All posts by Oak Norton

News

An Open Letter to Teachers, Plus Teacher Comments

3 Comments

Dear Teachers,

We want you to know that we support and appreciate you. We want to return local control to the schools so that you can again work closely with parents and children to individualize the educational experience for as many children as possible. We know many of you feel like the teacher in this video. You’re frustrated and many of you have thought about retiring because you are unappreciated and being standardized yourselves. The vast majority of you are total professionals trying to do a very difficult job. We know that some of you don’t yet realize the hammer coming down on you from Common Core. Others of you are fully aware of what’s happening and you’re in various stages of frustration. Please don’t quit. Please speak out. If you can’t within your school or district, contact the media and ask if they will protect your identity. Most will. We will keep you anonymous unless you are able and willing to put your name to your comment. There are legislators who can help but they just don’t know what is happening. Contact them and express your concerns. Hundreds of you have contacted us sharing your concerns and we are trying to do everything in our power to help you.

Here are some teacher comments we have received recently. Previous comments can be read at these links (batch 1, batch 2).

As an educator, I oppose the Common Core. After teaching it for one year I am completely convinced that we are destroying our students’ love of learning. What used to be our favorite part of the day (math) has become the most dreaded and hated part of the day! We have taken the most important part of learning away from children…fun! Not only that, but it is completely unconstitutional! The federal government has NO right to dictate to local school districts, parents and teachers what will be taught. -1st Grade Teacher in Cache County

Our system doesn’t push kids to their full potential. Education isn’t one-size fits all. – Salt Lake County, 4th grade

It has very socialist leanings.  It seems to dumb down what the students are to learn. – Middle School, Iron County

They are taking away our rights as parents and a community to decide whats best for our local kids. – Jr. High, Washington County

Education should be locally controlled. The more and more red tape being hung up, the worse and worse education has become.  Bring it back to a local level. State guidelines maybe, but local communities will be a lot more invested in the education of their youth than someone hundreds or thousands of miles away. It is about control and there is way to much of that right now. Ultimately, education has suffered and will continue to suffer because the family is breaking down. As you continue to give away or take away more and more responsibility from parents, this will only get worse not better. If the state, who should be defending families and education, particularly this state, continues to give away or allow the federal government to usurp control, your students will become mindless robots without the ability to think and only the ability to obey. Do we want automatons or do we want thinking, processing, problem-solving humans? If it is the latter, then step far, far, far away from Common Core. It isn’t worth the money. – 5th, 8th, 11th grade teacher in Cache County

Common Core Curriculum lowers the standards for real achievement in academics. Even more dangerous, it tries to subvert the values that Utahns uphold and strive for while “subtly” or not-so-subtly brainwashing our children with anti-American and pro-socialism propaganda. – 10-12th grade Social Studies, Utah County

1).  It is more government involvement than NCLB. 2).  There is no legitimate data that shows there are positive benefits that come from CC. 3).  Home work assignments that intrude on the student and family.  There are schools that do not follow the law by sending prior notes home to parents asking them permission for their child to respond to intrusive questions. – Heidi, Salt Lake County Teacher

I recently attended a common core day of cheer leading for the sixth grade teachers in my district.  Money was used to pay for subs so that we could all hear for a day why the common core was so wonderful.  We were told that students would no longer be graded on completion of assignments or an average of assignment and test scores over a grading period.  Instead grading will be based on mastery of a subject.  How do we determine mastery?  The district has provided bench mark tests in language arts.  We were told that these are not mandatory BUT that if we did not use them they would become mandatory.  I find it scary that students will now be graded only on tests written by the core.  The final assessment was a research paper on modern revolutions.  Interesting how Now in the sixth grade learning can be skewed to a political point of view that may or may not be historically accurate.  I find the curriculum scary and the measurement of learning terrifying. I know though that any questions I asked contrary to the core were met with anger and frustration. It was NOT allowed and dismissed to ask a question that was not common core friendly. I along with other teachers are afraid to speak out publicly against the core for fear of losing our jobs. I work in the Jordan school district.

In my opinion, this all started with “no child left behind.”  Now teachers are afraid for their job security, cheating on testing, and now dumbing down our children so they can pass off a test for federal funding.  I am against socialist/communistic agendas that seek to own responsibility for children instead of parents.  I am against data-testing which label children and their capacity for growth.  It’s Hitler all over again. (Which gene-based prejudice began in the US.) I am against Channel-One and the propaganda it is brainwashing our children with to pull them into compliance by telling them that soon there will be brain studies that will help them, in care of Obama. I am scared of what it will do to Special Ed. students who will then have to wear a label the rest of their lives as being worthless to society.  How dare the government label OUR children and tell them their worth. PLEASE STOP COMMON CORE IN OUR STATE! PLEASE STOP AND PREVENT SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM FROM GETTING INTO OUR EDUCATION. – Salt Lake County

