Two Reasons NOT to Apply for a Job at Connections Academy

It has to do with the REAL connections of the group.

First of all, the ubiquitous Pearson Corporation bought it out. And second and not least is the VP of Connections Academy is connected with the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, which is active in the destruction of public education in the United States.

Last year, as well, Pearson partnered with the American Council on Education with plans to turn the GED into a for-profit business. In addition, Pearson entered into a partnership in 2011 with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to produce instructional materials aligned to the Common Core standards. Pearson will create and market online math courses for kindergarten through 10th grades and online courses in reading for kindergarten through 12th grades. Gates put up $3 million to develop 24 new courses. Four courses will available for free, according to the story in The New York Times, "to give educators a taste of how the digital courses can be used in classrooms." In other words, four are marketing tools to promote the sales of the other 20.

New Yorkers have recently become aware of the incompetence of Pearson's standardized tests. Surely, everyone knows the story of "the hare and the pineapple," known on Twitter as #pineapplegate. That one went viral, with newspapers across the nation ridiculing a stupid story with stupid questions. The pineapple wasn't the only error on the tests. It turns out that a question in 5th grade math required knowledge that was taught in later grades, and other questions were canceled because they had no right answer or two right answers.

Since the tests are not released for public review, no one will ever know how many more pineapples or ill-phrased questions or bad answers are embedded there. It seems strange, doesn't it, to maintain a veil of secrecy over tests that will be used to shape the fate of students, teachers, principals, and schools. Why not release the questions and let everyone pore over them? This seems a bit like a trial in which the accused is not allowed to view the evidence. When the conviction comes, the accused must trust that a higher power judged him or her to be good or bad. Teachers will be fired based on the Pearson tests, and neither they nor the public will be allowed to see the evidence.

Diane Ravitch really knows where the bodies are buried here.