It doesn’t matter, Andrew. I think we all know how business gets done. No one should be surprised at all about the results of the Fordham study. What IS surprising, to me at least, is how private schools have been able to get away with murder in this age of accountability.

They can say, or do, or testify that whatever they do is whatever they think reality is for them. And yet, somehow, the rest of us are supposed to rank and sort private schools and public schools (of various denominations) equally. I see. Nice system you got there, private schools. Hide behind First Amendment coattails if you must. I get that. But for the love of your God Almighty, please play fair.

So while we’ve talked quite a bit about Cerf and GEA, there has been less focus on the relationship between Tusk and Cerf:
The second biggest recipient of the Facebook money is Tusk Strategies, a New York political consulting firm that managed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2009 re-election campaign. Cerf left his post as a deputy education chancellor in Bloomberg’s administration to serve on the campaign.
Calls to Tusk were not returned, but according to founder Bradley Tusk’s online biography, the group was responsible for creating and advising PENewark, the heavily-criticized campaign to gather public input on the school reform effort in Newark.
When PENewark first began its work last November, Booker said only $1 million would be spent on the effort — roughly $500,000 for salaries and $500,000 for advertising. Tusk was paid more than $1.5 million between October 2010 and April 2011, according to the e-mails. Taylor said Wednesday the cost of the PENewark initiative was $2 million.

http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/01/more-newark-facebook-follies.html

http://bellwethereducation.org/people/who-we-work-with/

And not relevant in this case. The work had nothing to do with this Fordham report or item. It was research about school leadership programs and a published analysis of state teacher evaluation laws (which cited the foundation as the funder as is appropriate):

http://bellwethereducation.org/recent-state-action-on-teacher-effectiveness/