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

The New AP US History Exam: Deal or No Deal?




by Jane Robbins and Larry Krieger 13 Jul 2014 89 post a comment

In August the first wave of approximately 500,000 high school sophomores and juniors will begin courses based on the College Board’s redesigned AP US History Framework. The new Framework is a poorly organized and biased document that presents a consistently negative view of American history that is not aligned with legally mandated state curriculum standards.

It should come as no surprise that the College Board’s redesigned AP US History Exam is also badly flawed. The consequences could be severe for students and their families. Colleges can and usually do grant history course credits to top-scoring students, thus saving their families thousands of dollars. In addition, high AP scores are impressive to college admission committees.

Given the exam’s importance, teachers, students, and parents rightly expect the College Board to create a fair and valid exam. Unfortunately, it has not. The new exam begins by replacing 80 content-based multiple-choice questions (based on a broad range of topics) with 55 multiple-choice questions based on a limited range of quotes, graphs, pictures, and political cartoons. The old multiple-choice questions counted for 50 percent of the total score while the new questions count for just 40 percent.

The changes in the exam are not limited to multiple-choice questions. After spending 55 minutes answering the multiple-choice questions, students will have 45 minutes to answer four free-response essay questions, each with two to three subparts. This gives students just over 11 minutes to answer each question. Many AP US History teachers are already questioning if students can complete all four questions in the limited allocated time. These four questions will count for 20 percent of the total score.

Students will then be given a document-based question, popularly known as the DBQ. Part of AP US History exams for over 40 years, the DBQ previously asked students to develop a thesis or point of view about eight to ten documents. The new DBQ will provide students with just five to seven documents. This task will require one hour and count for 25 percent of a student’s score.

Weary students are still not finished. After spending an hour on the DBQ, students must choose one of two topics and compose a 35-minute essay. The essay will count for 15 percent of the total score.

In the past, teachers and students had a wealth of high-quality preparation materials that included seven released exams with 600 multiple-choice questions. In addition, the College Board’s AP Central website provided a trove of valuable materials that included 26 DBQ’s, 104 essay questions, and nearly 400 graded sample essays. These resources provided an impressive array of materials that enabled students to fully prepare for the exam.

These preparation materials are now gone. The College Board has given AP US History teachers just one sample test containing 55 multiple-choice questions, four short answer questions, one DBQ, and two long essay questions. That’s it. There are no sample essays for any of the new essay formats. Even worse, graders will now use a new “analytic rubric” to score the essays. According to the College Board website, the analytic rubric “will focus on one or another historical thinking skills.” What does this mean? We actually don’t know. The College Board has failed thus far to provide any sample essays that illustrate the new scoring rubric.

Parents, concerned citizens, and education officials who want to inspect and evaluate the one sample AP US History Exam will be surprised to learn that they can’t. The College Board has provided a password-protected electronic copy of the sample test only to teachers who have successfully completed the audit of their AP US History course. The College Board’s “condition of use” sternly warns teachers, “Exams may not be posted on school or personal websites, nor electronically distributed for any reason.” The College Board further warns about copyright violations and loss of privileges for any teachers who don’t follow its rules.

The College Board’s policy deliberately prevents parents and school officials from evaluating the new test. It also discriminates against schools that have chosen not to participate in the College Board audit and students who are either home-schooled or self-studying for the AP US History Exam. So much for the College Board’s claim to deliver opportunity to all students.

In the popular game show Deal or No Deal, contestants could accept a prize by saying “Deal!” or turn it down by saying “No Deal!” The redesigned AP US History Framework and Exam are unfortunately not a game show. They will have real consequences that include what approximately 500,000 of America's most talented sophomores and juniors will learn about our nation's values and traditions. They will also play an important role in college admissions and family budgets. Given the egregious flaws in both the Framework and the Exam, parents and concerned citizens must demand that appropriate educational officials tell the College Board “No Deal!” The College Board should delay the new course for at least a year while new committees revise the Framework and Exam and develop more test prep materials.


Jane Robbins is the senior fellow of APP Education of the American Principles Project, a conservative advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
Larry Krieger is a retired AP U.S. History teacher from Pennsylvania.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...eal-or-No-Deal

The College Board should delay the new course for at least a year while new committees revise the Framework and Exam and develop more test prep materials.

Wake Up America, delay for a year...how about throwing it out and starting over... NO DEAL!!

Tell Me Again How the Obama Administration Isn’t Pushing Common Core….

