All posts by JaKell Sullivan

We just spent Thanksgiving thanking God for our freedom. Now, we must defend it!

STOP Speaker Paul Ryan & Senator Patty Murray’s Foundations for Evidence-Based Policy Act (FEPA) (H.R. 4174; S. 2046) THIS MONDAY!

It is imperative that concerned citizens begin contacting our US Senators on MONDAY, November 27th, to oppose FEPA. And, that we begin now to contact President Trump to veto this legislation if it passes the Senate. FEPA has already passed the House—on a voice vote under suspended rules. Such shenanigans would be truly laughable if they didn’t mark the death of individual freedom by the hands of big data.

What Does the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policy Act (FEPA) do?

FEPA creates a de facto national database on every individual in America through extensive data-linking and data-sharing mandates. Read this important rebuttal to the House Majority’s staff about FEPA.

Who Supports the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policy Act (FEPA)?

Unfortunately, Republicans like Trey Gowdy have joined hands with Democrats on FEPA because it uses language that promotes government transparency. But, data transparency, in our current environment, is designed to support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through interoperable data systems—which were streamlined under the Obama administration’s Stimulus Bill to ensure that regions and states follow along with social-justice-aligned policies in education.

FEPA—and Senator Orrin Hatch’s College Transparency Act (CTA)—mark the culmination of efforts made by the United Nation’s Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to shift America into “Evidenced-Based Policy.” The OECD is a world policy organization that worked with the Obama administration on the Race to the Top program to shift America into globally-defined Competency-Based Education. Both FEPA and CTA work hand-in-hand to support a type of Competency-Based Education that undermines religious freedom. The US Labor Department has also been working with the OECD to ensure America’s shift into global Competency-Based Ed. (more info below). Molly Irwin, Chief Evaluation Officer for the US Dept. of Labor, has been working with the OECD to support the US shift into “Evidence-Based Policy.” See below that her slide-share presentation is for “OECD Governance.”

One of the most telling things about FEPA, is who supports it.

One big-name supporter is Obama administration insider, David Medina who is very excited that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) are building upon the Obama administration’s groundwork on FEPA. Medina runs the progressive organization, Results For America, and their recent headline states,

“Results For America Praises Speaker Ryan and Senator Murray for New Legislation to Advance Evidence-Based Policymaking”

Then they say, “This new bipartisan legislation would help build the What Works infrastructure necessary at each federal agency to use evidence and data when making budget, policy, and management decisions”…

“We are particularly pleased that Speaker Ryan and Senator Murray included several recommendations in their legislation that Results for America has promoted over the last several years, including the requirement that each federal agency designate a Chief Evaluation Officer, establish an evaluation policy, and develop evidence-building plans. (emphasis added)

David Medina currently serves as the COO and Co-Founder of Results for America. David previously served in the Obama Administration as First Lady Michelle Obama’s deputy chief of staff and as the Peace Corps’ public engagement director. Throughout his career, David has also served as the US Global Leadership Campaign’s government relations director, US Senator John Edwards’ national political director, the 2004 Democratic National Convention Committee’s deputy CEO, an AFL-CIO legislative representative, the Democratic National Committee’s policy director, and US Senator Carol Moseley-Braun’s legislative assistant.

David has served on the University of Chicago’s Alumni Visiting Committee, Human Rights Campaign, Millennium March on Washington, and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute national boards of directors. David received his B.A. from the University of Chicago and his M.P.P. from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Results for America helps states change their policies to “shift resources” to “what works.”

Isn’t “What Works” a Good Thing?

“What Works” means that people’s choices can be directed by the state because their choices have to serve the purposes of the state. Results For America says, “When it comes to so many of our nation’s great social challenges, progress is within our reach. We know more than ever before about what works for young people, their families and communities.”

Hmmm. Do you recall being at any meetings where you asked Results For America to decide “what works” for you and your family—from cradle to grave? Do you recall asking Results For America to REQUIRE government to hold you and your family accountable for pursuing what THEY decide works?

How Can Evidence-Based Policymaking Undercut Christian Values in our Current Big-Data Environment?

David Medina is just one of many globalists working closely with the UN’s Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) to implement world-wide “Evidence-Based Policies” to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (which are a threat to Christian liberty).

Jeb Bush’s ExcelinEd is also doing the OECD’s bidding. (Remember that Jeb was the sole Republican presidential candidate that supported and promoted Common Core).

Jeb Bush’s ExcelinEd worked closely with Utah as a pilot-state to implement global Competency-Based Education (Competency-Based Ed where online curriculum, assessments, student information systems and education management systems are interoperable through Common Core’s Common Data Standards).

If you want to know what a threat the OECD is to Christian families and children, read their recent report called Global Competency for an Inclusive World where they say,

“The skills, attitudes and values that shape human behaviour should be rethought, to counter the discriminatory behaviours picked up at school and in the family.”

“All young people should be able to challenge cultural and gender stereotypes, to reflect on the causes and solutions of racial, religious and hate violence and to help create tolerant, integrated societies.”

Then, watch my recent 30-min. presentation at the Agency-Based Education conference in Utah to understand how the Obama administration used Common Core’s Common Education Data Standards to support the OECD’s mission for “Evidence-Based Policy.” It’s entitled, The Battleground for Religious Freedom is in K-12 Assessments: The Powerful Culture War that No One’s Talking About.

If you want to know how desperately the OECD and their partners want this data bill passed, read this important article in The National Pulse entitled, House Leaders Ignore Citizen Concerns and Pass National Database Bill.

Our children and grandchildren deserve to live under freedom’s banner.

TAKE 2 MINUTES RIGHT NOW TO MAKE 2 PHONE CALLS!:

Call the US Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 twice, asking for each of your Senators in turn. Tell them to OPPOSE the Foundation’s for Evidence-Based Policy Making Act (S. 2046).

Call President Trump at: Comments: (202) 456-1111 and/or Switchboard: (202) 456-1414. Tell him to VETO the bill if it passes the Senate.

And, remember, that FEPA is supported by another bill sponsored by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch – The College Transparency Act (CTA) (H.R. 2434; S. 1121). This bill must be stopped when it comes up.

Thank you. And, God Bless.

Concerns

Whole cities are being turned into Common Core Learning Centers?

October 6, 2017 JaKell Sullivan 2 Comments

The background on Cities of Learning

Cities of Learning (or LRNG Cities) is an initiative propelled by the international Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). They are the creators of the international assessments known as PISA (Programme for International Student Achievement). Both the OECD and PISA were developed to support the UN’s goals for global economic transformation.

Through President Obama’s Race to the Top for Assessments initiatives, the OECD has helped to fundamentally transform America’s online assessment systems and teacher training. Where local teachers used to test for children’s academic skills, now unknown researchers assess and measure children’s emotions and behaviors—in and out of school, online. Measuring children’s emotions and behaviors through online curriculum, apps and assessments is part of the international view of Competency-Based Ed.

It might surprise American parents to know what the OECD says about the goals of global Competency-Based Ed. They say, “The skills, attitudes and values that shape human behaviour should be rethought, to counter the discriminatory behaviours picked up at school and in the family.” (OECD, Global Competency for an Inclusive World.)

Cities of Learning, Common Core, Competency-Based Ed and Digital Badges for children

With the advent of Common Core, Competency-Based Ed isn’t about freeing children from “seat time”, it’s about turning whole cities and countries into Common Core 24/7 Learning Centers with citizens all aligning their learning objectives and “competencies” to global economic and social objectives—and all citizens being tracked by big-data. Online learning, tied to Common Core through big-data, is how children are being turned into commodities for the global economy—and how their emotions and behaviors are going to be shaped in order that they will champion globally approved social causes. The OECD says, “All young people should be able to challenge cultural and gender stereotypes, to reflect on the causes and solutions of racial, religious and hate violence and to help create tolerant, integrated societies. A PISA assessment of global competence, developed in consultation with OECD member countries, would offer the first, comprehensive overview of education systems’ success in equipping young people to support the development of peaceful, diverse communities. ”

CollectiveShift (an apt-name for collectivist revolutionaries) is the name of the organization spearheading Cities of Learning in the U.S.—where libraries, museums, after-school clubs, civic organizations, financial institutions and others work hand-in-hand to tie children’s learning to Common Core’s social-emotional competencies. CollectiveShift’s Cities of Learning video tells a dystopian tale where America’s education system is transformed (by the big-data gurus behind Common Core) into a video-gaming system that awards children, and adults alike, digital badges for the privilege of being tracked and researched from cradle to grave.

Global technology standards created the perfect storm for the loss of local curriculum and assessment control

Cities of Learning were made possible with the help of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top for [online] Assessment partners, IMS Global and Bill Gates’ SIF Association. With the help of these two international technology standards organizations, and groups like Mozilla, “thousands of organizations around the world” now “recognize learning achievements” [global competencies] thanks to IMS Global’s Open Badges standards for online assessment “interoperability.”