First grade math is not age  approriate !  I have taught math for 25yrs.  To both average and gifted children.  The approach does not give children a sequential program.  Average children who are open minded and want to learn give up and start hating math.  My gifted children don’t want to do math either because the way they want it taught is so confusing.  As an experienced math certified teacher I want my children to love it as I do.  We are not allowed to adjust our curriculum to give our children the preparatory skills they need to move on.  I have never had such a discouraging year teaching.  We are not allowed to diversify our teaching to accelerate those who are gifted.  We are trying to create a Nation of mediocrity.  How sad to see education to come to this.  Why not allow teachers with years of experience and a love for learning to teach children in tried and tested ways they know work. – Salt Lake, 1st Grade Teacher

The standards are still a mile wide and an inch thick. First graders are supposed to solve equations with unknowns…yet, most first graders have such little number sense that they can’t tell you the difference between 9 and 10 without counting down nine on their fingers. Number lines used to be a math staple. Now we let students learn counting with blocks and hundred charts. That doesn’t help them see that comparing numbers and subtraction truly are related ideas like a number line does. No wonder they can’t understand word problems. Oh, and equal, if not greater emphasis is on constructivism rather than instruction. This is true in all disciplines. Second graders don’t remember to start a sentence with a capital and end with punctuation nor can most spell…but who cares? If you let them read and write a lot, that will all be fixed through natural processes. Have them write Multi-page stories and papers when the don’t know how to write one well constructed sentence using 7 or more words, capitals, end marks, and which make complete sense – oh and don’t forget the importance of creative spelling. All of this nonsense remains in the Common Core the way Utah teachers are being trained by the state. Your child can’t read or write clear sentences…who cares? Have them write story summaries, find supporting details and write clarifying questions about the text. Don’t bother teaching them how to summarize a paragraph…skip to them just realizing what a good summary of an entire book is and writing it. In addition, districts have decided that the Core matters…not the curriculum. So why purchase curriculum that covers the Core? The only good part of the Core is that students ought to be learning content…remember history, geography and science books from the olden days? Well, according to the state, the students don’t actually need to learn the content…just use it to be better readers and writers using our wonderful constructivist writing and reading strategies. Another great part of the Core? Grammar is back! Oh, but that isn’t essential..so you don’t need grammar instruction, except of course in your constructivist writing class where students will realize what looks and sound correct from their knowledgable peer editors. And, for all this constructivism, you simply don’t need to buy curriculum….no, no, no! The beauty is that teachers can just write the curriculum in unit studies for, GET THIS, the cost of paper copies! No content knowledge experts needed. No curriculum sequencing specialists needed, and no experts in assessment design.   Will that leave much time for lesson planning? Will teachers be able to teach whole class instruction? No, of course not…but, who cares? The children can lead the direction once they know the learning objective. They can read different texts and use the one thing you did model…how to stop and think all kinds of things when reading a book..write down words you don’t know, predict, wonder, make connections to self so that reading one story takes a mere week of struggling and questioning. Did you know that when read well, it takes at least THREE full reading periods to read aloud the first grade book “Are You My Mother?” – of course, that is really how good readers read…stopping to wonder, question and write so that ten pages of big text takes hours to read. I mean, that really helps you get through college.  All in all, we really are heading in great directions here. – San Juan County, 2nd grade teacher

Common Core is not classical education, which I believe in.  It dumbs the curriculum down even more. – Karen Hunt, Utah County El. Ed. Teacher

The standards are a knee jerk attempt to assess students in a way that may be counter productive.  The mathematics common core is not and will not be recognized nationally.  Why are we limiting our students? – Sanpete, 11th grade

Simply because,I would like to see education administered locally, not by the federal government.  Education should not be generalized across the nation.  Common Core dumbs down education to the lowest common denominator. – K-6 Resource Teacher, Utah County

After reading information both for and against common core, I don’t appreciate the fact that states had to be “bribed” to accept it. – Sheri Rivera, 4th grade, Utah county

I am opposed to any one group making such important decisions about what should or should not be taught to school children all over this country especially when it gain driven as Common Core appears to be. There is suspect in testing because of the tremendous amount of money that exchanges hands, and because of the large amount of money behind lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Common Core is just one more monster on the money list. – Sevier County, 8th grade

I feel that the Common Core is only focusing on certain things, like non-fiction, to the exclusion of other, equally important things.  I am also concerned that students are being dropped into the Common Core in the middle without the requisite information, and are floundering. – Davis, 8-9th grade

I’ve seen the math doing very incompetent and poor learning because of the lack of cohesive, tried and true, concept teaching. I’ve spent more and more time trying to meet the demands of all the “big wigs” above me justifying their large salary jobs through the common core etc. than in being able to prepare meaningful lessons and grading “only the bare minimum” of what I do assign.  I was a great teacher when I had parents who I accounted to and only a few (Principal, and Superintendent) administrators who were there to help me be the best teacher I could be through their support – NOT their job-justification demands. – Anne Roundy, Davis, High School

