Gates, Pearson Partner to Craft Common-Core Curricula

By Catherine Gewertz

Ed Week

As states and school districts grapple with how to teach the skills outlined in the new common standards, two foundations announced a partnership aimed at crafting complete, online curricula for those standards in mathematics and English/language arts that span nearly every year of a child’s precollegiate education.

The announcement today by the Pearson Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation marks yet another entry into the increasingly crowded marketplace of curriculum creation sparked by the common standards. All but six states have adopted those learning guidelines.

In a conference call with reporters, officials from the Gates and the Pearson foundations said the project will create 24 courses: 11 in math, for grades K-10; and 13 in English/language arts, for grades K-12. Four of those courses will be available for free online through the Gates Foundation. The full 24-course system, with accompanying tools including assessments and professional development for teachers, would be available for purchase, likely through Pearson, the for-profit company that operates the Pearson Foundation, in New York City.

Each course will serve as a 150-day curriculum and will harness technological advances such as social networking, animation, and gaming to better engage and motivate students, Judy B. Codding, the managing director of the Pearson Foundation, told reporters.

Expertise From Abroad

The project is being supported by a $3 million grant from the Gates Foundation. It’s part of a $20 million suite of grants, announced by the Seattle-based Gates Foundation today, that aim to take advantage of new technologies to build a range of teaching-and-learning tools for the common standards.

Vicki L. Phillips, who oversees education programs for Gates, told reporters that in talking with teachers, foundation officials are “hearing consistently” that they want classroom tools and supports that are aligned to the common standards, grounded in best practices, and allow them flexibility to adapt their work to each student. Those aims will guide the new curriculum project, she said.

Secondary-level courses in math and elementary-school-level courses in English/language arts are to be available for the 2013-14 school year, and the entire suite of courses and accompanying tools are slated for the 2014-15 school year, Ms. Codding said. The four free courses—two in math and two in English/language arts—will be posted online as soon as they are finished, she said.

Officials from the two foundations also said they are working with a range of experts not only in the United States, but also from such countries as Japan, Singapore, Israel, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Australia in building the new curricula.

The foundations’ curriculum work joins a swirl of activity on the common-core-curriculum front. Education publishers and other groups have been working to adapt or create materials for the new standards. States and districts themselves are working on curriculum to capture the new learning expectations. A half-dozen organizations that received a previous, $19 million round of funding from the Gates Foundation are moving ahead with that work as well. ("Gates Awards Grants to Buttress Common Standards," Feb. 24, 2010.) The foundation also provides support to Editorial Projects in Education, which publishes Education Week.

Mark Nieker, the president of the Pearson Foundation, said that one of the goals of designing the new courses, and making four of them available for free, is to spur more conversation and innovation on ways to impart the common standards.

Who Profits?

News of the partnership was received with a mix of skepticism and open arms.

Kent Williamson, the executive director of the National Council of Teachers of English, said he worries ....

Click here to continue reading …