PR Web wrote a detailed overview of CollectiveShifts collaborative efforts on Cities of Learning and how groups like the Gates Foundation are working to build competency-based assessments into online games.

Collective Shifts’ CEO Connie Yowell wrote an open letter that gives further details about the vast number of tech groups involved in Cities of Learning.

Readers might be interested to know that the Obama administration’s federal Learning Registry and #GoOpen initiative prompted Mozilla’s involvement, along with the involvement of groups like Amazon, Edmodo, Microsoft and others. (Note: Utah was one of the first states to join the #GoOpen initiative).

America’s cities are starting to join in the movement to badge children’s global competencies (also called social-emotional skills)

The 10 Million Better Futures’ website says that “Chicago launched the Cities of Learning movement in 2013 with a successful summer program that networked more than 100 organizations and served more the 100,000 students. Chicago is now a City of Learning year round, and this year the initiative is expanding to Columbus, Dallas, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Washington, DC.”

Learn more about some of the cities starting to get involved here:
“School’s Out, Cities Are In With Expanded Cities of Learning“:

This story about Pittsburgh is a MUST READ: Pittsburgh is following the P21 Competency Framework (Common Core’s global competency and social-emotional learning framework as promoted by the World Economic Forum). See all the ways in which children’s competencies will be tagged and pay attention to the fact that kids don’t just code, but they code and their “dispositions” are identified.

What you should know about Digital Badges and international technology standards for Competency-Based Ed

Here’s a great blog called, “The Business of Badging and Predicting Children’s Futures. This is a good starting point for the average parent to start understanding what digital badging is and how it works.

Here’s what wiki has to say about Digital Badges lately.

Here, here and here are further background on IMS Global setting the stage for Cities of Learning through Common Core’s Common Education Data Standards which paved the way for globalists to digitally badge children’s global competencies.

Check out this video about IMS Global’s One Roster, which essentially makes it impossible to protect a child’s PII (personally identifiable information).

See here, that Canvas Learning Management Systems—used by Utah students—has now met 12 IMS Global technology specifications.

And, here is a list of all the learning and assessment platforms that IMS Global says are now meeting their specs for “interoperability.” Get some popcorn, you’ll be reading for a while as you mourn the loss of local curriculum and assessment control.

It’s time to take back local control over online curriculum and assessments

Any Congressmen listening? If you are, start thinking about what happens when Ethereum Blockchain technology and digital birth certificates interplay with Cities of Learning. This is an important paper that discusses how technological code and blockchain are replacing government regulation and the law.

Seriously. Parents. Get your kids out of digital curriculum and assessments, in and out of school, unless you can guarantee it’s locally controlled and operated. Many teachers report that they no longer see their students’ online curriculum or assessments anymore because each child is on a computer and on a different “personalized,” computer-adaptive learning plan.

The surest way to take back what your children are taught and tested is this: Take your children away from the digital badgers.

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Editor’s Note: How can you help protect your children? Starve the data beast. Come see if home schooling is right for your children and how to get started at the 2017 Agency-Based Education conference.

News, Take Action

Governor Keep Your Promise

May 18, 2017 JaKell Sullivan 4 Comments

(Download the 2017 Utah GOP Convention Flier)

Action Items

Tweet #GovernorKeepYourPromise

Call the governor at: 801-538-1000

Protect your Children’s Privacy – Get the Toolkit

Governor Herbert told Republican delegates during his campaign in 2016, that he would put an end to Common Core and restore local education control. But, nothing came of his promise:

May 4, 2016: Governor Herbert issued a letter and visited the s State School Board to ask them to withdraw from Common Core. The State Board voted to do so, pending funding from the legislature. Nobody followed through to get the legislature to fund it. The Governor should lead out and use his position to keep this promise to Utah.

http://libertasutah.org/blog/utah-governor-calls-for-states-withdrawal-of-common-core-education-standards/

http://libertasutah.org/drop/herbert_commoncore.pdf

Trump’s US Education Secretary Pretends like Common Core doesn’t exist (just like Utah’s State School Board):

February 16, 2017: Education Week reported that Trump’s US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told Michigan radio station host Frank Beckmann that the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) effectively does away “with the notion of the Common Core.”

April 17, 2016: President Trump’s US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos claimed, “There isn’t really any Common Core anymore.” (In her home state of Michigan, DeVos has heavily promoted Common Core with personal funding to lobbying groups)

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/04/24/education-sec-betsy-devos-there-isnt-really-any-common-core-anymore-in-schools/

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/10/stop-common-core-michigan-not-fooled-betsy-devos-know-truth/

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HARD TRUTH #1:

President Obama’s administration designed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to look like the bill was returning power to the states, when the administration had already effectively given power over states and districts to Common Core’s creators through Race to the Top:

December 10, 2015: President Obama signed No Child’s Left Behind’s replacement called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The White House issued a report, and said, “The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that President Obama signs today builds upon the significant success of the President’s education policies…”.

The White House further reported, “Today, as President Obama signs that bill into law, the White House is releasing an analysis of progress made in elementary and secondary education since the President took office and how ESSA will cement that progress.”

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/12/10/white-house-report-every-student-succeeds-act

President Trump’s US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is moving forward with Obama’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and telling Common Core’s creators that THEY represent local control:

May 20, 2017: President Trump’s US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos gave a speech to Common Core’s co-creators, the CCSSO* and told them that the CCSSO would be in charge of state’s and district’s reforms now that Obama’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is in place.

https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/highlights-secretary-education-betsy-devos-remarks-council-chief-state-school-officers

*Note: The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a CEO led club for all State Superintendents in the country. They co-created Common Core and have effectively taken all the control that State Superintendents have given them. Their recent publications show that their mission is antagonistic to parents and American ideals. See page x and xi of their book about global, online Competency-Based Education and see what they say about American parents.

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HARD TRUTH #2:

The Obama administration designed Race to the Top for Assessments to eliminate state/district control over online curriculum and assessments. States are going along with online curriculum and assessment reforms because they are now backed by ESSA:

President Obama’s Race to the Top for Assessments helps—with the CCSSO’s help—Common Core’s Common Education Data Standards. This initiative was designed to undercut local control over online curriculum and assessments by uniting the Ed Tech industry around common international technology standards. Eventually, tests can become interoperable—globally.

http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/Programs/CIO_Network_.html

http://www.ccsso.org/Documents/2014/CCSSO%20Criteria%20for%20High%20Quality%20Assessments%2003242014.pdf

http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/Publications/Using_Interim_Assessments_in_Place_of_Summative_Assessments_-_Consideration_of_an_ESSA_Option.html

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HARD TRUTH #3:

Utah’s System of Higher Education Partnered with the CCSSO to align K-12 and Higher Ed to Common Core:

July 19, 2016: Utah’s System of Higher Education reported that Utah has partnered with the CCSSO, and other Common Core creators, to “improve teacher preparation for K-20 schools”—with the new guidance from President Obama’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA):

https://higheredutah.org/improving-teacher-preparation-a-k-20-partnership/

October 15, 2016: Utah’s System of Higher Education reported that Obama’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) “provides unique partnership opportunity for Higher Ed and K-12”:

https://higheredutah.org/essa-provides-unique-partnership-opportunity-for-higher-ed-and-k-12/

The CCSSO started giving “guidance” to states on online assessment “best practices” and implementation:

http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/Programs/Every_Student_Succeeds_Act.html

President Obama’s Chief Technology Officer, Richard Culatta bragged that Common Core’s Next Generation Assessments can collect 100,000 pieces of personal information on EVERY CHILD, EVERY DAY:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0uAuonMXrg

The idea of creating massive personal profiles on students’ values, attitudes and behaviors is supported by a Bill Gates’ funded project at Arizona State University through a computer-adaptive learning platform called Knewton:

https://www.knewton.com/resources/press/asu-cengage-learning-and-knewton-to-develop-highly-personalized-active-adaptive-learning-solution/

https://asunow.asu.edu/content/technology-remaking-education-asu

Knewton’s founder claims that their learning and assessment platforms can collect “5 to 10 million actionable data per student per day” as part of “personalizing learning.”

http://stopcommoncorenc.org/common-core-big-data-knewton/

The Every Student Succeeds Act supports mass data-mining of student’s social-emotional skills (values, attitudes and behaviors):

http://thefederalist.com/2016/10/19/schools-ditch-academics-for-emotional-manipulation/

http://floridacitizensalliance.com/liberty/wp-content/uploads/SEL-One-Summary-social-emotional-learning.pdf

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/01/06/essa-law-broadens-definition-of-school-success.html

http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/policy/ESSA-Resources_SEL-Funding.pdf

https://truthinamericaneducation.com/elementary-and-secondary-education-act/new-common-core-social-emotional-learning/

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HARD TRUTH #4:

Arizona State University and Global Silicon Advisors (ASU+GSV) hosted an Ed Tech Summit at Utah’s Grand America. Many progressive leaders behind Common Core spoke, as did many prominent Utahns. GSV Advisor’s wants to use Common Core to globalize online curriculum and assessments within the next 10 years—finally allowing the global elite to eliminate local school boards:

See page 292 of GSV Advisor’s publication, “American Revolution 2.0” to read their 15-year Strategic Vision:
https://www.scribd.com/document/123451210/American-Revolution-2-0

Trump’s US Education Secretary spoke to ASU+GSV Summit leaders as if they represent parents and local education control:

https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/prepared-remarks-us-secretary-education-betsy-devos-2017-asu-gsv-summit

Deseret News oped by Utah mom, Autumn Foster Cook about the ASU+GSV Summit:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865679325/Op-ed-Tech-innovators-should-reject-move-to-eliminate-school-boards-and-support-national-standards.html

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HARD TRUTH #5:

The elite groups behind Common Core have been open about their desires to use online curriculum and assessments to eliminate local education control:

“Conservative” Fordham Institute:
“…leaving local districts and boards in charge of digital instruction will retard innovation, entrepreneurship, collaboration, and smart competition, simultaneously stifling students’ ability to find—and be taught by—the very best educators around the globe.”

