Monthly Archives: February 2013

Concerns

Framework for a Multistate Human Capital Development Data System

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Save a copy of this one. This paper received its funding from …SURPRISE… the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Titled “Framework for a Multistate Human Capital Development Data System,” this paper outlines the population tracking of people in America. Here’s a few salient quotes.

The rise of a globalized knowledge economy requires us to understand the distribution of skills and abilities in our population.

This “human capital development data system” must be developed to answer “master” policy questions that benefit each of the principal state stakeholders – the K-12 education system, the postsecondary system, and labor/workforce development system – both for accountability purposes and to inform improvements in policy and practice.

A more effective data system for accountability and policy and practice improvements could provide answers to such questions. Integrated to enable large-scale longitudinal analyses to support state educational and workforce development policy, student or individual unit-record data, linked together across K-12 education, postsecondary education, and the workforce, comprise what we call a human capital development data system (HCDDS). An HCDDS should be able capable of:
• Tracking the stock and flow of the skills and abilities (represented by education and training) of various populations within a given state.
• Examining the gaps in educational attainment between population groups, based on demography and socio-economic status.
• Incorporating information from multiple states, given the mobility of the U.S. population and the fact that many population centers are located on state boundaries.

We are all cattle now.  

Given the sensitivity of SSNs and the fact that even they cannot match all individual student records “perfectly,” it is probably wise for states to adopt a broader approach to “identity matching.” Such an approach would link records using a larger group of variables corresponding to student characteristics, including but not limited to the SSN (when available) or statewide student identifier.

Use of Social Security Numbers would pin all tracking data to an individual instead of aggregating it and protecting children’s privacy.

While there is still much work to be done in linking K-12 and postsecondary records, states also should be planning now for how to incorporate workforce data into their longitudinal data systems. Indeed, the federal government has made this a basic expectation for states receiving ARRA funds.

When Utah applied for federal money under Race to the Top and the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), the feds required us to sign onto a database to track students from preschool through college and into the workforce. Just a year ago the Utah State Office of Education announced their partner in a P20w statewide longitudinal database system that can integrate with other states and federal agencies. <sarcasm>All for research purposes of course.</sarcasm>

Some years ago, Outcome Based Education was shot down by parents when they awoke to what was really going on…the tracking of children and “master” planning for society based on creating good little trained monkeys for the workplace. Children are people. We need to stop treating them like widgets being stamped out at a factory.

Concerned yet? Share this with your legislators and ask them to get us out of Common Core and the Statewide Longitudinal Database System. IT’S NOT GOING TO BE USED JUST FOR RESEARCH. Share fliers with your neighbors. It’s time for an overhaul of our education system that brings it all in-state and gets us off the federal dollars.

 

Reference

What the State Office of Education Isn’t Telling You About Common Core

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Common Core Legislature BookletIn an effort to reach out to legislators, we prepared a 16-page booklet packed with the truth about Common Core and put relevant comics from the Weapons of Math Destruction series on each of the pages. These booklets were passed out to members of the Utah legislature today along with a copy of my op-ed from the Deseret News regarding HJR 8. Will you please email or call your legislator and ask if he/she got the booklet entitled, “What the State Office of Education Isn’t Telling You About Common Core” and ask if he/she agrees that Utah should get out of Common Core.

To get a copy of this booklet, click this link to open it up.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B37_5IjcOBbyQjZuclk1UEJkZ1U/edit?usp=sharing

 

 

News

The Most Laughable Bill of 2013

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The Deseret News has published my op-ed or letter to the editor regarding the most insane bill I’ve ever read. Here’s the text of my letter and a link to the DNews. Please share the DNews link.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765622895/Common-Core-resolution-is-the-most-laughable-bill-of-2013.html

Published Letter

Do we really need to stoop to this level? The legislature is considering HJR 8, “Joint Resolution on the Benefits of Adopting Common Core.” This bill is full of the same lies that get told over and over attempting to propagandize the public into believing they are true.

http://le.utah.gov/~2013/bills/hbillint/HJR008.pdf

“This joint resolution of the Legislature recognizes the significant benefits that have come to Utah’s students due to the adoption of the Utah Core Standards.”

