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).
Amarillo ISD is in Region 16 of Texas and Doug Loomis is the superintendent.
9 Concerns About the Science of Reading: Why It’s Not Settled Science!
10/16/2022
by Nancy Bailey
See "Ed Spotlight: Science of Reading | SoR"
MISD Curriculum Review
10/2/2022
by Midland ISD Parent FB Group, Parent Research Posted
MISD Curriculum research
.docx
Download DOCX • 17KB
Amplify Analysis (8th Grade Focus)
08/23/2022
by Lubbock ISD Parent
Amplify_AnalysisPresentation(082322)
.pdf
Download PDF • 16.40MB
Analysis of Amplify Curriculum
by Donna Garner
11/21/2021
ANALYSIS OF AMPLIFY CURRICULUM
.pdf
Download PDF • 96KB
Please read.
Amplify Raises $215 Million in a Growth Funding Round From Learn Capital, A-Street Ventures, and Current Investor Emerson Collective
Business Wire
10/26/2021
Board Members per article:
Emerson Collective Managing Director and XQ Institute CEO, Russlynn Ali
Amplify CEO, Larry Berger
Monarch Global Strategies President and CEO, Michael Camunez
Emerson Collective Managing Director, Brad Powell
Former Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings
Learn Capital, Rob Hunter
A-Street Ventures, Marc Sternberg
Laurene Powell Jobs LittleSis Map
April 28, 2021
See "Education Spotlight: Teach for America".
See "Ed Spotlight: Emerson Collective"
See "Ed Spotlight: Russlyn Ali" (CEO of XQ).
TEA announces additional innovative learning solutions for K-12 English and Spanish and K-5 science to support schools across Texas
www.amplify.com/news
10/05/2020
Please note TEA partner list:
Amplify
Odell Education
Amplifying Profits Selling Harmful Pedagogy
by Thomas Ultican
2/19/2020
See "Ed Spotlight: Screen Time"
See "Ed Spotlight: EMF/RFR"
See "Ed Spotlight: Margaret Spellings"
See "Ed Spotlight: Screen Time"
See "Ed Spotlight: EMF/RFR"
Problems Surrounding Amplify’s Core Knowledge Language Arts to Teach Reading
01/24/2020
by Nancy Bailey
Is CKLA the Best Way to Teach Children to Read?
10/23/2019 by Betty Casey
Twelve Years Later: What’s Really Changed in the K-12 Sector? (Part 1)
By Dave Stevenson (former Amplify executive)
04/03/2019
The Lead Investor in Amplify’s Buyout? Laurene Powell Jobs
by EdSurge
Nov 21, 2015
Amplify Education, Inc. on LittleSis
Starting at 2015
Laurene Powell Jobs backs Amplify education company bought from News Corp
Reuters
November 20, 2015
Chicago Ed Tech Funding LittleSis Map
2014
Marketplace K-12: Tracking business trends and emerging models in education
2013
by S. Cavanagh in Education Week, Spotlight
"One of the two consortia developing tests for the Common Core State Standards has awarded a $12.5 million contract to Amplify Insight to develop a digital library of formative assessment professional learning tools for educators (2013, para 1)"
"Amplify Insight is a division of Amplify, an ed-tech company whose chief officer is Joel Klein, the former New York City schools chancellor. Amplify is the education arm of the media conglomerate, News Corp., led by Rupert Murdoch. Last week, Amplify received a blast of media attention when it unveiled a new tablet device, loaded with classroom management tools and interactive lessons, at the South by Southwest education gathering (2013, para 4)."
The Takeover of Public Education in America
The Agenda to Control Information and Knowledge Through the Accountability System
by A. Patrick Huff, PhD
2/17/2015
Pg 46-47
When it was revealed that Mr. Murdoch purchased Wireless Generation in 2010 (Phillips, 2010), which was the first company to be awarded a contract for the development of Common core assessments (2010), and that Wireless Generation is now called Amplify, one begins to wonder what inside information may have been available for this acquisition. Of course, this is only a suspicion. Phillips goes on to reveal, "The company is likely to make a bid to build the technological pieces of the national tests that will be tied to the 'common core' standards (2010, para 9)."
Mr. Murdoch reflected in this quote from his company's press release on the vast amount of money that it is possible to make in the education market. He also echoed the sentiment held by all of the entrepreneurs feeding at the trough of education with the children of America as guinea pigs set up for experimentation.
"When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the US alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching. Wireless Generation is at the forefront of individualized technology-based learning that is poised to revolutionize public education for a new generation of students." - News Corporation Chairman & CEO, Rupert. Murdoch
Reasons Why Committee Rejects CKLA
2013
Reasons-why-committee-rejects-CKLA
.pdf
Download PDF • 3.07MB
* All information in the article is for parents to understand practices, philosophies, resources (and their effects), curriculum, and testing for their children and falls under Fair Use laws.