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

California Orders Kids to Embrace Obama

Posted by Tad Cronn on Aug 30, 2014


Not content with forcing liberal dogma down children’s throats through Common Core, California plans to force schoolkids to learn all about President Obama, his “historic” election and all the wonderful changes he has brought about.

In a law signed by Governor Moonbeam, Jerry Brown, the Legislature has told the California Instructional Quality Commission, which meets at the delicatessen down the street from the capitol, to include in its next history/social science curriculum update a unit on the racial significance of Obama’s election and how he has brought about equality when all past elections suppressed black votes.

As part of its trip into the farthest reaches of Fantasy Land, the Legislature declared the following:

• “(a) The election of Barack Hussein Obama to the office of President of the United States was a historic step in the effort towards equality in the United States.
• “(b) Before the Civil Rights Movement, intimidation and physical violence prevented millions of African Americans from voting and alienated them from the electoral process.
• “(c) The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a civil rights victory that inspired more ethnic minorities to register to vote and pursue elected office.
• “(d) Barack Obama attended Harvard Law School where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review.
• “(e) After law school, Barack Obama worked to fulfill the spirit of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by encouraging people to register to vote.
• “(f) Barack Obama was first elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 and to the United States Senate in 2004.
• “(g) Senator Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States and first African American President on November 4, 2008, and was sworn in on January 20, 2009.
• (“h) In honor of his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples, President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• “(i) President Obama was reelected on November 6, 2012, and was sworn in for his second term on January 20, 2013.”

Doesn’t he sound wonderful?

Now, no one could have a reasonable problem with teaching kids the facts about Obama as part of a unit on all the presidents. Like it or not, he is the officeholder.

Just so we’re clear, the facts about Obama are in sections d, f, g and i. But since i is really just a follow on g, you’ve got three facts out of nine listed findings. The rest is either just random facts thrown in to pad Obama’s resume or is open to interpretation, particularly the baloney about “his extraordinary efforts” earning him the Peace Prize when all he really did for it was be not-Bush.

Obama’s “historic step” toward equality was nothing of the sort. His election was about money and behind-the-scenes abuse of power by certain fabulously wealthy individuals and other interests, and since his election, he’s done exactly squat to further equality — in fact, he has virtually divided up this country into camps of growling factions based on skin color and ethnicity. Not only is he letting the country be overrun by illegal immigrants in cynical pandering to Latinos, his Administration is actively trying to return Hawaii to native Hawaiians and create a separate, ethnicity-based sovereign nation out of our 50th state. He is the most racially divisive president of modern times.

His early efforts to get people to register had nothing to do with honoring the Voting Rights Act and everything to do with using the Alinsky method to press his radical ideas on American society. From the beginning of his career, Obama was a socialist with big ambitions to overturn the American ideals enshrined in the Constitution and Declaration and replace them with a Marxist society.

This move by California is an effort to single out Obama for special hero-status treatment that he definitely does not deserve. In the process, it bends and twists history to create an overly generous portrayal of King Putt that schoolchildren will be required to memorize and believe, or else.
It’s one of the fruits of Obama’s ultra-creepy zombie personality cult, and it was adopted 76-1 by the Legislature.

The lone voice in the wilderness was Republican Tim Donnelly, who literally is from the wilderness as he represents the High Desert region of California, from Northeast Los Angeles County to the Arizona border.

Donnelly is a decent man who probably eats a lot of lunches by himself and doesn’t get to join in any reindeer games.
California’s ham-handed efforts to brainwash children into embracing Obama the Glorious is more befitting of North Korea than one of the United States.

Read more at http://joeforamerica.com/2014/08/cal...oDzXEixPbGt.99

Phyllis Schlafly Report

August 2014 Phyllis Schlafly Report:

August 2014

Common Core’s Growing Unpopularity

The highly acclaimed school standards called Common Core are becoming so unpopular that they may soon be politically untouchable. The critics are piling on from Glenn Beck to the Wall Street Journal, with senior academics and activist parents in between.

The latest is a detailed criticism of the mathematics standards by a prize-winning math professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Marina Ratner. It is refreshing that her criticisms are very specific and include examples of assignments that parents can see are ridiculous.
Professor Ratner was alerted to the stupidity of Common Core by looking at the homework assigned to her grandson in 6th grade Berkeley middle school. Fractions are taught by having the kids draw pictures of everything such as 6 divided by 8, and 4 divided by 2/7, and also by creating fictional stories for such things as 2/3 divided by 3/4. A student who gives the correct answer right away and doesn’t draw a picture or make up a story loses points.
Ms. Ratner concluded that Common Core is making simple math concepts “artificially intricate and complex with the pretense of being deeper, while the actual content taught was primitive.” The bottom line is that Common Core is inferior to the current good California standards, and the $15.8 billion spent nationally to develop and adopt Common Core was a gigantic waste.
College ready? That’s another deceit. Math experts are saying that Common Core standards are not preparing students for colleges to which most parents aspire to send their children.
The Common Core History Standards have just become available. Real scholars say they are a “stealthy” plan to teach kids a leftwing curriculum.
Scholar Stanley Kurtz says that the new plan for teaching American History is spelled out in the SAT college entrance and Advanced Placement exams. They pitch out “traditional emphasis on America’s founders and the principles of constitutional government” in favor of a leftist “emphasis on race, gender, class, ethnicity.”
According to Kurtz, “James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and the other founders are largely left out of the new test unless they are “presented as examples of conflict and identity by class, gender, race, ethnicity, etc.” The text of the new AP U.S. History exam has been closely guarded, revealed only to a few certified AP U.S. History teachers who are sworn to secrecy.
Parents who are attentive to their children’s studies and homework have been up in arms against Common Core for many months. Now Common Core has become such a big issue that it’s beginning to bring the politicians into line with what the public is demanding.
Indiana was the first state to show the political power of the anti-Common Core movement. The activist moms defeated a superintendent of education and several legislators on this issue. The South Carolina Legislature voted to stop the use of Common Core.
Oklahoma made the biggest splash when the state legislature voted to repeal the state’s earlier endorsement of Common Core. The governor signed the repeal, but the unelected state board of education impudently filed suit to nullify the repeal, and then the Oklahoma state supreme court wisely upheld the elected legislature’s repeal.
The state of Texas, under Governor Rick Perry, was smart enough to be one of the five states that never signed on to Common Core in the first place. But now the pressure is on to force Texas to use the new AP U.S. History Exam anyway, and Texans claim that is illegal under state law.
Louisiana was one of the original 45 states that endorsed Common Core before the standards were even written. But one day Governor Bobby Jindal actually read his son’s Common Core math homework, was shocked, and then issued an executive order to block its implementation in Louisiana.
Two more Governors have seen the light and turned against Common Core. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced that he wants the state legislature to repeal the standards when it reconvenes in January, and Governor Gary Herbert of Utah ordered his attorney general to conduct a review of the controversial standards.
Excerpts from Various
Critiques of Common Core

