Writing in the Washington Post, Valerie Strauss shares video of Bill Gates’ recent Harvard Interview, (the one where he blames IBM on Ctrl-Alt-Delete), showing that Gates’ education initiative Common Core, is a giant experiment and we won’t know if it works for perhaps another decade.

“It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won’t know for probably a decade.”

Hmmm. Teachers around the country are saddled every single year with teacher evaluation systems that his foundation has funded, based on no record of success and highly questionable “research.” And now Gates says he won’t know if the reforms he is funding will work for another decade. But teachers can lose their jobs now because of reforms he is funding.

Read the rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/27/bill-gates-it-would-be-great-if-our-education-stuff-worked-but/

This is one video not to miss. Calling the standards shallow and dehumanizing, veteran Indiana teacher Bonnie Fisher testifies to state legislators telling them that Common Core’s opponents’ arguments are all correct. Her testimony is 7 and a half minutes. Then there is about 15 minutes of questioning by the legislators.

The first legislator’s comments include a fascinating insight into historical literacy rates by stating in his research about literacy in the early days of the country, 70-100% of citizens were counted as literate as estimated by the percentage of citizens that would read newspaper articles defending the Constitution (ie. The Federalist Papers).That’s a stunning revelation when we realize that most high school graduates would have a very difficult time wading through the vocabulary presented in those arguments. I’d guess it would probably drop our comparable literacy rate to about 10% of students today. Perhaps college and career ready should be better defined as “Federalist Paper ready.” If students were prepared for such a book, there would be no question they would be college and career ready in terms of English preparation.

She continues with an explanation of who benefits from a dumbed-down population. Then a stunner at the end. A legislator asks her under what standards she went through education growing up and she announced there were none. Ms. Fisher is asked what did she experience that allowed her to become so well educated. She states 3 things: broad academic exposure to traditional academic subjects, some fine teachers, and studying Cicero through high school. She ends by saying the teaching methods may need adjusted from older ages of education but we need to return to the content that used to be taught.

Dr. Milgram, math professor at Stanford and member of the Common Core validation committee who refused to sign off on the standards

Dr. Stotsky, English professor at the University of Arkansas who also refused to sign off on Common Core

Charlotte Iserbyt, senior policy advisor at the Dept. of Education under President Reagan, who blew the whistle on the DOEd activities in her book “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America.” Available for free online (www.deliberatedumbingdown.com)

Many of you probably wonder at Dr. Milgram’s comments if you are capable of homeschooling your children or if you will somehow hurt their education. Please recognize that damage is already being done in the school system. By teachers being the authority figures in your children’s lives, they are more likely to believe their “teacher” than their parent in some areas of education. How many of us have heard, “the teacher showed me the right way to do it”? Read this parent’s recent comment on another post:

With permission from http://idahoansforlocaleducation.com/2013/09/idahos-superintendent-of-the-year/

This is one brave superintendent. He’s also a thinker. A rare commodity these days. Dr. Geoffrey Thomas from the Madison School District was the lone dissenting vote against Common Core while he served on the Governors Task Force.  Stephanie Zimmerman, an Idaho activist against Common Core, spoke with him and asked him to share his concerns in a letter she could publish. Here’s what he had to say.

At the concluding meeting of the Idaho Governor’s Education Task Force, I voted “No” when asked if we supported Common Core State Standards. I voted “No” for a host of reasons and if another vote were to be held today, I would still vote no. Here is why: (My views are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my district or Board of Trustees)

CCSS were not developed by Idaho or any other “state;” CCSS was funded by the Gates Foundation which spent $ 250 million to “encourage” states and influential organizations to embrace CCSS i.e. $ 6 million to the NEA and $ 5 million to the AFT $ 14 million to the Chief State School Officers and $ 9 Million to the National Governors Association.