How exactly can someone claim significant benefits when we have NO data on how Common Core is performing yet?

“WHEREAS, the Common Core standards were developed by a state-led effort”

No they were Gates-led, not state-led. The Gates Foundation pumped $20 million into the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State Superintendents Organization to create these standards. They did it to fulfill a contractual obligation stemming from Microsoft’s 2004 contract with UNESCO to create a global education system. Gates has paid $173 million so far to create and promote Common Core. The Utah State Office of Education didn’t even know who was on the drafting committee until the standards were written, which happens to be AFTER Utah adopted them.

“WHEREAS, the process used to write the standards ensured they were informed by the best state and international standards, the best student test scores, the experience of teachers, content experts, states, leading thinkers, feedback from the general public, and the most important international models, as well as research and input from numerous sources, including state departments of education, scholars, assessment developers, and professional organizations;”

You’ve got to be kidding me. First, it’s well established that the Common Core standards were never internationally benchmarked.

Second, does anyone seriously think that the standards were “informed by the best” student test scores?”

“Leading thinkers?” The leading thinkers were on the validation committees and upon reviewing them opted to NOT endorse the standards.

Feedback from the general public? The Utah state office only held a public meeting as a formality due to complaints after they adopted the standards.

“WHEREAS, the Utah State Board of Education began the effort to revise its mathematics core standards in 2007 after concerns were raised about the rigor of the state’s current standards;”

Yes, concerns were raised and the 2007 standards were a great improvement. In fact, those standards had most students finishing algebra 1 in 8th grade so most students could take an authentic calculus class by 12th grade. Unfortunately, Common Core pushes completion of algebra 1 to 9th grade, so most students will never get calculus by the time they graduate, just pre-calculus.

The rest of this bill is so full of nonsense I just can’t even bring myself to comment on it. Here are a couple examples.

“WHEREAS, while Utah Core Standards help teachers organize and prepare for instruction, like building codes help an architect prepare a blueprint, the curricula used to implement the Utah Core Standards varies according to district or charter school needs, like homes built using building standards or codes are not identical, but are built based on the needs and values of the owner while still following the building code;”

“WHEREAS, the Utah Core Standards are based on college, career, and civic readiness that lead to honest labor and are designed for the greater common good of Utah’s citizens:”

My guess is that someone from the State Office of Education drafted this in an attempt to convince legislators and the public that Common Core is really great, magically turning fiction into fact.

Common Core is the biggest education boondoggle foisted upon the American people, and it will prove to be worse as time goes on. How will Utah students be better prepared than anyone else in the United States when they are being commonly trained for the same jobs? Someone needs to jump ahead, and Utah should be that state.

Please contact your legislators and tell them not to be duped by such insanity and to vote against HJR 8.

 

Concerns

German-style Education in Utah?

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(Republished with permission from http://admoneo.blogspot.com/2013/02/german-style-education-in-utah.html)

Last night, in his State of the Union address, President Obama made a rather bold and unexpected statement about education.

He said, “Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so those German kids, they’re ready for a job when they graduate high school…We need to give every American student opportunities like this.”

It was bold, because he laid out his vision for education in very clear terms. It was surprising, because he’s usually been more cautiously obscure about his intentions.

For months, opponents of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have been trying to show people that CCSS is being used by the Federal government to expand its role in education. The president helped us paint that picture last night.

Most states adopted the CCSS as part of the first Race to the Top (RTT) program, which Obama initiated in July 2009. He praised the results of the original program last night, saying, “Four years ago, we started Race to the Top, a competition that convinced almost every state to develop smarter curricula and higher standards.”

Then, in conjunction with his assertion that he wants the U.S. system to work like Germany’s, Obma proceeded to announce a second RTT program.

