Free trips not worth the price

H-L Smacks Holliday and Young

Leaves out an important fact

This morning the Herald-Leader editorial board weighed in on the recent Pearson scandal. Good. As the editorial points out, there are problems with the appearance, if not fact, of public officials getting too cozy with private companies who stand to gain millions through public contracts. But the facts are important. If the public is to make a reasoned judgment about the issue, they ought to have them all.

KASA's Wayne Young recently defended Lu Young (no relation so far as I know) in H-L saying that it was "both troubling and telling that the Herald-Leader would reprint a story from the New York Times regarding Jessamine County Schools superintendent Lu Young taking a professional trip to Australia without even making the effort to contact her for a response." Wayne complained about several of the facts being left out of the story, but for some reason did not mention that Lu voted against Pearson. Surely, that matters to some degree.

a more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/01/08/2020488/jan-8-letters-to-the-editor.html#storylink=cpy

The H-L's lead confirmed the editors' respect for Young - right before they disrespected her.

Similar to the H-L, KSN&C also reprinted the New York Times articles that originally raised the issue. We were criticized by a few folks who objected to our reprinting the story without jumping through all of the  professional journalistic hoops. Fair enough. We didn't. But when Lu Young contacted KSN&C to make sure we knew that she never voted for Pearson, and could prove it, we felt honor-bound to include it in our coverage and we posted the Jessamine Journal article that outlined the facts. We did what I imagined a professional journalist would do. We understand from Young that she sent the same information to the Times and the Herald-Leader. So far, the Times has stood by their story without any mention, but more surprisingly, the H-L completely ignored it in today's editorial.

If it's true that private companies might use undue influence to gain the favor of public officials - and it is - then it's important to point out - with respect to Young at least - that it didn't happen that way. After her fancy trip, Young voted for a different company. It doesn't absolve her, but it certainly lowers the degree of concern over her integrity.

To know pertinent facts about a case, but then to knowingly leave them out of the piece because including them weakens one's argument, is a questionable standard of journalism. Sound ethical practices of our public officials, and the reporters who cover them, both matter.

This from the Herald-Leader:

Lu Young, superintendent of schools in Jessamine County, is a respected professional who was named Kentucky's superintendent of the year in 2011. So, to many of her admirers here in Kentucky, it was a surprise and a shame her name appeared at the top of a story in the first section of The New York Times.

It was not because of her accomplishments as an educator but to recount a trip she took that illustrates the ethical muddy waters stirred up by the extremely close relationship between Pearson Education Inc. and the Pearson Foundation.

The story, reprinted in the Herald-Leader, evoked defensive praise for Young and scorn of the Times and its reporting. There's no reason to believe Young did anything wrong, but criticizing the messenger won't make this go away. The suspicion of unethical dealing will persist until educators stop taking trips paid for by companies that stand to make money selling products and services to their institutions.

Briefly, Young went to Australia with other educators on a trip organized by an education nonprofit and paid for by the Pearson Foundation. A few months later, back in Kentucky, she participated in a panel that interviewed executives of education companies, including Pearson, that were bidding to run Kentucky's testing program.

Although its bid was $2 million higher than the low bidder, CTB/McGraw Hill, Pearson got the contract.

The Times had reported earlier that Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday had taken similar trips, to China and Brazil, after his department approved the $57-million contract with Pearson.

Pearson protests that the foundation is simply a way of returning money to education and that educators benefit from meeting colleagues from other countries and seeing what they're doing.

No argument here that our education system can gain from a broader view. But the links between the two Pearsons are too close for comfort. Here are some of the connections that have been reported:

1. The company controls the foundation's board of directors;
2. At least one person is an officer of both the company and the foundation;
3. They have the same address.
4. Although Pearson Education executives have attended the education conferences subsidized by Pearson Foundation money, no representatives of other education companies have been identified on the lists of attendees.

We make no case that either Young or Holliday did anything wrong. Both say the trips had no bearing on the contract.

This would have been a nice place to mention that Young voted for Measured Progress, not Pearson.

But, this is the thing: The contract wasn't let solely on price, nor should it have been. Educational testing is a complex business, so there's a significant element of judgment involved in evaluating the bidder's services.

No less an expert than Jack Abramoff, the disgraced former lobbyist in Washington, explained last week in Frankfort, how judgment can become clouded by gifts and hospitality.

