Now, think about what that means for a minute. Effectiveness is not stage one. You could have a very effective program, and we do have some very effective programs that have been shown to teach kids math and to teach kids how to read, that were rejected by Ed Reports because they’re not Common Core compliant.
So that’s what Ed Reports does. And they have given, it’s called all green, they use these color codes. They’ve given all green to Illustrative Math, so they have approved Illustrative Math.
No one’s terribly surprised by that. One of the three co-authors of the math standards for Common Core is Bill McCallum, and he’s also the founder of Illustrative Math. So it’s not really shocking that this particular program would be seen as in conformity with Common Core.
And you talk about Gates 2 and 3. None of them really have anything to do with any proven effectiveness. Is that right or independent research showing that they were?
They don’t have a gateway that says, is it effective? And what’s the evidence that this particular program was affected?
Yeah, see, I think that’s what a lot of people don’t understand.
They feel like if it’s been evaluated and given a high mark by this, suppose, an independent organization, that means that it’s sort of validated in some objective sense. And I just haven’t seen that to be true.