Thread: "Common Core" And The All-Too-Common Tendencies Of Heavy-Handed Government

MIKE HUCKABEE TO COMMON CORE CREATORS: REBRAND, DON’T RETREAT

Posted by Joe For America on Feb 2, 2014

Though former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told his Fox News Channel audience in early December he was no longer supporting the Common Core standards for which he had avidly campaigned, his message to one of the groups that created the standards was different.

According to The Washington Post, at a recent meeting of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), one of the organizations that created the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), Huckabee urged state education officials to get rid of the “Common Core” name because it has become “toxic.”

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As the Post indicates, however, Huckabee still intends to support the standards.

“Rebrand it, refocus it, but don’t retreat,” Huckabee reportedly told CCSSO members.

As Breitbart News reported in December, Huckabee, who is considered to be a Republican presidential hopeful in 2016, opened one of his shows by telling his audience that people have been posting on his Facebook page that they will never watch his show again because he supports the Common Core standards. Others, he said, have told him they could not trust him because of his support of the standards, and some said he needed to learn the truth about Common Core.

“I don’t support what Common Core has become in many states or school districts,” Huckabee said. “Look, I’m dead set against the federal government creating a uniform curriculum for any subject. I oppose the collection of personal data on students that would identify them and then track them, and certainly any effort to give that personal information to the federal government.”

“I am steadfast in my belief that parents – parents – should ultimately decide the best venue for their children’s education, whether it’s public schools, private schools, religious schools, or home schools,” Huckabee added.

Merely changing the name of the “Common Core” standards, in fact, is becoming the new trend across the country.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has used an executive order to purge the name “Common Core” from the standards and refer to them, instead, as Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards: “The Executive Order requires that executive agencies refer to the standards, adopted in 2010, as Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards, and encourages citizens and education stakeholders to do the same.”

Similarly, in Iowa, the Common Core standards are now called The Iowa Core, and inFlorida, the push is on to delete the words “Common Core” from official education documents and replace them with Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.

The superficial changes are indicative of several things.

First, the Common Core creators, the political class, and the Obama administration have clearly been placed on the defensive by parents, teachers, and American citizens in general – though not all of these groups are fighting Common Core for the same reasons.

For example, while many parents are concerned their children’s education will be dumbed down for the sake of the federal government’s desire to promote economic social justice and redistribution, teachers’ unions are focused on the fact that their angry members face teacher performance ratings that will be tied to students’ test scores on the Common Core-aligned assessments. Note that both the National Education Association(NEA) and Randi Weingarten’s American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have not rejected the Common Core standards at all – only their “implementation” as it has occurred.

As veteran educator and author Marion Brady wrote at the Post about the fact that Americans across the political spectrum are opposed to the Common Core:

Three cheers for those on the political right. Three more for those on the left. May the chaos in Washington and state capitols over education policy help the public realize that, in matters educational, the leaders of business and industry and the politicians who listen to them are blind bulls in china shops.
…

Compared to most of the complex realities facing humankind, what’s happening to the reality visible out my window is small potatoes. But making sense of it (and all other realities) requires a particular kind of thinking—a kind of thinking that makes civilized life possible. However, the Common Core Standards don’t promote that kind of thinking. That means it won’t get taught, which means it won’t get tested, which means we’re not really educating, which means too much to even try to summarize.

Read the rest at Breitbart.com

Read more at http://joeforamerica.com/2014/02/mik...mYdT20wEI7T.99

Kentucky Withdraws from Common Core Assessment Consortium

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by Dr. Susan Berry 1 Feb 2014
The state of Kentucky withdrew Friday from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), its testing consortium for the Common Core assessments.

According to Education Week, Gov. Steven Beshear (D), Education Commissioner Terry Holliday, and State Board of Education president Roger Marcum sent a letter Thursday to Mitchell D. Chester, chairman of PARCC’s governing board.

The leaders cite several reasons for their decision, the first being that Kentucky intends to invite bids for proposals for new state assessments, observing that it would be a conflict of interest to be a member of PARCC if the test consortium decided to bid on their project.
Second, Kentucky indicates that its status as a participant in the PARCC consortium “has caused some confusion in the state and on the national scene.”
“Teachers, the media, and the public do not understand the subtle differences between ‘participating’ and ‘governing’ status,” the state leaders wrote. “This leads to misinterpretation of Kentucky’s role in PARCC and causes Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) staff to constantly explain the role of a participating state and to address rumors about upcoming PARCC launch dates.”
States have been able to join either or both the PARCC and the Smarter Balanced consortia as “participating” members, but to be a “governing” member with greater leadership obligations and formal voting status, states can only be a member of one consortium.
Finally, the Kentucky leaders state in their letter that, because resources are limited, they are experiencing difficulty monitoring and contributing to the PARCC process.
The Kentucky state officials indicated that withdrawal from PARCC is effective ten days from the date of the letter.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...ent-Consortium



February 1st: Andrew’s Birthday

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by Larry Solov 1 Feb 2014 1072 post a comment
Andrew was born February 1, 1969. He was adopted shortly thereafter, and when his late parents, Arlene and Gerry, looked at him, they must have thought, as all parents must, what kind of boy, son, brother, father, husband, friend, person would he become?

