Who are the Power Brokers behind the Common Core State Standards? [View all]

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By Dr. Rich Swier

Many parents, teachers, educators and concerned citizens do not know who are the “power brokers” behind Common Core State Standards (CCSS). It is important to understand who is pushing this initiative that is a federal government backed top down approach to public school education. United Opt Out National has compiled a comprehensive list of the key power brokers, nonprofit institutions and corporations behind CCSS. It is provided here for your edification.

Through the U.S. Department of Education designated Race to the Top initiative, grants and other monies are given to states that adopt RTTT which requires them to adopt CCSS, use new high stakes testing such as PARCC or SBAC, and requires these tests to be attached to teacher and school evaluations which in turn foster the agenda of corporate-run education policies. (See ALEC at the bottom for more.)

Achieve was granted the contract from U.S. Department of Education to develop and manage the Common Core State Standards initiative including curricular development and assessment. NGA and CCSSO also lead the development and implementation of CCSS)

ACHIEVE

Who they are? According to their website, “Created in 1996 by the nation’s governors and corporate leaders, Achieve is an independent, bipartisan, non-profit education reform organization based in Washington, DC that helps states raise academic standards and graduation requirements, improve assessments and strengthen accountability so all students graduate ready for college, work and citizenship.”

Key players: Lou Gerstner, co-founder of Achieve (Former CEO of IBM) and Craig Barrett, Achieve Chair (former CEO of Intel Corp.)

Funders:

AT&T Foundation (ALEC)/The Battelle Foundation/Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation (ALEC)/The Boeing Company (ALEC)/Brookhill Foundation
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Chevron (ALEC)
The Cisco Foundation/DuPont (ALEC)
The GE Foundation (ALEC)
IBM Corporation (ALEC)/Intel Foundation (ALEC)
JP Morgan Chase Foundation
The Joyce Foundation
The Leona & Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
Lumina Foundation (ALEC)
MetLife Foundation
Microsoft
Nationwide (ALEC)
Noyce Foundation
The Prudential Foundation (ALEC)
Sandler Foundation
State Farm Insurance Companies (ALEC)
Travelers Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

ACHIEVE partners with Pearson for most of its testing and curricular materials for the PARCC.

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http://drrichswier.com/2014/01/06/who-are-the-power-brokers-behind-the-common-core-state-standards/