Fordham has taken funding from the Gates’ Foundation (the largest funder of Common Core).
https://edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-weekly/2012/april-26/overcoming-the-obstacles-to-digital-learning-1.html

Achieve Inc*.:
*Achieve Inc. co-created Common Core with the CCSSO and National Governors Association. Their founder, Louis Gerstner, the former head of IBM, wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal after President Obama was elected. The sub headline read: “Let’s abolish local school districts and finally adopt national standards.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122809533452168067

The Gordon Commission:
Jeb Bush’s partner, former Governor Bob Wise, is part of the Gordon Commission—funded through the Obama administration. The 2013 Commission’s report stated:

“The Common Core Standards, and the rethinking of assessments that they are fostering, provide an opportunity to challenge [the] deeply held belief in local control.”

http://gordoncommission.org/rsc/pdfs/gordon_commission_public_policy_report.pdf

In 2011, Jeb Bush and Bob Wise published an oped in Utah’s Deseret News about how Utah was implementing all of their digital learning policies:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700117171/Utahs-promising-digital-learning-policy.html

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HARD TRUTH #6:

The CCSSO and the Obama administration’s US Department of Education developed Common Core’s Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) so that global elites could profit from gathering private information about student’s values, attitudes and behaviors in the “new global economy”. Massive dossiers on students from cradle to career will create their new “goldmine”:

http://missourieducationwatchdog.com/superintendent-association-tells-districts-to-mine-gold-in-your-backyard/

https://truthinamericaneducation.com/privacy-issues-state-longitudinal-data-systems/common-core-data-collection/

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Parent Privacy Toolkit

Parents should know how to protect their children’s private learning information from both third-party curriculum and assessment providers and states and districts. Here is an excellent resource, the PARENT TOOLKIT:

https://truthinamericaneducation.com/privacy-issues-state-longitudinal-data-systems/parents-resource-protect-student-privacy/

News

Utah is Losing Teachers. Clintons, Gates and Feds are Supplying Them

June 20, 2016 JaKell Sullivan 10 Comments

Lately we’re hearing a lot about America’s teachers leaving their beloved profession. Utah’s State School Board is answering this problem, not by restoring local control over education, but by doubling-down on federal initiatives that dismantle local control over curriculum.

Here’s what every parent and local school board member needs to know about the teacher shortage:

Believe it or not, the teacher shortage was a pre-planned effect of the Common Core testing initiatives. Yep. As we’ve learned from the history of nations, governments create the problem and then step in with the solution (or noose).

And, now that Utah is losing teachers, guess who is already there to help us train more teachers? Yep. The good old Feds and their Global partners. This racket is part of federal STEM initiatives.

Utah’s State School Board will begin giving licenses to teachers who receive training from “Master Teachers.” But, ask yourself this, “Who will be training the Master Teachers and who will the Master Teachers be?”

In July 2012, the Obama administration called for funding for its STEM Master Teacher Corp. The goal is to train (and give federal stipends to) 10,000 Master Teachers in STEM fields—with the end-goal being to train 100,000 STEM teachers in 10 years.

An early announcement for this STEM Master teacher workforce was at the Clinton Global Initiative’s 2011 meeting in Chicago. Here’s what 100Kin10 (a group that answered—after helping create—the Obama administration’s call to build the STEM Master Teacher pipeline) said about itself in July 2016,

“100Kin10 was launched five years ago at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) America Meeting in Chicago in June 2011, with 28 initial partners pledging to go above-and-beyond their existing strategies to help secure 100,000 excellent STEM teachers for America’s classrooms.”

Then, 100Kin10 announced that President Obama was a full partner:

“President Obama Announces 100Kin10 Has Commitments to the Full 100,000 New STEM Teacher Goal”

Then, they said, “100Kin10 joined with President Obama today, on National Teacher Appreciation Day, to announce that it has secured the commitments to train 100,000 new, excellent science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers by 2021, achieving a major milestone in the ambitious goal laid out by the President five years ago. As of today’s announcement, the 100Kin10 network of 280+ national partners has collectively pledged more than $90 million to support the development and ongoing support of 100,000 new STEM teachers; and 30,000 new teachers have already been trained. The President highlighted today’s achievement as a feature of his legacy on education.”

Now, don’t forget that STEM teaching and learning means something different to conservatives than it means to progressives, which is why local control of education is so critical. Remember that President Obama thinks that climate change is the world’s worst threat.

And, speaking to UNESCO in 2010, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said,

“The United States cannot, acting by itself, dramatically reduce poverty and disease or develop sustainable sources of energy. America alone cannot combat terrorism or curb climate change. To succeed, we must collaborate with other countries.

Those new partnerships require American students to develop better critical thinking abilities, cross-cultural understanding, and facility in multiple languages. They also will require U.S. students to strengthen their skills in science, technology, engineering, and math—the STEM fields that anchor much of our innovation in the global economy.

These new partnerships must also inspire students to take a bigger and deeper view of their civic obligations—not only to their countries of origin but to the betterment of the global community. A just and socially responsible society must also be anchored in civic engagement for the public good.”

You’ll want to read the full speech because Arne talks about how Governors jumped onto the Fed’s Common Core bandwagon and that federal education reforms were about global/systemic change, not academic standards.

Bill Gates, the largest funder of Common Core AND the largest funder of the 100Kin10 initiative is in favor of combatting climate change by controlling population.

And, just for a little bit of history, this entire racket was started back in 2009 with the Obama administration’s Educate to Innovate initiative. The White House announced their goals:

Build a CEO-led coalition to leverage the unique capacities of the private sector (what CEO’s do we see leading the STEM initiatives in Utah? Know any of them personally? Share this article with them.)
Prepare 100,000 new and effective STEM teachers over the next decade
Showcase and bolster federal investment in STEM
Broaden participation to inspire a more diverse STEM talent pool

As reported by Science Magazine,
“The president’s plan would be to start with 2500 teachers—50 at 50 sites across the country—and add locations over the next 4 years until there were 10,000 teachers in the corps. The teachers, who would serve for 5 years, would be selected by the local districts and deployed as needed.”

Now, that the Feds have surpassed their first objective, their onto training 100,000 progressive teachers—and Utah’s State School Board is right on board with the federal agenda.

Utah’s State School Board elections could not be more critical than this year. Please. Vote for these candidates (which includes Jonathan Johnson for Governor, #HireJJ) so that we can restore local control over what our teachers learn and teach, and what our children learn about what creates freedom. Hint: It isn’t big government.

News

Utah Teacher Exposes Anti-Family Online Curriculum

June 14, 2016 JaKell Sullivan 9 Comments

Utah Teacher Shares Insights about State Approved Online Curriculum that Goes Against Family Values

reposted from www.ReturnToParentalRights.com

A Utah teacher deserves a BIG thank you from parents for taking time to document some of her concerns with the online curriculum used in her high school. The curriculum was approved by the State of Utah. Please take the time to read and share this excellent blog with your family, friends, school board members and legislators.

I would like to preface her blog with this:

In May 2014, conservative columnist George Will asserted that Common Core represented the “thin edge of an enormous wedge” and that “sooner or later you inevitably have a national curriculum.”

What George Will may not have known at the time was that the Obama administration was already using several levers to get states into online curriculum that essentially nationalizes curriculum. One such lever is the #GoOpen Initiative. Utah is a partner (see here and here) in the first consortium of states in the Federal Initiative that are collaborating on online curriculum content. Just as states were incentivized by Waivers and Race to the Top to rubber stamp Common Core standards and assessments, they are being incentivized by the #GoOpen Initiative to rubber stamp curriculum, and to sanction it based on its ability to increase children’s test scores on Common Core-aligned daily, online assessments in learning platforms.