July 14, 2014 | Shane Vander Hart

Pitt researchers were awarded a $2.5 million grant for developing a training for educators to teach the Common Core.
Photo credit: Piotrus (CC-By-SA 3.0)

Common Core advocates, at least the disingenuous ones who don’t wring their hands about Federal involvement, will often say that even states who didn’t have Common Core could qualify for Race to the Top, as well as, an ESEA flexibility waiver if they have “college and career-ready” standards.
They money the administration is spending tells a different story. Not only are they the primary funders of the Common Core assessment consortia, they just awarded the University of Pittsburgh a $2.5 million grant to develop training for the Common Core.
The Pittsburgh Business Times reports:

A team of researchers in the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center have been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to test and refine a training model used in manufacturing and healthcare to see if it works as well to support teachers transitioning into teaching the Common Core State Standards.
Working with the Tennessee Department of Education, the aim is to rapidly improve education programs through continuous improvement research, a strategy pioneered in the business and healthcare sectors at companies like Toyota Motor Co.
In the model, coaches will be trained in Common Core teaching and coaching methods and will then work closely with teachers in a small number of schools to assets them in implementing the new methods.

Even as states are starting to repeal it they’re moving forward with funding.

http://americanprinciplesproject.org...g-common-core/

No Action Taken on Branstad’s Common Core Order

July 16, 2014 By Shane Vander Hart

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Governor Terry Branstad (R-IA) talks to Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA) during the Republican Party of Iowa State Convention.


Governor Terry Branstad (R-Iowa) signed executive order 83 addressing concerns regarding the Common Core State Standards. His campaign on the stump has touted his action on the increasingly unpopular standards. The Iowa State Board of Education adopted the Common Core State Standards on July 29, 2010. They had to adopt the standard verbatim, so Iowa’s math and English language arts standards are now Common Core. Iowa can add additional standards, up to 15%.The Iowa Core (originally adopted in 2005) is Common Core as far as math and English language arts standards are concerned. Branstad’s executive order did not change that.Branstad was widely quoted over the weekend on comments he made about Common Core during the National Governors Association (NGA) meeting. The NGA, along with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), created the Common Core State Standards Initiative in order to develop the standards. NGA and CCSSO hold the copyright to the Common Core. The Common Core was not part of the agenda for the meeting.The Blaze quoted Branstad:

The Common Core standards were not on the formal agenda during a three-day meeting of the National Governors Association that ended Sunday, relegated to hallway discussions and closed-door meetings among governors and their staffs. The standards and even the words, “Common Core,” have “become, in a sense, radioactive,” said Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican whose state voluntarily adopted the standards in 2010.
“We want Iowa Common Core standards that meet the needs of our kids,” Branstad said, echoing an intensifying sentiment from tea party leaders who describe the education plan as an attempt by the federal government to take over local education.

Because the Common Core were not approved by the Iowa Legislature, Branstad has the constitutional authority to repeal the Common Core by executive order should he so choose. This would be similar to action taken by Governor Bobby Jindal (R-Louisiana) when he ordered Louisiana to out of the Common Core and their assessment consortia the Partnership for Assessment for College and Careers (PARCC). Branstad could roll back the math and ELA standards back to the ones approved by the Iowa Legislature and pull Iowa out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia.Iowans for Local Control asked its supporters to encourage Branstad to do just that. Caffeinated Thoughts was given a response email from Branstad’s special assistant for education Linda Fandel.

Thank you for contacting the Office of Gov. Terry E. Branstad regarding academic standards.
Governor Branstad and Lt. Governor Reynolds are committed to Iowa setting its own high state academic standards, so they are the right fit for Iowa. In October 2013, Governor Branstad signed Executive Order 83, which says that the state “not the federal government or any other organization, shall determine the content of Iowa’s state academic standards, which are known as the Iowa Core.” The executive order requires the Iowa Department of Education to develop a regular review cycle for the Iowa Core, including public comment, to improve Iowa’s standards.In addition, the executive order makes it clear that it is up to local school districts to choose the curriculum and learning materials they will use, consistent with Iowa’s academic standards.Iowa’s state academic standards will help assure that all Iowa students receive a rigorous education, no matter where they live. The standards must be in place by the 2014-15 school year. This is an important step toward helping Iowa regain its ranking as a top performer in education.Thank you again for your comments, and please feel free to contact me in the future.Sincerely,Linda Fandel, Special Assistant for EducationOffice of Iowa Governor Terry E. Branstad

The standards that Fandel refers to in the email, by law, are the original Iowa Core standards. There is no legal requirement for the Iowa Department of Education to push ahead with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards if Branstad were to roll the standards back to the original standards.Fandel also states, “the executive order requires the Iowa Department of Education to develop a regular review cycle for the Iowa Core.” Branstad’s executive order stated, “The Iowa Department of Education shall develop a regular review cycle for the Iowa Core, including public comment, to determine the contents of and to continually improve state academic standards.”Two states, South Carolina and Missouri, have passed review and replace legislation that includes a specific timeline for when the review and development of new standards are to be done. Florida Gov. Rick Scott ordered his state out of PARCC and a review of the standards with public input which happened relatively quickly after he issued his executive order. Albeit the results were mixed as far as Common Core opponents were concerned, but action was taken by the Department.Since the Branstad Administration is touting Branstad’s which was issued nine months ago (October 16, 2013) to the date Caffeinated Thoughts asked the Iowa Department of Education, “Has the department fleshed out what the review process for the Iowa Core/Common Core ordered by Gov. Branstad will look like? Is there a timeline? Who will be involved? What will the public feedback process look like?”Stacey Ballard, communications director for the Iowa Department of Education, responded to the inquiry, “Not yet. We’re approaching the process thoughtfully because our goal is to continue to improve the standards, and we look to Iowa education stakeholders to help us make the Iowa Core the right fit for Iowa.” (emphasis mine).