Before Gerry passed, he told me something that answered every one of those questions: Andrew had exceeded every imaginable expectation he and Arlene had for him. The nice part is, I was there in person many times when Gerry expressed the same sentiment to Andrew himself.
As for my part, I can speak very personally to what kind of brother and friend he would become: there was no one more loyal, no one more caring, no one better.
As for what kind of man and person he would become, well, there are so many people to testify in this department: a leader, a voice, a patriot; a brawler for truth, transparency, the democratization of news and information, and for the values upon which this great nation was founded and should be guided still.
As to that legacy, we present you the pages of Breitbart.com each and every day and the growth and expansion of Breitbart News… and the unbreakable promise that the fight will always continue.
Despite everything I’ve just mentioned, as anyone who ever spent any time whatsoever with him can attest, Andrew accomplished all that he accomplished with a smile and the fiercest desire to make others laugh. Today and every other day, I am overwhelmed with such memories and thank God for Andrew’s presence--albeit too short--here on Earth.
By the way, he still played an at-best mediocre game of fantasy league baseball. But in fairness, during the last part of his life, he was, after all, more interested in saving the world.
Happy birthday, my friend.

Panelist at Podesta Think Tank on Common Core: 'The Children Belong to All of Us'


February 3, 2014 - 9:02 AM

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By Penny Starr
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Paul Reville, former Massachusetts Secretary of Education and Harvard professor, was a panelist at the Center for American Progress on Jan. 31, 2014. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

(CNSNews.com) – In addressing criticism of the Common Core national education standards, a panelist at the Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank, said critics were a “tiny minority” who opposed standards altogether, which was unfair because “the children belong to all of us.”
The CAP was founded by John Podesta, former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and now an adviser to President Barack Obama. At a CAP event to promote Common Core on Friday, CNSNews.com asked about the critics who say federal monetary incentives attached to Common Core is driving the states to implement the standards.
Paul Reville, the former secretary of education for Massachusetts and a Common Core supporter, said, “To be sure, there’s always a small voice – and I think these voices get amplified in the midst of these arguments – of people who were never in favor of standards in the first place and never wanted to have any kind of testing or accountability and those voices get amplified.”

video at link below

“But those are a tiny minority,” he said. “An overwhelming majority of teachers are saying this is something – as [panelist] Toby [Romer] said – that makes sense.”
Reville continued, “Again, the argument about where it came from I think privileges certain sort of fringe voices about federalism and states’ rights, and things of that nature, when really what we’re doing at the national level here now, state by state, is what a lot of our states thought made sense individually.”
Amy Lawson, a fifth-grade teacher at Silver Lake Elementary School in Middletown, Del., teaches an English language arts lesson Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. The school has begun implementing the national Common Core State Standards for academics. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

“Why should some towns and cities and states have no standards or low standards and others have extremely high standards when the children belong to all of us and would move [to different states in their educational lives]?”
“And the same logic applies to the nation,” Reville said. “And it makes sense to educators. It makes sense to policymakers, and it’s why people have voluntarily entered into this agreement.”
“So, it’s less about where it came from and more about, ‘Okay, now we settled on this as a set of targets, what are the strategies we need to implement, to be successful at it?’ because educators and students want to be successful,” Reville said.
The Common Core website describes the creation and mission of the standards as follows:
“The nation’s governors and education commissioners, through their representative organizations the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) led the development of the Common Core State Standards and continue to lead the initiative.”
“Teachers, parents, school administrators and experts from across the country together with state leaders provided input into the development of the standards,” reads the website.
“The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and mathematics that states voluntarily adopt,” says the website. “The standards are designed to ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enter credit bearing entry courses in two or four-year college programs or enter the workforce. The standards are clear and concise to ensure that parents, teachers, and students have a clear understanding of the expectations in reading, writing, speaking and listening, language and mathematics in school.”
CAP founder John Podesta and President Barack Obama. Podesta currently is an adviser to Obama. (AP)

