What Was New
in Previous Updates

These items are presented in reverse chronological order with the most recent shown first.

Our September 2009 Update:


September Theme Is Assessment Corruption
Asora Education Enterprises would not be in the business of mapping exaggerated/inflated state reported proficiencies onto the NAEP scale if there were no deceptive state assessment systems. Many can be regarded as corrupt in that they knowingly continue the deceptions despite the evident harm they do. We have examined, to different degrees of specificity, over two dozen states’ assessment systems. Only two, South Carolina and Massachusetts, do not grossly distort their students’ proficiency levels as compared to the NAEP. An essay we wrote on this subject, “Exaggerations in Public Education Assessments: When is it deception? Is it sometimes corruption?” can be downloaded from our Reports on Reform page.


Asora Can Help The Race To The Top
The U.S. Department of Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, is conditioning the distribution of his department’s allocation of Stimulus money on the recipient state’s good behavior with respect to a number of favored reforms. The department is encouraging states to compete with one another as to which has the better reforms as part of the department’s Race To The Top. One of the sought reforms is that of making state assessment systems more robust and better aligned with the NAEP. When they are not so aligned (as in 48 of 50 states) Asora’s mapping service can be used to make estimates regarding local school and district performance as a temporary substitute for a properly functioning state-testing regime.


Studying The Great Pretender: Tennessee
Recently we have been making local estimates of NAEP proficiency for Tennessee public schools and districts. In the course of that work we have reviewed the state published proficiencies from its TCAP testing system and compared them to those of the NAEP, as anyone with an Internet connection can do. Not only does Tennessee exhibit the highest inflation nationally, according to one survey, but is also has such extreme inflation for ethnic groups that it claims high school Hispanic students are equally proficient as their White cohorts, in sharp contrast to the NAEP proficiencies showing Hispanic students’ proficiency percentages less than half that of White students. Our preferred hypothesis for this unexpected result involves abuses in the provision of special accommodations in the testing. Alternative explanations of outright cheating, doctoring scores, cooking books, etc. though possible, are unlikely.


Special Accommodations Violate The Precepts Of Good Science
The practice of Special Accommodations is mostly based on theory that student testing should be used to boost children’s self esteem as opposed to the idea that testing’s main purpose is to measure a child’s knowledge and skills. Giving special accommodations to children who are blind or have other handicaps, unrelated to their academic skills, is a worthwhile practice if the alternative testing measures student capabilities in the same units as the testing for non-handicapped children. However, it appears that special accommodations are mostly given to children who have learning disabilities and other characteristics that are related to their academic skills. Providing them with special accommodations has the effect of measuring their skills with a different metric. In other fields of science, using inconsistent metrics in the measurement of phenomena would be considered academic misconduct. But in education, the inconsistent metrics of special accommodation are not only allowed, they are mandated in the laws and regulations pertaining to public education! In Asora’s Stellar School assessment systems, special accommodations will not be provided except to blind students.


Publicity On Replacing Defective State Assessment Regimes
Nearly all state operated public school assessment systems use tests that are inconsistent with the NAEP. Even in the two states where the inflation is not significant (Massachusetts and South Carolina) their state operated testing systems are vulnerable to political manipulation. In Asora’s home state of Rhode Island, where the NECAP test is used, the testing regime suffers from at least six defects, including the structural conflicts of interest that arise when testing and instruction policies are set within the same government unit. We think an independent agency or organization should manage the testing. We would seek to use a test with a national reputation, such as the ACT tests, which are given in grades 8 through 12 in many schools nationwide. ACT test results are easily linked to NAEP proficiencies when the ACT scoring distributions are known- as is the case in Illinois.

We are currently making presentations in Rhode Island on these problems and will soon offer them to groups in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont, which are the other states using or considering the use of the NECAP tests. The popular image of NECAP is that of a step towards reform. The reality is that NECAP is a major part of the problem. It’s surely not part of the Race to the Top. Rather we see it clouding the issues, which we believe retards effective reform.


