Education Spotlight: Amplify

Updated: Mar 23

🚨WARNING - NOT APPROPRIATE FOR MINORS 🚨

Amplify Website

Larry Berger, CEO/Co-Founder

Board Members:

Russlyn Ali
Michael Carmunez
Rob Hutter
Brad Powell
Margaret Spellings

See "Ed Spotlight: Larry Berger"

See "Ed Spotlight: Russlyn Ali"

See "Ed Spotlight: Michael Carmunez"

See "Ed Spotlight: Rob Hunter"

See "Ed Spotlight: Brad Powell"

See "Ed Spotlight: Margaret Spellings"

“For more than 150 years, the Southern Education Foundation has been bending the arc of American education toward equity and justice. It's mission remains urgent. I am honored to join the Board to help the organization continue to make an impact on K-12 education for students of color and low-income students in the American South.” -Larry Berger, CEO Amplify

See "Ed Spotlight: Larry Berger"

See "Ed Spotlight: Southern Education Foundation"

Amplify & DEI

Amplify Products:

Caminos
CKLA
ELA
Math
Science
CKLA Skills
Reading
Close Reading
mClass
mClass Espanol
mClass with Amplify Reading
mClass Intervention
mClass Math

It's important to point out that the version of Amplify that Texas is using, courtesy of the Commissioner of Education Mike Morath, has NOT been approved by the Texas SBOE.
But Amplify products are somehow on the TEA TCLAS (Texas COVID Learning Acceleration Supports) approved vendor list:

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Amplify Texas Review

03/2023

by Texans Wake Up

Note: In November 2022, several teachers invited a select group of education advocates to a private meeting. The subject was Amplify Texas. Texans Wake Up was one of the leaders in organizing volunteers from all over the state of Texas to create this review of Texas Amplify K-5. Although incomplete due to lack of volunteers and time, the content is quite telling as is.

Risk Analysis of Amplify Texas_v1

.pdf

Download PDF • 5.96MB

Lauren Hickmontt Speaks on Amplify TX at Texas Ed 911 Legislative Day at the Capital

03/07/2023

by Texas Ed 911

Melanie Johnson Speaks on Amplify TX at Texas Ed 911 Legislative Day at the Capital

03/07/2023

by Texas Ed 911

Jamie Haynes Speaks on Amplify TX at Texas Ed 911 Legislative Day at the Capital

03/07/2023

by Texas Ed 911

Amplify Product Texas Renamed Boost

02/2023

by Amplify Texas Reading Team

Please note: We are unsure which exact product is now named Boost. Our TEA contact is communicating that this is a supplementary tutoring product. We are honestly unsure. We have not reached out to Amplify corporate.

Amarillo ISD Amplify Updates

01/23/2023

by Amarillo ISD

Amplify vs Amplify TEXAS Unit Comparison

(Grade 5 | Unit 1 )

01/08/2023

by Amarillo Parent

comparison amplify

.docx

Download DOCX • 20KB

Amplify Texas Initial Review Findings (1 Pager) by Texans Wake Up

12/15/2023

by Texans Wake Up

Connecting Big Business with The Science of Reading: Replacing Teachers and Public Schools with Tech

11/29/2022

by Nancy Bailey

See "Ed Spotlight: Science of Reading".

Texas Leader Sends Warning About Amplify Curriculum

11/10/2022

by Candy Gibbs Facebook

Original source: https://www.facebook.com/candykgibbs

What I Believe Emily Hanford Misses About Reading

11/02/2022

by Nancy Bailey

See "Ed Spotlight: Science of Reading | SoR ".

Concerned Parents Alert Amarillo ISD of Passage & District Leaves Available for 4th Grade

10/2022

Amarillo, TX Parent

The below is in Amplify 4th Grade, Unit 1.

At first glance the above passage may seem harmless. Upon a re-read and further investigation, parents tracked it back to a book entitled 'When I Was Puerto Rican' by Esmeralda Santiago. The excerpt from this book was the prologue entitled “How to eat a Guava”.

"Though the language used seemed overtly sexual in nature it was probably the only passage that could have been pulled from this book that would have been suitable for young children. When I wanted to see if I was just being a jaded adult in thinking the description of how to eat a guava seemed very sexual I went to find an overview of the book the passage was from, “When I Was Puerto Rican” (by Esmeralda Santiago). When I was done reading the overview I was appalled." - Amarillo Parent

"In one chapter of the book a young girl witnesses a man pleasuring himself as he looks at her through his window. The next chapter has her mother’s new boyfriend move in and he offers her a quarter to unbutton her blouse, then precedes to pinch a part of her breast. The book paints Christianity in a poor light, it has anti-American sentiment, anti-parent sentiment in addition to all of the inappropriate sexual interaction between a child and various adults. I will state again these 4th graders were not given the full book, but only a passage from the book. My concern is what happens when a child is at the book store with Mom or Dad and they see this book they tell their parents, hey we read part of this at school can I get it so I can read the whole book. Mom and Dad think this book is okay if they were allowed to read some of it at school and then the child is exposed to inappropriate content." - Amarillo Elementary Parent

Passages from the book overview below. A link to the book overview.

"There are thousands of passages that could have achieved the same goal as this one. Why would the publisher choose this passage knowing the source content? Why would a district not remove when notified? Did the Texas SBOE approve this curriculum?" - Texas Parents

One might then wonder if Amplify knew? Was this an honest mistake? After visiting the homepage of Amplify.com, we can see the company is very familiar with her work. See "Cuando era puertooriquena" by Esmeralda Santiago below (yellow covered title below).