But critics such as Lindsey Burke, a Will Skillman Fellow in Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation who has studied the standards, said the initiative is about federal funding and centralizing education rules.
“Common Core was developed by two national organizations, it’s adoption incentivized with billions in federal funding and waivers from the onerous provisions of No Child Left Behind, and the national tests funded with federal grants,” Burke said.
“These are not the hallmarks of a ‘state-led’ process,” she said. “Moreover, these are not high standards.”
“They are, to reference the work of Stanford Professor of Mathematics Emeritus James Milgram, standards that prepare students for ‘non-selective community colleges,’” Burke said. “The English Language Arts standards de-emphasize the reading of fiction and classic literature in favor of informational texts.”
“But most concerning, Common Core removes the ability of parents and teachers to direct academic content and will have a homogenizing effect on the educational choices available to families,” Burke said.
Jennifer Davis, co-founder and president of the National Center on Time and Learning, was the moderator of a panel discussion at the Center for American Progress on Jan. 31, 2014. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

The Washington Post published a commentary on Jan. 20 by Marion Brady, a retired teacher and author, who explained why Common Core has been criticized by people of all political stripes.
“Few oppose standards, but a significant number oppose the Common Core State Standards,” Brady wrote. “Those on the political right don’t like the fact that—notwithstanding the word ‘State’ in the title—it was really the feds who helped to railroad the standards into place.”
“Resisters on the political left cite a range of reasons for opposing the standards—that they were shoved into place without research or pilot programs, that they’re a setup for national testing, that the real winners are manufacturers of tests and teaching materials because they can crank out the same stuff for everybody—just to begin a considerably longer list,” Brady wrote.
But Jennifer Davis, co-founder and president of the National Center on Time and Learning who moderated the panel at CAP, told CNSNews.com that teachers are “truly embracing” Common Core.
“On the teacher side, I mean, all of the work were doing all over the country we’re finding teachers truly embracing and knowing that Common Core is important for their children and for their future in their schools,” Davis said, adding at one point, “It takes a village” to get this kind of education reform accomplished.

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New York teachers turn on Common Core

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  One of the biggest groups of educators in the country says the program's not working. | AP Photo
  
  
  
  
  
  Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...#ixzz2se44yYqz
  
  
  
  

One of the biggest groups of educators in the country says the program's not working. | AP Photo





By STEPHANIE SIMON | 1/26/14 10:12 AM EST Updated: 1/27/14 12:04 PM EST
The board of the New York state teachers union this weekend unanimously withdrew its support for the Common Core standards as they have been implemented — a major blow for Common Core advocates who have been touting support from teachers as proof that the standards will succeed in classrooms nationwide.
“We’ll have to be the first to say it’s failed,” said Richard Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers.
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SOTU 2014: What to expect on education







Iannuzzi said he has talked with union leaders in other states who may follow suit. “We’ve been in conversations where we’re all saying our members don’t see this going down a path that improves teaching and learning. We’re struggling with how to deal with it,” he said.
The board also unanimously voted no confidence in New York Education Commissioner John King Jr. and urged the state’s Board of Regents to remove him from office.
(POLITICO's full education policy coverage)
The move on Common Core put the New York union at odds with the national teachers unions, which have steadfastly promoted the new academic standards for math and language arts instruction, now rolling out in classrooms nationwide.
Amid fierce and growing opposition to the standards — fanned by conservative political organizations — promoters of Common Core have counted on teachers to be their best ambassadors and to reassure parents and students that the guidelines will lead to more thoughtful, rigorous instruction.
Now, one of the biggest groups of educators in the country is on record saying it’s not working.
The NYSUT, which represents about 600,000 teachers, retired teachers and school professionals — and accounts for 15 percent of national teacher union membership — is demanding “major course corrections” before it can consider supporting the standards again.
(Sign up for POLITICO’s Morning Education tip sheet)
It wants more time for teachers to review the Common Core lessons the state has been promoting, and it’s demanding more input on whether they are grade-appropriate. Parents and teachers have complained that the standards push the youngest kids too fast, demanding so much work from kindergarteners that there’s little time for the play that’s deemed essential for young children’s development. On the other end of the scale, they have complained that the high-school math trajectory laid out by the Common Core leaves out key math concepts and does not push top students to take calculus.
The union is also demanding that all questions on the new Common Core exams be released so teachers can review them and use them to shape instruction.
Students across New York performed miserably on the first round of Common Core exams, given last spring. The NYSUT is insisting on a three-year moratorium on the high-stakes consequences attached to the exams; the union argues that no teachers should lose their jobs and no students should lose their chance at graduation because of poor performance on the tests during a transition period.
(Also on POLITICO: For right, Common Core fight prelude to bigger agenda)
Iannuzzi said the union still believes “the potential is there” for the standards to succeed, but said that won’t happen unless the state brings everything to a halt and effectively starts from scratch.
In response, Commissioner King issued a statement suggesting flexibility; he said he would work with the legislature, governor and Board of Regents to “make necessary adjustments and modifications to the implementation of the Common Core.” But he did not back away from his staunch support of the guidelines, saying that “now is not the time to weaken standards for teaching and learning.” The statement, issued jointly with Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, continued: “Our students are counting on us to help them develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in life. The higher standards the Common Core sets will help them do just that.”
The Common Core standards are a central plank in President Barack Obama’s education agenda.
They were developed by nonprofits and organizations representing states, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, but have been heavily promoted by the White House and by Education Secretary Arne Duncan.


