This is such a vital essay Matt, and thank you for the citations to my reporting, notwithstanding the deeply troubling reality it portrays. My overwhelming priority right now is the safety of children under Alpha School's care, but you've rightly framed the much bigger question about where we are headed as a society if we allow Alpha School or similar such efforts to become part of our education system.
I'd say more but, well there's more reporting to do, much more. Stay tuned.
Excellent journalism. One quibble from over here in K12, about where the “first battlefield” is. This phenomenon is contiguous with the Ed Reform of the Obama era that had roots in 1981’s “A Nation at Risk.”
Tech became a major part of this in my experience around 2010, and I joined the fight in 2011.
Higher Ed is armed with a measure of greater stability, time to network and communicate with eachother, along with fewer avenues of direct harassment than K12. It feels like we in primary and secondary education generally must resist this unarmed.
From over here, it seems like higher ed has only more recently been activated, but communications across the divide are too few to really know. College Board and AP seems to have interposed itself somehow?
I’m sure you’re aware, but one engine of these efforts by private equity and political forces is the assessment-industrial complex, which this article touches on but is also central to the issues presented in this excellent piece.
The "first battlefield" is a Rufo quote, so interpret it however you like. But I'm in general agreement with what you say here about the failure to organize K-16+ and the need to build solidarity now.
This is such a vital essay Matt, and thank you for the citations to my reporting, notwithstanding the deeply troubling reality it portrays. My overwhelming priority right now is the safety of children under Alpha School's care, but you've rightly framed the much bigger question about where we are headed as a society if we allow Alpha School or similar such efforts to become part of our education system.
I'd say more but, well there's more reporting to do, much more. Stay tuned.
Excellent journalism. One quibble from over here in K12, about where the “first battlefield” is. This phenomenon is contiguous with the Ed Reform of the Obama era that had roots in 1981’s “A Nation at Risk.”
Tech became a major part of this in my experience around 2010, and I joined the fight in 2011.
Higher Ed is armed with a measure of greater stability, time to network and communicate with eachother, along with fewer avenues of direct harassment than K12. It feels like we in primary and secondary education generally must resist this unarmed.
From over here, it seems like higher ed has only more recently been activated, but communications across the divide are too few to really know. College Board and AP seems to have interposed itself somehow?
I’m sure you’re aware, but one engine of these efforts by private equity and political forces is the assessment-industrial complex, which this article touches on but is also central to the issues presented in this excellent piece.
The "first battlefield" is a Rufo quote, so interpret it however you like. But I'm in general agreement with what you say here about the failure to organize K-16+ and the need to build solidarity now.
100%