CCSS were written by David Coleman of Achieve Inc. with no parental input and precious little classroom educator involvement or representation.  Mr. Coleman actually applied to become a teacher in NYC and was rejected; now he is the most powerful man in US public education. (Just another situation where a non-educator being funded by other non-educators are dictating the direction of public education)

Mr. Coleman and his co writers are also closely affiliated with testing organizations which stand to profit immensely through CCSS / SBAC implementation

There was no field testing or pilot testing of CCSS of any standard in public school classrooms. This fact is truly astonishing and alarming. Would an Idaho farmer trust his / her entire crop and livelihood to untested seed potatoes?

There was no experimental or control group used to evaluate the quality or efficacy of the standards. Again, this is truly astonishing! Without even conducting a rudimentary voluntary study, Idaho has blindly embraced what essentially amounts to an experimental set of standards.

CCSS could truly be the educational silver bullet that will solve all problems including halitosis, but we simply don’t know, because no one took the prudent measure of actually conducting the necessary research first. Could you pass any research class at college without citing your sources and by merely hoping that your assertions were correct?

There is no inclusionary language for differentiated instruction (remediation or acceleration) Remediation in Math is absolutely vital regardless of the depth or rigor of study.

As teacher/ principal evaluations will be tied to student outcomes, I have deep concerns regarding the inevitable forthcoming national assessment that will truly narrow and straight jacket the curriculum for classroom teachers

I am deeply troubled by the low passage rate of students taking the SBAC. With states like New York scoring at a 38 % passage rate for general population students and a 17 % passage rate for minority students making a test that hard is tantamount to institutionalized child cruelty.

Until this year, there was no funding provided by Idaho to implement the curriculum or provide in depth training for teachers. Therefore Idaho either did not care enough to pay for CCSS or we simply did not have the money. Either way, this raises an enormous red flag to me.

There is no current curriculum aligned to CCSS anywhere in the USA. Anyone who says differently is either lying or trying to sell you something. One week after CCSS was unveiled, curriculum vendors were touting their wares were CCSS aligned.

To date, I have not been provided satisfactory answers to any of these above mentioned concerns.

I hope this has helped. I love public education. I love public education the way it once was where great trust and decision making was placed in the local classroom. Public school should be a safe emotional and intellectual environment where parents and teachers work hand in hand to assist young people to become life long learners and productive citizens.

Thank you again Mrs. Zimmerman for the opportunity to discuss CCSS.

Sincerely,

Dr. Geoffrey M. Thomas

Superintendent
Madison School District 321

Since the mid-1800’s when compulsory education began to become the law in America, central planners have desired control over the lives of children in order to ensure they were properly taught the things that were important for them. The end result of what has taken place is the loss of freedom, loss of parental authority, loss of educational opportunities, loss of economic control, and loss of educational interest. Around 1990, Senator Ted Kennedy’s office produced a document which stated prior to compulsory education in Massachusetts, the literacy rate was 98%. After compulsory education was implemented, (and it was by gunpoint in some areas of MA), the literacy rate dropped to 91% and never rose above it. Most of us have probably seen the level of education that was taking place over 100 years ago. It’s pretty stunning the questions that were asked of children on the exams they took. What happened? Why has education declined? I believe the root cause of these problems is compulsory education. Stripping people of the freedom to learn and the freedom to fail (“you will advance at this pace and with this subject matter and with these peers”), strips them of desire and creates an environment where the government takes upon themselves the responsibility to ensure your child is educated. Some say this isn’t a bad thing, but who is setting the standards, assessments, and curriculum? Why does this form of education have to be enforced by law?