The Asora Guidebook Project
Why isn’t there a “Zagat’s” guide to schools? We are considering the benefits and profits that may ensue from writing guidebooks for major multistate metropolitan regions. In such areas as New York metro, Washington D.C. metro, and even the three state region around Chicago, there may be interest in comparing schools across state boundaries, which is currently difficult given the inconsistent testing systems. With our NAEP proficiency estimates calculated for each school in such regions, these comparisons would be easier. We’d love to find a way to include the private schools as well, but their lack of participation in the same tests taken by public school children makes that unlikely in the near term. We are looking for partners in this project: equity and sweat.


Encouraging Protestants to Consider Stellar Schools
While all sectarian groups have interests in K-12 education, Protestants have a peculiar historical affiliation with public education and the group instructional models on which it is based: They were its founders in the early 16th century, after the Reformation. As public education took hold in 19th century America, it was almost exclusively affiliated with the Protestant outlook. Catholics in America saw this and established their own schools to preserve their sectarian values. Because of this historic connection, Protestants have tended to rely on public schools for their children’s education. Even in recent decades, when public schools have lost their Protestant sectarian attributes and have become quite secular in their approaches to education, most Protestants continue to patronize them. We can think of two reasons why Protestants might consider Asora’s Stellar Schools as a solution for their children’s educational needs:

First, through the Asora self-paced online instructional system, the curriculum can be tailored to provide that combination of core curricular subjects and electives that would reflect the church's values and religious beliefs.

Second, through the Asora instructional system, student proficiencies can be greatly increased as the model is designed to eliminate social promotion and the dysfunctions that accompany it.


Our June 2009 Update:

June Theme Is Assessment
To use the phrase, “A Perfect Storm,” probably overstates the coincidental nature of recent developments at Asora Education Enterprises. However, every recent activity has had assessment as its key component or at least as an important aspect.

Honest Assessment Drives Reforms
The need for honesty in public school assessment reporting may go unanswered within the public systems. Thus private testing and certification proposals should be considered. We have written on this in our report, "Making Tests And Diplomas Honest Will Drive Reform." It's here for download from our Reports on Reform page.

Tipping Point
There are now several indicators that online instruction has entered a rapid growth phase and will affect nearly all aspects of K-12 education going forward- if for no other reason because of its low cost. Perhaps our realization of this sudden surge in Online Education has been late and delayed by our earlier blindness to what was going on around us. As the two book reviews (below) suggest, online instruction will dominate in about ten years. We had better get busy doing our part!

Assessment As Profit Center
Those of you who have explored our business plan (available in our Reports on Development area) know that it has many facets. In terms of instructional modes of operation it proposes up to 15 different options within each course of study. The only one required, however, was the assessment component’s proctored examinations. In every other instructional mode, the student will be free to use it or not. Implict in that will be the freedom for students to take their instruction elsewhere. It suggests that we design our service to have two profit centers: instruction and assessment. Our brand will depend more on the latter- perhaps much in the same way that the accounting industry’s designation of CPA relates to the “test” and not to the learning process.

New Mappings
One of Asora Education's services has been the estimation of what local schools and districts would have attained on the Nation’s Report Card or NAEP. The ELQ method we employed converted or mapped the state reported (and almost always inflated) proficiencies into ones on the NAEP scale. We now have written a fairly detailed report that derives the old or Simple ELQ method and derives a new more accurate Piecewise Continuous ELQ method. It checks the errors of the methods in simulated examination environments and then applies them against known demographic groups proficiencies on the two exams. The report ELQ-Mappings.docx and its supporting spreadsheet ELQ-Derivation.xlsx are downloadable from our Reports on Reform page.


Discovery Of Enhanced Deception
Our analysis in the Mappings work brought us face to face with some of the harms inflicted by the states' almost routine use of inflation in reporting assessment proficiencies. Though always there in the published data we had not realized the extent to which inflation is different for different demographics. It’s small in good schools and large in schools where disadvantaged children predominate. How convenient for making public schools “look good!” It serves inflation in small portions where only a small amount is needed to make the schools look good. And for the truly dysfunctional schools it ladles giant servings to make the horrible appear barely passable. For the public education propagandists it optimally apportions the deception to where it is needed the most- to cover up the worst situations the most.

