The Learning Initiative gives you a good idea about the players in New Hampshire that push national education initiatives, whether they work or not. Think about all of the fads that have come through our public schools only to be shown that they did nothing to improve academic outcomes.
I can list many: Outcome-Based Education (now sold as Competency-Based Education in NH), School-to-Work (more workforce training), Fuzzy Math (Complete destruction of math ed), Whole Language, Common Core/Next Generation Science Standards (another failure), etc. There are more, but you get the idea.
Many of these initiatives come from education reformers on the national stage. Failure does not matter; they repackage their old failed initiatives, give them a new name, and then sell them again. Who are the people taking these failed education policies and selling them in New Hampshire? Look no further than the Learning Initiative.
The Learning Initiative used a bogus study from the Barr Foundation/ U.S. Department of Education to further its education agenda. The Barr Foundation is a big supporter of Competency-Based Education, and we know the U.S. Department of Education has been pushing this failed fad for decades. The U.S. Department of Education started with Outcome Based education, then School-to-Work, and now Competency-Based Education (CBE) which in New Hampshire. CBE pushes more training versus literacy and education on our public schools. While it’s apparent we have an illiteracy problem plaguing our public schools, they want more attention on workforce training instead of ensuring graduates are literate in the core subjects.
They change the names of these fads, so you don’t realize it’s a rehashed failed fad from the past. Notice how they didn’t present an independent or peer-reviewed study on CBE and any impact it’s had on academic outcomes?
The national organizations that continue to push these failed fads on our public schools, like Barr, are listed here with Nellie Mae and the Bush Foundation. Nellie Mae happily tells you that their main goal is to turn kids into community organizers. Graduating literate students is not the primary goal of any of these organizations.
Some of the people working for the Learning Initiative are making money off of these failed fads, so they will certainly want to keep them afloat. Let’s take the ones selling Competency-Based Ed in NH.
Jonathan G. Vander Els is listed for promoting CBE. He sells a book on CBE along with Brian Stack, who is also part of the Learning Initiative. The Competency-Based Ed model has no track record of success in New Hampshire and has shifted more attention in the classroom away from academics.
Brian Stack is the former Principal of Sanborn High School. I wrote about the scathing reviews he received from students who graduated from Sanborn a few years ago: Is Sanborn Regional School District Lying to Parents?
It was the Sanborn students who exposed the problems they faced after graduation, even though Brian Stack tried to sell Sanborn as a district that successfully prepares students for college and careers. Sanborn social media administrators were deleting comments from former students who were exposing the fraud.
Scroll through all of these people working for the Learning Initiative. Can you imagine how much money they are spending on their quest to usher in more national fads? Notice that Portrait of a Graduate is listed too. Read more about that national fad used to ignore poor proficiency scores and push more fads like CRT here.
Student-Centered Learning is another fad that seeks to remove the teacher and replace them with technology/screens. Bill Gates has already told us that teachers can easily be replaced by AI. How does that work for parents if they have to discuss an issue with their children?
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has called for human teachers to be replaced with artificial intelligence-powered machines in schools across America, arguing that AI bots would make “great” educators.
If Competency-Based Education worked so well, we’d have independent/peer-reviewed studies in New Hampshire presenting that evidence. Instead, after over a decade, our public schools continue to struggle.
The Learning Initiative wants to double down and hopes that you ignore the dismal proficiency scores coming out of our public schools and push more of these federal fads into our classrooms. And the worst part of all of this is the New Hampshire Department of Education is included with other progressive organizations in all of this.
You might ask, why would the NEA/teachers union support an initiative that replaces teachers in the classroom? They’ve been bought and paid for. You can see it in this document on page 10 from Education Reimagined. Go to page 10 and look at how adults in the classroom (teachers) are replaced with facilitators. Then go to the last page to see who signed the document: Randi Weingarten, President American Federation of Teachers, and Lily Eskelsen, President National Education Association. Scroll through all of the names to see who is part of this national agenda. It’s a lot harder to see what your kids are learning if there are no textbooks involved.
This isn’t about improving public education. This is about redesigning public ed into what President Obama promised during his tenure. While many of these failed fads are rehashed and have been pushed by progressive reformers in the past, Obama gave them a big push during his Common Core initiative. That’s when he said during a State of the Union Address that he was going to redesign public education. What most did not know is that redesign was a dumbed-down workforce training model…aka…Competency-Based Education Model.
It helps to know who is selling out your children to this dumbed-down training model that profits the Ed Tech industry. Many in New Hampshire are listed as part of the Learning Initiative.