Stanley Kurtz, New War Over High School U.S. History, National Review Online, July 10, 2014
Americans are only just now waking up to a quiet but devastatingly effective effort to replace the teaching of traditional American history in our high schools with a new, centrally controlled, and sharply left-leaning curriculum.
The College Board, the company that issues the SAT and the various Advanced Placement (AP) exams, has created an elaborate new framework for the AP U.S. History Exam that will effectively force nearly all American high schools, public and private, to transform the way they teach U.S. History.
The traditional emphasis on America’s founders and the principles of constitutional government will soon be jettisoned in favor of a left-leaning emphasis on race, gender, class, ethnicity, etc.
James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and the other founders are largely left out of the new test, unless they are presented as examples of conflict and identity by class, gender, race, ethnicity, etc. The Constitution can be studied as an example of the Colonists’ belief in the superiority of their own culture, for instance. But any teacher who presents a full unit on the principles of the American Constitution taught in the traditional way would be severely disadvantaging his students.
Just as the Common Core became an established fact before most American parents, lawmakers, and school districts even knew it existed, the new AP U.S. History Exam is about to entrench a controversial and highly politicized national school curriculum without proper notice or debate. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and a full understanding of our founding principles are on the way out. Race, gender, class, and ethnicity are coming in, all in secrecy and in clear violation of the Constitution’s guarantee that education remain in control of the states.
The time to oppose the new AP U.S. History Exam is now.
Professor Marina Ratner, Making Math Education Even Worse, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 5, 2014
I first encountered the Common Core State Standards last fall, when my grandson started sixth grade in a public middle school here in Berkeley, Calif.
I found hardly any academic mathematicians who could say the standards were higher than the old California standards, which were among the nation’s best.
Jason Zimba, another lead writer of the mathematics standards, told the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that the new standards wouldn’t prepare students for colleges to which “most parents aspire” to send their children.
It became clear that the new standards represent lower expectations and that students taught in the way that these standards require would have little chance of being admitted to even an average college and would certainly struggle if they did get in.
The teacher required that students draw pictures of everything: of 6 divided by 8, of 4 divided by 2/7, of 0.8 x 0.4, and so forth. “For example, create a story context for 2/3 divided by 3/4 and use a visual fraction model to show the quotient . . .”
Who would draw a picture to divide 2/3 by 3/4?
A student who gives the correct answer right away (as one should) and doesn’t draw anything loses points.
Here are some more examples of the Common Core’s convoluted and meaningless manipulations of simple concepts: “draw a series of tape diagrams to represent (12 divided by 3) x 3=12, or: rewrite (30 divided by 5) = 6 as a subtraction expression.”
This model-drawing mania went on in my grandson’s class for the entire year, leaving no time to cover geometry and other important topics.
Simple concepts are made artificially intricate and complex with the pretense of being deeper — while the actual content taught was primitive.
The Common Core standards will move the U.S. even closer to the bottom in international ranking.
Peter Wood, What the Common Core Will Do to Colleges, Manhattan Institute, March 16, 2014
Goodbye Local Control. The Common Core transfers a lot of power over the nation’s schools from local districts and state governments to the federal government. The transfer is deceptive and probably illegal. The deception comes from the Common Core being sold as “voluntarily” adopted by the states. The illegality comes from statutory law that prohibits the federal government’s involvement in creating school curricula.
Big Brother. The Common Core is designed to collect and aggregate an immense amount of data on individual students’ academic performance. Critics worry that this will eventuate in detailed federal files on everyone who attends school.
Jane Robbins and Larry Krieger, The College Board’s Attack on American History, Breitbart, May 28, 2014
Imagine having your teenager emerge from a U.S. history course with only a vague recognition of the name “George Washington.” Suppose that course mentioned the father of our country with reference to only one speech — no discussion of his military leadership and triumphs, his personal sacrifice to accept the call to become the first President, or his wise and steady leadership during the tumultuous first years of our nation.
To put this into perspective, imagine how South Africans would respond if an unelected agency issued a history of their country that contained just one reference to Nelson Mandela.
Beginning in August, such a course will be offered to 500,000 of America’s most talented high-school sophomores and juniors — the College Board’s new AP U.S. History Framework. The new College Board Framework will replace the traditional 5-page topical outline with a 98-page document that dictates how teachers should cover the required topics. George Washington gets one brief mention; other founders, such as Benjamin Franklin and James Madison, none. The Declaration of Independence is referred to in passing in one clause of one sentence.
If the Framework virtually ignores the most important men and documents in American history, what does it find worthy of attention? The answer is, pretty much anything that casts a negative light on our country. The redesigned Framework inculcates a consistently negative view of American history by highlighting oppressors and exploiters while ignoring the dreamers and innovators who built our country.
The College Board’s own website confirms that the AP exam will focus exclusively on content specified in the Framework. In short, what isn’t tested won’t be taught.
The redesigned Framework is thoroughly biased, poorly written, ineptly outlined, and consistently negative in tone. These egregious flaws must be corrected.
Jane Robbins, Framework Distorts America’s History, Heartland, March 26, 2014
A particularly troubling failure of the Framework is its dismissal of the Declaration of Independence and the principles so eloquently expressed there. The Framework’s entire discussion of this seminal document consists of just one phrase in one sentence: “The colonists’ belief in the superiority of republican self-government based on the natural rights of the people found its clearest American expression in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and in the Declaration of Independence.” The Framework thus ignores the philosophical underpinnings of the Declaration and the willingness of the signers to pledge “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor” to the cause of freedom.
Ignoring Cultural Giants: The Framework also sidesteps any discussion of the personalities and achievements of American giants whose courage and conviction helped build United States. It excises Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and the other founders from the nation’s story. George Washington’s historical contributions are reduced to a brief sentence fragment noting his Farewell Address. Two pages later, the Framework grants teachers the flexibility to discuss the architecture of Spanish missions, suggesting it merits more attention than the heroes of 1776.
Lyndsey Layton, How Bill Gates pulled off Common Core revolution, Washington Post, June 8, 2014
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation didn’t just bankroll the development of what became known as the Common Core State Standards. With more than $200 million, the foundation also built political support across the country, persuading state governments to make systemic and costly changes.
Bill Gates was de facto organizer, providing the money and structure for states to work together on common standards in a way that avoided the usual collision between states’ rights and national interests that had undercut every previous effort, dating from the Eisenhower administration.
The Gates Foundation spread money across the political spectrum, to entities including the big teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, and business organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — groups that have clashed in the past but became vocal backers of the standards.
Money flowed to policy groups on the right and left, funding research by scholars of varying political persuasions who promoted the idea of common standards. Liberals at the Center for American Progress and conservatives affiliated with the American Legislative Exchange Council who routinely disagree on nearly every issue accepted Gates money and found common ground on the Common Core.
The standards have become so pervasive that they also quickly spread through private Catholic schools. About 100 of 176 Catholic dioceses have adopted the standards because it is increasingly difficult to buy classroom materials and send teachers to professional development programs that are not influenced by the Common Core, Catholic educators said.
And yet, because of the way education policy is generally decided, the Common Core was instituted in many states without a single vote taken by an elected lawmaker. Kentucky even adopted the standards before the final draft had been made public.
Motoko Rich, Gates Foundation Urges Moratorium, New York Times, June 10, 2014
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the country’s largest donors to educational causes and a strong backer of the academic guidelines known as the Common Core, has called for a two-year moratorium on states or school districts making any high-stakes decisions based on tests aligned with the new standards.
Stanley Kurtz, Time for Congressional Hearings, National Review Online, June 9, 2014
It is a story of vast and very arguably unconstitutional changes made to America’s education system, often without a single vote by an elected lawmaker. It is a story of standards adopted largely unseen — sometimes before the standards themselves were finalized — and with no public debate. It is the story of how a private foundation working hand in glove with the Obama administration made an end-run around democracy and the law.
What Gates doesn’t say is that Common Core tries to overcome inequality by dumbing down all state standards to a mediocre national mean.
Some NEA Resolutions Passed at the
2014 Convention in Denver, Colorado

