Conservative Website Grades Companies on Common Core | Truth in American Education

Conservative Website Grades Companies on Common Core | Truth in American Education:

Conservative Website Grades Companies on Common Core

Filed in Common Core State Standards by Shane Vander Hart on August 25, 2014 • 0 Comments

• 6
• 3

2nd Vote launched to provide conservatives with a resource to know how companies spent their money on political causes.  They would look at corporate spending on issues like abortion, marriage, the 2nd Amendment, etc. and then give companies a score card based on their research.  Each company would be rated between 1 to 5.  Companies receiving a 1 or 2 means they gave to causes that held a liberal position on any given issue.

Today they launched Common Core and school choice as two more issues.  Like the other issues companies receiving a 1 or 2 would indicate support for the Common Core.  A 3 would be neutral.  4 or 5 rating would mean a company supports groups opposing Common Core.

From an email sent to supporters they write:

As you may know, companies like General Electric, AT&T, IBM, and even Taco Bell have financed the push for Common Core implementation across the country. By supporting groups such as the Center for American Progress and Achieve, Inc., these corporations are pushing a controversial system that represents a major expansion of the federal government’s control of education curriculum.

At 2nd Vote, we believe you should hold your dollars accountable and know exactly where your money goes. Our website and mobile app shows how corporations line up with your values, and we invest the resources to bring the research to you. We’ve added over 50 companies immediately, and we’re adding more daily.

Currently only companies with a 1 or 2 rating are listed.

For instance with PepsiCo they give a 2.0 on Common Core.  They write:

PepsiCo. is listed as a 2013 corporate supporter of the Center for American Progress. In June 2014, the Center for American Progress issued a report in full support of the Common Core State Standards. According to the Center for American Progress, Common Core State Standards “are one of the most important reforms to American public education in decades.” PepsiCo. is a member of the Business Roundtable. The Business Roundtable supports “the 

Conservative Website Grades Companies on Common Core | Truth in American Education:

Dear Parents, Teachers cannot protect your children from well financed abusers. | Reclaim Reform

Dear Parents, Teachers cannot protect your children from well financed abusers. | Reclaim Reform:

Dear Parents, Teachers cannot protect your children from well financed abusers.

Posted on August 25, 2014by Ken Previti

I truly admire Peggy Robertson, and you should, too. Why?

As an active teacher she openly admits that it takes parents to stop the dismantling of public education by Corporate Education Reform multinational investors disguised as social reformers attempting to help children. High stakes testing of any brand name that complies with Common Core State Standards (CCSS) harms our children.

Here is an excerpt from her “must read and share” article:
“What is happening is evil, cruel and abusive. Refuse the tests and deny the corporations the profit, deny the district, state and federal government your child’s data (which they can share with corporations), deny the publishing companies the opportunity to create more common core products. Without the data, the profit ends and we have an opportunity to reclaim our public schools, our profession. We have an opportunity to do what is right for all children.”
– Peggy Robertson

As a mom, Peggy sees students from the perspective of both sides of the desk and from the standpoint of a parent/teacher who wants wants the best from a teacher/parent. (You do the mind reversals involved with this!)

She is one of the founders and driving forces behind United Opt Out, the sole writer of the incredible Peg with Pen blog, and a driving force in the actual betterment of public schools.

As a loving parent/teacher she witnesses the actual harm and empathizes deeply with the Dear Parents, Teachers cannot protect your children from well financed abusers. | Reclaim Reform:

8-25-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

The Left and Right Attacks MORE on Garner March Position: I'm Shocked, There Are Social Democrats in MORE

This is -- or should be -- absolutely the end for MORE and its sponsors in the ISO and other opportunist organizations. This is what social democracy looks like... Comment on MORE position (The March for Justice and Unity) on Garner march.SHAME ON MORE!!! SHAME ON THE ISO AND SOLIDARITY WHICH ARE INVOLVED IN MORE AND SHAME ON TEACHERS WHO DARE NOT STAND FOR PROSECUTION OF COPS WHEN THEY CARRY OUT

by ed notes online / 18min 

8-24-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: UFT History in a Graphic: Caucuses from 1960-2014I just finished reading Barbara Tuchman's "Guns of August" about the first month of WWI. Almost every issue we face today can be related back to decisions and outcomes a hundred years ago and beyond that.We need to know some history of the UFT in order to fully understand things in context. I created this flow chart in att

by mike simpson / 21h 

Accountability Progress Reporting - CalEdFacts (CA Dept of Education)

Accountability Progress Reporting - CalEdFacts (CA Dept of Education):

Accountability Progress Reporting - CalEdFacts

This content is part of California Department of Education's information and media guide about education in the State of California. For similar information on other topics, visit the full CalEdFacts.

---

The California Department of Education (CDE) reports both state and federal accountability results under the general heading of the Accountability Progress Reporting (APR) System. The APR includes the state Academic Performance Index (API) Base and Growth reports, the federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Report, and the federal Program Improvement (PI) Report, as listed below:

Accountability Progress Reporting System: 2013–14

State Accountability Requirements

At the March 2014 meeting, the State Board of Education (SBE) approved the State Superintendent of Public Instruction’s (SSPI’s) recommendation to not calculate the following Academic Performance Index (API) reports:

• 2014 Growth API
• 2014 Base API
• 2015 Growth API

As a result of not reporting the above APIs, the SBE also approved the removal of the API as an additional indicator for high schools within the AYP.

For further details of the future of API reporting and the 3-Year Average API Reports released in May 2014, please view the 10-page document, Status of the API and the 3–Year Average Information Guide, available on the CDE API Web page.

Federal Accountability Requirements

• 2014 AYP Reports for high schools and high school local educational agencies (LEAs) (release September 2014).
• 2014–15 PI Reports for Title I-funded schools and LEAs (release September 2014).

Grade Two Diagnostic Assessments RFI

Request for Information about available grade two diagnostic assessments in English-language arts and mathematics.

---

The California Department of Education (CDE) issues this Request for Information (RFI) with the purpose of soliciting information about currently available diagnostic assessments in English-language arts (ELA) and mathematics for students in grade two and to satisfy the requirements of Calfornia Education Code (EC) Section 60644. Respondents may submit information in response to this RFI for diagnostic assessments for students in grade two for ELA, mathematics, or both. Each diagnostic assessment will require a separate submission to this RFI.

Program Questions: Shobhana Rishi, Education Programs Consultant, California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress Office, e-mail: srishi@cde.ca.gov; tel: 916-319-0201

Downloading Questions: Will Lee, Psychometrics, Technology, and Data Unit, e-mail: wlee@cde.ca.gov; tel: 916-319-0421

Document	Description
Request for Information(PDF) Attachments (Word)	RFI and attachments for the Grade Two Diagnostic Assessments for English-language arts and mathematics
RFI Questions and Answers	CDE answers to RFI respondents questions (Projected Availability: Monday, September 8, 2014)

LA high school students walk out over scheduling system | 89.3 KPCC

LA high school students walk out over scheduling system | 89.3 KPCC:



LA high school students walk out over scheduling system

 Los Angeles high school students started the third week of school with a walk out Monday morning to draw attention to continued problems with a new district-wide scheduling system they said keeps them trapped in the auditorium or in classes they've already taken.



"They have us in the  auditorium every day, all day. We get different schedules every day. They  need to stop. They need to give us the right classes," said Tatyana Sims, 17, a senior at Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles. She said her schedule Monday was composed entirely of classes she'd already taken and passed.



"We're wasting time," she added. "They don't listen to us."



L.A. Unified School District administrators issued a public statement acknowledging they had to make changes to Jefferson's "master schedule" last week because it was causing problems.



"We learned that parts of the previous schedule were unacceptable: all Advanced Placement classes were slotted in the same period, limiting students’ access to a college curriculum," read the statement, attributed to Tommy Chang of L.A. Unified's intensive support and innovation center. "The same was true for core content classes for English Learners, limiting their access to various subjects as all were scheduled at the same time."

School officials did not address the students' larger complaints about the new computer attendance and scheduling system, MiSis, which was rolled out this year.



The problems started the first day of school, Aug. 12. Students had to camp out in auditoriums, cafeterias and libraries as principals struggled to schedule them for classes. Within days, administrators told teachers to stop using the system and take attendance by hand.



As teachers and students loudly complained the first week of school, district officials said they anticipated there would be challenges and that problems would be worked out in the coming weeks. They maintained fewer than 1 percent of the L.A. Unified's 650,000 students have been affected by scheduling issues under the new system.



That's wasn't the case at Jefferson high, students said. One after another complained most of their classes were incorrect and the fixes were taking too long.



"We cannot get an education like that," said Maria Valle, 16, a junior, one of hundreds of students gathered in a fenced patio chanting: Change! Now! "Teachers are starting LA high school students walk out over scheduling system | 89.3 KPCC:

NYC Educator: Even Ed. "Reformers" Gotta Serve Somebody

NYC Educator: Even Ed. "Reformers" Gotta Serve Somebody:

Even Ed. "Reformers" Gotta Serve Somebody

Based on the song by Bob Dylan...

You may be head of Kipps or Success Academies
You may counsel out kids and keep entry fees
You may have a padded cell to suspend kids with habits
You may be Joel Klein with a stash of Amplify tablets

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

You might be a computer geek, making millions of bucks
You might give grants and stipends for curriculum that sucks
You may be a hedge-fund manager or even a diva
They may call you Bee Eater or they may call you Eva

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

You may be a state regent, you might be John B. King
You may set the cut scores to really, really sting
You may teach kids the Core, you may teach kids to fail
You may spare your kids in private school before sending them onto YaleNYC Educator: Even Ed. "Reformers" Gotta Serve Somebody:

Pass The Popcorn: LA’s Education Establishment Explodes – redqueeninla

Pass The Popcorn: LA’s Education Establishment Explodes – redqueeninla:



Pass The Popcorn: LA’s Education Establishment Explodes

Written by redqueeninla 

 The education news exploding through the tubes via KPCC and the LATimessince last Thursday is absolutely staggering. There is a soap’s-load worth oftitters and twitters, readings and writings about fiscal improprieties, amoral, immoral and unethical behavior, all on the public’s dime. Our money, and our sacred trust in the chief education officer, superintendent Deasy, to educate our children well and properly, sluices straight through that public official’s office. And the environment there is none too clean.

It is, as a friend says, time to Pass The Popcorn (that popper is reportedly perched on the front burner these days). Only there are so many flues from which feces is flinging they need numbering:

1: John Deasy and his senior staff were all playing footsie with Apple and Pearson before ever a contract for common core technology was put out to bid. It’s possible that Apple-Pearson (“App-son”) never did “win” some free market competition to provide LAUSD with its best opportunity for technology. By all appearances that bidding process was rigged in advance to favor a pre-ordained “App-son outcome”.

There is some rather titillating email evidence of this immoral if not illegal behavior. While the LAUSD’s Inspector General signed off on the cleanliness of the ipad deal and the city’s attorney general declined any prosecution, this was prior to the appearance of the smoking emails.

Sources of amoral behaviour might be: If Deasy held shares of Apple during these pre-bid conversations; mightn’t this be fraudulent, particularly if he increased his share-holding during this period? His much bally-hooed divestiture after the contract award would only be so much deal-clinching for him personally. And what of the precipitous departure of deputy superintendent of instruction, Jaime Aquino, former Pearson-employee and latter-day New Teacher Center second-in-command? These conversations may have violated the revolving door “waiting period” of contact with former employees.

2: Another source of disarray involves a new information system that was rolled out district wide without any backup plan. As MiSiS faltered, as these things are wont to do, in its wake has been left thousands of students disenfranchised in some cases without schools or classes, teachers and Pass The Popcorn: LA’s Education Establishment Explodes – redqueeninla:

APUSH Authors Revealed. Read This Before Webinar Tonight. | Missouri Education Watchdog

APUSH Authors Revealed. Read This Before Webinar Tonight. | Missouri Education Watchdog:

APUSH Authors Revealed. Read This Before Webinar Tonight.

inShare

From 2011 power point presentation to Charlottesville City Schools. Precursor of APUSH curriculum? APUSH authors listed in this power point.  Link at end of article.

Stanley Kurtz revealed this morning important information on the writers of the 2015 Advanced Placement US History test, recently realigned by The College Board.  There is concern on the left and the right about David Coleman’s version of AP History being taught to students.  From How the College Board Politicized American History:

NYU historian Thomas Bender is the leading spokesman for the movement to internationalize the U.S. History curriculum at every educational level. The fullest and clearest statement of Bender’s views can be found in his 2006 book, A Nation Among Nations: America’s Place in World History. Bender is a thoroughgoing critic of American exceptionalism, the notion that America is freer and more democratic than any other nation, and for that reason, a model, vindicator, and at times the chief defender of ordered liberty and self-government in the world.

In opposition to this, Bender wants to subordinate American identity to a cosmopolitan, “transnational” sensibility. Bender urges us to see each nation, our own included, as but “a province among the provinces that make up the world.” Whereas the old U.S. history forged a shared national identity by emphasizing America’s distinctiveness, Bender hopes to encourage cosmopolitanism by “internationalizing” the American story.

Bender laments that history as taught in our schools has bred an “acceptance of the nation as the dominant form of human solidarity.” The growing focus on gender, race, and ethnicity is welcome, says Bender, but does little to transform an underlying historical narrative built around the nation. Even the rise of world history in the schools has backfired, Bender maintains, by making it appear as though American history and world history are somehow different topics.

Bender understands that his transnational twist on American history has profound political implications. He complains that while working on his book (during George W. Bush’s APUSH Authors Revealed. Read This Before Webinar Tonight. | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Earthquake Assistance for Schools - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education)

Earthquake Assistance for Schools - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces Assistance for Schools Closed Due to Earthquake

SACRAMENTO—Schools closed because of the earthquake in Napa over the weekend will still receive full state funding, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced today.

"Our thoughts and our prayers are with the people in Napa as they deal with the aftermath of the weekend’s earthquake," Torlakson said. "While the California Department of Education has not received any reports of deaths, injuries, or serious damage on school property, I want to assure local educational agencies that they will not lose funding if their facilities are closed or used as emergency shelters during this disaster."

Local educational agencies will not lose Average Daily Attendance (ADA) funding if their facilities are used as community shelters or forced to close because of a natural disaster. The California Education Code allows the State Superintendent to authorize ADA credit for the days that schools are closed.

Local educational agencies may also receive ADA credit for all purposes and instructional time credit for the days and minutes lost due to an emergency closure. ADA credit and approval of school closures may be obtained by submitting three copies ofForm J-13A (DOC).

For more guidance on ADA credit, visit the California Department of Education’s Management Advisory 90-01 - Attendance Web page.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Issues Guidance to Schools on Unaccompanied Immigrant Children

SACRAMENTO—Setting aside $3.5 million in federal funding to assist schools that see an increase in unaccompanied immigrant children this school year, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today advised school districts of their obligation to serve every child in California regardless of where they come from or where they were born.

"We don't make immigration policy in our classrooms; we help every child who comes through our doors," Torlakson said. "With our help and support, I am confident that California's schools will be able to provide a safe haven for children waiting for authorities to reunite them with their families."

Torlakson said the $3.5 million represents federal Title III funds to help school districts that may have experienced a significant increase in immigrant students. The funds may be used for improving instruction, providing tutoring and intensified instruction, and conducting community participation programs. School districts are eligible when data demonstrate a growth of 3 percent in the qualifying student population as compared to the average of the two previous years.

To receive funding, school districts submit a plan for a quality supplemental program to help these children, and then apply for the Title III Immigrant funding. The application for funds may provide about $94 per immigrant student. However, this funding does not distinguish between those students who enter the United States accompanied or unaccompanied. So far, the demand for Title III Immigrant funds has not increased in California. For more information on this program, funding, and application, visit the California Department of Education's (CDE) Title III Immigrant Education Program Web page.

CDE receives and distributes funds from several federal programs to supplement existing programs designed to assist immigrant children, whether they enter the United States accompanied or unaccompanied. These services include:

• Services for educationally disadvantaged children (Title I, Part A);
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA);
• English language acquisition programs (Title III);
• McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act; and
• Migrant education programs (Title I, Part C).

Other assistance is available directly from the federal government. The United States Department of Education outlined assistance to help schools welcome immigrant children through its fact sheet on Educational Services for Immigrant Children and Those Recently Arrived to the United States .

The CDE also administers several other state and federal education programs to assist immigrant children as well as other disadvantaged children in the general student population. These programs include assistance in nutrition, before and after school activities, health, early education, English learners, and more. For more information visit the CDE's Learning Supportand Specialized Programs Web pages. Use of these programs would be locally determined based on their schools' and communities' analysis of need.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Trust and Obey - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Trust and Obey - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Trust and Obey

By Nancy Flanagan on August 25, 2014 11:24 AM

Years ago, someone in my district's Central Office read a study showing that teachers who had to call their principals to let them know they'd be absent were less likely to take a day off than those who had to call someone else--a substitute coordinator, say, or a building secretary.

This was in the days before answering machines were standard-issue in most homes and automated sub-finder services did not exist. Thinking he could save a few bucks, the superintendent instituted a system where teachers had to call their building principals two hours--preferably more--before their report time. The principals, in turn, would contact the nice lady at the switchboard who handled securing substitutes.

This effectively turned a single step process (teacher calls, coordinator gets sub) into a multi-step relay process (teachers call, principal calls, coordinator gets subs) wherein messages about teachers' preferred subs or where to find the plan book were not directly transmitted, and often garbled. Instead of a steady stream of sub requests, the switchboard now got them in late-arriving clusters, and securing subs became a kind of Lucy-and-Ethel race against time.

There were two things about this system far worse than inefficiency, however: First, the superintendent sent a clear warning signal to every teacher that their absences were under suspicion, and being rigorously fly-specked by their immediate supervisors. And in the process, he'd made mornings in principals' households a living hell.

My own principal lived about 90 minutes from school, so he was often on the road before the two-hour deadline. Privately, he'd asked his teachers not to call after 8:00 p.m. the night before (they had a new baby)--so it was his sleep-deprived wife who was fielding the 4:30 a.m. calls from hacking, sniffling teachers. I can still hear her curt "Yisss?" and slam-down of the receiver.

We never did learn whether the system yielded any cost savings. But when my principal became superintendent, a couple of years later, we returned to calling a sub coordinator. By then, the district Trust and Obey - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

US Ed Secretary: 'Testing issues today are sucking the oxygen... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

US Ed Secretary: 'Testing issues today are sucking the oxygen... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

US Ed Secretary: 'Testing issues today are sucking the oxygen out of the room in a lot of schools' 

•  0 0 1 1



View Larger 

Johnny Crawford, jcrawford@ajc.com

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan reads to children at Boyd Elementary School Friday, May 31, 2013. Education Secretary Arne Duncan , Governor Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed also participated in a panel discussion on education.

Previous Posts

• Georgia DOE: Student growth model isn’t perfect, but it’s valid, reliable
  August 25, 2014
• APS middle school detracks. Parents react. 
  August 21, 2014
• A year ago, almost two-thirds of Americans never heard of Common Core. Now, they have. And they don’t like what they’re hearing.
  August 21, 2014

By Maureen Downey

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan joined the growing chorus of teachers and parents lamenting the role of testing in American schools, outlining in his blog that he has heard the concerns and has authorized a one-year delay in incorporating student scores in teacher evaluations.

This is an excerpt of Duncan’s essay, followed by a statement from Gwinnett school chief J. Alvin Wilbanks and another superintendent.

First, Duncan’s comments:

There are three main issues I’ve heard about repeatedly from educators:

•It doesn’t make sense to hold them accountable during this transition year for results on the new assessments – a test many of them have not seen before – and as many are coming up to speed with new standards.

•The standardized tests they have today focus too much on basic skills, not enough on critical thinking and deeper learning.

•Testing – and test preparation – takes up too much time.

I share these concerns. And I want our department to be part of the solution.

To those who are reading the last sentence with surprise let me be clear: assessment is a vital part of teaching and learning, but it should be one part (and only one part) of how adults hold themselves responsible for students’ progress. Schools, teachers and families need and deserve clear, useful information about how their students are progressing. As a parent of two children in public school, I know I want that. And in fact, most teachers and principals I talk with want to be held responsible for students’ progress – through a sensible, smart combination of factors that reflect their work with students – not the level students came in at, or factors outside of their control.

But assessment needs to be done wisely. No school or teacher should look bad because they took on kids with greater challenges. Growth is what matters. No teacher or school should be judged on any one test or tests alone – always on a mix of measures – which could range from classroom observations to family engagement indicators. In Nevada, educators include a teacher’s contribution to the school community in their measures; in Hawaii, schools consider student feedback surveys and professional growth, such as leading workshops or taking US Ed Secretary: 'Testing issues today are sucking the oxygen... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com: