Markets work as well as the information that's readily available to all participants. See Our Values.
School Improvement Industry Weekly and School Improvement Markets Report cover most of the information relevant to decisions about the purchase of school improvement products and services.
But what is arguably the most important information - the candid assessments of educators who use the product or service, considered but decided against it, or purchased but did not continue to use it - proved impossible to find.
In our view, it is not enough for buyers to rely on what's in print and whoever they happen to know with a passing aquaintance of a program under consideration. In most cases, these purchases represent a considerable and long-term investment beyond payments to providers - in teacher time and training costs, and in student success. The price of the wrong decision can be enormous - in terms of time, money, morale and learning.
Investors don't buy into companies without talking to many customers they've never met before. Neither should educators investing in partnerships to improve teaching and learning.
That's why we created www.k12programs.com - a free website where educators can post and read first-hand assessments on hundreds of school improvement providers and programs. Comments can be identified for attibution or posted anonymously, and users can sign-up to be notified of new assessments on programs of interest.
This is a very new site, and admittedly its value depends on the interest of educators. We've created the forum but teachers, administrators and researchers must supply the conversation. Why not add your experience to the mix?
These assessments may be reported in School Improvement Industry Weekly, but the website itself is completely free and we will not share the list of www.k12programs.com subscribers with any third party.