A-26. Voucher Plans and Tuition Tax Credits. The Association opposes voucher plans, tuition tax credits, or other such funding arrangements that pay for students to attend sectarian schools.
A-35. Federally or State-Mandated Choice/Parental Option Plans. The Association opposes federally or state-mandated choice or parental option plans.
B-1. Early Childhood Education. The National Education Association supports early childhood education programs in the public schools for children from birth through age eight. These programs must be available to all children on an equal basis and should include mandatory kindergarten with compulsory attendance.
B-16. Hispanic Education. The Association believes in efforts that provide for grants and scholarships for higher education that will facilitate the recruitment, entry, and retention of Hispanics; involvement of Hispanics in lobbying efforts for federal programs; involvement of Hispanic educators in developing educational materials used in classroom instruction.
B-24. Education of Refugee and Undocumented Children and Children of Undocumented Immigrants. The Association supports access for undocumented students to financial aid and in-state tuition to state colleges and universities. The Association further believes that students who have resided in the United States for at least five years at the time of high school graduation should be granted legal residency status, and allowed to apply for U.S. citizenship.
B-39. Multicultural Education. The National Education Association believes that Multicultural education should promote the recognition of individual and group differences and similarities in order to reduce racism, homophobia, ethnic and all other forms of prejudice, and discrimination and to develop self-esteem.
B-40. Global Education. The National Education Association believes that global education imparts an appreciation of our interdependency in sharing the world’s resources.
B-51. Sex Education. The Association recognizes that the public school must assume an increasingly important role in providing the instruction. The Association also believes that it is the right of every individual to live in an environment of freely available information and knowledge about sexuality.
B-82. Home Schooling. The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. The Association also believes that home-schooled students should not participate in any extracurricular activities in the public schools.
C-31. Student Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification. The National Education Association believes that all persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identification, should be guaranteed a safe and inclusive environment within the public education system. The Association also believes that, for students who are struggling with their sexual orientation or gender identification, every school district and educational institution should provide counseling services and programs.
E-3. Selection and Challenges of Materials and Teaching Techniques. The Association deplores pre-publishing censorship, book-burning crusades, and attempts to ban books from school library media centers and school curricula.
F-2. Pay Equity/Comparable Worth. The “market value” means of establishing pay cannot be the final determinant of pay scales since it too frequently reflects the race and sex bias in our society.
I-1. Peace and International Relations. The Association believes that the United Nations furthers world peace and promotes the rights of all people by preventing war, racism, and genocide.
I-9. Global Climate Change. The Association believes that humans must take steps to change activities that contribute to global climate change.
I-17. Family Planning. The National Education Association supports family planning, including the right to reproductive freedom. The Association also urges the implementation of community-operated, school-based family planning clinics that will provide intensive counseling by trained personnel.
I-22. Immigration. The Association opposes any immigration policy that denies educational opportunities to immigrants and their children regardless of their immigration status.
I-33. Freedom of Religion. The Association opposes any federal legislation or mandate that would require school districts to schedule a moment of silence.
I-47. Elimination of Discrimination. The National Education Association is committed to the elimination of discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, economic status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identification, age, and all other forms of discrimination. The Association encourages its members and all other members of the educational community to engage in courageous conversations in order to examine assumptions, prejudices, discriminatory practices, and their effects.
I-58. Linguistic Diversity. The Association believes that efforts to legislate English as the official language disregard cultural pluralism; deprive those in need of education, social services, and employment; and must be challenged.
I-61. Equal Opportunity for Women. The Association supports an amendment to the U.S. Constitution (such as the Equal Rights Amendment). The Association urges its affiliates to support ratification of such an amendment. The Association also supports the enactment and full funding of the Women’s Educational Equity Act. The Association endorses the use of nonsexist language.

