Thread: Officials Hide Evidence: After 4 years of Common Core - Test Scores Plummet

Officials Hide Evidence: After 4 years of Common Core-Test Scores Plummet

Posted by: Allison Martinez Posted date: November 17, 2013 In: News




A Common Core School District, Gulfport, MS is covering up failing test scores. At a recent meeting by Superintendent Glen East, parents were told that the test scores of the district had improved dramatically under the implementation of the Common Core curriculum. The Superintendent made his claims regarding dramatic academic improvement of all students by using ONLY the scores of the top 150 student.

In his comments to parents, Mr. East stated,

This district already had national average ACT scores. We’ve now gone with our top students, our top 150 students, we’ve gone from a 23 average to almost a 25 in over four years. That is not a new ACT, that is the ACT we are currently working with.

We’ve improved reading achievement for all students. When I look at that data about how we’ve grown over the past four years and the success we’ve had, if you are in my shoes, you have to celebrate what you are doing. Very Powerful!

However, a couple of weeks later at a subsequent event, it seems that parents had a chance to research the data that the Superintendent had reported. Upon closer inspection of the data, parents found that the Superintendent completely misrepresented the data, and that the results were worse, not better. They were not simply a little worse, but a lot worse.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan should take note. This father does not look much like a white suburban mother. Chris Ashley is the pastor at a local Baptist Church who has a son attending the Gulfport schools. He opens his talk with congratulating the district on the gains they had made.

After a brief applause from the audience, he goes into the data.

According to the Mississippi Department of Education website and their stats, and I can leave them here with Mr. East or all you all can go and get them yourself, everywhere else we are dropping. From 2009 to 2012, almost every grade has dropped in their scores. Not all of them, but overall our test scores have dropped.

….Greatschools.org you can go there, they’ve pretty much done all the math for you, they tell you the percentages of students that have scored proficient or better. Third grade language arts, we’ve dropped 4%, this is all 2009-2012. Math 3rd grade we’ve dropped 6%. Fourth grade language arts, we’ve went up 8% but we dropped 5% in math. Fifth grade we dropped 5% in language arts and 6% in math.

Sixth grade we went up 1% in language arts, we dropped 2% in math. Seventh grade and eighth grade, went up 8 and 4, and eighth grade went up 4 and 12.

The 5th grade MST test we did well at we up we went up 9 and 17 points.

Well, that is good, right? But what about on the very SAT and ACT that the school district touts?

The SATP from 2009-2012 in Algebra we dropped 34%. In 2009-2012 in English we dropped 18%, in Biology we dropped 46% in those same years, and in history we dropped 38%. You see I heard a lot about our ACT scores and how great they are from the 10th grade and that is awesome. I didn’t check the 10th grade scores, but I did check the graduating seniors…. From 2007-20011 we’ve dropped 1% in English, 0.7% in math, we are level in reading, we’ve dropped a half a percent in science and a half a percent in composite scores.

Now, we all know we can take data and we can twist to show what you want it to show. I took the numbers straight from there and said I didn’t give you just the 10th grade or just the 7th and 8th grade where it looks good. I gave it all to you.

Then this parent details what the No Child Left Behind testing shows, that Gulfport schools appear to be falling behind.

I have our district report card here from the No Child Left Behind, and we have dropped. We have dropped without a doubt. Every grade 3-8th in mean score scale, everyone one has dropped. The 3rd-8th grade in language arts, and math, and science, the mean scale score, we have dropped from the previous year, every grade. We have dropped in algebra in the high school, we’ve dropped, uh, we’ve dropped in the mean score in every except biology we stayed even 648.

Like I said, I have all kind of common core curriculum questions, but what I don’t like is somebody to screw the numbers and tell us we are doing good when we are really not doing good
.

What was the answer to this parent from Dr. Carla Evers, Director of Instructional Programs?

I looked at the Greatschools website, it will show the Gulfport schools going up, and then all of a sudden we just dive like we went off a cliff and stopped teaching. Well, we did.

We stopped teaching the state standards and we shifted to the common core standards state standards. So that should have happened because the things that are on that test were not what we were now teaching in our classrooms. So we understood that, the state department put that in our newspaper, but for some reason they still put those test scores on their state website.

Now, what material would it been that is no longer taught in the Gulfport schools? Reading? Addition? Subtraction? Multiplication? These are huge score drops. Further, the ACT was the same test that Superintendent East had just bragged about, so how is it that it can be used to brag about improvement for one grade, but not erosions in learning in another grade?

Even worse, the school district is upset that the State Department of Education failed to hide the scores from the state website? This is outrageous!

If the ACT and SATP are not valid measures of student learning in Gulfport, MS, then what measure is? Do the colleges in Mississippi no longer accept the ACT and the SAT?

Activists at Stop Common Core Mississippi Facebook page noted,

Common Core clearly fails to teach the foundational material needed to pass tests. Whose fault its it that the failures was leaked to the public?




H/t Stop Common Core Mississippi


http://freepatriot.org/2013/11/17/of...cores-plummet/

EDUCATION SEC. ARNE DUNCAN MAKES WILD CLAIM ABOUT WHY SOME ‘WHITE SUBURBAN MOMS’ OPPOSE COMMON CORE

Posted on 18 November, 2013 by clyde



via The Blaze
by Oliver Darcy

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan reportedly said on Friday that some of the opposition to the controversial Common Core State Standards is derived from wealthy white mothers upset to learn their children are not as bright as they thought.

According to the Washington Post, Duncan told a group of state schools superintendents he found it “fascinating” opposition comes from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t as good as they though they were.”

Common Core State Standards were designed to better the education system and has been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia.

Nonetheless, the standards have ignited controversy, with many critical they actually harm the education system.

Last week a video showing a Tennessee high school senior speaking out against the standards at a school board meeting went viral, enjoying over one-million views as of publication.

http://gopthedailydose.com/2013/11/1...e-common-core/

Education Sec. Arne Duncan Makes Wild Claim About Why Some ‘White Suburban Moms’ Oppose Common Core

Nov. 17, 2013 9:41am
Oliver Darcy

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan reportedly said on Friday that some of the opposition to the controversial Common Core State Standards is derived from wealthy white mothers upset to learn their children are not as bright as they thought.

According to the Washington Post, Duncan told a group of state schools superintendents he found it “fascinating” opposition comes from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t as good as they though they were.”

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks to students at School Without Walls August 27, 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Common Core State Standards were designed to better the education system and has been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia.

Nonetheless, the standards have ignited controversy, with many critical they actually harm the education system.

Last week a video showing a Tennessee high school senior speaking out against the standards at a school board meeting went viral, enjoying over one-million views as of publication.
–
Follow Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) on Twitter

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013...ent-brilliant/

This Could Be One of the Best Cases Ever Made Against Common Core – No One Expected It to Come From a High School Student

Nov. 15, 2013 7:23am
Jason Howerton

Speaking at a local school board meeting earlier this month, a Tennessee high school senior issued a brief and incredibly insightful address on the problems with Common Core standards.

Ethan Young, a student at Farragut High School in Knox County, Tenn., made his case as to why he believes the school district should drop the new national education standards, a set of guidelines that were never voted on by Congress, the Department of Education nor by local or state governments.

(Related: Parents Fed-Up With Failing Grades Under Common Core Take Matters Into Their Own Hands)

“The president essentially bribed states into implementation via ‘Race to the Top,’ offering $4.35 billion taxpayer dollars to participating states, $500 million of which went to Tennessee,” Young said. “And much like No Child Left Behind, the program promises national testing and a one-size-fits-all education, because hey, it worked so well the first time.”

“If nothing else, these standards are a glowing conflict of interest and they lack the research they allegedly received,” he added.

Young also argued that Common Core standards display a “mistrust of teachers,” a line that prompted applause from the audience.

(YouTube)

“I stand before you because I care about education, but also because I want to support my teachers,” he said. “And just as they fought for my academic achievement, so I want to fight for their ability to teach. This relationship is at the heart of instruction, yet there will never be a system by which it is accurately measured.”

The high school senior went on to argue that “standards-based education is ruining the way we teach and learn.” He also revealed that legislators and administrators have told him “that’s just the way things work.”

Now, he’s daring to ask: “Why?”

“I’m gonna answer that question: Bureaucratic convenience,” he added. “It works with nuclear reactors, it works with business models, why can’t it work with students? I mean how convenient, calculating exactly who knows what and who needs what. I mean, why don’t we just manufacture robots instead of students? They last longer and they always do what they’re told.”

“Somewhere our Founding Fathers are turning in their graves.”

The problem is, the extremely bright student continued, “education is unlike every other bureaucratic institute in our government” because the “task of teaching is never quantifiable.”

“If everything I learn in high school is a measurable objective, I have not learned anything,” Young proclaimed. “I’d like to repeat that. If everything I learn in high school is a measurable objective, I have not learned anything.”

Government bureaucrats will never be able to measure “creativity, appreciation, inquisitiveness” but they are the “purpose of education,” he lectured.

“Somewhere our Founding Fathers are turning in their graves — pleading, screaming and trying to say to us that we teach to free minds. We teach to inspire. We teach to equip, the careers will come naturally.”

Watch Young’s entire inspiring, must-see speech below:



We will be discussing this story and all the day’s news on our live BlazeCast with Editor-in-Chief Scott Baker (@bakerlink) beginning at 1:00 pm ET:


http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013...chool-student/

bttt

http://www.alipac.us/f19/common-core...rnment-277987/

http://www.alipac.us/f19/michelle-ma...0/#post1380285

Obama Administration slams 'white suburban moms' over Common Core

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Timothy Whiteman
Wilmington Conservative Examiner

November 17, 2013

In what many consider a condescending attitude, one of the Obama Administration Cabinet members has very publicly stated that he is personally "fascinated" that, as he plainly stated, certain "white suburban moms" oppose the new Common Core educational standards, as reported by The Washington Post on Nov. 16, 2013.
The U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated at a gathering of various school superintendents that he's at a loss as to why the roll out of the controversial Common Core Standards has been met with more than just a little grassroots opposition:

It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary.

Under-reported by many in the national media, the introduction of Common Core has been so disastrous one of its more hard-core supporters, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten stated:

You think the ObamaCare implementation is bad?

The implementation of the Common Core is far worse.

"Investigative" Math vs. Real Math...

As reported by Fox News on Sept. 4, 2013, critics of Common Core warned of "fuzzy math" where as an example, 3 multiplied by 4 really could equal eleven just as long as the student in question could deliver a convincing argument as to how and why he/she came up with clearly the wrong answer.

Stanford Professor Emeritus of Mathematics James Milgram, the only mathematician on the Common Core Validation Committee, steadfastly refusing to sign off on the new mathematics standards, as evidenced why in his testimony before the Texas legislature in May, 2011: (National Review, Apr. 8, 2013)

In large measure a political document that, in spite of a number of real strengths, is written at a very low level and does not adequately reflect our current understanding of why the math programs in the high achieving countries give dramatically better results.

According to The Common Core Math Standards official website, on page 16 under the subsection "Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract" the standard of "reasoning" takes precedence over factually deducing the correct answer.

Forty five states and the District of Columbia have implemented Common Core to their educational standards, but as The WaPo cites, "some states are reconsidering."

Obama Administration May Use Common Core...

The official White House website for the Obama Cabinet, under the heading "In order of succession to the Presidency" Team Obama does list the legal line of presidential succession correctly, with the slight exception that someone seems to have forgotten that after the vice president, the next in line to be the President of the United States would be the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH).

After the Speaker would be the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. The present President Pro Tem is Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT).

http://www.examiner.com/article/obam...er-common-core

Duncan Blames Common Core Fight On 'White Soccer Moms'

3 Comments Tue, Nov 19 2013 00:00:00 E A12_ISSUES

Posted 06:33 PM ET

Common Core: Rather than defend a program accused of indoctrinating students via national standards and whose implementation is as bad as ObamaCare, Education Secretary Arne Duncan plays the race card.
Perhaps nothing personifies the arrogant nanny state paternalism of the Obama administration more than this statement by Duncan on Friday: "It's fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were, and that's pretty scary."
Secretary Duncan made his comments about the Common Care State Standards (CCSS) before a group of school superintendents in Richmond, Va., to a meeting of the Council of Chief State Schools Officers organization (CCSSO). This is one of the two organizations that own the public license to the Common Core State Standards.
The Common Core State Standards Initiative was devised by a group of the nation's governors and backed by the Obama administration in 2009 with the goal of setting a uniform standard for grades K-12 nationwide. Some 45 states, in many cases enticed by federal grants, have signed on.
It has since morphed into what many consider an attempt to nationalize education and control what future generations think and know.
Once again, as with ObamaCare, the Obama administration has told Americans they are too stupid to know what's good for them — and their children.
It opposes choice in health care and choice in education, even though the evidence shows choice and competition always improve quality and reduce cost.
The remark by Duncan, formerly CEO of the troubled and failing Chicago public school system, about white suburban moms reflects the view of the administration and its supporters that anyone who opposes the administration of the first African-American president — from the Tea Party on ObamaCare to white soccer moms on Common Care — must belong to a coven of closet racists.
The rollout for Common Core has been as inauspicious as the ObamaCare rollout.
As Valerie Strauss points out in the Washington Post's "The Answer Sheet," New York was the first large state to implement the standards and give students new standardized tests supposedly aligned with the Core.
Test scores plummeted by 30% this year.
Perhaps the best case against Common Care was made not by a white suburban mom, but by Ethan Young, a student at Farragut High School in Knox County, Tenn., who spoke at a local school board meeting earlier this month.
"Somewhere our Founding Fathers are turning in their graves," he said, "pleading, screaming and trying to say to us that we teach to free minds."
Free minds are the last thing Common Core advocates have on their minds.
Common Core contains statements in its lessons such as "The commands of government officials must be obeyed by all" and "The wants of an individual are less important than the well-being of the nation."
In the middle school, Common Core calls upon students to read only the First Amendment.
Can't have 14-year-old minds learning about the other amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights, such as, say, the Second Amendment or the 10th — those defending the right to bear arms and limits on federal power.
Public education as we know it is a relatively recent phenomenon.
This nation was built on the foundation of the proverbial little red schoolhouse and local control.
Now we are to be in thrall to ideologically driven teachers unions and education statists who seemingly share V.I. Lenin's terrifying belief: "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted."

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November 18, 2013 By The Blog

Tennessee High School Students Challenges Common Core

High school student Ethan Young railed against centralized education at the Knox County, Tennessee school board meeting on November 6.

Young is a senior at Farragut High School and has witnessed the effects of Common Core first hand — watch his powerful indictment against the federal education program:




Tagged as: central education, common core, education, Ethan Young
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