What we have is near total government control of what is taught and tested, data tracking from birth to death, government reaching into our lives to control our behaviors…this has all been around for decades and is reaching it’s culminating effect through Common Core. In 2004, Bill Gates signed a contract with UNESCO to create a global education system. You can’t have independent thinkers in a global society now can you? It’s been said that America is the last bastion of freedom and if it falls, the rest of the world falls too. Reading this article on World Net Daily drives that point home.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/09/frightening-new-assault-on-homeschooling/

Parents around the globe are being stripped of the ability to homeschool, landing themselves in jail and having their children taken away from them, permanently in some cases. In Scotland, they are now trying to assign a nanny at birth to EVERY CHILD, to ensure children are properly educated. Even here in the United States, the Obama administration recently stripped a family of their asylum status and is seeking to deport them back to Germany after they fled because they would be arrested for homeschooling their children. Why is homeschooling such a threat to those in power? It certainly isn’t altruistic motives that cause people to seek the destruction of homeschooling.

What Can We Do?

I get a lot of email asking “what can we do?” type questions. The challenges facing parents probably aren’t going to end soon, but we can take action to protect our freedoms. We can become better educated ourselves in what our rights are. We can look into the available options for our children and take their education upon ourselves in a bigger way. We can set an example for our children by modeling the behavior we want them to latch onto. Here’s a short formula for success.

1) Get educated on issues and develop your principles. You’re reading this site so you’re on your way. :) Another excellent way to do this is to attend the upcoming Agency-Based Education conference in November. This is an organization I founded a couple years ago dedicated to 5 principles of freedom in education. Conference registration is taking place right now. It’s perhaps the cheapest conference you’ll ever attend, and you will leave inspired and educated, growing more confident in your child’s educational options. One of my personal favorite presentations from last year’s conference was Tammy Hulse speaking on a program called Liberty’s Hope. This presentation alone gave me a lot to think about. Please make plans to come to this conference. You won’t be disappointed. Register today.

2) Develop the courage to stand. As you get educated, start to attend gatherings where you can see what’s going on such as school board meetings, campaign events where you can talk with legislators, etc… Get outside your comfort zone and be involved. Make a public comment in a meeting. If you’re nervous about it, write your comment down and keep it short. As you do this, you’ll develop greater courage to do more and you will be a great example to your children.

3) Share what you learn with friends and family to help you refine your thinking and educate others in their thinking.

4) Develop a relationship with your legislators so they know your name and that you are an involved parent. I remember the first time I called my senator years ago, and I was quite nervous. It took a little time to realize they’re just people like us. Utah has the opportunity this next legislative session to make some meaningful changes in the law to restore local control and move toward ending compulsory education. Senator Aaron Osmond is working on legislation right now that will make positive moves in protecting families from grasp of compulsory education. Developing your relationship right now with legislators will enable you to be a powerful voice with your legislator.

WILL UTAH’S LEADERS REFORM EDUCATION, OR RESTORE IT?
—AN APPEAL TO UTAH’S LEGISLATORS TO PIONEER AN EDUCATION RESTORATION—

by JaKell Sullivan

In the 1830’s, when Alexis de Tocqueville visited America he was fascinated to find that the backwoods pioneer was better educated than the aristocrat in Europe.(1) How was this possible? Because Americans uniquely understood the power and significance of self-government. They were motivated self-learners who pioneered a restoration of the correct principles of good government by studying from the best books, including the Bible. They knew that in order to protect their newly established Republic, they would have to understand history and the political principles that would protect their freedoms.

Today, we see a move away from self-learning as more and more citizens understand less and less about self government, and depend on government to dictate the type of education they will get. Not surprisingly,  Washington bureaucrats, along with self-proclaimed education reformers, have stepped up to mandate what our children should learn by standardizing our system, collecting data on students, teachers and principals, and making education about human capital instead of humanity. We should not be surprised when this strains the student-teacher relationship and stifles inspired learning.

While countries like China and Singapore are trying desperately to move away from their entrenched standardized education systems—citing a lack of entrepreneurship and intellectual creativity in their citizens(2)—America is fast-tracking standardization. And, Utah is along for the ride. Whether they know it or not, Utah’s Education Excellence Commission(3) is following President Obama’s Equity and Excellence Commission(4) and “2020 Vision Roadmap,” (5) through the President’s five pillars of education reform to complete his aptly named “cradle to career” federal remake of K-12 education. Meanwhile, Utah’s Education Task Force meetings (6) show that, to this point, they are hearing almost solely from groups who subscribe to standardization and the human capital model of education.