Having taught math to middle schoolers for 16 years, the CCS are developmentally inappropriate. Some standards are too abstract for those still on a concrete level. Not every child is ready to “see” and understand Algebraic concepts by 8th grade. – 7-8 grade teacher

I went to the Secondary Math Common Core training last summer.  I saw the negative reaction of every teacher but one who were “trying” to implement the half-baked common core curriculum from the state.  I have read the melange of standards for Sec I, II and III, and have seen the lack of textbooks that support this curriculum.  Besides teaching HS Secondary Math, I also teach as an adjunct in Dev. Math at 3 universities, I know the entry level math and curriculum required for entry level college math, and the methods used to teach this, and the common core standards are simply not going to get students to where they need to be for college. In our “training” what bothered me most was the “one size fits all,” “one way to teach” garbage we were fed.  The “Learning Cycle” at the center of the core is merely one way to teach math. Am I to believe that different learning and teaching styles don’t matter? I fear we are headed down a path to having our students taught by robots. I may move just to teaching at the university level so I can continue to help remediate the poorly prepared students from public education.  There have been more developmental math classes offered at my university this year than ever before and I contribute this to the beginning stages of implementing the common core integrated standards.  I guess at least my job there will be secure. – 7-9th grade, Utah County

I’m very worried about the Federal Government taking control of education in our State.  I feel they promote their agenda–and in the new reading programs I’m forced to teach, the literature promotes their agenda while never teaching patriotism or anything about the virtues we have traditionally held dear.  We can never teach about our Founding Fathers or freedom when we follow the outline they’ve set up–but they have us teaching about how great Obama is! – 1st-3rd grade teacher in Washington County

I don’t like the math.  It doesn’t allow for students to accelerate into higher math classes. – 8th grade teacher, Sevier Co.

I feel that CC takes away local control.  It was not adopted in an open and honest way.  I feel that it provides way to much opportunity for the agendas of national politicians to be introduced and taught contrary to what parents and teachers feel are best.  I can see in Language Arts alone the very real possibility that students will not enjoy reading anymore with the push towards reading “informational text” and away from classic novels. I fear that if I speak out against CC I will be blacklisted and treated differently, perhaps to the point of losing my job.  These are just a few of my concerns. – Middle School, Utah County

Common Core is dumbing down our students by requiring less of them. The math standards are ridiculous! I can’t even begin to tell you how insuffient they are.  Working one problem 3 different ways?  Why not spend time on three different problems giving the students more exposure.  The students are getting very bored reworking one problem over and over. They want to be challenged, not pacified. – 5th grade, Davis County

I don’t think we should slow down the top students which is what CC will do.  I also think the low end students need more help and CC won’t allow it.  One size fits all isn’t the answer to education.  I also think local parents and teachers need say in what is taught, not the Federal Government being paid off by Corporate $$$ telling us what to teach.     There have been a couple of times in my teaching career that I spent time at the USOE as a committee member working on curriculum and testing.  It was a group of Utah teachers.  That is how it should be.      I have a friend that teaches at Head Start.  She has always complained about the Federal Gov. control of the program and how with some kids things need to done differently.    Keep the Federal Government out of our children’s education.  Public Education is the job of the states. – Miriam Chambers, 7-9th grade Weber teacher

Common Core does not take into consideration the needs of individual students. All must learn that standard element at a prescribed instant. Teachers are not allowed to take the time to reteach, adjust instruction or review. Once the prescribed time has past, another concept must be introduced. – K-8 teacher

Students are not widgets on an assembly line to be mined for data.  They should be treated as individuals by professional educators.  That often requires a unique approach that doesn’t fit into a nationwide educational system. – Uintah 7th grade

It is unconstitutional, It takes the right to privacy away from the individual an parents, it is worse than what we already have, unknown costs and out come. – 9-12th grade, Weber County

I oppose the philosophies of the groups funding and supporting Common Core – Bill Gates, Bill Ayers, Arne Duncan, etc.  These individuals do not promote or adhere to Constitutional principles. – K Turner, 6-8th grade Bountiful

It takes little into consideration for child development at the lower grades. – 1st grade teacher, Utah county