Nine months have passed and the Department has not even set up a plan to provide a review. It only took a year to develop the Common Core. It took the Department less time to send in its first Race to the Top application. The Iowa State Board of Education took less time deliberating the adoption of the Common Core – less than two months (final draft was released on June 1, 2010 and the board adopted them on July 29, 2010).So we are to believe that they can’t put together a plan in nine months? This tells me one of two things – either the Iowa Department of Education is not taking the Governor’s executive order very seriously or the Branstad administration wants to campaign on this executive order without making it an actual priority.

Which is it?


http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/2014/07/no-action-taken-on-branstad-common-core-order/

North Carolina Legislature Passes Common Core Repeal and Replace Bill

Filed in Common Core State Standards, Education at State Level by Shane Vander Hart on July 16, 2014 • 0 Comments
Last week the North Carolina Senate passed the conference report for SB 812 33-12. Today the North Carolina House joins them by passing the conference report 71-34. The bill will repeal and replace the Common Core. Gov. Pat McCrory (R-NC) has 10 days to decide whether he will sign it or not.
Here is the conference report:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/234143011/...ference-Report


About the Author (Author Profile)

Shane Vander Hart is the Editor-in-Chief of Caffeinated Thoughts, a popular Christian conservative blog in Iowa. He is also the President of 4:15 Communications, a social media & communications consulting/management firm, along with serving as the communications director for American Principles Project’s Preserve Innocence Initiative. Prior to this Shane spent 20 years in youth ministry serving in church, parachurch, and school settings. He has taught Jr. High History along with being the Dean of Students for Christian school in Indiana. Shane and his wife home school their three teenage children and have done so since the beginning. He has recently been recognized by Campaigns & Elections Magazine as one of the top political influencers in Iowa. Shane and his family reside near Des Moines, IA. You can connect with Shane on Facebook, follow him on Twitter or connect with him on Google +.

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/...-replace-bill/


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Chris Christie’s Do Nothing Executive Order

Filed in Common Core State Standards, Education at State Level by Shane Vander Hart on July 15, 2014 • 0 Comments
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore (CC-By-SA 3.0)

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie joined a number of other Republican governors (minus Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal) in issuing a do-nothing executive order related to Common Core.

As I wrote over at Caffeinated Thoughts earlier this afternoon:
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie could have done something meaningful to address Common Core, but he didn’t. Following the path of several Republican governors, he issued a do-nothing executive order instead that will create a commission tasked with reviewing the Common Core State Standards.

The commission which will be created as a result of this executive order will have to report its initial findings to Christie by December 31, 2015. The final report will be issued by July 31, 2015.

There is no action plan after that. The order doesn’t specify what type of people who will serve other than it will be “comprised of 9 appointees who have practical experience, knowledge, or expertise in the areas of education policy or administration and will serve without compensation. “ Also the commission the executive order states may (not shall) “consult with education stakeholders, practitioners, experts or other knowledgeable individuals in the public or private sector on any aspect of its mission.” No public hearings… no ability for parents to weigh in that I can see.

The bill before the New Jersey Senate that was delayed for this garbage executive order would have established a task force under the control of the legislature, and it would have delayed the PARCC assessment by two years. This does nothing of the sort.

In fact the point of the Commission, according to the Christie administration, is to ensure an effective implementation of the Common Core and PARCC. They state in a press release sent out yesterday, “The creation of this Commission will also help ensure the effectiveness of the Core Curriculum Content Standards, including the Common Core State Standards, and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness of College and Careers (PARCC) assessments.”
There is absolutely no plan on replacing the Common Core whatsoever.

Jan Lenox of Concerned Citizens of Southern New Jersey told me in an email, “After sitting in the Senate Chamber last Thursday for almost three hours waiting for our bill to be put for a vote for the third time; the result is what took place yesterday. The Governor in a three-way, let’s cut a deal, with the senate president and the NJEA, completely dissed New Jersey’s children and their parents from a fair way to resolve the issue of Common Core. This is a complete travesty.”

Here is the text of his Common Core executive order:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/234012147/...on-Common-Core


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August 2011

Shane Vander Hart


About the Author (Author Profile)

Shane Vander Hart is the Editor-in-Chief of Caffeinated Thoughts, a popular Christian conservative blog in Iowa. He is also the President of 4:15 Communications, a social media & communications consulting/management firm, along with serving as the communications director for American Principles Project’s Preserve Innocence Initiative. Prior to this Shane spent 20 years in youth ministry serving in church, parachurch, and school settings. He has taught Jr. High History along with being the Dean of Students for Christian school in Indiana. Shane and his wife home school their three teenage children and have done so since the beginning. He has recently been recognized by Campaigns & Elections Magazine as one of the top political influencers in Iowa. Shane and his family reside near Des Moines, IA. You can connect with Shane on Facebook, follow him on Twitter or connect with him on Google +.