It appears that not only were the opponents of the CCSS right about increased Federal involvement, but that it goes even further than we’ve said. Based on Obama’s bold statement last night, the current thrust of education reform is toward a centrally-managed education system that assigns kids to tracks – like Germany. And a centrally-managed education system is part one of two parts to a centrally-managed economy, the other part being high government regulation of businesses.

How will this affect kids (and by extension, businesses) in Utah? That all depends on how our legislators and elected officials in the executive branch respond to the money that will be offered, and the nice-sounding promises  that will be made.

We will either join the movement toward a German-style education system, lured by the siren song of educational utopia and the millions of dollars in the new RTT competition; or stand for basic American freedom, say “No” to the money, preserve our free markets, and protect our kids’ basic right to choose their own destiny, rather than be told what they are “best-suited for.”

Obama’s statement was very clear: he wants our education system to look like Germany’s, where the test you take about the time you are 10 years old determines your future.

German Education Tracks

We in Utah need to be just as clear: we want no part of this system. While there are a few aspects of its system which are perhaps worthy of emulation, its disregard for individual liberty and undermining of the free market by projecting what jobs will be needed and slotting kids for them is not. We want no part of the Federal government’s promises of educational Eden, “if we’ll just let them be more involved and share our kids’ personal data with them.”

Education is not just about producing workers, which seems to be Obama’s attitude. It is about acquiring knowledge to enrich one’s understanding of the world, one’s appreciation for beauty, one’s understanding of the deep truths of humanity. Acquiring skills that enable one to seek employment in the occupation of his or her choice is an inevitable consequence of teaching for the former purposes.

And education is best handled entirely at the most local level. Utah’s elected officials should turn down the RTT bait, which will draw us into deeper dependence upon and accountability to the Federal government. They must remember and honor the basic principles of the American way of life while they formulate ways to strengthen our educational system.

One final item worthy of note: homeschooling is illegal in Germany. Does Obama aspire to imitate this feature as well?

Further Information:

 An overview of the German system
http://library.thinkquest.org/26576/schoolpage.htm

 A comparison of education systems: Germany v. U.S.
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/klein.356/tracking

Praise for the German system
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-19/german-vocational-training-model-offers-alternative-path-to-youth

Transcript of the State of the Union address
http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/02/12/State-of-the-Union-Full-transcript/9081360720324/

What You Can Do:
Contact your state representative and senator and tell them you’re concerned about the push to institute a German-style education system in the U.S., and that you want them to oppose bills that will move us in that direction.

Contact your state school board member and tell them you’re concerned about the push to institute a German-style education system in the U.S. Tell them that you want them to tell the State Office of Education not to apply for the new RTT grant, and get us out of Common Core.

Contact the governor and tell him you’re concerned about the push to institute a German-style education system in the U.S., and that you want Utah to get out of Common Core and not participate in the new RTT grant competition.

ADDENDUM TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

This was just passed on to me. The Obama administration is actively seeking to deport a German family who has refugee status in the U.S. because they homeschool, which is illegal in Germany. The Obama Justice Department says that the family should be promptly deported even though the children may be seized by authorities and the parents jailed if they are forced to return to Germany, because homeschooling is not a fundamental human right.

If you’ve been unaware of the intentions of this administration as regards the role and rights of parents, this story should make everything very clear. And it should increases concern about the new RTT program which seeks to advance Obama’s agenda for children.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/14523-obama-bid-to-deport-homeschool-refugees-may-threaten-us-rights

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/high-tide-and-turn/2013/feb/12/deportation-german-homeschool-family-affects-us-ho/

News

Sandra Stotsky releases FREE ELA Standards

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Sandra Stotsky on English Common Core StandardsDr. Sandra Stotsky, a long time critic of Common Core standards, has released an ELA framework for use in schools, districts, and states, for free. Dr. Stotsky is known for her participation in crafting the excellent 2001 ELA standards for Massachusetts and how those standards placed MA as one of the very best states in the country on standardized tests. I recommend you download a copy of these standards for safe keeping, and then let legislators know there is a free set of standards Utah could adopt that would make us the envy of the nation in a short time. Here’s a link, and the last paragraph from the document.

http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2000/01/Stotsky-Optional_ELA_standards.pdf

The Bottom Line
The 2001 edition of the Massachusetts ELA standards were already among the best in the nation. The 2010 draft manages to further strengthen these standards without losing any of the essential content or clarity. These standards are a model of clear, rigorous K-12 ELA content and expectations.”

