Common Core Education And More About Federal Government Control

[Diane Amberg]

So you consider Japan's educational system and Great Britain's' and many others communist? Wow!
By the way, I read the entire OK standards guide. It's actually quite good. I suspect the parents who want their kids to get "good grades" without rising to the challenge will kill Common Core, without ever putting in the effort to find out the details about it. It sets state standards, and right now just for math and English/reading, but allows a lot of flexibility in the materials used and allows the teachers many ways to present information. Weak teachers won't like it.The ones who aren't very creative will struggle and it unfortunately may also allow PIGS too much access to the kids...like PETA
So, you go right ahead with your personal attacks and negative labels. Apparently you can't write without them. I'm sure you have taken your son out of school by now. You surely wouldn't want him to  have an open mind about his education.

[Ross]

Kyle founded Education Action Group in 2007.
November 26, 2013

MUSKEGON, Mich. – On the heels of a controversial children's book about Barack Obama – which stated "white voters would never vote for a black president" and that "Barack's former pastor" said "God would damn the United States for mistreating its black citizens" – comes a new lesson that casts America's 44th president in a messianic light. Literally.

And – surprise – it's Common Core-aligned.

The lesson plan and accompanying visual presentation were authored by Sherece Bennett, and is for sale on TeachersPayTeachers.com. It's all based on a book titled, "Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope," by Nikki Grimes.

In one passage, a young Obama sees beggars and wonders, "Will I ever be able to help people like these?"

"Hope hung deep inside of him," the book adds.

Another excerpt from the book reads: "Before dawn each morning, Barry rose – his mother's voice driving him from dream land. 'Time for learning English grammar and the Golden Rule. Be honest, be kind, be fair,' she taught him."

The story continues: "One morning, he slipped on the name he'd been born with. The name of his father, Barack. For the first time in his life, he wore it proudly – like a coat of many colors."

Uh oh – another Obama-inspired Biblical reference in a government school! But there's no controversy here. Leftists will use God and the Bible, in instances such as these, when it appropriately fits their propaganda purposes.

Son of Promise Prezi still No story about Barack Obama would be complete without mentioning his work as a community organizer. The book describes those days in dramatic fashion:

"The work was grueling, with stretches of failure, and puny patches of success. Door-to-door Barack went, early mornings, late nights, pleading and preaching, coaxing strangers to march together, to make life better for everyone.

"He worked as hard as a farmer, planting the words 'Yes, we can!' like seeds in spring.

"Impatient, Barack kept wondering if those seeds would ever sprout. He worried that the hope in him would fade away."

This mythical interpretation of Obama was the #1 New York Times bestselling picture-book biography of Obama, according to Amazon.com.

Bennett's lesson calls for students as young as third grade to read Grimes' book and do a number of activities, including making a collage of Obama:

"Have students bring in magazines and photos of President Obama. Have students create a collage about Barack Obama based on the information from the text. The collage should represent pictures and words about Barack Obama."

Grimes' book and Bennett's lesson plan are more fitting for an authoritarian regime in which children are taught to deify and praise their dear leader. One can almost envision teachers in Cuba, Venezuela and Iran using similar books and lessons.

Thankfully, that's not the American way, which makes these learning materials completely unsuitable for our classrooms.

Still, given the large number of activist teachers in the U.S., there's a very real possibility this is the version of Barack Obama's history many of our young students are learning in a school near you.

http://eagnews.org/teachers-3rd-grade-lesson-presents-messianic-view-of-obama-literally/

[Ross]

So you consider Japan's educational system and Great Britain's' and many others communist? Wow!
By the way, I read the entire OK standards guide. It's actually quite good. I suspect the parents who want their kids to get "good grades" with out rising to the challenge will kill Common Core, without ever putting in the effort to find out the details about it. It sets state standards, and right now just for math and English/reading, but allows a lot of flexibility in the materials used and allows the teachers many ways to present information. Weak teachers won't like it.The ones who aren't very creative will struggle and it unfortunately may also allow PIGS too much access to the kids...like PETA
So, you go right ahead with your personal attacks and negative labels. Apparently you can't write without them. I'm sure you have taken your son out of school by now. You surely wouldn't want him to  have an open mind about his education.

I give up on your negative attitude about such a great and noble goal of removing the federal government from control of our class rooms. Please see the propaganda in the above post.

You stick with supporting Obama Common Core and the propaganda and the lies in education that is a real positive thing and I wish you luck with it.

No ma'am my son has not been taken out of school, that was just plain nasty and cruel of you to suggest. What happened to positive.

I bet, I have spent more time in school in the last 5 to 10 years than you have. I am a welcomed visitor at Elk Valley. That's right Elk Valley USD 283 - something that never happened at West Elk USD-282. The attitude at Elk Valley USD-283 is so much better, so much friendlier, so much more helpful in my opinion.

Now, that there is a real positive attitude about Elk Valley USD- 283.

TTFN

[Diane Amberg]

I never said I was pro or against Common Core, so stop labeling me!
I know schools that are using it for the reasons it was meant to be used..in a two year trial period. They are doing fine. With the UD College of Eduction right here ( not it's actual name ) there is a lot of research interest  in how the kids are doing, proofing the CC work and yes, finding errors. They have student teachers in a lot of the schools I've worked with and they are checking it all out too. Has nothing to do with Federal "control".  I do resent the total crap that some people are blogging and making it all sound wrong by taking a sentence or two out of context to make a negative point. I just saw one about having the kids show their work when doing math, so the teacher could tell how the child was thinking about the problem. Suddenly that was turned into a teacher who said that an incorrect answer was acceptable. That is not even remotely what she said or further explained. LIES!  She was explaining why she wanted to see the child's work, so the error in thinking could be corrected!
You are absolutely right. I have not spent any time in Kansas schools in the last 15 years. As far as Delaware schools, I'll take that bet and win.
You, yourself have written about lousy parenting, parents who don't want to have to support their kids' educations, want them to be given grades they don't deserve or earn, yet you want the parents to totally control the schools. There is just nothing more unsettling than having a parent come in with a chip on their shoulder to try to negotiate a higher grade for their spoiled kid, especially when the teacher shows them the grade book and all the 0's for missed assignments, or missing home work. We never gave homework on Friday as it was.
Why, Common Core is too hard! AW! Sez who...whom.
Which parents? The ones who care and do the right things for their kids education, or the whiny ones who don't want their kids to work as hard as they can for their ability, and are very vocal about it. After all, it's all the teachers' faults .....Especially the truant kids who rarely go to school. Ya can't help or teach a child who isn't there.
You have been so nasty and insinuating to me, I've stopped caring how I treat you. You get what you get.
A "welcome" guest? Why, what are you doing? Disrupting class? Helping with spelling practice? Taking lunch duty?  Teaching your version of constitutional law?
So you are keeping your son in a public school you hate so much? Why? You really want him exposed to all those heathen communist teachers who toe the Federal line? Kind of contradictory aren't ya? HA!

[Ross]

I never said I was pro or against Common Core, so stop labeling me!
I know schools that are using it for the reasons it was meant to be used..in a two year trial period. They are doing fine. With the UD College of Eduction right here ( not it's actual name ) there is a lot of research interest how the kids are doing, proofing the CC work and yes, finding errors. They have student teachers in a lot of the schools I've worked with and they are checking it all out too. Has nothing to do with Federal "control".  i do resent the total crap that some people are blogging and making all sound wrong by taking a sentence or two out on context to make a negative point. I just saw one about having the kids show their work when doing math, so the teacher could tell how the child was thinking about the problem. Suddenly that was turned into a teacher who said that an incorrect answer was acceptable. That is not even remotely what she said or further explained. LIES!  She was explaining why she wanted to see the child work, so the error thinking could be corrected!
You are absolutely right. I have not spent any time in Kansas schools in the last 15 years. As far as Delaware schools, I'll take that bet and win.
You, yourself have written about lousy parenting, parents who don't want to have to support their kids' educations, want them to be given grades they don't deserve or earn, yet you want the parents to totally control the schools. There is just nothing more unsettling than having a parent come in with achip on their shoulder to try to negotiate a higher grade for their spoiled kid. espaecilly when the teacher shows them the grade book and all the 0's for missed assignments or absent home work and we never gave homework on Friday as it was.
Why, Common Core is too hard! AW! Sez who...whom.
Which parents? The ones who care and do the right things for their kids education, or the whiny ones who don't want their kids to work as hard as they can for their ability, and are very vocal about it. After all, it's all the teachers' faults .....Especially the truant kids who rarely go to school. Ya can't help or teach a child who isn't there.
You have been so nasty and insinuating to me, I've stopped caring how I treat you. You get what you get.
A "welcome" guest? Why, what are you doing? Disrupting class? Helping with spelling practice? Taking lunch duty?  Teaching your version of constitutional law?
So you are keeping your son in a public school you hate so much? Why? You really want him exposed to all those heathen communist teachers who toe the Federal line? Kind of contradictory aren't ya? HA!