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Corporate Money Distorting Democracy in Education Policy

Filed in Common Core State Standards by Shane Vander Hart on January 31, 2013 • 0 Comments

An interesting report from In the Public Interest.

Emails between the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), founded and chaired by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and state education officials show that the foundation is writing state education laws and regulations in ways that could benefit its corporate funders. The emails, obtained through public records requests, reveal that the organization, sometimes working through its Chiefs For Change affiliate, wrote and edited laws, regulations and executive orders, often in ways that improved profit opportunities for the organization’s financial backers.
“Testing companies and for-profit online schools see education as big business,” said In the Public Interest Chair Donald Cohen. “For-profit companies are hiding behind FEE and other business lobby organizations they fund to write laws and promote policies that enrich the companies.”

The emails conclusively reveal that FEE staff acted to promote their corporate funders’ priorities, and demonstrate the dangerous role that corporate money plays in shaping our education policy. Correspondence in Florida, New Mexico, Maine, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Louisiana paint a graphic picture of corporate money distorting democracy.

Read the rest.
No way we’d never suspect that some who advocated and/or wrote the Common Core would be in it for a financial windfall! Ok, yes we did suspect it, and now we have our proof.
Even if you like the Common Core and other reforms pushed by FEE can we agree that this is unethical?


http://truthinamericaneducation.com/...cation-policy/


Corporate Interests Pay to Play to Shape Education Policy, Reap profits

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Emails Show Bush-Led Organization's ALEC-Like Role in State Policymaking

Emails between the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), founded and chaired by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and state education officials show that the foundation is writing state education laws and regulations in ways that could benefit its corporate funders. The emails, obtained through public records requests, reveal that the organization, sometimes working through its Chiefs For Change affiliate, wrote and edited laws, regulations and executive orders, often in ways that improved profit opportunities for the organization's financial backers.
"Testing companies and for-profit online schools see education as big business," said In the Public Interest Chair Donald Cohen. "For-profit companies are hiding behind FEE and other business lobby organizations they fund to write laws and promote policies that enrich the companies."
The emails conclusively reveal that FEE staff acted to promote their corporate funders' priorities, and demonstrate the dangerous role that corporate money plays in shaping our education policy. Correspondence in Florida, New Mexico, Maine, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Louisiana paint a graphic picture of corporate money distorting democracy.
The correspondence is available at:
• Rhode Island: http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/node/2746
• Oklahoma: http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/node/2745
• New Mexico: http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/node/2744
• Maine: http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/node/2743
• Louisiana: http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/node/2742
• Florida: http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/node/2741
Most concerning are the findings that reveal:
• In New Mexico, FEE acted as a broker to organize meetings between their corporate donors and individual Chiefs.
• Maine moved the FEE policy agenda through legislation and executive order that would remove barriers to online education and in some cases would require online classes - including eliminating class size caps and student-teacher ratios, allowing public dollars to flow to online schools and classes, eliminate ability of local school districts to limit access to virtual schools.
• In Florida, FEE helped write legislation that would increase the use of a proprietary test (FCAT) under contract to Pearson, an FEE donor.
• Foundation for Excellence in Education CEO Patricia Levesque urged state officials to introduce SendHub, a communications tool, into their state's schools. News reports indicate that Levesque's boss, Jeb Bush, is an investor in SendHub.

“These emails show a troubling link between Jeb Bush's effort to lobby for ‘reforms’ through his statewide Foundation for Florida's Future, his national Foundation for Excellence in Education, and the powerful corporations who want access to billions of our tax dollars by reshaping public education policies just to create markets for themselves - none of which is in the best interest of our children,” said Kathleen Oropeza, a Florida parent.