Taken For A R.I.D.E.
As an example of the Enhanced Deception just mentioned we wrote an op-ed piece for a Rhode Island newspaper. “Taken For A R.I.D.E.,” refers to the Rhode Island Department of Education and its use of inflation to make the good look better and the bad look not so awful. It is on our Reports on Reform page for your perusal or download.

Liberating Learning - Book Review
Scholars and policy analysts Terry Moe and John Chubb (both are both), have written the book, “Liberating Learning,” which is a very interesting review and prognosis of how online instruction will grow and help reform public schools. As is my habit, I generally write an online book review on the Amazon.Com website when I purchase books from the site and I did so for this excellent book. Their book was, more than any other input, influential in convincing me of the Tipping Point mentioned above. It is on our Reports on Reform page.

Disrupting Class - Book Review
Another book we reviewed is “Disrupting Class.” It also makes arguments about how disruptive innovation will develop within the education sector and confirms we are at or beyond this Tipping Point. My review of it, "Good wheat - Too much chaff," is also on the Reports on Reform page.

Our March 2009 Update:

Public School Achievement Test Deceptions
Most, but not all, stakeholders in public education are aware that state reported student proficiencies in mathematics and reading are significantly exaggerated above the well-respected Nation's Report Card (also known as the National Assessment for Educational Progress or NAEP). Asora consulting has reviewed recent trends in state reported proficiencies and found 12 cases with an additional type of deception: Not only are the proficiencies exaggerated, but they are reporting (false) gains in 8th grade reading proficiencies when, in fact, the NAEP shows them declining.

The states practicing this double deception, ordered from worst to least in terms of the false gain are: NY, WY, NM, RI, AR, NH, VA, IL, ND, LA, ME & AL. In Rhode Island and New Hampshire, we believe that a narrow curriculum coupled with teaching to the test may account for the false gains.

Three reports covering these matters are available. NECAP-op-ed.doc is taken from an op-ed piece that discusses the Rhode Island situation. NECAP-sequel.doc extends that analysis to include New Hampshire and Vermont. Finally, DoubleDeceptionDozen.doc discusses the twelve states practicing the double deception. All three reports are available from our Reports on Reform page.

Education Industry Association Foresees Large Role For Online Instruction
At its annual Washington, DC meeting, members of the Education Industry Association (EIA) were briefed on the outlook for various specialties within the field. We learned that publicly traded companies engaged in online instruction comprised one of the very few market sectors to see its stock market valuations rising over the past year. Additionally, we saw estimates that online instruction will comprise 50% of all K-12 instruction by 2019- as compared to about 1% currently.

Developing Asora's Brokerage Services For Online Instruction
During the past quarter Asora has contacted many prospective online providers to learn more about their offerings. We have also been developing a list of private schools- beginning with the New England states- that we are now in the process of contacting. For more information, please see our Courseware Brokerage page.

Offering Public Speakers
Asora Education Enterprises is offering public presentations about its many projects and accomplishments. For further information, please see our Asora Speakers Bureau.

Building A High School Physics Course
We are currently considering the creation of a Stellar Schools high school physics course that would build on the prototype we developed last year. By doing so, Asora would be able to offer this course to schools and homeschooling students. With such a course operational, suppliers of other courses would better understand the instructional formats unique to Asora's Stellar Schools.

Our December 2008 Update:

Everyone Is Using The 500-Year Old Protestant System
As mentioned elsewhere on this site, the age-based group instructional format that has been used in nearly all public and private schools was developed long ago by the Protestants during the Reformation as a way to improve literacy among the laity. Needless to say, Catholic parochial schools also use this traditional mode of instruction. Given that social promotion is a pervasive characteristic of age-based group instruction, the time has arrived to replace the latter with a format that structurally prevents social promotion: self-paced tutoring. This is what Stellar Schools and their online self-paced instructional systems are designed to do. The relevance of this to Catholic schools is discussed on our page devoted to Catholic education.

Asora To Establish Courseware Brokerage
As we take steps to develop Stellar Schools, we are now taking the first step in which we would provide online instructional services. This path begins with the development of brokerage services that would match school clients with providers of instructional courseware and other services. This service will commence in January 2009. Then Asora will have two revenue generating activities: The brokerage services and the ongoing achievement test analysis work.

