teacher. Good point.

When I saw your post I immediately thought of what Arne said, that Arne Duncan "teachers in America often come from the bottom of the academic barrel"

I simply can not tolerate that man. He angers me every time he speaks.

[defacto7]

6. I try to be open to reasonable political activity

as it pertains to the occasional odd balancing of constituents, but sucking up to the likes of Pearson makes me... shall I say... gag. It will also make me think over my positions very carefully.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

10. According to Duncan, teachers are scraped from the bottom of the barrel too.

[Enthusiast]

15. + a shit load......nt

[sabrina 1]

8. Remember when Bush got NCLB passed and we learned how much money his friends in the

educational Publishing Business got a huge windfall, and it's still coming. This is what our 'educational system', NCLB now renamed and even worse now, was all about, MONEY, passing public education funds into private hands. From that pov it has been hugely successful. Sadly for the future of this country, it has been an abysmal failure. But that too was part of the machiavellian plan. After all an educated population would never allow these things to happen.

[sabrina 1]

5. Shameful, really. They are so blatant now, when a country abandons the Rule of Law the criminals

don't even have to hide in shame. Thank you NY Attorney Scheiderman. He has been as good as we can expect on going after the criminals who have cheated the American public. The one hold out from the so-called 'agreement' with the Big Fraudulent Banks who were bailed out billions of our tax dollars, but were only required to toss in a few billion between all of them to compensate the victims whose homes were taken illegally, they had cheated.

Schneiderman refused to sign the agreement. During that time, he was hugely pressured by the WH to sign, but he held out as we watched his own party begin to slime him. I remember him meeting with Occupy Wall St and THANKING THEM for backing him up, for demonstrating that the PEOPLE agreed with him.

In the end he signed after getting some concessions on behalf of the victims.

My friend was one of those victims whose home was stolen by Wells Fargo. They offered her $800.00 which she naturally refused to take. I read recently she was not the only one, so many refused their insulting offer they had to go back and revise the amounts they were offering to try to dispose of the victims and their possible lawsuits. So they came back and offered her $3000.00 which she has also refused, considering it an insult.

Schneiderman is up against huge resistance from HIS OWN PARTY when he tries to go after the Wall St. Criminals.

Thanks for the OP MF, just more confirmation of where we are and more questions about what to do about it.

[madfloridian]

7. Did not realize Schneidermanwas pressured by WH. That is very wrong.

[Smarmie Doofus]

9. Schneiderman is like a drop of rain in the moral and ethical desert here.

I wonder what they have in store for him.

[Scuba]

11. And the curtain is drawn back a little farther.

[madfloridian]

19. WP had a whole list of Pearson problems in April last year. We should send it to Arne.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/24/a-brief-history-of-pearsons-problems-with-testing/

Just some examples.

1999-2000 Arizona – 12,000 tests misgraded due to flawed answer key

2002 Florida — dozens of school districts received no state grades for their 2002 scores because of a “programming error” at the DOE. One Montessori school never received scores because NCS Pearson claimed not to have received the tests.

2005-2006 SAT college admissions test – 4400 tests wrongly scored; $3 million settlement after lawsuit (note FairTest was an expert witness for plaintiffs)

2010 Minnesota -- results from online science tests taken by 180,000 students delayed due to scoring error

2012 Mississippi – Pearson pays $623,000 for scoring error repeated over four years that blocked graduation for five students and wrongly lowered scores for 121 others

[Scuba]

24. Yeah, just wait'll Duncan hears this!

sarcasm thingy here

[xchrom]

12. du rec.

[jsr]

13. Recommend

[Enthusiast]

14. Corruption from sea to shining sea. K&R!

[madfloridian]

16. "Holding Arne Duncan to a higher standard" Interesting article at Huff Post.

Holding Arne Duncan to a Higher Standard

America, the elites are very disappointed in you. We're not keeping up with South Korea and Singapore, they tell us, because you are coddling your mediocre children who are being taught by bottom-of-the-barrel teachers. But have no fear, help is on the way! Pearson, the testing company that has gotten rich by making American students fill in little bubbles all day long, is advising the White House on how to whip us all into college-ready shape.

I must be too busy helping my sons with their homework, picking them up from after-school tutoring and helping them fill out magnet school applications to notice how little I expect from them. No greater eminence than New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman thinks that parents "just don't take education seriously enough." Education Secretary Arne Duncan said "white, suburban moms" need to "change expectations about how hard kids should work."

It's not just lazy-bones parents and their middling progeny that are holding America back. Recently, Duncan noted sourly that "a significant proportion of new teachers come from the bottom third of their college class." After No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have turned the teaching profession into an underappreciated, underpaid collection of glorified test monitors, the only thing that Duncan should give them is an apology. But after insulting parents, their children, and their teachers, I wouldn't be surprised if Duncan next blamed childhood obesity on P.E. teachers.

....Amid all this mediocrity comes Pearson, the company that makes millions on standardized testing contracts in Florida ($254 million), New York ($32 million), and Texas ($468 million), among many others. This month Pearson executives met with Barack Obama and Duncan at the White House to discuss ways to help low-income students get into college. I'll match every dollar Pearson makes if you don't think the solution that Pearson proposed was more testing.

[liberal_at_heart]

22. This is simply unacceptable. From now on, any candidate who supports this crap will not

get my vote. I'm done. I'm not putting up with the crap anymore. I just got my son's report card today. A C- in science, a general education classroom and no education assistant for my autistic son. I will be contacting his special education advocate on Monday and setting up an appointment to discuss why they think it is okay for them to fail to provide my special education student the assistance he needs.

[madfloridian]

31. Yes, it's unacceptable. But it's happening.

[FloriTexan]

17. K&R

[TBF]

18. TX is getting close to the billion mark -

"According to state records, the Defenders found Texans spend more money on standardized testing than any other state. The state's contract with Pearson requires Texas to pay the company $95 million this year. By 2015, tax payers will have paid the company $1.1 billion."

Back in 2000 standardized testing cost maybe a half million a year for Texas - now it is multi-millions per year.

http://www.kvue.com/news/defenders/The-Price-of-Pearson--186386381.html

Interesting background info: http://www.kvue.com/news/defenders/The-Price-of-Pearson--186386381.html

[madfloridian]

20. That is mindboggling. No matter how many errors they keep making more money.

[ananda]

21. Pearson is a horrible company.

I know this from experience.

[Starry Messenger]

23. k&r

[frwrfpos]

25. recommend

Obamas education policies are horrendous and shameful. Probably the biggest deceit against teachers union and school children across the nation.

[840high]

30. ...

[last1standing]

26. This is a great example of the dangers of voting Team Blue instead of for real Democrats.

Neither Duncan nor Obama gives a Damn about educating the children of this country. If they did, they would have dropped the sale of our school system to the highest bidder from day one. Instead, they have pushed it on us without remorse.

[Squinch]

27. Obama has been a rank failure on Education.

[Octafish]

28. Leave No Criminal Behind Act

Priorities, madfloridian. Priorities.

[madfloridian]

29. ......