State Highlights
Florida

• FEE staff sought legislation that would count the state test, known as FCAT, as more than 50% of the state's school accountability measure. FEE staffer Patricia Levesque wrote to a state official that she had negotiated the related language with state legislators, who were now "asking for the following which, the Foundation completely supports: FCAT shall be 'at least 50%, but no more than 60%' of a high school's grade." Pearson, the company that holds the $250 million FCAT contract and sponsors FEE through its foundation, has an obvious financial stake in ensuring that FCAT continues to be at the center of Florida's education system.
• Levesque writes, "I think we need to add a sec onto this bill to give you/the department authority to set a state‐approved list of charter operators or private providers so districts can't pick poor performers to implement turnaround." At least one FEE donor, the for-profit Florida-based Charter Schools USA, could benefit from being placed on such a state-approved list.
• Charter Schools USA also could benefit from a "parent trigger" law, the passage of which, as Nadia Hagberg of FEE wrote, was the goal of a partnership between Bush's Florida-based organization (the Foundation for Florida's Future) and Parent Revolution: "The Foundation for Florida's Future worked closely with [Parent Revolution] throughout the process in Florida and they proved to be an invaluable asset." Parent trigger, which failed to pass during Florida's last legislative session, is a mechanism to convert neighborhood schools to charter schools.
Louisiana
• An April 26, 2011, email indicates that Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education, through its Chiefs for Change project, had engaged John Bailey, a director of Dutko Grayling. CEO Patricia Levesque wrote to State Schools Superintendent Paul Pastorek:
o John Bailey, whom you met over the phone, will be on the call to provide an update on reauthorization discussions on the Hill. He is going to be on contract with the Foundation to assist with the Chiefs' DC activities in light of Angie's departure.
o Dutko has been accused of working with industry front groups in the past. For example, Dutko worked with AIDS Responsibility Project (ARP), an industry-supported effort described by an HIV/AIDS policy activist as a 'drug industry-funded front group. '"
• There are records of the Foundation for Excellence in Education reimbursing Paul Pastorek and John White, the two men who led the state's education department, for their travel to Orlando and Washington, D.C., for events sponsored by FEE and the Chiefs for Change.
Maine
• As the Portland Press-Herald has reported, the emails were evidence of "a partnership formed between Maine's top education official and a foundation entangled with the very companies that stand to make millions of dollars from the policies it advocates."
• FEE Deputy Director Deirdre Finn wrote, "We can definitely help develop an executive order," referring to what became a February 2012 executive order by Gov. LePage directing his education commissioner to develop a plan to open the door to more cyber-schooling in Maine. The elements of the order originated with the Digital Learning Council, a group co-chaired by Bush and funded by FEE donors K12 Inc, the Pearson Foundation, and McGraw-Hill.
• The Foundation for Educational Excellence also acted as a conduit for ALEC model legislation and policies. LePage's order originated at ALEC, was tailored for Maine by the FEE and sent to Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen, who subsequently forwarded it to LePage to release unchanged. "Resolution adopting the 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning" is a model bill introduced by Arizona Sen. Rich Crandall at the 2011 ALEC Annual Conference.
New Mexico
• FEE provides its donors-including for-profit digital education companies-access to the chiefs. A draft agenda for the Excellence in Action 2011 Summit blocked off two hours for "Chiefs for Change donor meetings" Another draft agenda for the meeting allocated nearly three hours to "Chiefs for Change donor meetings" The donors for the summit were The Walton Family Foundation, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, The Broad Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, Susan and Bill Oberndorf, GlobalScholar, Target, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Microsoft, State Farm, IQity, McGraw-Hill Education, Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, Intel, Pearson Foundation, Apex Learning, ETS, Electronic Arts, Koret Foundation, SMART Technologies, K12, Morgridge Family Foundation, Charter Schools USA, and Connections Academy. Demand for donor time was so high that Patricia Levesque wrote that she had to turn down opportunities for the chiefs to meet other representatives from companies.
• FEE staff served as advisors to acting education commissioner Hanna Skandera.FEE, and, by extension, its donors, had great influence over New Mexico legislation. In a Jan., 2011 email, Skandera directs a staffer from the legislature to forward all education bills to FEE's Christy Hovanetz for edits: "Can you send all Governor's office ed bill language to Christy, including social promotion?" Another FEE staffer, Mary Laura Bragg wrote to Skandera, "I'm at your beck and call."
• The Foundation sought to make connections between Skandera (as well as the other Chiefs for Change) and the Hume Foundation for funds for digital learning projects from the Hume Foundation that "must flow through the Foundation for Excellence in Education as a project-restricted grant." The Santa Fe New Mexican reported in Oct. 21 that Skandera had indeed for such a grant, which ultimately could lead to digital learning legislation favorable to FEE funders Connections Academy and K-12 Inc.
• The emails indicate that FEE paid for Skandera's travel, reimbursing New Mexico $3382.91 for her expenses, including trip to Washington, D.C., to testify before Congress.
Oklahoma
• An Oct. 7, 2011, email indicates that State Superintendent Janet Barresi was a guest of Louis A. Piconi-founder & SVP of Strategic Activities, Apangea Learning Inc., a distance learning company-at an event Piconi hosted for Jeb Bush and Indiana Schools Superintendent Tony Bennett. Apangea is not a known funder of FEE, but Apangea and Barresi contributed to Bennett's campaign.
• As in other states, FEE staff had great control over state education policies, writing and editing regulations for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
*For unknown reasons, Barresi's response to an email from Patricia Levesque about SendHub was not included in Oklahoma's response to the public records request. Instead, that was found in the documents from Louisiana. A Louisiana official was cc'd on the email. A description of Barresi's response is in the Rhode Island section of this document.
Rhode Island
• In February 2012, Patricia Levesque, using her Foundation for Excellence in Education email address, urged state officials to introduce SendHub, a communications tool, into their state's schools. News reports indicate that Levesque's boss, Jeb Bush, was an investor in the start-up by the fall of 2012.
• An e-mail chain between RI Ed Commissioner Deborah Gist and FEE's Patricia Levesque shows Gist trying to obtain a funding grant from the Kern Foundation, which was denied because of the "political environment" in RI.
• Gist also sought funding from the Hume Foundation for a digital learning initiative. FEE staff made it a point to connect Gist, as well as other state education commissioners, with Hume to launch digital learning projects.


http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/node/2747

#CommonCore



Two More Governors Turning Against Common Core http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/07/tw...g-common-core/




Two More Governors Turning Against Common Core - Freedom Outpost
freedomoutpost.com
Two More Governors Turning Against Common Core

Leftists & Islamists Join Forces: Dumbing Down America Via Common Core & More!