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The above text is excerpted from NEA Resolutions adopted at the 2014 NEA Convention. Much language has been omitted, but no words have been added or changed.

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http://www.eagleforum.org/

Obama Administration Punishes Oklahoma For Rejecting Common Core

September 2, 2014

The Obama administration has punished the state of Oklahoma for repealing the Common Core standards despite assertions that the standards are entirely “voluntary.” Last week Oklahoma became the second state to lose its waiver from the disastrous Bush-era No Child Left Behind (NCLB) scheme. Washington State was the first, losing its waiver in April after the state legislature failed to come up with a solution that would allow the state to tie its student test results to teacher evaluations. Common Core State Standards Initiative is the official name of the scholastic standards copyrighted by the Washington, D.C.-based National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). Common Core has come under significant fire from parents, teachers, and school administrators across the country this year, who declare that the standards are a bid by the federal government to take over the education system. Additionally, privacy advocates have voiced concerns over the distribution to contractors of personally identifiable information about students and their families.
States that adopted “college- and career-ready standards” in math and English Language Arts that are “common to a significant number of states” or “certified by a state network of institutions of higher education” avoided education”NCLB requirements, which include providing school choice, tutoring, and reconfiguring failing schools. Most states simply adopted the Common Core to obtain the waivers, inviting even further federal intrusion into their education policies.
By contrast, when the state of Indiana repealed the Common Core standards, the Obama administration granted it a one-year extension of its waiver because Indiana’s replacement standards remained close enough to those set by Common Core. Therefore, Indiana still met the requirements for the waiver.
The Department of Education’s response to Oklahoma’s repeal has major implications, as it ultimately disproves any claims by the Obama administration that the standards are voluntary and “state-led.”

The Department of Education’s response to Oklahoma marks the first time the agency stripped a state of its waiver on the grounds of academic standards, notes senior policy analyst for Bellwether Education Partners Anne Hyslop. “This is obviously dicey water for the Secretary [Arne] Duncan, given growing opposition to Common Core,” she said.
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin was a supporter of the Common Core standards, even defending the standards at a National Governors Association meeting that took place in January. She later rescinded her support.
Obama Administration Punishes Oklahoma For Rejecting Common Core [continued]


Read more at http://libertycrier.com/obama-admini...dCvh8o2MYud.99


Monday, 01 September 2014 17:00
Obama Administration Punishes Oklahoma for Rejecting Common Core

Written by Raven Clabough

The Obama administration has punished the state of Oklahoma for repealing the Common Core standards despite assertions that the standards are entirely "voluntary." Last week Oklahoma became the second state to lose its waiver from the disastrous Bush-era No Child Left Behind (NCLB) scheme. Washington State was the first, losing its waiver in April after the state legislature failed to come up with a solution that would allow the state to tie its student test results to teacher evaluations.
Common Core State Standards Initiative is the official name of the scholastic standards copyrighted by the Washington, D.C.-based National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). Common Core has come under significant fire from parents, teachers, and school administrators across the country this year, who declare that the standards are a bid by the federal government to take over the education system. Additionally, privacy advocates have voiced concerns over the distribution to contractors of personally identifiable information about students and their families.
Breitbart.com reports:

States that adopted "college- and career-ready standards" in math and English Language Arts that are "common to a significant number of states" or "certified by a state network of institutions of higher education" avoided education"NCLB requirements, which include providing school choice, tutoring, and reconfiguring failing schools. Most states simply adopted the Common Core to obtain the waivers, inviting even further federal intrusion into their education policies.
By contrast, when the state of Indiana repealed the Common Core standards, the Obama administration granted it a one-year extension of its waiver because Indiana's replacement standards remained close enough to those set by Common Core. Therefore, Indiana still met the requirements for the waiver.
The Department of Education's response to Oklahoma's repeal has major implications, as it ultimately disproves any claims by the Obama administration that the standards are voluntary and "state-led."
The Department of Education's response to Oklahoma marks the first time the agency stripped a state of its waiver on the grounds of academic standards, notes senior policy analyst for Bellwether Education Partners Anne Hyslop. "This is obviously dicey water for the Secretary [Arne] Duncan, given growing opposition to Common Core," she said.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin was a supporter of the Common Core standards, even defending the standards at a National Governors Association meeting that took place in January. She later rescinded her support.
Falin observed,
Unfortunately, federal overreach has tainted Common Core. President [Barack] Obama and Washington bureaucrats have usurped Common Core in an attempt to influence state education standards. What should have been a bipartisan policy is now widely regarded as the president’s plan to establish federal control of curricula, testing and teaching strategies.
In June Falin signed a bill repealing the standards and returning the state to its previous standards, the Oklahoma Priority Academic Student Skills standards. "We are capable of developing our own Oklahoma academic standards that will be better than Common Core," she said.
Fallin was not the only official in Oklahoma to experience a complete reversal on the standards. Oklahoma State Superintendent Janet Barresi, who once supported Common Core, said that once it became clear that the standards were tied to the federal government, she changed her mind. "At one time, as it was emerging from Republican and conservative ideas from individual states, I did support Common Core," Barresi said in a statement. "As it has become entangled with federal government, however, Common Core has become too difficult and inflexible."
The federal Education Department asked the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education to determine whether its old standards were high enough, but the agency failed to do so before Oklahoma filed its application for a waiver extension.
Education Department Press Secretary Dorie Nolt defends the department's decision. "Having college-and-career-ready standards matters because it provides critical thinking and problem solving skills — skills that students need to succeed in college and beyond," Nolt said. "Oklahoma was unable to demonstrate that its students are learning high standards this year, which the state committed to do under its ESEA flexibility request. State leaders still have the opportunity to demonstrate that their standards are rigorous or design new standards to ensure their students are ready for college, career and life — just like Indiana and several other states have done."
Politico notes that without the waiver from the Department of Education, 100 percent of students will have to perform at grade level in math and reading by this school year at most Oklahoma schools. The state will have to use test results from last year as the bar to measure achievement. Schools that do not meet the standard will have to take significant steps to improve scores.
Oklahoma will have to set aside nearly $30 million in federal Title I dollars to pay for tutoring and school choice.
Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute asserts that the experiences of Oklahoma and Washington highlight "what a lawless process" the waiver system has become. "I defy anybody to go through and find any shred of consistency in the decisions that have been made here," he said.
Hess added, "States were ushered into signing up for the Common Core en masse ... and it’s brought us to this predictable place. They’re now stuck in this place where they’re told if you move off the Common Core, you’re supposed to come up with new assessments and standards in a matter of weeks ... it’s a somewhat unreasonable expectation."
According to Fordham Institute President Michael Petrilli, the Department of Education's decision is a "terrible" one and Fallin has grounds for a lawsuit. "Nothing in ESEA gives the secretary of education the authority to push states around when it comes to their standards," Petrilli said.
A lawsuit may be the next step for Governor Fallin, whose anger was palpable in a statement she issued responding to the Department of Ed's move. "It is outrageous that President [Barack] Obama and Washington bureaucrats are trying to dictate how Oklahoma schools spend education dollars," she said. "Because of overwhelming opposition from Oklahoma parents and voters to Common Core, Washington is now acting to punish us. This is one more example of an out-of-control presidency that places a politicized Washington agenda over the well-being of Oklahoma students."

http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/19031-obama-administration-punishes-oklahoma-for-rejecting-common-core

U.S. History Instruction Damaged By Common Core Literacy Standards

September 2, 2014 • 0 Comments
(Boston, MA) A new study authored by a Founding-era historian, a content expert, and a high school history teacher with standards-writing experience finds that the Common Core will further damage history instruction by including U.S. History in its English language arts (ELA) standards.
“Imperiling the Republic: The Fate of U.S. History Instruction under Common Core,” published by Pioneer Institute, analyzes literacy standards for U.S. History that are included as part of Common Core’s English language arts standards.
“Common Core dramatically reduces the amount of classic American literature and poetry students will read in favor of non-fiction or so-called ‘informational texts,’” said co-author Sandra Stotsky who sat on the Common Core State Standards ELA validation committee. “Consequently, the writers of the national standards attempted to shoehorn little bits and pieces of decontextualized U.S. History texts into the English standards. The simultaneous result damages instruction for both English and U.S. History classrooms.”
The co-authors of the Pioneer paper urge schools to instead offer separate standards and classes for English and U.S. History. There is little, if any, research to support the efficacy of English teachers being expected to teach U.S. History or informational texts.
Common Core’s standards writers also call for the “cold reading” of historical documents without any background knowledge to place them in the appropriate historical context. David Coleman, the principal author of the Common Core ELA standards, says that excluding texts’ historical context helps “level the playing field.”
Coleman is now president of the College Board, which has issued a new Advanced Placement (A.P.) U.S. History curriculum. The College Board’s A.P. curriculum is a continuation of the “progressive education” approach, which took hold after World War II, that limits history instruction and replaces it with social studies courses about current events and problems.
The College Board’s new A.P. U.S. History curriculum also mirrors the ideological biases of progressive education. It begins with a series of negative and divisive themes that are heavily focused on the balkanizing formation of gender, class, racial, and ethnic identity politics.
“It’s like the bad and the ugly of American history, without any of the good,” said co-author Anders Lewis who teaches history and heads the art and history department at the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
For example, there are no themes on federalism, separation of powers, the Federalist Papers, or the Gettysburg Address. The curriculum doesn’t ask teachers to teach about Benjamin Franklin and contains no mention of Thomas Jefferson or James Madison. The events of September 11, 2001 are never referred to as a terrorist attack.
“Federalism as an essential principle of American government stands as the creative organizing concept that allows the fulfillment of the basic ideals of republicanism, liberty, and the public good,” said Founding-era historian and co-author Ralph Ketcham who is professor emeritus in History, Public Affairs, and Political Science at Syracuse University.. “Any set of K-12 standards or curriculum that sidesteps or excludes this constitutional and civic reality damages students’ understanding of our republic and its history.”
The co-authors recommend that local education governing bodies replace the College Board’s new A.P. U.S. History curriculum with the common civic core spelled out in Educating Democracy, which was published in 2003 by the Albert Shanker Institute.
Progressive education in general and its move away from teaching history have produced poor results. By 2010, only 12 percent of high school seniors scored proficient on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics tests. NAEP has since eliminated the 4th and 12th grade civics tests.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/238445091/...er-Common-Core