The (Louisville) Courier-Journal's account of Abramoff's talk includes this:

"Lawmakers never believe they will be bought, Abramoff added. But he warned that lobbyists become successful by building relationships and that gifts or contributions are designed to take advantage of a person's natural instincts to express gratitude. 'When somebody does something good for you, you are going to have to feel that way in your soul, and when you do I would hold that that is the problem,' he said,"

We'll go even a step further. Even if a cozy relationship doesn't lead to a problem, the appearance of the relationship will lead to suspicion that a problem does or could exist. Our ethics laws are intended not only to avoid corruption but the appearance of it because both destroy public confidence in government.

Nothing is more important to Kentucky than public education, which relies on public support. These trips aren't worth the price in public confidence. Educators should stop taking them.

Since the selection of Pearson was ultimately made possible by the input of KDE staff, H-L could do a public service by drilling into the specific issues of how the KDE contract came to be awarded to Pearson after two subgroups thought a different company could provide better service. Who voted for that?

It is the state legislature's failure to adequately fund the changes it demands in law that makes this kind of situation more likely to occur than not. The commissioner is essentially left with two choices: fail to implement the law, or go find the money to implement it - anywhere other than Frankfort. The net effect is that the federal government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation drive education policy in Kentucky because it's where the money is - and there is no counter-balance for those who think that corporate education reform is off track.

The Business of Philanthropy

John Wilson the former National Education Association executive director, and now, a senior fellow at the Pearson Foundation, roused up yesterday to push back against recent New York Times stories implicating school administrators who took international trips sponsored by his foundation. After casting a few aspersions at the Times, whose foundation, he says, does the same thing, Wilson claimed the tours were simply philanthropy. No ulterior motives.

Still, Wilson readily admits his own conflict of interest. But in his mind, it was "the media attention to these innocent study tours [that] has created an appearance of inappropriateness and a suspicion around business decisions. Wilson complained that the Times' "reporter has not provided all the information about the strict ethics laws that educational leaders follow before taking advantage of these study tours."

I would have thought the trips themselves created the appearance of impropriety and it was incumbent upon the CCSSO, the Pearson Foundation and the travelers themselves to show otherwise, as Lu Young has begun to do. It is the media that has kept attention on issues related to private companies jockeying for public funds - which, as Wilson fails to point out, are at the end of the rainbow for Pearson.

I guess one person's philanthropy is another person's loss leader.

This from John Wilson Unleashed:

Sometimes Philanthropy is just Philanthropy

I have read with interest the articles in the New York Times attacking education leaders for taking study trips that were underwritten by the Pearson Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Pearson Education. I will admit that after the first article, I had hoped that this would be a one-time article by a cynical reporter looking for a good story that would resonate. Now, there have been two other articles. Of course, I could be cynical, too, and assume that his corporate bosses are pushing this story for other reasons since I know the New York Times Foundation has sponsored very similar trips.

After retiring as Executive Director of the National Education Association, I chose to accept a Senior Fellow position with the Pearson Foundation. I agreed to three days a month to assist Pearson Foundation leaders on fulfilling their mission around literacy, learning, and great teaching. I admit to a conflict of interest when defending this foundation that supports public education and teachers; however, I have no such conflict when it comes to telling what I know to be true.

I attended the study trips in Helsinki, London, and Rio de Janeiro as a voice for teacher unions. The trips were all organized by the Council of Chief State School Officers. That is one of many things I like about the Pearson Foundation. They trust educators to plan their own professional development. The programs were designed and executed by CCSSO staff. There were no sales presentations or side conversations about Pearson products. It was purely an educational study tour of countries doing better at student achievement than the United States. It was about deep and engaging conversations with leaders of those high-achieving countries. It was an experience that could not have occurred without philanthropic support. I worry when our educational leaders are "siloed" and not allowed to experience the global community that exists today, and I am impressed when they take the opportunity to learn from others.