Posted by Adina Kutnicki on Jul 19, 2014


The red & green alliance is bent on bringing down “Amerika”, whatever it takes. Common Core is a main thrust of their infiltration & penetration of America’s kiddies, indoctrinating for generations to come……
Commentary by Adina Kutnicki

Granted, not everyone is meant to be a math whiz, this blogger included. Gee whiz. However, failing to teach the basics – by the educational system! – in the “three R’s” is tantamount to child abuse. Yes, it is.
For if America’s schoolchildren are expected to become self-sufficient adults, how exactly is gobbledygook math (numb-skull verbal skills too) going to help them in the marketplace? Precisely. Trenchantly, the point of dumbing down America’s youth is to create a dependent class, one which is “equal” across the board. That’s the left’s plan, aided and abetted by Allah-bent Islamists to bring down “Amerika”.To its submissive knees.
To effectuate said result, decades of targeted “lessons” have been misfiring (on purpose) in the direction of America’s school children. The question for some is: are they just misguided in their approach? and for others: what are they truly aiming for? Whatever ones parental (societal) discomfit, rest assured, the (mis)education of the kiddies has NOTHING to do with teaching the fundamentals of basic disciplines.
Enter: Common Core and its actual mission statement.
Mission Statement One:
To understand the core component of the (mis)education “process”, one can catch it “hiding in plain site”. Hint:its name! The left loves to play mind games. Therefore, spitting in their opponent’s eyes grants them an added charge. Leg tingly. Thrilling.
Mission Statement Two:
Even so, what is titillating for some is a nightmare for many millions. As mentioned, America’s academic “overhaul” is a cesspool of the highest order, yet college kids can’t even escape its grasp. Why? Their indoctrination isn’t complete without creating a complete climate of PC uniformity, up and down the system.
Mission Statement Three:
And guess who is ALWAYS skulking in the (mis)education background, designing the underpinnings of radical pedagogy? You would be right, if you named the leader of the Weathermen – domestic terror group – Billy boy Ayers!
Mission Statement Four:
Yet, despite all the chilling aspects of the radical left’s penetration via the schools, what’s the upshot re Common Core? In a nutshell, complete surveillance of the kiddies – literally!


Insane Math Lessons and Common Core
FrontPage Magazine
This week’s Glazov Gang was joined by superstars Basil Hoffman, a Hollywood actor (“Rio, I Love You”),Ann-Marie Murrell, the National Director ofPolitiChicks.tv and Ernie White, a Civil Rights Activist.
The Gang discussed Insane Math Lessons and Common Core,analyzing the Left’s real agenda in making arithmetic mindbogglingly confusing for American children (starting at the 13:40 mark).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UPp3QP6_Pw
The discussion occurred with the context of The Cancer of Common Core, in which the guests discussed Holocaust-Denial Assignments for American Children, how Islam is a big investor in the Left’s new educational concept, how Mao’s Cultural Revolution has now reached America’s public schools, how individualism is being crushed in the new “raising of standards,” and much, much more:
It is beyond dispute that the revolutionary left has co-opted U.S. education from early childhood up through the college level, thus, creating foot soldiers. It is also a fact that Islamists are on board with whatever tactics are necessary to deconstruct America.
But there are also many millions of patriots who have finally woken up to the dangers, as such, they are enraged at the co-option of their children. Countless parents are at war against Common Core, aka ObamaCore, within many states. About time. In fact, if anything is demonstrative of what’s happening to the kiddies, and what this portends for those who sit on their hands, well, what happened to one parent will be a picnic for the rest.


Heed these lessons well, or the consequences will be grave – for generations to come!

