EdStartup Founder Now US DOEd Deputy Director of Educational Technology

Is the title of this conference just another term for tracking students and creating apps for that purpose?  From an ed.gov press release:

“Reimagining Learning Through Personalization”

The EETC conference is an annual event that brings together researchers, policy makers, administrators, educators and solution providers to explore technology in preschool and elementary education. The conference hosts attendees from around the world to share ideas and engage in lively discussions on early education and the use of technology in the learning process.

Richard Culatta is the acting director of the Office of Education Technology for the US Department of Education and will be presenting ideas on data tracking (personalized learning) and technology:

his work focuses on leveraging open data to create personalized learning experiences for all students and promoting increased connectivity to improve access to education and make college more affordable.

He has experience in technology and as an educational data entrepreneur.  More from the ed.gov news release:

Culatta is passionate about accelerating innovation in education with a particular interest in games for learning, personalized learning, and open education. He recently launched EdStartup 101, a massive open online course (MOOC) to support new educational entrepreneurs in developing the next generations of apps and services for teachers and learners.

How cool is that?  It's a true public/private educational partnership.  It's a business model of education and a great opportunity for investors.  From edsurge.com and EdStartup 101: How to Build an Edtech Company in 18 Weeks:

As of Tuesday, some 925 people indicated they want to take part in the 18-week long Edstartup 101; more than 120 had completed the course registration, which includes submitting a short video of yourself talking about why you're interested in edtech entrepreneurship. (Here's blogger Audrey Watters' submission.) Says Andrew Staroscik in his introductory video: "I'm motivated by the lights I see go on over my students' heads" when they see some of the interactive illustrations for explaining science that he's created on his site, SciencePrimer.com. He's intrigued with the ideas of taking it further. "SciencePrimer's not much more than hobby at this point," he muses, "but with some additional resources and the right collaborators, it has all the makings of an edtech startup."

That's just the spirit that the quartet of education specialists who started Edstartup 101 hope to see. Three of them hail from Brigham Young University: Todd Manwaring, Aaron Miller and David Wiley. The fourth, Richard Culatta, is currently the deputy director of the office of educational technology at the U.S. Department of Education. (Bios are here.) "There' an anti-entrepreneurial feeling in most of the schools of education," Wiley observes. "I think that mindset is why there's such a slow pace of innovation in education." He hopes Edstartup 101 will encourage faculty and researchers in education schools to apply their ideas by building products--and companies.

The class is built around a graduate seminar that focuses on 10 topics that can help aspiring entrepreneurs move from articulating ideas for education ventures through constructing business models. Some 16 speakers have pledged to participate, including Knewton founder Jose Ferreira, Gates Foundation deputy director Josh Jarrett, and Union Square Ventures investor Fred Wilson.

With the adoption/implementation of Common Core standards, your education reform company can" fill in the blanks" to supply curriculum based apps that follow the assessments and 18 weeks later, you are in business!  You don't have to concern yourself (as do teachers) that the assessments/standards may not be appropriate and that you can't change them in any manner, you just get to hop on the public/private train of Common Core assessments and you too can be an education reformer!

With an education entrepreneur as deputy director in the Department of Education pushing more technology in classrooms, what could be an easier gig? 

The President Wants to Bring Government and Technology Together to Reform Education

President Obama, in a speech in Boston, called for the development of a new federal agency to research education technology. Sure, his original outlay for funding is meager, only $90 million dollars (is he already deciding what to do with the money that may be taken away from NPR?), but then again most government behemoths start small. Named the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Education (ARPA-ED) - this agency sounds just like and is modeled after DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the military program – launched in response to Sputnik – that developed many important technologies. Its purpose would be to “aggressively pursue technological breakthroughs that will transform educational technology and empower teaching and learning the way that DARPA did and how that supported the development of the Internet, GPS and robotics." (Education Secretary Arne Duncan.) Mr. Duncan went on to reiterate what the government really thinks of education when he noted in the same conference call with reporters on Monday quoted above that typically, only about 0.2 percent of K-12 funding goes to research and development (R&D) – far less than in virtually any other industry. When you start viewing education as an industry, then our children become resources, or to use the Department of Ed’s favor phrase, human capital, and the final product is a machine that serves the needs of the US economy.

As some have pointed out, pushing for a new government agency in a time of financial deficits and runaway spending seems crazy. Joshua Shields, a spokesman for Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., said the Education Department already has enough resources to launch such a program without asking for more money. People should therefore ponder heavily why the President would push for this now.

President Obama stated, “We’ll need a national education policy that tries to figure out how do we replicate success stories like TechBoston all across the country.” TechBoston is a “model of private-public partnerships, working closely with a local teacher residency program and numerous business partners, including Microsoft, Google, Cisco, and IBM. Created through a collaboration between the Boston Public Schools, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Boston Foundation, this ‘pilot school’ enjoys much more flexibility than most public schools, including the ability to have a longer school day and year. Pilot schools are part of a Boston program that allows certain schools freedoms similar to charter schools, though still run by the district and staffed with union employees. “

James Shelton III, the U.S. Department of Education’s assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement has been working on this program for over two years. Mr. Shelton's background is quite impressive with a B.S. from Morehouse and an MBA from Stanford. He has worked for the private equity organization Knowledge Universe, buying and selling education companies. Most recently he was a program director at the Gates Foundation (that name seems to pop up frequently in this story.) He strongly believes that if obstacles such as funding, bureaucracy, and political opposition were removed, he and his fellow technology gurus could solve all of America's problems.

The problem with President Obama’s recommendation is its underlying assumption, that government can do what private markets can’t. There are already numerous private firms who are actively pursuing a role in education, from SMART Boards, to education videos like those produced by BitTorrent, Inc. which cover high school and college level curriculum across science, math, history, finance and test prep. Technology is actively being used and marketed to schools. What is missing is someone to be the referee and pick the winners. Until now there has been no pathway for education technology companies to obtain government cooperation in creating or carving out market share for themselves. With the implementation of ARPA-ED, that pathway is laid. Government will direct both these companies and the public, the same way they did with the elimination of incandescent light bulbs, not by naming specific companies or technologies, but by writing the regulations and curriculum that lead only to the hand selected finalists. And once the government starts deciding who the winners and losers are, watch for newly developing private markets to dry up leaving the government to dictate terms to its chosen few.