The #GoOpen Initiative is part of a larger global and federal initiative to advance the use of Open Educational Resources (OER). In fact, the US Department of Education appointed a new advisor to help school districts transition to Open Educational Resources. The more states that adopt open-license, no-cost, online curriculum, the more teachers’ curriculum choices can be tracked, and steered, by the Federal Online Learning Registry. The Registry operates like a curriculum filter and ratings system. The Utah Education Network (UEN)—also called the Utah Education Telehealth Network (UETN)— houses online curriculum for Utah schools and is named as the entity implementing Utah’s Master Technology Plan. They are partnered with the Federal Online Learning Registry.

The above realities make it likely that few parents and teachers will know just how anti-family their children’s/students’ curriculum have gotten. We need more teachers to investigate the online curriculum in their schools (as opposed to just using teacher data dashboards to assign curriculum that they don’t see) and to be willing to share what they uncover for the sake of helping parents protect their children’s hearts and minds.

Thank you, Suzan Barnes! You are a hero to us and our children!

• • • • • • • • • •

Online Learning: A Wise Choice for Utah Schools?

Originally posted by Suzan Barnes on June 7, 2016 at:
https://standwithme.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/online-learning-a-wise-choice-for-our-nations-schools/

Today online learning is encouraged more and more in our country. Proponents of this method say that computers help students learn better because 1) kids love screens and 2) learning is personalized allowing students to move at their own pace. In this essay, I will show that both of these presumed advantages can turn out to be liabilities. Other liabilities include lack of teacher involvement, lack of real-life experiences, lack of balance in content (specific to Edgenuity online curriculum), and lack of knowledge of content by teachers and parents.

Too Much Screen Time

Yes, kids love screens, and many parents complain that limiting screen-time at home is difficult. Regrettably, extensive use of screens in the classroom only increases screen-time. According to an article by Victoria L. Dunckley, M.D. in Psychology Today, multiple studies have shown that too much screen time causes atrophy in the brain’s gray matter where “planning, prioritizing, organizing, and impulse control” originate. Other areas affected are the striatum where socially unacceptable impulses are suppressed, the insula which provides the capacity for empathy and compassion, and the white matter which enables “communication within the brain and from the brain to the body and vice versa.” Dr. Dunckley concludes,

“In short, excessive screen-time appears to impair brain structure and function. Much of the damage occurs in the brain’s frontal lobe, which undergoes massive changes from puberty until the mid-twenties. Frontal lobe development, in turn, largely determines success in every area of life—from sense of well-being to academic or career success to relationship skills. Use this research to strengthen your own . . . position on screen management, and to convince others to do the same.”

As shown above, children may be eager to learn in front of a screen, but the damage that occurs is likely to have a negative overall effect on their ability to learn.

Online Learning Is Not Personalized

Proponents of online learning say it is personalized to meet the individual needs of each student. In actuality, during an online lecture, the student and the virtual teacher are unable to communicate which essentially precludes personalization and makes online learning better suited to disseminating a single, subjective view of the world.

Lack of Teacher Involvement

When a teacher delivers a lecture, both the students and the teacher are meaningfully engaged in the lesson content. The students must digest the information and demonstrate their understanding of the subject in order to complete subsequent assignments.

By contrast, the teacher’s involvement in online lessons occurs mainly through use of the dashboard. The dashboard alerts a teacher that an action, such as unlocking a quiz, is needed in order for a student to move forward. The teacher can review a student’s scores on assignments leading up to a quiz, or unlock the quiz without looking at the scores. In either case, familiarity with the lesson material or thoughtful review of the students’ work is not required.

One problem that arises from the lack of thoughtful review is that students can copy material from the lesson content and paste it into the response box to get a score of 100% since the computer merely looks for matching or related words.

Every day I see students who scored 70% to 100% on assignments, score 20% to 50% on the quiz that covers the same material. It is likely that the copy-and-paste feature combined with the lack of teacher/student engagement is responsible for this. For these students, the goal is not to learn but to finish as quickly as possible, and teachers who spend much of their time as dashboard monitors have little time to invest in any individual student’s educational experience.

Lack of Real-Life Experiences

Pediatricians recommend zero screen time for children under 2 years of age. An important reason for this is that looking at a ball on a screen is not the same as looking at, touching, and playing with a real ball. Similarly, students learning from pictures and videos are merely gaining static information which is easily forgotten. Much more effective teaching occurs when students interact with real people who respond to them in real-time and with real interest, tossing ideas back and forth to explore a subject. Should teachers wish to facilitate a group discussion of online curriculum content, they would encounter the following difficulties as a result of different stages of their students’ progression: 1) students who are ahead have already moved on and may feel they are wasting their time with repeated information, and 2) students who are behind may have insufficient background to understand the material.

Lack of Balance in Curriculum Content (Specific to Edgenuity)

As I work with students, I encounter essay assignments that prompt me to look into a particular lesson’s content. For example, an essay topic such as, “Do you think that the Founding Fathers were justified in rebelling against the British government?” makes me wonder what in the lesson might prompt a student to answer in the negative. An essay topic such as, “Write an argumentative editorial that argues for or against young people’s ability to initiate positive change in their communities,” makes me wonder if the curriculum’s definition of “positive change” is the same as my own.

To help readers determine whether or not their values align with the Edgenuity curriculum, I have included the following examples of common themes. My experience is mostly in Language Arts, so it is this subject from which these examples are taken.

Racism

Language Arts 9 semester 2 contains a unit called “Fighting for Equality.” Rather than encouraging students to become “color blind,” the curriculum creates division by presenting readings where whites are aggressive or oppressive toward other races, thus encouraging all other races to view themselves as victims.

Feminism

In Language Arts 11 semester 2, repeated references are made to Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles.” These works lead young women toward dissatisfaction with the role of wife and mother and disrespect for those who fulfill that role. The following themes are drilled into the minds of our young people through repetitious quiz questions.

From “Trifles” –

Women face abuses and injustices in a male-dominated society as symbolized by a bird with a broken neck
Women are “confined” by the duties of wife and mother
Women often feel pressured to conform to society’s expectations

From The Feminine Mystique –

Women frequently go unheard in a male-dominated society
Women can feel suffocated and trapped by society’s expectations
Women who are “stuck” at home often have feelings of dissatisfaction, desperation, and hopelessness.

After students read all the excerpts about how women are suffocated by men, an excerpt from Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway ends with the idea that girls are nice to look at, but not worth making the effort to court or marry. This excerpt encourages the boys to objectify women.

While awareness that some women have experienced oppression has some value, and knowledge of how our culture has evolved is an important part of learning about our nation’s history, the Edgenuity curriculum presents no point of view outside of that cited above. No discussion occurs about the benefits that society in general, and children in particular, receive from women who choose to raise their own offspring and provide well-managed homes for their families. Rather than empowering women to use their talents in whatever way they prefer, young women are encouraged to feel like vengeful victims who must continue “the fight” to overcome the abuses perpetrated by men.

Environmentalism

Humans are portrayed as enemies of the earth. One article, “Save the Redwoods,” written by John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club,* compared cutting down a sequoia tree to make wood products with passing General George Washington “through the hands of a French cook [to make] good food” (Language Arts 9 semester 1). The Middle School Reading Course semester 1 contains an entire unit called “Environment: Extreme Weather” which presents global warming as a fact illustrating its consequences through articles such as “Global Warming in Siberia,” “Global Warming and Superbugs,” and “Weather of Tomorrow.”.

Video gaming

Middle School Reading semester 1 also includes multiple units on “The World of Gaming” in which students are assigned to read a “Persuasive Essay against ESRB Labeling Restrictions.” The essay assignment is, “What game do you like to play and why?” While helping a student with a quiz, I came upon a reading informing students that gaming helps develop quicker reflexes and suggesting that they could use that as an argument the next time their parents told them they were spending too much time playing video games. Targeting parents who struggle to limit their children’s game time and suggesting that parents do not know best pits young people against their parents rather than encouraging respect and obedience.

A negative world view

Edgenuity is replete with stories and excerpts depicting conflict and oppression. Some examples from Language Arts 10 semester 1 follow:

“Diary 24” from “The Freedom Writers Diary” by Erin Gruwell (A homeless black girl starts 10th grade at a school where racial tensions are high)
“Two Kinds” by Amy Tan (Mother/daughter conflict)
“Identifying Conflict” (A young girl’s experience in a Nazi camp)
“An Interview with Marielle Tsukamoto: A First-Hand Account of Japanese Internment”
“Night” by Elie Wiesel (A boy’s experience in a Nazi camp)

As stated earlier, knowledge of historical events is a valuable part of an education. However, when students move from one depressing excerpt to another without class discussions which might offer solutions, parallels, and/or opposing viewpoints they can come away with a negative view of the world in which they live. Without class discussions, lessons generally proceed as follows:

Students watch a lecture preparing them for a reading
Students read the text
Students watch another lecture guiding their interpretation of the readings
Students complete at least one assignment pertaining to the material
Students are quizzed to make sure that their interpretation is “correct.”
The process is repeated

Lack of Knowledge of Content by Teachers and Parents

Ideally, teachers would listen to all the lectures and review the entire curriculum frame by frame and gain first-hand knowledge of the material presented. However, keeping up with dashboard alerts creates a fast-paced situation, and since they trusts the curriculum to cover all Common Core requirements, and this step is not required for students to progress and finish the courses, gaining more than incidental knowledge of the curriculum is generally not a priority. If teachers happen to discover a concept with which they do not agree, they can present an opposing viewpoint in a lecture or during a group discussion. But as mentioned above, group teaching presents its own set of difficulties when students are all in different stages of progression and possibly even studying different subjects altogether. Sharing opposing views with each student separately is too time-consuming and could be construed as pushing the teacher’s person values on an individual, so it is not a viable option.

As for parents, if no textbook ever comes home, they have limited access to the ideas being presented to their children. A parent must be aware of an objectionable teaching before they can counter it.

Many factors make it difficult for online learning to deliver a quality education. Quality learning is facilitated by real people exploring ideas and exchanging views through real-life activities and personal interactions. Through online learning, students are lead to accept the point of view put forward by the makers of the program, and as I have shown, much of the content of Edgenuity presents a divisive agenda promoting racism, feminism, and environmentalism along with a generally negative world view.

______________________________________________________________________________________

* Denigration of human life should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the Sierra Club. David Brower, a founder, suggested the following: “Childbearing should be a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license. All potential parents should be required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing.” He further stated, “The goal now is a socialist, redistributionist society, which is nature’s proper steward and society’s only hope.”

News

Personalized Learning or Psychological Profiling?

January 20, 2016 JaKell Sullivan Leave a comment

These headlines about personalized learning in Education Week (see their newsletter below) give a very good snapshot of how psycho-social research and big brother-style data are converging BECAUSE of federal funding.

The goal for states should be to slow down the personalized learning train and give parents the chance to choose, as Dr. Gary Thompson says, “by informed consent,” whether or not they want their child’s academic and behavioral data tracked in order to control what they learn, and how they are disciplined in schools.

As the Fed’s big-data partner, Knewton’s President Jose Ferreira said, “We have five orders of magnitude more data about you than Google has. We literally have more data about our students than any company has about anybody else about anything, and it’s not even close.”

MarketPlace details, “Jose Ferreira imagines a day when “you tell us what you had for breakfast every morning at the beginning of the semester, by the end of the semester, we should be able to tell you what you had for breakfast. Because you always did better on the days you had scrambled eggs.”

MarketPlace continues, “If the right breakfast makes for a better behaved child, that will be measured, too. Teachers are increasingly relying on behavior monitoring software not only to keep kids on track, but to track them, too. With the help of an iPad, the teacher record’s whether or not your child is being helpful and attentive or talking out of turn. The child is rewarded, often with points, for good behavior. Points are taken away when behavior is not so good.”

This explains why the Fed’s gutted FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) regulations so that healthcare and counseling could be provided in schools without parental consent to “improve student outcomes” on test scores. (We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.)

The ironic thing about the MarketPlace article is that James Steyer from Common Sense Media talks about why it’s important that we get a handle on this data surge. Yet, it is HIS company that met with the White House and is helping them get federalized curriculum to teachers through the White House Learning Registry’s data brokerage system.

So many people are out there trying to “do good” in education. But, they are operating off of the wrong principles. If education is about outcomes, than all this data is necessary and desirable to control everyone. If education is about learning and growing, then agency would be inherent and real “choice” in education would automatically exist.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Here’s the Education Week newsletter and link. Notice that the headline makes it sound as if schools are pushing for Personalized Learning, but the truth exists beneath the headline: “Produced with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.” For those who still don’t know, Bill Gates partnered with the Obama administration on Race To The Top and the end-goal was to standardize and digitize learning around Common Core and its associated data standards (see here and here).

Link to Education Week blog.

Concerns

Feds Will Control Curriculum, Competency and Credentialing

September 22, 2015 JaKell Sullivan 1 Comment

Reprinted from: http://www.returntoparentalrights.com/Blog.html?entry=feds-will-control-curriculum-competency

The federal government has absolutely no constitutional right to control curriculum, but they’re doing it anyway. In a 2011 video for the Whitehouse’s Learning Registry, Steve Midgley, the Deputy Director of Education Technology for the US Department of Education, says that the Learning Registry “makes federal learning resources easier to find, easier to access and easier to integrate into learning environments wherever they are stored.” He also admits that the Federal Communications Commission changed broadband internet regulations to get federally-sanctioned curriculum items into every child’s classroom.

Say what? Yes. You heard it right. The Whitehouse is picking winners and losers in curriculum providers. They have created an effective oligarchy over online learning and testing resources in order to make sure that the curriculum coming through your child’s school-issued iPad or computer contains the right worldview. They funded the creation of Common Education Data Standards (CEDS), gave states federal grants to expand their state longitudinal data system (see Utah’s here and here), got 300 (and counting) online learning and testing groups to create interoperable curriculum and computer-adaptive tests, and created a one-stop-shop called the Learning Registry where every child’s learning data will be tracked. This is information control, folks. And, it’s not just for K-12.

George Washington University, among many other institutions of higher ed, has jumped on the Learning Registry’s bandwagon. They are helping the federal administration (perhaps unwittingly) succeed at redefining student competencies around student behaviors, as opposed to academics. When Utahns think of competency-based education, we think of a student mastering something factual and proving competency. That’s not what the federal Learning Registry seeks. They define competencies around values, attitudes and beliefs. In other words, the more a student can think in moral relativist terms, the more “skilled” they are. Students who think “all truth is relative” will be easily malleable workers for a globally managed economy—widgets for crony business leaders.

So, how will the Whitehouse’s Learning Registry work? It will:

Filter the curriculum content that reaches teachers and students
Collect data on how a child thinks and what they believe
Use that data to personalize online learning curriculum and adaptive testing systems (compare this to political campaigns changing the way voters vote by collecting data to create personalized marketing)
Viola! A child will see America in terms of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality—and advocate for big government solutions.

When John Marini talked about the famous movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington written by Frank Capra, he said, “Frank Capra did not see America as many Americans do today, in terms of personal categories of identity…he understood America in terms of its political principles.”

If we want our children to be champions of liberty, including religious liberty, we need to engage our local education leaders in a discussion about who is defining “competency.” And, we cannot be naïve in thinking that we will implement competency-based education differently than the federal administration desires. If we put our plug (technology systems) into their electrical outlet (Learning Registry), we will be giving them all-power over what our children learn—and, we’ve already started plugging in. As one tech-savvy mom recently noted, “Parents need to understand that a unique student ID# will act like a social security number on steroids.

George Washington University says that they are helping the Whitehouse “create a beta version of a credentialing registry on the existing Learning Registry.” This means that the Feds are positioned, not only to control curriculum, but how colleges rate student credentials—also called “digital badges.” If this sounds like German-style education, that’s because it is.

We can’t allow the federal administration to use personally identifiable data to “personalize” learning resources for our children. It’s time for Congressional hearings into the Whitehouse’s Learning Registry—and it’s international data standards-setting partners, IMS Global and the SIF Association.

It’s also time for our local boards of education to take back what it means to have locally controlled education. Local boards should stand with parents by making sure that their district’s online curriculum and test items do not conform to federally-funded data standards.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

For more information on how the federal administration is aligning state and district policies to internationalist goals for competency-based education, see:

• Race To The Top for Districts (RTT-D) gave priority funding to districts that would embrace personalized learning and competency-based ed. See:
http://www.ed.gov/race-top/district-competition

• Feds Give Nudge to Competency-Based Education
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/03/19/feds-give-nudge-competency-based-education

• Bill Gates’ KnowledgeWorks has published two Policy Briefs with the most extensive information about how the federal administration used Race To The Top to push state and district policies towards implementing personalized-learning and competency-based ed.

Brief #1: Competency Education Series Policy – An Emerging Federal Role for Competency Education

Brief #2: Competency Education Series – Federal Innovation Competitions: A Catalyst for Competency Education

• iNACOL, KnowledgeWorks and the CCSSO (the state superintendents’ club that helped federal partners create Common Core standards), issued this report on their 2011 national Competency-Based Education Summit.

iNACOL made sure that global competency-based education policies made it into the Elementary and Secondary Education Act’s reauthorization bill. See:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/inacol-statement-on-esea-markup-and-recommendations-for-essential-elements-300035249.html

http://www.inacol.org/news/senates-esea-reauthorization-bill-provides-flexibility-for-innovation/

Concerns

STEM – Ask yourself “why?”

May 28, 2015 JaKell Sullivan 6 Comments

JaKell Sullivan posted this on Facebook and with permission I’m reposting it here.