Oh Diane you sweet talking, silver tongued lady you!
Thanks for all the compliments.
You have yourself a nice and positive weekend. TTYL

[Ross]

Mother 'suspended'
from her child's elementary school
after she raised awareness
about
Common Core

April 4, 2014

Steve Gunn
Steve, Editor-in-chief of EAGnews, joined in 2009. Previously, he was a newspaper journalist.

SACRAMENTO – Officials at Sacramento Unified School District need to remind themselves that public schools belong to the public, and the public has a right to express itself about education issues.

power to the people_337x244Katherine Duran is the mother of a student at Sacramento's Mark Twain Elementary, and one of many parents with deep concerns about the school's scheduled transformation to Common Core math and English standards in the fall.

As a form of protest, Duran printed out a bunch of forms for parents, which they can sign if they want to have their children opted out of Common Core testing.

She gave the forms to her son, Christopher Duran, who handed them to other students to take home to their parents.

That was obviously too much for school officials, who had a police officer visit Duran's house and hand her a notice of a 14-day suspension from school property.

This is wrong in so many ways, it's tough to know where to begin.

For starters, when approached by the media, school officials were confused about why Duran was banned from the school in the first place.

"It appears she went a little too far with regards to how she distributed information at school sites, distributing information to children directly," Gabe Ross, a spokesman for the Sacramento school district, was quoted as saying by News10.net.

When she heard that, Duran reminded the reporter that she gave her son the forms to distribute to children, and she did not participate in the distribution. Ross later admitted she was correct.

The district then claimed that Ross was suspended because of a confrontation she had with the principal of Mark Twain Elementary, after school officials took the forms from her son.

Duran said she tried to take the forms from the principal's desk, and the principal slammed her hand on them and said they were no longer her property. Duran said she took the forms, anyway, which led to the visit from the police officer.

The hypocrisy in this case is pretty thick.

We can think of many instances, usually during teachers union labor disputes around the nation, when school employees – including administrators – encourage students to walk out of class or stage other forms of protest, in support of the teachers.
 
When challenged, they argue that students are citizens who have the right to express themselves and promote their views.

Fair enough.

So why don't school officials recognize Christopher Duran's right to protest Common Core by distributing the opt-out forms? Neither the boy nor his mother can force other parents to sign them. They are simply making parents aware of the issue, and their right to have their students exempted from Common Core exams.

The difference seems to be as simple as this – school officials encourage student activism when the students advance a cause they support, but turn the tables when they don't agree with the message being promoted.

"I think it's an effort to undermine the anti-Common Core movement," Durant said.

We think she's correctly identified the problem.

The Sacramento school district has no justification for blocking the First Amendment right of Christopher Duran to express his views by distributing the forms, as long as he's not disrupting school activities.

And school officials should cut his mother a break. If she was a little upset when she visited the principal, it's understandable. The school kept her son from exercising his rights, confiscated her property and allegedly refused to return it.

For too long the education establishment – school board members, administrators and union leaders – have acted as though public schools are their own private fiefdoms, and citizens have to accept their decisions and the way they run things.

They're way off base. Citizens have a right to upset the apple cart when they believe a policy is not in their best interest.

It's disgusting to hear about a concerned citizen being banned from public property for expressing herself. That would be like banning citizens from city hall or the state house when they protest a tax or a law.

In the end, millions of citizens like Duran will decide the fate of the Common Core experiment in California, whether the school establishment likes it or not.

If K-12 officials really expected this issue to pass by with little protest, they were fooling themselves. Parents care about the type of education their kids receive, and they've been protesting throughout the nation about the confusing new Common Core standards.

That's their absolute right, and school officials need to stay out of their way while they exercise it.

http://eagnews.org/mother-suspended-from-her-childs-school-after-raising-awareness-about-common-core/

Emphasis is mine. Diane, I did not write the article or choose the state. Just as in any other article I may post. And as far as being slanted all articles, opinions and even science that is suppose to be fact is slanted. Even politicians and teachers and voters are slanted. That is not the same as corrupted just biased. Simple, huh?

So please get off the slanted B.S., please.

[Ross]

Personally, I am not much for so called think tanks, they are people just like you and me and they read and think just like you and me. But this article popped up and I am sharing it because it pertains to Common Core and Kansas. It for you decide it's value.

Go Back to Move Forward
From
Common Core Standards

March 5, 2014

Kansas Policy Institute

KPI is an independent think-tank that advocates for free market solutions and the protection of personal freedom for all Kansans.

WICHITA, Kan. – Common Core. Two words that make the "Who is the best Kansas college basketball team" debate seem downright tame.

common core twoCommon Core finds its way into just about any education policy discussion and pugilists on both sides start to jab.

As with most questions of public policy, Common Core (CC) certainly started out with the best of intentions but has become just another roadblock between Kansas children and their future success. At one point the saving grace of CC was the promise of high, transparent standards by which Kansas schools would be graded. However, the baggage that now accompanies those standards, with no promise of them remaining high, is too much and Kansas should return to the state performance standards we had prior to passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

Also interesting, CC recently underwent a name change but remain CC is spirit and fact – They're now called the Kansas College and Career Readiness Standards.

The last federal intervention, NCLB, is where any notion of CC being a state initiative went off the rails. Assume for a moment that CC supporters are correct in saying it was initially a state-led effort and that the Feds jumped onto an already-moving train. The reality is that most states only got on board to CC when they were offered a federal waiver from the impossible mandates of NCLB – 100% student proficiency by 2014 at the hazard of federal education dollars. Not to mention federal enticements of more money in the 2009 "stimulus" bill. Kansas applied for the stimulus' "Race to The Top" money but didn't receive it while our state has received a waiver from NCLB. Minutes from Kansas Board of Education meetings show that Kansas was signing onto the standards during the same period as the "enticements" were being offered.

That is the kind of "voluntary" decision that only Michael Corleone could love. To think that the federal government will not use further enticements and the power they already have to wield influence on CC disregards both common sense and recent history. We need look no further than NCLB to hear Washington say they will not affect the classroom. But, you would be hard pressed to find a teacher who does not bemoan NCLB as interfering in their ability to teach.
 

If NCLB was an unwarranted, unprecedented federal intrusion into the classroom why welcome more of the same with Common Core?

To believe that CC will remain state-led with Kansas able to control our own destiny is to ignore the simple experience of getting a few friends to agree on where to eat dinner. Magnify this phenomenon to 40-some states trying to agree on education standards and we begin to see where Kansas control may be eroded. It is also hard to imagine that what is in the standards will not ultimately dictate curriculum and teaching. How is CC any different than the NCLB refrain of "teaching to the test"? Because, we know that what is tested is what is taught?

Even college-bound private school students or homeschoolers will feel the weight of CC as the ACT and SAT are both being aligned to Common Core standards.
Recent CC test results in New York and Kentucky also show the "high standards" are under attack. New York's 2013 High School Principal of the Year said that "The New York Common Core test results are the fruit of a poisonous tree." While the leading teachers union in New York recently called for a CC moratorium in the face of high-stakes testing. If CC can survive these early attacks, we will likely be left with CC following the course of NCLB, which, as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says, "led to a dumbing down of standards."

Good thing, then, that Kansas already has our pre-NCLB standards on the shelf. Surely, any cost to update those would be no more than the cost of implementing CC standards and would ensure Kansas-led decision making. Suffice it to say, Kansas' pre-NCLB standards required "Proficiency with difficult, rigorous and formidable material..." and would be a step in the right direction from where Kansas standards are currently.