In Obama’s first years in office, the administration gave states financial and policy incentives to adopt the standards; 45 states and the District of Columbia quickly did so, with little public debate. But as the standards have been introduced into classrooms — in some cases accompanied by notable shifts in math instruction and a much more heavy emphasis on non-fiction texts in English classes — parents have raised questions and conservative advocacy groups have jumped on board with warnings of federal overreach and a loss of local control.
Several states, including Alaska, Pennsylvania, Florida and Georgia, have backed away from prior commitments to use new Common Core exams funded by the federal government to assess their students’ progress and measure their achievement against kids in other states. Other states are going further still and considering revoking the standards altogether.
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“We don’t ever want to educate South Carolina children like they educate California children,” South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley recently told a gathering of Republican women. “We want to educate South Carolina children on South Carolina standards, not anyone else’s standards.” She urged the legislature to overturn the Common Core standards, promising she would sign such a bill the moment it came to her desk.
Republican Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana and Scott Walker of Wisconsin have also signaled their distaste for centralized standards. “Told attendees at state education convention that academic standards should be set by people in WI, not DC,” Walker tweeted on Friday.
The anxiety has touched Democratic leaders, too. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently said he has concerns about the way the standards have been implemented in his state. And at a hearing in Albany last week, Commissioner King fended off a barrage of tough questions and angry complaints about Common Core from legislators in both parties. “Hit the delay button!” state Sen. George Latimer, a Democrat, demanded, banging on the table for emphasis.
Opponents of Common Core said they see the NYSUT vote as a turning point, indicating that the protest movement has expanded beyond parents and political activists.
“Were this a small union no one would take notice,” said Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a think tank that has been active in opposing the Common Core. “But the size and breadth of NYSUT tells even the casual observer that the wheels are coming off Common Core in NY.” The vote, he said, “clearly gives lie to view that teachers support the whole Common Core apparatus. The fact that NYSUT cuts across over a thousand local unions speaks to how widespread opposition has become.”
Carol Burris, an award-winning principal in New York who has been outspoken in opposition to the new standards, called the vote “both courageous and significant.”
But Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, which helped develop the standards, called the vote “unfortunate.” He noted that the standards “were developed with substantial involvement from classroom teachers, and teachers overwhelmingly support these standards.”
As evidence of widespread teacher support, the National Education Association points to a poll taken last fall showing that three quarters of its members back the standards. But that support isn’t rock solid. The poll found that 26 percent of NEA members support the Common Core wholeheartedly, another 50 percent back them tentatively, with reservations, and 13 percent said they didn’t know enough to form an opinion.
The NEA has heavily promoted the standards as crucial to making American children more competitive with their international peers. It recently launched a website with more than 3,000 sample Common Core lessons, including videos of master teachers presenting the material.
The American Federation of Teachers has been a bit more nuanced; it supports the standards, but President Randi Weingarten has called for a moratorium on high-stakes testing while the Common Core exams are phased in.
The standards have been promoted as well by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, as well as by prominent education reformers from both parties, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee, the former chief of Washington, D.C., schools.
Supporters of the Common Core have expressed frustration at the mounting opposition, saying the standards have become a convenient scapegoat for anything anyone doesn’t like about education today.
“We’re in an environment where anything anyone thinks is wrong, people think [that’s] part of Common Core,” said Michael Cohen, president of Achieve, one of the nonprofits that helped write the Common Core. In an interview last fall, Cohen said he was counting on teachers to be “credible advocates” for Common Core in every state. Teachers, he said, would be able to parry the conspiracy theories and “get the argument grounded again.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...#ixzz2se4OHbdn

Stop Stealing Dreams


Ranked #321 in Education, #6,528 overall | Donates to Acumen Fund

What is school for?

The economy has changed, probably forever.

School hasn't.

School was invented to create a constant stream of compliant factory workers to the growing businesses of the 1900s. It continues to do an excellent job at achieving this goal, but it's not a goal we need to achieve any longer.

In this 30,000 word manifesto, I imagine a different set of goals and start (I hope) a discussion about how we can reach them. One thing is certain: if we keep doing what we've been doing, we're going to keep getting what we've been getting.

Our kids are too important to sacrifice to the status quo.

