Edu-Solutions and the Edu-Technology Market as an American Export

• In Event: 56.050 - Rationales and Realities of Market-Based School Restructuring: Evidence of Exacerbated Class Stratification Across Four Domains

Abstract

The increasing absorption of public schools into education markets has included a redesign of teaching and learning based on the logic of profit and efficiency, in accordance with the vision of new policy edu-preneurs, few of whom are educators. Urban school districts globally now experiment with an array of technology-based education reforms lacking an evidence base. While virtual technologies could provide more democratic, freer, universally accessible forms of education, a contrary reality also persists. In particular, these new education technologies have redesigned the delivery of education – standardizing and commoditizing education, reducing educational processes and relationships to easily quantifiable and recorded forms, and distancing educational professionals from the process of educational engagement (ultimately deprofessionalizing and deskilling the teaching profession). The education community has just begun to understand how technology, big data, A.I., virtual learning, and standardized assessment/data systems serve as a conduit for private interests entering the classroom. This research examines the approaches and impacts of some of the largest actors in this cross-national educational restructuring.

At both the national and global scale, the drive to monitor and track learning outcomes has resulted in “Big Data” becoming a key source of education policymaking, organized through a densely networked apparatus of hardware software designed to both provide education and show results. The exponential growth of the technology-based industry has produced a vast for-profit education market with enormous profit potential (global market is estimated ~USD$5 trillion). This fiscal impetus has impacted education delivery both internationally and in the U.S.

Internationally, children and families in some of the world poorest communities have become the primary target of this industry, with shareholder reports referring to the “untapped potential of the world’s bottom billion.” The world’s largest multinational education corporation, Pearson, operates in 70 countries, positioning itself as the world’s education service provider, often of technology-based scripted curricula. It allows governments to outsource education systems instead of investing in teachers and infrastructure. Most recently, Pearson has entered emerging economies (e.g. India, Phillippines) through PALF, a venture capital investment fund that “makes significant minority equity investments in for-profit companies to meet the growing demand for affordable education across the developing world.”

In the US, companies like Pearson are creating products like GradPoint, “an easy to use web based solution for grades 6-12” that “includes over 180 rigorous courses (Core, Electives, AP and Foreign Language & CTE);” iLit, “a tablet-based reading intervention for students in grades 4-10” which promises “it has everything your class needs to gain two years of reading growth in a single year;” and aimsweb, “the leading assessment and RTI solution in school today - a complete web-based solution for universal screening, progress monitoring, and data management for Grades K-12.” This research ultimately shows that “Pearson Personalized Learning” or other “edu-solutions” approaches do not support teaching in schools; instead, these products and services cut costs by offering standardization and replacing teachers, without evidence that the products work or consideration for the impact of their products on schools and student learning.

Author

• Carol Anne Spreen, New York University