Asora's Achievement Test Studies Reveal Pervasive Social Promotion In American Public Schools

Over the past 15 months, our consulting arm has generated estimates of how thousands of individual public schools would have performed on the Nation's Report Card. We find, in every state and region studied, high levels of social promotion in every public school- including the very best schools where 20% or more of the children are promoted beyond their skill levels. In the worst schools the percentages socially promoted generally exceed 95%.

This information convinces us that instructional systems need to be structured to prevent social promotion. Stellar Schools online self-paced instruction is designed to do that. These studies also provide us a marketing tool we can use to publicize the problem, which can help us "sell" the Stellar Schools concepts.

Click here for more information about the achievement test services. We also have reports on these studies available from our Reports on Reform page.



Asora's CEO Lost Election But Spread The Word
Asora Education Enterprises' CEO, David Anderson, failed to unseat the incumbent State Representative (from Providence's Upper East Side). Campaigning, nevertheless, had several important benefits. Based on many conversations with voters, we found that they are well aware of our dysfunctional public schools and yet feel powerless to help reform them. The campaign's platform included many school reform proposals (all consistent with developments towards online education) some of which might take root and maybe lead to incremental improvements. Yet there is also a public apathy that suggests reforming public schools will likely not succeed given the lack of public pressure on school officials. This public lethargy suggests that reforming private schools, as envisaged by our Stellar Schools project, may be the more fruitful path to success.

Our September 2008 Update:

Education Next Will Report On Choice
Paul Peterson, editor of Education Next, told an audience of think tank education experts that his publication will soon release information about school choice systems around the world that will show a strong relationship between the degree of choice available and the proficiency of students. Such information is welcome as it will encourage the enlargement of the opportunities for innovators to develop alternative schools and methodologies. This would make more room for Asora to participate.


Asora Analyses of State Achievement Tests
Continuing its work for stakeholders around the United States, Asora has now completed work analyzing how local schools and districts would have performed on the NAEP in six states: Oklahoma, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. As we've noted before a similar picture emerges in each of these states: Social promotion affects every school and even the best public schools have very large fractions of their students below grade level.

Asora is seeking a contract to do all of the public schools in the United States. Recent discussions with GreatSchools.Net may lead to such a result. Or could lead to imitation (in which others would use our openly available methodologies) to accomplish the same goal.

Asora CEO: Candidate For State Assembly
David Anderson is now engaged in a political campaign for the Rhode Island General Assembly where he would represent its 4th district (located on Providence's East Side). See his campaign website for details. Given the severely dysfunctional status of the state's public education system, well over half of his political efforts are focused on it. Given the part-time nature of this body, he will be able to continue the Asora developments after his election. To avoid conflicts of interest he will propose Stellar School "like" solutions for public schools, but will suggest the use of other vendors such as K12, Inc. to provide the courseware.

From the point of view of public policy he is proposing:

1. The state adopt internal reforms of schools, including honest reporting of test results, Regent's diplomas (given to students who are actually proficient), alternative certification, and more online instruction.

2. The state adopt what we call external reforms by introducing funding mechanisms (scholarships, tax credits, vouchers) to give all parents a choice in selecting the schools their children attend. He would also change the labor laws to allow multiple unions to represent workers according to the workers' individual choices. This would be a form of a right to work law.

Asora Speakers Bureau
Asora Education Enterprises will offer public speakers to venues interested in K-12 education reform. Please use our contact page to request further information about having one of us make a presentation at your location.


Our June 2008 Update:


Asora Looks At Protestant And Other Sectarian Schools
We have now added some information that might be of interest to Protestants and other sects regarding their interests and responsibilities in the education of their children. Asora's Stellar Schools, or the non-profit version, can help. Please check Asora & Protestant Etc. Education for more information.

Asora Looks At The World's Schools
Recently reported research from the American Institutes for Research now allows us to estimate levels of proficiency in other developed countries with respect to math and science achievement levels they would have obtained on the United States' Nation's Report Card. While not all countries are covered, enough European, Anglophone, and Asian states are included to tell us that roughly 40%, 30% and 50% of 13 year old students are proficient in these subject areas, respectively. This means that social promotion is a world wide educational problem because, at best, only about half of the world's students (of those tested) are found to be proficient (at or above grade level).