I understand that the media attention to these innocent study tours has created an appearance of inappropriateness and a suspicion around business decisions. That is unfortunate and unfair. I do believe this reporter has not provided all the information about the strict ethics laws that educational leaders follow before taking advantage of these study tours. While education leaders may choose to decline to do future trips, I hope government will budget for our leaders to have a global perspective. I also hope Pearson Foundation will continue giving teachers the opportunity to visit other countries and for Teachers of the Year to come together and share best practices. I hope the Pearson Foundation will continue to donate thousands of books to schools and children to expand literacy. I hope the Foundation will continue to fund schools that are teaching our students 21st Century skills through digital media.

I hope others will speak up about the good work that philanthropic organizations like the Pearson Foundation do. They are vital to the success of our public schools. Let's not punish those who are willing to fund educational interests that government does not. Let's use as much ink to praise good work and publish truth.

For me, I subscribe to the words of Swedish statesman and former United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold, "Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions." I invite you to speak your truth.

Jessamine superintendent Young refutes New York Times insinuations of bribery

UPDATED:

Young's Group Recommended Measured Progress,

Not Pearson

Jessamine County Schools Superintendent Lu Young told KSN&C, by phone from Washington DC today, that her involvement with a panel called together to recommend a test vendor for Kentucky schools was not influenced by a prior Australian trip sponsored by the AASA, but partially funded by the Pearson company.

Young told KSN&C that the invitation to take the trip came in Spring 2010. She traveled in July 2010. She was asked to serve on the KDE committee in February 2011. It was then that she learned Pearson was a bidder but said she was "not conflicted in the process." At no point did [the trip] haunt me, she said.

Young explained the KDE process to KSN&C saying that she served on one of three groups. Her group looked at technical issues related to the test. As the tally sheet below shows, her group did not recommend Pearson. But after all three groups' scores were tallied, Pearson came out on top.

(See RFP determinations at the end of this post.)

Young said she shared the information with New York Times reporter Michael Winerip, but to no avail.

She recently sat down with the Jessamine Journal to go over the details.

This from the Jessamine Journal:

A national story this week examining possible connections between an education publishing company and trips for state education officials zeroed in on Jessamine County’s schools chief, Lu Young. Young spoke candidly about the matter Tuesday, giving her side of the story and filling in what she called “glaring omissions.”

The New York Times piece by Michael Winerip began by questioning Young’s integrity, pointing to her involvement in a state committee recommendation of Pearson, Inc. for a contract after she participated in a trip to Australia sponsored by the Pearson Foundation, a nonprofit branch of the company.

Young made the trip to Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney in July 2010 with nine other superintendents from around the country. The visit featured an “international symposium” and focused on a dialogue about “21st-century skills” and collaboration as members of the group looked at Australia’s education system.
While the Pearson Foundation provided grant funding for the trip, Young attended at the request of Daniel Domenech, the executive director of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA). She was invited as part of the just-formed AASA Council of County Superintendents.

“Pearson did not contact me and say, ‘Hey, do you want to go to Australia?’” Young said. “The director of my professional association invited me to attend, and I did that — as a learning experience, just exactly as it was described to me.”

Winerip downplayed the seriousness of the trip, writing there was “ample time for play” and citing Young’s quote in a promotional video that kangaroos were a “highlight” of the visit to Canberra. Young also met with education leadership from the local, regional and federal levels during the trip, learning about national standards, expanding broadband use in education and 21st-century learning.

“The story made it sound like they were kind of junkets, and I was embarrassed by this article that sounds like the only important thing I got out of it was pictures of kangaroos,” Young said. “There was a lot of really, really good learning going on.”

The group was accompanied by Kathy Hurley, a vice president of both Pearson Education and the Pearson Foundation. Young said every interaction she had with Hurley focused on impacting American education and there were never any “sales pitches” for Pearson products or services.

“There wasn’t ever any quid pro quo, any expectation that we were going on this trip and then we would do something for them in return,” Young said.

The superintendent returned from the trip and went back to work for the new school year. It was in February 2011 when she stepped into the water she saw as clear but Winerip saw as muddy in the Times article.

With a dozen or more others, Young was asked to serve on a technical scoring group for assessment vendors at the state level. She received proposals from three companies — Pearson, Measured Progress and CTB/McGraw-Hill — before the committee met to go over the proposals.

“It was at that point that I knew that Pearson was one of the three, and even then, in all candor, that did not in any way conflict me,” Young said. “I wasn’t making any connections to Australia at all, (and) had not been contacted by Pearson or any of the vendors, and still to this day have not since.”

