Category Archives: EDUCATION

About That Wilmington Police Chief Supporting Common Core….

Posted on June 8, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

A Wilmington Police Chief opposes the repeal of Common Core? Do tell. Now, why would a Police Chief be weighing in on legislation like this? Via StarNewsOnline, emphasis added:

Wilmington | Wilmington’s police chief will join others Thursday at a demonstration in Raleigh in support of Common Core education standards, according to a news release from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.

Chief Ralph Evangelous is expected to join Fayetteville Police Chief Harold Medlock and Brevard Police Chief J. Phillip Harris Jr. to urge lawmakers to reject legislation to replace the nationally developed academic standards used in more than 40 states, the release states. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is an organization of more than 5,000 law enforcement leaders, including 91 in North Carolina.

The standards that establish what a student should learn in each grade level would be phased out in North Carolina under legislation that cleared a General Assembly committee Tuesday.

Last year students’ test scores fell by about 30 percentage points, which state education officials say is the result of more stringent testing than in the past. Many lawmakers say the tests may not be appropriate and are concerned the state is giving up its control of education.

– F.T. Norton

Let’s ignore the reason the end of year scores dropped 30 points was likely due to Common Core and look at why this police chief is involved here. Focus in on the highlighted passage above that include Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. That group has an acronym — FCIK. They have some sort of tie to ESEA, but their own page does not contain the PDF describing it anymore; the link goes nowhere.

I’m sure this organization does some wonderful things, however they and this chief are out of their depth and very misinformed about the Common Core. This letter shows that misinformation both on the bills in question and the Common Core quite painfully.

On their website, they have this disclaimer at the bottom of the page:

2014 © Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is a membership organization of law enforcement leaders and crime victims under the umbrella non-profit Council for a Strong America.

Council for a Strong America rang a bell for me.

It rings a big bell at the Gates Foundation – $1.7 million last year alone to promote Common Core.

KEEP READING Continue reading →

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CMS Superintendent Wants Common Core Opposition to ‘Be Specific’

Posted on June 8, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

CMS Superintendent Heath Morrison wants the Common Core Opposition to be specific. I think he will be getting more than he bargained for. Ann Doss Helms over at the Charlotte Observer’s Your Schools blog has the article up on this challenge. Go read the whole article, especially the bit she quotes from the Achieve, Inc. guy. Relevant snippet:

Mike Cohen of the DC-based nonprofit group Achieve, who helped develop the standards with state leaders, said President Obama and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan inadvertently hurt the cause by “taking credit” for the Common Core push and using Race to the Top grants to prod states to embrace the standards.

Inadvertently hurt the cause? That’s a laugh. Race To The Top grants which arguably were monetary coercion for to adopt the Common Core were funded with Obama administration stimulus funds. Most people don’t know that. For some deeper reading on The Race To The Top, check out my three part series here. Continue reading →

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Where’s The Outrage Over Superintendent Increases?

Posted on June 7, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Teacher pay. Teacher Pay. We hear about it daily, yet very little push back on continued Superintendent increases. Where’s the outrage? Back in May, I noted that Granville School Officials received Raises with no Board approval.

Quick reminder of the Granville findings:

Wilson found that Superintendent Tim Farley “is the second highest paid superintendent in the state with less than 25,000 students.” She also found that Associate Superintendent Allan Jordan received a “‘cost of living allowance’ and a large raise that was applied retroactively even though the fiscal year was over.” – WRAL 5/16/14

Consider the following related stories on Superintendent and administrative related pay: Continue reading →

Posted in EDUCATION | Tagged | 1 Comment

CCSSO President Atkinson Fear Mongering, Bearing False Witness

Posted on June 7, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

While out making false claims Common Core opposition is confusing high stakes testing with the fundamentally flawed and experimental Common Core standards, CCSSO President and NC State Superintendent is back in front of reporters bearing false witness on Common Core opposition again.

The Times News has one of those Q&A articles up that doesn’t address the real concerns, but goes with the tabloid angle. It’s shoddy reporting and media bias like this that makes the opposition want to bang its head on their collective desks.