About the author: Adina Kutnicki


Adina Kutnicki is an investigative journalist and independent op-ed contributor to various Zionist and Conservative media outlets. She contributed to an in-depth investigative series at FrontPage Magazine with Lee Kaplan from 2003-2007. They are still working together. Her op-eds have been featured at American Thinker, Israel National News,Israel Insider, The Jewish Press, MidEast Outpost, The Freeman Center For Strategic Studies, HONENU – Providing Legal Aid To Israeli Soldiers & Civilians In Distress, JEWSNEWS.co.il(http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/11/10/...ewsnews-co-il/) as well as at other sites. Some interviews include: The Inquisitr Interviews Adina Kutnicki: The Reality Of Life For An Israeli Patriot and ‘The Muslim Brotherhood’s Quest For Global Dominance – An Interview With Adina Kutnicki.’ Her recent book review On A Wing From The Holy Land [Review Of An Exciting New Novel About The Spiritual Journey Of An Israeli Woman] was also spotlighted at Inquisitr. In addition, she is the Israel Administrator at Islam Exposed Online Her blog - www.adinakutnicki.com - received a ‘Watcher of Weasels’ Award - see within – scroll down to ‘Non-Council’ winners. Her full profile can be found at -



Read more at http://joeforamerica.com/2014/07/lef...SucetjVpC5A.99

Mark Kempton originally shared:

PRESENTING: THE IDIOTS GUIDE TO STARTING WW3

STEP 1: Wait until the last generation who fought a world war are either all dead, or too old for anyone to care what they think.

STEP 2: Co-opt the mainstream media through corporate control, turning them into a mouthpiece for the regime. Reporters who are politically correct obtain promotion, those who disagree are relegated.

STEP 3: Dumb down your population with "national education standards". Teach them to memorise things parrot-fashion. Be sure to penalise critical/independent thinking.

STEP 4: Identify an adversary. Preferably one that people are familiar with and whom you owe money to - such as Germany, Russia or China.

STEP 5: Start throwing around trade sanctions and protectionist measures, so that both your economy and your adversary's suffers. Make life generally miserable for everyone.

STEP 6: Slowly build up a narrative of alleged misbehaviour by your adversary. This can easily be achieved by destabilising their neighbouring countries by funding and supplying the opposition.

STEP 7: Create a series of false flag attacks, because just one incident might have been "a mistake". Each one more significant than the last. Take full advantage of each one for propaganda purposes.

STEP 8: Having successfully demonised your opponent, start the war in "self defence" to "preserve world peace".

And there you have it, surely even an idiot like #Obama can get this one right....





Mark Kempton's photos

The Myth of the Helpless Parent


Filed in Common Core State Standards by Laurie H. Rogers

on July 21, 2014 • 2 Comments


“I Can” statements are all the rage in our public schools. Students are to say “I can” and then positively reaffirm something they feel capable of doing.

I’m offering suggestions for “We can” statements. If your school district obeys the law, tells the truth, spends money wisely, and properly educates children, then you probably don’t need these. Sadly, most citizens don’t have a school district like that, and this article is directed to them.


Parents have been trained for decades to trust in America’s K-12 government schools. This trust now serves the districts but not the students within them. Most districts aren’t being held accountable for violations of the law; failures to properly educate children; improper spending of tax dollars; or long-term refusals to tell citizens the truth.


Many districts seem increasingly dictatorial, deceitful, expensive and intrusive. We trust them with our children, and in return, they lie to us, miseducate our children and blame us for their failures. When we question them, some even attack us, using government/media/corporate allies to help pile on. They retain power in the way schoolyard bullies do, by ensuring that parents remain cowed, isolated and uninformed. It’s ironic. In reality, parents have all of the power.


Most parents don’t know that. Schools have purposefully fostered a sense of helplessness in parents (and in students and teachers), training us to believe that we must do as we’re told. Schools couldn’t eliminate parents altogether, but they could create parents who agree to eliminate themselves.


Schools thus trained successive generations to work in a group, defer to the group, think as a group, achieve consensus with the group, be assessed with the group, and defend group decisions. Punishments and rewards have been used to mold thinking and behavior and to direct energies. Parents are encouraged to be involved in the schools, as long as our involvement brings in money, furthers the agenda and doesn’t question the authority. Obeying = Rewards. Dissenting = Punishments.
Nowadays, when schools praise “critical thinking,” they usually mean non-critical thinking or groupthink. When they talk about community “input,” they tend to receive it via the Delphi Technique, a way of manipulating groups to agree on predetermined conclusions. When they ask for parent “help,” they mean any help that doesn’t question the authority, not even to help a child.


Meanwhile, parents have long been shut out of the education of our own children. Books are eliminated, homework isn’t sent home, traditional methods are derided as “old school,” and our wishes are undermined or ignored. Parent preferences are openly criticized and dismissed, and in conferences, we’re told: “Don’t teach that at home. Don’t help. You’ll just confuse your child.” Schools now use technology to hide the curriculum – on tablets and laptops and in private email accounts for children.


This operant conditioning – skillfully done, I’ll give them that – has produced a population that generally feels helpless. Worse, it accepts feeling helpless. This population doesn’t need to be shut down; it shuts down itself. “Oh, no, I couldn’t. It will be OK. They must have a good reason. They must know what they’re doing.” Such apathy suits authoritarian, intrusive governments. It’s easier to implement an agenda with weak and politically aligned sheep than with individualistic and critical thinkers. Most of us do find now that it’s easier, safer and infinitely more profitable to be sheep.


And yet, dissent is critical to helping our children, to serving our honor, and to maintaining a free country. We’re helpless only in our mind. The government cannot make our child take a test. It cannot force us into its failed bureaucratic, narcissistic, adult-centered system. Not unless we allow it.


