The Common Core Coverup Begins

Officials Hide Evidence: After 4 Years Of Common Core-Test Scores Plummet

 

 

 

” 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.”

 

 

 

    Lies , lies and more lies . That is all that we can expect from the State . Every initiative that originates from the State is based on one lie or another , and when the promised results , predictably don’t materialize , the State answer is lies and more lies .

 

 

 

 

 

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This Young Man Has A Future … No Thanks To Common Core … Do Not Miss This Video

Tennessee High School Senior Fights Common Core

 

 

 

” Ethan Young, a high school senior in Tennessee, blasted the Common Core State Standards during his presentation at the Knox County School Board meeting on November 6, 2013.

Great job Ethan!  Watch the video ... “

     Visit the page and learn more about Common Core in your state . This young man states his case against Common Core in no uncertain terms . He is articulate , courteous and well informed , in short he is everything that Common Core is not and he is a testament to the fact that we do not need more educational indoctrination or group think . We need free-thinking , inspired individuals such as Ethan Young and Common Core will not EVER produce those .

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Teacher Rebellion Grows Over Common Core Propaganda

Teachers Respond To NEA Common Core Propaganda

 

 

 

 

 

     Here are dozens of scathing comments from teachers in response to an NEA propaganda piece claiming widespread support for Common Core among it’s membership . The original post that generated the irate commentary is included . Below are several examples of the teacher’s ire .

 

 

shorttam says:

October 26, 2013 at 6:49 pm

” I am die-hard union, through and through. But THIS is exactly why unions are fading from the United States. Union leaders are incredibly out of touch with their rank and file members. They have been in leadership positions for so long, they have absolutely no clue what their members’ priorities and needs are. Sadly, NEA leaders are also so consumed with having a “seat at the table” that they are willing to sell not only their own souls, but the souls or their members and the students they serve as well. There is absolutely NO research that supports standards – any standards – as a method to increase student learning. There is absolutely NO research that supports the use of standardized testing – as a method to increase student learning. Our country is severely underfunding education and now spends millions and millions of those scarce resources on implementing standards and giving standardized tests. The premise that “standards” will equalize things for our student living in poverty is an incredibly laughable one. We’ve had “standards” for more than a decade. The inequities between students have INCREASED since the introduction of standards, and that is exactly what educated, logical people would expect to happen. I am disgusted with my union and an’t believe that now I not only have to fight anti-worker forces and anti-public education forces… but I also have to fight my union. NEA does NOT speak for me or any other teacher I know, on this issue and sadly, on many others too.”

 

StandingProud says:

October 26, 2013 at 6:22 pm

” “An NEA poll conducted in July by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research found that 75 percent of its members—teachers and education support professionals —supported the standards outright or supported “with reservations.”
Make up your data-mind. Is it “roughly two-thirds” or “75%”? And why did you leave out that only 26% of the 1200 surveyed ‘fully support’ CC$$.

WOW!!! You just turned 312 teachers into “MOST NEA MEMBERS”

After this Gates backed and funded fluff-piece of crap, that’s about all the members you will have left.
Oops. . . . looks like the union busting is working. . . from the top down “

deeply saddened says:

October 28, 2013 at 10:05 am

” As if it wasn’t enough of a disappointment/slap-in-the-face that President Obama threw kids and teachers under the bus, now our own union has done it as well. Apparently, nothing IS sacred and NEA does NOT represent its membership. Way to sellout???? “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Common Core Lesson Plan Perpetuates “White Privilege” Meme

Whites Are Inherently Privileged According To Common Core Lesson Plan

 

 

” The federal public school curriculum known as Common Core has come under constant fire from conservative groups who feel its lessons contain either latent or direct leftist ideals. One organization, EAGnews, has kept a close eye on associated course materials, and recently found something disturbing tucked away in a literature textbook meant for fourth grade classes.

Teachers using the resources are expected to assign a two-week lesson on a particular book, “The Jacket,” that paints racial relations in a damaging light, the group claims.

Telling the story of a white child who falsely claims a black child took his brother’s coat, the book by Andrew Clements has been either praised or criticized — depending on the source’s viewpoint — for its embrace of white privilege rhetoric.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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South Dakota Father Rebuts Argus Leader Common Core assertions

Local Father Responds to Argus Leader “My Voice” Letter

 

 

 

” On October 17th, in the Argus Leader “My Voice” column, the Argus Leader published a letter titled, “Common Core Should be Welcomed Not Feared.”

 

Chris Buckley, local concerned father, has written this response to that letter.

 I  want to take the time to address each and every one of your comments so if this gets long, I will try to stay on target. Before I begin, I’d like to say that I’ve only known about the Common Core Standards for 2 weeks. In that time, I’ve started researching everything I can find about CC. What I have found is that this is like an octopus with many tentacles and each one digging deeper into our freedoms and ideals. I will address each comment as I understand it, then wrap up my response with some additional information.

 In my rebuttal, I will paraphrase your article, so if I chose a different word than you outlined it’s because I don’t have the complete article in front of me as I’m writing this. 

 You said there was a significant amount of misinformation. There is actually significantly less information being published than what is really there. I’ve found that the government websites, state websites, CC websites, & National Governors association websites all speak to this one idea, the government is taking over our education system and putting the squeeze on states to tow the line. 

 You stated that CC is not a specified curriculum, not federally mandated, not federally funded, nor taking away control from local educators. I don’t just disagree, here’s what I’ve found. First, under the NCLB program, educators have been held hostage by punishing them for failure, instead of rewarding them for success. This information can be found on the US Department of educations website at ww.ed.us.gov/… When you say that it was not federally mandated, the first line of the article refutes that claim. It is “The Obama administration’s blueprint to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) will support state and local efforts to help ensure that all students graduate prepared for college and a career.” If the administration set the blue print, then it is federally mandated. Also, in the RTTT grant, there is a waiver for the states that opted to take CC as their standards. It was an either or proposition. Either you could keep NCLB or you could adopt CC. So technically, it was federally mandated.

 So let’s talk about the funding. Your right as far as South Dakota did not get any money to implement the CC standards, but the US department of education got a whapping $100 Billion dollars to get this thing kicked off. I would venture to say that most sensible people would say that is federally funded at its core. Pun intended. 

 You said that CC is a set of standards developed to ensure kids develop rigorous skills to compete in the global world. What? That statement doesn’t say anything sensible. Is it a lot of skills? is it a lot of skills working very hard or fast? I don’t even understand that statement.

 You said the CC idea was generated by 45 governors. The National Governors Association sponsored a group of educators to develop the standards. NGA is actually a lobby organization that represents the governors, not the governors themselves.

 You said it was developed by teachers, parents, and researchers. I can’t totally argue against that point, but the team included David Coleman, William McCallum, Phil Daro and Student Achievement founder, Jason Zimba. 

 You also said that no government officials were involved, except President Obama of course. I mean the US DOE said so on their website. As far as each state choosing to adopt the standards or not, we already crossed that bridge, but these standards are copy righted and come with terms of use. That means you get all of it or none of it.”

Read the whole letter here

 

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NYS Edu Commissioner Cancels Town Hall Meetings On Common Core

The “King” Gets Questioned, Suspends New York Common Core Forums

 

 

 

 

” Apparently New York State’s Education Commissioner John B. King thinks he’s above being questioned.  After holding two Common Core public forum’s he decided he really didn’t want to hear questions from the parents after all.  

Now that that he has two of these forum’s under his belt he’s suspending the rest because they’ve been taken over by “special interests” (i.e. parents who disagree with him).  Newsday reports:

New York’s education commissioner said Saturday he had called off Long Island’s only Town Hall meeting on the Common Core curriculum and state testing after “special interests” hijacked the first such forum.

Commissioner John B. King Jr. also put on hold the other three Town Hall meetings planned across the state, which for the first time would have let parents and teachers ask him about testing and the Common Core.

Hundreds of people attended a pair of at times adversarial and boisterous forums earlier this month — a debut Town Hall in Poughkeepsie in the Hudson Valley and an event in Whitesboro, near Utica.”

 

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As Part Of Common Core , School Tells Kids Bill Of Rights Is Outdated

Worksheet Asks Children To Remove Parts Of The Bill Of Rights

 

A photo of the worksheet asking students to “omit” two Amendments in the Bill of Rights

 

” A student in Bryant School District in Arkansas brought home a worksheet that presented her with a scenario that referred to the Bill of Rights as “outdated” and that as part of a special committee she would need to throw out two of the Amendments.

 

The worksheet was handed out to Sixth grade students in a History class. According to the girl’s mother, Lela Spears, she has not received any government or civics classes and this was the first assignment dealing with the Constitution or Bill of Rights. The school district is participating in the embattled Common Core curriculum.

As more anecdotal evidence emerges concerning what will be taught under the Common Core, states are beginning to rethink their position on the program.”

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Florida Bails On Common Core

Florida Leaves PARCC by Executive Order

 

” In a stunning move, Florida Governor Rick Scott removed the State of Florida from the Common Core consortium known as the the Partnership for Assessing Readiness for College and Career (PARCC). This consortium is comprised of states such as New York, New Jersey, Arizona, New Mexico, Illinois, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee among other states.  Florida has been the fiscal agent for PARCC. Further, members participating in PARCC have the Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) written with the state of Florida. This may require member states to renegotiate their status with PARCC. 

This move follows on the heels of other departures from Common Core Consortia. Earlier this year, Oklahoma and Indiana left PARCC. Michigan, Maine, Alabama, and Utah had left the Smarter Balanced Consortia over the past year and a half. Tennessee’s hearing on Common Core will begin next week. Growing political pressure to withdraw the state may lead Tennessee down a similar path. There is also pending withdraw legislation in New York. “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Ugly Heart Of Common Core

A Monstrous Story For A Monstrous Curriculum

 

 

 

” I have been teaching for over twenty years. Generally, I have been given either no curriculum or curriculum that was focused on skills, not specific texts. I would have to get those skills taught in whatever way I wanted to get there. Sometimes I was given more direction and that direction was generally pretty good including texts, key terms, supplemental stories, and suggested writing assignments. These directions were created at a school level by the teachers in the school. I helped write some myself. Mostly, I have had a lot of freedom in how I could achieve the learning goals.

Not anymore.

Today I was in a professional development session for my school district. Our school system has swallowed the Common Core curriculum whole. Why wouldn’t they? The federal system has said that it is “voluntary”, but “voluntary” means that the district gets cut off from major federal funding if it does not adopt the standards, so “voluntary” is subjective. Here is what the Washington Post reported Sen. Charles Grassley has to say about Common Core:

Current federal law makes clear that the U.S. Department of Education may not be involved in setting specific content standards or determining the content of state assessments. Nevertheless, the selection criteria designed by the U.S. Department of Education for the Race to the Top Program provided that for a state to have any chance to compete for funding, it must commit to adopting a “common set of K-12 standards” matching the description of the Common Core.

The Washington Post also reported, “The Republican National Committee recognizes the CCSS for what it is — an inappropriate overreach to standardize and control the education of our children…”

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Common Core, it is a curriculum created in the private sector but pushed onto states by the federal government and endorsed by Bill Gates. The cost of implementing the program runs from millions to billions depending on the state. It is untested and unresearched. It has been criticized for being not as rigorous as proponents claim, clearly biased to a liberal perspective, so much so that many see it as indoctrination, and it is being forced on the states in spite of the fact that a federal curriculum is unconstitutional violating the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitutionwhich established the principle that“…the “power” to oversee education belongs to the states. This longstanding principle of local control of education is reiterated throughout our laws and government codes.” “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Obama’s New Math Curriculum Gives Kids Points for Wrong Answers?!

” We’re really more focusing on the ‘how’ …”

 

 

” The White House is imposing what some are calling a controversial new curriculum called Common Core in schools across the country.

In a YouTube video, a curriculum coordinator in Chicago explains how through this new program students can actually get the answer wrong, but still receive full credit!

She said, “Even if they said 3×4 was 11, if they were able to explain their reasoning and explain how they came up with their answer, really in words or in oral explanations […] but they just got the final number wrong, we’re really more focusing on the ‘how’ …” “

 

 

 

 

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Institutional Racism Lives … Alabama Schools To Establish “Separate But Equal” Grading

Republican Women Question Race-Based Standards for Alabama’s Schools

 

 

 

” According to this article by Jamon Smith, “Beginning this fall, Alabama public schools will be under a new state-created academic accountability system that sets different goals for students in math and reading based on their race, economic status, ability to speak English and disabilities.” Alabama’s Plan 2020 “sets a different standard for students in each of several subgroups — American Indian, Asian/Pacific islander, black, English language learners, Hispanic, multirace, poverty, special education and white.”

 

  The “Balkanization” of America picks up steam … 

  This is the kind of multi-culti nonsense one would expect from the Blue State do-gooders in San Francisco or Chicago , but from reddest of red Alabama ? 

 

” The “race-based” standards are part of Common Core, adopted by the state board of education in November 2010.”

 

  Somewhere George Wallace is smiling . Racism is alive and well in government policies , not in society as a whole .

 

 

 

 

 

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