It opens the door for too much bad and doesn’t offer enough good. It’s not the direction we need to go. It encourages everyone to git inside a square when many kids don’t. It states that kids must learn on a schedule and if they don’t there’s no going back and picking up the pieces. There’s not time. They are just plain out of luck.   We need to more to a student based learning system. See where they are at the beginning of the year, put them in like groups, and chart their progress. This will help our lows catch up, and will help our highs keep growing.   We need to encourage parents to be involved. Offer a tax credit for parents who volunteer a certain amount of hours in the classroom. We need to fix the family. One of the student’s I use to teach mom would remind me frequently that her name was on her child’s birth certificate not mine (her teacher) or the government so if there was a problem with her or she wasn’t learning it was the parent’s responsibility, not mine. We need to get more parents to think this way.   Common Core is a step backwards, not forwards. If we are to remain competitive we need to focus on our kids where they are starting and chart their progress. Not give them unrealistic goals that many can’t reach.   My other worry with Common Core is the fact that 46 out of 50 states are using this curriculum. That means that every text book publishing company will begin to cater their text books to common core. That’s where the money is. Down the road it will become increasingly easy for someone to come in and decide that kids no longer need to learn about …. For example the causes of the Civil War. It will become easy to forget our history. It opens the door for someone to get too much power. We need to back out of this. It seems like the easy way out of NCLB which is a bad law, but a majority of the time the easy way out isn’t the best.-Davis County, 2nd grade

 

News

Change the purpose of education

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Lynn Stoddard, a retired educator, had this article published in the Ogden Standard-Examiner. With permission from Lynn, I am reposting it here. Lynn makes several great points about the differences in children that make standardization of a classroom of children impossible.

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It is a disturbing fact that Utah spends less per student in our public schools than any other state, but we spend more than the national average to incarcerate prisoners in jail.

We could reduce the tax burden for prisons and spend more for education, if nearly every child grew up with a firm resolve to be a “contributor” rather than a “burden” to society. Is this possible? The answer is yes, if we have the courage to change the purpose of public education.

At the present time, the main purpose of education is for students to be standardized, uniform or “common,” in a limited number of school subjects, mainly reading, writing and math.

Should this be the main purpose of education?

Do we really want students to be alike in knowledge and skills? A typical fifth- or sixth-grade class has students who range all the way from beginning readers, and a few at each grade level, all the way up to one or two who are reading at eleventh- or twelfth-grade level. Why and how would you standardize them?

If we were to change our main purpose, it would open the door to a new system of public education. The following major purpose would jump-start the transformation: Help children find their purposes for existing and develop the powers of human greatness to be special contributors to society.

What changes would be needed in public education for this objective to be exercised?

Visions of greatness

Perhaps the most important thing we can do for children is to help them see a vision of their God-given, unlimited potential — to help them see their purposes for existing to be joyful contributors to their world. One way to do this is to ask a child, “What do you want to be or do when you grow up?” “Who are your heroes?” “Why?” Later you can ask, “What do you need to do to get ready for your chosen vocation?

These kinds of questions start the wheels turning in the child’s mind — to begin the visioning process. Questions like these also leave the responsibility where it belongs — with the child.

It’s not only wrong, but harmful to hold teachers accountable for standardizing students. Perhaps the most degrading and dehumanizing activity in public schools is what I learned about last week. An elementary school principal told me the school is now starting three weeks of testing to see how well teachers are standardizing students.

He said these tests regulate everything teachers do during the school year. Teachers are angry and frustrated.

It is especially sad to learn the tests are developed to hold teachers accountable for making students alike in knowledge and skills at each grade level.

Being sensitive to each child’s unique needs is the highest form of respect and love. It’s this relationship that will help students make a commitment to be contributors to society.

When a child respects (loves) a teacher, that teacher’s words will often have a life-long impact. Words like, “Charles, I can see you becoming a great scientist some day,” or “Becky, you are so good at writing, it gives me goose bumps.” When we help children see themselves as contributors, we, ourselves, are then making a valuable contribution.

If we really want to end drop outs, bullying, and restore enthusiasm in teachers, parents and students, we will change the main purpose of education. If Utah continues down the path of standardizing students, education will continue to stagnate. Teachers will stay demoralized and student achievement will remain flat.

On the other hand, if we change the main purpose of education, there will be a renaissance of excitement, enthusiasm and creativity. The group I work with is promoting “educating for human greatness,” a concept that fosters positive human diversity, “phd,” advanced, different achievement for every child. It’s a concept that helps children learn reading, writing and math better, and not according to the conventional time table, but when the time is right for each one.

I urge school boards, teachers and parents to activate their integrity and tool-up for next year with an all-inclusive purpose for public education that honors a child’s agency, right and reasons to be unique and different from all others.

Lynn Stoddard, a retired educator, is the author of four books and many articles on how to improve public education. He lives in Farmington and can be contacted at lstrd@yahoo.com.

Answering Charges

A Reply to Superintendent Menlove

19 Comments

The State Superintendent recently responded to someone who had concerns about Common Core with this email:

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Mrs. ______,

I understand you and others do not like Common Core.

Can you help me understand what you think our standards should be.  Should we have standards?  Do you think our standards should align with tests our children will take to determine college entrance and scholarship opportunities?  Do you think our standards should align with what the Utah System of Higher Education has determined our student need to be successful in college in Utah?   Which specific standards would you eliminate or change?  What standards are missing and need to be added?

I invite you and others concerned with Common Core to be part of the solution.

