Under the Guise of Improving #Education #tcot

Constitutional Conservatives need to press the education this election year.

 

While everyone is jumping on the Common Core [National] Standards bandwagon, your state is giving up it's constitutional authority to direct education.  You are loosing your representation in the process as few elected representatives were involved in the process.  Conservative representative that are interested in education seem afraid to question this administration's federal overreach lest they be labeled as saboteurs. 

 

They are not representing constitutional, common sense, converatives by abdicating their responsibility to protect state sovereignty and individual rights.

Posted via email from concernedabouteducation's posterous

US Competitiveness at Risk: Milgram and Stotsky Quoted on #CommonCore

Proponents say that Common Core "drew on" ideas from abroad, but Milgram and Stotsky spell out the truth in this article. 

They state Common Core is not "comparable to the expectation of other leading nations." 

As Rep. John Kline of the EdWorkforce Committee said "people often ask what the classroom has in common with the workplace. The answer is fairly simple: both are vital to the economic success of our country and the future prosperity of its people."

Clearly weak math standards inevitably lead to weak science standards.  Ze'ev Wurman explains why CommonCore is  Education to Raise Technology Consumers instead of Technology Creators 

Common-Core Standards Drew on Ideas From Abroad

Although a few states, such as California, want all 8th graders to take Algebra 1, the writers decided to "strike a balance," crafting guidelines that "get into serious algebra in 8th grade," without requiring classic Algebra 1 elements such as quadratic equations, he says.

That choice, among others, stoked an argument that the common standards don't meet international or university-preparation levels.

"It's absolutely a mistake not to require all of Algebra 1 [content] in 8th grade. They've got very little of Algebra 2 in there," says R. James Milgram, a professor emeritus of math at Stanford University. He served on the common standards' validation committee, but refused to approve them, in part because in his judgment they did not meet their own stated criteria of being "comparable to the expectations of other leading nations."

BTW: If/when you meet a math teacher that supports CommonCore standards, please ask them if they have ever taught Algebra II and if they have actually read the Common Core Math Standards.   I have yet to meet any supporter that can answer "yes" to both questions.

Sandra Stotsky helped shape the highly regarded standards in Massachusetts, and, like Milgram, a fellow member of the validation committee, refused to endorse the standards' international comparability. She notes that leaders of the common-standards initiative now describe them as being "informed by" other countries, not "benchmarked" to those nations' standards.

" 'Benchmarking' means you use a set of agreed-upon criteria for judging something," says Stotsky, a professor of education at the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville. "To be 'informed' by other countries' standards means simply that they were read. Some other countries are light years ahead of what the common standards require for college readiness."

 

Posted via email from concernedabouteducation's posterous

GOP Supports Liberal Education Agenda???

Read "Teacher promotes awareness of GOP's support of liberal education reform policies"

 

And consider adding your name to the list of signatories on the statement below by contacting Doug Lasken via email at:  dlasken514@aol.com 

We the undersigned do not agree on all things, but we are in close agreement on education, and in particular these five propositions:

1. The federal government is barred by the United States Constitution from imposing academic standards and public school curriculum on the states, the very thing it is attempting to do through the Obama administration programs Race to the Top (RttT) and the Common Core Standards (CCS).

2. In addition to imposing standards and curriculum on the states, RttT mandates that states collect extensive and detailed personal information on students, and that this information be submitted to the federal Department of Education, from which it will be available to other agencies. We oppose this on Constitutional grounds.


3. The national price tag for CCS is estimated at $30 billion (and perhaps as much as $210 billion) most of which cost is to be borne by the states. This money will enrich special interests- the publishing and testing empires- but will do very little to save America's bankrupted public schools. The undersigned believe that spending $30 billion on standards is like painting a car before junking it- good for the painters, a useless expense for the car owner.

4. The news media has decided that since conservatives object to spending money, and since conservative views are represented in the Republican party, then people who object to RttT and CCS must be represented by the Republican party. The undersigned have found, however, that the Republican party, as distinct from individual candidates, does not represent those seeking sound education policy. Time and again, at all levels from local to federal, the undersigned have encountered ignorance and indifference regarding RttT and CCS from the Republican party and the people it has helped to achieve office. Republicans as much as Democrats have been seduced by the $30 billion and slick sales talk into acquiescence to RttT and CCS.

5. Therefore, we the undersigned here state that the Republican party does not represent our views on American education, that the Republican party is in fact aligned with the Democratic party in pushing through wasteful and highly problematical Democratic programs, and that we therefore disavow allegiance to and support of the Republican party in its policies towards education, and we ask that the media acknowledge that this diminution of Republican support has occurred.

Posted via email from concernedabouteducation's posterous

UNAMERICAN: "Individual 'profiles' must be considered in the light of goals pursued by the wider society"

What educational purpose could tracking our children possibly serve?  After reading Henry Hyde's 1997 testimony excerpted from the U.S.Congressional records, I'm beginning to believe that the "conspiracy theorist' really have been paying attention.   

 

`ultimately, the educational plans that are pursued need to be orchestrated across various interest groups of the society so that they can, taken together, help the society to achieve its larger goals. Individual profiles must be considered in the light of goals pursued by the wider society; and sometimes, in fact, individuals with gifts in certain directions must nonetheless be guided along other less favored paths, simply because the needs of the culture are particularly urgent in that realm at that time.'

 

 

I've attended School-to-Work seminars and was never impressed... the content delivered was streamlined to the point of crippling students, in my opinion.  That's exactly how I feel about Common Core Math Standards.  It's orchestrated alright...and designed to keep you in the dark and circumvent your elected officials.

Posted via email from concernedabouteducation's posterous