We can say no to this government. We can refuse to allow it to eliminate our ideas and preferences, or to miseducate, misuse and misguide our children.
Few “leaders” are likely to help us. Most now are part of the government network. Think of the vast array of government and elected officials, their associations and throngs of legal teams – now “partnering” with influential people and non-accountable, non-transparent corporations, organizations and foundations – to implement policies that suit them. Instead of partnering with parents for a better education system, they partner with each other to implement policy, gather data on us and our children, sell their products and services, and implement a political and social agenda. It’s a symbiotic relationship for them, but it’s largely parasitic toward us and our children.


They help each other. They sit on boards, hand out grants and contracts, campaign, advertise, lobby, buy and sell. They socialize together, travel together, praise each other, help friends and family members gain preferred positions, and allow each other to get away with things.


These “partnerships” might be fascist in nature (the government controlling the corporations), or corporatist (the corporations controlling public policy), but in any case, they’re neither democratic nor representative of a Republic. America is being fundamentally transformed to a totalitarian state in which government and corporate cartels work together to do what neither is allowed to do by itself. It pays well now to be a government or corporate crony; it does not pay, and in some cases, it has become dangerous, to dissent from this government/corporate network.


The Network won’t spend our tax dollars wisely, won’t return control of our children’s education to us, and won’t stop its intrusive data collecting. It has no incentive to tell the truth or obey the law. Many media outlets – which are supposed to have our back –appear to be part of the Network.


Suddenly we find that – although our schools lack solid academic programs – there are laptops, iPads and SMART Boards in front of every child’s face. There are new curricula every few years, new calculators even in kindergarten, and cool electronic toys that don’t foster real learning. De facto national standards and tests are being pushed on all of us from cradle through career. When we ask who is doing that pushing, the feds point to the states and to non-accountable associations; the states point to districts; the districts point to legislators; the legislators claim ignorance.


Suddenly, some of us find that there are handguns in the hands of school employees. There are cameras and video recorders on the wall to track visitors, and new machines to scan our driver’s license, track our children, scan their irises, record their fingerprints, or track their biometric information.


Look around you – the K-12 education system in America has become freaking scary.


Citizens MUST be the dissenters. Our children’s future – this country’s future – is on the line.


Clearly, the American government no longer knows how to educate a child. That’s been proved in 10,000 ways. It has ceased to hold itself accountable, and it now works collaboratively to skirt laws and protect itself. This isn’t a left/right issue. This simply is “in” or “out” of the government/corporate Network. If you’re “in,” you’re taken care of. If you’re out, well, good luck with that.


But we aren’t stuck in this machine. We’re helpless only when we agree to it. My first “We can” statement is this: “We can say no to the K-12 government education system.” Here are some more:

• Opt out of programs: We can opt out of failed academic programs, and out of excessively mature sex education classes and materials. We can find solid math and English curricula online, buy them, and start teaching them to our children.
  
  
• Leave the system: When a school mistreats, abuses, blames, mocks, neglects or refuses to educate our children, we can walk out of that school and never look back.
  
  
• Opt out of testing: We can opt out of state and federal testing that sucks up class time; tells us nothing of value; collects intrusive and flawed data on us; is manipulated to show success where none exists; and forces our children to either take math tests online or be labeled as special education.
  
• Say no to technology: We can say no to excessive and intrusive technology and data collection.
  
• Question the money: We can question the barrels of state and federal money allotted for special education programs that never seem to go to special education students. We can vote no to the next levy and bond for school districts that misspend taxpayer money; use taxpayer money against taxpayers; and lie to us about budgets, expenditures and outcomes.
  
• Inform others: We can inform other parents, run for the school board, or help other citizens run. We can recall corrupt or obstructive board directors and push to replace superintendents and administrators.
  
• Reject Common Core: We can push our legislatures to reject the de facto nationalization and radicalization of the American public school system, epitomized by the questionable, authoritarian and unproved Common Core initiatives.
  
• Reject pretend “choice”: We can refuse to support charter schools that clearly are under the thumb of local school districts.

We can say no. We can make a good system happen. We can help our children, fix the problems, rebuild an accountable government and put responsible individuals in power. We can homeschool, find private schools, hire tutors, or ask family members or friends to teach our children what the schools will not. We can step away from the entire madness of public education. Believe me, folks, it’s a mess. It’s much worse in 2014 than it was in 2007, even as our avenues of dissent have narrowed dramatically.


The government/corporate Network depends on us thinking we’re helpless, that we can’t say no, that we don’t know any better, that they mean well, that they really do care about our children, and that they will eventually do what’s right.


Don’t believe it. We are not helpless, we can say no, and we do know better. The Network doesn’t mean well, it doesn’t care about our children more than it cares about itself, and if the Network was ever going to use its considerable power to do what’s right for our children, it would have done it by now.


http://truthinamericaneducation.com/...n+Education%29