If Nicholas Negaoponte is really on the verge of selling his under $200 laptop to 19 states, it may not change school, but it will certainly change how we think about education.   more »

The idea that teachers are more like infantry soldiers or assembly line workers than health care professionals or athletics coaches - suggests that sudents are more like a faceless enemy or cars than unique people. The idea that the nation's largest and most diverse set of teachers and students is amenable to one best way is a form of arrogance bordering on idiocy.   more »

Where school partnerships are not working, a provider's only moral choice is to exit. But the high costs of finding partners demands close attention to the initial selection process. KIPP's decision is a sign of the whole school design provider's maturity.   more »

Let's start with EdNet's upcoming Impact Award, and then SIIA's Codies....   more »

What does it say? What does it really mean? An exercise in "content analysis."   more »

But the high school arena is fragmented by 50 states, and a host of other structural factors. Nothing like the test prep or online higher ed markets where one standardized offering can serve a national market. A nice business, yes. Highly scaleable, doubtful.   more »

Consultants working for the Department of Education and with states on the implementation of the program collectively benefited to the tune of $1 million by steering district purchases their way. The Justice Department is investigating criminal charges. Now maybe editors in the mainstream media will focus some journalistc resources on a story that speaks volumes about the sham passing for regulation of the school improvement industry.   more »

The better to deflect attention from the real problems: 1) people in positions of authority who either abused their public trust or were not competent to exercise it according to any reasonable standard of care; 2) the Department's utter incapacity to behave differently as the federal role in public education becomes one of fueling a school improvement industry, and 3) the Administration's lack of any strategy to turn the Department around so it can handle an emerging market implicit in No Child Left Behind.   more »

Any school improvement provider with a corporate culture committed to ongoing research as part of product development should be giving this trade group a careful look.   more »

Your editor deconstructs a press release. It happens to be this release, but it could have been any.   more »

A company that will lose its contract has a greater institutional incentive to make sure its employees do right by these wards of the state than any agency that monoplizes the function.   more »

The first question for the industry is whether this means the end of Edison in Philadelphia... and maybe time to sell off the company for parts and re-brand what's left. If you were a superintendent, would you propose the firm to your board?   more »

If you've got it (scientifically based research), flaunt it. But note as well that the standard of beauty is rising in this market. What's glamorous this year will soon seen quaint. Firms need to look beyond compliance with an evaluation requirement to the role of evaluation in program quality and ongoing development.   more »

Your editor did not plan on becoming a playing field for this contest, but Brian Gill - who led RAND's study of contract schools in Philadephia, has provided the thnk tank's response to Paul Peterson's critique.   more »

There is a potentially serious flaw in RAND's approach. School improvement program providers need to stop and think about whether the direction evaluation is taking is setting them up for mediocrity - or even asking the right question.   more »

The "evaluation wars" expand to school contracting.   more »

If the parent pays for the service, the typical story on the provider is generally positive. If the taxpayer foots the bill, the reporter generally casts the provider in a negative light.   more »

Today's announcement by RAND of a $6 million grant from the Department of Education for a "gold standard" review of Cargegie Learning's Cognitive Tutor is welcome, but industry leaders should not see it as a chance to buy time or kick the political can of evaluation down the road. The study is welcome, but it should also be mildly worrisome.   more »

There are three kinds of programs that embody Scientifically Based Research.... It's no surprise that while other firms are having a difficult time, Carnegie is adding sales staff.   more »

Is anyone other than a major publisher making (good) money? If you are, please let us know with a comment.   more »

Annual reports are not only a source of financial data, they offer insights to corporate self-image, perceptions of the business environment, strategy, and risk assessment. Its generally a good idea for even the smallest firms to understand the dominant players' view of the world.   more »