[We have a new cover! Thanks to http://www.asasku.blogspot.com/]

Contents at a Glance

• The TEDx talk
• You can get your copy for free
• Some of the books I reference in Stop St...
• Ken Robinson on Creativity and Passion
• If I could have every administrator, tea...
• Feel free to chime in with your comments
• Colleges that Matter
• Thinking Fast (and slow)
• On willpower

You can get your copy for free

Here are four versions of the manifesto. Pick the one that you need, and feel free to share. To download a file, you'll probably need the option key or the right click button on your mouse... ask a teenager if you get stuck. (Just added an audio reading by Dave Wakefield all the way at the bottom of this page).
The On Screen version Use this one to read it on a computer or similar device. Feel free to email to the teachers, parents and administrators in your life. The Printable edition This is the same document, but formatted for your laser printer or the local copy shop. You are welcome to make copies, but please don't charge for it or edit it. (And I fixed two typos and added the missing link to Doc's book). Here's the Kindle edition You'll need to download it and then plug in your Kindle via a USB cable. Drag the file to the Documents folder on your Kindle and boom, you're done. I'm told that you can also open it with the Kindle reader on your Mac, PC or iPad. The ePub edition This should work with other types of ebook readers, but I haven't tested it. Your mileage may vary, and if it doesn't work, the PDF should. Readers have told me that this opens on their iPad as well.


The manifesto in HTML on the web Useful for cutting and pasting, I guess. The PDFs are easier to read. Now improved with easy to link to chapters... How I built the manifesto, plus back up links If any of the links above don't work, you'll find back up PDF downloads here, as well as a long-ish essay about how I built them. Jeff's modified epub file Jeff generously tweaked this version so it reads better on your screen. No warranties or refunds, but give it a try. Improved Nook edition Devon built this for us. 42 quotations from the manifesto Ivana takes her pick of 42 tweetable quotes. NEW! A fabulous new, easy to use audio edition Thanks to Zia Hassan for contributing this The bumper sticker! Yes, the 30,000 word manifesto has been reduced to a killer bumper sticker. Check it out. How to get a free digital copy--formatted for your screen

Just click on the picture of the seagull

There are several versions of the manifesto.

One is a PDF designed to be read on your screen. Feel free to email this anyone you think might want to read it. You're also free to post it on a website, as long as you don't edit it or charge for it.

The other featured edition is a PDF formatted to be printed on any printer. Feel free to make as many copies of this as you like and hand them to people who might benefit from a discussion about what we're investing our time and our money and our future into.

If you have a Kindle or a Nook or any other device, see below for some links on how to import the PDF to your device. I also created special editions that are easy to transfer directly to the Kindle or Nook. And, as a bonus (once the guys in the Apple iTunes store approve it), an iBooks edition for the iPad.

For a list of other books by Seth Godin (that's me), scroll down to near the bottom of this page. And if you have comments about the book, feel free to post them here, or even better, on twitter #stopstealingdreams or on Facebook or your own blog!

Some of the books I reference in Stop Stealing Dreams


Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 10th Anniversary Edition

by John Taylor Gatto
Gatto is the godfather of the history-of-school-as-factory mindset. I'm in his debt, and I wish every parent would read this book.
Buy Now


Ken Robinson on Creativity and Passion


The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

by Ken Robinson, Lou Aronica
Another classic. Be sure to see Sir Ken's video, just below.
Buy Now


Sir Ken on Creativity and schools


If I could have every administrator, teacher and parent read just one of my books...


Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

by Seth Godin
It would be this one.
Buy Now


http://www.squidoo.com/stop-stealing-dreams

FROM WATCHDOG WIRE - MARYLAND

Despite O’Malley’s Bluster, Disparity Gaps Remain in Education



$55 billion for persistent achievement gaps

February 17, 2014

by Mark Newgent

Last week Governor O’Malley tweeted this claim about the test scores of Maryland’s low-income students.

Don’t be fooled by this statistic, because it is couched in a similar deception O’Malley uses to have you believe he’s cut the state budget.
The tests O’Malley refers to are the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 4^th and 8^th grade reading and math assessments. NAEP is commonly known as “The Nation’s Report Card.”
While Maryland’s low-income students did see gains, the disparity gap, that is the difference between their scores and their non-low income peers still remains high.
I’ve compiled the test score data for Maryland’s low-income students on the NAEP math and reading assessments for 4^th and 8^th graders over the last decade. The data reveals persistent, and in one case, contra O’Malley, growing disparity gaps.

There is a still 26-point disparity gap on the 2013 NAEP 4^th grade reading assessment, and a 23-point gap on the 8^th grade reading assessment. This is the same test which Maryland excluded large numbers of special needs students, more than any in the nation. The 8^th grade reading gap is still 3 points higher than it was in 2007.
Between 2003-2013 4^th grade math disparity gap actually increased two points from 28 points to 30 points.
The 8^th grade math gap dropped two points from 2003, but remains at 28 points, five points higher than in 2007.