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

The best education money can buy....No to CommonCore

Louisiana Activists Urge Vitter to Reconsider His Support for Common Core

by Shane Vander Hart on September 4, 2014

Early last month U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-LA) said that he strongly supports the Common Core in his state putting him at odds with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal who signed an executive order pulling his state out of Common Core and PARCC, only to have that action blocked in court. Jindal has since filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education based on their tying Common Core into the Race to the Top grant and ESEA flexibility waivers.
Vitter’s going the wrong direction on Common Core said to the Associated Press, “I support the strong standards Louisiana now has in place and think Gov. Jindal’s attempt to start from scratch right before the new school year is very disruptive.”
Wrong answer.
Louisiana activists launched an open letter late yesterday found at ReconsiderVitter.com urging Vitter to reconsider his position on the Common Core. It reads:

We, the People, of Louisiana are writing to ask that you reconsider your August 1, 2014 “strong support” of the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) in our state. Your statements are in obvious and direct conflict to those you expressed in a recent fundraising letter in which you pledged to “protect our citizens… from heavy-handed big government education policies like Common Core.”
If you believe Common Core is just about standards, then you are misinformed. The structure of this initiative includes: two sets of mediocre academic standards (Math and ELA) intended to stretch across the nation; two standardized assessments funded and reviewed by the federal government; and detailed data systems directly accessed by the U.S. Dept. of Education that will track students from preschool to the workforce. These components, of which the Common Core Standards are part and parcel, are inextricably linked via a myriad of signed agreements and contracts with the federal government, other states, and private organizations and corporations, arising from our commitments to the Race to the Top grants and No Child Left Behind waivers. For the reasons set forth in theJoint Statement Regarding the National Governors Association’s Common Core Standards Initiative and the Constitutional Structure, dissolving these ties is the necessary FIRST step in returning the control of public education in Louisiana, solely to Louisiana citizens.
The PARCC high stakes testing is a tool that will allow the U.S. Dept. of Education to effect the national curriculum that you think Louisiana should avoid. PARCC has already agreed to promote “tightly aligned curriculum materials”, which is simply doublespeak for “teaching to the test.” PARCC’s contract with the U.S. Department of Education clearly requires that it “allow access” to the federal government of any and all student data they collect. We will not allow our children’s privacy, safety, and futures to be jeopardized by releasing their personal and private information at the behest of a big brother federal government. Please protect our children from greedy corporations that want to use this information to develop market strategies that will be used to program our children to fit into their centralized planned economy.
Furthermore, as detailed in the Joint Statement, the Common Core Standards are of poor quality. They operate as a floor and a ceiling, locking children into an inferior education. They are rife with age-inappropriate standards. And they will widen the achievement gap.
In 2015, we will be seeking a gubernatorial candidate who stands with children, parents, teachers, and others in opposition to the CCSSI or any other form of nationalized education. More federal intrusion will not restore freedom or bring lasting solutions to our educational challenges.
We stand ready to assist you in your quest for the TRUTH regarding the scope and intent of the Common Core Initiative. Your decisions on this matter will define your legacy.Please join thousands of citizens, parents and teachers across Louisiana to restore the power of the state, defend the authority and rights of parents to direct the education of our children and preserve our constitutional republic.

Louisiana residents and out-of-state activists are encouraged to sign the letter.


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/...n+Education%29

10:04 AM


James Milgram Discusses Common Core Math Standards on Fox Business | Truth in American Education
truthinamericaneducation.com


James Milgram Discusses Common Core Math Standards on Fox Business

by Shane Vander Hart on September 4, 2014

Stanford University Mathematician and former Common Core validation committee member Dr. James Milgram discusses his concerns with the Common Core Math Standards on the Fox Business Network yesterday.You can watch below:

video at link below

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/...-fox-business/



All part of the "dumbing" down of society!!!!

U.S.-Soviet Merger requires Charter Schools For A One World Global Planned Economy

Aug, 2014
by Dave Hodges

By Charlotte Iserbyt
Former Assistant Secretary of Education to President Reagan

H. Rowan Gaither


“Most of us here were, at one time or another, active in either the O.S.S., the State Department, or the European Economic Administration. During those times, and without exception, we operated under directives issued by the White House, the substance of which was to the effect that we should make every effort to so alter life in the United States as to make possible a comfortable merger with the Soviet Union. We are continuing to be guided by just such directives.”
-H. Rowan Gaither (Source)

Is it too far-fetched to believe that in 1953 the President of the Ford Foundation, the late Rowan Gaither, knew that charter schools, or some new form of public school governance, would be necessary to carry out the Soviet Polytech (workforce training) part of the “merger with the Soviet Union?” Charter (contract schools) are also in Russia.

THE DAILY PROGRESS (Charlottesville, Virginia) carried Norman Dodd’s obituary in its January 30, 1987 edition. The tribute read in part:

Mr. Dodd’s earlier suspicions of a political and economic conspiracy were confirmed. During his research for this committee [the Reece Committee], the president of the Ford Foundation, H. Rowan Gaither, Jr. told him that some of the giant foundations, including Ford, were working under directives from the White House to so alter life in America as to make possible a comfortable merger with the Soviet Union.

In light of this piece of factual information, connect the following dots. . .

Charter School Master Minds: Paul Berman and Paul Hill

Both Paul Berman and Paul Hill, longtime researchers for the Rand Corporation, are two of the most prominent master minds behind charter schools with their Communist unelected council form of government. Note these two key points in the excerpt from Berman paper below:

1. Reference to preparation for different careers.
2. Notice the phrase “A publicly elected school-level board.” The average reader may take that to mean traditionally elected school board. “Publicly-elected school-level board” means boards elected by the parents and taxpayers whose children attend that particular school. Traditional public school governance is by board members elected by 100% of the taxpayers of a municipality. The new definition of school board does not represent ALL municipal taxpayers, although they are paying taxes for the operation of the charter school. So, they have no say in the operations of such a school. This is known as taxation without representation.