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STEM. Ask yourself “WHY?”

I wish more and more parents were making the connection between the “why” of federal funding behind Common Core and STEM. If you have not read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, please read it and then read it with your children. The book’s “State Science Institute” actually offers us a window into the world we are now entering–state controlled science.

The federal administration is not funding STEM (and state governors are not accepting federal grants) to improve learning in those fields. They are funding STEM fields to change our children’s worldview, ie; to use technology, data and psuedo-science to further state power and control, and advance social justice.

Arizona State University is creating the ‘New American University’ (the blueprint for aligning colleges to Common Core). They are eliminating 40 schools within the college. There are no longer science disciplines in their own schools. For example: “Biology, microbiology, and plant, molecular, and cell biology merged to become the School of Life Sciences. There is also now a School of Human Evolution and Social Change, School of Earth and Space Exploration, School of Social and Family Dynamics and School of Social Transformation.”

Remember when science used to be the search for truth? And when education was about learning history and the wisdom of the ages, not advancing social justice causes?
See: http://hechingerreport.org/is-arizona-state-university-the…/

This is why federal grants are pushing and more low-income minorities (including children from Mexico) into these STEM fields. The poorest can be used to propagandize the rest. Data can hold and perpetuate the values of those in power. As more and more girls are pushed into these fields, their hearts will be turned inside out—trusting in the “science” of data rather than the still small voice that is their divine, nurturing gift as women.

See the point below about “reverse engineering the brain” in the federal Grand Challenge.

The federal government is funding the following entities who have “committed” to federal goals for what it means to be STEM educated:

• STEM Americorp
• US2020 – US2020 is expanding its city-level STEM mentoring network. The long-term goal of US2020 is to mobilize 1 million STEM mentors annually by the year 2020. (Ask yourself, why is the federal government so desperate to get 1 million STEM mentors in America?)
• Federal agencies
• Technology companies
• Early career scientists (ie; get the young teachers on board by pairing them with mentors)
• Teachers (the NOAA, NASA and Dept. of Ed are launching “teacher-led” efforts to showcase approaches addressing climate change)
• Philanthropies
• Corporations
• CEO Coalitions
• Education Campaigns
• Grant programs
• Universities and Colleges (more than 120 are committed to train 20,000 engineers to tackle the “Grand Challenges” of the 21st century. The Grand Challenge will include topics like “reverse engineering the brain” and “making solar economical.”
• Library programs
• Museum programs
• K-12 and College Curriculum
• Online assessments
• Children’s television shows and media programs (Applicants are also encouraged to develop new models of embedded assessment and learning systems that adapt as children use them.)
• Youth organizations like Boys & Girls Glub, National 4-H Council and YMCA
• Citizen Science Initiatives (track rain, hale and snow to investigate man-made climate change)
….and on and on.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/23/fact-sheet-president-obama-announces-over-240-million-new-stem-commitmen

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To continue with the engaging comments and additional information this post generated, please go here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/utahnsagainstcommoncore/permalink/1841210999438302/

Another article on this topic is here:

https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/wybi-stem-to-steam-ties-to-common-core-pt-1/

Concerns

SB235 Effectively Federalized Utah’s Education System and Federalization is Anti-Family

March 14, 2015 JaKell Sullivan 1 Comment

Senate Bill 235 – School Turnaround and Leadership Development passed at the midnight hour of Utah’s legislative session last night. It passed under a different name though—”Education Modifications.” It sounds much more innocent that way. This bill, while already passed, MUST STILL BE CHALLENGED! Why? It codified Obama’s Federal Waiver reforms into state law and, for all intents and purposes, federalized Utah’s entire education system. Federalization is Anti-Family because it’s Anti-Agency.

Are we willing to tell our children and grandchildren that we sat back and allowed it to happen? Please say no.

Below, I am sharing a letter that I sent to a member of the Utah State Board in November 2014 (credits go to Michelle Boulter of Return to Parental Rights for allowing me to include her excellent research). I also shared portions of this with Senator Niederhauser and his SB235 co-sponsor Rep. Bradley Last.

Parents, delegates who voted down Common Core, and taxpayers must rise up to hold these legislators, and those legislators who supported SB235, accountable for their actions. And, there must be a call to repeal this bill. We must demand that the State School Board, Utah’s Attorney General Sean Reyes and Auditor John Dougall AUDIT THIS FEDERAL PROGRAM if we want to preserve parental rights and local education control.

Dear Utah State Board member,

Were you aware that the US Department of Education funds the federal Center for School Turnaround? This is a program that trains school and district leaders how to implement the federal education reforms linked to President Obama’s Race to the Top/Common Core. The goal is to “develop district and school leadership skills needed to meet the challenges of turning around low-performing schools.” The Utah State Office of Education has a 5-year contract to run district/school leaders through this federal program. The program is headed by WestEd and the 2009 Stimulus-created/funded testing consortia SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia)?

Why is SBAC involved with state/district school turnaround training? Could it be that federal turnaround measures are directly tied to Common Core testing and the revamping of instructional models in our local schools?

My hope is that you will audit this federal program. The information below unveils how the Utah State School Board has been losing “general control and supervision” of Utah’s education system. Much of that control is being lost to the Utah State Office of Education which is operating as an unaccountable 4th branch of government directing federal education programs in Utah. The Obama administration is funding programs through state offices of education, and other avenues, in unprecedented levels. I hope you can help restore your elected power for the sake of parental rights.

I don’t know if you read my op-ed in the Deseret News that talked about ObamaCare architect, Ezekiel Emanuel’s admitted malintent behind healthcare reform. Ezekiel said, “Be prepared to kiss your insurance company goodbye forever.” Common sense tells us that the intent behind federal education reforms is the same. There is a reason why Ezekiel’s brother, former Chicago Superintendent Rahm and his buddy, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, are leading school “turn around” reforms. The Federal Government is working to “turn around” schools under Title 1 in order to require that more community services be provided via schools. Because Federal FERPA laws trump HIPPA, this will allow for more, and all kinds, of federal-level data collection on children as schools are turned into community, health and counseling centers. Technology will facilitate most of the reforms that superintendents will be trained in. See: “ConnectED to the Future Convening Brings Future Ready Superintendents at the White House.”

http://www.ed.gov/blog/2014/11/connected-to-the-future-convening-brings-together-future-ready-superintendents-at-the-white-house/

Here’s the link to the Federal Center For School Turnaround. It states, “The US Department of Education created a Center on School Turnaround and awarded a five-year grant and cooperative agreement to WestEd to administer the new center.

http://centeronschoolturnaround.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Evolution_of_School_Turnaround2.pdf

Here’s the Utah State School Board’s/USOE announcement about joining this federal partnership via the University of Virginia’s Darden/Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education.

http://utahpubliceducation.org/2011/12/23/utah-school-leaders-participate-in-school-turnaround-initiative/#.VGTijIdSa_0

Here’s WestEd touting Ogden District as their model for the Federal Reforms:

http://www.wested.org/wp-content/files_mf/1379439998Ogden_Case_Study.pdf

New State Superintendent Brad Smith (and I assume he is a great guy) went through this Federal training as Ogden District’s Superintendent. It’s anticipated that all Utah districts will go through training.

This article details the federal “turnaround” training programs for superintendents and principals funded through Obama’s Race to the Top. It states, “Both the transformational and turnaround models of Obama’s school restructuring plan begin with a directive to replace the principal, and in the latter case, at least half the teaching staff as well.” (Note: These are the kinds of reforms that took place in the Ogden school district under then Superintendent Brad Smith before he became Utah’s Superintendent)

The article continues, “And with the other two options—the close/consolidate model, which closes schools and transfers students to higher performing schools, and the restart model, which closes schools and reopens them as charters—principals are also likely to find themselves out of work.”

“With 74 percent of schools eligible for improvement grants opting for the transformational model—which calls for a comprehensive overhaul of instruction (pedagogy tied to Common Core standards), evaluation systems and other school operations in addition to replacing the principal—the need for effective administrators is a pervasive problem, Connelly says. But it’s especially dire in the persistently low-performing schools where pressures and challenges are high and strong leadership is crucial, she adds.”

“… No longer are principals regarded as performers of largely managerial duties. Today’s principals need skills in analyzing data to drive successful instruction” (Data isn’t the friend of local control. It’s what controls everything from the federal level).

Because State Superintendent Brad Smith was trained in this federal program, and Ogden was the pilot district, some see it as the sole reason for his decisions to fire teachers and principals in Odgen. The Federal objectives are that superintendents, principals and teachers will eventually be replaced by superintendents from crony corporate/federal reform camps like Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change or Eli Broad’s Broad Academy with Principals from Arne Duncan’s Principal Corp and teachers from groups like Teach for America. Microsoft is one of the main funders of this Federal turnaround program, and they have a vested interested in Common Core standards.

In our most recent conversation, you tended to think that Business/Corporate reforms support the education vision of many on the Utah State School Board. I don’t. I think that Corporate Reforms in our current political climate are Federal/Crony-Capitalist Funded reforms all tied to Common Core standards in order to support data comparability across the country and nations. (See that Pearson is taking over the United Nation’s PISA exams in 2018.) It’s not about improving student achievement. It’s about dismantling locally controlled education and creating an endless stream of taxpayer profits for those in power as their policies (controlled by “the data” from test scores) dictate instruction requirements, hiring requirements, testing requirements, data collection requirements, 1-to-1 technology requirements, etc. The program is Corporate Ed reform just like Arne and Rahm did in Chicago. It’s all about crony capitalists taking over public schools deemed “turn around” schools based on test scores. These crony reforms have decimated the Chicago school system. The designated schools have to implement new instructional models (aligned to Common Core standards) and data based decision training, including reliance on behavioral data.

I want to digress for a minute and reference this quote from the federally-funded Common Core Next Generation Science Standards “Framework” creators—Achieve, Inc.:

“Students will make the greatest strides in learning science and engineering when all components of the system—from professional development for teachers to curricula and assessments to time allocated for these subjects during the school day—are aligned with the vision of the framework.”

Listen to what they reformers are saying! EVERYTHING AT THE LOCAL LEVEL WILL BE CONTROLLED BY THEM! This is the height of arrogance! These federal school turnaround reforms, and their associated reforms to education standards and tests, are about controlling local decision making using test scores as the nail in our coffin. IT’S COMPLETE STANDARDIZATION OF THE ENTIRE SYSTEM. The death nail to parental rights! The death nail in individual exceptionalism and personal agency!

Here’s what Ogden Superintendent Brad Smith said about attending the Darden/Curry training:

http://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/Darden-Curry-PLE/UVA-School-Turnaround/Testimonials/

In bullet 6 here, they say the program focuses on behavioral data:

http://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/Darden-Curry-PLE/About/Beliefs/

And, here, liberal education expert Diane Ravitch explains that the school turn around idea came from Arne Duncan’s days in Chicago when he came up with a plan called Renaissance 2010:

http://m.democracynow.org/stories/13673

Ogden Superintendent Brad Smith and his retrained Ogden crew were invited to Governor Herbert’s office on Aug. 27th (before Smith was hired on as State Superintendent). Smith gave the Governor’s office his blueprint for reform. (Is this why he ended up being selected as State Superintendent?) The book was called “Leverage Leadership.” This book’s blueprint is not a Utah blueprint. It is THE federal Race to the Top/School Turnaround blueprint.

The author of Leverage Leadership is Paul Bambrick-Santoyo. He also wrote “Driven By Data“. He is on the Data-Driven Instruction faculty for New Leaders for New Schools (which is one of the main, federally-funded school turnaround training programs for districts). New Schools were products of Arne Duncan’s crony-friend, John Schnur who headed Race to the Top. Politico wrote about Arne, Obama and John Schnur’s relationship here. One book reviewer explained the premise of the New School’s school turnaround model like this:

“The author’s main suggestion is that schools create a set of interim assessments that lead up to U.S. state assessments. He suggests that not only these, but also classroom assessments are created to mimic the format of state assessments. Doing this would leave very little room in a school’s assessment plan for contextualized assessments…. The narrow focus on preparation for U.S. state tests, which is the only measure of success mentioned in the book, is actually quite disturbing.”

“Leverage Leadership” describes a system of principals observing and micromanaging teachers and what happens in the classroom. Diane Ravitch exposes the agenda here.

And, Susan Ohanian exposed this about New Leaders for New Schools:

“The promo for the book Driven by Data promises that the book will show the reader “how to create a data culture” and “how to deal with resistance from your teachers.” It is recommended by Jon Schnur, co-founder and chief executive officer, New Leaders for New Schools, and senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. He is to Race to the Top what Sandy Kress was to No Child Left Behind. And on 8/4/10, his outfit was rewarded by a payment of $616,474 from the US Department of Education, our tax dollars at work.”

I hope that’s enough information to help stop these reforms in Utah. School turnaround is not about helping disadvantaged children in Title 1 schools. It’s about schools becoming the nanny state. As US Secretary of Education said, “Schools MUST become the center of community life.” With these school turnaround programs, there will be a dramatic shift from families being the fundamental unit of society to schools controlling family education and health decisions. And, it will all be controlled by third-party/federal data.

Welcome to 1984.

Regards,

JaKell

p.s. more information included below for your reference.

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Wallace Foundations School Turnaround Field Guide defines turnaround: “Turnaround is a dramatic and comprehensive intervention in a low-performing school that: a) produces significant gains in achievement within two years; and b) readies the school for the longer process of transformation into a high-performance organization.” This definition sounds great yet the devil is in the details. When you look closely at HOW this turnaround will be implemented it doesn’t take long before you realize that with this “intervention” there will be a loss of local control and parental control.

The State Role In School Turnaround is a report produced by WestEd in 2014 outlining the states role in implementing the federal school turnaround program. It states that WestEd “is supported by the Center on School Turnaround through funding from the U.S. Department of Education”. In the chapter entitled “Leveraging the Bully Pulpit” it reads, “When it comes to school turnaround efforts, chiefs can use the position to catalyze, support, enable, and sustain school turnaround efforts. Given limited resources at their disposal, effectively optimizing the bully pulpit is a key tool in a state chief’s toolbox” (p. 32).

The turnaround program, which is led and funded by the United States Department of Education, will monitor schools to make sure they are in compliance with the School Improvement Grants (SIG). All changes must be submitted and approved by the Department of Ed. The people hired to monitor the schools and districts are called “District Shepherds”. In the case study done for Ogden school district it describes what the district did for its turnaround schools. In 2011/12 school year Ogden superintendent submitted his resignation and Brad Smith was appointed the new superintendent for OSD (page 3). On page 5 of the case study it talks about the “District Shepherd”. Sandy Coroles, OSD’s Executive Director of Curriculum and Federal Programs, became the “District Shepherd”. It was noted by teachers that they “can’t go anywhere else in Utah and receive more professional development.”

The consortium for school turnaround in the southwest United States is called, Southwest Turnaround Leadership Consortium, funded by the Department of Ed as noted in Endnote 1.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the Southwest Comprehensive Center was part of a network of regional and content centers providing state education agencies with high-quality, relevant technical assistance. From 2005 to 2012, the SWCC was operated by WestEd. In 2012, the SWCC was replaced by the West Comprehensive Center (WCC), also operated by WestEd.

This Consortium partnered with the University of Virginia to establish this turnaround program in the Southwest and all training takes place at the University of Virginia. Here is a copy of the agreement between Ogden School District and the University of Virginia for turnaround training. In 2014 Menlove sent a memorandum to the State Board in regards to the turnaround program grant.

An Important company to look into further is FSG Social Impact Consultants. From the website: FSG is a mission-driven consulting firm supporting leaders in creating large-scale, lasting social change.

This document, The School Turnaround Field Guide, is from FSG Social Impact Consultants. It states, “The size of the U.S. Department of Education’s current investments in education, coupled with the acute need of states and districts for funding, has put the federal government in a strong position to incent policy change and to set expectations for the types of turnaround strategies that states and local education agencies (LEAs) use.” (page 4)

Continued on pg.4-5, it talks about the turnaround in state’s NCLB Waivers:

Turnarounds. Replace the principal, rehire no more than 50 percent of the staff, and grant the principal sufficient operational flexibility (including in staffing, calendars, schedules, and budgeting) to implement fully a comprehensive approach that substantially improves student outcomes.

Restarts. Transfer control of, or close and reopen a school under a school operator that has been selected through a rigorous review process.
School Closures. Close the school and enroll students in higher-achieving schools within the LEA.
Transformations. Replace the principal, take steps to increase teacher and school leader effectiveness, institute comprehensive instructional reforms, increase learning time, create community-oriented schools, and provide operational flexibility and sustained support.

Pg. 7 Lists key players – First being the US Education department with funding which can “expand its efforts”. States and Districts play a role as well as Unions. It is being encouraged that Unions view this as a “laboratory in which they are more willing to experiment with new types of contracts, new ways of collaboratively partnering with districts, new work rules, and new teacher-evaluation and pay-for-performance approaches” (pg.8).

Pg. 27 describes policies other states have put in place to help with the turnaround process. Tennessee passed legislation to create an “Achievement School District” akin to the Recovery School District in Louisiana. Low-performing schools would be removed from their home districts and placed under the state’s authority. Massachusetts’ SB 2247 increases school-level autonomy in failing schools and doubles the number of charter schools in its lowest-performing districts.

These practices are very dangerous and will only succeed in removing local and parental control from local school districts.

Concerns

5 Bills that need stopped

March 4, 2015 JaKell Sullivan 3 Comments

Prosperity 2020 sent out a news alert yesterday that they need these 5 bills to pass. If you aren’t aware, P2020 is a national/state corporate effort to implement the federal reforms tied to Common Core in the federal Stimulus Package. Please read our opposition to these bills, and contact your legislators accordingly.