Much like O’Malley’s budget fiction, the test score gains are in fact reductions in the rate of increase of the disparity gaps.
In fact, in 2011 and 2012, Maryland ranked 50^th in the nation for the 8^th grade math poverty gap according to Education Week’s Quality Counts report—the very same report that ranked Maryland schools number one in the nation. In the latest report Maryland improved to 37^th overall in that category. As I detailed in last Friday’s Baltimore Sun all that glitters is not gold with the Education Week ranking.
Since 2002 Maryland has increased K-12 education spending—one of the largest line items in the state budget—by $3.2 billion, a 110 percent increase. In total the state has spent $55 billion on K-12 education. That number does not include funds expended by the federal and county governments.
This drastic increase in K-12 spending is due to the Bridge to Excellence or Thornton law, which mandated automatic, annual state K-12 education spending increases to address disparity gaps not only between poor students and their wealthier peers, but between White students and minorities.
For $55 billion, the return on investment for Maryland taxpayers has been persistent achievement gaps.

Mark Newgent

Mark Newgent is a contributing editor to Red Maryland, the premiere blog of conservative politics in the Free State, voted one of the best state political blogs by the Washington Post two years in a row. Mark hosts The Broadside radio program, heard live on the Red Maryland Network every Monday night at 8pm. Mark has served as a fellow for the American Tradition Institute and Climate Strategies Watch researching climate and renewable energy policies in the states. Mark's writing has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Examiner, National Review Online, and newspapers throughout the country. Mark is a frequent guest on Baltimore's WBAL AM 1090
More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook


RELATED ARTICLES

1. Despite O’Malley’s Bluster, Disparity Gaps Remain in Education
2. Common Core Opponents Receive Cold Shoulder from Lawmakers
3. Maryland’s Education Bureaucracy
4. Special Needs Out of Luck Under Common Core (Video)
5. MD Delegate Can’t Support Common Core

http://watchdogwire.com/maryland/2014/02/17/despite-omalleys-bluster-disparity-gaps-remain/





Common core for the common people full of propaganda and un-truths. All part of the dumbing down of future generations bought and paid for by your tax dollars with Love from your politicians...

China’s Common Core

February 18, 2014, Spencer Irvine

Although we often hear about how China is in hot economic competition with the U. S., we don’t hear as frequently how eerily similar their education system is to ours. “The Chinese government has always been concerned about being outmaneuvered” by its opponents and as a result, their history books are “not even 5% correct” and “children grow up with a certain view of the world and of China,” author Timothy Beardson said at the Cato Institute on February 6, 2014.
Consequently, everything we, and they, have heard about the Asian colossus is, well, not that accurate. Indeed, Beardson, a permanent resident of China, forecasts the possible demise of China because:

• Economy of scale, or the sheer size of the Chinese economy, is a bad comparison because the size of a country’s economy does not necessarily mean it is better. As he said, “To contextualize it is very important, but very rarely done.”
• “We simply don’t know [China’s] GDP” because “the government doesn’t know either.”
• In writing his book on the People’s Republic, Beardson realized his own preconceptions of China were mistaken and suggested the general public’s view is also mistaken.
• It is too “conventional to talk about the re-emergence of China” even when “China never has been the center of world affairs.” In his words, “China’s global cultural legacy is less than that of Denmark.”

The Chinese demographic trend is another worrisome problem for the Chinese government and country as a whole. Beardson found:

• “The workforce in China is starting to decline in size” and the “annual rate of births since 1970; they’ve fallen by 40%.”
• Wages rising to double-digits force China to “move from low-cost manufacturing” to innovations, but she has had “very little success at all in generating indigenous [or domestic, home-grown] innovation.”
• “In 2010, 110 million Chinese [were] over the age of 65. By 2030, that will be 300 million.”
• Young couples now have to take care of four parents and possibly eight grandparents, straining the age-old custom of caring for the elderly and making it “very difficult” to do so.

One myth of the China alarmists is that China has a lot of money to throw around. However, Beardson said that China is “a society that has severe budgetary restraints” and “until recently, its budget was smaller than France.”
He also said that Chinese university graduate unemployment is the “highest…in the world” at 40-45% because “the quality is not very good.” A recent study of businesses found that up to 86% of Chinese university graduates were not suited to work at international firms.
Some other interesting observations, per Beardson:

• The city of Shanghai, which could reflect China as a whole, has a mantra of “educated, urban, middle-class people, that’s their franchise, it’s not the workers; it’s not really for the rural residents” because they don’t particularly want 10 million rural residents in Shanghai to flood their hospitals and schools.”
• China “has 20 neighbors…and has disputes with 15 of them” due to China’s hold on water sources such as the Tibetan Plateau to alleviate an almost twenty-year drought in Beijing.
• China once thought of “blasting” a nuclear bomb in the Himalayas to get more water to flow to China.

http://www.academia.org/chinas-common-core/?utm_source=AIM+-+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=b3c668450b-email021914&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c4ddfc8d9d-b3c668450b-224224701

Nation’s biggest teachers union slams ‘botched’ Common Core implementation




Supporters of Common Core say they're relying on teachers to promote the standards. | AP Photo


By STEPHANIE SIMON | 2/19/14 5:19 PM EST Updated: 2/20/14 1:44 PM EST


The nation’s largest teachers union is pulling back on its once-enthusiastic support of the Common Core academic standards, labeling their rollout “completely botched.”

