Need More Info About Common Core? There’s an App for That! | Truth in American Education

Need More Info About Common Core? There’s an App for That! | Truth in American Education:

Need More Info About Common Core? There’s an App for That!

Filed in Common Core State Standards by Shane Vander Hart on March 20, 2014 • 1 Comment

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Yesterday a new tool became available in the fight to Stop Common Core.  A group on Georgia developed a mobile app entitled “About Common Core.”

Rob Cunningham who was involved in the project told Truth in American Education that their volunteer team in Georgia developed this app for every anti-Common Core advocate of educational freedom and academic liberty in America.  “We realized FAR too many citizens have been sleepwalking through the Common Core issue since 2009. Washington/Global progressives, corporate titans and "philanthropist" billionaires are using this fact to their maximum advantage,” Cunningham said.

“The opposite of "stealth" is loud, thunderous awareness and publicity.  As a team, we are singularly focused and determined to activate, educate and empower Moms, Dads, libertarians, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, liberals, Occupiers, Tea Partiers and teachers – you name it – with a powerful, easy to use and easy to leverage app from their smartphone or tablet.  This mobile app is intended to be a teaching aid, a quick reference tool, one that adds confidence and removes fear from anyone that might be timid, feel too uninformed or lacking in confidence to speak with others. Hopefully, this app will be a great equalizer in the well funded spin war being funded by our friends of Common Core,” Cunningham added.  “Our app is simply one tool to help millions of current activists awaken many new millions, taking them from ‘Common who?’ to ‘Over my dead body!’ in mere minutes.”

Currently it appears that the app is available only for Android and Amazon Kindle devices.  I would suspect an iOS app is in the works as well.

Brookings Institute: States Using Common Core Math Standards Show Little Progress

The Brookings Institution released a report that undermines the belief that the Common Core will better prepare students for STEM.  If that is the case and these standards are so great why are states with standards that are the most dissimilar to the Common Core have better assessment scores?The progress report proceeds along two lines of inquiry. First, a ranking system crafted by researchers at

by Shane Vander Hart / 6h 

Faces of Common Core

I wanted to share this short, but powerful video entitled “Faces of Common Core.”  Let’s help this go viral shall we?The post Faces of Common Core appeared first on Truth in American Education.

by Shane Vander Hart / 8h 

The Answer Sheet 3-20-14

The Answer Sheet:

Hillary and Jeb: Clinton to appear at Bush education conference

Hillary and Jeb? I’m not talking about the 2016 presidential race — at least not yet. For now, Hillary Clinton has accepted an invitation from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to appear at a conference in Texas that he is co-hosting next week on higher education. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will be there, too. The […]    

by Valerie Strauss / 18min 

Weird list of topics ‘avoided’ on California high school exit exam

How’s this for slightly strange? Here’s a list of topics deemed to be “potentially biased, sensitive, or controversial” that are “avoided” on the California High School Exit Examination, as listed on the California Department of Education Web site. Look at the list. In California, subjects deemed too controversial for high school seniors to deal include […]    

by Valerie Strauss / 14min 

Who (Obama, Gates, etc.) is speaking at 2014 graduation ceremonies

President Obama will speak at the 2014 University of California, Irvine commencement on Saturday, June 14, in Angel Stadium of Anaheim, heading an all-star list of  speakers for the upcoming graduation season at colleges and universities around the country. Here are some of the announced speakers: George Washington University, Washington D.C. — José Andrés, renowned chef and […]    

2 by Valerie Strauss / 1h 

So how overblown were No. 1 Shanghai’s PISA results?

In December, I wrote a post questioning the No. 1 ranking of Shanghai in the most recent Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA. Shanghai came out with the No. 1 international ranking in the 2012 administration of PISA in math, reading and science, while 15 year olds in the United States performed no better than average […]    

2 by Valerie Strauss / 1h 

Avoiding the most common financial aid application errors

If you have kids in college, or kids who are going to be in college, you want to read this advice on how to get financial aid without making big mistakes. It was written by Mark Kantrowitz, senior vice president and publisher of Edvisors.com, a group of web sites about planning and paying for college. […]    

by Valerie Strauss / 2h hide  //  save

Everybody else has seen this. It’s your turn

In 2006, Sir Ken Robinson, an author and expert on innovation and creativity in education and business, gave a TED talk titled “How Schools Kill Creativity” that became the most watched in TED’s history with more than 25 million views on the TED website and more than 6 million on YouTube. If you haven’t watched […]    

7 by Valerie Strauss / 5h  

The Answer Sheet 3-19-14 School reformers love ‘choice,’ except when …

School reformers love ‘choice,’ except when …: School reformers love ‘choice,’ except when …School “reformers” love to promote “choice.” Charters. Vouchers. Tuition tax credits. It’s all about giving parents choices, right? Well, not always. Reformers don’t actually like choice quite so much when: * Parents decide they want to opt their children out of taking a high-stakes standardized test that h

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3-20-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

Haslam and Huffman Sued by TEA Teacher Over VAM Unfairness

Full story from the Tennessean:Tennessee’s largest teachers’ union is suing Gov. Bill Haslam and his commissioner of education over an evaluation tool they say penalizes good educators unfairly.It’s the second suit filed recently against the Knox County Board of Education on behalf of a teacher, but this one expands legal action to name top state officials as defendants. The plaintiff is Mark Tayl

2 by Jim Horn / 42min 

Haslam Fiddles with Vouchers and More Tests While Tennesseans Go Without Health Care

Is school privatization really more important than keeping the most vulnerable citizens from having access to health care?  What would it cost the State of Tennessee to say Yes to expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act?  Nothing, except the wrath of the billionaires.The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

2 by Jim Horn / 10h 

3-18-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: When Will Ravitch Stop Enabling Weingarten's Corporate Addiction?From PsychCentral:Enabling is a term often used in the context of a relationship with an addict. It might be a drug addict or alcoholic, a gambler, or a compulsive overeater. Enablers, rather than addicts, suffer the effects of the addict’s behavior. Enabling is “removing the natural consequences to the addict of his

by mike simpson / 6h 

3-20-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education:

Jeb Bush’s Fingerprints on Florida’s New High-Stakes Tests and His Sudden Arrival to the Common Core Wars

Scathing Purple Musings wrote yesterday that the next FCAT is going to parachute in just like the last one. Only this time, fresh off a field test of predominately white kids in Utah. Brevard Federation Teachers President Dan Bennett adds more in a letter to the editor in Florida Today: It’s no surprise that Florida Secretary of Education Pam Stewart chose the American Institute of Research (AIR)

by Bob Sikes / 2h  

3-19-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education: Florida’s New Tests to Be Field Tested….in UtahIn an odd opinion piece on Common Core from the Tampa Tribune - more on that later - this tidbit of  incredulity is sure to be rolling eyes in district offices across the state: Also unhappy are many of the educators who are

by mike simpson / 8h

Save Our Schools March – BATs March on D.C. + Rally to Save Education – Seattle

Save Our Schools March – BATs March on D.C.:

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BATs March on D.C.

BATs March on D.C. on July 28th

Save the Date! Details are still developing, but watch the site for updates.

Like this event on Facebook!

Sunday:

9:00 – 12:00 BAT Leadership Training

2:00 – 7:00 BAT Social with familes

Holiday Inn – Washington Capital

Monday:

10:00 – 6:00 BATs March on D.C.

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Rally to Save Education – Seattle

Rally to Save Education
June 26th @ The Gates Foundation

5:00 – 8:00 p.m.

The struggle between corporate ‘reform’ groups taking public schools hostage vs. educators & parents who know what kids need to thrive is at its zenith. Teachers and school staff have systematically been left out of MOST policy changes occurring at every level. We are inching our way each year to a caste system of schools; private schools, charters, and affluent communities supplementing basic education of their own kids….. Meanwhile all public school kids (especially in poor communities) are suffering from standardization of curriculum, new teachers certified only if they’ve married CCSS and of course hundreds of hours of tests that DO NOT improve authentic learning outcomes. Often our best teachers are punished for choosing to work with students of color, at-risk kids, English language learners, and every other young person who wasn’t born into an affluent family in a high income zip code.

WA has the 47th worst class sizes in the nation, a supreme court who has ruled TWICE that our legislatures is in violation of our state constitution for NOT funding education, and hundreds of ‘reforms’ that are hurting kids.

Teachers work too long and too hard to be the type of advocates they need to be in these times. Our unions are strong (compared to other states) but we are up against the endlessly deep pockets of ALEC, the Koch Bros., AFP, WPC, Freedom Foundation, the Walton Foundation, charter school corporations, Stand for Children, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan and many others who seek to make our kids’ school experience reduced to test scores. PARENTS and TEACHERS HAVE FINALLY HAD ENOUGH. The time is now to take action.

However you are willing to join with us as we fight this tragic iteration of corporate takeover, please do so.

The intent of this BATS protest is to shine a very big light on what is happening in schools. The Gates Foundation is our backdrop (I’m more than happy to expound on WHY we’ve chosen GF, just ask).

June 26th, starting around 5:00 PM we will be marching from Seattle Center, will close part or all of 5th avenue and gather on the corner of Mercer and 5th for speakers to energize the crowd. Our demands will be made at that time.

There will be a handful of speakers of national fame-including Anthony Cody, a flash mob, an amazing chorus, a short march and an opportunity to learn what our demands are to reinstate public education as the largest pillar to a free society that it should be. Join us!

Like this event on Facebook

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Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

Different Teachers, Different Classrooms, “but the thinking & learning going on inside students’ heads is the same”

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by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h hide  //  save

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by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h 

What Can We Teachers Learn From This Elephant?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 19min 

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Learning About The Spring Season

Today’s the first day of Spring, and I’ve just updated The Best Sites For Learning About The Spring Season. Additional suggestions are welcome.

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YESTERDAY

I’m Interviewed In Podcast “Parent Involvement Versus Parent Engagement: Is There Really a Difference?”

I was a guest during #PTchat on Twitter last week discussing the difference between parent engagement and parent involvement (you can see the tweets here). As a follow-up to that conversation, I was a guest on PTchat Radio, and you can listen to it here.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h 

Updated Resources On Missing Malaysia Plane

Here are new additions to The Best Resources On The Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Australia says possible objects in Indian Ocean is from CNN. You can find lots of other related multimedia at the same link. Questions Over Absence of Cellphone Calls From Missing Flight’s Passengers is from The New York Times. The Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is a series

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h hide  //  save

New Resources On Ukraine Crisis

Here are the latest additions to The Best Resources On The Protests (& Crisis) In Ukraine: Crisis in the Crimea: The Showdown Between Ukraine and Russia is a GREAT interactive from Smithsonian Magazine. The U.S. has treated Russia like a loser since the end of the Cold War is a very interesting piece from the former ambassador to the USSR. Former U.S. Ambassador to USSR: Let Russia Take Crime

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h 

“What Are Five Best Practices Teachers Can Implement? “

What Are Five Best Practices Teachers Can Implement? is the new “question-of-the-week” at my Education Week Teacher column. Of course, feel free to share just one or two ideas, too! You can leave a comment there or here….

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Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: Infographic: “The Global Guide to Hand Gestures”I’m adding this infographic to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures: Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 3-18-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Tea

by mike simpson / 8h