Asora In Switzerland
CEO David Anderson was invited to make a presentation (June 16th) at a symposium organized at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne where he spoke about "Self-Paced, Online Physics Instruction." Given the fact that social promotion appears to be a world-wide problem, we announced that we have decided to look beyond the United States for potential partners in the development of Asora's Stellar Schools. You can view/hear the speech from our physics page.

Asora At The Vatican
As a part of our European visit we made some efforts to meet with Catholic education authorities at the Vatican when we visited there in late June. Although we were unable to secure an appointment for such a meeting on this visit, we plan to continue our efforts to offer our ideas that would potentially benefit Catholic schools around the world.

Prototypical Physics Course Example
Until now, the Asora website provided only one example of how a Stellar Schools course might operate. That is the Algebra 1 segment found elsewhere on this website. We have now begun the development of an AP level high school Physics With Calculus course. In it we have made further improvements to the Stellar Schools instructional model. By viewing the introductory Lecturette #1, site visitors can glean much about the twelve instructional modes being planned for this course (and similar ones for most of the other subjects in the core curriculum). Please visit our page on Asora Physics to learn more.

Asora Analyses Of The NECAP States
Continuing its work for stakeholders around the United States, Asora partnered with the Ocean State Policy Research Institute (where CEO Anderson also plays a role as Education Fellow) to examine the achievement test proficiencies reported in the states of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont- all of which use the NECAP (New England Common Assessment Program). Consistent with its previous studies in the states of Pennsylvania and Oklahoma as well as with its work for individual counties in California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, a similar picture emerges: Social promotion affects every school and even the best public schools have very large fractions of their students below grade level. Of the six tests administered by the NECAP, we were pleased to learn that one of them, its high school mathematics test, has proficiencies that are no longer inflated relative to our NAEP estimates. The worst NECAP/NAEP school in the NECAP states is Hope IT High School in Providence where less than 2% of its 11th grade children were found to be proficient. Despite that statistic, nearly all of those tested will receive high school diplomas next year. Go figure!

Asora Extends Its Work For Oklahoma
In addition to our achievement test analysis service in which we predict what proficiency percentages individual schools and districts would have obtained on the NAEP, we have been working with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs to disseminate relevant estimates of local schools and districts to media outlets in the various Oklahoma localities. Written as op-ed articles, we have used mail-merge to provide locality specific information as to the best and worst schools at the various grade levels within the state's counties and districts.

Asora Announces Appointment of CMO
Susan Anderson has accepted our offer to manage Asora's marketing operation. As Chief Marketing Officer, Susan will be responsible for the relations with and the development of investors, suppliers, collaborators, and customers.

Asora CEO Will Run For State Assembly
David Anderson recently announced his candidacy to run for the Rhode Island General Assembly where he would represent its 4th district (located on Providence's East Side). Given the severely dysfunctional status of the state's public education system, about half of his political effort will focus on it. Given the part-time nature of this body, he will be able to continue the Asora developments after his election. To avoid conflicts of interest he will propose Stellar School "like" solutions for public schools, but will suggest the use of other vendors such as K12, Inc. to provide the courseware.

Asora Speakers Bureau
Asora Education Enterprises will offer public speakers to venues interested in K-12 education reform. Please use our contact page to request further information about having one of us make a presentation at your location.


Our March 2008 Update:

Registration of Asora® Trademark Complete:
Asora Education Enterprises received its Certificate of Registration for its trademark from the United States Patent and Trademark Office in late February.

Demolishing Inflation In Oklahoma & New Jersey:
Asora's primary revenue producing activity has been consulting in the specific area of analyzing state administered achievement tests. Typically, states report markedly higher numbers of children as proficient as compared to the Nation's Report Card. Our analysis converts these inflated proficiencies to ones consistent with the Nation's Report Card (NAEP) on a school-by-school basis.

During the winter, Asora Consulting added Oklahoma and New Jersey to the states where it has analyzed reported achievement test proficiencies of public schools and public school districts. All schools and districts were evaluated in Oklahoma while only those in Hudson County were studied in New Jersey. While we see some quantitative differences among the jurisdictions we've studied, the picture of pervasive social promotion is a constant characteristic. Our earlier studies evaluated schools in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Bristol County in Massachusetts, and Ventura County in California. Click here for more information.

Currently discussions are underway with various patron organizations about adding another eight states to our "portfolio."

Asora® Business Plan Revised:
The Asora business plan revision is now complete and available here on Asora's website (in the files ExSum2008.doc and FullBP2008.doc). Our previous plan was undercapitalized and required nearly ten years to reach a profitable status. This plan requires significant investment capital, of at least $40 million, but it foresees profits in the fourth year. There is quite a lot of detail in our plan and it takes 150 pages to describe it!

We are well aware that there are other paths to Stellar Schools, including the marriage of existing businesses. For example, joining an online provider, with a content provider, to an existing school network would be one avenue of development.

Starting these schools in the non-profit world is another alternative and is one we are encouraging through our plans for a non-profit Stellar Schools Development Corporation. More information on that can be found on its website.

Reform Ideas Presented to Rhode Island Regents
In his role as Education Fellow of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute, Asora CEO David Anderson made a presentation to the Rhode Island Board of Regents, who direct its K-12 public education system. He reviewed the evidence suggesting social promotion is a primary cause of our dysfunctional systems. He advocated a three-phase reform strategy that would convert the state's schools into ones resembling Stellar Schools. His presentation, RI_Regents_01.doc, is available in our report download area.

Stellar Schools Go To Switzerland
As a part of a physics symposium to be held in June at the Ecole Polytechnic Federale de Lausanne, in honor of retiring Swiss physicist Ralf Gruber, David Anderson will speak on "Self Paced, Online Physics Instruction." European education systems, though often more efficient than their American counterparts, also suffer from the ills of social promotion. Thus, the remedy of Stellar Schools may have application outside of the United States.

Asora Adds New Management Officers:
We are pleased to announce two new players to our team. They are:

Jon Scott of Providence, Rhode Island: COO
Jon is serving as our Chief Operating Officer. He has devoted his life to helping children. He's done that in a number of ways, as a lobbyist in Washington advocating for financial aid, as a consultant to group home providers, as an athletic coach in children's sports, and as a politician- who most recently ran for the U.S. Congress. Jon also chairs the Board of Trustees of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute.

Jay Jacot of Newport, Rhode Island: CFO
Jay brings to his position of Chief Financial Officer a background in business management and forensic accounting, among others. Jay also serves as a Director of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute where he is the treasurer.

Asora Supports the Ocean State Policy Research Institute
Asora Education Enterprises have provided various services to this newly established Providence based "center-right" think tank, mostly on a pro bono basis. CEO David Anderson is also an Education Fellow of the Institute.

Stanford Report on Education and Economic Growth:
Their relationship is discussed in a current article in Education Next, authored by Eric Hanushek, Dean Jamison, Eliot Jamieson and Ludger Woessmann.

Our review of it:

Duh! "It's not just going to school but learning that matters," say the authors. They quantify this by showing that if, measured by student cognitive skills, the US K-12 system (24th place out of 50 countries) were as good as Canada's (9th place out of 50) then our GDP would be significantly higher than it is- enough so to pay for all US K-12 public education costs out of the difference (about $500 billion dollars).

Stellar Schools are designed to be signficantly better than Candaian schools so their widespread adoption and imitation should have robust economic benefits.


Our December 2007 Update:

Asora Trademark To Be Registered:
Asora Education Enterprises was notified in December that we will have our Trademark AsoraTM registered in January 2008 if no one successfully appeals its issue.


Asora Consulting Work In Pennsylvania:
Asora Consulting added Pennsylvania to the regions where it has analyzed all public schools and public school districts. As in its earlier studies of schools in Rhode Island and Ventura County in California, there is considerable evidence of massive social promotion taking place. Click here for more information.


Currently discussions are underway with various research organizations about adding Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas and Tennessee to our list of states we have analyzed.


Asora®

Business Plan Revisions: