Last spring, Susan Sluyter quit teaching kindergarten in the Cambridge Public Schools. She’d spent nearly two decades in the classroom, and her departure wasn’t a happy one. In a resignation letter, Sluyter railed against a “disturbing era of testing and data” that had trickled down from the upper grades and was now assaulting kindergartners with a barrage of new academic demands that “smack of 1st or 2nd grade.” The school district did not respond to a request for comment.
But Sluyter’s complaints touched a national nerve. Her letter went viral, prompting scores of sympathetic comments by other frustrated teachers and parents. Sluyter’s letter was fresh evidence for groups of early-childhood educators who oppose the kindergarten expectations for math and English Language Arts, or ELA, set by the new Common Core, the academic benchmarks for K-12 that most states have adopted to replace the historic patchwork of standards.
The thrust of the opposition is that many of the standards are too high and not developmentally appropriate for kindergartners. Opponents say teaching some academic skills too early can be counterproductive. They cite research suggesting that reading and math advantages in kindergarten are fleeting. Furthermore, they say, the pressure to meet academic standards will lead to lecture and work sheet style teaching, foster rote memorization, and snuff out the inquiry and play-based instruction that can instill a love of learning.
The impetus for developing the Common Core standards for kindergarten through 12th grade was the worry that American education was losing its edge in a globalized economy fueled by innovation . . .
The Common Core’s defenders say critics are misreading the kindergarten standards, which are meant to be goals, not dictates. What’s more, standards alone don’t tell teachers how to teach. What standards actually do, backers contend, is level the playing field and help keep students from falling behind early, which they say is the real and lasting danger for our youngest learners. (Read more from “Is the Common Core Killing Kindergarten?” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-06-15 03:41:252016-04-11 11:00:01Is the Common Core Killing Kindergarten?
Photo Credit: NY Post As the 55 distinguished members of the National Association of Scholars explained this week, the teaching of American history faces “a grave new risk.”
So-called “reforms” by the College Board, which holds a virtual monopoly on AP testing across the country, “abandon a rigorous insistence on content” in favor of downplaying “American citizenship and American world leadership in favor of a more global and transnational perspective” . . .
It’s no coincidence College Board President David Coleman supervised the Beltway operation that drafted, disseminated and profits from the federal Common Core standards.
The social-justice warriors of government education have long sought, as the NAS [National Association of Scholars] signatories correctly diagnosed it, “to de-center American history and subordinate it to a global and heavily social-scientific perspective.”
Their mission isn’t to impart knowledge, but to instigate racial, social and class divisions.
Their mission is not to assimilate new generations of students into the American way of life, but to turn them against capitalism, individualism and American exceptionalism in favor of left-wing activism and poisonous identity politics. (Read more from “Elites Stripping “America” from US History Courses, Replacing it with Globalism, Common Core Collectivism” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-04 03:32:262016-04-11 11:00:24Elites Stripping “America” from US History Courses, Replacing it with Globalism, Common Core Collectivism
“Where did Common Core come from?” is a question I often hear from parents as I travel the country speaking about the Islamic infiltration of America.
Because in 2014-15 America, public school students via Common Core are:
• Participating in public school-sponsored trips to mosques via taxpayer expense, girls must wear head scarves (Colorado parents complain)
• Debating whether or not the Holocaust was “merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain,” (an eighth-grade assignment defended by the Rialto Unified School District, Los Angeles)
Parents in every state are outraged, protesting and asking, “Why is Islam being taught in public schools?” and “How did this happen?” “Where is the ACLU?” “Where are the people ‘protesting against’ religion being taught in public schools?”
Common Core origins
The short answer is that President Obama’s push for “hope and change” translates into completely transforming America — for the worse. Common Core is but one of many parts of an intricate plan to infiltrate every area of American society with Islam. Which is why, Common Core’s origin and funding came from Qatar, Libya and Saudi Arabia.
Globally, Common Core originated from the “One World Education” concept, a global goal orchestrated by the Connect All Schools program. Its origin is funded by the Qatar Foundation International (QFI). The director of QFI’s Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics is Tariq Ramadan, grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder, Hassan al-Banna.
According to the WND website, in 2011, QFI “partnered with the Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education to facilitate matchmaking between classrooms in the U.S. and international schools through … the ‘Connect All Schools’ project.” QFI states on its website that the initiative was founded in response to Mr. Obama’s infamous 2009 Cairo speech, during which the Muslim Brotherhood was seated in the front row.
Mr. Obama’s mentor, domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, received $49.2 million from Vartan Gregorian, a board member of the Qatar Foundation, who also is involved with Mr. Obama’s White House Fellowships Commission. Gregorian is an integral part of Connect All Schools, through which Qatar invested $5 million to teach Arabic in American public schools.
Domestically, in America, Common Core was “created by” the National Governor’s Association (NGA), Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), Achieve Inc., ACT and the College Board. The Common Core State Standards are copyrighted by the NGA and CCSSO, a private company, which means they cannot be changed.
Many groups helped create these standards (chief among them, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Nations) but Pearson Education, an NGA donor and CCSSO’s listed business and industry partner, is integral to Common Core.
Pearson Education designs “education products and services to institutions, governments and direct to individual learners.” Listed on the London and New York Stock Exchange, of its numerous investors, the Libyan Investment Authority is its largest financial contributor, holding 26 million shares.
According to the Financial Times, the Libyan Investment Authority was founded by Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam; more than five Gaddafi family members own shares. The Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR, a recently designated terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates), Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the Muslim Brotherhood invested in Pearson Education through the Libyan Investment Authority.
Despite this connection, according to the Guardian, Pearson Education claims as a public company operating in a free market it has no control over its shareholders’ terrorist-related activities.
Common Core was implemented in states that accepted federal funds from the 2009 “Race to the Top” initiative, which encouraged states to receive federal money to adopt new standards that would improve their public school children’s test performance results.
In order for a state to participate, the state board of education and the state’s educational professional standards board would have voted to adopt Common Core standards. Each participating state has posted the Common Core Standards on its state department of education website.
Two years prior to the Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative, in 2007, the FBI uncovered documents revealing the goals of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its subsidiary organizations like CAIR, planned to indoctrinate American K-12 students by teaching Islam.
The seized documents were part of the 2007 Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terror-funding trial in U.S. history. The FBI uncovered the Muslim Brotherhood’s manifesto “on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America” (Exhibit 42945 and Exhibit 42946).
After states applied for “Race to the Top” federal funds in 2009, Pearson Education created Common Core curriculum and standards. Pearson Education is also the sole evaluator of teachers in some states. In order for New York State to continue receiving “Race to the Top” federal funds, it had to implement “reforms.” Pearson Education now solely administers the Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA).
New York State no longer evaluates its teachers — a private company does — whose primary investors fund terrorism and propagate Islam.
Additionally, no state or federal oversight exists for university programs (under Title VI of the Higher Education Act) that train K-12 teachers to develop lesson plans and seminars on “Middle East Studies.” These programs and teacher training materials were developed by Pearson Education and largely funded by Saudi Arabia.
Parents must and can act
In order to end Common Core and eliminate the Islamic indoctrination being taught in public schools, parents must demand:
• Their state school board members be investigated and/or fired and replaced.
• Their state legislature and governor reject “Race to the top” federal funds and implement legislation or reverse its state education department’s implementation of Common Core in their state, and at a minimum, in the interim.
• Their child not participate in state testing.
Parents can also take their children out of public schools altogether.
Parental rights are guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that parents possess the “fundamental right” to “direct the upbringing and education of their children.” The court has declared that “the child is not the mere creature of the State: those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations” (Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 534-35). The Supreme Court criticized the Nebraska state legislature for attempting to interfere “with the power of parents to control the education of their own” (Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 402). And ruled a parent’s right to raise his/her children means a parent is protected from unreasonable state interferences, one of the unwritten “liberties” protected by the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment (Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 399).”
Parents must say no more: The $632 billion the federal government spends each year on public school “education” is being wasted on violating the First Amendment, by the federal government instituting a religion through the teaching of Islam in public schools. (See “Common Core Ties to Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia”, originally posted HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-04-14 01:47:372015-04-14 01:47:37Common Core Ties to Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia [+video]
Students across the country are required to take an annual Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC test, which is aligned with Common Core standards. For students in New Mexico, scoring on PARCC exams determine 50 percent of their grade.
Connor Guiney and Anna Bentham-Grey appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” and admitted they were surprised by the size of the walkout at Highland High School in Albuquerque . . .
“We thought maybe 100, or 150 would come out. But by the end of the day we had over 300 people and that was really good to have all that support out there. It was nice to not be alone in that” . . .
“We weren’t the only ones,” Bentham-Grey said. “Almost every other school in our district also had walkouts that day” . . .
“We feel like the tests are unnecessary and they use an excess amount of time among other things,” he said. “But ultimately they’re unfair to students at schools and to the teachers as well.” (Read more about the Common Core rebellion HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-03-06 02:43:202016-04-11 11:01:38Common Core Rebellion: Thousands of High School Students Walk Out Nationwide Over Test
Deborah Vailes has been teaching junior high in Louisiana’s Rapides Parish School District for the past twelve years. She is passionate about helping special needs children become better readers. Little did she know that an early morning post critical of the Common Core Curriculum on her personal Facebook page would lead to disciplinary action, suppression of her right to free speech, retaliation from school officials, and possible loss of her job.
As a result, the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, [yesterday] morning, filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on behalf of Deborah Vailes against the Rapides Parish School District and the principal of Pineville Junior High School, Dr. Dana Nolan.
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, commenting on the reason for the lawsuit, stated: “Public school students have become ‘guinea pigs’ in a vast untested educational experiment dictated by the Federal Government. Our Constitution never envisioned federal control over education. But sadly, most states have voluntarily abdicated their responsibilities over education for federal dollars. Their decision will prove disastrous, not only for public education, but also for the freedom guaranteed by our Constitution. Debbie Vailes’ uncompromising love for her students prompted her to speak out. And her voice should not be silenced by a tyrannical principal.”
Facts
On September 23, 2014, at approximately by 5:58 AM, Debora Vailes re-posted on her personal Facebook page a photograph of a little girl crying because of the shortcomings of Common Core. Later that day, her school principal, Dr. Dana Nolan, after discovering the post, gave Deborah Vailes her first written reprimand and ordered her to refrain from expressing any opinion about public education on social media and to remove her anti-Common Core post from the social media site – ASAP. (The school district refers to written reprimands as a “documented conferences.”) Dr. Nolan further informed Deborah that she could not to discuss her opinion in public – on any social media or any public forum.
Two days later, Dr. Nolan held a mandatory faculty meeting of the Pineville Junior high school. She informed the faculty at the meeting that Deborah Vailes was reprimanded due to posting a negative opinion about Common Core on Facebook. Dr. Nolan warned the faculty not to share their personal opinions or speak-out in any way. After hearing about the Principal’s gag order, Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, issued an executive order that teachers were to be afforded the same constitutional guarantees afforded to all citizens. However, his executive order did not deter the Defendant, Dr. Nolan, from continuing her vendetta against Deborah Vailes.
Before Vailes posted her Facebook criticism of Common Core, she had a stellar personnel record; she had never received a reprimand. Since her public criticism, she has received three additional written reprimands. School administrators are now constantly visiting her class, when before her criticism of Common Core, such visits were rare. Dr. Nolan has stripped Debbie Vailes of her responsibilities, and placed her in a job category which, according to Vailes’ colleagues, will be eliminated at the end of the school year resulting in her termination.
TMLC Senior Trial Counsel Erin Mersino and Alexandria, Louisiana attorney, Theodore D. Vicknair are representing Deborah Vailes. Mersino stated “Accepting employment in the public sector does not mean a total loss of First Amendment freedom. Public employees may readily comment on matters of public concern, such as the Common Core Curriculum, and do so free from any retaliation from their employer. What the School District and Principal are doing to Debbie Vailes is blatantly wrong.”
Common Core State Standards (“Common Core”) are national standards in education promoted and funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers together established Common Core as a set of academic standards to be used in common across all states. These standards replace the existing state standards in the applicable academic areas.
Although Common Core has been adopted by 43 states (including Louisiana), its implementation has caused an uproar from caring parents, grandparents and educators alike. According to an October 2014 Gallup poll, 62% of teachers are frustrated with the Common Core State Standards.
Adding to the frustration is the fact that the Common Core Standards were untested prior to their implementation. They were implemented without any prior research being conducted on their efficacy, resulting in standards that at best reflect guesswork. Many child development experts have decried even the creation of the standards without input from classroom teachers or early childhood professionals.
Compounding the anger over the standards themselves was the overwhelming emphasis on standardized testing. The Common Core State Standards require so much testing, that teachers can only teach to the test.
Moreover, Common Core’s method for teaching math over-complicates and adds numerous seemingly illogical steps to solving math problems.
Many parents and teachers have also expressed concern over the English Standards set by the Common Core. The reading selections considered to be representative examples of what students should be reading, feature incest, rape and drug use, as well as far left political viewpoints. (Read more about the Common Core Curriculum HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-02-27 03:58:342016-04-11 11:01:56School Prepares to Terminate Teacher for Facebook Post Opposing Common Core Curriculum
I was skeptical at first. As a 25-year retired educator I understand how things work on the inside and saw flaws in peoples’ arguments against it – or so I thought. I attended a Common Core Unveiled meeting that gave me evidence of a problem that far surpassed my skepticism, so I began to investigate further. There are several components to Common Core, and they all raise alarm.
First is the standards themselves. Have you ever heard of the ‘dumbing-down’ of America? I have figured one part of how they are accomplishing that. We were sold a philosophy with Everyday Math that I see in the standards of Common Core. It is called ‘spiraling’ and it replaces ‘mastery’ in education. With ‘mastery’ you master certain basic concepts before moving on to more complicated ones. With ‘spiraling’ you are hit with a tiny bit of many concepts every year in the hopes you will ‘catch on’ sooner or later. I saw first hand that it doesn’t work.
Many communities are sounding an alarm about Common Core textbooks incorporating a variety of curriculum that indoctrinates children in such areas as sexuality, homosexuality, and Islam. It is a little long, but I urge you to watch the Common Core video here:
Problems I see with Adaptive Testing are validity, violation of privacy, and potential for outright brainwashing. Districts ahead of us with testing say their length, difficulty, and inappropriate content are major issues. One aspect of Adaptive Testing is the ability to change questions on the tests so that one student/community is given more difficult test questions than another. You might question my brainwashing statement, but ‘forced compliance’ is nothing less than that. Student privacy is violated with the contract that our state DEED signed requiring testing data is shared with the federal DOE, and other ‘end users’.
Data Mining is here, and student testing is one component that those who compile data are looking forward to incorporating into their businesses to share or sell worldwide. We live in a glass bowl – especially if you talk on a phone, use a computer, use the internet, or have email. Did you know they are using our PFD information to identify Alaskans for their database?
Do you realize where this is headed? Federal control of education is merely a steppingstone toward UN control and world domination. They change the name every so often (right now it is called Common Core), but the goals are the same. How do you feel about that?
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-02-26 02:41:422016-04-11 11:02:01The Mess Called Common Core
Today a Missouri State Court issued a judgment declaring that the “existence and operation” of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) violates the Constitution “as well as numerous federal statutes” and that “Missouri’s participation in [SBAC] as a member is unlawful under state and federal law.” In other words: payments from Missouri to other states to develop and test education assessments, and the agreements to do so, violate the U.S. Constitution, federal statutes, and state statutes.
Although Governor Palin rejected the Common Core, in the spring of 2013, under the leadership of Governor Parnell and Education Commissioner Hanley, Alaska joined SBAC. “The Smarter Balanced assessment will allow us to compare our students more closely with those around the country and confirm the rigor of Alaska’s standards compared to the Common Core,” stated Commissioner Hanley in defending his actions signing up Alaska to the Common Core consortium, the same consortium today declared unconstitutional and in violation of federal law.
Just over one year ago, Alaska abandoned SBAC in favor of paying the University of Kansas approximately $5 million per year to create English and math assessments. It would seem that this interstate compact, too, violates the Constitution and federal law, not to mention the Alaska state law, House Bill 278, that prohibits DEED from spending money on the Common Core.
Considering that even the former General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education (not to mention Louisiana Governor Jindal in his federal lawsuit) assert that the Common Core violates the Constitution, federal statutes, and Congressional intent by illegally conditioning federal education money on the states’ adoption of the Common Core, one has to wonder why Commissioner Hanley, State Board Chair Cox, and others in the state executive and legislative branches, have ushered in and embraced the Common Core in Alaska. (Note that Commissioner Hanley wrote to the U.S. Department of Education on 1/23/13 that Alaska’s standards are “nearly identical to the Common Core State Standards.”)
In addition to the $5 million per year Alaska unlawfully and unconstitutionally sends to the University of Kansas, the implementation of the Alaska Common Core standards is costing Alaskans exorbitant amounts of money. Exactly how much, nobody knows: when asked ten days ago by the House Education Committee just how much this is all costing, DEED Chair Cox stated that she “could not possibly answer that question.” Want to cut the budget while helping students? Cut expenditures on the implementation of Common Core – such expenditures are illegal under state law away.
We the People can put a stop to this unconstitutional and illegal activity. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear: the federal government has no authority to condition federal money on the adoption of education standards and the states have no authority to consent to such a requirement. Neither the state legislature nor the state executive – such as Commissioner Hanley or Chair Cox – has the right to consent to a violation of the Constitution. Any such action is, according to the Supreme Court, “invalid and cannot be enforced.” Indeed: these elected officials took an oath to defend the Constitution. Now is the time for citizens to hold their local officials accountable and help the same hold the federal government accountable. This is the intent and design of our Constitutional Republic; U.S. Supreme Court precedent agrees.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-02-25 02:05:372016-04-11 11:02:04State Court: Common Core Consortium Violates the Constitution
Today we are on the precipice of determining whether Alaska should follow the guidance of Commissioner of Education, Michael Hanley and Alaska School Board President Esther Cox as they direct our entire educational K-12 foundation to align with the national and international standards and curriculum of Common Core.
Certainly, there are convincing arguments that there should be standards of achievement for students and that there should be a method of assessment periodically throughout what is commonly held as the “formal years of education.” The argument evolves into a sense that without these standards, our Alaskan children will not be able to properly compete with all citizens for work in a global market.
And certainly, one can argue that our current educational standards are subpar both globally (ranked 26th in the world) and nationally (Alaska~ 39th overall) which are issues we need to take into account specifically when Alaska spends more money per capita, per student than anywhere in the world at approximately $22,000.00 per student. When you factor in the Taj Mahal brick and mortar structures , we have no financial competition. We get the financial “Blue Ribbon” with very little accountability, which brings me to my next point…
Most people do not know that the Commissioner of Education does not answer to the Governor in the state of Alaska. To add insult to injury, neither does the Alaska School board. These are officials who are appointed through the legislature and do not answer directly to the electorate. I find it fascinating that the most important resource Alaska has is directed by administrators who are not directly accountable to “We the People.” Perhaps, this is why we get the results we have, which brings me to my next point…
Esther Cox ~ President of the Alaska School Board recently made remarks in the House Education Committee hearing when asked what implementing Common Core standards would cost the state over a period of ten years, Ms. Cox answered:
“I could not possibly answer that question. I don’t live and breathe this daily as do those through the department.”
Commissioner of Education, Michael Hanley has made statements all over the map regarding whether the State of Alaska is Common Core compliant, and whether or not our children’s personal data has been shipped away to a national database. His changing testimony over the last few years has been less than stellar and one could certainly argue extremely deceptive and definitely not forthright and transparent.
Through it all, even a passive observer will come away with a sense that the education network in Alaska is run by a very selective “education cartel.”
Generally speaking, the Alaska legislature has had somewhat of a “hands off” approach in directing educational policy, and those few legislators who have actively engaged in the promotion of ideas of educational excellence seem to be met with some form of ostracizing as “educational zealots.” One comes away with a sense that the professionals are in place to promote the monopoly of an average educational experience and nothing more which brings me to my next point…
Common Core is being “sold” to the Alaskan legislature and to the citizen’s of Alaska as the “new” best way forward. I find it disconcerting that Bill Gates recently stated that Common Core is a 10 year experiment. One must wonder if we should expend an entire generation of our children on an educational experiment cooked up in the “Bill and Belinda Gates” education kitchen, but I divert…
Common Core is actually similar to the same national conversation we are having regarding global warming or it’s new label, “Climate Change.” There is a fascinating similarity especially here in Alaska for instead of Commissioner Hanley calling our standards “Common Core” he just promotes them as “Alaska Standards” but any reasonable assessment would indicate that they are 95% compliant to Common Core , so much so that the federal government has been willing to shovel some educational dollars into our coffers all with the idea that we will be a “good little state” and be compliant. Why do I hear that catchy tune from the movie Chicago playing in my head….” Give them the old Razzle Dazzle…” which brings me to my final point..
