Category Archives: EDUCATION

10,000 Comments: More NC Public Overall ELA Feedback, Grade 6 and Up

Posted on October 15, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

In the last few weeks, I’ve been publishing the public feedback for North Carolina from 2010 that CCSSO and NGA refused to release. These “10,000 comments” have been used by proponents in an arguably dishonest manner to point to a vetting process for the standards.

Here are the articles I’ve put up with comments published in them to date:

The Infamous “10,000” Comments On Common Core
10,000 Comments: NC Overall Feedback
10,000 Comments: NC Overall Feedback on K-5 ELA Standards
Here is another point of reference on these “10,000 comments”:

Take a look at the summary of “public feedback” posted on the Core Standards website. It is grossly misleading. First of all, calling the feedback “public” is wrong: the organizers of the standards would not make public the nearly 10,000 comments they say they received from citizens. The summary quotes 24 respondents–less than 1/4 of 1 percent of the total–selectively chosen to back up their interpretation of the results.
-Source: Washington Post, 1/29-13

Today I have put together grade 6+ writing and language comments, as well as a section where people could leave more overall feedback on the ELA portion that might not have been covered in previous questions.

The first two, writing and language, only had 3 or 4 comments each. The third section that allowed for more overall commentary on the ELA had a flurry of comments.

NC Feedback – 6+ writing
NC Feedback – 6+ language
NC Feedback – More Overall ELA comments
In the 3rd set of comments above, there are a few excerpts I would like to share:

KEEP READING… Continue reading →

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Cabarrus Conservative Alliance Endorses Rep. Pittman

Posted on October 14, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

His opponent, Earle Schecter, is a hot mess as evidenced by his turning an education town hall in a school into a political campaign event. That’s a no-no.

Consider that Schecter is a NYC Democrat who moved to NC in 2010 with no political experience.

Are You Ready For Earle? Hell. No.

Fear not.
The Cabarrus Conservative Alliance has endorsed Pittman. See below.

KEEP READING Continue reading →

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Common Core, ELECTIONS | Tagged | 2 Comments

7th Grade Common Core ‘Close Reading’ Covers Rape, Restorative Justice

Posted on October 13, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Common Core’s ‘close reading’ has come under fire by opponents in various states and by members of the Common Core validation committee as having subjective, inappropriate content and lacking historical or contextual foundations needed to interpret excerpts given to students. … Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core | Tagged | 22 Comments

Pearson Equella Contract for NC Community Colleges: $35,284,419

Posted on October 12, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

I received the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) back on the Pearson Equella Contract with the NC Community Colleges System.

The contract takes advantage of some Race To The Top Funds.

The signed MOU includes language for “K-14” storage of “educational content and resources” through the creation of the “Learning Object Repository” or LOR. From what the MOU says, it looks like LOR is an upgrade or enhancement of the existing Pearson Equella “NCLOR”.

NCLOR has it’s own site “Explore The LOR”.
Mission Statement: “The mission of the NCLOR is to provide a centralized location for the acquisition, collection, sharing, and management of quality learning resources for all teachers in North Carolina.”

A few of the document highlights:

The signed intent to contract document cites Pearson receiving $1,309,805, but another ‘signed approval’ document says the amount wasn’t to exceed $1,155,808.
According to the DPI Project Management MOU, the Project manager is to be paid over $85 an hour.
Just for reference, according to page 36 of the State Board of Education’s large contract list, the total cost of this contract (#10037399) came out to be $35,284,419.39.
Broken out:

$18,832,611.39 State
$16,451,808.00 Federal (Race To The Top?) Continue reading →

Posted in EDUCATION, NC DPI | Tagged , | 2 Comments

An NC Look At Malkin Article ‘Look Who Is Data Mining Your Toddlers’

Posted on October 11, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Michelle Malkin has an important article out on data mining and how it is being done on our littlest citizens. The article covers a group called TS Gold (Teaching Strategies Gold). North Carolina uses TS Gold.

NC Uses TS Gold => Look who’s data-mining your toddlers http://t.co/Ch172cSEJm #nced #stopcommoncore

— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) October 10, 2014

Malkin writes that TS Gold is an assessment tool tracking our littlest learners and is expanding through Third grade, with the bonus of capturing behavioral data:

KEEP READING… Continue reading →

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Common Core Aligned: Third Sector New England, Inc.

Posted on October 10, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

“…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. Conference of State Legislatures

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

Last time we looked at The Achievement Network (Anet). Today we’re looking into a group called Third Sector New England, Inc.

READ MORE Continue reading →

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Common Core | Tagged , | 1 Comment