If Utah would just adopt this and then the math standards from MA or CA prior to Common Core, we would be set for the future.

Concerns

Maxine Waters Confirms National Database on All Citizens

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Someone sent in this news report video and it’s confirmation of something we have repeated numerous times. Common Core requires states to set up a statewide longitudinal database to track children. Marc Tucker in the 90’s wrote Hillary Clinton desiring such a database to implement cradle-to-grave tracking of citizens for the purpose of central planning and school-to-work organizing. Now Rep. Maxine Waters confirms the presence of a massive database President Obama has put in place giving him information on every citizen in America. Listen to her alarming words.

Here’s the bulk of her quote:

“I think some people are missing something here. The president has put in place an organization that contains the kind of database that no one has seen before in life. That’s going to be very, very powerful.

That database will have information about everything on every individual in ways that its never been done before and whoever runs for president on the Democratic ticket have to deal with that, they’re going to have to go down with that database and the concerns of those people because they can’t get around it and he’s been very smart , I mean it’s very powerful what he’s leaving in place.” -CA Rep. Maxine Waters on TVone.tv interview

Answering Charges

Christopher Tienken on the School Reform Landscape

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I got several emails about this excellent video yesterday. Christopher Tienken is a professor at Seton Hall University and was an early voice against Common Core. This short video he has made makes some excellent points, though I disagree with one of his points at the beginning that there isn’t a problem in education. We see very clearly that university schools of education are steeped in bad educational philosophies like constructivism, which is one of the more destructive methods of teaching when used to extremes as it is in our schools in Utah. Still, don’t let that stop you from enjoying this excellent video.

Concerns

Common Core is Educational Fascism

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What do you get when corporate interests combine with governmental force to take over education? Nationalized educational and economic fascism. Thankfully, more legislators are starting to wake up to the situation.

E-mails link Bush foundation, corporations and education officials

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/30/e-mails-link-bush-foundation-corporations-and-education-officials/

A nonprofit group released thousands of e-mails today and said they show how a foundation begun by Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and national education reform leader, is working with public officials in states to write education laws that could benefit some of its corporate funders.

…

The e-mails were obtained by Cohen’s group through public record requests and are available here, complete with a search function. They reveal — conclusively, he said — that foundation staff members worked to promote the interests of some of their funders in  Florida, New Mexico, Maine, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Louisiana.

The Web site of the Foundation for Excellence in Education used to list some of their donors but no longer does and is not required to list all of its donors to the public under tax rules for 5013C organizations. However, it is known that the foundation has received support from for-profit companies K12 and Pearson and Amplify, as well as the nonprofit College Board.

There are strong connections between FEE and the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), according to the nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy:

…

FEE and ALEC also have had some of the same “experts” as members or staff, part of the revolving door between right-wing groups. They have also collaborated on the annual ALEC education “report card” that grades states’ allegiance to their policy agenda higher than actual student performance. That distorted report card also rewards states that push ALEC’s beloved union-busting measures while giving low grades to states with students who actually perform best on standardized knowledge tests.

So a “non-profit” organization takes donations from companies that want to get in on the Common Core movement and then lobbies for changes to help those corporations get entrenched to make billions. It’s no wonder that ALEC has squashed their anti-Common Core model legislation twice after receiving a sizable donation from the Gates Foundation. You can get all the power and control you want for money and Gates has already spent well in excess of $100 million to promote Common Core and fulfill the contract he signed with UNESCO in 2004 to create a global education system.