The evidence is overwhelming; Kansas should pass on CC and return to our pre-NCLB standards. Those standards are on the shelf while Common Core will corrode public, private, and home schools. We'd also be sticking our head in sand to believe that Kansas will stay in control of K-12 education with a 40-some state consortium and the Feds already interfering with this "state-led initiative."

Authored by James Franko – Kansas Policy Institute

http://eagnews.org/go-back-to-move-forward-from-common-core-standards/

[Ross]

Common Core's impact:
The first picture of my daughter
I ever hated

February 12, 2014

Kelly Poynter

Kelly is a photographer, a hobby farmer, a child advocate and a mother of 3 elementary-aged children.

NEW YORK - I'm a photographer. This is my daughter...and this is the first photo of her that I have ever hated.

You may have already seen this image today. I posted it this morning on my business page and after returning from a session out in Syracuse, it has been shared over 400 times. I want to take a moment to explain this image so as those who do not know me, can understand how this image came to be.

I am a photographer, a hobby farmer, a child advocate and a mother of 3 elementary-aged children. This is my middle child in the photo ... she is 7 and is in 2nd grade. My kindergartner and my 4th grader were already finished with their homework and had left the table. I had brought my camera in to work on my white balance skills while shooting in low light as I had a session the next morning to prep for.

After checking her work, I had found 2 math problems were incorrect. I tried to help her understand where she went wrong through her process but I don't understand it myself and was not much help.
 

I told her to forget about it and we'd try again tomorrow but she became very upset that she could not get the answer and kept trying and trying to fix it. She is hard on herself as she very much wants to excel in school and not be pulled for extra help all of the time. I was talking to her and clicking my camera as I changed settings ... it's something that is very common in our household ... and that is when I caught this image.

My daughter is incredibly strong.  My daughter is a 4-year cancer survivor.  She is a fighter with a resilient spirit.  It crushes me to see her cry; to see her struggle.  My daughter deserves a happy childhood.

Please know that 5 minutes later I had convinced her to leave the homework behind and go snuggle with her dad on the couch and watch some Olympics coverage. She is not neglected. She was not abused or left alone to cry. And this photo was not staged.

http://eagnews.org/common-cores-impact-the-first-picture-of-my-daughter-i-ever-hated/

Under Comments:

Common Core is child abuse. The educational system is set up to reward administrators to accept the federal dollar. Since the Department of Education took over the curriculum it has already failed more Americans than it has ever helped, which can be easily ascertained by the a look at the number of remedial courses necessary for college students. Two things need to be done immediately: get the federal government out of our schools, and get the unions out of our schools.

[Ross]

Common Core:
The federal takeover
of school curriculum

February 27, 2014

Eagle Forum
Eagle Forum's Mission is to enable conservative and pro-family men and women to participate in the process of self-government and public policy making so that America will continue to be a land of individual liberty, respect for family integrity, public and private virtue, and private enterprise.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Many people said Ho-Hum when Barack Obama threatened to change any law with his pen or phone, and even used that power to personally alter Obamacare and the welfare law, and to "legislate" the Dream Act that Congress refused to pass.

common core twoBut Americans are rising up by the tens of thousands to stop Common Core, which is the current attempt to compel all U.S. children to be taught the same material and not be taught other things parents might think important.

Ever since Congress began pouring federal tax dollars into public schools, parents have been solicitous to have Congress write into law a prohibition against the federal government writing curriculum or lesson plans, or imposing a uniform national curriculum. Parents want those decisions made at the local level by local school boards which are, or should be, subject to the watchful eyes of local citizens and parents.

Parents are supported in this view by the U.S. Constitution which gives the federal government no power over education. Here is some of the repetitive language included in federal school appropriation laws.

The 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the first federal attempt to regulate and finance schools, stated: "Nothing in this act" shall authorize any federal official to "mandate, direct, or control" school curriculum. The 1970 General Education Provisions Act stipulates that "no provision of any applicable program shall be construed to authorize any" federal agency or official "to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction or selection of instructional materials by any" school system.

The 1979 law that created the Department of Education forbids it to exercise "any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum" or "program of instruction" of any school system. The amended Elementary and Secondary Education Act reiterates that no Education Department funds "may be used ... to endorse, approve, or sanction any curriculum designed to be used in" grades K-12.

