Why Conservatives Object to the Common Core | Truth in American Education

Why Conservatives Object to the Common Core | Truth in American Education:

Why Conservatives Object to the Common Core

by Shane Vander Hart

Kathleen Porter-Magee & Sol Stern ask in the subheading of their National Review article defending the Common Core State Standards ask “why are prominent conservatives criticizing a set of rigorous educational standards?”

There are others who have provided direct rebuttals.  I want to answer their primary question.  While I’m not a “prominent conservative,”  I am a conservative who has written extensively about the Common Core.

There are six primary reasons really…

1. There is nothing conservative about centralizing education around a set of common standards.
2. Conservatives object to the process in which they were adopted which allowed for little to no public debate, cut out the legislative process, and was introduced via the backdoor which cut out “We the People.”
3. While perhaps the intent was not to have hyper-federal involvement, but the fact remains it does which 

How is a standardized test like a zombie? | Parents Across America

How is a standardized test like a zombie? | Parents Across America:

How is a standardized test like a zombie?

by pagrundy

How is a standardized test like a zombie?

They’re mindless, and they just keep coming.

The MecklenburgACTS.org “Stop Testing Madness in North Carolina” campaign is off to a great start, closing in on 600 signatures, and with almost half our state’s 100 counties represented.

We’re talking to school boards, superintendents and other organizations about endorsements, and working on a piece of state legislation that would place a moratorium on state-imposed consequences tied to student test scores. This would include A-F school ratings, merit pay and holding students back a grade just because they didn’t pass a state test.

We’ve been getting a terrific response. It isn’t hard to “sell” a testing madness campaign at the grass roots. We have yet to talk to anyone who isn’t already fed up with the tests.

We’ve planned our first event, a “testing zombie” rally here in Mecklenburg County, for April 9. We’ve adopted a zombie theme because it seems to fit: high-stakes tests suck time and money from teaching and learning, devour recess, art and music, deaden creativity, sap original thought. Eventually, if we let them, they will eat 

Schools Matter: A conservative approach to teacher evaluation

Schools Matter: A conservative approach to teacher evaluation:

A conservative approach to teacher evaluation

by skrashen

Sent to the Washington Post, April 4, 2013

Gates’ suggestions ("A fairer way to evaluate teachers," April 3) assume that there is something seriously wrong with teacher quality and teacher evaluation in the United States.

I question both assumptions. We are always interested in improving teaching, but there is no evidence of a teacher quality crisis: When poverty is controlled, American students’ scores on international tests are near the top of the world. Our overall scores are unspectacular because there are so many children living in poverty in the US, 23.1%, the second highest among economically advanced countries.

There is no evidence that our methods of teacher evaluation are lacking and no evidence that Gates’ suggestions will help. Before rushing off to implement new multiple methods let's first determine how effective our current methods are, and how they can be improved.

What we do know is using only test-score gains (value added measures), is a disaster, producing highly unstable results. It shouldn’t even be part of teacher evaluation.

The Common Core standards and the massive testing planned to enforce the standards are being imposed on American students despite the lack of evidence that they will work. Let’s not do the same thing with teacher evaluation. We must take a more careful, rationale, and conservative approach.

Stephen Krashen



Bill Gates: A fairer way to evaluate teachers
By Bill Gates, Published: April 3
Bill Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bill-gates-a-fairer-way-to-evaluate-teachers/2013/04/03/c99fd1bc-98c2-11e2-814b-063623d80a60_story.html

Tom Brady may be the best quarterback in football, but he is also infamously, hilariously slow. YouTube videos 

Eating Our Young | Taking Note

Eating Our Young | Taking Note:

Eating Our Young

by John Merrow

When the pilot announced that we were making our final approach into Atlanta, I was reading about the shocking increase in ADHD diagnoses among children. That started my head reeling: I was landing in the city that is the poster child for adults cheating (mostly poor) children out of educational opportunities, while I was reading about a man-made epidemic that is drugging (mostly) middle- and upper-middle kids and depriving many of them of opportunities to be–and discover–who they are.

And the longer I thought about it, the more I realized that the two stories are really one, with test score mania being the common element.

Everyone knows about Atlanta, where former superintendent Beverly Hall and 34 other public school employees were just indicted for cheating on 2009 student tests, and face years and years of prison if convicted. They (allegedly) cheated because their jobs and prestige revolved around raising student test scores.  More than 34 employees have already admitted guilt. (The report.) Unfortunately, the subsequent debate seems to have devolved into a food fight about testing:  “Should we test, or shouldn’t we?”  Well, of course we should be testing, but to what end?  And with what sort of instruments?

The rise in ADHD diagnoses is “deja vu all over again,” but with a twist.  My colleague John Tulenko and I reported this story in 1995 in “ADD: A Dubious Diagnosis?” for PBS.  We exposed the greed and venality 

News Flash: What the Hell is going on...Malloy snubs nose at Connecticut law - Wait, What?

News Flash: What the Hell is going on...Malloy snubs nose at Connecticut law - Wait, What?:

News Flash: What the Hell is going on…Malloy snubs nose at Connecticut law

by jonpelto

Earlier today, Connecticut’s Board of Regents for Higher Education met and voted to forward three names to Governor Malloy with the request that he pick one to serve as President of the combined State University and Community College System.

But the fact is that neither the Board of Regents nor the Governor has the authority to make the choice in this way.

According to Connecticut law, the Governor nominates the majority of the members of the Board of Regents and, according to the new Board of Regents law passed in 2011, “The Governor shall appoint the chairperson of the board…”

However when it comes to choosing the President of the Connecticut Board of Regents system, the law is absolutely and completely clear.

Section 10a-1b of the Connecticut State Statutes reads, “(a) The Governor shall 

Bill Gates Dances Around the Teacher Evaluation Disaster He Sponsored - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Bill Gates Dances Around the Teacher Evaluation Disaster He Sponsored - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Bill Gates Dances Around the Teacher Evaluation Disaster He Sponsored

by Anthony Cody

No one in America has done more to promote the raising of stakes for test scores in education than Bill Gates.
Yesterday, Mr. Gates published a column that dances around the disaster his advocacy has created in the schools of our nation.
You can read his words there, but his actions have spoken so much more loudly, that I cannot even make sense out of what he is attempting to say now. So let's focus first on what Bill Gates has wrought.
No Child Left Behind was headed towards bankruptcy about seven years ago. The practice of labeling schools as failures and closing them, on the basis of test scores, was clearly causing a narrowing of the curriculum. Low income schools in Oakland eliminated art, history and even science in order to focus almost exclusively on math 

Social Justice in the Classroom: Not Always the Easiest Lesson | toteachornototeach

Social Justice in the Classroom: Not Always the Easiest Lesson | toteachornototeach:

Social Justice in the Classroom: Not Always the Easiest Lesson

by aristotlethewise

Social Justice in the Classroom:
Not Always the Easiest Lesson 

by Holly Spinelli
On March 4, I became a fellow of The Academy for Teachers, an organization that honors teachers who, despite everything, make their classrooms havens for passion and creativity. The Academy organizes “master classes” led by prominent experts in all subject areas, but mine was led by the incredible Gloria Steinem. The assembled English and social studies teachers all shared a passion for feminism and social activism.
The Academy’s master classes are intimate. There were just 16 of us and we came from a real cross-section of New York City schools. Three worked in private schools and the rest were from a variety of public schools. Our students are among the poorest and the richest children in New York City and all of the teachers had different experiences with teaching the day’s topic.
Linda Weissman, for example, teaches at Stuyvesant High School, one of New York City’s top public schools. She works with 150 motivated, hyper grade-conscious, predominantly middle- to upper-middle-class children. Weissman was bothered that most of her students had never heard of Steinem, but she wasn’t really surprised. (Feminism isn’t a significant area of focus in most classrooms.) And she worried her attempts to generate an 

Missouri Education Watchdog: The Joke's On Us: 20 U.S.C. § 3403 : US Code - Section 3403: Relationship with States

Missouri Education Watchdog: The Joke's On Us: 20 U.S.C. § 3403 : US Code - Section 3403: Relationship with States:

The Joke's On Us: 20 U.S.C. § 3403 : US Code - Section 3403: Relationship with States

by stlgretchen

Neal McCluskey writes how the Federal Government seems to be directing testing in the Common Core consortia.  From Saying Common Core Not Federal a Joke, but Joke’s on Us:

Last week I posted video from an American Enterprise Institute conference featuring supporters of national curriculum standards—the Common Core—dismissing concerns that implementing the standards might cost lots of taxpayer arms and legs, and laughingly brushing aside concerns that the Common Core might lead to federal control of school curricula. The latter emanated largely from Chester “Checker” Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, whose organization is a leading national standards supporter.

Yesterday news came out that made clear just how serious—and unfunny—concerns about a federal takeover are. According to Education Week, the U.S. Department of Education will start a “technical review process” for the Department-selected consortia creating the national tests to go with the standards. And what will that review look at? Not compliance with accounting standards or something administrative, but test “item design and validation.” That means, most likely 

More schools need “robotic” learning | InterACT

More schools need “robotic” learning | InterACT:

More schools need “robotic” learning

by David B. Cohen

Click to view slideshow.The images in the slideshow above are all pictures that I took at the 2011 and 2012 FIRST Robotics Competiton Silicon Valley Regional. (FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”). I’ve taken my sons to this event for four years now, partly to encourage my school and my participating students, and partly because it’s fun watching six robots zooming around and smacking into each other in a race to lift and place large inflatables, or play basketball, balance on a ramp or zoom up a pole.
If I’ve posted this online, then we’re on our way to the San Jose Event Center to watch the first day of this year’s competition, which is called “Ultimate Ascent” – yes, frisbee time! Watch the animated film below to see this year’s game.
But actually, the main reason I keep coming back to this event is that I love watching education in action. On the surface, it’s all fun and games, as long as you’re a kid who understands robotics, computers, engineering, CAD, and a variety of other technical and mechanical skills. If you look at the slideshow above, you can see there are 

A Virginia parent speaks truth to Arne Duncan | Parents Across America

A Virginia parent speaks truth to Arne Duncan | Parents Across America:

A Virginia parent speaks truth to Arne Duncan

by pureparents

We welcome our first chapter in Virginia, PAA-Roanoke Valley, and its leaders, Laura Bowman. Here’s the story Laura told us about why she wanted to start a PAA chapter:

I think it’s so important to have a parent group in my area speaking up in support of our public schools, teachers, and students.  I believe that high stakes testing and the education reform movement have hijacked our schools and turned them into testing factories.  In Virginia we have the SOLS–the Standards of Learning.  While I believe it’s important to evaluate teachers and students, they are more than their test scores.  I have so much to say on the subject but I think I will let you read what I said to Arne Duncan in September, 2012.  He came through Roanoke on a bus tour.  Roanoke was his last stop before returning to his home in northern Virginia.  He had a town hall meeting at our local community college.  That morning I decided to go to the meeting.  I quickly wrote up something to say and sat close to a microphone down front.  Students from the community college asked great questions about higher ed and I let them all ask their questions first as higher ed was the focus of the meeting.  The president of the community college said the question time was over and the mayor would speak.  I stood and asked if Mr. Duncan would take one more question.  The president reluctantly said yes.  So I stood up and said the following:

***

Thank you for coming today.

I’m the PTA president at my son’s school just down the road here in Roanoke County.  We have great schools here and one of them was just made a Blue Ribbon School. I’m not speaking on behalf of the PTA today, just as a concerned parent. However, as PTA president many people in this community share their 

Why renowned educators — and new teachers — are ‘occupying’ Ed Dept:

Why renowned educators — and new teachers — are ‘occupying’ Ed Dept

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 4, 2013 at 1:30 pm

Today teachers, students, parents, researchers and other activists are starting the second annual “Occupy the DOE” event  on the grounds of the U.S. Education Department to protest corporate-based school reform.

Among those attending the four-day event, sponsored by United Opt Out, an organization dedicated to the elimination of high-stakes standardized testing in public schools, are Diane Ravitch, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, veteran educator Deborah Meier, early childhood expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige and language acquisition expert Stephen Krashen. There is a scheduled march to the White House on Saturday.

In the following post, a new teacher explains why she is attending. She is Amy Rothschild, who teaches prekindergarten in a public school in New England.

By Amy Rothschild

From today through Sunday, education activists, including Diane Ravitch, will “occupy” the Department of Education.

Ravitch, of course, has occupied the Department of Education before, but in a different sense: From 1991 to 1993, she served as Assistant Secretary of Education under George 

California Father | @califather Califather all spiffed up and ready to stream Occupy the DoE! #edchat #soschat #uoodc13

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago

California Father | Educating Sullivan: [image: California Father] califather on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free - ON DEMAND - ABOUT OCCUPY THE DEPT OF ED - HOW TO CHAT

Josh Birdwell – Education Reform Is Becoming a Revolution Student Voice

Student Voice:

Josh Birdwell – Education Reform Is Becoming a Revolution

by admin

The Huffington Post will be promoting various Student Voice articles prior to the Student Voice Live! summit on April 13th.
The following is from Josh Birdwell:

Our voices matter because we are the most heavily affected by choices made in education policy and curriculum. I refuse to be simply a number who passed all of his End of Instruction tests (EOIs) and met the requirements. Without voices, we can give no feedback on the effectiveness of the system. Recently more students have been voicing their thoughts and ideas on education and it would be safe to say not many praise the secondary educational experience. There are exceptions out there. I am one of them partially; junior year I began to attend a Pre-Engineering Academy that supplemented my public schooling. This got me through high school without being absolutely bored.
Slowly over time, I have begun to gain a stronger voice on educational reform which is now switching to a revolution. Early on in my education, I went through the motions and never really questioned my schooling. I was learning because it was required and not because I wanted to. Sure, there were a handful of classes that broke the mold. It wouldn’t be until senior year that I took my education into my own hands. Engineering Design and 

Arizona Lawmakers Poised to Outlaw Student Funding for Activist Groups |

Arizona Lawmakers Poised to Outlaw Student Funding for Activist Groups |:

Arizona Lawmakers Poised to Outlaw Student Funding for Activist Groups

from Student Activism by Angus Johnston

What a ...

A bill passed the Arizona state senate Tuesday that would ban all use of student fees for lobbying or in support of organizations not chartered by the university. It is currently awaiting Governor Jan Brewer’s signature, amid a lobbying campaign to push her to veto.
HB 2169 was drafted in response to controversy over the Arizona Students’ Association support for last year’s Proposition 204, which would have imposed a state sales tax surcharge to fund education. But the bill goes far further than even that criticism of the ASA.
The bill has two sections, the first of which would bar the use of any student fee money to “for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election or to advocate support for or opposition to pending or proposed election.” No student buses to lobby for higher ed funding, in other words. No flyering with student fee money for rallies about reproductive freedom or tuition bills or hate crimes laws or open admissions.
The bill’s second section would ban the use of any student fee money to support student organizations not under 

Leveling and Raising the Playing Field — Whole Child Education

Leveling and Raising the Playing Field — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Leveling and Raising the Playing Field

April 4, 2013 by Whole Child Podcast

Download Podcast Now [Right-Click to Save]

Addressing students' needs levels the playing field. Or rather, addressing students' needs is only leveling the playing field. If a child is hungry, then the need can be addressed by providing breakfast, lunch, and assistance as needed. The same applies if the child is unwell. Many schools have made great strides in addressing students' needs, but some schools have gone further. They have taken an issue that was initially a need and used it to enhance and improve what the school offers.

Milwaukie High School, part of North Clackamas Schools in Milwaukie, Oregon, and winner of the 2013 Vision in Action: The ASCD Whole Child Award, is an outstanding school where each student is engaged in literacy, inspired by their cultural diversity, and ready for active citizenship. Milwaukie's staff works tirelessly to improve their students' academic, social, and emotional growth; to expand their educational practices; and sharpen the administration's focus on staff professional development, all to meet the needs of the whole child.

In this episode, hosts Sean Slade and Donna Snyder and our guests discuss how to meet students' and 

UPDATE: The racists smile + Study the faces of the new tyrants. | Fred Klonsky

Study the faces of the new tyrants. | Fred Klonsky:

The racists smile.

by Fred Klonsky

It is the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., murdered in Memphis in 1968.
I read Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s declaration on the eve of this anniversary. She was “insulted” to be called a racist.
Of course, nobody called her a racist.
She certainly makes the racists smile.
As does the ethnic cleansing of the City of Chicago.
The very neighborhood that Martin Luther King chose to live in during his Chicago fair housing campaign has seen some of the greatest losses in African-American population. They did not move to some other city neighborhood. They are just gone.
The city has lost over a quarter of a million African-American residents over the past ten years.
Part of the cycle has been a decade of school closings resulting in a loss of population. Then more school closings using the loss of population as the excuse.

Map: Catalyst
CTU President Karen Lewis says the closing plan is based in racism and classism.
CPS CEO Barbar Byrd-Bennett acts offended at the suggestion.
And the racists smile.

Study the faces of the new tyrants.

by Fred Klonsky

Study the faces of the new tyrants. I hesitate to call them plutocrats for the term is too historical and these men belong to the phenomenon which is unprecedented. Let’s settle for profiteers. Their profiteer faces have many features in common. This conformity is partly circumstantial – they possess similar talents and they live according to similar routines – and partly it is a chosen style.
Their ages may vary but the style is that of men in their late forties. They are impeccably dressed and their tailoring is reassuring, like the silhouette of high-security vans. Armor Mobile Security.
Studying their features you have the impression that they have no pronounced, let alone excessive physical appetites apart from an insatiable appetite for control. Far from looking monstrous, their 

Defend Public Education - Who is Eli Broad and why is he trying to destroy public education?

Defend Public Education - Who is Eli Broad?:

Eli Broad

Who is Eli Broad and why is he trying to destroy public education?

February 24, 2013

Introduction
The historically unprecedented explosion of wealth in recent decades for the top one percent of the American populace is leading to a reshaping of the American economy in the interests of this one percent. Having more wealth than they know what to do with, many of the corporate leaders, hedge fund managers, and bankers are putting their wealth into “venture philanthropies”. They hope to advance an unregulated, free market economy which requires the destruction of the advances towards social equality made in American society during the 20th century due to the struggles of the civil rights movement in the sixties and the labor movement in the thirties. Incubated in the economic Wild West days of the G. W. Bush administration until the financial crisis of 2008, these “venture philanthropies” continue to seek to bring the business practices of the banking, corporate, and hedge fund manager world to all sectors of the U.S. economy through privatization.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the full-scale assault on public education that has been escalating for the last ten years since the Bush administration instituted the No Child Left Behind law in 2001. Basing itself on rating schools by high stakes testing, combined with declining federal support for education, NCLB has led to wide scale vilification of public school teachers for social conditions over which they have no control. This is being used all over the country as a pretext for closing schools in mostly urban school districts with large numbers of low-income families. As a result, we once again are faced with an increasingly segregated educational system where the children of middle class and slightly better off working class families are transferred into charters which are given advantages in student selection and funding, while the children of low income families are increasingly being left behind in deteriorating public schools. These ever worsening urban public school systems, which already having been inequitably funded for decades compared to wealthy suburban school districts, 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Thursday, April 4, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

@CALIFATHER CALIFATHER ALL SPIFFED UP AND READY TO STREAM OCCUPY THE DOE!

@califather Califather all spiffed up and ready to stream Occupy the DoE!

Watch live streaming video from califather at livestream.com

California Father | @califather Califather all spiffed up and ready to stream Occupy the DoE! #edchat #soschat #uoodc13

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago

California Father | Educating Sullivan: [image: California Father] califather on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free - ON DEMAND - ABOUT OCCUPY THE DEPT OF ED - HOW TO CHAT

Education Headlines

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Coachella Valley teachers use website to stock classrooms with needed supplies

In the midst of a statewide cash crunch and shrinking school supply budgets, 60 Coachella Valley teachers have turned to DonorsChoose.org, a crowdfunding website that works to bridge the gap between where school funding ends and creative teaching begins.

Injured Temecula cheerleader to sue district

A Temecula Valley High School cheerleader is preparing to sue the school district because of an accident during a homecoming stunt that left the 17-year-old girl with a traumatic brain injury that she may never recover from, her attorney said.

California bill would require panic alarms in schools

Lawmakers gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that would require panic alarms to be installed throughout school campuses in California, but only if the federal government pays for it.

School district cited in civil rights investigation

An investigation into alleged discrimination in the Corona-Norco schools concluded that minority students and those with disabilities were treated improperly.

Assistant principal arrested on sex charges

Hemet Police arrested a Tahquitz High School assistant principal Wednesday morning, April 3, on suspicion of multiple sexual misconduct charges with students.

Many Bay Area districts fail to adequately educate low-income and minority students, report finds

An educational advocacy group released its third annual District Report Cards on Wednesday, showing that half the largest unified districts in the Bay Area improved in their efforts to educate low-income students and those who are African-American or Latino.

Antioch: Three parents of autistic kindergarten children file federal civil rights lawsuit claiming teacher abuse

With the filing of a federal lawsuit Wednesday, a horrific child abuse scandal burst into public view in the Antioch school district, involving three autistic students who allegedly were slapped, pinched and verbally abused by a teacher -- and school officials who failed to report the accusations to police as the law requires.

Opening up, students transform a vicious circle

There is little down time in Eric Butler’s classroom. “My daddy got arrested this morning,” Mercedes Morgan, a distraught senior, told the students gathered there. Mr. Butler’s mission is to help defuse grenades of conflict at Ralph J. Bunche High School, the end of the line for students with a history of getting into trouble. He is the school’s coordinator for restorative justice, a program increasingly offered in schools seeking an alternative to “zero tolerance” policies like suspension and expulsion.

EdSource: Students find fruit appealing as a school snack, study finds

Amid the ongoing state push for healthy foods for school children, a new review has found that students eat more fruits and vegetables when they attend schools that participate in the federal Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program.

750 L.A. Unified security aides hired since Newtown school shooting

The Los Angeles Unified School District has hired more than 750 of the 1,000 security aides it decided to employ after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

SD lawmakers support teacher dismissal bill

Despite reservations over some details, two San Diego County lawmakers lined up with the rest of the Assembly Education Committee Wednesday to unanimously pass legislation that would make it simpler to fire teachers accused of sex crimes against children and other serious offenses.

CA Assembly panel approves teacher dismissal bill

It could become easier to fire a teacher in California: the Assembly Education Committee voted 7-0 on Wednesday to approve a bill by Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, which would streamline the process for jettisoning incompetent or abusive educators.

Proposal for parent-trigger overhaul at L.A. school well-received

Leaders of a parent group have endorsed a plan to improve 24th Street Elementary, which would be jointly run by Los Angeles Unified School District and Crown Prep charter school.

Fensterwald: Bill would protect adult ed, career tech while extending local control

School districts would keep discretion to spend billions of dollars of “categorical” funding however they want for five more years under a Senate bill that passed its first hurdle in the Legislature on Wednesday.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Report finds fraud at Oak Hills High School

State auditors have found that fraud and sloppy financial practices may be the reasons why a local high school is missing $130,000 in student funds, and the case may soon be turned over to the District Attorney’s office.

Pomona Unified officials declare several pieces of district owned land surplus property

Most of the properties in the two groups of land declared surplus were purchased during a period when the district was experiencing an increase in enrollment.

Pomona Unified school board approves field improvements for three district high schools

The district's Board of Education unanimously approved resolutions approving the renovation of track and field facilities at Diamond Ranch, Garey and Pomona High Schools.