Paul Berman, the Executive Director for the Center for Policy Alternatives, and President of BW Associates, a consulting firm specializing in policy research and analysis in Berkeley, California, authored a key document, “The Next Step: The Minnesota Plan” (Phi Delta Kappan: Washington, D.C., Nov. 1985). Excerpts from this Minnesota Plan are contained in my book the deliberate dumbing down of america, Appendix X, p. A-43:

The challenge for American education is to provide a common and equivalent educational experience for all students and to prepare them for different careers. The comprehensive high school has not and cannot… meet either goal adequately…. The restructuring… offers a different approach to realizing these dual objectives of American education. All students would concentrate on a core academic program in grades 7 through 10 and then, in grades 11 and12, choose further education that matches their career aspirations.

Research and practice in thousands of classrooms both in the U.S. and abroad indicate that instructional strategies using this assumption, such as mastery learning or cooperative learning techniques, can result in more students learning dramatically more in both basic and higher-order skills. The Minnesota Plan calls for these approaches to be taught to senior teachers who can then train other teachers to shift their expectations and instruction to enable all students to learn. Mastery learning [B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning, ed note] is controversial. However, the bulk of the evidence shows that large gains in student learning occur if teachers have the training and support toimplement mastery learning effectively. Too often, mastery learning has been introduced as a “top down” innovation. The Minnesota Plan, by contrast, proposes a grassroots approach to implementation….

A publicly elected school-level board, operating in concert with a school-site management council, would decide which courses to offer at the school and which courses might be offered by other public schools or by other public or private providers. Schools would have the authority to “contract out” or “contract in” for teaching services…. This restructuring would take advantage of strength in the best European systems…. Deregulate curriculum and instruction. Educators should be free to design curriculum and instruction that they feel meets state standards and community needs. States should set basic goals; educators should be responsible to the community for helping students to meet these goals.

A restructuring of schooling could not realize its full promise without jettisoning the anachronistic system of employing course-unit/seat-time requirements as the criterion for student promotion and graduation. Advancement should be based on demonstrated achievement…. State-mandated course and graduation requirements would be eliminated in favor of a statement by the state of the competencies students are expected tomaster and two state tests, which would be required of all students before they leave the sixth and tenth grades. [emphases added]

From: Paul Hill | Center on Reinventing Public Education

Paul Hill’s bio appears on the Center on Reinventing Public Education website, where we learn of his involvement with RAND:

Before joining the University of Washington faculty, Dr. Hill worked for 17 years as a Senior Social Scientist in RAND’s Washington office, where he served as Director of Washington Operations (1981-87) and Director of the Education and Human Resources program (1979-80). He conducted studies ofsite-based management, governance of decentralized school systems, effective high schools, business-led education reforms, and immigrant education, and contributed to studies of defense research, development, and acquisition policy. (Source)[emphasis added]

From: A Brief History of RAND Corporation | RAND

From the RAND Corporation website we learn:

H. Rowan Gaither, Jr., a prominent San Francisco attorney who later served as president and then as chairman of the board of the Ford Foundation, was retained as legal counsel to determine the best means of setting up an independent RAND.
On May 14, 1948, RAND was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under the laws of the State of California. The articles of incorporation set forth RAND’s purpose in language that was both remarkably brief and breathtakingly broad:
To further and promote scientific, educational, and charitable purposes, all for the public welfare and security of the United States of America.

The three signatories—Collbohm, Gaither, and L. J. Henderson, Jr. (RAND’s associate director)—together with eight other prominent individuals from academe and industry, constituted RAND’s original Board of Trustees. The other eight members were Charles Dollard, president, Carnegie Corporation of New York…. (Source) [emphasis added]

For more information, please click here.

http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/20...anned-economy/

EDUCATION IS THE CURE FOR IGNORANCE

As a teacher, (former teachers never stop teaching) we know the importance of accurate information. Today, education has become indoctrination (the reporting of values as facts with a one sided view point. All other views are squashed.)


When people are trained over and over in the same belief and value system, their behavior pattern is altered into a new belief system - which often conflicts with facts and reality. This has become the purpose of school for the last 60 years. 3 Generations of Americans have no idea of the values of America. These people now are employed in some form of government job. Legislators often have no idea of the facts because their education - our education - is void of facts.

Today, every subject is taught under the theme of Sustainability, yet when you ask Sustainability to be defined, there is no answer. Facts are tossed aside and are replaced with values - but whose values?

Sustainability is the process of training you to do more for less, so the elite have more.

All products not controlled by the government in some form of public-private partnership is eventually out of business, for there can be no competition, no opposition. School programs now teach compliance, instead of "be the best you can be." Our children are robbed of their future as they are no longer told to "think outside the box or just imagine."

Simple words like income inequality, social justice, and wealth redistribution - are merely code words used to separate Americans in divide and conquer techniques. After all, if I own 5 acres and you own 1 and someone else owns 50, that is unfair and not equal. Their solution, the government must own everything to make it "fair." The next time you hear these words, ask the person saying them, "What does income inequality, social justice, and wealth redistribution mean?"

It is important to understand that to change a person from a free man to a slave requires years of indoctrination.

Our schools are responsible for this. Common Core is just a new name for an old plan. After all, an ignorant person requires less from their government - so the elite can have more.

Is it working? You bet! We are now up to the third generation of Americans willing to give up their freedom, liberty and possessions for a plastic card and "free stuff".
These Americans are taught to buy into "COMMUNISM" - a word that is no longer heard due to self-censorship called "political correctness.". Changing a word, a standard - will NOT DO ANYTHING to educate anyone. It is the content of the material that is the issue.

