The Governor Wentworth Regional School District (GWRSD) has signed a contract with Great Schools Partnership (GSP). Why was this a waste of money? All one has to do is look at its track record in Maine to see how it wasted money on this consulting organization. GWRSD just paid $83,250.00 to GSP consultants for an “equity” consultation.
Here is what GSP will be providing to the school district for $83,250.00:
Let’s start by getting to know GSP and what they’ve done for other states.
The New England Secondary Schools Consortium (NESSC) has the same address as the Great Schools Partnership and is staffed by GSP employees. It is funded by Nellie Mae.
Here are some quick facts on the NELLIE MAE EDUCATION FOUNDATION and its affiliated organization GREAT SCHOOLS PARTNERSHIP:
1.) Nellie Mae became the Nellie Mae Education Foundation in 2001. Their website designates ‘”our future” being identified in 2008-2010 as “education systems change.”
As of 2010 they fine tuned their purpose by “promoting the integration of student-centered” approaches . This is where they decide on what pedagogy will be used in the classroom. Student-centered marginalizes the role of the teacher as an instructor.
2.) 2016 Financials show that the the President and CEO made $452,657 as a salary from Nellie Mae. He also received approximately $66,034 from “other compensation from the organization and related organizations.
3.) The Great Schools Partnership was founded in 2008 to “redesign public education.” This means a move away from a focus on academics via liberal arts, to a dumbed down workforce model. Local communities did not decide this, education reformers with no history of success did;
4.) Between 2010-2017…Nellie Mae awarded between $7-8 Million in grants to Great Schools Partnership, most of which is devoted to developing and assisting schools with proficiency based learning initiatives. No independent peer-reviewed studies have shown any improvement to academic outcomes since New Hampshire after changing to this the model;
5.) Much of the grant money given to Nellie Mae was focused on the New England Secondary School Consortium (NESSC), which has the same address as Great Schools Partnership, for the purpose of effecting the “redesign.”
6.) Nellie Mae prioritizes “community organizing” as a priority for students vs literacy and academic excellence.;
7.) Parents have noted the deemphasizing of academic subject content in favor of soft-skills often times called “workforce skills” through Competency Based Education;
One gets the feeling that GSP isn’t going to focus on helping children acquire knowledge; instead, these consultants come into your local school to push experimental and failed education fads—fads that have been rehashed over and over again.
Competency (or Proficiency) Based Education is the failed Outcome Based Education fad from the 90’s. Before that, it was called Mastery Learning. It shifts focus away from academics, and forces teachers to focus on empty skills. This doesn’t help children to become better readers and writers. It doesn’t help children to master basic math. For a better overview, take a look at this article on Maine’s Proficiency Based Education model.
Within the article explaining the failures of this education model, they include a study that Nellie Mae conducted: (EXCERPT)
MAINE STUDY
Maine’s Education and Cultural Affair Committee commissioned a 2 year study to be conducted on this issue. David Silvernail and the USM Center for Education Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation posted their work April 30, 2014 titled Implementation of a Proficiency-Based Diploma System: Early Experiences in Maine. This is not a glowing report. There evidence of success is lacking: “After an extensive review of the literature, it became evident that, while there are many conceptual pieces describing what a standards-based or proficiency-based education system should look like, there are few existing conceptual models that envelop all of the requisite elements for successful implementation. Furthermore, there is limited empirical evidence of the effectiveness of these systems, which has resulted in school districts having little historical information and no clear evidence to guide them in developing the new diploma systems.” (pgs. 16-17).
Conclusion:
We have now invested years in this experiment, with years to go. These will be years of continued interruption and false hope for the parents and students. There will be more talks, presentations, demonstrations, slide shows and testimonials aimed at convincing us that we are on a path to improvement. But in the end, after the money is spent and changes have been made, after school boards and legislatures have changed, we’ll discover what so many others did. Our Proficiency-Based model will collapse under its own weight. We can wait for that inevitability or we can do the right thing now.
Now that GWRSD has decided to follow the same path that Maine schools traveled, one should ask, where is the proof that anything GSP does improves academic outcomes? The York school committee adopted the “example” Proficiency-Based Diploma policy that was on the Great Schools Partnership website word for word. Maine parents have fought hard to get rid of GSP initiatives like the Proficiency Diploma.
Great Schools Partnership promotes the work of Douglas Reeves, whom they refer to as a “grading expert.” Teachers in Maine had to watch a video presentation of him at one of their Professional Development sessions awhile ago.
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There’s a lot of people making a lot of money off of selling education fads–they are often times called snake-oil salesman for obvious reasons.
The State of Vermont Agency of Education spent $990,846 in consulting fees to implement proficiency learning. The three consulting firms were Great Schools Partnership, Center for Consolidated Education, and ASCD Student Growth Center. There were cost overruns of $186,220. Where is any proof that this helps improve proficiency in the core subjects?
After all of the money spent on consultants pushing the Proficiency Based Diploma in Maine, Governor Mills signed into law PL 2019, Chapter 202 on June 5, 2019, repealing proficiency-based diplomas.
EXCERPT:
Maine went all in on ‘proficiency-based learning’ — then rolled it back. What does that mean for the rest of the country?
What will GWRSD get for their tax dollars? If you go through the contract, they spell out the areas they will be servicing:
1) Student Wellness
2) Focus on Culture of Belonging
3) Leadership Support and Capacity Building
They will be doing some of this through the lens of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. (DEI)
Why not just flush $80k down the toilet. It’s easier.
None of this will help students become better readers, writers, or be able to multiply and divide. This reminds me of the failed fad from the 90’s when schools thought it was a good idea to focus on a student’s self esteem. It didn’t work back then, and if you want children to feel good about themselves, TEACH THEM the academics.
Teachers will tell you that a child who struggles to understand a math concept, can immediately feel good about themselves as soon as that light bulb turns on, and they understand it.
The next time you hear the people running our schools complaining that they don’t have enough tax dollars to spend, remind them how they are wasting thousands of dollars on snake-oil salesmen know as education consultants.