National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel said he still believes the standards can improve education. But he said they will not succeed without a major “course correction” — including possibly rewriting some of the standards and revising the related tests with teacher input.

"In far too many states, implementation has been completely botched,” Van Roekel wrote in a letter Wednesday afternoon to his organization’s more than 3 million members.

Van Roekel’s statement suggests quite a rocky road ahead for the Common Core standards, which are meant to instill more rigorous language-arts and math instruction in public schools — and which have been a priority of the Obama administration.

Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have adopted the standards. Most of those decisions were not controversial. But as new lessons have rolled into classrooms nationwide this year — and as new exams based on the Common Core have been introduced — public outrage has flared, often driven by distrust of the federal role in promoting the standards.

No state has yet pulled out of the standards, but Indiana is close to doing so, and intense debate is expected this spring in several other states, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia.

Though he was careful to say he still supports the standards in concept, Van Roekel’s comments could give opponents of Common Core a boost.
(Also on POLITICO: Full education policy coverage)

Here’s why: The Common Core has plenty of high-profile backers, including President Barack Obama, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Yet poll after poll shows that parents trust teachers, above all, to do what’s right by their kids.

Given that trust, the NEA’s support has always been a huge feather in the cap of Common Core supporters. It’s also provided a practical boost: The union has pledged that its members would hold town-hall forums, speak at PTA meetings and do everything they could to persuade a wary public to give Common Core a chance.

Now, however, it’s not clear that teachers can effectively serve as ambassadors. For months, dissident groups of educators, including the Badass Teacher Association, have spoken out against the Common Core. In his open letter, Van Roekel made clear that disillusionment was both widespread and mainstream.

He said 70 percent of teachers believe implementation is going poorly in their schools — and two-thirds report that they have never been asked to give their input on how to introduce the new standards.

And he made clear that’s untenable.

(Also on POLITICO: Jobless benefits: The GOP’s search for an exit)
“The very people expected to deliver universal access to high quality standards with high quality instruction have not had the opportunity to share their expertise and advice” about how to make it work, he wrote. “Consequently, NEA members have a right to feel frustrated, upset and angry about the poor commitment to implementing the standards correctly.”

Some backers of the Common Core said they didn’t consider the NEA’s new position a blow.

“Ensuring that each state is moving at the right pace given its context is critical to the long-term success of implementation, and it’s essential that educators are involved in the implementation process.” said Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, which helped write the standards. “Where there are concerns, we look forward to working towards solutions.”

Minnich said he had not seen any survey data showing widespread disillusionment among teachers. Instead, he referred to polls that show a majority of teachers back the Common Core. That support, however, has never been rock-solid. A poll of NEA members taken last spring found that 26 percent supported the standards wholeheartedly, 50 percent backed them tentatively, with reservations, and 13 percent said they didn’t know enough to form an opinion.
(Also on POLITICO: Obama condemns violence in Ukraine)

Van Roekel’s statement echoed a resolution passed last month by the board of the New York state teachers union, which withdrew support for Common Core as currently implemented.

But Van Roekel represents a far bigger constituency. And until now, the NEA has been among the biggest and most vocal backers of the new academic standards. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has spent more than $170 million to develop and promote the Common Core, has given the union millions to support the implementation of the standards. Among other initiatives, the NEA recently rolled out a website featuring thousands of model lessons.

Given the increasing dissent in union ranks, Van Roekel’s statement was not surprising, said Mike Petrilli, executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which backs the Common Core.

“When the going gets tough, union presidents run for cover,” Petrilli said. He said he still believes that only a minority of teachers oppose the Common Core. “As the head of a democratic organization, Dennis Van Roekel can’t ignore those concerns,” he said. “But here’s hoping that he shows courage, too, in following through on his commitment to higher standards and stronger schools.”

In his open letter, Van Roekel took aim at several policies related to the Common Core.

In particular, he decried the federal policy of requiring all states to test all students in third grade through eighth grade this year. Most versions of the new Common Core tests are not ready for widespread use, so many of the exams children are scheduled to take this spring won’t reflect the new material showing up in classrooms.

“Old tests are being given, but new and different standards are being taught,” Van Roekel wrote. “This is not ‘accountability’ — it’s malpractice.”

The new exams should be ready next spring, but Van Roekel called for caution there, too, demanding a moratorium of at least two years on using new assessments to determine teacher evaluations or school grades. The new tests are meant to be much more difficult than typical standardized tests, with many more open-response questions and essays in addition to fill-in-the-bubble multiple choice. In states that rolled out Common Core tests early, such as New York, students’ scores plummeted.

