How is it decided what will be taught to your kids and grandkids? | Eastern North Carolina Now

Do you know who decides what will be taught to your child or grandchild in North Carolina’s public schools?  If you answer yes, we would like to interview you to find out what you know about curriculum development at the state level.

If you are a veteran teacher in North Carolina you know really well how the process impacts you, but even few veterans know how those “changes” are developed.  What every teacher I have known will tell you is that every couple of years a new fad comes down the pipe.  Teachers are put through extensive “staff development” to teach them the new fad.  For the most part teachers are a compliant lot.  They make the best of it.  Rare is the teacher who steps out and says:  “wait just a minute.  This is foolishness…”  Most seasoned teachers know, and tell neophyte teachers:  “don’t sweat it, this too shall pass away.  Next year or the next there will be a new fad we have to learn.”

We have studied this process for over thirty years.  It’s one of our favorite things to watch.  And what we have learned can be summarized simply:  Follow the money.

What happens usually is a new crew takes over the “curriculum/instruction” division in the Department of Public Instruction.  They come into their new job expecting to “make a difference.”  They go to conferences and learn about the newest, hottest thing.  Needing to make a difference they come back and push this new fad.  If they are not shot down, they eventually learn that the best way to make a difference is to dole out money for these new programs.  If there is a lot of money involved they learn that they have to sell it to the Legislative Leadership.  An example is reducing class size.  That costs a boatload. 

Grants are often used to steer local school systems into the New Thing.  The grants will typically be short-term, i.e. three years, and by that time it is assumed that the New Thing will have a constituency behind it and the local school system will pick up the funding.  That's how the schools got into day care.  Or if the Cast of Characters changes it is just as likely that the next New Thing will replace the Last New Thing.

There are variations of this, but the fundamental forces remain the same.  Key people have a need to “make a difference” and if they are good at it they know how to soak up the funds to get their materials, services or what ever introduced to our children.  This much you can count on…as soon as the money dries up the New Thing is gone.  Meanwhile, the performance of our students in basic subjects continues to be abominable.  Superintendents talk about “progress” in tenths of a percent while more than half the students score below grade level.  It is a damn shame.

A.P. Dillon, one of our favorite journalists in Raleigh, recently publish an article in the North State Journal.com which perfectly illustrates how this charade works.  It is the latest New Thing.  Read the article and keep an eye on yet another New Thing…and see if you can follow the money.

RALEIGH — A non-profit with “equity” objectives received a multi-million dollar contract through the most recent state budget. 

The General Assembly has allocated $8 million to The Innovation Project (TIP) through Senate Bill 105, the 2021 Appropriations Act, signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper. The funding comes from the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund funds also known as ESSER funds. 

According to its website, The Innovation Project is a “nonprofit collaborative working group of North Carolina public school district superintendents created to envision the future of education and design equitable, learner-centered strategies to get there.” 

“The Innovation Project brings together forward-thinking North Carolina school district superintendents to find and implement innovative and transformative practices in public education so that students and their communities can thrive,” reads the TIP mission statement.  

According to the line item in the state budget, TIP is getting the money to “create the North Carolina High-Tech Learning Accelerator.” The description of the project states it will be “an initiative to provide a network of place-based learning hubs for students with rigorous and experiential pathways for jobs in the technology industry.” 

Additionally, “The initiative shall offer summer immersion and out-of-school options, in addition to other student supports in a core program aimed at enhancing curriculum opportunities for work-based learning.” 

Since the appropriation is such a large dollar amount, it was required to be presented to the N.C. State Board of Education. That presentation has already occurred and was approved by the voting board members. The contract spans from March 2022 through September 2024. 

A records request revealed there have been no past contracts or payments by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to TIP. 

But what is TIP really doing and how are they doing it? 

TIP “formally began on July 1, 2015,” with Gerry Hancock and Ann McColl as co-founders. The pair created TIP as “a service of the Raleigh law firm, Everett Gaskins Hancock LLP,” according to its website. 

In 2017, TIP became a 501(c)3 non-profit. At the time it went non-profit, Joe Ableidinger was the acting CEO while Ann McColl is listed as “President Emeritus.”   

While it is difficult to discern from its website exactly what TIP actually does or how it does it, target areas appear to include creating a reimagined version of turnaround schools they refer to as “restart schools,” as well as an “Early Learning Network,” involved in “redesigning learning environments to better address the early learning needs of vulnerable children.” 

One resource TIP promotes on its website is labeled as “Crisis to Transformation” which contains articles on “how we can use the circumstances created by COVID-19 to reimagine public education.” The links provided include the Center on Reinventing Public Education, Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change and FutureEd. 

Featured on the “Crisis to Transformation” page is a quote by Tom Vander Ark, CEO of Getting Smart, an education “strategic solutions” group, which reads, “Post-pandemic, more people will think of education as a public service more than a place.”  

Vander Ark was a major proponent of the Common Core Standards and, unsurprisingly, was one of the first executive directors of education for Common Core’s largest funders, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He was at one time the treasurer for the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL). Vander Ark has ties to North Carolina through his service on the board of DigiLearn founded and run by former North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue. 

During May 2020, TIP created the “Solution Creators Action Network” or TIP-SCAN. 

“TIP-SCAN has provided a transformative framework and a structure for TIP member districts to respond to the upheaval generated by the COVID-19 pandemic to reexamine longstanding district systems and processes,” the TIP website says. 

TIP-SCAN states it has “distilled three commitments” that include a full perspective on equity; a commitment to learner-centered transformation; and a commitment to “transparent, open design.” 

The overview page for TIP-SCAN says each commitment “embodies deeply held beliefs regarding the relationship of public educators to their students, their communities and the world at large.” 

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the embedded structural racism recently exposed by the killing of George Floyd and others make these commitments more compelling and urgent,” the overview reads. “TIP-SCAN seeks transformation through what is collectively seen as more possible in this time when systems are ripe for paradigm change.” 

TIP-SCAN also touts itself as a source that could be “incorporated” in the state’s plans with regard to the long-running Leandro case. 

Despite the claim for transparent and open design, few details are available on exactly what TIP-SCAN actually involves or how it works. The “three phases” of TIP-SCAN is also vague, with no real description of the apparent focus areas that include “equity” and a “learner-centered approach.”  

A possible hint may be found in the current projects listed on TIP’s website such as the “Courageous Leadership Series” and a previous installment focused on how the “pendulum has swung back to white supremacy” in education and how “inequity is built into the model for public education.” 

Over the last few months, North State Journal has attempted to contact TIP for more information but has yet to receive an acknowledgement or response. 

This is part 1 of a 2 part series. Part two will examine TIP’s membership and funding.