How can I say that? Let's look at their own words. On Thursday, January 10, 1963, REP. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA (D) read the 45 Goals of Communism into the Congressional Record as warning of things to come - if not corrected.
The plan was:

• Replace Family with School - Homework is so confusing parents can't help so the child feels mom and dad are stupid.

• Replace God with Government - By promoting immorality, much more "FUN" than responsibility

• Replace the US with the UN - and push the "Earth Charter" - where people and animals are the same, and rights are granted by the UN.

Let's take a look at some of those 45 Goals:

#13. Do away with all loyalty oaths, pledge and flag.

#17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

#18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

#25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

#40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

#41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to
suppressive influence of parents.

#11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces.


Everything we do today is part of this plan. EVERYTHING IS PLANNED. Private property and the destruction of the middle class must continue, because private property creates income inequality.

Why do the Elite want the land?

Easy, communists know that he who controls the land and water...Controls the Food.

He who controls the Food controls the people.

A country can be conquered without a shot - once people are hungry.

What do our children learn? According to UN Habitat:

UN Habitat stated: “Land, because of its unique nature and the crucial role it plays in human settlements, cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice; if unchecked, it may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes. Social justice, urban renewal and development, the provision of decent dwellings and healthy conditions for the people can only be achieved if land is used in the interests of society as a whole.”

DON'T BE FOOLED: Everything has a plan!

Museums are part of the Agenda:

In the Smithsonian: "Wilson recently calculated that the only way humanity could stave off a mass extinction crisis, as devastating as the one that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, would be to set aside half the planet as permanently protected areas for the ten million other species. “Half Earth,” in other words, as I began calling it — half for us, half for them. A version of this idea has been in circulation among conservationists for some time."
Can the World Really Set Aside Half of the Planet for Wildlife ...

Agencies promoting conservation, not private property - believe the UN program because that is what they learned in school, promoted by the media, paid for by American taxpayers, paid for by...YOU.

- Karen Schoen, kbschoen@bellsouth.net



Wake Up America!!!

Stotsky: Bill Gates’ Deceptive Drive to Continue Common Core Will Weaken Public Schools

September 8, 2014 by Dr. Sandra Stotsky

The Gates Foundation has been very busy trying to figure out ways for governors, state boards, and commissioners of education to pretend they are giving up Common Core’s standards or tests, while ensuring these states still have warmed-over versions in place to satisfy Bill Gates’ ambitions.

We now have many examples of states that have gone through the motions to placate the still-growing army of parents, teachers, state legislators, and other citizens demanding a stronger, not weaker, public school system. But, instead of developing stronger alternative standards in place of Common Core’s misbegotten standards, some elected and appointed officials have deliberately played a trick on all of them by keeping Common Core’s tentacles in place while they use less toxic labels to describe the octopus strangling the education system.
Why so many seemingly rational people want to believe that Common Core’s standards and the tests based on them are worth keeping is a subject for an in-depth psychological study. Why have so many, including reporters and others in the media, been so willingly fooled by a few Professor Harold Hills when they all must know they are harming the economic future of all children in our public schools, including the minority children they profess to care about the most?
By now, five years after the release of Common Core’s final version of its mathematics and English language arts standards, it is quite clear to those who can read English that these standards cannot make our students ready for authentic college-level work — and that they were not intended to. It should be clear by now that they were intended to get underperforming students into college (and then out with a diploma) in order to close the education “gaps” between students who are willing to spend some of their time paying attention to academic schoolwork and students who are not.
Instead of letting young adolescents enroll in a course of studies they prefer in secondary school, Bill Gates, with the eager help of all the organizations he has funded to promote his image as an education saint, prefers to make our teachers accountable for young adolescents’ unwillingness to pay attention to what he thinks is good for them. The irony is that even he doesn’t think his own children should be enrolled in a Common Core-based curriculum.
His scheme for doing an end-run around state legislators, parents, and local school boards was bought hook, line, and sinker by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well as by most state commissioners and boards of education — and many governors. Didn’t they wonder why the Gates Foundation still refuses to fund discussions of the actual quality of the standards? And the meaning of college readiness?
The “gaps” will be closed under Common Core, not by teaching all students more but by making sure that the most able students learn less at the high school level so that the Gates-funded and self-appointed policy wonks at Achieve, Inc. and the Fordham Institute can boast of equal (but equally low) expectations for all of them.
The latest problem for the Gates Foundation is the current implosion of Common Core even faster than it was hoodwinked into place in 2010 by unwitting state boards and commissioners of education. What should the new party line be: That states really don’t want demanding standards? That their teachers are afraid of more demanding standards? That those “white suburban” parents want only A’s for their brilliant offspring?
The issue for parents, of course, is that they won’t accept a system rigged to assess their progeny in a way that discredits discipline-based knowledge.
It’s tough to come up with a new party line that will keep Common Core in place. But maybe the latest ploy being pushed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will do the trick: put out “loss leaders” from an inventory of Common Core-aligned lessons and get teachers to buy 50%-off “bargains” before school starts.
Sandra Stotsky, Ed.D. is Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas.

http://bwcentral.org/?p=33679


Bill Gates and his wifee are part of the hand full of globalist elitist's who want our Countries destruction for their gain. They work hand and hand with George Soros, Rockafella,Rothchild's etc. etc. etc. and etc rich people who think they know best..but don't. They are the "puppet masters" or so they think. They pay the "puppets on a string", their so called squadrons to do their bidding.. They really are very easy to know, just by watching & listening to what they say and do, and sadly we keep electing them over and over and over...Our Grand Parents and older family members hated politicians, at least mine did, and they were so right..... Oh, MyOpinionOfCourse..