Martell Menlove

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I’d like to respond to the Superintendent line by line to make sure I address each of these points.

Dr. Menlove,

>I understand you and others do not like Common Core.

Good start establishing common ground.

>Can you help me understand what you think our standards should be.

Certainly. They should be strong standards on par with what the best states in the country were using before Common Core. In fact, our Utah 2007 math standards were better than Common Core so I’d suggest we return to those or else consider using CA’s, MA’s, or IN’s pre-Common Core math standards which have been recognized as exceeding Common Core. Our Utah ELA standards weren’t great according to the Fordham Foundation, but Massachusetts had some great standards that Sandra Stotsky helped create. Did you know she volunteered to come to Utah for free and help us write the best standards in the country with the help and input of Utah teachers? That’s what I’d suggest we do for ELA. This combo would give Utah children a real advantage and we would actually have a Utah core that wasn’t a relabeling of Common Core.

>Should we have standards?

Is this meant to be thought-provoking or just an expression of frustration that a growing segment of the public is feeling disenfranchised and complaining to our public education leaders? Standards are important. Standardizing all students on the same standards at the same pace is destructive. If you’d like more information on this, please watch Sir Ken Robinson’s just released TED video on the problems of No Child Left Behind.

>Do you think our standards should align with tests our children will take to determine college entrance and scholarship opportunities?

What was wrong with the ACT, SAT and AP exams before they were being aligned(ACT, SAT and AP) to Common Core? Nobody complained about them not being aligned to our standards. Why start now? It just becomes a graduation test instead of a test of broader knowledge. If a student graduates from high school and gets A’s on their Common Core aligned computer adaptive tests, why do we even need the ACT, SAT, and AP exams? They’d be redundant and make students sit through the same exam content questions.

>Do you think our standards should align with what the Utah System of Higher Education has determined our student need to be successful in college in Utah?

To my knowledge, the USHE didn’t participate in the creation of Common Core. However, USHE professors did participate in the creation of our 2007 math standards. Why are you rejecting the work they did on the 2007 math standards in favor of what out-of-state special interests created in order to profit their companies?

>Which specific standards would you eliminate or change?

I’m hoping you can see the wisdom of not picking flecks of manure from chocolate chip cookies. The batch is tainted and it’s time for a batch made from fresh ingredients.

>What standards are missing and need to be added?

Dr. Menlove, what standards were missing in our 2007 math standards that needed to be added? Perhaps it was the ones the external reviewer Dr. Hung-Hsi Wu from Berkeley said needed to be modified that the USOE refused to fix to give us A rated standards. Still, we wound up with A- rated standards that the Fordham Foundation said are actually clearer than Common Core. So why did we need to change? Oh yeah, the feds offered us money if we’d switch and then didn’t give us any money when we complied. I guess that’s what happens when you gamble with the dealer…

>I invite you and others concerned with Common Core to be part of the solution.

We’ve actually given you a solution. Why do you resist higher standards for Utah children? Aren’t our children deserving of the very best education? With the rest of the country following mediocre standards, why do you not want Utah children to have the advantage of a better education? Why do you not listen to your constituents solutions? Wasn’t the state board who appointed you, also elected as watchdogs for the public? Why don’t they listen to the public? With 65.5% of GOP state delegates getting informed about Common Core and rejecting it, what is your plan to listen to the people and act on their solutions? Why is your solution for the public to just accept whatever you and the USOE decide is best for our children? That’s not an acceptable solution from a public servant.

Oak Norton

 

Educational

Sir Ken Robinson on Education’s Death Valley

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If you’ve never watched a talk by Sir Ken Robinson, it’s a treat. He’s quite funny and raises some great points. I’ve had a couple people recommend watching this video recently, and I finally did and its fantastic. Ken points out the problems of No Child Left Behind, and without mentioning it, slams Common Core which suffers from an even greater standardization of children. He brings out the importance of individualizing education for children, or what I term an agency-based education approach.
This is a TED talk and lasts about 20 minutes.

News

Scandal in the USOE?

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Utah State Office of Education

Dr. David Wright at BYU has posted information on a website (http://utahmath.org) alleging what appears to be shocking events inside the Utah State Office of Education and reaching into multiple Utah universities.

In the 2012 legislative session, a Math Materials Access Improvement Grant was passed (SB 217) which required the State Board of Education to select a content developer to develop new math textbooks for 7th and 8th graders, and an adaptive assessment program. The state office wrote the Request for Proposal (RFP) differently than the grant directed. Two proposals were submitted, one from Dr. Jeffrey Humpherys and the BYU math department, and one from Dr. Hugo Rossi at the University of Utah.

