“…to create just these kinds of tests—next-generation assessments aligned to the common core. When the tests are aligned to the common standards, the curriculum will line up as well—and that will unleash powerful market forces in the service of better teaching.”
– Bill Gates, 2009 Speech To Natl. Conf. of State Legislatures

The goal is to align everything so that students and the money have nowhere to go but Common Core.

Last week, I started this series on certain Social Activism curriculum claiming to be aligned to Common Core as created by ‘Teaching Tolerance’, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. I continued this week with part three.  This installment is part four.
[Read: Part one, Part two and Part three]

In part three, we began looking at the ‘Diverse Perspectives’ plan. There were four constructs that included, Building your learning plan, Anti-bias framework, Central text Anthology and Tasks and Strategies.  We covered the first two in part 3, today we’ll look at the second two.

Central Text Anthology
‘Teaching Tolerance’ calls this section the “heart” of their curriculum:

At the heart of the Perspectives curriculum is the Central Text Anthology, a carefully curated collection of rigorous texts that exemplify anti-bias themes and meet the requirements of the Common Core State Standards.

The texts encourage students to question common understandings, consider multiple viewpoints, analyze and critique power relationships, and act to change unfair and unequal conditions.

In addition to written informational and literary texts, the Anthology includes multi-media texts (e.g., film clips, pod casts, interviews) and visual texts (e.g., cartoons, charts, photographs).Each text within the Anthology has been quantitatively analyzed for CCSS grade level and mapped to Perspectives themes and anti-bias standards. Use the filter to the right to identify texts appropriate for your teaching goals.

Thank you to our partners, NBC Learn, Story Corps, The New York Times Upfront and Welcoming Schools, for contributing to the Perspectives Central Text Anthology.

Take note they thank very left leaning organizations for their ‘contributions’.

In particular, one should take a closer look at “Welcoming Schools“, which is a project of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC). It would seem that Common Core funder, Bill Gates, likes the way they communicate.

Parents, be wary of what your children are seeing and reading in school.

 “(e.g., film clips, pod casts, interviews) and visual texts (e.g., cartoons, charts, photographs)”

Are children being exposed to the multiple types of media promoted by this ‘anthology’  as listed on the website? It would be very easy to slip in items such as these and parents be none the wiser.

Of course, one cannot browse the ‘free central texts’ unless you sign up on the website.  You have to be a member – one that can be documented and tracked.

Tasks and Strategies
Again, direct from the website we see and activism heavy description for the section:

Perspectives allows students to engage the essential question and the Central Text through multiple learning phases. Each phase offers a variety of tasks and strategies that, when integrated, promote social action and meet the literacy goals of the Common Core.

Each section seems to imply that ‘social action’ is a literacy goal of Common Core. Silly me, I thought the intended goal of Common Core ELA was maybe… Literacy itself??

There is a graphic beneath the description which sorts activities into the two piles of ‘Tasks and Strategies’. Tasks has two items and Strategies has five. The graphic is hard to read, but it makes little difference. The whole point is social activism.

To put a bow on what is arguably a big box of social justice activism indoctrination masquerading as legitimate coursework, read the “User Guide‘ for Perspectives for a Diverse America. It’s under the “media” section.

By the way, ‘Teaching Tolerance’ is apparently in Durham Public Schools.  More here.

Parents in North Carolina might want to know that NC Public Schools cites Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘Teaching Tolerance’ as an approved resource for their “Bullies and Victims” curriculum.

In the next installment, I’ll be following the money. Stay tuned.