We are on the verge of an educational explosion based on technology. Today we have the opportunity to deliver a massive array of educational packages that are interactive in real time for pennies on the dollar. We can either embrace this new technology and begin directing the definition of excellence in educational content, or be bound to the convention of the “horse and buggy” of Common Core which is simply put, reinventing the same experiment which has given us questionable results. Recently, the “education cartel” passed legislation that “distance learning” or internet educational content must come from Alaska based educators. Given this notion, if Albert Einstein were alive today and wanted to provide Alaskan children with physics lessons via the cyber world, he would be turned down unless he wanted to take up residence in Alaska. This is an excellent example how decisions are made inside the narrow confines of the “cartel.”
For me, it is a clear picture. On one hand, we can continue to assist in the development of a condensed curriculum of educational content controlled by a select few for their own proprietary reasons which is generally associated with force, fraud and money, or we can embrace the open source market and explore all the options available to direct educational content truly as a learning tool instead of the convention of the global model which simply exists to socialize our citizens to “fit” into a global construct.
Is there any reason why any motivated student cannot accelerate at their own pace far beyond the convention of any “minimum standards” of education. Don’t we owe our very intellectual existence to assist in the development of true “brain power” based on the spirit of an individual and their desire to want more than the conventions of an educational cartel working on a “Common Core” design in the backwater of an archaic workshop simply to move the money around within their legions?
Our constitution was written for the individual to protect our personal liberties from an oppressive government. At the very least, shouldn’t our education construct reinforce the strength of our individual nature in assisting us to reach for the stars? Is our educational salvation going to find it’s greatest achievement in social doctrine?
I say we are on the shore of a great educational journey. We should not lack the common sense it will take to reclaim our destiny. “Common Core” is nothing but an expensive and embellished anchor. One we do not have the luxury to afford.
To accept the nomination of Commissioner Michael Hanley and President Esther Cox is to purchase the anchor. We deserve better
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-02-24 02:00:132016-04-11 11:02:06Alaska Determining Whether it Should Follow Common Core (+video)
The Common Core State Standards had a tumultuous year across many states in 2014, but Microsoft founder Bill Gates – among the biggest proponents of the standards – was undeterred in his support, according to grant information reported by the Washington Post.
The Post named the 15 largest education grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, two of which were made to organizations focused heavily on promoting the controversial K-12 standards.
The Gates Foundation gave a $10.3 million grant to the Washington, D.C.-based New Venture Fund and another grant of $3.4 million to the San Francisco-based WestEd. . .
Gates has been credited by some and blamed by others for the spread of Common Core, which was initially adopted by 44 states and the District of Columbia. Since then, several states have repealed Common Core altogether, while others are making changes to the testing or are reviewing the standards.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-12-23 00:53:462014-12-23 00:53:46Gates Continues to Bankroll Common Core in the Face of Public Opposition
At 100 years old, Madeline Scotto knows a thing about teaching. She’s been doing it for decades and still teaches at the school she graduated from in 1928.
Scotto, who teaches math, recently sat down with Business Insider to share some of her complaints about Common Core.
‘It Stinks’: 10-Year-Old Says Common Core Is ‘Nonsense’
By Fox News
It Stinks’: 10-Year-Old Says Common Core Is ‘Nonsense’
10-year-old Elizabeth Blaine dropped the mic at a Montclair, New Jersey, school board meeting Monday night, sharing her support for a policy that lets parents opt out their children from taking the Common Core test, also known as PARCC (Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers).
“I love to read. I love to write. I love to do math. But I don’t love the PARCC. Why? Because it stinks,” Elizabeth said.
“This is crazy!” she continued. “I am one of the most gifted students in my grade (or so my mom says) and I have not even the slightest clue as to what this means.”
“I am glad my mom and dad are letting me opt out, because I don’t want to deal with this nonsense.”
