Dive Brief:
- Daniel Katz, an assistant professor of educational studies at Seton Hall University, warns that many seemingly small, grassroots ed reform groups are actually not that bottom-up and actually receive significant funding from groups like The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
- Katz argues that there is a blossoming number of these seemingly successful small organizations — such as Educators 4 Excellence — which all push the same ed reform agenda of charter schools, high-stakes testing, Common Core State Standards, and student data mining.
- Katz writes that authentic grassroots movements don't pop up without warning, pick up thousands of members overnight, or have the resources for slick web designs, Manhattan rent, and large staffs.
Dive Insight:
An example cited is Education Post, a site aimed at encouraging more "respectful" and "fact-based" discussions on ed reform. While the site seemingly sprung up out of nowhere, at its helm is Peter Cunningham, former communications adviser to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The site is financially backed with $12 million from the Bloomberg Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Walton Foundation, and an anonymous donor. So while the site claims to be bipartisan, it's hard to imagine some of these bigwigs relenting and giving space to another point of view. Katz argues that it's all just one big PR move.
In order to determine if an organization is legit or not, Katz recommends the following questions: What is the growth and pace of the organization — does it seem unreal, almost like a corporation? Who is funding the organization and for how much? Who is really running the organization? And do the supposed grassroots members actually know what the organization is about?