S.B. 196: Math Competency Initiative (Senator Ann Millner and Rep. Francis Gibson):

http://le.utah.gov/~2015/bills/static/SB0196.html

This bill ties math competencies to “college and career ready” standards as a high school graduation requirement, ie; Common Core math, and further embeds Common Core testing in the state.

The rhetoric behind this bill states that these math competencies will prepare students for STEM careers and allow students to receive college credit. But, as has been reported widely, Common Core math does not prepare students for STEM careers. Sandra Stotsky, a member of the National Common Core Validation Committee, did a great write-up in the Wall Street Journal about how Common Core math will NOT create more engineers or scientists. Read that here.

CONTACT: Your House Representative (and all House membership) and urge them NOT to further embed Common Core’s fuzzy and weak math in the state of Utah. Emails can be found here: http://le.utah.gov:443/house2/representatives.jsp

SB. 97: Property Tax Equalization (Senator Aaron Osmond and Rep. Bradley Last):

http://le.utah.gov/~2015/bills/static/SB0097.html

Retired Utah Appellate Court judge, Norman Jackson said, “This bill reads more like an omnibus set of regulations than a statute. It looks difficult for attorneys, State and County officials and judges to interpret and apply. It may empower the Tax Commission to micro-manage County Commissioners & Auditors, and local School Boards and Administrators.”

Conservative Columnist Stanley Kurtz said this about Tax Equalization schemes tied to Common Core, “Under the guise of what they euphemistically refer to as “regionalism” or “regionalization,” Kruglik and Obama intend to help troubled cities seize control of the suburban tax base, as well as ending local control of education and other services.” The federal end-game is to push local tax monies away from local school districts in order to regionalize education control. This will make it possible to regionalize local governments. Read about regionalization here from the founder of Achieve, Inc. who co-created the Common Core standards. Also, Bill Gates is going so far as to have Mayors sign “Gates Compacts” so that mayors control the Charter Schools in urban cities which further requires taxation to follow the child into areas where corporate cronies want to see taxpayer money flow. Remember, first, these same cronies bypassed the US Congress to initiate Common Core, now they will bypass local elected school boards and go straight to mayors. This is not how a Representative Republic works, and Utah taxpayers must be watchdogs if we intend to preserve the ability for the American dream to thrive. Isn’t part of the American Dream to buy a bigger house and move to a great school district in the suburbs? That dream dies under tax “equalization” schemes and centralized education planning.

Read where Salt Lake City’s mayor, Ralph Becker met with U.S Secretary of Ed Arne Duncan.

CONTACT: The House Revenue and Taxation Committee and urge them NOT TO PASS this Property Tax Equalization bill out of Committee. Members are:

Rep. Daniel McCay (R), Chair
Rep. Jeremy A. Peterson (R), Vice Chair
Rep. Joel K. Briscoe (D)
Rep. Rich Cunningham (R)
Rep. Gage Froerer (R)
Rep. Brian M. Greene (R)
Rep. Eric K. Hutchings (R)

Rep. Ken Ivory (R)
Rep. Brian S. King (D)
Rep. John Knotwell (R)
Rep. Mike K. McKell (R)
Rep. Douglas V. Sagers (R)
Rep. Jon E. Stanard (R)

Emails for these committee members so that you can send one email:

dmccay@le.utah.gov, jeremyapeterson@le.utah.gov, jbriscoe@le.utah.gov, rcunningham@le.utah.gov, gfroerer@le.utah.gov, bgreene@le.utah.gov, ehutchings@le.utah.gov, kivory@le.utah.gov, briansking@le.utah.gov, jknotwell@le.utah.gov, mmckell@le.utah.gov, dougsagers@le.utah.gov, jstanard@le.utah.gov,

HB. 198: Strengthening College and Career Readiness (Rep. Patrice Arent and Senator Stephen Urquhart):

http://le.utah.gov/~2015/bills/static/HB0198.html

This bill further embeds Common Core into school-level training. Its stated goal is to, “Develop a certificate for school counselors that certifies that a school counselor

is highly skilled at providing college and career counseling” and to train counselors to promote “participation in college and career assessments.” It funds training for school counselors to guide students into “college and career ready” tracks. P2020 says, “This bill provides innovative training that prepares school counselors to guide students in their postsecondary choices.” This 2012 packet from the College Board (which Common Core’s architect now heads) explains how counselors will be refocused on Common Core alignment.

Corporate interests like to tell the education establishment that they will know what jobs will be available, and when, so that students don’t go down an education path where there will be no jobs. THIS IS A MANAGED ECONOMY FOR WORKERS. America was built on the idea that agency breeds entrepreneurialism. C.S. Lewis said this about job training, “Education is essentially for freemen and vocational training for slaves…If education is beaten by training, civilization dies.”

CONTACT: Your Senator (and all Utah Senators) and urge them NOT to further embed Common Core into the state of Utah through school counselor training. Emails can be found here: http://senate.utah.gov/senators/full-roster.html

S.B. 235: School Turnaround and Leadership Development Act (Senator Wayne Niederhauser and Rep. Bradley Last)

http://le.utah.gov/~2015/bills/static/SB0235.html

The 4th reform in the Federal Stimulus Package, and in states’ Waivers from No Child Left Behind, is “Turning Around the Lowest Performing Schools.”

This reform is tied into tax equalization and regionalization of local governments. Under this bill, if a public district or public charter school are deemed “failing” by test scores, they are federally mandated to be “turned around” or shut down. The Utah Association of Public Charter Schools explained it like this, “Under this process, the charter school can choose from a stable of “turnaround experts” identified by the State Board of Education to assist in changing the school’s “culture, curriculum, assessments, instructional practices, governance, finances, policies, or other areas” (see lines 176-177). This expert will work with the school to develop a plan, specific to that school, designed to increase the school’s grade. When the school and its turnaround expert complete the plan, they must submit it to the State School Board for approval.”

This bill further centralizes education control. So much for school “choice.” See the Federally-funded Center for School Turnaround for more info. Utah’s State Office of Education has a 5-year contract to run district leaders through this federal school turnaround program.

CONTACT: Your Senator (and all Utah Senators) and urge them NOT to support this bill. We do not need to put federal school turnaround mandates into state law. We should be pushing control and accountability back to the local level. Emails can be found here: http://senate.utah.gov/senators/full-roster.html

S.B. 222: Digital Teaching and Learning Program (Senator Howard Stephenson and Rep. Francis Gibson)

http://le.utah.gov/~2015/bills/static/SB0222.html

This bill sets up what it calls the “master plan” to implement technology into teaching and learning in all of Utah’s schools, and is linked to “improving test score outcomes” which will require more adherence to Common Core assessments. It sets in motion (maybe without the sponsors even knowing it) the Whitehouse’s ConnectEd Initiative to replace textbooks within 5 years. See lines 301 through 338. The ConnectEd Initiative was funded through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Prior to the ConnectEd Initiative, the FCC gave a grant to the Telehealth Network at the University of Utah and that explains why the Utah Education and Telehealth Network is the entity overseeing the implementation of S.B. 222. Telehealth has nothing to do with K-12 education and everything to do with gathering data to turn schools into health and community centers. Education and Health data can be further collected and centralized under this bill. It states that it will comply with Federal FERPA laws. Federal FERPA laws have been gutted by the Obama administration so that education data can be shared for various purposes unrelated to education. This bill will foster the eventual use of stealth, embedded assessments in learning platforms.

CONTACT: Your Senator (and all Utah Senators) and urge them NOT to support this bill. We do not need to tie digital learning and teaching technology to federally funded healthcare projects. Further, we do not need a comprehensive Utah law that sees poor outcomes on Common Core assessments as a reason to mandate more technology use. Emails can be found here: http://senate.utah.gov/senators/full-roster.html

Utahns Against Common Core

All posts by JaKell Sullivan

Stop FEPA

Whole cities are being turned into Common Core Learning Centers?

The background on Cities of Learning

Cities of Learning, Common Core, Competency-Based Ed and Digital Badges for children

Global technology standards created the perfect storm for the loss of local curriculum and assessment control

America’s cities are starting to join in the movement to badge children’s global competencies (also called social-emotional skills)

What you should know about Digital Badges and international technology standards for Competency-Based Ed

It’s time to take back local control over online curriculum and assessments

Governor Keep Your Promise

Utah is Losing Teachers. Clintons, Gates and Feds are Supplying Them

Utah Teacher Exposes Anti-Family Online Curriculum

Personalized Learning or Psychological Profiling?

Feds Will Control Curriculum, Competency and Credentialing

STEM – Ask yourself “why?”

SB235 Effectively Federalized Utah’s Education System and Federalization is Anti-Family

5 Bills that need stopped

Protecting Our Children