According to Dr. Wright’s documentation, there were irregularities in the U of U application including plagiarism of content and missing items that should have been included per the RFP. At least 4 USOE employees were aware of the plagiarism: Diana Suddreth, Brenda Hales, Sydnee Dickson, and Michael Rigby (who apparently found the plagiarism). Both Suddreth and Dickson were on the review committee to select a grant winner. Emails show Diana Suddreth dismissed this saying,

“It also appears that the U is unaware of the copyright violations since they pulled their materials from sources that were labeled as licensed under Creative Commons. Therefore, I do not think this invalidates their proposal.”

Two weeks later the USOE awarded the grant to the U of U and two days after awarding them the grant, Diana wrote Dr. Rossi stating,

“Before you dive in too quickly, we need to have a conversation on why the request for a response about plagiarism was required.”

Clearly people at the USOE knew plagiarism was a problem. In fact, in some circles, individuals would say this type of charge results in “academic death.”

Several other important factors also came up. During the review of the grants, Suddreth informed Rossi that he should add Dr. David Wiley in BYU’s education department to the grant. Suddreth was a co-principal investigator with Wiley on another sizeable grant.

During the RFP review, Rossi offered an honorarium to Suddreth on a project he was working on. In an email he states,

“All your expenses in connection with this project will be covered by the USHE, including an honorarium of $300/day for participation in the meetings, if you are able to accept such an honorarium given your professional role.”

This offer seems highly inappropriate given that Suddreth would evaluate the RFP’s and participate in awarding the grant.

Dr. James Cangelosi at Utah State was one of the 5 grant reviewers, and on the same day the grant was awarded to the U of U, Suddreth was able to secure another $70,000 for Cangelosi’s UMEP program at USU. That has a tainted smell to it.

Is it any surprise that on May 1st of this year, Tami Pyfer on the State Board of Education sent letters of Common Core support from Dr. Rossi and Dr. Cangelosi to state legislators? These two professors are in the back pocket of the USOE after having received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants and apparent favoritism.

In Cangelosi’s letter to legislators, he concludes by emphasizing “Utah’s Mathematics Common Core is another in our string of efforts to supplant ‘schoolmath’ with research-based mathematical pedagogy.” He’s flat out wrong. He’s one of the top constructivists in the state and he’s misinterpreted the standards to be a call for pedagogical reform in the direction of constructivism.

Bill McCallum, one of the lead authors of Common Core math standards, was specifically asked about this misinterpretation of pedagogy some are espousing and stated,

“I don’t see the standards as dictating any particular teaching method, but rather setting goals for student understanding. Different people have different ideas about what is the best method for achieving that understanding. That said, I think it’s pretty clear that classrooms implementing the standards should have some way of fostering understanding and reasoning, and classrooms where students are just sitting and listening are unlikely to achieve that.”

Dr. Wright has links to all the documents on his website (http://utahmath.org/) and concludes with 6 questions that the public deserves answers to.

1. Were any of the reviewers of the grant proposal conflicted? Were all of them qualified to review mathematics?
2. Did the U of U proposal contain plagiarized material?
3. Did Diana Suddreth direct the U of U to pick a principal investigator who was a co-principal investigator on a grant with Suddreth?
4. Did the sample lesson for the U of U contain “any text” (i.e., content exposition for the students) which was a requirement of the RFP?
5. Did the U of U grant proposal address “adaptive assessment” from the standard public education definition?
6. Did Hugo Rossi offer an honorarium to Diana Suddreth during the review period?

Each of those questions is hyperlinked to the relevant documents on Dr. Wright’s website (http://utahmath.org).

We expect public servants to use our tax dollars wisely. In this case, at a minimum, it would appear that the USOE violated the original instructions from the legislature. At the other extreme, they engaged in unethical and immoral behavior. The public deserves a full and thorough investigation to address these questions, perhaps in the education subcommittee of the legislature where the legislature can call on the USOE to account for their actions in going against the will of the legislature in the original grant.

I strongly encourage you to email State Superintendent Dr. Martell Menlove, point him to Dr. Wright’s website, and ask him to conduct a full and thorough public investigation of these questions. If true, everyone aware of the situation should be fired from the USOE, and all related parties outside the USOE who were involved in this should be forever banned from further grants and involvement with the state educational system.

Dr. Menlove can be emailed at Martell.Menlove@schools.utah.gov.

Please also copy your state school board member and legislators on that email as well. You can locate who your board member is and legislators at these urls.

http://le.utah.gov/GIS/findDistrict.jsp (find your legislators by your address)

http://www.schools.utah.gov/board/Board-Members/Find-Your-Board-Member.aspx (find your state board district here)

http://www.schools.utah.gov/board/Board-Members.aspx (look up your board member here)

You can also copy the 2 board of regents representatives on the state board to ensure they investigate and take action at the university level.

Teresa Theurer (teresatheurer1@gmail.com)

Marlin Jensen  (jensenmk@ldschurch.org)

 

News

Utah GOP Anti-Common Core Resolution PASSES

36 Comments

At the Utah GOP convention today, delegates passed a resolution to oppose Common Core with what’s been reported as a 65.5% YEA vote! That’s a huge margin on a resolution that the state office of education worked hard to oppose.

A big thank you to all volunteers who spent time passing out information this morning to help educate delegates, and a big thank you to the delegates who made the right choice.

Resolution on Common Core State Standards and Assessments

WHEREAS, The Common Core State Standards Initiative (“Common Core”), also known as “Utah’s Core,” [1] is not a Utah state standards initiative, but rather a set of inferior nationally-based standards and tests developed through a collaboration between two NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) and unelected boards and consortia from outside the state of Utah;[2] and,

WHEREAS, Common Core was financed with private foundation funds,[3] replacing the influence of our votes with wealth and influence to bypass our state legislature and impose control over Utah’s education standards and tests;[4] and,

WHEREAS, Common Core binds us to an established copyright over standards, from which we cannot subtract, replace or add to – beyond an additional 15%;[5] and,

WHEREAS, the General Educational Provisions Act [6] prohibits federal authority over curriculum and testing, yet the U.S. Department of Education’s “Cooperative Agreements”[7] confirm[8] Common Core’s test-building [9] and data collection[10] is federally managed;[11] and,

WHEREAS, “student behavior indicators”[12] – which include testing[13] for mental health, social and cultural (i.e. religious) habits and attitudes[14] and family status – are now being used for Common Core tests and assessments; and,

WHEREAS, Common Core violates Utah[15] state and federal privacy laws[16] by requiring the storage and sharing[17] of private[18] student[19] and family data without consent;[20] using a pre- school through post-graduate (P-20) tracking system and a federally-funded State Longitudinal Database (SLDS), creating surveillance capability[21] between states[22] and federal agencies,[23] in accordance with funding mandates;[24] and,

WHEREAS, Common Core violates constitutional[25] and statutory prohibitions by pressuring states to adopt the standards with financial incentives tied to President Obama’s Race to the Top, and if not adopted,  penalties[26] including[27] loss of funds; and,

WHEREAS, the federal[28] government is imposing yet another unfunded mandate on our State[29] for unproven[30] Common Core instruction[31], training and testing platforms, without any pledge of financial support from federal, state or local governments; and,

WHEREAS, unproven experiments[32] on our children, lacking empirical data[33] to support them, are removing traditional math, replacing classic literature[34] with increased technical reading[35], and prohibiting teachers from reviewing the tests to know what they ought to be teaching; and,

WHEREAS, this top-down process and the principles behind Common Core[36] undermine the teacher’s role[37] and do not support American and Republican ideals of local control,[38] parental choice[39] in education, standards and testing; and,

WHEREAS, the Republican National Committee recently passed a resolution opposing Common Core State Standards;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that we call on the Governor[40] and the Utah State School Board to withdraw from, and we ask the Utah State Legislature to discontinue funding programs[41] in association with, The Common Core State Standards Initiative/Utah’s Core and any other alliance[42] that promotes and tests for un-American[43] and inferior,[44] curricula,[45] standards[46] and assessments; and,

THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution shall be delivered to the Governor and the State legislature for executive and legislative action.

Submitted by State Delegate Cherilyn Eagar, Salt Lake County
State Delegate Co-Sponsors:  Wasatch – Alisa Ellis, Norman Durtschi, Anissa Wardell, Patricia Deden, Suzanne Pollard Juab – Stella Lightfoot Washington – Mary Burkett Box Elder Jeff Hardy Weber –  Lance Adams, Dan Deuel, Bea Cardwell, Clark Roberts, Laura Warburton, Gregory Martin, Becky Gerritsen Iron – Blake Cozzens Davis – Rod Arquette, Mark Arrington, Dale Hulse, Stephanie Terry, Kris Kimball, Phill Wright, Mark Cook, Christopher Snell, Bruce Bolingbroke, Barbara Derricott, Stephen P. Cloward, James Oldham, Elizabeth Mumford Summit – Jacqueline Smith Salt Lake – JaKell Sullivan, Jennifer Jensen, Maryann Christensen, Laureen Simper, Larry Jensen, Lisa Cummins, John M. Knab, Scott Miller, Rhonda Hair, Phoenix Roberts, Eric Fowler, Tana Allen, Chelsea Woodruff, Jennifer Jensen, Janalee Tobias, Kendall Springer, Kathryn Gritton, Brian Gallagher, Brent Maxwell, Rebecca Akester, Kurt Jaussi, Joseph Darger Utah – Gayle Ruzicka, Kristen Chevrier; Rod Mann, Larry Cerenzie, Clark Parker, Nancy Jex, Marie Nuccitelli, Amelia Powers, Brandon Watters, Barbara H. Ward, William C. Lee, Heather Williamson, Darren Rollins, Peter Morkel, Lisa Baldwin, Don Carlos Davies, Todd Seager, Rhonda Wilkinson, Alyson Williams, Sherilyn Colby, Diana Ballard, Delvon Bouwhuis, Mike Bready, Richard Jaussi, Tamara Atkin, Jamie Towse, Julie Blaney, Kent Besaw, Kevin Braddy