Some examples from the article:

Q. Is this a federal takeover of the education curriculum? Continue reading →

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Call Governor McCrory. Tell Him The Truth About Common Core.

Posted on June 6, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

This Is A Call To Action On Common Core: Governor McCrory​

Keep Calm Stop Common Core sm
NC Governor McCrory said this week that the “Republican-driven bill to repeal the Common Core education standards ‘is not a smart move,’ using his strongest language yet to warn against an effort pushed by conservatives in his own party.” – News and Observer 6/5/14
1. It’s time to FLOOD his office with phone calls, faxes and emails. Let him know how much support this bill has from all the people of NC:

Phone: 919-814-2000

Fax: 919-733-2120

Email Contact Form

The Governor is being misled about Common Core and public opinion of it by his Democrat education advisers, all of whom have strong connections to parties interested in promoting Common Core:
“But again, you don’t just throw out the whole thing if you have some minor issues you need to fix. We are trying to get some of the language out of the current bills in which we toss the whole thing out with no replacement.” – News and Observer 6/5/14

This statement is misleading. No one has mentioned “throwing out” Common Core and having no replacement. The Common Core bills set up a commission to create the highest possible standards for NC. Nothing will be removed until new standards are set.

Let the Governor know the truth about these bills, the support for them and why North Carolina opposes Common Core. Give Governor McCrory the FACTS:
The CCSS Are Not Rigorous, High Reaching or ‘Internationally Benchmarked’
The CCSS Are Not “State Developed”, “State-led” or “State Controlled”. The CCSSO and NGA own the copyright on the standards – NC has NO say in it.
The CCSS Are Costly – conservative estimates for NC taxypayers over the next five years are over $642 million dollars.
Federally funded Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has developed national tests and RttT Grant Conditions that requires student level data collected be made available to the U.S. Department of Education – much of which is without parental consent!

2. Continue to encourage final passage of the Common Core bills passed in the NC Senate (SB812) and House (HB1061), which are on their way to being reconciled in conference.

Lt. Governor Dan Forest supports the bills and is confident the final bill will become law.

3. Pass it on! Tell as many people as you can to contact the Governor. Headed to the GOP Convention this weekend? Print this email out and take it with you! Continue reading →

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

Why Does Gov. McCrory Keep Listening to Eric Guckian?

Posted on June 6, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Common Core is a fundamentally flawed experiment being performed on our students. Proponents have been unable or unwilling to defend the standards from real criticism ranging from the loss of local control, age and developmental inappropriateness to the intrusive data collecting to the fact it’s “higher standards” goal is to get kids into a “non-selective 2 year college”.
Yet, in the face of all of all the complaints, our Governor is still mooning over the standards:

RALEIGH — Gov. Pat McCrory said the Republican-driven bill to repeal the Common Core education standards “is not a smart move,” using his strongest language yet to warn against an effort pushed by conservatives in his own party.

“These are things we need to correct and recognize,” he said, citing concerns with implementation and testing in remarks at a Raleigh meeting of the N.C. Business Committee for Education, a group that supports the standards. “But again, you don’t just throw out the whole thing if you have some minor issues you need to fix. We are trying to get some of the language out of the current bills in which we toss the whole thing out with no replacement.” – N&O

With all due respect, Governor, I’m saying this as someone who voted for you and backs you but… BULLCRAP.

The article at N&O goes on to say the Governor hasn’t said he would veto it or not. Veto it and watch the moms descend on your mansion with bullhorns and signs and trust me — we won’t be accepting of cookies either.

Common Core is not just ‘one minor issue’ but a landslide of problems, the first and foremost being the standards are COPYRIGHTED. Do you understand that Governor? We are at the mercy of two D.C. trade organizations to dictate what we do in our schools. Have you read Appendix B? Have you read my open letter to you? If you have, re-read it because it clearly didn’t make a dent. If you haven’t, then I respectfully suggest you do so: Open Letter to NC Gov. McCrory On Common Core Continue reading →

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Common Core, NCGA, Pat McCrory | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments