Education "Reform" : “Common Core” standards

[Jolie Rouge]

Rotten to the Core: Obama’s War on Academic Standards (Part 1)
By Michelle Malkin • January 23, 2013 09:43 AM

This year, I’ll be using my syndicated column and blog space to expose how progressive “reformers” — mal-formers — are corrupting our schools. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to provide you in-depth coverage of this vital issue that too often gets shunted off the daily political/partisan agenda. While the GOP tries to solve its ills with better software and communications consultants, the conservative movement — and America — face much larger problems. It doesn’t start with the “low-information voter.” It starts with the no-knowledge student. This is the first in an ongoing series on “Common Core,” the stealthy federal takeover of school curriculum and standards across the country. As longtime readers know, my own experience with this ongoing sabotage of academic excellence dates back to my early reporting on the Clinton-era “Goals 2000″ and “outcome-based” education and extends to my recent parental experience with “Everyday Math”. http://michellemalkin.com/?s=everyday+math

The good news is that grass-roots education and parental groups, brave teachers, and professors are fighting back. See the resource list/links at the bottom of this column and stay tuned for much more.

http://s.michellemalkin.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ZZ221303FC.jpg

America’s downfall doesn’t begin with the “low-information voter.” It starts with the no-knowledge student.

For decades, collectivist agitators in our schools have chipped away at academic excellence in the name of fairness, diversity and social justice. “Progressive” reformers denounced Western civilization requirements, the Founding Fathers and the Great Books as racist. They attacked traditional grammar classes as irrelevant in modern life. They deemed ability grouping of students (tracking) bad for self-esteem. They replaced time-tested rote techniques and standard algorithms with fuzzy math, inventive spelling and multicultural claptrap.

Under President Obama, these top-down mal-formers — empowered by Washington education bureaucrats and backed by misguided liberal philanthropists led by billionaire Bill Gates — are now presiding over a radical makeover of your children’s school curriculum. It’s being done in the name of federal “Common Core” standards that do anything but raise achievement standards. http://www.corestandards.org/

Common Core was enabled by Obama’s federal stimulus law and his Department of Education’s “Race to the Top” gimmickry. The administration bribed cash-starved states into adopting unseen instructional standards as a condition of winning billions of dollars in grants. Even states that lost their bids for Race to the Top money were required to commit to a dumbed-down and amorphous curricular “alignment.”

In practice, Common Core’s dubious “college- and career”-ready standards undermine local control of education, usurp state autonomy over curricular materials, and foist untested, mediocre and incoherent pedagogical theories on America’s schoolchildren.

Over the next several weeks and months, I’ll use this column space to expose who’s behind this disastrous scheme in D.C. backrooms. I’ll tell you who’s fighting it in grassroots tea party and parental revolts across the country from Massachusetts to Indiana, Texas, Georgia and Utah. And most importantly, I’ll explain how this unprecedented federal meddling is corrupting our children’s classrooms and textbooks.

There’s no better illustration of Common Core’s duplicitous talk of higher standards than to start with its math “reforms.” While Common Core promoters assert their standards are “internationally benchmarked,” independent members of the expert panel in charge of validating the standards refute the claim. Panel member Dr. Sandra Stotsky of the University of Arkansas reported, “No material was ever provided to the Validation Committee or to the public on the specific college readiness expectations of other leading nations in mathematics” or other subjects.

In fact, Stanford University professor James Milgram, the only mathematician on the validation panel, concluded that the Common Core math scheme would place American students two years behind their peers in other high-achieving countries. In protest, Milgram refused to sign off on the standards. He’s not alone.

Professor Jonathan Goodman of New York University found that the Common Core math standards imposed “significantly lower expectations with respect to algebra and geometry than the published standards of other countries.”

Under Common Core, as the American Principles Project and Pioneer Institute point out, algebra I instruction is pushed to 9th grade, instead of 8th grade, as commonly taught. Division is postponed from 5th to 6th grade. Prime factorization, common denominators, conversions of fractions and decimals, and algebraic manipulation are de-emphasized or eschewed. Traditional Euclidean geometry is replaced with an experimental approach that had not been previously pilot-tested in the U.S.

Ze’ev Wurman, a prominent software architect, electrical engineer and longtime math advisory expert in California and Washington, D.C., points out that Common Core delays proficiency with addition and subtraction until 4th grade and proficiency with basic multiplication until 5th grade, and skimps on logarithms, mathematical induction, parametric equations and trigonometry at the high school level.

I cannot sum up the stakes any more clearly than Wurman did in his critique of this mess and the vested interests behind it:

“I believe the Common Core marks the cessation of educational standards improvement in the United States. No state has any reason left to aspire for first-rate standards, as all states will be judged by the same mediocre national benchmark enforced by the federal government. Moreover, there are organizations that have reasons to work for lower and less-demanding standards, specifically teachers unions and professional teacher organizations. While they may not admit it, they have a vested interest in lowering the accountability bar for their members. …This will be done in the name of ‘critical thinking’ and ’21st-century’ skills, and in faraway Washington, D.C., well beyond the reach of parents and most states and employers.”

This is all in keeping with my own experience as a parent of elementary- and middle-school age kids who were exposed to “Everyday Math” nonsense. This and other fads abandon “drill and kill” memorization techniques for fuzzy “critical thinking” methods that put the cart of “why” in front of the horse of “how.” In other words: Instead of doing the grunt work of hammering times tables and basic functions into kids’ heads first, the faddists have turned to wacky, wordy non-math alternatives to encourage “conceptual” understanding — without any mastery of the fundamentals of math.

Common Core is rotten to the core. The corruption of math education is just the beginning.

***

A starter list of resources/background/related links:

Truth in American Education is a blog devoted to watchdogging Common Core across the country.

The MA-based Pioneer Institute is the leading think tank tracking and fighting Common Core.

Pioneer’s Jim Stergios has an education blog, Rock the Schoolhouse, on Boston.com.

Hoosier Moms Say No to Common Core is Ground Zero for the parental revolt against Common Core in Indiana.

Utah moms against Common Core have a great blog.

A Mother Speaks Out: Children For Sale – Guest Post by Alyson Williams.

Stanley Kurtz has written about Common Core at NRO here and here.

Mary Grabar has written about Common Core and Team Chicago’s lefties here.

Phyllis Schlafly, as always, sounded the alarm here.

This must-read piece by James Shuls connects Common Core, math corruption, and the need for school choice.

Heritage resources on Common Core.

Videos:

APP’s full video series on Common Core here. Here’s part one to get you started.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coRNJluF2O4&feature=player_embedded

Cato’s Neal McCluskey dissects the Common Core folly:
http://youtu.be/0xhm_x8PX7I

http://michellemalkin.com/2013/01/23/rotten-to-the-core-obamas-war-on-academic-standards-part-1/

[Jolie Rouge]

Here’s the next installment of my Rotten to the Core series. I’ll continue to post resource/background/activist links at the end of every post. See also the links below to my previous critiques of GOP-led national standards efforts and related posts on dumbed-down curriculum/Everyday Math.

There are many, many amazing grass-roots efforts in the states that have been gaining ground over the past three years and I hope to spotlight as many of them as possible. They’ve been in this fight a long time and their work is indispensable. It’s important to note that the Common Core cheerleaders’ claim that their agenda came from the bottom up is false. Flat-out false. http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards/debunking-misconceptions-the-common-core-is-state-led/

I’ll also be printing e-mails, feedback, critiques, and responses. Stay tuned, spread the word, get informed, and get active.


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Common Core learning: The Gettysburg Address “word cloud”

Rotten to the Core (Part 2): Readin’, Writin’ and Deconstructionism
By Michelle Malkin • January 25, 2013 11:10 AM

The Washington, D.C., board of education earned widespread mockery this week when it proposed allowing high school students — in the nation’s own capital — to skip a basic U.S. government course to graduate. But this is fiddlesticks compared to what the federal government is doing to eliminate American children’s core knowledge base in English, language arts and history.

Thanks to the “Common Core” regime, funded with President Obama’s stimulus dollars and bolstered by duped Republican governors and business groups, deconstructionism is back in style. Traditional literature is under fire. Moral relativism is increasingly the norm. “Standards” is Orwell-speak for subjectivity and lowest common denominator pedagogy.

Take the Common Core literacy “standards.” Please. As literature professors, writers, humanities scholars, secondary educators and parents have warned over the past three years, the new achievement goals actually set American students back by de-emphasizing great literary works for “informational texts.” Challenging students to digest and dissect difficult poems and novels is becoming passe. Utilitarianism uber alles.

The Common Core English/language arts criteria call for students to spend only half of their class time studying literature, and only 30 percent of their class time by their junior and senior years in high school.

Under Common Core, classics such as “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” are of no more academic value than the pages of the Federal Register or the Federal Reserve archives — or a pro-Obamacare opinion essay in The New Yorker. Audio and video transcripts, along with “alternative literacies” that are more “relevant” to today’s students (pop song lyrics, for example), are on par with Shakespeare.

English professor Mary Grabar describes Common Core training exercises that tell teachers “to read Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address without emotion and without providing any historical context. Common Core reduces all ‘texts’ to one level: the Gettysburg Address to the EPA’s Recommended Levels of Insulation.” Indeed, in my own research, I found one Common Core “exemplar” on teaching the Gettysburg Address that instructs educators to “refrain from giving background context or substantial instructional guidance at the outset.”

Another exercise devised by Common Core promoters features the Gettysburg Address as a word cloud. Yes, a word cloud. Teachers use the jumble of letters, devoid of historical context and truths, to help students chart, decode and “deconstruct” Lincoln’s speech.

Deconstructionism, of course, is the faddish leftwing school of thought popularized by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the 1970s. Writer Robert Locke described the nihilistic movement best: “It is based on the proposition that the apparently real world is in fact a vast social construct and that the way to knowledge lies in taking apart in one’s mind this thing society has built. Taken to its logical conclusion, it supposes that there is at the end of the day no actual reality, just a series of appearances stitched together by social constructs into what we all agree to call reality.”

Literature and history are all about competing ideological narratives, in other words. One story or “text” is no better than another. Common Core’s literature-lite literacy standards are aimed not at increasing “college readiness” or raising academic expectations. Just the opposite. They help pave the way for more creeping political indoctrination under the guise of increasing access to “information.”

As University of Arkansas professor Sandra Stotsky, an unrelenting whistleblower who witnessed the Common Core sausage-making process firsthand, concluded: “An English curriculum overloaded with advocacy journalism or with ‘informational’ articles chosen for their topical and/or political nature should raise serious concerns among parents, school leaders, and policymakers. Common Core’s standards not only present a serious threat to state and local education authority, but also put academic quality at risk. Pushing fatally flawed education standards into America’s schools is not the way to improve education for America’s students.”

Bipartisan Common Core defenders claim their standards are merely “recommendations.” But the standards, “rubrics” and “exemplars” are tied to tests and textbooks. The textbooks and tests are tied to money and power. Federally funded and federally championed nationalized standards lead inexorably to de facto mandates. Any way you slice it, dice it or word-cloud it, Common Core is a mandate for mediocrity.

http://michellemalkin.com/2013/01/25/rotten-to-the-core-part-2-readin-writin-and-deconstructionism/

[Jolie Rouge]

Rotten to the Core: Reader feedback from the frontlines
By Michelle Malkin • January 31, 2013 12:54 PM


I have more installment of my Rotten to the Core series on the federalized national curriculum “standards” coming next week. (see parts one and two here and here.) In the meantime, I’m sharing several of the e-mails pouring in from teachers, parents, and activists across the country who are fighting this juggernaut across the country.

From a history teacher:


I am anxiously awaiting the next installment in your Rotten to the Core series. As a history teacher, the Common Core Standards don’t have much of an impact on my teaching (yet – and to my understanding). The whole of this program seems to be shrouded in edu-speak and double talk (which are mostly the same).

In addition to the Common Core, we were given an intro to another change coming to my district… and from what I’ve seen, it is spreading to districts across the country. The new model for teaching is Strategic Planning Strategies (based on Cambridge Strategies), which include Applied Learning (seems similar to problem based learning – students focus on and develop a solution to a problem facing their community). We were shown a video, which listed beliefs held by my district. There were immediately a some statements that stood out, including a belief that “cultural proficiency leads to equity and removes barriers to opportunity” – especially troubling was when a teacher asked for clarification on what was meant by “cultural proficiency”, we were told by our administrator that she didn’t know.

Another statement that stood out, was that we were going to educate students “from cradle to career”. I’ve looked up the keywords of this program and found this website (http://www.suny.edu/educationpipeline/cradletocareer.cfm) that seeks to use this model to form a “framework for civic infrastructure” that is based on this program…

… I see this as another path of indoctrination “from cradle to career”.

..

From an English teacher:


Dear Ms. Malkin,

I just wanted to email my appreciation of your scathing attack on the new Common Core standards. As a high school teacher myself, I feel inclined to share with you that I am neither a democrat, nor a republican, and I’m personally not for the whole vilification of one administration over another. The thesis of your article, however, is in the right place. I’d like to bypass the back-and-forth rhetoric of your comment thread and let you know that we teachers feel the same way you do, and we are powerless to make a change in what they will allow us to teach. (It is at this point that I must disagree with Mr. Wurman’s assessment, “Moreover, there are organizations that have reasons to work for lower and less-demanding standards, specifically teachers unions’ and professional teacher organizations. While they may not admit it, they have a vested interest in lowering the accountability bar for their members. . . .” We have no interest in lowering the accountability bar. We did not take up teaching for the sake of having an “easy gig”.)

In fact, we were just in a department meeting for English teachers last week, and I had spoken up, asking why we can’t diagram sentences. You probably would’ve been pleased by the number of teachers who applauded the idea before we were shot down by our department head.

It needs to be stated that there are a great many teachers who DO NOT support Common Core, yet can do nothing about it, as we are being told what to teach and how to teach it, despite our instincts otherwise. In truth, nothing is going to improve with Federal involvement in education, because any politician who would try to take down Common Core or NCLB would be committing “political suicide”. Perhaps that is a point you can make in future articles?

All the best,
Chris Malone

...

From a school board member:


I just read the Rotten to the Core articles. I am disgusted to say the least, and worse yet, I am a school board member who did not do my homework. I was a “low information voter.” We adopted the Common Core Standards by applying for Race to The Top. I had a gut feeling that if it was money from the government it couldn’t be good. Unfortunately I didn’t go with my gut feeling this time. I am at a loss as where to go from here. I have mentioned our English curriculum to the administrator, and he said we are going to start implementing a new curriculum.

I feel I am a minority on our board and need to start speaking up, where does one go from here? I am at a loss.

..

From education reform activist Dawn Llewellyn:


A new “fuzzy” math program (College Preparatory Mathematics – CPM) is being piloted in our district and likely to be voted and purchased in April. CPM teaches more social skills than mathematics. Fairfield Curriculum Leaders stress the impetus for change to this math program is the Common Core Standards…

We would love for you to cover this story… please consider it!

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Fairfield-Board-of-Education-not-doing-its-job-4109282.php
http://fairfield.patch.com/articles/letter-why-does-school-board-allow-use-of-cpm-algebra-book
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Concern-about-math-program-4175992.php
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Fairfield-Board-of-Education-not-doing-its-job-4109282.php
http://www.fairfieldcitizenonline.com/news/article/Board-to-discuss-parents-concerns-about-new-4089730.php
http://www.fairfieldcitizenonline.com/news/article/Letter-Math-program-launched-improperly-4099431.php

Just to fill you in–I am part of the parent advocacy group that is fighting the imminent adoption of CPM in our middle and high schools in Fairfield, CT. The district secretly implemented it without BOE approval and we’re trying to challenge them on the technicality of state statutes that require BOE to approve texts. In the meantime, we’re educating parents on the failure of reform math, in particularly CPM.

Unfortunately, we are up against a BOE that thinks the curriculum leaders are “experts.” The curriculum leaders are justifying this transition to a new math program with Common Core and the Mathematical Practices’ call for justifying one’s work and critiquing others,’ etc.

At all five math nights in our district, our administrators have misrepresented the practices by saying “conceptual understanding must come before skill.”

Our district was recently cited in the The Atlantic. Barry Garelick states that “schools are adopting an inquiry method of learning, in which children are supposed to discover knowledge for themselves” but he states that districts are misinterpreting the verbiage of the common core.”

Mr. Garelick also wrote to me and directed me to a comment in the blog of this article from one of the main authors of the common core standards. McCallum states that the standards do not say that conceptual understanding must come first and explicitly on page 5 of the standards it says: “these standards do not dictate curriculum or teaching methods.” Our curriculum leaders continue to present misinformation to parents, either because they are do not understand the common core math practices or they are intentionally misleading our community to push an alternative agenda.

(See his letter to us.) http://fairfieldmathadvocates.com/one-size-does-not-fit-all/fairfield-district-leaders-are-misinterpreting-common-core-practice/

CPM is a prescriptive form of teaching mathematics with social engineering as the guiding principle: social responsibility, equity, multidimensional classrooms, group think vs teacher instruction, etc. “Complex Instruction” is the guiding principles behind CPM instructional method.(see article about “complex instruction”). If this program is adopted by our district, there has and will continue to be a push to sell this program (CPM) to our surrounding districts who are also looking for ways to get students “ready for the 21st century”. This program is dumbing down Mathematics!

Our group noticed that NBC recently covered a story on “Is Algebra Necessary?” with a tie in to Jo Boaler…Jo Boaler is a proponent of CPM. She and Megan Staples did a research study called Railside ( an urban school in CA – San Lorenzo) with CPM. Her research is being seriously challenged by math professors (Bishop, Wayne, and Clopton) who are questioning the validity of this study. Megan Staples is a UConn Professor who has been observing Algebra I classes in our district this year (without parents’ knowledge) and she is on the Fairfield Curriculum Review Committee (which is only looking at this program and nothing else). http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50264372#50264372
(See studies attached to review her study and the controversy)

Our group has spoken to numerous professors and advocacy groups on the west coast about this program, as well as advocacy groups and professors on the east coast (penfield, ny/ brandford, ct/ Yale Univeristy/ Brown University) about other reform math programs (IMP) and CPM. These programs have unproven track records, yet are still around. I urge you to look at our website www.fairfieldmathadvocates.com

[Jolie Rouge]

From Dean Kalahar, a Florida teacher of nearly 30 years:


Michelle, (Miss Malkin), your common core work is significant.

You may use any of my research and articles to add weight and facts. I have been fighting a revisionist battle for some time. If you read the facts provided, you will be shocked. By the way, I’m a 28 year veteran teacher.

http://freedom-choice-cost.blogspot.com/2012/02/florida-exit-exam-in-american-history.html
http://freedom-choice-cost.blogspot.com/2011/05/florida-high-school-exit-exams.html


...

From parent activist Beth Schultz in Maine:


Dear Michelle,

Thanks so much for exposing the Common Core State Standards. Alarms when off in my head when my three children were in kindergarten, second & third grades. These were exposed to Everyday Math. I followed the money in our state (Maine) and found out how this curriculum was forced onto our public schools (via the Maine Math and Science Alliance). There was no hope of educating my School Board on my concerns with Everyday Math.

Then, I read about the Common Core State Standards. It didn’t take me long to put two and two together to figure out the “big picture” concerns with the CCSS. I took a day off of work and testified AGAINST the CCSS (with 2 other parents) to the Maine Education Committee (http://www.maine.gov/legis/house/jt_com/edu.htm). My comments are on public record. I presented to the Committee the concerns of Dr. Stotsky and Dr. Milgr[a]m. Even the Republicans on the Ed Committee didn’t “get it.”

They all voted in favor of Maine’s adoption of the CCSS (I also met with Gov. LePage twice to warn him). I tell parents, if they want to figure out what is going on their children’s education, they need to attend the state Ed Committee meetings, not their local Board Meeting. After the CCSS are implemented, there will no longer be any reason to attend local Board meeting, because parents will have NO influence in curricula or standards.

...

From parent activist Sue Peterson in Minnesota:


Dear Michelle,

Thank you so much for calling attention to the Common Core Standards and Race to the Top!!!
I became an activist on 1998 when NCLB was law and the standards movement started to expand nationwide.
In MN a grassroots movement that involved Michele Bachmann, helped get her elected, first as a state senator & now congresswoman.
It doesn’t matter which party is the majority in D.C., the unconstitutional invasion of the education cartel nation-wide seems unstoppable.

We have at least one generation who does not know our nations founding primary documents, and I believe this is by design.
Locally we are now battling the re-writing of state social studies standards that teach America is evil. The cartel I’m sure has their hand in this.

Please! Please! Please!
Do not let this issue go away!! For the sake of our nation!
Most people aren’t even aware of CCS or RTTT and the background.
You have the exposure we don’t have.

Thank You!
Sue Peterson


http://michellemalkin.com/2013/01/31/rotten-to-the-core-reader-feedback-from-the-frontlines/

[Jolie Rouge]

Is this what we are aiming for ?

https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7035468032/h7C78BFA7/

California no longer requiring eighth graders to take Algebra

2:22 AM 02/08/2013

California will no longer require eighth-graders to take algebra — a move that is line with the Common Core standards being adopted by most states, but that may leave students unprepared for college.

Last month, California formally shifted to the Common Core mathematics standards, which recommend that students delay taking algebra if they aren’t ready for it. Previously, algebra class was a requirement for all eighth-graders in the state.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, which is sponsored by the National Governor’s Association, is an effort to unify diverse state education curricula. Forty-five other states and the District of Columbia have signed on so far.

But some education experts worry that the change will further damage struggling students’ college chances, since early proficiency in Algebra I is an excellent predictor of college graduation, according to the Mercury News.

Black and Latino students in California are significantly more likely to fail eighth-grade algebra, and 80 percent of those who fail it once will fail it again when they take it in high school.

A study published by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area claims that some minority students who score well enough to place into advanced math classes are often mistakenly held back.

“School districts have been disproportionately requiring minority students to repeat Algebra I even after they scored proficient or advanced on the Algebra I California standardized tests,” said Kimberly Thomas Rapp, executive director of the committee, in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The new standard is a step back for California, and may leave students, particularly minority and low-income students, unprepared for college, said Rapp. “Back in ‘97 when the state went to a standard that expected students to take Algebra 1 in the eighth grade, that was really about looking forward to college competitiveness and preparing our public school students to be ready to compete to access college systems after high school,” she said. “The reality is what we’re now doing is lowering the standards.”

Instead, Rapp proposed that California schools improve the mathematics curriculum for students in the fifth, sixth and seventh grades, so that they are better prepared for Algebra I in eighth grade.

The Council of Chief State School Officers, which set the Common Core standards, did not respond to a request for comment.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/08/california-no-longer-requiring-eighth-graders-to-take-algebra/

[Jolie Rouge]

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s480x480/556034_503430413035988_2078212186_n.jpg

[Jolie Rouge]

Published on Jan 29, 2013
Treasurer John Kennedy and what he has learned as as substitute teacher

So many people who make policy for elementary and secondary education think the schools are like they were thirty years ago like "Leave It to Beaver" when Wally and Beaver were in school, but it's a different world today.

Some of our teachers don't feel like the folks who are making education policy understand what it is like to be a teacher today, and they're probably right. - Treasurer John Kennedy

For more information visit www.LATreasury.com or www.facebook.com/LouisianaTreasury

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmSjYA7Kmgk&list=UUH0sMNGXY5JXf26OdJxSmUw&index=2

[Jolie Rouge]

Last week I purchased a burger at a fast food restaurant for $1.58. The counter girl took my $ 2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register. I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried.

Why do I tell you this? Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1950s:

1. Teaching Math In 1950s

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

2. Teaching Math In 1960s

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

3. Teaching Math In1970s

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?

4. Teaching Math In 1980s

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Math In 1990s

A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living?

Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers, and if you feel like crying, it's ok. )

6. Teaching Math In 2009

Un hachero vende una carretada de maderapara $100. El costo de la producciones es $80. Cuanto dinero ha hecho?

7. Teaching Math In 2013

Who cares, just steal the lumber from your rich neighbor's property. He won't have a gun to stop you, and it's OK anyway cuz it's redistributing the wealth.

[hblueeyes]

In my district algebra is offered in 6th grade. As you go thru high school and no math is available because you have mastered what they offered, you get college math. The benefit is you receive both high school and college credit. The same is true for science and history. This is going to kill the education system in my district.

Me

[Jolie Rouge]

Rotten to the Core: The Feds’ Invasive Student Tracking Database
By Michelle Malkin • March 8, 2013 09:41 AM

(This is the fourth installment of a continuing series on nationalized academic standards known as the “Common Core.”)

While many Americans worry about government drones in the sky spying on our private lives, Washington meddlers are already on the ground and in our schools gathering intimate data on children and families.

Say goodbye to your children’s privacy. Say hello to an unprecedented nationwide student tracking system, whose data will apparently be sold by government officials to the highest bidders. It’s yet another encroachment of centralized education bureaucrats on local control and parental rights under the banner of “Common Core.”

As the American Principles Project, a conservative education think tank, reported last year, Common Core’s technological project is “merely one part of a much broader plan by the federal government to track individuals from birth through their participation in the workforce.” The 2009 porkulus package included a “State Fiscal Stabilization Fund” to bribe states into constructing “longitudinal data systems (LDS) to collect data on public-school students.”

These systems will aggregate massive amounts of personal data — health-care histories, income information, religious affiliations, voting status and even blood types and homework completion. The data will be available to a wide variety of public agencies. And despite federal student-privacy protections guaranteed by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the Obama administration is paving the way for private entities to buy their way into the data boondoggle. Even more alarming, the U.S. Department of Education is encouraging a radical push from aggregate-level data-gathering to invasive individual student-level data collection.

At the South by Southwest education conference in Austin, Texas, this week, education technology gurus were salivating at the prospects of information plunder. “This is going to be a huge win for us,” Jeffrey Olen, a product manager at education software company CompassLearning, told Reuters. Cha-ching-ching-ching.

The company is already aggressively marketing curricular material “aligned” to fuzzy, dumbed-down Common Core math and reading guidelines (which more than a dozen states are now revolting against). Along with two dozen other tech firms, CompassLearning sees even greater financial opportunities to mine Common Core student tracking systems. The centralized database is a strange-bedfellows alliance between the liberal Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (which largely underwrote and promoted the Common Core curricular scheme) and a division of conservative Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (which built the database infrastructure).

Another nonprofit startup, “inBloom, Inc.,” has evolved out of that partnership to operate the database. The Gates Foundation and other partners provided $100 million in seed money. Reuters reports that inBloom, Inc. will “likely start to charge fees in 2015″ to states and school districts participating in the system. “So far, seven states — Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina and Massachusetts — have committed to enter data from select school districts. Louisiana and New York will be entering nearly all student records statewide.”

The National Education Data Model, available online at http://nces.sifinfo.org/datamodel/eiebrowser/techview.aspx?instance=studentElementarySecondary, lists hundreds of data points considered indispensable to the nationalized student tracking racket. These include:

–”Bus Stop Arrival Time” and “Bus Stop Description.”

–”Dwelling arrangement.”

–”Diseases, Illnesses and Other Health Conditions.”

–”Religious Affiliation.”

–”Telephone Number Type” and “Telephone Status.”


Home-schoolers and religious families that reject traditional government education would be tracked. Original NEDM data points included hair color, eye color, weight, blood types and even dental status. http://educationnewyork.com/files/110458572-How-Much-Data-is-Enough-Data-What-happens-to-privacy-when-bureaucracies-exceed-their-scope.pdf

How exactly does amassing and selling such personal data improve educational outcomes? It doesn’t. This, at its core, is the central fraud of Washington’s top-down nationalized curricular scheme. The Bill Gates-endorsed Common Core “standards” are a phony pretext for big-government expansion. The dazzling allure of “21st-century technology” masks the privacy-undermining agenda of nosy bureaucratic drones allergic to transparency, accountability and parental autonomy. Individual student privacy is sacrificed at the collective “For the Children” altar.

Fed Ed is not about excellence or academic achievement. It’s about control, control and more control.

http://michellemalkin.com/2013/03/08/rotten-to-the-core-the-feds-invasive-student-tracking-database/

[Jolie Rouge]

CBS article on illiteracy riddled with spelling errors, punctuation mistakes
Posted at 9:50 pm on March 7, 2013 by Twitchy Staff


Lynn Baber @Lynn_Baber


Officials: 80 Percent Of Recent NYC High School Graduates Cannot Read...


Officials told CBS 2 that nearly 80 percent of those who graudate from NYC high schools arrived at City University's community college system without having mastered the skills to do college-level...
CBS New York@CBSNewYork

CBS: "80% of recent NY graduates can't read." Whoever wrote/proofed the article left 7 spelling/grammatical errors. http://cbsloc.al/XtvPkL

11:22 PM - 07 Mar 13

A CBS New York article on illiterate high-school graduates caught our attention today, and for all the wrong reasons. Despite bemoaning the fact that 80 percent of recent New York City graduates lack basic reading skills(!), the article itself is loaded with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/07/officials-80-percent-of-recent-nyc-high-school-graduates-cannot-read/



“I was nervus about how hard it was going to be, how much of a chnage it was going to be from high school,” Gonzalez said. “I knew I needed to take remedial, If I started right away with credit classes it wasnt going to be so well, so it’s better off starting somewhere.

…

“They get lost sometimes in the classrom and in CUNY Start we give them a lot more one-on-one attention, small grouip work. It helps theem achieve more in a short amount of time and so they’re able to get on with their credit classes,” Mason said.



Here’s the best part: we have no clue who “Mason” is. That name appears nowhere else in the piece.Here’s the best part: we have no clue who “Mason” is. That name appears nowhere else in the piece.


Nicholas Gonzalez, a graduate of New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, participated in the CUNY Start program. He said he would never had been able to face college credit classes without it.

That’s not all. The original version of the article contained a subhead that misspelled the word “immersion”:
http://thisistwitchy.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/cuny-emersion.png?w=430&h=67

It takes a lot of restraint for us not to print the article out, circle the errors with a red pen, and send it to the station with a big “F” on it.

Nobody’s perfect, but a major news organization should be able to do better. At the very least, CBS New York’s copy editor should be flogged with cords of shredded newsprint. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to go scream into a pillow out of linguistic frustration.

Update: Several readers noted the typo “theem” in the quote from “Mason.” We don’t have a screen shot or cached copy of the original CBS article, so we can’t confirm that it was CBS’ error. We suspect it was.

http://twitchy.com/2013/03/07/cbs-article-on-illiteracy-riddled-with-spelling-errors-punctuation-mistakes/

[Jolie Rouge]

The next time someone on TV cracks a joke about how stupid people are in the south, just remember.....
Officials: 80 Percent Of Recent NYC High School Graduates Cannot Read...

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/07/officials-most-nyc-high-school-grads-need-remedial-help-before-entering-cuny-community-colleges/

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/s480x480/182473_10151377383143473_190247747_n.png

[Jolie Rouge]

Seven Not-So-Fun Facts About the Costs of Public Education
posted at 4:39 pm on April 22, 2013 by Mike Antonucci

For many years we have expressed education expenditures as “per-pupil spending.” This is a reasonably good way to frame the numbers, though controversy sometimes arises over what is included and what isn’t. http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2013/04/11/new-jersey-school-stats-stir-the-pot/ The following is a list of different angles on the same spending. All the figures cited are for 2010, courtesy of the National Center of Education Statistics, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the U.S. Census Bureau.

1) Revenues collected by governments for public education in the United States totaled $593.7 billion. About $261.4 billion came from local sources, $258.2 billion from state sources, and $74 billion from federal sources.

2) That’s about $1,922 from each and every American.

3) Or $2,531 from each adult, 18 and older.

4) Or $4,567 from each non-farm American worker on a payroll.

5) That amounts to 11.4 percent of the average worker’s salary, or $2.20 per hour.

6) The average American employee thus works almost one hour every day to fund public schools.

7) It would take the entire salary of 14,842,500 employees to pay for U.S. public schools, equivalent to the entire retail trade workforce.

Public education advocates often speak of school spending as an investment. It’s clear that our portfolio is heavily weighted in the education sector. The shareholders are understandably upset by weak ROIs and incessant margin calls. No wonder they responded by downsizing.

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2013/04/22/seven-not-so-fun-facts-about-the-costs-of-public-education/

[Jolie Rouge]

What happens when all focus is on "passing the Test" ...

https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7490857728/h07A58954/

[Jolie Rouge]

New York City students flunk new Common Core-aligned tests; Bloomberg cheers
==> http://twitchy.com/2013/08/07/new-york-city-students-flunk-new-common-core-aligned-tests-bloomberg-cheers/

Stop Common Core!

[Jolie Rouge]

Stop Common Core video of the day: 3 x 4 = 11
By Michelle Malkin • August 14, 2013 12:13 PM

Loyal readers know of my longtime crusade against fuzzy math/Everyday Math http://michellemalkin.com/2007/11/28/fuzzy-math-a-nationwide-epidemic/ and Common Core educational corruption.

So this new video of an apparent teacher training session on Common Core math — in which the trainer explains how getting the wrong answer is right — will come as no surprise (via Stanley Kurtz): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCfg1gzQ-UI&feature=player_embedded


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCfg1gzQ-UI&feature=player_embedded

The twisted pedagogy is the same in all of these curricular fads: Encourage “critical thinking” and “explaining” of “how and why” over time-tested, efficient methods of “drill and kill” first. Abandon memorization and computation for social justice, multiculturalism , and self-esteem.
http://michellemalkin.com/2010/01/25/stupid-education-fad-of-the-day-mayan-math/ http://michellemalkin.com/2008/06/30/why-johnny-cant-do-math/

This cartoon I posted back in 2007 still says it all about constructivist, “strategy”-obsessed, non-math math:

http://michellemalkinblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/1fuzztrack.jpg?w=360&h=450

http://michellemalkin.com/2013/08/14/stop-common-core-video-of-the-day-3-x-4-11/


Loyal readers know of my longtime crusade against fuzzy math/Everyday Math
http://michellemalkin.com/2007/11/28/fuzzy-math-a-nationwide-epidemic/

MM's column this week covers the long-fought fuzzy math wars and the parental revolt against poisonous edu-fads. The Texas state school board voted before Thanksgiving to ditch the infamous “Everyday Math” textbook for third-graders. This is the faulty curriculum the NYC schools were forced to adopt despite an outcry from teachers and parents. It’s difficult to find a school district where this dumbed-down virus hasn’t infected the education bureaucracy. If you know of any, let me know. Here’s the article:

Fuzzy math: A nationwide epidemic
By Michelle Malkin • November 28, 2007 09:49 AM

Do you know what math curriculum your child is being taught? Are you worried that your third-grader hasn’t learned simple multiplication yet? Have you been befuddled by educational jargon such as “spiraling,” which is used to explain why your kid keeps bringing home the same insipid busywork of cutting, gluing and drawing? And are you alarmed by teachers who emphasize “self-confidence” over proficiency while their students fall further and further behind? Join the club.

Across the country, from New York City to Seattle, parents are wising up to math fads like “Everyday Math.” Sounds harmless enough, right? It’s cleverly marketed as a “University of Chicago” program. Impressive! Right? But then you start to sense something’s not adding up when your kid starts second grade and comes home with the same kindergarten-level addition and subtraction problems — for the second year in a row.

And then your child keeps telling you that the teacher isn’t really teaching anything, just handing out useless worksheets — some of which make no sense to parents with business degrees, medical degrees and Ph.D.s specializing in econometric analysis. And then you notice that it’s the University of Chicago education department, not the mathematics department, that is behind this nonsense.

And then you Google “Everyday Math” and discover that countless moms and dads just like you — and a few brave teachers with their heads screwed on straight — have had similarly horrifying experiences. Like the Illinois mom who found these “math” problems in the fifth-grade “Everyday Math” textbook:


A. If math were a color, it would be –, because –.
B. If it were a food, it would be –, because –.
C. If it were weather, it would be –, because –.

And then you realize your child has become a victim of “Fuzzy Math,” the “New New Math,” the dumbed-down, politically correct, euphemism-filled edu-folly corrupting both public and private schools nationwide.

1munch.jpg And then you feel like the subject of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” as you take on the seemingly futile task of waking up other parents and fighting the edu-cracy to restore a rigorous curriculum in your child’s classroom. New York City teacher Matthew Clavel described his frustration with “Everyday Math” in a 2003 article for City Journal:


“The curriculum’s failure was undeniable: Not one of my students knew his or her times tables, and few had mastered even the most basic operations; knowledge of multiplication and division was abysmal. . . . what would you do, if you discovered that none of your fourth-graders could correctly tell you the answer to four times eight?”

But don’t give up and don’t give in. While New York City remains wedded to “Everyday Math” (which became the mandated standard in 2003), the state of Texas just voted before Thanksgiving to drop the University of Chicago textbooks for third-graders. School board members lambasted the math program for failing to prepare students for college. It’s an important salvo in the math wars because Texas is one of the biggest markets for school textbooks. As Texas goes, so goes the nation.

Meanwhile, grass-roots groups such as Mathematically Correct (mathematicallycorrect.com) and Where’s The Math? (wheresthemath.com) are alerting parents to how their children are being used as educational guinea pigs. And teachers and math professionals who haven’t drunk the p.c. Kool-Aid are exposing the ruse. Nick Diaz, a Maryland educator, wrote a letter to his local paper:


“As a former math teacher in Frederick County Public Schools, I have a strong interest in the recent discussion of the problems with the math curriculum in our state and county. . . . The proponents of fuzzy math claim that the new approach provides a ‘deep conceptual understanding.’ Those words, however, hide the truth. Students today are not expected to master basic addition, subtraction and multiplication. These fundamental skills are necessary for a truly deep understanding of math, but fuzzy math advocates are masters at using vocabulary that sounds good to parents, but means something different to educators.”

Members of the West Puget Sound Chapter of the Washington Society of Professional Engineers also stepped forward in their community: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2007/nov/27/my-turn-improvements-needed-in-math-education


“For 35 years, we have been subjected to a failed experiment, ‘new math.’ Mathematics depends on individual problem-solving ability to arrive at the correct answer. Math does not lend itself to ‘fuzzy’ answers. The solution is to recognize the failure of the Constructivist Curriculum as it relates to mathematics and science, eliminate it and return to the hard core basics using texts like the Singapore Math.”

..

A classic, anti-fad video from M.J. McDermott in Washington state: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tr1qee-bTZI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tr1qee-bTZI

And check out Weapons of Math Destruction, a cartoon website dedicated to “peacefully disarming fuzzy math.” http://weaponsofmathdestruction.com You need a sense of humor to fight this crap. Otherwise, you’ll go mad:

http://michellemalkinblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/1math.jpg


Fuzzy math goes hand-in-hand with fuzzy reading. And the results show: It’s failing. This just in… http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8T6OAIG0&show_article=1&catnum=0


U.S. fourth-graders have lost ground in reading ability compared with kids around the world, according to results of a global reading test.

Test results released Wednesday showed U.S. students, who took the test last year, scored about the same as they did in 2001, the last time the test was given—despite an increased emphasis on reading under the No Child Left Behind law.

Still, the U.S. average score on the Progress in International Reading Literacy test remained above the international average. Ten countries or jurisdictions, including Hong Kong and three Canadian provinces, were ahead of the United States this time. In 2001, only three countries were ahead of the United States.

The 2002 No Child Left Behind law requires schools to test students annually in reading and math, and imposes sanctions on schools that miss testing goals.

The U.S. performance on the international test of 45 nations or jurisdictions differed somewhat from results of a U.S. national reading test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation’s report card. Fourth-grade reading scores rose modestly on the most recent version of that test, taken earlier this year and measuring growth since 2005. During the previous two-year period, scores were flat.

On the latest international exam, U.S. students posted a lower average score than students in Russia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg, Hungary, Italy and Sweden, along with the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario.

Last time, Russia, Hong Kong and Singapore were behind the United States.

Hong Kong and Singapore have taken steps since then, such as increasing teacher preparation, providing more tutoring and raising public awareness about the importance of reading, said Ina Mullis, co- director of the International Study Center at Boston College, which conducts the international reading literacy study.

[Jolie Rouge]

Abandon memorization and computation for social justice, multiculturalism , and self-esteem.

Stupid education fad of the day: “Mayan Math”
By Michelle Malkin • January 25, 2010 04:04 PM

Longtime readers of this blog are familiar with my critiques of Fuzzy Math, New Math, New New Math, Everyday Math, Chicago Math, and every other social justice-tainted effort by educrats to corrupt and undermine rigorous math education in this country.

Today’s stupid education fad of the day?

“Mayan Math.” I kid you not: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/jan/24/mayan-numbers-taught-in-somis-school-to-help/


Math has moved beyond numbers and formulas at Mesa School in Somis.

A group of sixth- and seventh-graders still crack open their textbooks and practice regular math skills most days. But once a week, they turn their math attention to history, culture and places far from Somis.

Teacher Jill Brody’s class started learning about Mayan math in September, part of the school’s efforts to incorporate “ethno-mathematics” into some of its classes.

Ethno-mathematics links math with culture. Some educators say it can help kids feel more connected to the subject and better understand the why and how behind the skills they learn in school.

“Math is not usually treated as a subject with a cultural context,” said Faviana Hirsch-Dubin, a former elementary school teacher and lecturer at UC Santa Barbara who is working with Mesa on the special math lessons. “Being able to feel some cultural connection to math or other subjects can enable students to feel more ownership of the subject matter.”


This is creepily similar to the idiotic “lattice multiplication” lessons in Everyday Math that justify using incoherent, inefficient methods of multiplying because that’s the way the ancient Egyptians did it. http://educationnext.org/anamazeingapproachtomath/

Once again, the educrats heap scorn on drill-and-kill, traditional rote methods because they’re too “narrow” and boring. God forbid we teach our children to compute without developing a social conscience first!


Ethno-mathematics is not the norm in public schools, said Hank Kepner, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, but it can be a powerful tool for getting kids motivated and engaged in math.

“It can help kids feel that they’re part of the mathematics world,” Kepner said. They learn where various math skills came from historically and the many different ways people have looked at math. “It’s sort of a motivation for kids to make sense of mathematics.”

In many schools, there’s too much emphasis on testing, Kepner said. Getting the right answer is important, but that’s too narrow. “Math isn’t just rote answers without understanding,” he said.

Perfect dogma in the Age of Obama: Feeling over facts. Cultural connection over competence. Diversity uber alles.

Johnny won’t be able to add. But he’ll be more ethno-mathematically correct than students from around the world.

Welcome to the Post-Accomplishment Generation.

http://michellemalkin.com/2010/01/25/stupid-education-fad-of-the-day-mayan-math/


Why Johnny can’t do math (Update: or English.)
By Michelle Malkin • June 30, 2008 07:40 AM


So, why can’t Johnny do math? Because Johnny’s teacher can’t even do fractions: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-06-26-teachers-math_N.htm


For kids to do better in math, their teachers might have to go back to school.

Elementary-school teachers are poorly prepared by education schools to teach math, finds a study being released Thursday by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Math relies heavily on cumulative knowledge, making the early years critical.

The study by the nonpartisan research and advocacy group comes a few months after a federal panel reported that U.S. students have widespread difficulty with fractions, a problem that arises in elementary school and prevents kids from mastering more complicated topics like algebra later on.

The report looked at 77 elementary education programs around the country, or roughly 5% of the institutions that offer undergraduate elementary teacher certification.

It found the programs, within colleges and universities, spend too little time on elementary math topics…

…Francis Fennell, the past president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, said the report fails to examine the math instruction students receive while attending community colleges, where many elementary-school teachers start their higher education.

He also said the study’s authors should have surveyed teachers to get their views on how well prepared they were to teach math.

Fennell, who instructs teacher candidates in math at McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., said a common area of weakness among his students is fractions — the same subject the national math panel described as a weak area for kids.

“Part of the reason the kids don’t know it is because the teachers aren’t transmitting that,” he said.

Another part of the reason? Too many teachers are too busy bloviating about the self-esteem benefits of Everyday Math to bother with the basics. http://michellemalkin.com/2007/11/28/fuzzy-math-a-nationwide-epidemic/

1 + 1 = I feel good about math, so who cares?

_____________

UPDATE (See-Dubya): Meanwhile, English high school teachers want you to know that correct spelling counts, even if you’re having a grumpy day. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_fe_st/britain_exam_expletives


http://michellemalkin.com/2008/06/30/why-johnny-cant-do-math/

[Jolie Rouge]

Obama’s New Math Curriculum Gives Kids Points for Wrong Answers?!
by Fox News Insider August 19 2013

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!


“Even if they said 3x4 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' …”


Anna Kooiman asked whether this is a continuation of the “wussification” of America.

“This is not going to work in the real world if this child becomes a doctor and decides to operate on the wrong knee!”


Read more: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/08/19/obama%E2%80%99s-new-math-curriculum-gives-kids-points-wrong-answers#ixzz2cVWYNfI6

Do you want to drive on a bridge where the engineer "guessed" his calculations ?

[Jolie Rouge]

Are they game? Michelle Malkin willing to debate Jeb Bush, NYT’s Bill Keller on Common Core ==> http://twitchy.com/2013/08/20/are-they-game-michelle-malkin-willing-to-debate-jeb-bush-nyts-bill-keller-on-common-core/

[Jolie Rouge]

Obama has sanctioned the new global educational reform called “Common Core,” a United Nations-friendly curriculum that will end freedom and success in America. The curriculum is based on the “humans cause climate change” lie that Al Gore and his ilk are perpetually peddling. If you disagree with this theory you are likened to a racist (which is their go-to rally cry). Did you hear, just this week, Al Gore was caught in another lie about climate change?!

Obama forced states to sign on to Common Core by dangling money in front of them at the worst possible economic moment, bribing them to sign on to his “Race to the Top” program and essentially nationalizing American education into his one world order, Agenda 21-influenced worldview.

Common Core is a socialism change agent that is beginning now, and it will hook the youngest members of our communities—our children—into the net of police state government.

It is not voluntary, and there is no way to opt-out.

YOU AND YOUR KIDS DON’T HAVE A CHOICE. Obama has decided what curriculum is right for you, and it is beginning now. We, here at Conservative-Daily, are learning very disturbing things about the Common Core program, and we’ll need your help to stop this dangerous curriculum before it is too late. We must get rid of Common Core before our kids turn into a nation of sheep.

Parents and teachers are being completely removed from the education process and the government is stepping in to take over. The Common Core program is being marketed by the administration as an innovative, wonderful educational curriculum that will advance the hearts and minds of American kids and put them in a position to be competitive with the rest of the education world.

Do not be fooled; it is anything but competitive. We have peered behind the curtain and you need to be aware of what we found. Start connecting the dots with us:

MAKE NO MISTAKE, THIS IS ABOUT REDISTRIBUTION.

The Common Core program is all about control of another aspect of our economy and about indoctrinating our kids into believing that HIS AGENDA of socialism, equality and environmental justice. Our kids will not learn about the most moral financial system in the world, capitalism and free markets. No, they will learn that capitalists are ruining the planet and our atmosphere while destroying the world!

Kids are the first stop on the bus to changing America via Agenda 21. This is why the Common Core program is so intrusive and so skewed against American ideals. The Left needs to get ‘em young and get ‘em hooked on the idea of a government that takes care of every aspect of the lives and throughout adulthood.

Common Core lowers the academic standards for American kids and creates an “if it feels good, it’s okay” mentality. A Stanford professor says that Common Core will put American kids at least two years behind high-achieving countries in math. Kentucky did a Common Core pilot program and saw proficiency rates drop by 30 percent. This is probably because math doesn’t mean figuring out numbers and equations anymore, and there are no longer really any WRONG answers. It’s all about how you THINK AND FEEL about a problem. A Common Core video explains to teachers if a child comes to the conclusion that 3×4=11, it’s not necessarily WRONG, as long as that child can show you HOW they came up with that number and if the WAY makes any sense, the result is just not that important.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has no business butting into the American education system. But, they are. Liberals want U.N. bureaucrats to build a curriculum for America that gets kids to welcome the state as adoptive parents. They need them to buy into an Agenda 21 sustainability mindset that teaches them that humans are harming the planet, Western civilization is bad, and one global, socialist society needs to rule the land in order to maintain peace and justice.

Common Core spends 8 weeks on the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (teaching many classes through Scientology videos) that everyone has a right to social security, a job, housing and to join a union), and much less time on the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

The curriculum demonizes capitalism and free markets (what’s left of it) of the United States by using math problems to tell our children that being rich is unfair and the rich are taking from the poor. We saw some of this hatred come out in 2012 when the Teacher’s Union released the video showing the rich urinating on the poor located below them!

And what is really alarming is that parents, educators, and legislators do not know they are getting our children into a deal with the devil! It takes away rights of states in control their own schools and districts. We are actually hearing that parents are not allowed to enter some schools, are not given their child’s textbooks as they are stored in class, and WILL NOT HAVE A LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD TO MEET WITH AND DISCUSS LOCALLY ISSUES AND CONCERNS.

President Obama and his radical friends are deconstructing our history and our culture by taking away the classics that teach right from wrong, individual responsibility and citizenship. No, our children are “Citizens of the World” and by now I hope you are connecting the dots on Communism, Socialism, and Marxism!

A history textbook ALREADY IN CLASSROOMS FOR SEVERAL YEARS spends pages upon pages on Islam without one chapter on Christianity or Judaism. Any mentions of Christianity’s past reference “massacres”, while Islamic history teaches of “takeovers” and speaks of how welcoming members of society were to Islam. The book states that Jesus “proclaimed” himself the Messiah, and Muhammed “was the prophet”. No “proclamation” there.

Your kids will be reading far fewer classic novels and more “information” texts such as government documents and technical manuals. They will read computer manuals and EPA white papers instead of traditional literature. Maybe even Obama’s “Dreams From My Father” will be required reading. U.S. education will now be controlled at the federal level. Parents, teachers and states will have no freedom to tailor lessons to their needs.

The curriculum will re-write history and teach that environmental concerns are the most important, and serving the state is an ultimate goal. But, beyond the lowered academic requirements, we are most concerned about the large database being gathered on our children.

Common Core requires extensive data to be kept on all children in a database called inBloom. It will store your student’s name, address, social security number, blood type, hair color, weight, test scores, nicknames, religion, attitudes, income level, medical history, psychological evaluations, bus stop times and political affiliation. Participation is mandatory, even for kids in private and home schools.

Let’s look at why the state could possibly need so much information on our kids. One word: control. From Kindergarten through their twenties, the “state” will make assessments on what type of student your child is, and what kind of job they are best suited for. Barack Obama and his socialist backers are going to restructure the United States so that everyone is told what their ability is and they will be working at a menial government job making menial government money and thinking the federal government would pick up the slack for their insurance, their housing, and their retirement.

This data collection conveniently ties back to the “Affordable Healthcare Act,” which AUTHORIZES FORCED FEDERAL VISITS TO YOUR HOME if the government deems you “high-risk.” If Common Core data on your kids designates them as “high risk,” the Health and Human Services’ website says the government can come to your home if you fall under the following “risky” categories:

*Families where mom is not yet 21.

*Families where someone is a tobacco user.

*Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities.

*Kids living with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who have had multiple deployments outside the United States.

Constitutional attorney and author Kent Masterson Brown states, “This is not a ‘voluntary’ program. The eligible entity receiving the grant for performing the home visits is to identify the individuals to be visited and intervene so as to meet the improvement benchmarks. A homeschooling family, for instance, may be subject to “intervention” in “school readiness” and “social-emotional developmental indicators.” A farm family may be subject to “intervention” in order to “prevent child injuries.” The sky is the limit.

The government can acquire information like this through Common Core, Obamacare data collection, the NSA database, the FBI database or one of the other 70 databases on the American people. This information is already being used to take away our civil liberty as highlighted in many cases around the country. In New York, law abiding citizens are getting letters from the State Police telling them to turn over their guns or else! Or else, the State Police (SWAT outfitted) will come to their house and get them! And HIPAA is not here to protect you my friends. No, instead, this president is using it to take away any semblance of privacy we might have left – our personal health records.

( continues )

[Jolie Rouge]

The main goal of the Privacy Rule is “…to assure that individuals’ health information is properly protected while allowing the flow of health information needed to provide and promote high quality healthcare and to PROTECT THE PUBLIC’S HEALTH AND WELL-BEING! There it is, the statement no one knew was in there BECAUSE IT WASN’T WRITTEN YET!

And, why in the world, is your family’s political affiliation being collected as part of the Common Core database? Will your political beliefs be used against your child? Will you endure a forced federal visit because you disagree with the current party in power? This is Big Brother if we have ever seen it! Everything you say and do is being collected by the government and can and will be used against you. They have already targeted conservatives through the IRS…now they are now coming for your kids via Common Core!

Is this the future we want for our most precious resource—our children? Parents and teachers are being completely removed from the education process and the government is stepping in to take over. Fax Congress right this minute and tell them to STOP COMMON CORE before it destroys the American culture and educational system!

Culturally, Common Core wants to mold our kids into dutiful little Leftists, using various bio-analysis tools. The “curriculum” calls for: “Four parallel streams of affective sensors” will be employed to effectively “measure” each child. The “facial expression camera,” for instance, “is a device that can be used to detect emotion…. Other devices, such as the “posture analysis seat,” “pressure mouse,” and “wireless skin conductance sensor,” which looks like a wide, black bracelet strapped to a child’s wrist, are all designed to collect “physiological response data from a biofeedback apparatus that measures blood volume, pulse, and galvanic skin response to examine student frustration.”

Common Core seeks to change behavior. One of the agencies responsible for testing is the American Institute for Research, or AIR. They are one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world, and are focused on CHANGING BEHAVIOR. AIR distributes LGBT propaganda to schools and believes not only in the sexualization of children, but in labeling and counseling those children at a very young age.

The documents state in black and white what will be taught: "Students need opportunities to engage in cooperative and active learning strategies, and sufficient time must be allocated for students to practice skills relating to sexuality education."

Join the Conversation on Facebook

This curriculum was developed behind closed doors and there are no meeting notes. Although they say it will be internationally benchmarked, there is no other country in the world that anyone can point to with a Common Core curriculum. But, working behind closed doors implementing, writing standards, are some of President Obama’s former friends and associates from back-in-the-day. Like one of the scariest people in education, Linda Darling-Hammond. Ms. Hammond may look like a Libertarian, but don’t let that fool you because she is one of the most radical, progressive educators you will ever meet. Hammond is a close associate and colleague of William, BILL AYERS, the former head of the terrorist group known as The Weather Underground. Bill is buddies with Obama, even threw Obama’s first fundraiser.

So the new code-words for redistribution of wealth are “your zip code”, as in “Your zip code should not determine your education. Your zip code should not define your job” or your whatever they want to fill-in-the-blank. The mission of Hammond’s work on the Committee for Equity and Excellence in education, was outlined in a report called, “A Strategy for Education Equity and Excellence.” This report tells you how this so-called educational reform is nothing more than another deception to re-distribute the wealth through education.

“The time has come for bold action by the states—and the federal government—to redesign and reform the funding of our nation’s public schools. Achieving equity and excellence requires sufficient resources that are distributed based on student need, not zip code, and that are efficiently used.”

This report goes on to make some incredible statements about our constitution. “We have, however, learned from past efforts and believe we are in a position to move forward. There is no constitutional barrier to a greater federal role in financing K-12 education. It is, rather, a question of our nation’s civic and political will; the modest federal contribution that today amounts to approximately 10 percent of national K-12 spending is a matter of custom, not a mandate. The federal government must take bold action in specific areas.”

FEDERAL CONTRIBUTION MEANS MORE TAXES LEAVING YOUR STATE AND LESS COMING BACK!

Ohio school superintendent Mick Zais, “the standards were adopted hastily by a select few and are a one-size-fits-all solution that won’t serve students well.”

Providence College English Literature Professor Anthony Esolen, “What appalls me the most about the Common Core Standards is the cavalier contempt for great works of human art, thought and literary form…We are not programming machines; we are teaching children.”

The Brookings Institution says, “The empirical evidence suggests that the Common Core will have little effect on American students' achievement."

A Heritage Foundation Issue Brief says, “Common Core's standards not only present a serious threat to state and local education authority, but also put academic quality at risk."

Federal agencies sharing our information or agents busting into our homes are both a violation of our Fourth Amendment rights. This administration is trashing our Constitution and ending our free society. Our kids will not know what it means to be free.

Will you get a visit from the feds this week? Don’t let Obama and the United Nations do this to our children and to our nation. Obama wants to get every child in America on the same page, at the same level, in the same way, and he wants to have them beholden to the State for the rest of their lives.

http://www.conservative-daily.com/2013/08/23/big-brother-in-the-classroom/

[hblueeyes]

Common Core requires extensive data to be kept on all children in a database called inBloom. It will store your student’s name, address, social security number, blood type, hair color, weight, test scores, nicknames, religion, attitudes, income level, medical history, psychological evaluations, bus stop times and political affiliation. Participation is mandatory, even for kids in private and home schools.

Addresses, hair color,weight, religion, attitudes and income level change. Besides my kids have no political affiliation, they cannot vote or understand politics in grade school. Technically they have no income level too. Their religion is the one I give them until they can decide for themselves and that could go through many transformations.

Looks like it is time to do what the illegals do and get an EIN for our school aged kids and keep their SSN for when they are adults.

Me

[Jolie Rouge]

Test scores plummet after N.Y. adopts Common Core standards
The exams are some of the first in the nation to be aligned with Common Core.
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZAND ROBERT GEBELOFF — Published: August 8, 2013

The news Wednesday unsettled the state’s parents, principals and teachers, and posed new challenges to a national effort to toughen academic benchmarks.

In New York City, 26 percent of students in third through eighth grade passed the tests in English, and 30 percent passed in math, according to the New York State Education Department. Last year, under an easier test, 47 percent of city students passed in English, and 60 percent in math.

Common Core emphasizes deep analysis and creative problem-solving over short answers and memorization.

City and state officials spent months trying to steel the public for the grim figures, saying that a decline in scores was inevitable and that it would take several years before students performed at high levels. But when the results were released, many educators responded with shock that their students measured up so poorly against the new yardsticks of achievement.

Chrystina Russell, principal of Global Technology Preparatory in East Harlem, said she didn’t know what she would tell parents, who will receive scores for their children in late August. At her middle school, which serves a large population of students from poor families, 7 percent of students were rated proficient in English, and 10 percent in math. Last year, those numbers were 33 percent and 46 percent, respectively.

“Now we’re going to come out and tell everybody that they’ve accomplished nothing this year and we’ve been pedaling backward?” Russell said. “It’s depressing.”

The Common Core standards have been adopted by 45 states, including Idaho and the District of Columbia. Although not technically national standards, they are ardently backed by the Obama administration and education officials who contend that outdated and inconsistent guidelines leave students ill-prepared for college and the workforce.

New York was one of the first states to develop tests based on the standards. Kentucky, the first state to do so, also reported plummeting scores.

More states are scheduled to introduce Common Core exams in the 2014-15 school year. But there have been signs of turbulence in recent weeks, with several states, including Georgia, Indiana and Oklahoma, halting efforts to roll out exams, citing concerns about cost.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/08/08/2694630/test-scoresplummet-after-ny-adopts.html?fb_action_ids=10201867670083498&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210201867670083498%22%3A137 161536494895%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210201867670083498%22%3A%22og .recommends%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D#storylink=cpy

[Jolie Rouge]

The Common Core curriculum is based on values clarification and changing behavior. Our kids will be challenged to examine their morals and beliefs and question the traditional biblical definition of marriage.

Your kids are being told to QUESTION WHAT YOU, THE PARENT, TAUGHT THEM about sex, social issues, and the Bible. Because now only what the State says is acceptable, will be acceptable.

What Obama Wants Your 5 Year Old To Know
Posted on September 16 2013

Warning: the following message is extremely disturbing and is for mature audiences, only. Unfortunately, the information contained within this message is being taught to our little children in classrooms across the country, because the Left wants to sexualize your kids and introduce a culture of “just do it if it feels good to you” into their educational development.

Obama wants to teach sex-ed to KINDERGARTNERS!

Ladies and gentlemen, the wolves are at the door, and those of us who want to maintain a moral society must fight to stop them.

Obama is coming for your kids. He wants to sexualize them through his United Nations curriculum known as “Common Core.” This program is a nationalized “dumbing down” of our kids and will create a standardized mediocrity.

What Is Common Core?

This has nothing to do with education. Common Core is a socialism change agent that is beginning now, and it will hook the youngest members of our communities—our children—into the net of police state government. Our schools are being told to ditch traditional literature and teach more “informational” texts, and the fuzzy math of the past has now become “whatever you say the answer is, we’ll believe as long as you can tell us how you FEEL about it.”

One of the agencies responsible for testing is the American Institute for Research, or AIR. They are the largest behavioral and social science research organization, and are focused on CHANGING BEHAVIOR. AIR distributes LGBT propaganda to schools and believes not only in the sexualization of children, but in labeling and counseling those children at a very young age.

The curriculum they produce and the data outcome of that will be stored in a massive database called inBloom, which will store your student’s name, address, social security number, blood type, hair color, weight, test scores, nicknames, religion, attitudes, income level, medical history, psychological evaluations, bus stop times and political affiliation. If you are in a private school you will still have to submit to this database. And if you are home-schooled, good luck finding a textbook that doesn’t incorporate the Common Core curriculum.

Our kids aren’t guinea pigs for the socialist movement! This program is going to absolutely KILL American innovation and competition. Test scores are dropping across the nation in states that have done Common Core pilots.

The foundation of the Common Core program is to influence and “NUDGE” our kids to embrace the United Nations Agenda 21 philosophy that socialism and blanket equality and environmental justice is best for the United States, and the capitalist structure we currently have is ruining people’s lives and destroying the world.

It is not voluntary, and there is no way to opt-out.

British philosopher and parliamentarian John Stuart Mill writes in On Liberty, “A general State education is a mere contrivance for molding people to be exactly like one another; and as the mold in which it casts them is that which pleases the predominant power in the government … it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by natural tendency to one over the body.”

The Liberals are coming for the hearts, minds and BODIES of our children.

Mary Black is an educator who has fought Common Core for months and she says, “My review of the Common Core standards indicated that they were designed to teach students what to think and not how to think. The literary classics have been stripped and replaced with books promoting a socialist agenda…. It is certain that it will leave students unable to think for themselves.”

Only a handful of people know that something called Common Core exists, and very few know what it teaches! We desperately need you to help get the word out by sharing these messages and contacting your representatives to ask that they STOP Common Core from taking root in your local school system.

What Are They Teaching Our Kids?

The Common Core curriculum is based on values clarification and changing behavior. Our kids will be challenged to examine their morals and beliefs and question the traditional biblical definition of marriage.

Your kids are being told to QUESTION WHAT YOU, THE PARENT, TAUGHT THEM about sex, social issues, and the Bible. Because now only what the State says is acceptable, will be acceptable.

Some of the “suggested” texts include: government documents and technical manuals, like the EPA’s “Recommended Levels of Insulation” and Executive Order 13423: Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management.

Elementary school standards state, “Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming).”

This is 1984 indoctrination, happening right now in our schools. It is up to us, and only us, to stop this program before it spreads like a virus throughout America. Fax Congress and tell them we know all about Common Core and we want to save American education!

core3

And, then, there is the sexualization aspect. Planned Parenthood helped write the “National Sexuality Education Standards.” Your child might come home having learned that, ““Testing your ability to function sexually and to give pleasure to another may be less threatening in the early teens with people of your own sex.”

By the end of 2nd grade, “students should be able to identify different kinds of family structures.”

By the end of 5th grade, “students should be able to define sexual orientation as the romantic attraction of an individual to someone of the same gender or different gender.”

Reading assignments for 16 and 17 year olds includes Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” which details incest, rape and pedophilia in extremely graphic language. We have not included excerpts in this message because we do not want to offend anyone; however, we suggest you go to TheBlaze.com and look up the passages that have been included there. We guarantee they will make YOU blush…and it will make you furious to know that your high school kids are going to be required to read those words.

Planned Parenthood has funded Common Core so they can get into the classroom and teach your kids that every kind of sex is right, and the only “unsafe” thing is getting pregnant. Watch the video “Hooking Kids on Sex” and see for yourself what Planned Parenthood is going to be putting in our schools through Common Core.

Gerald Hannon of The Gay Lesbian Straight Educational Network (GLSEN) says that one of the biggest challenges the gay movement faces is “recruiting” young people to the “movement.”

A GLSEN activist who also happens to be a kindergarten teacher, Jaki Williams, says that Kindergarten is when “the saturation process needs to begin.”

Who Believes Nationalized Education is Important?

Hitler. Stalin. Obama. Karl Marx says in his Communist Manifesto that government-controlled education is “essential” to achieving the goals of socialism.

Remember Bill Ayers, the old domestic terrorist buddy of Obama’s who liked to blow up things? Ayers is a “neo-Stalinist” who visited Cuba and Venezuela to talk about education being the “motor force of revolution.”

Saul Alinksy’s Rules for Radicals, coming right to your child’s classroom.

Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan says his goals “can only be achieved by creating a strong cradle-to-career continuum that starts with early childhood learning and extends all the way to college and careers. Education is still the key to eliminating gender inequities, to reducing poverty, to creating a sustainable planet, and to fostering peace.”

[Jolie Rouge]

Why Should You Care?

Home-schoolers and private schools are not safe! Homeschool organizations are already lining their learning materials up with Common Core and the testing standards are going to be the same when it comes to taking the ACT and SAT tests.

Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) has been leading the movement against Common Core in the Senate, and Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) is working in the House. They have enlisted help from colleagues to fight the curriculum.

Ironically, states adopted Common Core because they were broke and needed the stimulus money Obama dangled in front of them—but that was just for the first year or so. Ultimately, the Common Core program is going to cost state governments—and taxpayers–$16 BILLION. So, who will the winner be here? You guessed it: the federal government and the Liberals in Charge.

Also ironic: the Left, always concerned with diversity and what divides us and how everyone should be sensitive to the needs of special interest and minority groups, suddenly decides everyone is vanilla when it comes to education. Suddenly, a classroom in an inner city becomes the same as one in the rural Midwest, the same as one in an upscale white collar community, the same as one in a mid-size, middle class industrial town.

Texas has rejected it and is standing firm—other states have said no, but not to all the standards. Indiana, Michigan and South Carolina are concerned. Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama and Utah are fighting back against the testing standards. A single school district in Colorado, Douglas County, unanimously rejected Common Core and put in place its own higher quality standards. Opposition is happening, we just need to alert our representatives and take back control of our education system before Obama and his supporters ruin it entirely.

When we say “the future of America is at stake,” we absolutely mean it. Our children and the education they receive are the key to future generations and the direction we take this country. Don’t let the Liberals dumb everyone down and create a nationalized, socialist state…stop Common Core right now! Also, we beg you to forward this message to everyone you know and make sure they get involved in the fight to stop Common Core.

http://www.conservative-daily.com/2013/09/16/what-obama-wants-your-5-year-old-to-know/

[Jolie Rouge]

http://revolutioncarbadges.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/2nd-amendment.jpg

Yesterday we shared this story with you. After reading it I had my research team start looking into how often and where this text was being used and after preliminary research it's clear that this text is widely used across the country. Now we will be doing a full review of the textbook, finding a replacement, and then mobilizing nationally to have the rewritten history text removed. We aren't going to let them indoctrinate our kids!

Guyer High School (and obviously several others) are complicit in attempting to condition students to interpret the 2nd Amendment in a clearly opposite manner in which it was intended. The 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th are also misinterpreted as several commenters below pointed out.

This textbook, currently being used by Guyer High School, is attempting to redefine the Second Amendment to impressionable young minds. Parents, you must speak up and demand action. Investigate your child's history book ASAP, and post more pictures in the comments below. Call your school and demand that revisionist history books like this are removed from the school district.

Textbook version:
"The people have a right to keep and bear arms in a state militia."


Actual 2nd Amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Did you catch the sleight of hand?

A militia is a body of citizens enrolled for military service, and called out periodically for drill but serving full time only in emergencies. It's a common man army of citizens, NOT soldiers. The citizens are called up in emergencies to protect the free State.

The 2nd Amendment says that a militia is necessary to protect a free State, so in order to be able to have a militia, the citizens have a natural right to keep and bear arms and the government cannot infringe on that right.

The textbook version implies that we're only allowed to keep and bear arms if we're in a State militia, a clear misrepresentation of the 2nd Amendment.


http://www.dailypaul.com/299365/high-school-ap-history-book-rewrites-the-2nd-amendment

[Jolie Rouge]

Here’s a new installment of MM's 'Rotten to the Core' series on education and curriculum. The fight for local control, limited government, and fiscal accountability and the fight against Big Governnment/Big Business/Fed Ed elites continue. Press on!

Jeb Bush’s latest Common Core snit fit
September 20, 2013 by Michelle Malkin

This is priceless. Former Fla. GOP Gov. Jeb Bush, consummate politician and 2016 presidential aspirant, has now bitterly accused opponents of his federal education schemes of possessing “purely political” motives. Projection, anyone?

Having previously suggested that critics of the so-called Common Core standards program are crazy, ignorant and lying, Bush piled on at a National Press Club appearance this week. Jeb the Insult Comic Dog did not hold back. Not only is the growing anti-Fed Ed movement of parents, teachers, school board members, academics, privacy advocates and state legislators of all stripes “purely political,” Bush sniped, but the Common Core backlash that’s causing him conniption fits is also opposed to academic excellence.

Yep. If you question Jeb Bush and his Big Business/Big Government cronies, you stand foursquare against student achievement and intellectual rigor. Pay attention, all you informed moms and dads who have raised pointed, carefully researched questions about the costs, quality, validity, constitutionality and intrusiveness of Common Core. Bush thinks you are “purely political” beasts who are recklessly harming your own kids’ scholastic advancement.

“If you’re comfortable with mediocrity, fine. I’m not,” Bush hissed at Common Core critics. “(W)e’re not going to be able to sustain this extraordinarily exceptional country unless we challenge every basic assumption on how we do things.”

Translation: Don’t you know Jeb Bush cares more about your children than you do?

Bush is all for challenging how we do things, unless you’re challenging how the Common Core machine does things. He reiterated Common Core peddlers’ claims that their standards are internationally “benchmarked” and “world-class.” But that’s pure horse-hockey. And it’s not “political” people who are calling out the Common Core racket.

Stanford University professor James Milgram, a prominent dissenting member of the Common Core math standards committee, has exposed how the muddled standards would leave American students at least two years behind the rest of the planet.

University of Arkansas education professor emeritus and Massachusetts school standards architect Sandra Stotsky, who sat on the language arts validation panel, has documented how the English standards will result in:

1) teachers spending at least 50 percent of their reading instruction time on “informational texts” at every grade level.

2) reduced emphasis on analytical skills involving complex literary works.

3) a depleted fund of content knowledge that will leave students unprepared for basic college coursework.

Both Stotsky and Milgram repeatedly asked their panel colleagues for the names of the countries the Common Core standards were allegedly “benchmarked” to, but they never received an answer.

Furthermore, Christopher Tienken of Seton Hall University notes that much of the “evidence” and “empirical research” that the Common Core crowd cites comes from … the Common Core crowd. “When I reviewed that ‘large and growing body of knowledge,’” Tienken reported, “I found that it was not large, and in fact built mostly on one report, Benchmarking for Success, created by the NGA (National Governors Association) and the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers), the same groups that created these standards. Hardly independent research.”

Jeb Bush routinely has dismissed those who protest Common Core’s increasing federalization of local control over schools as conspiracy-mongers. But it’s President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan who’ve made common cause with Bush and corporate elites in foisting Common Core standards, tests, technology and data-mining boondoggles on local school districts. Obama, Duncan and Bush have been meeting with deep-pocketed CEOs in Washington, not with ordinary parents outside the Beltway.

Dr. Bill Evers of the Hoover Institution succinctly debunked Bush’s repeated insistence that 45 states voluntarily adopted the irresistibly rigorous standards:

“(S)tates weren’t leaping because they couldn’t resist the Core’s academic magnetism. They were leaping because it was the Great Recession — and the Obama administration was dangling a $4.35 billion Race to the Top carrot in front of them. Big points in that federal program were awarded for adopting the Core, so, with little public debate, most did.”

Can you spell b-o-o-n-d-o-g-g-l-e? Remember: Bush’s educational foundation, the Foundation for Excellence in Education, is tied at the hip to the federally funded testing consortium called PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers), which raked in $186 million through Race to the Top to develop nationalized tests “aligned” to the top-down Common Core program.

One of the Bush foundation’s behemoth corporate sponsors is Pearson, the multi-billion-dollar educational publishing and testing conglomerate. Pearson snagged $23 million in contracts to design the first wave of PARCC test items. The company holds a $250 million contract with Florida to design and publish its state tests. Pearson designed New York’s Common Core-aligned assessments and is also the exclusive contractor for Texas state tests.

And in Los Angeles this summer, Pearson sealed a whopping $30 million taxpayer-subsidized deal to supply the city’s schools with 45,000 iPads pre-loaded with Pearson Common Core curriculum apps. That’s $678 per iPad, $200 more than the standard cost, with scant evidence that any of this shiny edu-tech will do anything to improve the achievement bottom line.

As with all political posers who grab power under the guise of doing it “for the children,” don’t read their lips. Follow the money.

[Jolie Rouge]

Here's how our school district explained Common Core.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s0rRk9sER0&feature=share

This three-minute video explains how the Common Core State Standards will help students achieve at high levels and help them learn what they need to know to get to graduation and beyond.

[Jolie Rouge]

As you may know if you follow me on Facebook, I pretty much hate, with a capital H-A-T-E, this “new common core” math being taught. Every day it’s a massive struggle for Chris and me, him with a Masters Degree and myself with a Bachelors, to teach 3rd grade homework to our daughter.

Putting aside that we work for hours past an already 8 hour school day, ignoring that we are provided no text books to learn about the material, and sweeping under the rug that they send home homework on things they have yet to even teach yet, we are doing our best.

But we are lost.

LOST.

And I am a bit angry to tell you the truth.

Today was just another example of “fuzzy” math.

This is on Charlotte’s homework:

http://www.momdot.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/homework.jpg

All her problems have to be done this way.

Under what math EVER would 291 be “estimated” or “rounded off” to 200? Am I missing something? And this is the example for her to base all her other math homework on.

I can tell you that if I estimated or rounded off my bills from $291 to $200, I would get a notice of an unpaid bill. I am not sure my mortgage or car payment would agree with that.

And let’s jump to the answer. The estimated sum ’500′ is considered reasonable with ’645′?

Is 5 million the same as 6.5 million? Ask an accountant that. Ask a corporation that.

I can’t help but wanting to refuse to teach Charlotte something that I find completely and utterly wrong.

http://www.momdot.com/common-core-is-making-me-stupider/

[Jolie Rouge]

How Common Core is Slowly Changing My Child

Posted on October 2, 2013 by shannonstyles


A Letter to Commissioner King and the New York State Education Department:

I have played your game for the past two years. As an educator, I have created my teaching portfolio with enough evidence so I can prove that I am doing my job over the course of the school year. I am testing my students on material that they haven’t yet learned in September, and then re-testing them midway through the year, and then again at the end of the year to track and show their growth. Between those tests, I am giving formative assessments. I am taking pictures of myself at community events within my district to prove that I support my school district and the community. I am teaching using the state-generated modules that you have created and assumed would work on all students, despite learning style, learning ability, or native language. I am effectively proving that I am worthy of keeping my job and that my bachelors and masters degrees weren’t for naught. I have adapted, just as all teachers across the state have, because that’s what we do. We might not agree, we might shake our head at the amount of time creative instruction has turned into testing instruction, but we play the game.

Today, things got really personal. Today I saw just how this Common Core business is affecting kids. Not my kids in my classroom; I know how it’s affecting them and I am doing the best that I can to make this as painless as possible on them. Today, my third grade son came home an angry, discouraged kid because of school. On the contrary, my oldest son is doing pretty well with the Common Core. He’s had some difficulties, but for the most part he’s just rolling with it and we’re doing OK. But my younger son is not my older son; which just proves that this one-size-fits-all curriculum that you are throwing at these elementary kids is bull.

That’s right, NYS, I call bull. When my eight year old boy, who loves to read to his little sister and is excited to go to back to school come July of every summer, calls himself dumb because he is bringing home failing test grades, then this has turned personal. My son isn’t dumb, Commissioner King. He works hard to learn, he writes stories and songs, builds entire football stadiums out of Legos in record time, and he can explain how to divide in his own words. He. Is. Not. Dumb. But when he gets consistently failing grades on the module assessments, what message do you think he’s getting? These module assessments, sir, that have words like ‘boughten’ on them and the children have to infer what ‘boughten’ means. Did you know that boughten is no longer used as a form of the verb to buy? According to the grammarist.com website, boughten is as foreign to modern language as the word thou.

“Boughten is an archaic participial inflection of the verb to buy. It was once a fairly common colloquial form—it was used to describe something bought instead of homemade—and it still appears occasionally, but it is widely seen as incorrect and might be considered out of place in formal writing”

So, when my son is faced with answering questions on outdated language, on topics such as a ‘sorrel mare’ and the reading passages take place in foreign war-torn lands, when these children haven’t even mastered the basics of their own country yet, what do expect him to feel like? Do you expect him to feel like he’s just on the road to become college and career ready, which is the basis of the common core, and these challenges will only make him stronger?

No, sir, I’ll tell you what it does. It beats him down. It discourages him. It exhausts him. It makes him dread going to school and then lash out in anger at the nightly homework that is associated with these common core modules. It is turning him off of school and if this trend continues, he will be far from college and career ready because he will want nothing to do with college.

I understand that we want to compete globally in the area of education. High school and college students should absolutely be challenged and learn to become a valuable, contributing member to their chosen career. Attributes such as creativeness, leadership, self-directedness, and being a team player are all skills that our next generation need to possess. But let’s work backwards: our high school teachers signed up for this. We can get our kids college and career ready; and if we don’t, shame on us. Our goal as high school teachers is send productive citizens into the world. Some years are better than others. Some kids have the advantage of supportive homes, while many do not. But we know where they need to be, and if our colleges and universities are unhappy with the product they are receiving then the communication between the the high schools and post-secondary schools needs to improve. We don’t need to throw it on the elementary teachers and students. No, those teachers need to instill a love of school so when children get to our middle and high schools they are not burnt out. They are encouraged, excited, confident, and motivated.

Creating modules that are a scripted nightmare for both the teacher and student is not the answer. You are ruining children. You are killing their spirit. You are making them believe they are dumb because they can’t multiply and divide on the exact day that the module says they should be multiplying and dividing. You are creating a generation of disengaged children who now feel insufficient.

This mom is angry. This educator is pessimistic. This state is in trouble.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Momblog

http://mrsmomblog.com/2013/10/02/how-common-core-is-slowly-changing-my-child/

[hblueeyes]

How true. I believe it begins at home. They saw Dad and then Mom go to work. School was their job. I have 4 sons. 1 Doctor, 1 working on his masters in education, my youngest just received his Bachelors in Science and one that, even though he graduated high school with a high honors diploma, chose not to go to university but rather took a different path of business minus the degree. Common core would not have worked on them. I would have home schooled Maybe our education system needs to make the parents literate at the same time as their kids.

Mre

[Jolie Rouge]

The new national learning tool that's being carried in classrooms across our state is getting a lot of heat. Louisiana is one of 45 states that have accepted common core standards. Many parents have been very vocal about their opposition, but one teacher is speaking out saying the parents should be concerned.

Teachers, parents voice concern about Common Core
Posted: Oct 11, 2013 4:20 PM By Cheryl Mercedes

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
The new national learning tool that's being carried in classrooms across our state is getting a lot of heat. Louisiana is one of 45 states that have accepted common core standards. Many parents have been very vocal about their opposition, but one teacher is speaking out saying the parents should be concerned.

There is no question Common Core Standards are changing the environment in which kids learn. The national outline is geared toward increasing accountability and providing data that draw better comparisons among students across the country.

The standards are said to require students to think more critically rather than memorizing a list of facts. Elementary school teacher Maya Bennett says she's seen a difference.

"My classroom is completely transformed and my student's voices are actually the primary voices in the classroom. I'm merely a facilitator letting my students lead the way to discovery and understanding," said Bennett.

Not all educators and parents are on board. Some have rallied on the steps of the State Capital to voice their concerns.

"If you have national assessments, and you have state tests - several a year, how are children supposed to know what's on the test?" said Liz Gary.

Common Core calls for children to work and learn in groups. A teacher that wants to remain anonymous says while it can be a great support system among students, it's not for everyone.

"It's fine until one of them gets mad, or they're not understanding it, then they resort to their screaming and fighting, goofing off and it can just get really bad really quickly," said a concerned teacher.

The anonymous teacher says while common core sets are the bar high, it's nearly impossible for every student to achieve the same level of success at the same time.

"If you then give them tests that are at a certain level they are not necessarily going to be successful because they were already so far behind."

While some teachers and leaders back the program, they too admit there are challenges.

"There is a ton of struggle but it's a really cool learning process. I feel so respected given such rigorous standards," says Bennett.

It is those standards that have left some wondering whether the transformation is too much too soon.

The teacher that wanted to remain anonymous said "its one extreme to the other. It's going from all teacher directed to all student directed and there needs to be a balance."

Common Core also changes the way teachers are evaluated. They are graded on their lesson plans and how their students work in groups, which has some educators worried about their futures in the classroom.

For more information on Common Core standards, click here:

http://www.corestandards.org/Math

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy

http://www.wafb.com/story/23671359/some-teachers-parents-voice-concern-about-common-core

[Jolie Rouge]

Obama's America: Teachers indoctrinating students
Common Core Teaches 3rd Graders to Protest like Unions
Posted 10.11.13 by Greg Campbell

If the radical left has any other motto aside from Rahm Emanuel’s insistence that they ought never to “let a serious crisis go to waste,” it is that radical liberals must always strive to brainwash the masses as early as possible.

The left has made a “great leap forward” in the battle against individual free-thinking by creating and implementing “Commie Core,” formally known as Common Core- the school standards initiative that subtly stresses liberal ideologies in a format that an unsuspecting child would naturally perceive as unchallenged fact.

The Education Action Group Foundation (EAG) recently released a report that revealed some insidious methods by which the left aims to radicalize our children. While the abuses by Common Core have been well-discussed in conservative circles, too many parents still are in danger of missing the glaring propaganda that is present in the materials given to children.

The report found that textbook publisher Zaner-Bloser has included in its Common Core materials a book for third graders entitled, “Si Se Puede/Yes We Can!” It is intended for units dedicated to “rights and responsibilities.”

Of course, when freedom-loving Americans think of rights and responsibilities, the natural topics of discussion should include the Bill of Rights, enlightenment thinking, our duty as citizens to recognize oppressive government, etc. In later grades, students can learn of Jefferson, Locke, Burke and learn of the classic understandings of what it means to be free.

However, Common Core has other plans for the next generation…

In the Si Se Peude book issued to 8 and 9 year-olds, the authors discuss the 1985 SEIU union strike. The book claims that janitors went on strike, “for more money because their wages [were] too low to be fair.”

In the guide for teacher’s, the book stresses that teachers should introduce the children to a word for the week: “protest.”

The teacher’s guide instructs teachers to “remind students that a protest is an event in which people publicly show their strong disapproval of something. Discuss protest throughout the week. Challenge students to use the word while speaking and writing.”

Of course, the right to protest is an integral part of our republic. However, this right to protest can better be illustrated by discussing the Boston Tea Party or the Civil Rights Movement; showcasing union extortion as an example of fighting for the rights of Americans is clearly sending the wrong message.

The teacher’s guide also stresses that teachers are to encourage the application of this ideology to their own lives. The authors suggest, as an example, if there is no talking allowed in the lunchroom, to makes signs and march.

Though this can be defended as benign rhetoric, it is exactly the opposite. What this curriculum proposes is small-time demonstrations and the installation of the mindset that whenever a group wants something, civil disobedience is an appropriate response, regardless of the grander implications on society.

The topic of rights and responsibilities is too nuanced, too complicated for 8 and 9 year-olds to understand on any meaningful level. It is important to introduce this topic as an application of free thinking, but not as an insidious tool to condition children to think in radical leftist terms.

But, as I said before, one of the left’s main mottos has long been, “get ‘em while they’re young.” It is no wonder why college universities are so intolerant to conservative mindsets.


http://www.tpnn.com/obamas-america-common-core-teaches-3rd-graders-to-protest-like-unions/

[Jolie Rouge]

Obama’s Education Secretary: Common Core Opponents Are White Suburban Moms with Dumb Kids
Michael Schaus | Nov 19, 2013

Obama’s Education Secretary recently said that opponents to the Administration’s “Common Core” Standards are merely “white suburban moms” who are, all of a sudden, learning that their kids aren’t real bright. Arne Duncan (wow. . . Perfect name for a 1970’s sitcom) made the degrading remarks to a group of state school superintendents on Friday. According to the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/16/arne-duncan-white-surburban-moms-upset-that-common-core-shows-their-kids-arent-brilliant/


.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a group of state schools superintendents Friday that he found it “fascinating” that some of the opposition to the Common Core State Standards has come 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 quite as good as they thought it was.”

First of all, Arne, what does race have to do with anything? For that matter what does the socio-economic status of parents have to do with anything? (How would such a comment have been received if it was regarding single black mothers with less-than-brilliant kids?) Arne’s complete dismissal of opponents to the Federal Government’s takeover of education is typical of the Washington Statists who have been running things for the last several years. It’s as if he meant to say, “Opponents can’t be taken seriously. . . After all, they don’t agree with me.”

The insinuation that parents are raising concerns over the federal education standards because they would rather their kids have their ego’s artificially inflated, is both insulting and indicative of his overwhelming sense of self-righteousness. Perhaps we should just be happy Arne didn’t employee the typical MSNBC argument that his opponents are merely redneck-racists who despise the color of our President’s skin.

Forgetting for a minute about the horror stories regarding Common-Core-approved teaching material (promoting communism http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/michaelschaus/2013/10/28/common-core-teaches-second-graders-to-be-good-union-comrades-n1732453/page/full and downplaying wrong answers http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/michaelschaus/2013/08/19/common-core-will-instruct-teachers-to-praise-wrong-answers-n1667595/page/full as two examples) there are still plenty of reasons to harbor sincere reservations about the federal intrusion on local education efforts.

At heart of Common Core is the liberal’s statist notion that only they are capable of running our lives. Arne, and his central-planning buddies in the nation’s Capital, think parents, school boards, and classroom teachers are incapable of providing children with adequate education standards. Does this remind you of any other Obama Administration initiative? (Ahem*Obamacare*Ahem) At least Common Core doesn’t mandate free access to contraception. (Yet.)

According to people like Arne Duncan, only the folks who brought us healthcare.gov can bring some degree of competency into our American education system. (Stop laughing. That really is what he’s suggesting.) In the real world, however, the Federal government’s incompetence has managed to raise red flags among a bipartisan swath of the American public – including the Administration’s staunchest allies. That official “white suburban mom” activist group, known as the American Federation of Teachers, even raised an eyebrow at the failure of Common Core implementation. Randi Weingarten, the head of this radical tea-party group (sarcasm) even said that if you thought Obamacare’s implementation was bad, then just wait. . . “The implementation of the Common Core is far worse.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/08/common-core-implementation-called-worse-than-healthcare-gov-launch

The primary objection to more federal government involvement in education has been a usurpation of local school board decisions, and a politically driven curriculum for education. Which only makes sense given the political nature of everything that comes out of DC. Isn’t it amazing how we are all told that DC is run by lobbyists and special interests? . . . But then we are expected to hand over something as valuable and precious as our child’s education to those very narrow minded con-artists?

The standards themselves were the first casualty of DC politicization. They were not, despite what Duncan would like you to believe, written by teachers, school boards, or even elected representatives. They were not approved or written by the states that adopted them, or by the education professionals who will be implementing them. . . They were written (I know this will be shocking) by bureaucrats.

But let’s not let these little concerns get in the way of calling Common Core opponents “white moms” with dumb kids. Such insults are nothing new to Duncan. According to the Washington Post, he told a convention of newspaper editors in June that Common Core critics were “misinformed at best and laboring under paranoid delusions at worst.”

Well. . . It’s easy to start wearing tin-foil hats when Florida schools begin scanning student’s retinas http://michellemalkin.com/2013/05/29/confirmed-polk-county-fl-schools-conducted-iris-scans-on-students-without-permission/ and kids are being taught that private enterprise is unfair and discriminatory. http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/michaelschaus/2013/10/28/common-core-teaches-second-graders-to-be-good-union-comrades-n1732453/page/full

Then again, maybe Arne is speaking from personal experience. . . His mother, after all, might be a white suburban mom who believes her son is much brighter than he actually is.


http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/michaelschaus/2013/11/19/obamas-ed-secretary-common-core-opponents-are-white-suburban-moms-with-dumb-kids-n1749072/

[Jolie Rouge]

Common Core Teaches Second Graders to be Good Union Comrades
Michael Schaus | Oct 28, 2013

Aside from the obvious objections to allowing the creators of Healthcare.gov to get more involved in the education of America’s youth, a new reason to resist the creepily altruistic “Common Core” curriculum has surfaced. New Common Core teaching materials instruct second graders that land owners are intrinsically evil, that business owners are inherently greedy, and Saul Alinsky radicals are the saviors of the everyman. (Besides – and I know this should seem pretty obvious – do you really want the architects of a 17 trillion dollar debt teaching our kids things like basic math?)

According to Fox news, a textbook company contracted to produce materials under Common Core State Standards is trying to teach students as young as second grade about economic fairness by praising unions, protests and labor leader Cesar Chavez, according to an education watchdog group. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/23/second-graders-taught-labor-politics-in-core-curriculum-aligned-lesson-plan/?intcmp=latestnews

Cesar Chavez is one of the liberal movement’s most recent heroes to be considered “in vogue”; as was evidenced by Google’s decision to honor the Labor activist instead of Jesus last Easter Sunday. Chavez’s Saul-Alinsky-inspired-radicalism should put him firmly on the fringe of mainstream Americanism. (A great read on Chavez can be found here. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/01/The-Cult-of-Cesar-Chavez ) But, believe it or not, the textbook’s mention of Chavez is only a minor portion of the indoctrination “lesson” plan.

In addition to reading a glowing biography of the Marxist labor leader, students will be asked to evaluate the “scales of fairness” between wealthy landowners, and lowly [non-union] workers.

“Fairness and equality exist when the scales are balanced,” teachers are prompted to instruct the students. They are then supposed to ask the students whether both sides, as presented in the plan, are equal, providing a correct answer of “no” in the teachers’ guide.

See? According to Common Core standards, the fact that wealthy business owners have more than the people they hire, is “unfair.” (Although, in all fairness, second grade might be the right age group for liberals to share their ideas. This could be an honest attempt to keep the left engaged with a demographic that has an equal grasp of market forces and economic theory.)

Although I have not flipped through the comprehensive list of teaching materials tied to this disturbingly Leninist interpretation of economic “fairness”, I can make a safe assumption that the impressionable second grade economists will not be taught about the prosperity generated by business owner’s wealth; or the natural fairness of private ownership and free market.

After all, it’s kinda tough to get a job from a poor farm worker who rents his property.

Economic theories, wealth creation, John Smith’s concept of private property, market forces, and Chavez’s radicalism aside. . . There is still a pretty big question regarding why second graders would need to wrap their young brains around the concept of labor unions and so called “scales of fairness.” Quite frankly, putting any organized bureaucratic government agency in charge of disseminating such information to young children is chilling. And given the government’s tendency to view wealth creators merely as untapped tax-revenue sources, it’s unlikely that such lesson plans would be presented without anti-capitalistic bias.

Once again the common core standards illustrate a decidedly creepy intrusion of politics into education from the highest levels. While education has been largely consumed by leftist philosophies for some time, the danger of Common Core is that this absorption of political activism in the classroom will now be pushed from the Federal level. . . A painfully intense infringement on local control will await any districts that decide to adopt the Fed’s centrally planned concept of “education”.

While Karl Marx is not yet required reading under the Common Core curriculum, this latest example of the Fed’s ideological intrusion into education should set off some alarm bells. Aside from the laughable notion that a greater Federal influence in local schools will benefit the system, it makes the perversions of our kids’ worldview that much easier.

And this, comrades, concludes today’s lesson on Common Core radicalism.

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/michaelschaus/2013/10/28/common-core-teaches-second-graders-to-be-good-union-comrades-n1732453/page/full

[Jolie Rouge]

Common Core implementation called ‘worse’ than Healthcare.gov launch
By Valerie Strauss ~ November 8 at 6:00 am

Whether you support the Common Core State Standards or don’t, it’s hard to argue that the implementation so far has been smooth. I’ve posted some pieces about just bad the implementation of the Common Core State Standards and related testing has been going in New York (for example, here http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/31/a-ridiculous-common-core-test-for-first-graders/ ) but here’s a comparison that will make it easy to understand just how badly it has gone: http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/11/8535497/weingarten-common-core-implementation-far-worse-obamacare-rollout


You think the Obamacare implementation is bad? The implementation of the Common Core is far worse.

That’s what American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten said this week at a National Education Writers Association in Washington D.C., according to the online Capital publication — and it’s important to remember that she has been a supporter of the standards initiative.

Weingarten said that education officials in New York have done a terrible job helping teachers prepare to teach lessons based on the standards and, in a rush to implement the Core and give students Core-aligned standardized tests, provided packets of lesson plans, while some districts bought material from corporations rushing to get it on the market. Capital quoted Weingarten as saying:


“Here’s 500 pages. Just do it,” Weingarten said, mimicking what she argues is superintendents’ message to teachers in New York.

In a column published this week in Huffington Post and the New York Times, Weingarten expanded on this:


Last Sunday, I spent the morning with some Long Island public school teachers who made this crystal clear. Fifth-grade teachers, for example, have been told to follow a new, scripted 500-page curriculum pretty much to the letter. It’s an inexcusable information dump that, without time and training for teachers to absorb, adapt and apply the new material, won’t improve student learning. As Linda Darling-Hammond has written, the Common Core standards should be “guideposts, not straitjackets.”

Weingarten said this about the standards:


They’re not a silver bullet, and they’re not the only thing kids need for a great public education. But they have the potential to disrupt the cycle of increasing poverty and economic and social stratification by making essential skills and knowledge available to all children, not just some. That’s why civil rights groups that see public education as an anchor of democracy and a great equalizer have embraced these standards.

This past spring, Weingarten called for a moratorium on the consequences of high-stakes testing aligned with the Common Core because teachers haven’t had time to absorb them. In June, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said he would give a one-year reprieve to states who want to postpone using the student scores of Core-aligned standardized tests to evaluate teachers.

In New York, there has been tremendous controversy over the first administration of a Core-aligned standardized test. In August, results were released and it turned out that just as education officials had predicted before the tests were given, the scores fell by 30 percent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/08/common-core-implementation-called-worse-than-healthcare-gov-launch/

comments

The implementation in Mont. Co., MD--one of the best public school systems in the nation--is a fiasco. However admirable the goal, they handed the development of classroom curriculum to a for-profit company that apparently didn't include anyone who had ever taught children. None of the materials are reading-level appropriate, and many are cut & pasted from the internet. Teachers are told to fix it, and then share their "experiences" so that the company can improve the incomplete product, peddle this nationwide, and make more money.
..

From the common core lesson plan "“... the commands of government officials must be obeyed by all.”

Just another, in a multitude of examples, of government out of control

..

Moms have awakened. There is a product at the end of the Assembly Line of the Common Core and it is not a healthy happy student. It is a test that is so high stakes it has eight year olds vomiting all over it and bright A/B students thrown out of high school. Ever heard what happened with Mothers Against Drunk Driving? This is a new kind of MADD and woe to politicians who can't see it is women on the right and the left. Why? We will stop the harm just like we needed to to our teenagers from drunks that crowded our roads. We will stop this whacky crazy no basis in reality mess. Don't think so? Women are 55% of the voters. We can and will end this insanity

..

Weingarten's claim--that the Common Core Standards "have the potential to disrupt the cycle of increasing poverty and economic and social stratification by making essential skills and knowledge available to all children, not just some"--is ridiculous. No set of standards can do that. The CCSS are only modestly different from most previous sets of standards and it's not even clear that the differences move in a better direction. She needs to get off the Gates Gravy Train and speak the truth

..

Your comments are ironic, to say the least, since Gates is perhaps the #1 sponsor of CC$$ and stands with R Murdoch and Broad as perhaps the wealthiest men in the world who stand to get even wealthier due to CC$$ ripping the soul out of American education. August 4 - you following why Sweden's gone from the top to the sewer of Europe? I'll give you a hint: YOU are drinking the same Kool Aid.

,,,

ChicagoMusicTeacher , I work on the issue everyday for the past few years and Bill Gates has invested more money than anyone in the structure and implementation of Common Core!! I try not add to much contention to the subject especially when this article was written by Randi "I will sell you out and reverse course midstream" Weingarten!! This issue can only be resolved by congressional investigations of serious misconduct/ criminal actions by educational ,government, media, union and business officals nationwide. This Scandal will soon surpass Obama- Care

[Jolie Rouge]

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1476022_10153491804210084_841665053_n.png

You have to see these unintelligible Common Core assignments posted by angry parents

http://twitchy.com/2013/11/22/you-have-to-see-these-unintelligible-common-core-assignments-posted-by-angry-parents/

Twitchy’s CEO Michelle Malkin has been one of the more vocal critics of the imposition of Common Core standards on our schools. One of the controversial issues has to do with the emphasis on unorthodox (often unclear) paths to solutions, rather than simply asking kids to solve problems. Some parents are taking to Twitter to register their anger and confusion over the weird instruction their children are receiving, reportedly from Common Core-aligned curricula:


Gary Rubinstein @garyrubinstein

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZPau2CIEAAr5FT.jpg

My daughter's kindergarten common core workbook.

8:51 PM - 16 Nov 2013

I don't get what the book wants a student to do....


nicole @NicoleAgonicole

kids can't learn 6x8= 48 anymore its now 6x8=(5+1)x8
Why the confusing work pic.twitter.com/FNs9Anp8zc

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZSEIACCYAAP16Y.jpg

9:11 AM - 17 Nov 2013


e @TheeErin

1st grader's common core homework scanned with family commentary added

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZPf0YQCAAEC-k7.jpg




Colette Moran‏@ColetteMoran

Here's a screen shot of the answer key for a questionable homework assignment from Common Core for 3rd grade grammar.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BX7CikYCYAAhzQX.jpg

12:37 PM - 31 Oct 2013


Ann Meyer @annmeyer

No wonder I can't help my daughter with her homework! Apparently 15-4=9 Gotta love @engageny quality

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BX3iu-YCIAAcMLS.jpg

8:19 PM - 30 Oct 2013


Shawna Coppola @ShawnaCoppola

Attn. Parents: Common Core homework makes it necessary to keep a supply of brass fasteners on hand @ home

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BXcfeEHIIAAaAdE.jpg

2:15 PM - 25 Oct 2013


Kęrrÿ @mom2lexcole

Coles homework tonight. No explanations. Just this. #CommonCore #neveraskizzytohelpwithhomework

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BXOMZS-IYAElt55.jpg

7:37 PM - 22 Oct 2013


Jon Hickey @jhickey62

Poorly worded #commoncore homework question or are we overthinking? What's your answer?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BXIgtVECUAEXHI1.jpg




lea @mrs_flyboy

The flags in my kids math homework look a lot more like a Chinese flag then a us one. Its a common core worksheet.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BWPoYFDIgAAOsZD.jpg

4:03 PM - 10 Oct 2013

Is this really what should be taught in the schools? Be careful how you answer, or Secretary of Education Arne Duncan might accuse of being opposed to it just because you’re white and from the suburbs. Whether you are or not.

[Jolie Rouge]

6TH Graders Told Not To Tell Parents About Political Classwork Assignment
Posted on 24 November, 2013

While it is unclear if this is explicitly a Common Core assignment or not, a group of students today in Tupelo, MS had quite an interesting assignment. The sixth graders at Milam Elementary were given an assignment to do in class, and they were not to discuss this assignment with their parents.

Naturally, telling a group of kids between the ages of ten and eleven to not tell their parents about an assignment is probably the surest way for them to tell their parents. In fact, it is typically a way to ensure a student sneaks a copy home.

The reason why this is so concerning is that Tupelo prides itself on data driven instruction. Now, data is nice if it helps you figure out if a student needs extra help in a particular area. However, what if that effort is aimed at monitoring the political views of a student? What if there is a shift in student opinion to say, the wrong opinion on gun control or say the wrong opinion on right to life issues? Is the school collecting data toward that end to monitor the political beliefs of these young children?

As you check out the school district’s video on data driven instruction, ponder for a moment where does monitoring education end and monitoring indoctrination begin?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfZnmZOAIJ0&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfZnmZOAIJ0&feature=player_embedded

Then, consider the assignment below. According to a local clergy, this is the assignment that one of these young sixth grade children was given in class. They were told not to tell their parents about the assignment. I find that part disconcerting right there.

The next is the topic: Are you a Republican or a Democrat? I wonder what ever happened to teaching children that they were Americans? Why is there an effort to monitor political opinions so early in a child’s life?

Do the parents in Tupelo, MS need to have a conversation with the school board about monitoring for indoctrination versus education? Why were the children told NOT to tell their parents about the assignment? Is this a pre-test of attitudes with another test to be given later? Is this part of the data driven education, to monitor the attitudes and beliefs of students?

While it may seem far fetched, parent political views are part of the P-20 data collected in data driven schools. Why not the child’s political views?

In the era before “data driven instruction” an assignment like this might have been received differently. In light of “data driven instruction,” are student opinions on this assignment part of the “data?” After similar incidents with surveys in Maryland and other places, it does prompt one to wonder if this is now part of the data.

http://gopthedailydose.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Political-Party-ID-224x300.jpg

As a side note to the teacher, she doesn’t quite have Republicans corrected stated, unless one is going strictly on party platform. For example under abortion, there are quite a few Republicans pro-choice Republicans. I am not one, but I have met many who are, and I have met many Democrats who keep trying to change their party platform on the matter. Abortion is one of those issues that is difficult to draw a partisan line upon. Even so, I am rather shocked that a teacher is discussing it with ten and eleven year olds.

Further, gun control is another issue that is not strictly partisan. In the part of the world I live in, there are Democrats with a stronger commitment to the second amendment than some Republican Governors, like Chris Christie.

As far as gay marriage is concerned, this teacher has apparently not heard of Log Cabin Republicans. But what I find even more troublesome is that gay marriage is being discussed by a teacher in the classroom. I find it disturbing that a government employee, which is what a public teacher really is, is having a conversation with children of this age on this topic.

Quite frankly, wouldn’t classroom time be better spent teaching something like, math, geography, science, art, or music? Maybe it is just me, but I have to wonder political affiliation of 6th graders is a priority in this country? Perhaps more of the basic and less of the politics would bring about higher test scores that these politicians seem to expect from our nation’s youth.

http://gopthedailydose.com/2013/11/24/6th-graders-told-tell-parents-political-classwork-assignment/

[Jolie Rouge]

Forced Reading: 4th Grade Common Core Book
Tells Kids Why Obama is Rejected by White Voters
Posted date: November 21, 2013

http://universalfreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Screenshot-46-300x175.png

As Common Core continues to concern parents across the U.S., a book that includes drugs, drinking, racial stereotypes all wrapped up in a political agenda has made its way into the Common Core curriculum.

Fourth graders in Dupo, Illinois are reading a biography of Barack Obama entitled “Barack Obama”, written by Jane Sutcliffe and published by Lerner. The book contains very mature content and highlights the problems Obama has faced while growing up, all while blaming the color of his skin.

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/.a/6a00d834515c5469e2019b016e7277970b-500wi

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/.a/6a00d834515c5469e2019b016e7277970b-500wi

The book is part of Scholastic’s “Reading Counts” program acceptable to the controversial Common Core curriculum standards.

One group, “Moms Against Duncan – MAD” Facebook page, which was created in response to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s “white suburban moms” comment, has brought attention to the book and voiced outrage over its installment.

The biography goes on to say that white Americans were hesitant to vote for a black president, and that Obama pushed the race issue to bring the nation together, according to the Illinois Review. http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2013/11/dupo-fourth-graders-in-dupo-illinois-are-reading-a-biography-of-barack-obama-thats-raising-eyebrows-among-st-clair-county.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fdlacomb%2Fillinoisr eview+(illinoisreview)

Excerpts from the unbiased book seem to praise Obama while demonizing the white majority.


“But some people said Americans weren’t ready for that much change. Sure Barack was a nice fellow, they said. But white voters would never vote for a black president. Other angry voices were raised. Barack’s former pastor called the country a failure. God would damn the United States for mistreating its black citizens, he said.”

http://a3.typepad.com/6a00e54ee061708834019b016dfe23970d-400wi

The Illinois Review reported that Bluffview Elementary students were told the book’s content would be tested for grades. That brought outrage among parents just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, one “MAD” mom said.

Read an online sample of the book “Barack Obama” here. http://books.google.com/books?id=-PE9yILRMIIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://freepatriot.org/2013/11/21/forced-reading-4th-grade-common-core-book-tells-kids-why-obama-is-rejected-by-white-voters/

[Jolie Rouge]

Educators Threaten Removal of Kids from Disobedient Parents
Posted by: Rick Wells Posted date: November 23, 2013

More evidence has arisen as to why many people fear the controllers which used to be their government and question the relationship between the government and the family unit.

In their assault on the family, Government at all levels is increasingly behaving as if they are the parents and the parents are more of a caretaker, providing daily supervision of the government’s children; a glorified babysitter.

Unless, of course, that care taking isn’t done in accordance with government mandates, at which time the babysitters could lose their job.

The latest example in an endless stream of government interference is the threatening letters being received by parents regarding mandatory medical and dental examinations for their children. These are routine exams, but there is nothing routine about the threats.

It’s always for our own good, security or safety when our rights are usurped. We aren’t really properly qualified to function for ourselves in the complicated, modern police state. We need our controllers.

A parent in New York State received the following letter requiring that his child be taken to compulsory doctor visits. The letter states:

http://freepatriot.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/435-new-york-state-school-dental-medical-notice.png

“NYS Education Law (Section 136.3) requires students to get medical exams when they start school and at certain grades. Exams may also be needed at other times chosen by your school.

To keep healthy, your child needs a complete physical at least once a year and a dental exam every six months.

Notice how the state justifies its intrusion in advance by volunteering a justification that bad teeth can hurt school work. Okay, so can bad food, are they coming into the house to check my refrigerator? Do I need my grocer to fill out a form as well?

Never one to shy away from the opportunity to create files on someone, New York State makes sure they are in the picture forever. Once the exams are completed, the State of New York is forwarded the results, which are kept as part of the child’s cumulative school record, and built upon year after year.

Loss of children for dental infractions does happen. I’ll be writing an article within the next two weeks regarding a couple in Texas who lost their children based upon that false premise. Police states find whatever tools are available to engage in their evil doing. Besides, no respectable autocrat wants a slave with bad teeth.

This problem is not restricted only to the liberal big city thugocracies, heartland thugocracies have their own versions of police state parenting.

Fond Du Lac Social Services recently sent a parent a letter in regards to the parent allowing the child to miss dental appointments. The parent was given one week from the receipt of the letter to make a dental appointment. If no appointment is made, the controller will contact another controlling bureaucrat and make “a report.” A threat of involving CPS is made for non-compliance.

We all know what that means; the first step in a legal fight against the government to keep your children, and all over the kids’ teeth. Not that they are falling out, decayed or anything else, necessarily, but just that they haven’t been to a dentist as dictated by the offending authorities.

While the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is an Indian Reservation and as such a separate legal entity, it is just more evidence that the police state knows no borders or jurisdictional distinctions in the U.S. A. All of us are fair game. The author of the letter is Cindy Pattison, 218-878-2178. Apparently she is secure enough in the belief in her authoritarian position that she is welcoming phone calls to discuss the policy.

435 minnesota letter fond du lac chippewa

All of this is more evidence of the multi-front attack on America being conducted from within in order to overwhelm us to the point that we simply can’t handle everything that is being thrown our way. Their plan is to win whatever victories they can, in whatever manner is effective, and return to those areas in which they suffer defeats until they succeed there as well.

http://freepatriot.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/435-minnesota-letter-fond-du-lac-chippewa.png

The state threatening to kidnap someone’s children under color of law is a crime of unimaginable evil. The precursors to that reality are the incremental control they are attempting to exercise. They are called progressives for a reason. They do things in small steps, working progressively towards a larger goal. That goal is the takeover of America and the destruction of the American family.

Child Protective Services and their associated system of kangaroo courts are creating compliant baby sitter parents under the threat of loss of their children. They have no right to do this under the Constitution. They are assuming powers which are beyond the scope of their mission and authority.

Bad teeth may be unattractive, they may be unhealthy, and they are undesirable. They are not criminal.

Child abduction or threatening to do so for the purpose of controlling the parents is criminal. We need to start addressing the actual criminality instead of simply complying with self-aggrandizing control system bureaucrats.

http://freepatriot.org/2013/11/23/educators-threaten-removal-of-kids-from-disobedient-parents/

[Jolie Rouge]

Common Core-aligned lesson plan for third-graders casts Obama as modern messiah
Posted By Eric Owens On 9:50 AM 11/28/2013

Another biography of President Barack Obama is making waves.

This one is entitled “Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope.” The author, Nikki Grimes, paints the 44th president as nothing short of a messianic figure. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1416971440/thedaical-20

Eagnews.org has found a language arts lesson plan for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders revolving around the book at the website TeachersPayTeachers.com. The description of the $3.60 lesson plan by Sherece Bennett boasts that it is officially “aligned” with the Common Core State Standards Initiative, an attempt to standardize various K-12 curricula around the country. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Barack-Obama-Lesson-Plan-and-Prezi-856562

The book treats Obama as sort of a modern combination of Moses and the Joseph of the Old Testament—with a bit of Johnny Appleseed thrown in for good measure.

Early in the book, Eagnews notes, a young, hopeful Obama notices some homeless people and asks, “Will I ever be able to help people like these?”

As the future president grows, his mother teaches him “English grammar and the Golden Rule.” “Be honest, be kind, be fair.”

Later in the story, Obama dramatically changes his name from Barry to Barack.


“One morning, he slipped on the name he’d been born with. The name of his father, Barack. For the first time in his life, he wore it proudly–like a coat of many colors.”

The allusion is obviously biblical. In Genesis 37:3, Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob, receives a “coat of many colors.”

Still later, the “Common Core aligned” book dramatically describes Obama’s work as a community organizer in Chicago.


The work was grueling, with stretches of failure, and puny patches of success. Door-to-door Barack went, early mornings, late nights, pleading and preaching, coaxing strangers to march together, to make life better for everyone.


He worked as hard as a farmer, planting the words “Yes, we can!” like seeds in spring.

The TeachersPayTeachers.com lesson plan for the book includes a number of exciting activities including a collage containing “pictures and words about Barack Obama,” according to Eagnews.

Also included is a “comprehension quiz.”

“Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope” receives an average rating of three stars (out of five possible) at Amazon.com.

As with many politically-charged books, this one has mostly five-star and one-star reviews. Only about 15 percent of the reviews are somewhere in the middle.

Five-star reviewers are effusive.

“My 5 year old can read it and wants to because she loves BARACK OBAMA!” raves reviewer L. Tyler.

“It is a must for every library and a nice addition to home collections,” insists D. Simmons.

Many of the negative reviews on Amazon point to the religious and quasi-religious elements of the book.

“There is something seriously wrong with any parent that would give this god-king worship book to a child,” observes reviewer Eli Corte.

Just last week, a different Obama biography made the news after parents in Dupo, Ill. alleged that fourth-graders were required to read it. (RELATED: Obama biography tells fourth-graders that white Americans are racists http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/22/obama-biography-required-reading-tells-fourth-graders-that-white-americans-are-racists/ )

The book, called simply “Barack Obama,” appears to cast white Americans who disagree with Obama’s politics as racist.

A local school board member contacted The Daily Caller to insist that the book is not required reading among schoolchildren in Dupo.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/28/common-core-aligned-lesson-plan-for-third-graders-casts-obama-as-modern-messiah/?print=1

[Jolie Rouge]

The pie graph in school's newspaper

http://i.imgur.com/Pbdf82f.jpg

[Jolie Rouge]

.Arkansas Mother Obliterates Common Core in 4 Minutes!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZEGijN_8R0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZEGijN_8R0

Published on Dec 16, 2013

Karen Lamoreaux - Arkansas State Board of Ed - 12/16
http://www.arkansasagainstcommoncore.com

[Jolie Rouge]

No books, no clue at city’s worst school
By Susan Edelman January 12, 2014

This principal runs a school of “no.”

Students at PS 106 in Far Rockaway, Queens, have gotten no math or reading and writing books for the rigorous Common Core curriculum, whistleblowers say. The 234 kids get no gym or art classes. Instead, they watch movies every day. “The kids have seen more movies than Siskel and Ebert,” a source said.

The school nurse has no office equipped with a sink, refrigerator or cot.

The library is a mess: “Nothing’s in order,” said a source. “It’s a junk room.”

No substitutes are hired when a teacher is absent — students are divvied up among other classes.

A classroom that includes learning-disabled kids doesn’t have the required special-ed co-teacher.

About 40 kindergartners have no room in the three-story brick building. They sit all day in dilapidated trailers that reek of “animal urine,” a parent said; rats and squirrels noisily scamper in the walls and ceiling.

And the principal — Marcella Sills, who joined PS 106 nine years ago — is a frequent no-show, sources say.

Sills did not come to school last Monday. On Tuesday, she showed up at 3:30 p.m.

On Wednesday, The Post found her at home in Westbury, LI, all day before emerging at 2:50 p.m. — school dismissal time. Wearing a fur coat, she took her BMW for a spin.

She showed up at school Thursday, but not Friday.

http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/schools3.jpg?w=231

When Sills, 48, does go to work, it’s rarely before 11 a.m. — and often hours later, say sources familiar with her schedule. “She strolls in whenever she wants,” one said.

The school hasn’t had a payroll secretary in years.

A Department of Education spokesman said Sills was required to report her absences and tardiness to District 27 Superintendent Michelle Lloyd-Bey but would not say whether Sills did so last week. Lloyd-Bey did not return a call. Sills hung up on a reporter.

When she is out, an assistant principal is left in charge. Yet Sills, who gets a $128,207 salary, also pockets overtime pay — $2,900 for 83 hours in 2011, the latest available records show. “This school is a complete s- -thole, but nobody in a position of power comes to investigate. No one cares,” a community member said.

PS 106 families hope their cries for attention bring newly installed Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña to the rescue, saying they can’t recall any prior DOE leader visiting the remote school. She would find it sinking, they say.

The isolated building sits a block and a half from the beach, surrounded by vacant, weed-choked lots, the road behind it strewn with trash bags and broken TVs. The floods of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 wrecked a hangar-like annex, called the Early Childhood Academy, which housed pre-K, kindergarten and first and second grades. It has not been repaired.

Two kindergarten classes moved into “temporary classroom units” in the yard. The other children moved into the main building, forcing some classes to squeeze into small offices and storage rooms. The pre-K class sits in the auditorium, but has to move to the cafeteria during the movies.

Kids in several grades said that last week they watched “Fat Albert,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “Monsters, Inc.,” but did not relish the downtime. “I like gym. I like to draw,” said Charm Russell, 10, who added her peers are too restless and bored to watch the screen. “They’re always making noise, and there’s nothing entertaining going on. No art, no gym, no music class.”

More alarming, the teachers have gotten no curricula since Sandy. Last February, the DOE announced several new options, including “Go Math” for grades K-5, and “ReadyGen” or the state Education Department’s “Core Knowledge” for English language arts. The books cover the Common Core standards, skills that kids should master at each level. But five months into the school year, PS 106 classes still don’t have the books or teacher’s guides. “They have no reading program, no math program,” a source said, adding Sills blames outside administrators for not sending materials.

Teachers muddle through by printing out worksheets they find online, buying their own copy paper.

The DOE gave no explanation for the missing curricula but said it’s “working with the school to provide students with physical education.”

A spokesman denied the trailers are rat-infested.

Staffers won’t speak up or even file a grievance with their union because Sills will retaliate, a source said.

Parents wonder if higher-ups know what’s going on. “Why don’t they get on them? I don’t understand that,” said Michael Moore, father of a second-grader.

Another father, Roland Legions, added. “They’re not doing right by the kids.”

One mom said she couldn’t get a meeting with Sills to discuss concerns. Another said Sills is “just not professional.”

“She should be here,” the mom said. “How is she going to run the school if she’s not here?”

PS 106 is allocated $2.9 million to serve a low-income population with 98 percent of its students eligible for free lunches. As a Title 1 school, it gets extra federal funds, but community members say they’ve never seen a budget tracking the income and spending.

http://nypost.com/2014/01/12/no-space-no-books-no-leader-no-clue-at-citys-worst-elementary/

[Jolie Rouge]

‘They’re making kids stupid now’: Check out this Common Core math problem
Posted at 12:01 am on January 21, 2014


Lauren @HollaAtMe_Baby

Have y'all looked at this "common core" shit they got kids doing in school these days ? It's complete bullshit.

10:11 PM - 20 Jan 2014

As a matter of fact, we have had a look at Common Core, and no, we don’t get it either. Check out this fourth grade math problem, and if you become confused, just remember to “use number bonds to help you skip-count by seven by making ten or adding to the ones.”


My 9 year old sisters math homework with this "common core" shit. WHAT ARE THESE DIRECTIONS.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BeedH2RCYAAj_gs.jpg

What happened to "3 fish, take away one, you have 2 fish"?

Now it's all this "3 fish, times the price of gas plus the square root of 4827"

http://twitchy.com/2014/01/21/theyre-making-kids-stupid-now-check-out-this-common-core-math-problem/.

[Jolie Rouge]

Why I Want To Give Up Teaching
By ELIZABETH A. NATALE | OP-ED - The Hartford Courant
7:55 p.m. EST, January 17, 2014

Surrounded by piles of student work to grade, lessons to plan and laundry to do, I have but one hope for the new year: that the Common Core State Standards, their related Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium testing and the new teacher evaluation program will become extinct.

I have been a middle school English teacher for 15 years. I entered teaching after 19 years as a newspaper reporter and college public relations professional. I changed careers to contribute to society; shape young minds; create good and productive citizens; and spend time with youngsters lacking adults at home with time, energy and resources to teach them.

Although the tasks ahead of me are no different from those of the last 14 years, today is different. Today, I am considering ending my teaching career.

When I started teaching, I learned that dealing with demanding college presidents and cantankerous newspaper editors was nothing. While those jobs allowed me time to drink tea and read the newspaper, teaching deprived me of an opportunity to use the restroom. And when I did, I was often the Pied Piper, followed by children intent on speaking with me through the bathroom door.

I loved it!

Unfortunately, government attempts to improve education are stripping the joy out of teaching and doing nothing to help children. The Common Core standards require teachers to march lockstep in arming students with "21st-century skills." In English, emphasis on technology and nonfiction reading makes it more important for students to prepare an electronic presentation on how to make a paper airplane than to learn about moral dilemmas from Natalie Babbitt's beloved novel "Tuck Everlasting."

The Smarter Balance program assumes my students are comfortable taking tests on a computer, even if they do not own one. My value as a teacher is now reduced to how successful I am in getting a student who has eaten no breakfast and is a pawn in her parents' divorce to score well enough to meet my teacher evaluation goals.

I am a professional. My mission is to help students progress academically, but there is much more to my job than ensuring students can answer multiple-choice questions on a computer. Unlike my engineer husband who runs tests to rate the functionality of instruments, I cannot assess students by plugging them into a computer. They are not machines. They are humans who are not fazed by a D but are undone when their goldfish dies, who struggle with composing a coherent paragraph but draw brilliantly, who read on a third-grade level but generously hold the door for others.

My most important contributions to students are not addressed by the Common Core, Smarter Balance and teacher evaluations. I come in early, work through lunch and stay late to help children who ask for assistance but clearly crave the attention of a caring adult. At intramurals, I voluntarily coach a ragtag team of volleyball players to ensure good sportsmanship. I "ooh" and "ah" over comments made by a student who finally raises his hand or earns a C on a test she insisted she would fail.

Those moments mean the most to my students and me, but they are not valued by a system that focuses on preparing workers rather than thinkers, collecting data rather than teaching and treating teachers as less than professionals.

Until this year, I was a highly regarded certified teacher. Now, I must prove myself with data that holds little meaning to me. I no longer have the luxury of teaching literature, with all of its life lessons, or teaching writing to students who long to be creative. My success is measured by my ability to bring 85 percent of struggling students to "mastery," without regard for those with advanced skills. Instead of fostering love of reading and writing, I am killing children's passions — committing "readicide," as Kelly Gallagher called it in his book of that title.

Teaching is the most difficult — but most rewarding — work I have ever done. It is, however, art, not science. A student's learning will never be measured by any test, and I do not believe the current trend in education will lead to adults better prepared for the workforce, or to better citizens. For the sake of students, our legislators must reach this same conclusion before good teachers give up the profession — and the children — they love.

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-op-natale-teacher-ready-to-quit-over-common-cor-20140117,0,6264603.story

[Jolie Rouge]

New Classroom Rules
by Abby Byrd

1. Enter the room and socialize at your leisure. The daily “warm-up” is just a suggestion that is not in any way intended to promote the acquisition of grammar skills over necessary social interactions.

2. Every time you enter the room, please be sure to ask me if we’re watching a movie. I may have neglected to plan a movie, and will quickly be reminded that a feature-length film, however loosely connected to the curriculum, will be both more entertaining and more instructive than whatever lesson I had originally planned.

3. Sit wherever you want. If you feel like sitting. Standing up is good, too, or sitting on top of the chair and rocking in it. It’s important for those of you who are kinesthetic learners to feel comfortable.

4. Please don’t put your name on any papers that you turn in, especially on multiple choice quizzes. I enjoy challenging myself to match each of your 125 identities with the intricacies of the way you form the first four letters of the alphabet.

5. When I say “Pass your papers up,” what I really mean is, “Pass your paper to the person either to the left or right of you. Or behind you. Or just keep your paper at your desk; it doesn’t matter.”

6. When I say, “Put your papers in a stack,” what I really mean is, “Throw your papers in a pile facing all different directions. Unless you don’t want to put your paper in the pile. Which is fine too, because I don’t want to stifle your individuality.”

7. When preparing formal essays, feel free to abandon all conventions in the interest of expressing your creativity. For example, use titles like “My Super-Awesome Essay.” Festoon your papers with patterned borders, and use interesting fonts in colors such as bubblegum pink and seafoam green. Making your font size extremely large ensures that I can read your essay from very far away. Making your font size extremely tiny serves as a gentle reminder to visit the eye doctor. Either is encouraged. Or, alternate a sentence in very large type with a sentence in very small type. That keeps me focused.

8. Read your essay aloud. Then put commas wherever you breathe.

9. Start every other sentence with the interjection “well.” It makes me feel as if you’re right there talking to me.

10. Use the time when I’m giving directions to multitask. Doodle, stare into space, gesture to someone across the room, pick your nose. Even if you don’t hear how to differentiate among the four types of noun clauses, it’s still good for me to practice explaining it, just so I don’t forget! LOL!

11. Sharpen your pencil at any time, even if you have to walk in front of me while I’m talking to do it, and even if the incessant grinding of the sharpener drowns out anything I might be saying.

12. It is a good idea to verify all directions by asking the same question three, four, or five times.

13. Encourage your parents to email me often, and to use capital letters, multiple exclamation points, and an accusatory tone to get my attention and ensure that I will respond promptly.

All classes this year will involve parties with piñatas, paper-wad basketball, and hair braiding. Should I bore you at any time, please raise your hand and I will unzip my face to reveal that I am actually a magical giraffe-llama-unicorn hybrid who will entertain you with magic tricks and grant each of you 500 extra credit points in addition to a lucrative career in which you will not have to write coherently or have any knowledge of grammar.
http://abbythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/hrwqgtzqta-2.png?w=640

Looking forward to a fun year!

http://abbythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/224853_falling-candy_400.jpg?w=600&h=498

Holy shit IT’S RAINING CANDY!!!
Or prescription drugs, I can’t really tell which.



Addendum, To the Senders of All That Hate Mail About How I’m an Embarrassment to the Profession: If you are so dim and humorless that you are offended by this post, please know that I am a young, vibrant teacher who loves my students. Teaching isn’t just a job for me; it’s my identity, and I will probably teach until I am mentally or physically unable to do so. Teaching has given meaning to my life unlike anything else I’ve ever done, and even on difficult days, I have hope that I have made a positive difference in my students’ lives. When I start to lose hope, I go to a red binder on top of my bookshelf that is filled with notes of thanks. This post could have been written only by someone who knows and loves kids well. If you can’t see that, then congratulations on LACKING A SENSE OF HUMOR and taking yourself RIDICULOUSLY GDDMN SERIOUSLY. I’m just thankful we don’t know each other in real life.

http://abbythewriter.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/new-classroom-rules/

[Jolie Rouge]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1/1619331_487945067978948_1482456619_n.jpg

How would you like to be six years old and given this problem? Common Core is ROTTEN to the core!

[Jolie Rouge]

‘We Teach Our Children Not to Sleep Around’:
Dad Outraged Over Biology Homework That Stepped Way, Way Over the Line
Feb. 15, 2014 5:07pm Dave Urbanski

Let’s say your high school freshman son or daughter asks for your help with a particularly difficult biology homework assignment.

So you walk over, glance at the worksheet on DNA and blood type, and notice questions about a mother trying to determine the identity of her baby’s father. Then question reads in part: “She had the state take a blood test of potential fathers. Based on the information in this table, why was the baby taken away by the state after the test?”

http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/baby-daddy-2-e1392501455539.jpg

Possible answers? Cab driver, bartender, flight attendant, and guy at the club.

That was what Larry Basaj read on his daughter Audri’s homework page from Romeo High School — about 30 miles north of Detroit — and he said he flipped. “What are they teaching?” he asked WDIV-TV in Detroit. “I couldn’t come up with the words. I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ It’s teaching them that it’s OK to not know who it is because you can have the state help you. And if they can’t help you, they are going to take your child away, and it’s not the way it is. I was beyond fired up last night.”

According to WWJ-TV in Detroit, the incomplete assignment was sent back with a note: “We teach our children not to sleep around.”

After talking to their daughter about the questions, Audri was concerned. “Now that I see what it really means, I think it like depicts women in a really uncomfortable light,” she told WWJ.

“The goal is that the students are understanding blood types and DNA and possibilities based on the makeup of the two parents,” explained Romeo Schools Superintendent Nancy Campbell to WWJ. “But, again, this painted a picture, I think, that was not appropriate,” she told WWJ. “My first thought when I saw it was that it certainly been worded better.”

Campbell told WDIV the question came from a website — teachingbioformatics.com — which the teacher has used for getting problems with components and concepts students can understand. Campbell said the question will be revised.

Campbell said the teacher, who got the worksheet from a teaching website, has apologized. “Teachers use all kinds of different resources that are available to them,” Campbell told WWJ. “[This incident] brings in awareness for all of our staff to, you know, be more thoughtful and reflective about the items they use when they put them on a homework assignment.”

According to Campbell, only one parent complained, WWJ reported.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/02/15/we-teach-our-children-not-to-sleep-around-dad-outraged-over-biology-homework-that-stepped-way-way-over-the-line/

[hblueeyes]

Wow!

Me

[Jolie Rouge]

You’ve Just Got to See What a ‘Frustrated Parent’ Wrote on Their Child’s Common Core Math Assignment
March 24, 2014 2:34pm Oliver Darcy

One purported father’s response to his child’s Common Core math assignment is making waves around the Internet.

Posted to a popular conservative politically-oriented Facebook page, a fed-up dad appears to have authored a hard-hitting note to his child’s teacher in the space given to provide an answer. https://www.facebook.com/PatriotPost/photos/a.82108390913.80726.51560645913/10152143072400914/?type=1&stream_ref=10

http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/1922508_10152143072400914_313210801_n.png

“Jack used the number line below to solve 427 – 316. Find his error. Then write a letter to Jack telling him what he did right, and what he should do to fix his mistake,” the assignment instructed.

That seemingly perplexing question prompted a response to the fictitious “Jack” character from the parent.

“Dear Jack,” the upset parent wrote. “Don’t feel bad. I have a bachelor of science degree in electronics engineering which included extensive study in differential equations and other higher math applications. Even I cannot explain the Common Core mathematics approach, nor get the answer correct.”

“In the real world, simplification is valued over complication,” he added, signing the letter as a “frustrated parent.”

Since posted online, the response has been widely circulated on the Internet and shared thousands of times.

It’s not clear who authored the letter and where the homework was assigned.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/24/youve-just-got-to-see-what-a-frustrated-parent-wrote-on-their-childs-common-core-math-assignment/

Anyone want to have brain surgery from a doctor that can explain how the tumor is removed but hasn’t done it successfully and only gets close each time? It is time to return to the old way of teaching mathematics and other basic subjects. This is nuts! Talk about dumbing down our kids.

...

[Jolie Rouge]

http://www.catholicismusa.com/sibelius-blames-texas-for-obamacare-failure-rick-perry-says-look-to-yourself/

Propaganda: Kids Learn Writing By Copying Sentences About Obeying Government And The President

When I homeschooled, copying sentences meant memorizing founding father quotes. Instead, your tax dollars pay for this bilge. MAD YET?! A whole nation being converted to Marxism through your child's brain. Read more http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/education-2/propaganda-kids-learn-writing-by-copying-sentences-about-obeying-government-and-the-president

http://thefederalistpapers.integratedmarket.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Why3cBN.jpg

[Jolie Rouge]

Parents rail against 'ridiculous' Common Core math homework
Published May 15, 2014

An Iowa woman jokingly calls it "Satan's handiwork." A California mom says she's broken down in tears. A Pennsylvania parent says it "makes my blood boil."

What could be so horrible? Grade-school math.

As schools around the U.S. implement national Common Core learning standards, parents trying to help their kids with math homework say that adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing has become as complicated as calculus.

They're stumped by unfamiliar terms like "rectangular array" and "area model." They wrestle with division that requires the use of squares, slashes and dots. They rage over impenetrable word problems.

Stacey Jacobson-Francis, 41, of Berkeley, California, said her daughter's homework requires her to know four different ways to add. "That is way too much to ask of a first grader," she said. "She can't remember them all, and I don't know them all, so we just do the best that we can."

Simple arithmetic isn't so simple anymore, leading to plenty of angst at home. Even celebrities aren't immune: The comedian Louis C.K. took to Twitter recently to vent about his kids' convoluted homework, writing that his daughters went from loving math to crying about it.

Adopted by 44 states, the Common Core is a set of English and math standards that spell out what students should know and when. The standards for elementary math emphasize that kids should not only be able to solve arithmetic problems using the tried-and-true methods their parents learned, but understand how numbers relate to each other. "Part of what we are trying to teach children is to become problem solvers and thinkers," said Diane Briars, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. "We want students to understand what they're doing, not just get the right answer."

That's a radically different approach than many parents are accustomed to. Jennie Barnds, 40, of Davenport, Iowa, was puzzled by her fourth-grade daughter's long division homework, a foreign amalgam of boxes, slashes and dots with nary a quotient or dividend in sight.
"If we are sitting there for 20 minutes trying to do a simple problem, how is an 8, 9, 10-year-old supposed to figure it out?" she said. "It's incredibly frustrating for the student and the parent."

Whether Common Core itself is responsible for the homework headaches is a contentious issue.

Some experts say Common Core promotes reform math, a teaching method that gained currency in the 1990s. Derided as "fuzzy" math by critics, reform math says kids should explore and understand concepts like place value before they become fluent in the standard way of doing arithmetic. Critics say it fails to stress basic computational skills, leaving students unprepared for higher math.

Stanford University mathematician James Milgram calls the reform math-inspired standards a "complete mess" -- too advanced for younger students, not nearly rigorous enough in the upper grades. And teachers, he contends, are largely ill-prepared to put the standards into practice. "You are asking teachers to teach something that is incredibly complicated to kids who aren't ready for it," said Milgram, who voted against the standards as part of the committee that reviewed them. "If you don't think craziness will result, then you're being fundamentally naive."

Common Core supporters insist the standards are developmentally appropriate and driven by research. "For years there has been a raging debate in mathematics education about which is more important, procedural fluency or conceptual understanding. The obvious answer is `both' and the standards give that answer," said University of Arizona mathematician Bill McCallum, who co-wrote the math standards.

Common Core advocates acknowledge parents are frustrated, but blame the problems on botched implementation, insufficient training or poorly written math programs that predate Common Core.

They say schools also need to communicate better. "The homework can appear ridiculous when it is taken out of context -- that's where the biggest problem lies," said Steve O'Connor, a fifth-grade math teacher in Wells, New York. "Parents don't have the context, nor have they been given the means to see the context."

O'Connor has set up a website in an effort to reduce parents' frustration over homework. Other school districts have held workshops for parents to learn alongside their children. But many parents say they've been on their own, complaining that districts have foisted new math curricula with little explanation.

In Pennsylvania, which signed on to the national Common Core in 2010 but developed its own version, Allison Lienhard said homework sessions with her 10-year-old have ended in tears. "She gets frustrated because I can't do it the way they are supposed to do it," Lienhard said. "To me, math is numbers, it's concrete, it's black-and-white. I don't understand why you need to bring this conceptual thing into math -- at least not at this age."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/05/15/parents-rail-against-ridiculous-common-core-math-homework/

[Jolie Rouge]

1st grader is told not to do cursive until 3rd grade, woman’s response is legendary
Too many schools are teaching kids what to think instead of how to think.

Posted by: Joshua Riddle June 6, 2014

http://youngcons.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/cursive-response.jpg

http://youngcons.com/1st-grader-is-told-not-to-do-cursive-until-3rd-grade-womans-response-is-legendary/

[Jolie Rouge]

Check Out This Math Problem Using the ‘Old’ Way and the ‘Common Core’ Way
By Top Right News on July 9, 2014

http://toprightnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/nbc4commoncore.jpg
http://toprightnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ccore.gif

http://toprightnews.com/?p=3904

About That ‘Common Core’ Math Problem Making the Rounds on Facebook…
March 7, 2014 By Hemant Mehta

Over the past week, I’ve seen this image multiple times on Facebook and elsewhere, a supposed denunciation of the Common Core version of math that kids are now learning:

http://i.imgur.com/2kifJAO.jpg

That picture is especially popular on conservatives’ Facebook walls… and I’m sure one of your relatives has said something about it, too. On the surface, it seems ridiculous. The top makes sense; the bottom is silly; screw you, Common Core!

Except that the top doesn’t make sense, the bottom does, and the connection to Common Core is completely misunderstood. (Says this math teacher.)

Here’s what’s going on: The top is how most of us learned subtraction. I’m sure your teachers taught you what was going on mathematically, but do you really remember what they said? Probably not. For us, it’s just an algorithm. You can do it without thinking. You hope there’s no “borrowing” of numbers involved, but if you had to do it by hand, you could probably pull it off.

The problem with that method is that if I ask students to explain why it works, they’d have a really hard time explaining it to me. They might be able to do the computation, but they don’t get the math behind it. For some people, that’s fine. For math teachers, that’s a problem because it means a lot of students won’t be able to grasp other math concepts in the future because they never really developed “number sense.”

That’s where the bottom solution comes into play. I admit it’s totally confusing but here’s what it’s saying:

If you want to subtract 12 from 32, there’s a better way to think about it. Forget the algorithm. Instead, count up from 12 to an “easier” number like 15. (You’ve gone up 3.) Then, go up to 20. (You’ve gone up another 5.) Then jump to 30. (Another 10). Then, finally, to 32. (Another 2.)

I know. That’s still ridiculous. Well, consider this: Suppose you buy coffee and it costs $4.30 but all you have is a $20 bill. How much change should the barista give you back? (Assume for a second the register is broken.)

You sure as hell aren’t going to get out a sheet of paper and do this:
http://i.imgur.com/OKh4BeF.jpg

Instead, you’d just figure it out this way: It’d take 70 cents to get to $5… and another $15 to get to $20… so you should get back $15.70.

That’s it. That’s the sort of math most of us do on a regular basis and it’s exactly the sort of thinking the “new” way in the picture is attempting to explain. Granted that was an *awful* example to use, but that’s the idea. If students can get a handle on thinking this way instead of just plugging numbers into a formula, the thinking goes, it’ll make other math skills much easier to understand.

This image from Reddit clarifies the situation even more (click to enlarge): http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/1znmpl/if_you_think_all_this_stuff_about_new_math_and/
http://i.imgur.com/uePcpfB.jpg

As that image also points out, Common Core doesn’t say, “Do this.” Rather, it suggests some general standards that students at each grade level should meet and most states have agreed to adopt those standards. But none of that matters to the people who would rather complain about the “new” math without taking a second to understand what they’re even looking at.

There may be plenty of reasons to criticize Common Core (such as the standardized testing component of it), but this isn’t one of them.

***Update*** (3/9/14): I should point out that the Common Core standards do include teaching students the “old way.” The “new way” is just one suggested method of teaching students how to add/subtract numbers.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/03/07/about-that-common-core-math-problem-making-the-rounds-on-facebook/#ixzz37RYCSugN

[Jolie Rouge]

Common Core? 6th Graders Taught How to Use Strap-On Dildo
Posted on September 15, 2014 by Tom Fernandez

Explicit: 11-12 year olds given sex toy lesson in Jacksonville

by Paul Joseph Watson | September 15, 2014

Shocking images out of a classroom in Jacksonville, Florida illustrate how 11-12 year olds in 6th grade are being taught how to use strap-on dildos amidst a debate about Common Core sex education standards which have been attacked by some as pornographic.

The pictures were taken by a student with a cellphone camera. They show a teacher demonstrating how to use a strap-on sex toy in a number of different positions.

In one image, the teacher even shows how to insert the strap-on while her buttocks are in the air and her legs up over her head.

In another image, the woman shows the children how to wear a harness to which the strap-on is attached.

Clinton Middle School in Duval County hired 39-year-old Sharon Mercer to teach the sex education class but after the photos emerged she was suspended and the school refused further comment. Mercer claimed her suspension was an act of “bigotry” because she was a “proud member of the LGBTQ community.”

Newly implemented Common Core educational standards have been assailed for their attempt to create a lowest common denominator form of teaching which many assert only works to dumb down lessons and prevent smart students from excelling, but these images give a glimpse into an even darker side to the federally mandated rules.

The teaching of so-called “alternative” sexual lifestyles is mandated in many states under Common Core.

The Secrets of the Fed website also points to a book being given to 4th graders under new Common Core standards entitled It’s Perfectly Normal, which teaches children as young as nine how to masturbate.

Common Core, which is being federally imposed on states across the nation, is a huge shift in teaching which opponents assert will eviscerate critical thinking and generally lower standards in the name of inclusiveness and political correctness. Numerous examples have emerged of Common Core style exam questions which only serve to cause more confusion and frustration.

Perhaps the most infamous example of how Common Core will manifest itself in America’s schooling system was illustrated by a bizarre video in which a Common Core curriculum director said that 3 x 4 = 11 could be considered a correct answer so long as students could explain how they reached that number.

Common Core’s sex education standards have also face fierce criticism, with one group even claiming that they represent “pornography” which serves to desensitize children to sexual contact and could lead to an increased chance of molestation within the schooling system.

“What is taught includes teaching inappropriate sexuality skills, that shouldn’t even be taught in college,” writes Joseph R. John. “According to child psychologists, the children are not mentally equipped to understand the detailed sexual indoctrination starting in kindergarten, they are indoctrinated in sexual practices that they should never be exposed to.”

As the backlash grows, more and more states are considering abolishing Common Core altogether, with Indiana’s decision earlier this year to ditch the program seen as a victory for conservatives.

http://tomfernandez28.com/2014/09/15/common-core-6th-graders-taught-how-to-use-strap-on-dildo/

(photos at the link .... not going to post there here for fear of getting banned )

[Jolie Rouge]

Texas Mom Says She’ll Home School Her Child After The ‘Truly Frightening’ Thing a Teacher Told Her
By Gina Cassini on November 24, 2014

A Texas Mom was so “horrified” by what her kindergarten teacher told her that she is planning on home-schooling her daughter after Christmas break. And it should chill other parents to the core — Common Core, that is.

Cassidy Vines recently began noticing a change in her daughter’s behavior, starting to “snap” at her when she corrected her homework, saying “I’m her mommy, not her teacher.”

Vines, in a stunning interview on Glenn Beck’s radio program, said a few days after her daughter first snapped at her, she started pronouncing a word incorrectly. Vines corrected her daughter “in the most gentle way possible,” but she said her daughter broke down crying, saying “that’s how she was taught, and I can’t tell her something different because I’m a mommy, not a teacher.” http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/11/24/the-truly-frightening-thing-a-texas-teacher-allegedly-told-one-mother/

Vines said she was horrified and asked, “Is somebody telling you this at school?”

“She said, ‘Yes, I’m only allowed to learn from my teacher,’” Vines remarked.

As recounted on TheBlaze, Vines requested to meet with the teacher several times, but said she never got a response. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/11/24/the-truly-frightening-thing-a-texas-teacher-allegedly-told-one-mother/


So she went to her routine parent-teacher conference “armed with a slew of questions,” hoping her daughter had misunderstood what was being said at school.

Vines said she explained what was happening, and kept waiting for the teacher to deny it, but it never happened.

“[The teacher] goes on to tell me that they try to discourage parents from introducing contradictory concepts to ‘our’ children,”

Vines said. “Our children. As in the school’s children? I was a little baffled.\\ And so when I started talking about my daughter, I emphasized my daughter. So I asked her, ‘Am I not allowed to help her with her homework?’”

Vines was shocked when the teacher responded that no, they “don’t want parents confusing the kids.”

It got worse. Much worse:



Vines wrote on Glenn Beck’s Facebook wall about the incident, sharing how, in the same parent-teacher conference, the teacher said in front of several parents that the pilgrims were “essentially America’s first terrorists.”

Unbelievable.

“I don’t even know what to say about this,” Beck said. “I get so uptight about this stuff. This is the stuff that enrages me.”

Beck saluted Vines for making the decision to home-school her daughter, but asked how much longer parents will even have the option to home-school. Beck said this was approaching “Hitler Youth stuff.”

Islamic indoctrination. http://toprightnews.com/?p=6863 Spying on their parents’ medicine cabinets. http://toprightnews.com/?p=6805
And now excluding parents entirely from the teaching process? This is your nation’s educational system on Common Core.


Video at the link http://toprightnews.com/?p=7362

[Jolie Rouge]

Are Common Core tests too hard?

March 12, 2015 by Richard Innes

http://www.bipps.org/common-core-tests-hard/

http://www.bipps.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Grade-6-On-Demand-Writing-Prompt-Readability-Level-1024x722.jpg

[Jolie Rouge]

Pearson, Stay Out of Our Damn Tweets!

By [email protected] March 13, 2015 Uncategorized 20 Comments

I honestly feel ill after reading a story shared earlier on Diane Ravitch’s national blog. http://dianeravitch.net/2015/03/13/breaking-news-bob-braun-reports-that-pearson-is-spying-on-social-media-of-students-taking-parcc-tests/ Check that, it’s not a sour stomach I am experiencing, it is a strong sense of anger. I am incensed, furious, and seriously po’d!

According to the Diane’s summary, Bob Braun, an investigative reporter in New Jersey for the past 50 years, has learned that Pearson is spying on the social media accounts of students taking the PARCC tests.

I had a hard time believing it too. Read it for yourself on Mr. Braun’s Ledger HERE. http://bobbraunsledger.com/breaking-pearson-nj-spying-on-social-media-of-students-taking-parcc-tests/ (update: according to Braun, he was forced to shut down his blog due to numerous electronic attacks on the site—you don’t mess with big brother!)

Not only is Pearson spying on New Jersey students taking the PARCC assessments (the new common core tests developed and promoted using about 300 million dollars of federal Race to the Top funds), they ostensibly are doing so with the explicit knowledge and consent of the New Jersey Department of Education.

The information came to light after a New Jersey district superintendent, Elizabeth Jewett, reported being notified by the state DOE of a potential item breach after Pearson intercepted a tweet from a student at the school. In the student’s tweet, sent after the end of the school day, the child apparently referenced a PARCC test question. And, that’s a big no-no. Fortunately, some data troll from Pearson was right on it.

http://i2.wp.com/www.viewfromtheedge.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/image.jpg?zoom=1.5&resize=600%2C450

As you can see, Pearson and the New Jersey DOE made no attempt to deny the allegation. In fact, the DOE informed the school district that Pearson was monitoring ALL social media during the PARCC testing. Moreover, they wanted the district to “issue discipline” to the student for whatever he or she tweeted on their personal time.

I realize we do not live in New Jersey and that students in our state are not participating in PARCC testing. However, it does bother me that a multinational corporation is trolling the social media of millions of minor age children with absolutely no parent knowledge or consent.

Don’t misunderstand me—anyone who posts on the world wide web should be well aware that their words and visual materials can and will be shared, copied, or saved by anyone else who sees it. As educators and parents, it is critically important that we teach our children of the inherent dangers of the internet. This is not the point.

This situation is different. This represents intentional data mining of our children by a billion dollar testing company and a state department of education. To me this crosses a line that should cause millions of American parents to scream, “You’ve gone too damn far.”

If Pearson (or any other testing company) can access information about a possible test question being referenced by a student from literally millions of Tweets, Facebook, and Instagram posts posted on a daily basis, what other information can they gather, and where does it all stop?

Does Pearson also have access to student email accounts and text messages? Are they also monitoring the social media of teachers and administrators in those schools where PARCC is being administered? Is someone at Pearson reading this blog because I included their name in the title? (If yes, and you are that Pearson troll, get the hell out of here!)

And WHAT IF a twelve-year-old student sends a tweet to a friend on their own time saying: “The answer to question #2 on the reading test is C.”

I am not saying this is an ethical thing for any student to do. Yet at the same time, are we comfortable with the idea of a Pearson employee sitting behind a keyboard somewhere in England, spying on our children’s social media posts, then sending a message to a state department employee thousands of miles away, who then contacts a school and directs them to punish a child for something they posted about a test item the student couldn’t care less about?

I suppose the answer I am really looking for tonight is this: IF is a practice of ONE state department and ONE testing company, can it also happen here? In short, will the children of Oklahoma possibly be subjected to the same level of “monitoring” of social media by our testing company, Measured Progress, and/or our state department?

I hope (and believe) the answer to this question is an unequivocal “NO.” However, I want to hear it. I need to have this assurance.

At the same time, if I had a child in a state like New Jersey where Pearson is administering the statewide assessments, and had been previously wavering on the decision of whether or not to opt my child out of testing, my decision would have just become obvious.

Maybe we should encourage every kid who takes a Pearson administered assessment this spring, to include the two big test consortia, PARCC and Smarter Balanced, to tweet or post something like THIS everyday during the testing cycle:



“Just took stupid #PARCC (#Smarterbalanced) test. Questions. Answers. Answer is A. Answer is B. Answer is C. Answer is D. Correct answer. Wrong answer. Want to see a pic? #Pearsonsucks #Pearson=$$$ #I’mMoreThanATest”




Finally, this episode illustrates what happens when our policy makers continue to worship at the alter of the almighty testing Gods. They are selling our children out for a few pieces of silver. This cannot continue. We must stop this insanity!

http://www.viewfromtheedge.net/?p=5710

[Jolie Rouge]

Obama Exempts His Daughters From Common Core Testing
John S. Roberts - April 11, 2015 1:07 pm
We all know the Obama’s are elitists, just like most on the left. There are very few on that side of the spectrum who actually believe in “hope” and “change.”

For example, Common Core is big government through and through – a tenet of Obama’s presidency – and yet, for some strange reason, what is acceptable for many children in public schools, doesn’t fit the bill for Sasha and Malia.

Egoism, anyone?

From Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/04/07/how-the-obamas-opted-their-children-out-of-high-stakes-standardized-tests/


Thousands of public school parents around the country are opting their children out of taking high-stakes standardized tests this spring, tired of the emphasis on high-stakes testing and concerned about the validity of the assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards or similar standards. A growing number of principals and superintendents are supporting parents in this decision, though pushback is getting stronger from others. But, says educator Alan Singer, there is another way to opt out your child from standardized testing — send them, if you can afford it, to a private school that doesn’t give them.

The Obamas, for example, send their two daughters to the elite Sidwell Friends School, a private Quaker preK-12 school with campuses in Washington D.C., and Bethesda, Md. Sidwell, like other independent schools, does not bombard its students with high-stakes standardized tests. (It also doesn’t evaluate teachers by the test scores of their students, a policy promoted by the Obama administration.)

Completely acceptable for Obama to send his kids to private school, no qualms there. But Barry, certainly if you’re going to stand behind Common Core so energetically, you’d think that your daughters should have to participate in the system while they’re of age, no? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/join-the-obamas-and-optou_b_7009588.html


It was easy for Barack and Michelle Obama to opt-out. They send Sasha and Malia to the prestigious Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. where tuition is about $35,000 a year and students do not take high-stakes Common Core-aligned tests. The Obamas chose this school in part because it offers children an enriched curriculum, not constant test prep. It was also easy for New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to opt-out her children. According to her 2013 tax returns, her children, ages 12 and 7, attend the private Capitol Hill Day School, where they do not have to take high-stakes standardized tests either.

The good news is…


Now you can opt out your children from high-stakes tests too. It’s not hard. NYS Allies for Public Education has a sample “refusal” letter and video instructions on its website. http://www.nysape.org/refusal-letter.html All parents have to do is fill out the letter and deliver it to the school principal, either in person or via email. They also recommend a follow-up call before the test dates to remind school personnel. Last year approximately 60,000 New York State students refused to take the tests. In New York State, high-stakes Common Core aligned math and reading tests will be administered in grades 3-8 from April 14 – 16 and April 22 – April 24.

Karen Magee, president of the New York state teachers’ union (NYSUT) is calling for a statewide boycott of the Common Core-aligned tests to protest new testing regulations and test-based evaluations of teachers propagated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Despite evidence against the validity of evaluating teachers using student scores on these tests, Cuomo demanded that 50 percent of every teacher’s evaluation be based on test results in their schools. Meanwhile, he is unable to explain how the 70 percent of teachers who do not teach tested subjects can legitimately be judged based on the tests.


Obama wants your kids to be involved in Common Core, but not his. Just like he wants people to pay their high taxes…except for people in his cabinet. The list of hypocrisy goes on and on.

http://www.youngcons.com/obama-exempts-his-daughters-from-common-core-testing/

[Jolie Rouge]

8 Of 10 Atlanta Teachers Sentenced To Prison In School Cheating Case
By Khier Casino, Thu, April 16, 2015

http://img.opposingviews.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/402x250/featured_image/alts/0415/atlantapublicschools1.jpg

Ten Atlanta Public Schools teachers and administrators convicted of taking part in a widespread conspiracy to inflate student scores on standardized tests were sentenced on Tuesday and have been released on appeal bonds.

In 2013, 35 educators were accused of racketeering, making false statements, and theft, with many pleading guilty, and some testifying at the months-long trial.

Earlier in April, only one of the 12 educators who went to trial was acquitted and the other 11 were convicted on a racketeering charge, The Associated Press reports.

While former superintendent Beverly Hall was among those indicted, she did not stand trial because of complications of breast cancer. She passed away on March 2.


On Monday, Judge Jerry Baxter gave each of the convicted educators an opportunity to work out a plea deal to avoid going to prison.

"We never had a goal of putting people in jail," Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said following the sentencing.

The teachers and administrators had been offered a deal that required admitting guilt, apologizing and waiving their rights to appeal.

Testing coordinator Donald Bullock and Dunbar Elementary teacher Pamela Cleveland were the only two of the 10 sentenced on Tuesday who agreed to the plea deal, according to WSB-TV. Eight of the 10 were sentenced to jail time, but released on appeal bonds that will allow them to be free until their appeal is determined.

CBS46 has compiled a list of the sentences:

Michael Pitts : School Resource Team Executive Director, SRT-2
20 years to serve 7 years, 2,000 hours community service, $25,000 fine

Tamara Cotman : School Resource Team Executive Director, SRT-4
20 years to serve 7 years, 2,000 hours community service, $25,000 fine

Sharon Davis-Williams : School Resource Team, SRT-1
20 years to serve 7 years, 2,000 hours community service, $25,000 fine

Donald Bullock : Testing Coordinator, Collier Heights Elementary
5 years probation, 6 months of weekend jail, $5,000 fine and 1,500 hours community service

Dr. Dana Evans ; Principal, Dobbs Elementary School
5 years to serve 1 year and 1,000 hours community service, 1st offender status

Angela Williamson : Teacher, Dobbs Elementary School
5 years to serve 2 years, 1,500 hours community service and $5,000 fine, 1st offender status

Tabeeka Jordan : Assistant Principal, Deerwood Elementary School
5 years to serve 2 years, 1,500 hours community service and $5,000 fine, 1st offender status

Diane Buckner-Webb : Teacher, Dunbar Elementary School
5 years to serve 2 years, 1,000 hours community service and $1,000 fine, 1st offender status

Theresia Copeland : Testing Coordinator, Benteen Elementary School
5 years to serve 1 year and 1,000 hours community service, 1st offender status

Pamela Cleveland : Teacher, Dunbar Elementary School
5 years probation with 1 year home confinement from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., 1,000 hours community service and 1,000 fine. According to Cleveland's attorney, as a first offender, her record will not show a conviction if she successfully completes her sentence, community service and pays her fine.

Shani Robinson was found guilty but gave birth over the weekend and her sentence has been set for August.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/crime/8-10-atlanta-teachers-sentenced-prison-school-cheating-case

[Jolie Rouge]

Obama Education Secretary “Opts Out” of Common Core for His Own Kids
By Russ Hepler

The Obama Administration’s Secretary of Education – Arne Duncan – one of the chief proponents of the dubious educational reform known as Common Core – has decided he doesn’t want Common Core for his own kids.

Now, it’s not unusual for Washington bureaucrats and politicians to force things on the rest of us citizens that they exempt themselves from doing, but this is especially hypocritical given Duncan’s glowing support for Common Core for the public schools.

Politico reports http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/education-2/obama-education-secretary-opts-out-of-common-core-for-his-own-kids



Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s children will attend a private school in Chicago starting this fall, after attending public schools in Virginia for the past six years, the Education Department said Thursday

Duncan, former head of Chicago Public Schools, recently told parents at a gathering of the National PTA, that “if ever there was a time when American public education needed the wisdom and advocacy of the PTA, it’s now.”

However, like many political figures who advocate for higher standards and better funding for public schools, private schools is the ultimate choice for their own children.

For the past few months, Duncan has been advocating for changes to the federal No Child Left Behind law, which drives billions in public dollars to thousands of schools. He denounced passage of a partisan House bill passed Wednesday that would eliminate dozens of requirements for public schools but still allow them to draw federal dollars.

“Instead of supporting the schools and educators that need it most, this bill shifts resources away from them. Instead of ensuring states and districts improve struggling schools and serve all students, it makes that optional,” he said after the bill passed by a narrow margin.

Duncan’s wife, Karen, recently moved back to Chicago to work at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where tuition for middle and high school is nearly $30,000 a year. Duncan is an alumnus. The University of Chicago pays 50 percent of tuition for children of employees.

“Do as I say, not as I do” – the motto of too many in Washington. This is very similar to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s opposition to school choice while sending Chelsea to an elite private school while they were in the White House.

But, it also goes to show that Common Core isn’t the magic fix for schools as Duncan has been crowing.

Politico goes on:

Until recently, Duncan’s family lived in the D.C. area. He’s one of two original appointees who remain in the Obama Cabinet. President Barack Obama’s children, like those of many other presidents, attend a private school in Washington.

In a statement, the Education Department said Duncan will remain on the job and keep a home in Washington but commute to Chicago on weekends.

Duncan said recently that it’s sad that the Chicago district has had so many leaders over a short period. Former Chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett stepped down earlier this year amid an investigation about a no-bid contract with her former employer.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said recently that the school district, the nation’s third-largest, faces laying off more than 1,000 employees after borrowing money to make a $634 million pension payment.

So, here is the former head of a large city public school district that is enjoying the privileges of wealth that those he has trapped in a failing educational system don’t have.



This is typical of the left in this country – pretending to be for the people all the while living as the real “1%” in America.

Just ask Michelle O. about her new $600,000 curtains concerning that!http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/education-2/obama-education-secretary-opts-out-of-common-core-for-his-own-kids

[Jolie Rouge]

I have no words except maybe "Fo' shizzle my nizzle."

http://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11887837_1021596307872294_6663854768236682855_n.jp g?oh=741e30e8aec218343bfb740c01b15041&oe=563CA461

This is an assignment a parent posted from their 7th grade child at North Corbin Junior High in Walker, LA. Right down the street, people. How do you like that Snoop Dogg the notorious weed smoking, skank-loving rapper is now teaching your middle schoolers! Awesome!


No joke : Let Snoop Dogg Help Your Students Learn US History!


My newest resource is one of the most fun worksheets my students go crazy for all year long. Each of these is a cloze reading activity that includes vocabulary from American History and a story translated into "Snoop Dogg" speak about a different topic.

The result is a hilarious overview of each unit in American history. Each is one page and can be completed by students as an in-class activity, for homework, or to review before a test.

You can download all of them as a bundle from here. Each is available individually as well.

The first one you can download covers the early American colonies, including Jamestown, Plymouth, Pennsylvania, and the growing discontent with British rule.

http://studentshistory.blogspot.com/2013/03/let-snoop-dogg-help-your-students-learn.html


PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

This fun, 1 page overview of the early years of the United States (Washington - Jackson) includes 34 vocabulary terms in a word bank at the top, and then a cloze reading in which students fill in the blanks. However, the reading has been translated into "Snoop Speak" to make it a little more fun for your students. Here is a sample paragraph:

"The fizzrst president elected fo` America was __ . He put together a group of advisors known as his __. Among them was ____ who served as Secretary of tha Treasury. When Washington passed an excise tax on whiskey it sparked tha ____ . The ____ of 1789 set up tha Supreme Court, which in 1803 passed tha landmark case of _____ Vs. ____ clockin' tha principle of ___ fo all my homies in the pen. The Supreme Court’s chief justice _____ would serve on tha court fo` tha next 30 years. "

My students absolutely LOVE these Snoop review guides and laugh their way through completing them. I know it helps them to remember these key concepts as I hear them quoting it afterwards. It also requires a little more concentration, which increases their reading comprehension.

Included in this worksheet is Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, sectionalism, and Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears.

If you like this one, additional Snoop Dogg reviews can be found in here in my review materials section.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Snoop-Dogg-Early-American-History-Cloze-Reading-590318

[Jolie Rouge]

Textbook sales leader says national Common Core education standards are 'all about the money' as teacher insists bureaucrats created a 'new f**king system that f**king sucks to sell more books'

Conservative muckraker group Project Veritas caught a textbook sales executive and a New York teacher talking about Common Core standards

'I hate kids,' confessed the textbook sales leader. 'I'm in it to sell books. Don't even kid yourself for a heartbeat'

Hidden camera video shows teacher hammering the program as a 'bulls**t' system designed 'to sell more books'

'Oh my god, it's all a money game. It's all a money game,' she said

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt fired the sales executive Tuesday morning after DailyMail.com told the company about the video

By David Martosko, Us Political Editor For Dailymail.com

Published: 10:02 EST, 12 January 2016 | Updated: 10:12 EST, 12 January 2016

The guerrilla video crew that exposed Obamaphone cheaters and shut down the left-wing advocacy group ACORN is at it again, this time hammering the 'Common Core' education standards as a scheme for publishers to sell more textbooks.

The West Coast sales manager from one of the nation's biggest school book sellers, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, told an undercover muckraker with Project Veritas that 'I hate kids.'

'I'm in it to sell books,' Dianne Barrow said of her advocacy for Common Core. 'Don't even kid yourself for a heartbeat.'

She added that 'it's all about the money. What are you, crazy? It's all about the money.'

'You don't think that the educational publishing companies are in it for education, do you? No, they're in it for the money.'


Bianca Olson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's senior vice president, confirmed Tuesday morning that Barrow 'has been terminated.' That followed a phone call in which DailyMail.com read BArrow's statements to her verbatim.

Harsh words from educators also won't help the K-12 Common Core system's advocates.

'It's a joke,' a Brooklyn, New York teacher Project Veritas identified as Jodi Cohen said on the group's hidden camera.

'It's bulls**t and the thing is, what they do is they create some new f**king system, that f**king sucks to sell more books and then we have to learn something new with the students.'

Cohen, like Barrow, believes that the Common Core system is a marketing bonanza for textbook publishers.


WHAT IS 'COMMON CORE'?


A new set of national academic standards, now adopted by 42 states and DC, is an attempt to increase the country's declining testing scores in Math and English compared with the rest of the world.

Conservatives often argue against the K-12 system as a federal government takeover of public education, but the Obama administration insists states can set their own standards as long as they serve the same goals.

Parents in some corners of the U.S. have become frustrated at test and homework questions in math that are graded not just on getting the right answer but on the necessity of following a strict system for determining it.

The math methods often involve illustrations and other complex requirements that are foreign to parents and many teachers.

Democratic presidential candidates have lined up behind the program but the Republican field is split, with conservatives opposing it as a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach to learning.
.
'Oh my god, it's all a money game. It's all a money game,' the cynical educator said.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's CEO, Linda Zecher, told DailyMail.com on Tuesday morning that her company 'is as appalled by these comments as we expect readers will be.'

'These statements in no way reflect the views of HMH and the commitment of our over 4,000 employees who dedicate their lives to serving teachers and students every day.'

'The individual who made these comments is a former employee who was with HMH for less than a year,' she added, referring to Barrow's firing on Tuesday.

Cohen couldn't be reached for comment.

The new video threatens to blow open the national debate about the national standards, which have simmered on the back-burner of Republican debates but haven't taken hold as much as immigration or foreign policy.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has advocated in favor of Common Core, arguing that participating states aren't restricted from setting their own standards.

Sen. Marco Rubio, his in-state rival, says on his website that 'Common Core has been used by the Obama administration to turn the Department of Education into a national school board. This effort to coerce states into adhering to national curriculum standards is not the best way to help our children attain the best education, and it must be stopped.'

Donald Trump, the GOP's leading presidential candidate, said in July that 'Common Core has to be ended. It's a disaster. It’s a way of taking care of the people in Washington that, frankly, I don’t even think they give a damn about education, half of them..'

But despite her cynical outlook on Common Core, Barrow says on the Project Veritas video that Trump is all wet.

'Who is listening to Donald Trump? I mean, come on!' she says. 'It's all old white men that are frustrated with their life. It's ... a mid life crisis campaign. And so, he doesn't know policy, he doesn't even – has he ever read the Constitution?'


Project Veritas frontman James O'Keefe told DailyMail.com that more videos targeting textbook publishers are on the way, and he's licking his chops at the thought of his opposition insisting that he's merely caught a rare dissenter on tape.

'This video provides confirmation that Common Core is broken, rotten and corrupt – including the textbook publishers, government education officials and the politicians who should be held accountable for enabling this system in the first place,' O'Keefe said.



'I hope and pray that "they" call this an isolated incident, as we are putting every textbook publisher on notice that we plan to continue to release these videos exposing Common Core.'

For years, textbook publishers have complained about the need to serve 51 competing education standards – including those enforced by the District of Columbia – with bulked-up books that are seen as a mile wide and an inch deep.

With Common Core adopted in 42 states plus DC, they will soon be able to produce and sell more streamlined books with a uniform focus.

Those books will be the newest thing on offer, slated to replace everything on teachers' shelves in a single giant commercial ka-ching.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's website includes an entire section devoted to matching up educators with Common Core teaching resources, calling it 'a fresh opportunity' for teachers to adopt 'a wide range of content, curricula, and services.'


Few federal government programs have become as powerful a lightning rod as Common Core.

Conservative groups have pilloried the concept as a Washington, D.C. takeover of education curricula, while the Obama administration has maintained that it's just a well-meaning effort to ensure that college-bound children in Montana are as well-prepared as those in California.

The truth about the president's signature education proposal from his first term – pushed as part of the Race to the Top initiative – lies somewhere in between.

The feds don't require states to teach the Common Core way, but makes $350 million in stimulus grants available to states that adopt 'college- and career-ready standards.'

The initial version of Race to the Top required the Common Core standards, but it was later watered down to include most systems states were using before.

And the program itself isn't a set of classroom demands but a list of guidelines about hat children should be able to do at each grade level.

Tests are administered each year to keep school headed toward those benchmarks, however, and that means the teaching materials have to keep pace.

One result in the program's chaotic early years has been a series of news cycles and viral stories highlighting what some parents see as ridiculous and unintelligible math problems.

In the state of New York, some of them are organizing a movement aimed at a mass-boycott of the English and math tests. About 200,000 students statewide refused to take the tests last spring.


And textbook publishers have introduced a new monkey wrench into the works, signaling that states that don't teach those Common Core concepts may soon find it hard to find books focused on the classroom materials the teachers themselves learned in school.

Barrow put it a different way, telling Project Veritas that 'the fact that they have to align the educational standards is what they have to do to sell the books.'

She said booksellers 'didn't lobby for them to be put in place ... but now they go after the money.'

'They want to, you know, it's just like any business. If you're selling t-shirts you want your t-shirts to fit everybody, right? So you can sell it to everybody.'

'In my opinion, education shouldn't have a bottom line,' she says on the recording. 'I mean, seriously, it should not be – it's one place that shouldn't be about the money. It really should be about the kids.'

'And you hear it all the time, it's all about the kids. No it's not. It's not about the kids.'

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt posted a $576 million net sales number for the third quarter of 2015, up 4 per cent from the previous year.

The company's latest earnings statement says it expects its 2016 sales will be between $1.53 billion and $1.58 billion.

Videos at link

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3394331/Textbook-sales-leader-says-national-Common-Core-education-standards-money.html

[Jolie Rouge]

Textbook sales leader says national Common Core education standards are 'all about the money' as teacher insists bureaucrats created a 'new f**king system that f**king sucks to sell more books'

Conservative muckraker group Project Veritas caught a textbook sales executive and a New York teacher talking about Common Core standards

'I hate kids,' confessed the textbook sales leader. 'I'm in it to sell books. Don't even kid yourself for a heartbeat'

Hidden camera video shows teacher hammering the program as a 'bulls**t' system designed 'to sell more books'

'Oh my god, it's all a money game. It's all a money game,' she said

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt fired the sales executive Tuesday morning after DailyMail.com told the company about the video

By David Martosko, Us Political Editor For Dailymail.com

Published: 10:02 EST, 12 January 2016 | Updated: 10:12 EST, 12 January 2016 WHAT IS 'COMMON CORE'?


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3394331/Textbook-sales-leader-says-national-Common-Core-education-standards-money.html


comments

CCore isn't about getting the right answer. Since all truths are relative, all answers are true. Core is about teaching young minds how to think in such a way as to predetermine that only one answer is possible. Of course, that answer is determined by the state. This discipline is applied across all subjects in the core curriculum. Devious, huh?

....

This is just Bill Ayres' latest "bomb" - blow up the country's education system after it's been undermined for fifty years. This will finish us off as a nation. Brilliant career move on his part: vector from Weather Underground terror bombings to vandalizing the education system to produce successive generations of less-educated, more highly-dependent children, undermining the country as a sovereign nation. He's got it all figured out.

...

My son recently graduated from high school in the USA and took all the Advanced Placement Classes he could get his hands on. I observed that the AP text books were constantly being revised. The difference in price between the previous obsolete used version and the "new and improved" version was often a couple dollars versus more than $100. Really, do we need a revised Ancient Greek History. My son is on to college now and the latest scheme with college textbooks is putting some of the material online and requiring a one time use code to gain access. These codes are either sealed in new books or you buy a used book and the access code separately. Of course the separate access code costs almost exactly the same as a new textbook. These are examples of why the USA has shifted from almost young adults working their way through University and to either middle class parents paying through the nose or their children started their lives saddled with debt. This bubble needs to burst.

...

Most curriculum is moving to computers now anyway. Soon the Federal Government will be directly injecting propaganda into your children's daily lessons, and teachers will just be babysitters that only purpose is to make sure your kids get to the cafeteria 3 times a day for their 'free' breakfast, lunch and dinner.

...

Two plus two equals I feel good about myself!........common core math

[Jolie Rouge]

High School Forces Kids to Attend ‘Racial Identity’ Classes on MLK Jr. Day

by Joel B. Pollak 12 Jan 2016

New Trier High School, one of the country’s top public schools, is forcing students to attend seminars on racial identity on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. “The goals for this day are to help New Trier students develop a deeper understanding of their own racial identities and the identities of others, and to better understand how we can all work to counter the impact of systemic racism in our lives,” reads a statement on the school district’s website.

Attendance is mandatory, though other public institutions in New Trier Township will be closed in observance of the holiday.

Students at the high school’s two campuses will be allowed to choose from a list of provocative and highly political seminars on race, including the following:



The Truth about Ferguson: The Investigation into the Death of Michael Brown


The death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked protest and outrage regarding the treatment of people of color by law enforcement. Some demanded reform and recognition of ongoing injustices, while others came to the defense of officer Darren Wilson. Meanwhile, similar events following Brown’s death continued to go viral on social media. The United States Justice Department investigated the death of Brown as well as the Ferguson Police Department as a whole. This seminar will look into the Justice Departments findings.

Why Do I Have to Feel Guilty for Being White?


Talking about race doesn’t usually feel good for anyone. White people often walk away feeling guilty and thinking, “But I didn’t do anything!” In this workshop, we’ll explore how white guilt can become a roadblock in our journeys toward becoming white allies.

Unconscious Perceptions of Race


How does the media you choose and the community in which you live both reflect and influence the way you look at race. Join us as we look at our automatic thinking processes, how it influences the way we look at race and consider how we might adapt those processes.

Mascot or Mockery: Finding Stereotypes in Popular Culture


We will discuss the presence of racially charged parts of our popular culture that we often accept. We will discuss Halloween and sports mascots in particular. Many universities, including the University of Illinois, have recently wrestled with this topic.

Disney and the Creation of Racial Identity


Watch classic Disney films and discuss how these films influence childhood development of racial identities.

Representations of the Middle East: Stereotypes and Islamophobia


This session will examine racial stereotypes of Middle Easterners in film, television, news, and current events and how these stereotypes contribute to the Islamophobic climate. We will use the “Pyramid of Hate” model to assess the escalation of anti-Muslim rhetoric, profiling, and hate crimes.

Western Bias in Science


Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein… Were all of the great discoveries in science made by Greeks and Europeans? Explore the impact of our western bias in the history of science in this discussion session.

Dear Mom and Dad, What (Race) Am I?


This session will focus on a conversation of racial classification and identity.

What is Your Privilege?


Participants will walk through a simulation of what it is like to lose privilege and view others who have it. Participants will be given an identity of a different race and will be given the hardships that encompass that race.

Yer’ A White Wizard, Harry: Whitewashing in Cinema


This is a discussion about white dominance in the film industry. We are going to be taking a look at different cases where the voices of People of Color were silenced by the industry and how we can change it.

Intersections: Where Race and Gender Connect


This session will be led by representatives from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Gender and Sexuality Center. The session will examine the intersections between race and gender and how each impacts one’s identity.

One seminar focuses on the experience of being a black Muslim. No other faith is represented in the schedule. Several others touch on sexual themes, including an seminar on black artists entitled “To Pimp a Butterfly.”

Full lists of seminars are provided for the Northfield (freshman) campus and the Winnetka (main) campus.

In addition, students will be required to attend a “special presentation” by Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, and a keynote address by author Isabel Wilkerson, an open supporter of the Black Lives Matter protest movement.

A concerned parent contacted Breitbart News and confirmed that students would not be excused from school. An email to parents from Timothy Hayes, Assistant Superintendent for Student Services, reminded parents that “MLK Seminar Day is a regular attendance day, and we will follow our typical procedures for attendance.”

Hayes did not return requests from Breitbart News for comment, nor did New Trier Superintendent Linda Yonke.

One parent, who did not wish to be named, told Breitbart News via e-mail:


“In order to be post-racial you have to live it. There’s a time and place to look at racism and the horrors endured. But this is morphing into getting people riled up. It is always about seeing people different rather than what is shared.

“They are supposed to be a neutral environment. Yet they are pushing all this ‘white guilt,’ using our kids for their own agenda, twisting their minds–whether it be sexual or racial.”

Another parent, who likewise did not wish to be named, said via e-mail:


“This is supposed to be a day to honor Dr. Martin Luther King. Yet of the 59 classes, over half seem to focus on the color of skin and not the content of character. Why not spend the day to study, reflect and write about Dr. King’s actual words, the advancements made and the dreams yet to be realized?…

“These ‘workshops’ and ‘classes’ seem likely to breed within the kids a sense of guilt and shame–as if they are at fault for the misfortune in the world and it is their responsibility to make amends. Several classes are designed to teach them to be, in essence, ‘community organizers.’…It all seems like there is a political agenda underlying it all.”

The program for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day appears to violate the policies of the New Trier Township High School District, which require a balanced presentation of political issues: “We charge the faculty with the obligation to help our students identify arguments or preachments which are demonstrably unbalanced by bias, hate, calumny, distortion of facts, or ignorance of or indifference to the laws of evidence and the requirements of proof.”

District personnel are also required to “Refrain from using school contracts and privileges to promote partisan politics, sectarian religious views, or personal agendas of any kind. Foster critical thinking and development of alternative views.”

Yet the program for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is shaped by radical left-wing ideology. There are no presentations from conservative perspectives, such as seminars that question the idea of “systemic racism” itself.

Other area schools–including Evanston Township High School, which has the largest percentage of black students of any high school on the North Shore–will be closed for the holiday, as usual.

New Trier High School is located on Chicago’s affluent North Shore, and was ranked #4 in the nation last year, according to Business Insider, which gave the district an A+ for academics and teachers, but a C+ for diversity.

The school was also the setting for many of John Hughes’s classic 1980s films portraying suburbia, and is the basis for the wealthy schools portrayed in Risky Business and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It boasts many famous and influential alumni, including Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, Hollywood icon Ann-Margret, Nobel laureate Jack Steinberger, and actor Adam Baldwin, a noted conservative who told Breitbart News students should “call in sick.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/01/12/racial-identity-mlk-new-trier/

[Jolie Rouge]

High School Forces Kids to Attend ‘Racial Identity’ Classes on MLK Jr. Day

by Joel B. Pollak 12 Jan 2016

New Trier High School, one of the country’s top public schools, is forcing students to attend seminars on racial identity on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. “The goals for this day are to help New Trier students develop a deeper understanding of their own racial identities and the identities of others, and to better understand how we can all work to counter the impact of systemic racism in our lives,” reads a statement on the school district’s website.

Attendance is mandatory, though other public institutions in New Trier Township will be closed in observance of the holiday.

Students at the high school’s two campuses will be allowed to choose from a list of provocative and highly political seminars on race, including the following:



The Truth about Ferguson: The Investigation into the Death of Michael Brown


The death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked protest and outrage regarding the treatment of people of color by law enforcement. Some demanded reform and recognition of ongoing injustices, while others came to the defense of officer Darren Wilson. Meanwhile, similar events following Brown’s death continued to go viral on social media. The United States Justice Department investigated the death of Brown as well as the Ferguson Police Department as a whole. This seminar will look into the Justice Departments findings.

Why Do I Have to Feel Guilty for Being White?


Talking about race doesn’t usually feel good for anyone. White people often walk away feeling guilty and thinking, “But I didn’t do anything!” In this workshop, we’ll explore how white guilt can become a roadblock in our journeys toward becoming white allies.

Unconscious Perceptions of Race


How does the media you choose and the community in which you live both reflect and influence the way you look at race. Join us as we look at our automatic thinking processes, how it influences the way we look at race and consider how we might adapt those processes.

Mascot or Mockery: Finding Stereotypes in Popular Culture


We will discuss the presence of racially charged parts of our popular culture that we often accept. We will discuss Halloween and sports mascots in particular. Many universities, including the University of Illinois, have recently wrestled with this topic.

Disney and the Creation of Racial Identity


Watch classic Disney films and discuss how these films influence childhood development of racial identities.

Representations of the Middle East: Stereotypes and Islamophobia


This session will examine racial stereotypes of Middle Easterners in film, television, news, and current events and how these stereotypes contribute to the Islamophobic climate. We will use the “Pyramid of Hate” model to assess the escalation of anti-Muslim rhetoric, profiling, and hate crimes.

Western Bias in Science


Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein… Were all of the great discoveries in science made by Greeks and Europeans? Explore the impact of our western bias in the history of science in this discussion session.

Dear Mom and Dad, What (Race) Am I?


This session will focus on a conversation of racial classification and identity.

What is Your Privilege?


Participants will walk through a simulation of what it is like to lose privilege and view others who have it. Participants will be given an identity of a different race and will be given the hardships that encompass that race.

Yer’ A White Wizard, Harry: Whitewashing in Cinema


This is a discussion about white dominance in the film industry. We are going to be taking a look at different cases where the voices of People of Color were silenced by the industry and how we can change it.

Intersections: Where Race and Gender Connect


This session will be led by representatives from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Gender and Sexuality Center. The session will examine the intersections between race and gender and how each impacts one’s identity.

One seminar focuses on the experience of being a black Muslim. No other faith is represented in the schedule. Several others touch on sexual themes, including an seminar on black artists entitled “To Pimp a Butterfly.”

Full lists of seminars are provided for the Northfield (freshman) campus and the Winnetka (main) campus.

In addition, students will be required to attend a “special presentation” by Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, and a keynote address by author Isabel Wilkerson, an open supporter of the Black Lives Matter protest movement.

A concerned parent contacted Breitbart News and confirmed that students would not be excused from school. An email to parents from Timothy Hayes, Assistant Superintendent for Student Services, reminded parents that “MLK Seminar Day is a regular attendance day, and we will follow our typical procedures for attendance.”

Hayes did not return requests from Breitbart News for comment, nor did New Trier Superintendent Linda Yonke.

One parent, who did not wish to be named, told Breitbart News via e-mail:


“In order to be post-racial you have to live it. There’s a time and place to look at racism and the horrors endured. But this is morphing into getting people riled up. It is always about seeing people different rather than what is shared.

“They are supposed to be a neutral environment. Yet they are pushing all this ‘white guilt,’ using our kids for their own agenda, twisting their minds–whether it be sexual or racial.”

Another parent, who likewise did not wish to be named, said via e-mail:


“This is supposed to be a day to honor Dr. Martin Luther King. Yet of the 59 classes, over half seem to focus on the color of skin and not the content of character. Why not spend the day to study, reflect and write about Dr. King’s actual words, the advancements made and the dreams yet to be realized?…

“These ‘workshops’ and ‘classes’ seem likely to breed within the kids a sense of guilt and shame–as if they are at fault for the misfortune in the world and it is their responsibility to make amends. Several classes are designed to teach them to be, in essence, ‘community organizers.’…It all seems like there is a political agenda underlying it all.”

The program for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day appears to violate the policies of the New Trier Township High School District, which require a balanced presentation of political issues: “We charge the faculty with the obligation to help our students identify arguments or preachments which are demonstrably unbalanced by bias, hate, calumny, distortion of facts, or ignorance of or indifference to the laws of evidence and the requirements of proof.”

District personnel are also required to “Refrain from using school contracts and privileges to promote partisan politics, sectarian religious views, or personal agendas of any kind. Foster critical thinking and development of alternative views.”

Yet the program for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is shaped by radical left-wing ideology. There are no presentations from conservative perspectives, such as seminars that question the idea of “systemic racism” itself.

Other area schools–including Evanston Township High School, which has the largest percentage of black students of any high school on the North Shore–will be closed for the holiday, as usual.

New Trier High School is located on Chicago’s affluent North Shore, and was ranked #4 in the nation last year, according to Business Insider, which gave the district an A+ for academics and teachers, but a C+ for diversity.

The school was also the setting for many of John Hughes’s classic 1980s films portraying suburbia, and is the basis for the wealthy schools portrayed in Risky Business and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It boasts many famous and influential alumni, including Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, Hollywood icon Ann-Margret, Nobel laureate Jack Steinberger, and actor Adam Baldwin, a noted conservative who told Breitbart News students should “call in sick.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/01/12/racial-identity-mlk-new-trier/

[Jolie Rouge]

Just a blog by a guy who's a retired math teacher

Lousy PARCC items from Pearson released by a brave yet anonymous teacher

This is from Leonie Haimson:


Important! Collective action needed by bloggers

As some of you may know, Celia Oyler of TC posted an anonymous teacher’s critique of the 4th grade PARCC exam a few days ago that identified a few texts and the questions asked. Yesterday Celia received a threatening email from PARCC and removed the name of the text sources & the wording of the questions. https://celiaoyler.wordpress.com/2016/05/07/the-parcc-test-exposed/ She is now looking into challenging PARCC’s position legally.

My tweet and many others linking to the piece were deleted after PARCC complained to Twitter of copyright infringement Diane Ravitch wrote a blog post about this last night that she insists was somehow deleted.

As a collective act of defiance, I propose that as many of us as possible re-post the original blog post and challenge PARCC’s authority and capacity. Other points that could be made:

It should be required that all high-stakes tests be released after they are given to check for accuracy and fairness. If kids, teachers, and schools are to be judged on the basis of these exams, the test-makers shouldn’t be allowed to escape accountability by keeping their tests secret after they are given.

It is ridiculous that Pearson, PARCC or any organization would even try to keep secret the items on a test that is given to millions of students nationwide.

It is especially important to publicize as widely as possible the awful quality of the Pearson/PARCC exams– designed to find as many kids as possible failing. Pearson in particular has been known for producing crappy tests for years (witness the Pineapple.)

You could also mention the fact that most of the writing responses on the PARCC exam will be scored by computers that are unable to distinguish sense from utter nonsense.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/05/should-you-trust-a-computer-to-grade-your-childs-writing-on-common-core-tests/%5D[/url]

[I]The full blog post is pasted below, and attached as a word doc as well. Please consider posting this on your blog and let me know if you do. thanks!

Leonie Haimson


https://gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/lousy-parcc-items-from-pearson-released-by-a-brave-yet-anonymous-teacher/

The PARCC Test: Exposed

The author of this blog posting is a public school teacher who will remain anonymous.
I will not reveal my district or my role due to the intense legal ramifications for exercising my Constitutional First Amendment rights in a public forum. I was compelled to sign a security form that stated I would not be “Revealing or discussing passages or test items with anyone, including students and school staff, through verbal exchange, email, social media, or any other form of communication” as this would be considered a “Security Breach.” In response to this demand, I can only ask—whom are we protecting?
There are layers of not-so-subtle issues that need to be aired as a result of national and state testing policies that are dominating children’s lives in America. As any well prepared educator knows, curriculum planning and teaching requires knowing how you will assess your students and planning backwards from that knowledge. If teachers are unable to examine and discuss the summative assessment for their students, how can they plan their instruction? Yet, that very question assumes that this test is something worth planning for. The fact is that schools that try to plan their curriculum exclusively to prepare students for this test are ignoring the body of educational research that tells us how children learn, and how to create developmentally appropriate activities to engage students in the act of learning. This article will attempt to provide evidence for these claims as a snapshot of what is happening as a result of current policies.

The PARCC test is developmentally inappropriate

In order to discuss the claim that the PARCC test is “developmentally inappropriate,” examine three of the most recent PARCC 4th grade items.
A book leveling system, designed by Fountas and Pinnell, was made “more rigorous” in order to match the Common Core State Standards. These newly updated benchmarks state that 4th Graders should be reading at a Level S by the end of the year in order to be considered reading “on grade level.”

[Celia’s note: I do not endorse leveling books or readers, nor do I think it appropriate that all 9 year olds should be reading a Level S book to be thought of as making good progress.]
The PARCC, which is supposedly a test of the Common Core State Standards, appears to have taken liberties with regard to grade level texts. For example, on the Spring 2016 PARCC for 4th Graders, students were expected to read an excerpt from Shark Life: True Stories about Sharks and the Sea by Peter Benchley and Karen Wojtyla. According to Scholastic, this text is at an interest level for Grades 9-12, and at a 7th Grade reading level. The Lexile measure is 1020L, which is most often found in texts that are written for middle school, and according to Scholastic’s own conversion chart would be equivalent to a 6th grade benchmark around W, X, or Y (using the same Fountas and Pinnell scale).
Even by the reform movement’s own standards, according to MetaMetrics’ reference material on Text Complexity Grade Bands and Lexile Bands, the newly CCSS aligned “Stretch” lexile level of 1020 falls in the 6-8 grade range. This begs the question, what is the purpose of standardizing text complexity bands if testing companies do not have to adhere to them? Also, what is the purpose of a standardized test that surpasses agreed-upon lexile levels?
So, right out of the gate, 4th graders are being asked to read and respond to texts that are two grade levels above the recommended benchmark. After they struggle through difficult texts with advanced vocabulary and nuanced sentence structures, they then have to answer multiple choice questions that are, by design, intended to distract students with answers that appear to be correct except for some technicality.

Finally, students must synthesize two or three of these advanced texts and compose an original essay. The ELA portion of the PARCC takes three days, and each day includes a new essay prompt based on multiple texts. These are the prompts from the 2016 Spring PARCC exam for 4th Graders along with my analysis of why these prompts do not reflect the true intention of the Common Core State Standards.


ELA 4th Grade Prompt #1

Refer to the passage from “Emergency on the Mountain” and the poem “Mountains.” Then answer question 7.

Think about how the structural elements in the passage from “Emergency on the Mountain” differ from the structural elements in the poem “Mountains.”

Write an essay that explains the differences in the structural elements between the passage and the poem. Be sure to include specific examples from both texts to support your response.

The above prompt probably attempts to assess the Common Core standard RL.4.5: “Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.”
However, the Common Core State Standards for writing do not require students to write essays comparing the text structures of different genres. The Grade 4 CCSS for writing about reading demand that students write about characters, settings, and events in literature, or that they write about how authors support their points in informational texts. Nowhere in the standards are students asked to write comparative essays on the structures of writing. The reading standards ask students to “explain” structural elements, but not in writing. There is a huge developmental leap between explaining something and writing an analytical essay about it.

[Celia’s note: The entire enterprise of analyzing text structures in elementary school – a 1940’s and 50’s college English approach called “New Criticism” — is ridiculous for 9 year olds anyway.]
The PARCC does not assess what it attempts to assess


ELA 4th Grade Prompt #2

Refer to the passages from “Great White Shark” and Face the Sharks. Then answer question 20.

Using details and images in the passages from “Great White Sharks” and Face to Face with Sharks, write an essay that describes the characteristics of white sharks.
It would be a stretch to say that this question assesses CCSS W.4.9.B: “Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text.”