EdReports, Common Core Curriculum Via Gates Foundation

Nebraska did not adopt Common Core, so why are our ESU's pushing it?

Our previous installment described how Nebraska Educational Service Units (ESUs) and Superintendents are pressuring school districts to adopt an expensive and questionable curriculum called Amplify CKLA. The Amplify online course is popping up across the state like dandelions in the yard, which is not a coincidence. Teachers explained how they were told by the ESU to pick a “Green” curriculum from “EdReports.” Read the previous article HERE. The obvious question: what is EdReports?

Common Core Enforcement Funded by Gates

EdReports bills themselves as the Consumer Reports of Curriculum.

“EdReports.org is an independent nonprofit designed to improve education by providing reviews of K-12 instructional materials”

Well, not quite independent.

The entire operation is free to the public. However, it’s primary funding comes from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It’s purpose is to enforce Common Core Standards.

These Common Core standards were largely created by the same Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

from Influencewatch.org

In 2014, the Washington Post characterized the involvement of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in establishing national Common Core education standards as a “swift revolution,” with the Foundation not only bankrolling the development but also building “political support across the country, persuading state governments to make systemic and costly changes.” ⁴⁷

Starting in 2008, hundreds of millions of dollars in Gates Foundation money went to a broad range of organizations including the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, policy groups including liberals (most notably the Center for American Progress) and conservatives (such as the Thomas B. Fordham Institute) and state and local groups. The “revolution” received further support from the Obama administration, which was populated with former Gates Foundation staffers and associates. ⁴⁸

(Other notable causes of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation include: Trustee of the World Economic Forum, funding of Social Emotional Learning, a primary funder of Planned Parenthood organizations around the world, and the largest single private donor to the World Health Organization.)

What is Common Core?

Adopted in 2011 by the Obama Administration with massive pressure from Bill Gates, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a set of academic guidelines used to determine Math and English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum for all public K-12 schools. At the time, states each had their own standards. Obama, Gates, and the teachers unions wanted them federalized. There was resistance from the start. Most states eventually adopted the Common Core Standards but NEBRASKA DID NOT.

Enter EdReports in 2014

Leaving nothing to chance, the Gates Foundation was the primary bankroller of this helpful organization that will “rate” curricula according to how faithful they are to Common Core. The “Green” button indicates that it meets the Common Core requirements. Please read this article by Laura Chapman, as it pertains to both EdReports and Amplify CKLA.

“By 2015, the promoters of the CCSS had set up a non-profit called EdReports.org to function in the capacity of a consumer-reports of newly published math and ELA materials. The purpose was to rate publications that claimed to be in compliance with the CCSS.

EdReports is a Gates funded review process initially marketed to ensure that “approved” curriculum materials were in compliance with the common core. Any curriculum materials that did not pass muster with three gateway “drop dead criteria” would not be subjected to further review.”

Amplify CKLA, the author says, brags about it’s perfect score:

“EdReports, an independent curriculum review nonprofit, rates curriculum on three gateways: Text Quality, Building Knowledge, and Usability. Amplify CKLA earned a green rating in all three.”

“Amplify does not want you to know the history of this phony system of rating materials… this absurdly wrong effort to standardize ELA curriculum.

I see that Margaret Spellings, former Secretary of Education, has found a position at Amplify. She also serves on the board of Gates’ relatively new lobby shop.”

EdReports Disses Traditional Reading Curriculum

This 2021 Education Week article describes how popular traditional reading curriculums are given failing grades by EdReports. The curriculum companies felt they were unfairly judged, but just like woke corporations need ESG scores, it looks like curriculum publishers will need EdReports. Those traditional publishers defended their product:

“In its two responses to the reviews on the EdReports website, Heinemann wrote that the EdReports’ rubrics aren’t a good fit for programs like Fountas and Pinnell Classroom and Units of Study.

“FPC greatly values the importance of responsive teaching and the teacher agency required to adjust, extend, and enrich learning based on individual student needs,” reads one response. “The EdReports rubric provides no way to measure these deeply valuable components of an effective literacy system.”

This ethos of teacher agency is one of the reasons that Fountas and Pinnell and the Units of Study are so popular with educators. Both give teachers, and oftentimes students, choice over materials and activities. Still, the EdReports reviews could affect whether schools continue to use them, said Morgan Polikoff, an associate professor of education at USC Rossier who studies K-12 curriculum and standards.”

EdReports- The Woke Police

“EdReports recognizes that equity is inextricably connected to our ability to fulfill our mission. It should be a lens through which every decision is made.”

Readers of this newsletter should be very familiar with the “Equity Lens.” The Nebraska Dept. of Education adopted “Equity Lens” as the tool with which to achieve it’s primary goal of social justice in September, 2019. Read this for background: The year that Nebraska schools went woke.

It should surprise no one that the EdReports Executive Director Eric Hirsh (according to Linked-In) has a background in leading another woke non-profit called newteachercenter.org, whose Mission Statement is;

“NTC works to disrupt the predictability of educational inequities for systemically underserved students by accelerating educator effectiveness.”

We count 5 critical theory buzzwords in just that one sentence. From their website:

Summary and More Questions

To summarize, EdReports is a Gates funded rating system that will assure that Gates funded Common Core will be the accepted curriculum in all schools, even those (like Nebraska), that did not sign onto Common Core. All “non-compliant” curriculum packages will be downgraded and therefore not available for teachers to choose from.

Amplify CKLA is “Green” because it complies with Common Core. In addition, Amplify has these things in common with the other EdReports recommendations: it is online only (which allows for edits after purchase), it is expensive and it is woke.

Why are Nebraska ESU’s insisting that teachers and superintendents choose curriculum that meets Common Core criteria?

Especially when Nebraska has no allegiance to Common Core?

Is it because it fulfills the “Equity Lens?”

Or are there “greener” reasons?

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The Author, Sue Greenwald M.D., wishes to thank her team of Research Moms.