Prof. Richard Allington of the University of Tennesse at Knoxville, a Reading Recovery defender and former President of the International Reading Association asks the most important question in his remarks to Education Week on the program's postive rating by the Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse: “[A]re we going to take all the interventions off the Reading First Web sites that don’t meet the What Works criteria?... I don’t have a lot of confidence that anyone in Washington actually cares about the evidence.”... This is the point Cong. Miller needs to keep foremost in mind during the House education committee's upcoming hearings on Reading First.... And in the end, this question is the key issue for those betting on the school improvement industry as a good investment. The What Works' bar is pretty low, and if its results don't matter to the use of federal funds, the new firms can't compete against the established players or the unfettered discretion of department officials. Meaningful standards of performance are the only basis of their competive advantage. Remarkably, the research-driven providers have not organized themselves to bring their expertise to bear on this question.   more »

Every school improvement provider is not automatically viewed with scepticism by the press. The determining factor seems to be whether the firm is perceived to work within the system or against its constituencies.... It also helps when the firm is seen to have roots in education and research rather than business and finance. It also helps if the firm has made ongoing evaluation a priority.... If you are the CEO of a school improvement provider, or an investor, or a communications firm with these clients, the pattern deserves close study.   more »

Some educators seem happy with the testing firm.   more »

A clear warning to education research organization CEOs and boards.... For all practical purposes, when public education was a monopoly, they had one customer - government. Providing program evaluations, technical assistance to schools and districts, advisory services to agencies, and developing curriculum and instructional programs never raised conflict of interest issues. Instead, a broad range of competencies offered an advantage in competing with other research organizations for government business.... But being on all sides of the table is antithetical to the smooth operation of a market. Indeed in Reading First it was the cause of major financial loss for one provider - who has every reason to seek monetary compensation from the source of the harm. In Reading First and RMC, we have the case study of an organization caught between public education's pre- and post-market eras.... It's a warning to the CEOs and boards of this and other research organizations that conflicts of interest are now important. The federal education labs in particular should be considering how much of the "knowledge utilization" space each wants to occupy. If there is not a lawsuit this time around, there will be soon enough if old patterns don't change.... It's probably time for comprehensive board-intiated conflicts reviews. Moreover, properly done, these reviews are bound to lead some research organizations to shed or trade some lines of business and staff, and new operating constraints may lead some researchers to seek new homes for their work.    more »

Long before NCLB, urban school districts "outsourced" tutoring to Tile I students in "pull-out" programs. Sylvan Learning System's contract services division comes to mind. The services offered by SES providers today represent a "forced" outsourcing of teaching and learning activities most school district would prefer to keep in-house. A new twist on this outsourcing is American tutoring firms' decisions to outsource "live" online tutoring to Indian firms. Yes, some already "sell into" the US market directly, but the business arguments for partnering with an American firm are compelling.... The principal issues for US firms have nothing to do with cost - that's a "no-brainer." Your editor would argue that the challenge of providing value ("results at a price") in this market will drive every tutoring firm to a mix of "on-site/online" and "human/artificial intelligence" services.... The first issue is quality assurance - manageable but an ongoing operations challenge. The second is political - the consequence of outsourcing American professional jobs overseas is a point teachers unions have already made and an issue where they will find some sympathy in the electorate. But the most important is strategic - if American firms have the advantage now because they control the entre to the U.S. market, the better the services provided by the foreign firms (and every U.S. firm will want the highest quality foreign partner), the more likely the balance of power will shift in their direction. Their alternative to continuing the relationship will be going directly to the client base. For this reason, the smart U.S. firm probably wants the foreign firm to be an equity partner, and every smart firm probably wants some kind of relationship with a foreign partner. Management - and investors - should start seeing a foreign buyout as one plausible exit strategy of the several they ought to pursue. Remember that the highest payout will go investors in the SES provider with the best alternatives to any negotiated agreement its board might consider.   more »

The turmoil continues....   more »

Sometimes philanthropy is helpful to the point of buying our programs for schools. At other times, philanthropic intiatives compete with school improvement providers by offering districts "free" programs. At other times, they complicate the lives of firms with classroom initiatives that conflict with the specific kinds of support and cooperation providers need from their "partners" in the central office and classroom to achieve superior program results. In this case, how will the Kellogg Foundation]s $10 million grant to improve reading skills in Hawaii affect schools implementing America's Choice? Every, providers' local managers need to keep track of these "school reform" initiatives, so they don't come as a surprise degrading implementation and hence expected student outcomes.   more »

Here in the U.S., LightSpan - now part of PLATO, used the PlayStation system for a program sold into the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program market in the late 1990s. Not only did it leverage existing home gaming technology "simple enough for parents," but it deliberately engaged them in their children's education - building a level of parent support for a classroom-based literacy program this writer never saw before, and has not seen since. Can Sony repeat this?   more »

The distinction between the providers district like and dislike has very little to do with tax status, and almost everything to do with whether the provider competes with them for students or works for them with students. The school improvement industry needs the competitors to motivate the districts to do things differently - including buying the new providers' programs. But most individual school improvement providers will be far more profitable working with districts as partners than against them as adversaries.   more »

The Oregon Department of Education gives a bit more of its story on the dispute with Vantage, and hires nonprofit research organization AIR (American Institutes of Research) for next year's TESA administration.... The corporate website of Vantage Learning lists no press releases on the dispute. To paraphrase George Bush I, that decision "doesnt seem prudent."... Vantage counsel did speak to Education Week Reporter Andrew Trotter, but make note of the reporter's decision to cast the story as Vantage "leaving the state in the lurch" rather than, say, "being denied $4.7 million dollars in payments owed by the state." Both characterizations tend to prejudge what looks to be a legitmate business dispute - complicated by the end of a multi-year contract and Vantage's failure to win the new competition. But the underlying issue is now a matter for the courts. In the American legal system the facts and the law here are not decided but in dispute, and it is a bit unfair for Education Week to permit one of its reporters to pre-judge Vantage as straight reporting. The more legitimate place for this opinion is an Op/Ed page.   more »

Caveat Emptor: One should take the attached pronouncement from an investment banking firm that helped take Educate (including its Supplementary Educational Service provider Catapult Learning) private, on a compilation of largely anectodal and qualitiative "good news" items prepared by the Education Industry Association, on behalf of its members in the SES business, and labeled as a "report" - with a grain of salt. It's just a bit self-serving all around. Frankly that assessment is preferrable to one that says Signal Hill is naive about the political risks associated with SES as part of NCLB, as implemented by the states, or as received by school districts, to say nothing of the considerable cost and other advantages that accrue to local providers able to risk very little while leaping exceptionally low barriers to entry. Asserting that SES "has always been among the most popular aspects of the law, and arguably the most secure" is a flight of fancy. At this time of NCLB reauthorization there is a good policy story about SES to be told, and spinning it as PR makes it that much harder to tell. And if that story isn't told?... Well there are thousands of ways in NCLB to make SES an unattractive investment. Please, let's stop acting like Pollyannas, get serious about facing the political risks in our market, and start talking about how we intend to work towards managing them.    more »

A story we overlooked - Vantage cancels contract in billing dispute but keeps working with state, then its testing system gets overloaded and fails. Bad news for Vantage. Lessons Learned: No good deed goes unpunished? Nobody wins but the lawyers?   more »

First state-wide distribution of unitedstreamingplus. Question: Does this pre-empt or complement potential district-level sales of similar content?   more »

Buy Rating.   more »

This was not the best week for several public firms in the school improvement industry.   more »

Delayed SEC filing and finance staff turnover - chicken and/or egg?   more »

A school improvement company betting on "true research-based solutions."   more »

If student performance matters to the state of California and the state's press, why do OFY's outcomes get less attention than its' financial disputes with the state?   more »

An up and coming assessment competitor?   more »

In a move emphasizing "category management"....   more »

Just before going private, Edison purchased urban EMO LearnNow - the first EMO founded and managed by African-American executives - and put on a full-court press to win school management contracts in Philly and nearby Chester-Upland. Both were moves to gain "street-cred." The purchase of LearnNow to impress Philly, the school contracts to impress Wall Street. They were insufficient to keep Edison a public company. But the now privately-held firm put so much of itself on the line in Philly that it is hard to see how it can rebuild confidence with public education buyers of its services if it is seen to fail here. A rejection of Edison by its former champions - Vallas and the SRC - can only be bad news. (And when Edison "catches cold", the rest of the school improvement industry is "starved" for investment cash.)   more »