School Board-Legislative Endorsers: Congressman Jason Chaffetz; State Representatives Jake Anderegg, Brian Greene, Keith Grover, Mike Kennedy, David Lifferth, Curt Oda, Marc Roberts; State Senators Margaret Dayton, Mark Madsen, Stuart Reid; Curt Bramble School Board Members Joyce Sudweeks, (Piute), Peter Cannon (Davis), Brian Halladay, Wendy Hart, Paula Hill (Alpine)

 

 

[1] http://www.corestandards.org/terms-of-use

[2] http://senatedist23.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/common-core-memo-from-judge-norman-h-jackson/

[3] http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2010/06/National-Governors-Association-and-State-Education-Chiefs-Launch-Common-State-Academic-Standards

[4] http://www.schools.utah.gov/arra/Uses/Utah-Race-to-the-Top-Application.aspx

[5] A State may supplement the common standards with additional standards, provided that the additional standards do not exceed 15 percent of the State’s total standards for that content area – http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/executive-summary.pdf

[6] “No provision of any applicable program shall be construed to authorize any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, or over the selection of library resources, textbooks, or other printed or published instructional materials by any educational institution or school system…” – General Educational Provisions Act

[7] http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/sbac-cooperative-agreement.pdf

[8] http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/performance.html

[9] http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/performance.html

[10] http://nces.ed.gov/forum/datamodel/information/aboutThe.aspx

[11] http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/23/remarks-president-no-child-left-behind-flexibility

[12] http://le.utah.gov/~2012/bills/hbillenr/hb0015.htm

[13] https://www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com/dr-thompsons-letter-to-superintendent-menlove/

[14] http://www.air.org/about/?fa=viewContent&content_id=96

[15] http://le.utah.gov/code/TITLE53A/htm/53A13_030100.htm

[16] http://epic.org/apa/ferpa/EPIC-ED-FERPA-MSJ.pdf

[17] http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/edfacts/index.html

[18] http://www.dataqualitycampaign.org/stateanalysis/states/UT/

[19] http://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/state.asp?stateabbr=UT

[20] http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/usoe-the-answer-is-no-can-a-student-attend-public-school-without-being-p-20slds-tracked/

[21] http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/19/unlocking-power-education-data-all-americans

[22] http://siec.utah.gov/

[23] http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2012/07/ed_urges_states_to_make_data_s.html

[24] http://www.ed.gov/recovery

[25] http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/tenth_amendment

[26] http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/publication_pg4.html

[27] http://dianeravitch.net/2012/12/27/teacher-common-core-harms-my-title-i-students/

[28] http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/vision-education-reform-united-states-secretary-arne-duncans-remarks-united-nations-ed

[29] http://www2.ed.gov/policy/eseaflex/ut.pdf

[30] http://www.aasa.org/uploadedfiles/publications/newsletters/jsp_winter2011.final.pdf

[31] http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/04/27/30pearson.h30.html

[32] http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2000/01/Stotsky-Invited-Testimony-for-Kansas-on-Common-Core.pdf

[33] http://greatlakescenter.org/docs/Policy_Briefs/Research-Based-Options/02-Mathis_CommonCore.pdf

[34]  http://heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources%5CE02123%5CNewkirk_Speaking_Back_to_the_Common_Core.pdf

[35] http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/11-12

[36] http://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/eec/equity-excellence-commission-report.pdf

[37] http://zhaolearning.com/2013/01/17/more-questions-about-the-common-core-response-to-marc-tucker/

[38] http://www.k12innovation.com/Manifesto/_V2_Home.html

[39] http://aclj.org/education/parental-rights-in-education

[40] http://www.utah.gov/governor/news_media/article.html?article=7433

[41] http://www.prosperity2020.com/2011/07/27/a-focus-on-the-basics/

[42] http://www.utahdataalliance.org/

[43] http://house.michigan.gov/sessiondocs/2013-2014/testimony/Committee223-3-20-2013-6.pdf

[44] http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_3_massachusetts-education.html

[45] http://hoosiersagainstcommoncore.com/james-milgram-testimony-to-the-indiana-senate-committee/

[46] http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2000/01/Arkansas-Testimony-2013.pdf

Concerns

Clinical Mental Health Therapist Interviewed

6 Comments

After seeing the disturbing video of what the Utah State Office of Education has recommended for use in ELA 1st grade classrooms, Joan Landes, a masters level Clinical Mental Health Therapist licensed in the state of Utah, contacted us with some concerns. In this video she shares them with us. The people displayed at the bottom of the video are from left to right, Alisa Ellis, Christel Swasey, Joan Landes, and Renee Braddy.