The committee’s recommendation came from the accumulation of three scores: a technical score, a cost score and an oral-presentation score.

Winerip’s story suggested that Young favored Pearson, citing the Australia trip and that Young and her fellow committee members recommended Pearson despite McGraw-Hill’s lower bid. But Measured Progress was the company that came out on top in the two scores Young judged, according to the final scoring sheet, a public record Young provided.

The technical scoring group graded each proposal based on a rubric, agreeing what number to assign for each section of the scoring guide. Measured Progress received 2,220 points out of 2,400; Pearson and McGraw-Hill scored 2,180 and 1,800, respectively. The three finished in the same order in oral-presentation grades, in which Young was also involved.

The third score, based on cost, was the responsibility of staff in the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) Office of Administration and Support and did not involve Young. Cost scores also had Pearson second, with McGraw-Hill on top with the lowest price and Measured Progress third with the highest. The grand-total scores out of 4,600 possible points were Pearson with 3,884, Measured Progress with 3,579, and McGraw-Hill with 3,467.

The state department of education announced April 15 that it had contracted with Pearson to provide content-area tests and writing assessments. The $7.66 million contract period ends June 30, 2012, with the possibility of three additional two-year renewals for a total of $57.8 million, according to KDE documentation.

Winerip’s story ran in the Times earlier this week and included one quote from a statement Young had e-mailed to him in which she said the trip and contract selection were “completely unrelated.” The article hit closer to home when it was reprinted in the Lexington Herald-Leader on Tuesday; Young said the Herald-Leader did not contact her for comment.

“I’d be happy to answer any questions anybody has about it, because I didn’t feel like I had a chance to really tell my side of the story after the article was reprinted,” she said.

Young said she welcomes the scrutiny that comes with her position but that the insinuations of corruption “sting a little bit.”

“We are in positions of trust and authority, and I think the community has a right to know what our activities are, but I don’t think that anybody has a right to just imply any kind of misconduct or bad behavior,” she said.
Winerip did not immediately respond to an e-mail Wednesday morning.

Young was one of three finalists for the Fayette County superintendency — Kentucky’s second-largest — over the summer and was named the state superintendent of the year by the Kentucky Association for School Administrators in November. She is in her 29th year working in the Jessamine County district, her eighth as its superintendent.

“I have legitimate, reasonable, honest responses to things that could look like allegations against my integrity or ethical behaviors,” Young said. “The Australia trip was not frivolous; it was not done in exchange for any influence on my part at all — none whatsoever. And my participation in the state in (the review) process was exactly as it was prescribed and designed to be: one of 13 or 14 people who went through a very regimented process to review those proposals and to rank-order those for recommendation in the procurement process.”

Below are the determinations and findings from the RFP as posted according to the model procurement code:

Bad Timing ?

Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff to speak

at Kentucky legislative ethics session

For the price of a nice junket, Jack Abramoff will make his way to Frankfort and spend an hour or so chatting ethics with Kentucky lawmakers at the start of the 2012 General Assembly. Called "the most notorious and crooked lobbyist of our time,”Abramoff will spin tales of how he was able to get rich while influencing Washington politicians and their staff members through gifts, trips, campaign contributions and job offers.

Unpropitiously perhaps, this falls on the heels of three recent stories in the New York Times calling into question trips taken by Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday and Jessamine County Superintendent Lu Young. The trips were sponsored by the Pearson company, which received Kentucky's major testing contract - valued at $57 million.

The shared modus operandi of Pearson and Abramoff is troubling.

• Over the past few years the Pearson Foundation has financed free international trips for education commissioners whose states do business with the company. The Commissioners meet with top executives of the Pearson company.
• Abramoff was accused of using trips and other illegal gifts in return for votes or support of legislation.

WikiBlurb: 

Convicted in 2006 of mail fraud and conspiracy, [Jack Abramoff] was at the heart of an extensive corruption investigation that led to the conviction of White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian, U.S. Representative Bob Ney, and nine other lobbyists and Congressional aides. He served three years, six months of a six-year sentence...