Charter Management Organizations are latest education reform trend to be surfed by venture philanthropy.... The Gates Foundation and others have committed $65 million to CMO KIPP for 42 new charter schools in Houston. At over $1.5 million per new school, and with an ongoing need of $1000 per student per year from philanthropy, it is not a scaleable model for the charter movement as a whole - and the opportunity costs in terms of the stand-alone charters that will not be formed - and could be formed for far less - are huge. It is also incredibly suspicious that literally none of these nonprofit CMOs reveal their business plans, financial models or detailed operating statements.   more »

No, it's not K12, but what is it about these schools that attracts investigative reporting? In this case it is - yes, conflicts of interest. At least as important, what are the quality virtual providers doing to improve the perception of their industry segment?   more »

RMC is a partner in the Northeast Region and Islands Regional Laboratory. "Conflict of interest" was written all over the Department of Education's contract with RMC for support of Reading First, and in flashing neon. The fact it was approved suggests that officials far more senior than Chris Doherty did not review the contract, did not understand the meaning of the term, or did not care. None of these options is acceptable. At the heart of market regulation in a free society is the notion of a level playing field - unbiased application of the rules. The Reading First fiasco underlines how far the Department has to go before it can claim such competence. From the enclosed article - Richard A. Allington, past president of the International Reading Association: “The e-mails between (former federal Reading First Director Christopher J. Doherty and G. Reid Lyon, the former chief of the reading-research branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) illustrate that at least these two people knew which consultants/reviewers were ‘appropriately’ aligned with their vision of Reading First…. And they knew they should mask any overt ideological moves to name people or products (as evidenced by their e-mails to each other on this very topic). Are we to believe that [they] didn’t know about the conflict of interest with the center directors and consultants?” The I.G. reports only went so far into the matter. Congress needs to go deeper into the details and higher up the food chain. And the school improvement industry - the firms that truly care about results trumping marketing budgets need to get behind the injured organizations.   more »

Two Points: 1) K-12 education's key teaching and learning functions are opening up to private sector involvement. The system is moving from a vertically integrated state-run monolith to more of a market. In this transition, each of the organizations holding a lab contract will have to decide how many sides of the buyer-seller-regulator-evaluator table it can safely occupy. None can hope to "do it all" and do any well - legally, ethically, or professionally, or as a matter of internal culture. As lab contractors decide whether they fit in the emerging market, expect a sorting out of roles and functions by each over the next three years, with units shed and acquired - maybe even traded, staff leaving to form new enterprises - possibly spurred by inevitable conflict of interest complaints. 2) The Department of Education is hoplessly tangled up in dealing with this market transition. It wants "quick and dirty" and "scientifically-based" from the same organizations, and arguably in the past most have not done either. It wants program evaluation but it also wants the dissemination of best practice - and that's a recipe for conflicts of interest. The right approach? One function, one contractor.   more »

A policy advocacy group adds important school improvement industry firms. But this is also another example of our industry's balkanized policy and advocacy efforts.   more »

When school contracting is based primarily on the political need of a district to demonstrate "reform," the primary risk to the revenue stream is "poltical risk."    more »

From the press page of every provider we cover, hotlinked to the source. If your firm isn't here - it should be. Let us know, so we can initiate coverage.   more »

Somatic Digital Launches TouchBook ™ platform. Worth a quick look.   more »

What happened to former CEO Allison Duquette? There isn't anything on the firm's website   more »

NComputing says so....   more »

The NCLB SES program is a classic example of structural market fragmentation. Yes, there are big(ger), perhaps impersonal, firms, but a good deal of work is being done by local educator/entreprenuers. There are also some interesting cost structure issues when comparing local for profits, nonprofits, districts and national for profits - and onsite v. off-site v. online. Then there's the issue of students getting the same pool of teachers they see during the day. Does this matter - good, bad, neutral, it depends? In all, a lot to think about when considering program efficacy and value. And all touched on in one article.   more »

Good press for Virtual High and Apex   more »

A bad spin on a reasonable, above-board decision by the School Reform Commission. Not a good story for any Education Management Organization (or Charter Management Organization) when the system is hurting for cash. A good example of the political risk of investing in the school improvement industry.   more »