Despite all those emphatic words Obama's Department of Education, headed by an alumnus of the Chicago Democratic machine and other leftists, seeks to mold the minds of all our children into supporters of big-government. Their vehicle to accomplish this is Common Core, which is artfully designed to impose de facto national uniformity while complying with all explicit federal prohibitions.
 

The mechanism of control is the tests that all students must take, which will be written by the people who created Common Core. If students haven't studied a curriculum "aligned" with Common Core, they will have a hard time passing the tests required for a high school diploma and entry into college.

As explained by education researcher and author Darcy Pattison, the Common Core gang in 1996 gathered a cozy group of rich big businessmen, six governors, and a few other politicians and founded an organization called Achieve Inc. Working backward from the 12th grade down to kindergarten, this eventually morphed into the Common Core State Standards.

Achieve Inc. started implementation of Common Core with 13 states, but a national curriculum was still the goal, and a congressional debate about that would have been a political risk. So the Common Core advocates bypassed most elected officials, went straight to each state department of education, and by 2009, 35 state curriculums had aligned with Common Core.

Common Core advocates then announced that "standards" had been developed "in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts ... to prepare our children for college and the workforce." By 2011, 45 states signed up even though the final draft of the standards was not yet available and they had never been field tested.

Still careful to skirt the laws barring federal control of curriculum, Education Secretary Arne Duncan used federal funds to bait the states to align with Common Core by offering grants from the federally funded Race to the Top program.

The Common Core promoters, whose goal is a national curriculum for all U.S. children despite laws prohibiting the government from requiring it, used the clever device of copyrighting the standards by a non-government organization, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). That enables Common Core advocates to force uniform national standards while claiming that the laws prohibiting federal control of curriculum are not violated.

No one may copy or reprint the standards without permission, and states that sign on to Common Core may not change or modify the standards. The license agreement that states must sign in order to use Common Core states: "NGA/CCSSO shall be acknowledged as the sole owners and developers of the Common Core State Standards."

Authored by Phyllis Schlafly - EagleForum.Org

http://eagnews.org/national-takeover-of-school-curriculum/

[Ross]

Kids who didn't
take the Common Core test
were denied ice cream!

April 11, 2014

Steve Gunn
Editor-in-chief of EAGnews.
Previously, he was a newspaper journalist.

ARKPORT, N.Y. – Were officials in the Arkport Central School District being petty and vindictive in their treatment of children whose parents removed them from Common Core testing?

If so, they went about it in the worst possible way – by giving an ice cream treat to the third through sixth grade students who took the tests, and denying those who didn't.

Parents of the opt-out kids were simply exercising their legal rights, and they're angered that their children had to pay the price in such an obviously nasty manner.

After all, The fair and equitable distribution of ice cream is a very serious matter to elementary students.

The school superintendent tried to explain away the controversy, claiming the slight was unintentional.

"Very sorry it was taken in the light that it was taken," Superintendent Glenn Niles said, according to WLEA News. "We try to do a simple token, as we've done every year that we've ever tested, and this year was no different. We just had more kids that didn't take the tests, and therefore, it was a little bigger deal, so we will evaluate what we will do in the future."

As if he had no idea that small children might be upset when their classmates got ice cream and they didn't. If Niles was genuinely surprised by the reaction, he has no business working around youngsters because he clearly does not understand them.

Niles and the school principal said they were very upset about the community reaction to the ice cream scandal.

"Some of the things said about me, about Mrs. Dewey (the principal), and about the school are really just plain ugly," Niles said.

Dewey indicated she had been threatened and was worried about the safety of her family, the news report said.

These folks are public servants, and they should know there are knuckleheads out there who are going to speak and act in a moronic fashion over any type of controversy. It comes with the territory.

But if Niles and Dewey really want citizens to stop saying nasty things, they should try to avoid obviously provocative actions, like giving some kids ice cream and denying others.

That's just asking for big trouble, and they certainly are getting their share.

Posted on: April 11th, 2014 by Steve Gunn

http://eagnews.org/kids-who-didnt-take-the-common-core-test-were-denied-an-ice-cream-treat/