The human capital model of education is the endgame for central planners who have let profits and power blind them to the reality of what constitutes true learning. Some of our state and business leaders are selling this model with the words “college and career readiness” and President Obama’s “2020” mantra without realizing that they are setting up a power structure to redistribute wealth and resources among states, and to provide a continuous pipeline of profits for elite education reformers. This power shift could impale our representative form of government and eliminate parental rights to direct the education of our children.

Why are the same profit seekers who are behind the human capital model also behind the push for Common Core national standards that 45 states have already adopted? Because national standards are the wheel that will steer states into national testing, national curriculum, and national data collection—setting us up for a backseat ride straight into their human capital model of education.(7)

Education is a multi-billion dollar enterprise for unelected reformers like David Coleman(8), Jeb Bush(9), and Bill Gates who plan to collect data on each student’s skills and try to micromanage their job opportunities while taking tax payer money to pay for it and profit from it. They, and others, have built corporate foundations, created data collection businesses and made deals with curriculum publishers and government officials that reveal their motivations. Bill Gates admitted in a 2009 United States Legislative Conference that national reforms were about building a “uniform customer base,” not educating great thinkers.(10)

Why are we following these unelected profiteers down a path where they take control of our children’s educational opportunities and treat them like cogs in a managed economic wheel? Even if they are well intended, their vision is flawed and the history of the decline of great nations proves it. They envision a society of workers. Our vision should help us stay true to who we’ve always been—a nation of creators.

As parents, we are inspired by our children’s imaginations and ingenuity! We know that they are clever, resourceful and original! They will become great contributors to society as we help them develop their innate talents and abilities, not because reformers standardize their educations to “compete” with other standardized nations in the “21st century economy.” Sameness does not create leaders.

It’s time that we the people, as parents and local school districts, create a brighter and wiser vision for our children’s education based on our beliefs about what constitutes true learning. But, in order to do that, we need legislators who will reinstate the principles of federalism.

I am calling on Utah’s legislators to pioneer a restoration. Restore local control over education. Get Utah out of the reformer’s backseat before standardization is too entrenched. Decide that the group-think mentality and human capital mantra coming out of national reform conferences and meetings held to woo our state, business and education leaders must not be allowed to be legislated. Be the check on the federal government, and unelected reformers, you were elected to be. Grant power back to local board members who know us and can truly represent us and our children at the local level where needs are best met.

As our elected representatives, you can help Utah lead states in restoring America’s original ideals of exceptionalism and individualism, not standardization. If we buy into the human capital model, we will soon find that we’ve lost something much more valuable than money— the heart and soul that makes us who we are, and the entrepreneurial spirit that beckons every child with the words, “Follow your dreams!”

Footnotes:

1. Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville. http://www.amazon.com/Tocqueville-Democracy-America-Library/dp/1931082545

2. AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice, “Common Core State Standards: An Example of Data-less Decision Making, Dr. Christopher Tienken.  http://www.aasa.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/Newsletters/JSP_Winter2011.FINAL.pdf

3. Governors were encouraged by national reformers to establish Education Excellence Commissions. Utah’s was formed in 2010. Reformers use these commissions, & their government relationships, to push federal policy down through states. The state policies coming from Utah’s Education Excellence Commission mirror President Obama’s Equity and Excellence Commission’s “2020” goals and “2020 Vision Roadmap.” Many leaders on the state commission may not be aware of this fact. http://www.utah.gov/governor/priorities/education.html

4. President Obama’s Equity and Excellence Commission, housed within the US Department of Education, is charged with redistributing wealth using America’s education system. Their report “For Each and Every Child” to Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, explains how government can partner with key business leaders to bypass America’s Constitutional structure & complete a federal/reformer’s remake of our education system by mandating the redistribution of money, & principals & teachers who are considered by the federal government to be “highly effective.” http://www.foreachandeverychild.org/
See also:
http://www.otlcampaign.org/equity-commission
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/reform