The nation’s other major teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, has also expressed concern about the implementation of Common Core and has called for a three-year moratorium on high-stakes testing.

Van Roekel also signaled for the first time that he is open to rewriting some of the standards, which were developed by nonprofit organizations in affiliation with the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers.

He urged states to work with the NEA and local unions to “review the appropriateness of the standards and recommend any improvements that might be needed.” And he called on them to actively engage teachers in field-testing new Common Core assessments and recommending improvements.

“There’s too much at stake for our children and our country,” Van Roekel told POLITICO, “to risk getting this wrong.”


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/national-education-association-common-core-103690.html#ixzz2u4sz3Drh

“There’s too much at stake for our children and our country,” Van Roekel told POLITICO, “to risk getting this wrong.”

[/QUOTE]

That why we mustn't botch the "dumbing" down of our children and propagandize them to the full extent allowable!!!!!

Here’s why: The Common Core has plenty of high-profile backers, including President Barack Obama, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has spent more than $170 million to develop and promote the Common Core

Now doesn't that explain it all?? Wake up fast parents!!!!!!

Name game: Amid opposition, states change title of Common Core

by Perry Chiaramonte, FOXNews | published on February 23, 2014

It might take more than a name change to quell parental anger at Common Core, the controversial national education standards adopted by all but four states.

With angry parents protesting the standards, and curriculum they say is tailored to it by writers of textbooks and lesson plans, several states have decided the solution is all in the name. Common Core is now referred to as “The Iowa Core” in the Hawkeye State. Florida calls it the tongue-twisting “Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.” Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer recently signed an executive order to erase the name “Common Core” for their new math and reading standards and Louisiana lawmakers are mulling a name change as well.

But critics say what states really need to do is scrap the Common Core Standards Initiative altogether.

“Even under a different name, the Common Core Standards are still mediocre, at best, and continue to put American students at a significant disadvantage to their international peers,” Glyn Wright, executive director of the Eagle Forum, told FoxNews.com.

A total of 46 states and Washington, DC have adopted all or part of the Common Core standard, which in most cases officially goes into effect at the start of the next academic year. The standards are designed to ensure that students from all over the nation graduate with a baseline of math and language skills. But critics say the program, proposed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in 2009, takes away local control of education. And they say lessons and textbooks sold as being “aligned with Common Core” are rife with left-wing social and political messages.

Read the full article: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/22...e-common-core/

Read more at 1776 Coalition: http://www.1776coalition.com/rise-up...#ixzz2u9zzPPGT

Lawmaker Pushing to Oust Common Core From His State’s Classrooms

Feb. 22, 2014 6:19pm Dave Urbanski



An Alabama state legislator is looking for a showdown on his bill to repeal Common Core curriculum standards statewide, an issue that’s ignited furious and divisive debate among lawmakers there.
Sen. Scott Beason (Image source: YouTube clip)



Republican state Sen. Scott Beason filed a bill Thursday that would repeal the standards until at least Jan. 1, 2017. Beason secured 14 co-sponsors for his legislation that he hopes will go before the 35-member Senate, the Associated Press reported.


“Common Core is an unproven, untested education experiment. If Common Core turns out to be the great educational panacea, then in 2017 the state school board can adopt it,” Beason told the AP. “I’m convinced by that time Common Core will be falling apart all over the country.”


Alabama is one of 45 states to adopt the standards that were developed by the National Governors’ Association and tied to federal Race to the Top grants by the Obama administration. Repeal has become a rallying cry from state tea party groups and some conservatives who call it the nationalization of public education. Business associations and state education groups have embraced the standards, saying they will boost Alabama student performance.


Alabama School Superintendent Tommy Bice urged legislators to reject the repeal effort. “There’s no indoctrination. There is no conspiracy,” Bice told the AP. “We are teaching math. We are teaching kids to read and write.


“It just doesn’t make any sense for something that is simply a political issue. It has nothing to do with academics.”


Sally Howell, executive director of the Alabama Association of School Boards, told the AP that a repeal would be like going back to a “bag phone from an iPhone.”


“This legislation is politics at its worst. It is bad for students. It is a power grab by the state Legislature, and it is wasteful,” she added. “By dictating what is taught in our classrooms, the Legislature would waste hundreds of thousands of hours spent implementing higher standards and would cause school systems to trash classroom materials based on these world-class standards and replace them with old, outdated materials.”


Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, a Republican, said while he will continue to study the debate over Common Core, his position remains that a repeal bill will not hit the Senate floor.


Beason, who is running for Congress, said some of his fellow lawmakers want to avoid a vote. “I think there are legislators in both houses that are solidly committed to both sides,” Beason told the AP.


Here’s a clip of Beason addressing a tea-party crowd on other legislative issues:



http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014...es-classrooms/