Pressure Mounts in Some States Against Common Core

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/02/06/20commoncore_ep.h32.html?tkn=QVVFfrl0VuHMbz97P7yDsN6KYt5Zph01kHae&cmp=clp-edweek

Support for the standards from the private sector and higher education is clear, said Michael Cohen, the president of Achieve, a Washington nonprofit group that helped develop the standards and now helps state governments and others prepare for the common core and its assessments.

“These standards reflect the knowledge and skills needed to go on for higher education and careers,” said Mr. Cohen, who was an assistant education secretary during the Clinton administration.

But the private sector’s involvement and support are seen very differently by opponents of the standards.

Through the common core, public schools will be used to foster “economic fascism” in education, charged former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer, a Republican from Colorado, who until the start of this year served as the chairman of the Colorado state school board before he left the board.

“This is a 100 percent government-regulated industry emerging before our eyes,” with potentially billions of dollars being sent in its direction, said Mr. Schaffer, who is the principal of Liberty Common High School, a charter school in Fort Collins, Colo.

Legislators previously desperate for federal cash attached to the standards, he said, are “just becoming alerted to what’s going on.”

Economic fascism is right. The corporate interests in America created Common Core. There was nothing “state led” about it. In Utah we have Prosperity 2020 which is working to influence education “success” according to how they want to define it. Isn’t it time parents and children define their own education success according to their own family standards? Prosperity 2020 wants more money for education to come from Utah taxpayers.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865570291/Prosperity-2020-plan-to-improve-education-includes-more-spending-new-revenue.html

One of the comments at the end of the news article was from Ronald Mortensen where he said:

The business leaders behind Prosperity 2020 are always for more taxes as long as the incidence falls on individuals and not on them. Notice that there is no recommendation to increase the corporate tax rate, no proposal to eliminate sales tax exemptions for businesses and no call for the repeal of the business tax breaks that these business leaders have lobbied for and obtained during the past decade.

The Salt Lake Chamber is a leader in this effort and it is no coincidence that it has been designated by Americans for Tax Reform as an “Enemy of the Taxpayer.”

The Utah State Office of Education touts their involvement in the “state led” standards, yet they didn’t even know who was writing them. We’ve adopted math and English, and now the science and social studies standards are being written, and again, nobody knows who is writing the social studies draft standards.

Common Core Social Studies Standards? (I strongly suggest you read this article in its entirety)

http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/j-r-wilson-whos-writing-common-core-social-studies-standards/

In November 2012 the CCSSO released Vision for the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Inquiry in Social Studies State Standards.  They say they are developing a framework for states to use as a resource as they upgrade their social studies standards and that this will not be a set of standards for states to adopt.  They also say this framework is “being developed through a state-led effort”.  They contend this framework, like the common core state standards, “will be based on evidence and will aim at college and career readiness.”  The CCSSO is not disclosing the names of people on the writing team and tightly controls information about how and what business is being conducted.

I was told by 2 state school board members a while back that we would never adopt common science and social studies standards, just the math and English, yet just a couple weeks ago, state school board member Dixie Allen wrote Christel Swasey and said this:

Christel,

As one of my constituents, I owe you a response to your question.  My New Year’s resolution is to work to be sure that our Core Curriculum contains all the objectives necessary to be sure our students are Career and College Ready as they leave our system of education.  That will require our readdressing our Social Studies and Science Curriculum and evaluate if there are any issues with our current Core Curriculum in Math and Language Arts that needs additions or tweaks.  This is a constant job of the State Board and our specialists at USOE.  However, it is a very worthwhile assignment that truly needs to happen on a continuous basis, as our students change and require different methods of instruction and sometimes different learning objectives to insure they are ready for the 21st Century of higher education and work and are capable of competing on the world’s stage.

Thanks for asking!

Dixie

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It’s only a matter of time before the noose tightens and states realize they’ve lost any hope of preserving local control of education for their citizens. Contact your legislators and ask them to get us out of Common Core. We can do better and preserve our freedom and sovereignty.