WikiBlurb:

The Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal is a United States political scandal relating to the work performed by political lobbyists Jack Abramoff, Ralph E. Reed, Jr., Grover Norquist and Michael Scanlon on Indian casino gambling interests for an estimated $85 million in fees. Abramoff and Scanlon grossly overbilled their clients, secretly splitting the multimillion-dollar profits. In one case, they were secretly orchestrating lobbying against their own clients in order to force them to pay for lobbying services. In the course of the scheme, the lobbyists were accused of illegally giving gifts and making campaign donations to legislators in return for votes or support of legislation. Representative Bob Ney (R-OH) and two aides to Tom DeLay (R-TX) have been directly implicated; other politicians have various ties.

As the New York Times reported:

“The Pearson conferences fit the same fact pattern as the influence-buying junkets that the convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff arranged for members of Congress,” said Marcus S. Owens, a lawyer who was director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the Internal Revenue Service for 10 years and is a former board member of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance. “Those junkets were paid for by private charities.”

The Times questioned whether Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday (and one assumes, since she actually voted on the Pearson contract, Lu Young) may also be violating state ethics laws. KDE spokeswoman Lisa Gross told KSN&C that she in not aware of any other people who voted on the testing contract who also went on a trip. The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board began looking into whether Iowa's education commissioner's trip to Brazil violated state law following the Times article.

Is it possible that this could end up on some legislator's mind after three hours of training?

This from the Courier Journal:

The Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission is paying Abramoff a $5,000 speaking fee, plus expenses, to tell legislators how his corrupt actions helped him rise to the top of Washington’s lobbying world...

George Troutman, the commission’s chairman, said of the decision to have Abramoff as the featured speaker, “If you look at what this training for legislators is supposed to accomplish, I don’t think there’s anybody better on the face of the earth.”

All 138 legislators are required each year to attend three hours of ethics training. This requirement was adopted as part of an overhaul of legislative ethics laws after the federal investigation known as Operation BOPTROT resulted in the convictions of 15 Kentucky legislators and six others on corruption charges in the early 1990s.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo expressed some concern to C-J that people might be "plotting ways to bring undue influence on legislators."

New Questions About Trips Sponsored by Pearson

KSN&C Backstory: Lu Went Too

This from Michael Winerip at the New York Times:

In the summer of 2010, Lu Young, the superintendent of schools in Jessamine County, a Lexington, Ky., suburb, took a trip to Australia paid for by the Pearson Foundation, a nonprofit arm of Pearson, the nation’s largest educational publisher.

Ten school superintendents went on the trip, which cost Pearson $60,000. While the foundation described the visit as a way “to exchange ideas on creating schools for the 21st century,” there was ample time for play. “Everybody’s highlight of Canberra was to get to see the kangaroos,” Ms. Young said on a video produced by the foundation.

Six months later, in Frankfort, Ky., Ms. Young sat on a committee interviewing executives from three companies bidding to run the state’s testing program. While CTB/McGraw-Hill submitted the lowest bid, by $2.5 million, Ms. Young and the other committee members recommended Pearson.

In April, Kentucky’s Education Department approved a $57 million contract with Pearson. And then, over the next six months, the commissioner who oversees that department, Terry Holliday, traveled to both China and Brazil on trips underwritten by — that’s right — the Pearson Foundation.

Were the trips an effort by the foundation to influence government officials so the company would obtain a lucrative state contract?

A spokeswoman for Dr. Holliday said that the selection “was based on best value and not simply a low bid,” and Ms. Young said that the trips and the contract selection were “completely unrelated.”

“I never had any conversation or discussion with anyone from Pearson about the awarding of the testing contract during this trip or later,” Ms. Young wrote in an e-mail.

There is a fair chance that Ms. Young has not heard the last word on this.

For several weeks, New York State’s attorney general has been investigating similar trips involving two dozen education officials from around the country who traveled to Singapore; London; Helsinki, Finland; China and Rio de Janeiro as guests of the Pearson Foundation. The trips, and the fact that most of these officials come from states that have multimillion contracts with Pearson, were the subject of two of my columns this fall.

Last month, the attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, issued subpoenas to the Manhattan offices of the Pearson Foundation and Pearson Education. Mr. Schneiderman is looking into whether the nonprofit, tax-exempt foundation, which is prohibited by state law from undisclosed lobbying, was used to benefit Pearson Education, a profit-making company that publishes standardized tests, curriculums and textbooks, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

Mark Nieker, president of the Pearson Foundation, wrote in an e-mail, “Our practice is not to comment about the existence of government investigations.” He added, “It just is not true that the Foundation’s support of conferences attended by education officials has the purpose of helping Pearson corporate to win contracts.”

Pearson has paid for the trips through the Council of Chief State School Officers. The foundation’s most recent tax form, from a year ago, lists a $100,000 contribution to the council.

Mr. Nieker wrote that the foundation trips reflect “a long-term commitment to foster a productive dialogue between education leaders from the United States and some of the world’s best-performing and most improving school systems.”

The conferences have also included top executives from the Pearson company, giving them the opportunity for meetings with state commissioners. Mr. Nieker has not responded to several requests to provide names of the Pearson executives who attended, but I was able to identify 12 who went to Finland and nine who were on the trip to Singapore. The only executive at the Australia conference Mr. Nieker would confirm is Kathy Hurley, a vice president for both the company and the foundation.

Marcus S. Owens, a lawyer who was the director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the Internal Revenue Service for a decade, said New York’s investigators were likely to look at if representatives from other education companies were invited to the conferences, “along the lines of how a trade show works.”

“If it’s only Pearson, that doesn’t have the feel of a real education conference,” he said. None of the lists of attendees obtained include people from other firms.

Also troubling, Mr. Owens said, was that the foundation left blank the line on its federal tax forms where nonprofits are supposed to list payments to public officials for “travel or entertainment.”

He sees parallels between the Pearson situation and an investigation by the United States attorney’s office in Arizona of the nonprofit organization that runs the Fiesta Bowl. In November, a former chief operating officer for the Fiesta Bowl nonprofit was indicted by a federal grand jury for filing tax returns that failed to list payments to political campaigns and lobbyists.

Mr. Nieker, the Pearson Foundation president, said the situations were not parallel. “We strongly dispute any valid comparison and question the ability of tax experts you cite to make such a comparison without knowledge of the relevant facts.”

While several commissioners have said they had prior approval for the trips from state ethics officials, oversight appears to have been lax.

Christopher Koch, state superintendent of education in Illinois — which has $138 million in contracts with Pearson — went to China, Brazil and Finland with the foundation. The only Pearson compensation he listed on state ethics forms was the cost of the flight to China, $4,271 for business class. Asked why hotels, meals and the other flights were not documented, a spokesman for Dr. Koch, Matt Vanover, said, “What we’re looking at is a litmus test; they just want to make sure he’s not traveling first class.”

David Steiner, the former New York education commissioner, has said that the entire value of a foundation-sponsored trip he took to London in 2010 was $2,000.

Pearson paid for the Australia trip through the American Association of School Administrators. Mr. Nieker said the superintendents on the trip were selected by the association, not the foundation.

In Montgomery County, Md., the now-retired superintendent, Jerry Weast, approved an unusual contract in June 2010, in which Pearson paid the district $2.5 million to produce curriculum materials that the company would then sell worldwide.

Two months later he was on the plane to Australia.

Dr. Weast, who has come under fire from parents groups, said the curriculum contract was a unique way to generate income for public schools in hard economic times.

Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of the administrators association, said the group had taken its last Pearson trip. “Given the climate in public education today, we won’t go on trips,” he said.

When told about the attorney general’s investigation, Dr. Domenech said: “I guess that means we better get our records set up. If there’s an investigation, I’m sure they’ll want to look at them.”

The Book on Lu Young

Lu Went Too

Updated:

A parent's group in Maryland joined those who have complained about the Pearson Company's sponsorship of trips for school administrators to exotic lands.

This from the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland:

In July of 2010, Superintendent Jerry Weast, Fairfax Superintendent Jack Dale, Loudon Superintendent Edgar Hatrick, and Alleghany Superintendent David Cox took a trip to Australia...

A video on The Pearson Foundation's YouTube site shows the attendees on the Australia trip, along with the fabulous locations and sites that they were treated to during this 12 day junket...

But the star of the show was from Kentucky.


When the New York Times first raised the issue of whether Pearson-funded "junkets" to international locations constituted a conflict of interest for Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday, the Commissioner was quick to point out that he had no role in the subsequent selection of Pearson as Kentucky's vendor for the new testing system. Well-established testing company CTB/McGraw Hill had submitted the lowest bid to run Kentucky’s testing program, but educational publisher Pearson, whose bid was $2 million higher, was selected anyway.

According to a report by PBS's Frontline there are four major players in the American testing industry - which has grown by more than 3,000 percent in recent decades with a big boost from the Obama administration's infusion of $400 million to help states develop and administer tests. The big four include three test makers and one test scorer.

• Harcourt Educational Measurement [40% market share in test design includes the SAT-9]: Parent company also owns Lexis-Nexis, Variety, and Holt, Rinehart Winston.
• CTB McGraw-Hill [40% market share in test design includes Terra Nova (CTBS)] Parent company also owns Standard & Poor's, Business Week magazine, and four TV stations.
• Riverside Publishing [20% market share in test design includes the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)]: Parent company also owns Houghton Mifflin, Motown Records and Universal Pictures.
  
• NCS Pearson [Leading scorer of standardized tests] Parent company also owns Madame Tussaud's wax museum, The Economist, The Financial Times, the Penguin Book Company, and the Family Education Network. Minnesota-based NCS was founded in 1962 and was acquired by Pearson in September 2000 for $2.5 billion. Pearson reported $629.5 million in sales in 2000, and assessments and testing services accounted for $202.4 million of that, or 32 percent.

Lisa Gross told the Times the state’s decision “was based on best value and not simply a low bid.” She said a committee of local and state officials ran the selection process.

To whatever extent Pearson saw the trips as a business strategy - it apparently worked like a charm in Kentucky.

So what does it mean that Young was on the committee that recommended the higher bidder?

She was just one of a group of 13 people who reviewed the proposals, and her rankings/scores of each vendor had no greater or lesser weight than anyone else’s. But if it would have been a problem for the Commissioner to accept a trip, had he been making the recommendation to the state board of education, is it a problem that Young participated and recommended?

Gross told KSN&C, "...we don't believe there’s a conflict."

Members of the review team were:

• Artavia Acklin – Shelby County (Instructional Coach)
• Brad Darnall – Calloway County (Teacher)
• Barry Goley – Logan County (English as a Second Language/Limited English Proficiency)
• Tonya Hayre – Laurel County (Teacher)
• Kevin Hill – Kentucky Department of Education
• Tim Huddleston – Paducah Independent (Principal)
• Carla Manning – Mason County (Assistant Principal)
• LaMesa Marks Johns – Jefferson County (Principal)
• Shauna Patton – Johnson County (District Assessment Coordinator)
• Michele Reynolds – Fayette County (District Assessment Coordinator)
• Joe Tinius – Bowling Green Independent (Superintendent)
• Bill Twyman – Kentucky Board of Education
• Lu Young – Jessamine County (Superintendent)

Lu Young's Aussie Tweets

Had a great afternoon by the pool with Andi and Donna - what a beautiful day! I leave for Australia one week from today - can't wait!
30 Jun 10

6 days before leaving for Australia and counting!
1 Jul 10

5 more days 'til Australia. Am redundant yet?
2 Jul 10

Packing for Australia. I'm out of here tomorrow!
6 Jul 10

Have arrived safely in Melbourne - kudos to Qantas for a great flight experience. A real class act!
8 Jul 10

Spent a wonderful evening on a restaurant tram seeing the sights of Melbourne - the Aussies are delightful. No worries, mates!
9 Jul 10

We have 1 more free day in Melbourne before real works starts tomorrow - a beautiful winter day down under. Saw a kookaburra yesterday.
10 Jul 10

Today's our last day in Melbourne, off to Canberra tomorrow and Sydney on Wednesday for the remainder of the trip. Learning LOTS - gidday!
11 Jul 10

Fascinating meetings today with Australian education leaders about natl standards and assessment.
11 Jul 10

Had lunch at Australian Parliament in Canberra and saw at least a dozen kangaroos. Also ended up as "Lu with 'roo poo on shoe!"
13 Jul 10

It is REALLY winter in Canberra today. Fortunately, we're off to Sydney this pm. Met with federal ed officials today.
13 Jul 10

Had an awe-inspiring tour of Sydney this a.m. The Opera House is spectacular - a must-see!
14 Jul 10

Leaving Australia today - what an amazing country! Thanks to all the hospitable Aussies we've met along the way!
17 Jul 10