5. President Obama’s “2020 Vision Roadmap” to reform America’s education system into the German model.
http://www.otlcampaign.org/vision-2020
The “2020 Vision Roadmap” was written by Linda Darling-Hammond who helped create Obama’s Equity and Excellence Commission in the US Department of Education. Darling-Hammond chaired the Model Standards Committee for the Council of Chief State School Officers which co-produced Common Core Standards.  She is in charge of content specifications for the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia (SBAC). The SBAC is one of two testing consortia for Common Core Standards & was funded with Federal Stimulus funds. She is an advisor to American Institutes for Research—Utah’s new Common Core testing agent that is partnered with SBAC. She was also a creator of the politically-biased, anti-Christian and anti-American CSCOPE curriculum that was investigated in full hearings in the Texas Legislature in the spring of 2013. See: “Threat of Subpoena Produces Texas Curriculum Records” http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/threat-of-subpoenaproduces-texas-curriculum-records/#BB0SiUjykqOHP63w.99

6. Utah’s Education Task Force. See “Meeting Minutes” http://le.utah.gov/asp/interim/Commit.asp?year=2013&com=TSKEDU

7. See Footnote 10: Bill Gates video clips #5 and #6

8. David Coleman, “Architect of the Common Core, sells Grow Network to McGraw-Hill” in 2005.

http://investor.mhfi.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=96562&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=592486&highlight=
“Architect of Common Core Appointed to Lead College Board & align SAT to Common Core.” http://press.collegeboard.org/releases/2012/college-board-namesdavid-coleman-new-president
David Coleman founded Student Achievement Partners who played a lead role in developing Common Core with funding from the Gates Foundation.
http://contentincontext.org/2011/index.php/program-speakers/151-david-coleman
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2012/06/OPP1061551

9. Jeb Bush, Foundation for Excellence in Education. http://excelined.org/
Foundation for Excellence in Education funding from the Gates Foundation: http://excelined.org/about-us/meet-our-donors/
Jeb Bush created Chiefs for Change to train state superintendents in the reform agenda. “Emails 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/
Jeb Bush, Common Core: http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards/common-core-standards-alec-jeb-bush-frozen-people-americantaxpayers-citizens

10. Gates Foundation. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/
“Gates, Pearson Partner to Craft Common Core Curricula” http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/04/27/30pearson.h30.html
Bill Gates defines the “crisis” in education to the National Conference of State Legislators in 2009, & explains why national standards, federal assessments, aligned curriculum, and national data collection are necessary reforms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyiwai1sAgE (7 Clips)
Video Clips #5 and #6 show the agenda behind Common Core to be to “unleash new markets” for the profiteers behind education reform.
Clip #5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtTK_6VKpf4 Bill Gates tells state leaders they should join in national standards, federal assessments and curriculum
Clip #6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMmABNwiITE Bill Gates tells state leaders they should take federal stimulus funds for longitudinal data systems
Additional resources:
“Governors Implementation Guide” for Common Core Standards. This guide was created by the producers of Common Core—the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers—with funding from the Gates Foundation. None of them are elected.
http://www.nga.org/cms/home/news-room/news-releases/page_2011/col2-content/main-content-list/nga-releases-implementation-guid.html
Utah’s STEM push is federally led and part of the government/business partnership touted in Obama’s Equity and Excellence Commission’s report. It calls on state leaders to establish partnerships with key business leaders in order to bypass America’s legislative process, and thereby, citizen representation. The goal behind the federal STEM agenda is to redistribute wealth, & resources like principles & teachers, from suburban communities to urban cities & minority groups.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/k-12/educate-innovate
President Obama’s 5 Pillars of Education Reform
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/03/10/taking-education