Contract for KEA Still Including All 5 Domains

Posted on May 4, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

In the March contracts update at the State Board of Education meeting, the first contract on the list is for the KEA — Kindergarten Entry Assessment.

Read about the KEA.  The KEA is captured through a program called TS GOLD, which Michelle Malkin warned parents about it data mining their toddlers. A related article for parents to read is, KEA: Big Government Comes to Kindergarten.  

Parents should also check out the additional articles and materials at the end of this article.

All of this was initially funded through Race To The Top- Early Learning Challenged funds. Future funding will fall on the state of North Carolina.  In terms of cost, the KEA pilot has already cost over half a millon dollars.

There were five domains for the KEA. Parents held a focus group with DPI last year (of which I was a part of) and objected to several of the domains which focused on subjective categories like ‘social-emotional development‘.

Parents also objected to iPads being used to capture video and images of the children as part of the evidence in completing the assessment. DPI had no answer for us at the time about opting out of the KEA or the data being collected.

As it turns out, parents CAN opt out of this photo/video data collection, however the vast majority have not been informed by their schools about this option.

DPI scaled back the implementation of all five domains,  but from the looks of it, DPI is back on track to implement all five domains at some point anyway.  But what is concerning is that the contract now mentions “writing learning progressions for eight domains”.

 Here is the March Contract:
Contract with Joseph Appleton Purpose:

To contribute to the design and development of the Kindergarten Entry Assessment (KEA) and K- 3 Formative Assessment to its completion, with particular attention to integrated approaches within the 5 essential domains of development and learning (as defined in North Carolina’s definition of school readiness: cognition, approaches toward learning, physical well-being, and emotional/social development, language & literacy).

This will include the following tasks:
 Develop claims for science, social studies, and the arts.
 Write learning progressions for eight domains/content areas;
 Create performance descriptors for each of the building blocks within each learning progression;
 Map assessment means onto the building blocks of each progression;
 Revise all elements of the assessment as needed based on validation studies.

Contractor will provide assessment design, writing, revising, and editing services to the NC Department of Public Instruction’s Office of Early Learning K-3 Assessment Team Amendment #1: To amend to add funds and extend end dates for continuation of services and revision process based on data findings for the initial implementation pilot.

Amended sum: $70,600.00 ($30,000.00 plus $40,600.00);
Amended dates: November 8, 2013 – December 31, 2015 (November 8, 2013 – October 14, 2014)
Amendment # 2: To amend to add funds and extend dates for continuation of services. Amended sum: $85,600.00 ($70,600.00 plus $15,000.00);
Amended dates: November 8, 2013 – December 31, 2016 (November 8, 2013 – December 31, 2015)
Primary Contact: Joseph Appleton
Amount: $85,600.00 Receipts
Time Frame: 11/8/2013 to 12/31/2016
DPI Coordinator: Jody Koon,
Academic Services & Instructional Support Contract No: 10099798 (PSC) Total Approved Contracts This Fiscal Year: 1
Total Cost: $85,600.00 Receipts

 

RELATED READING/MATERIALS:

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, NC Board Of Education, NC DPI | Tagged | Comments Off on Contract for KEA Still Including All 5 Domains

WCPSS Backtracks On Pledge Of Allegiance Nonsense

Posted on May 3, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

The Wake County School Board has backtracked on a proposed policy change regarding the Pledge of Allegiance.

Quick recap from March, the controversy was over the following text in the policy:

The citizenship curriculum also may include appropriate instruction on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and guidelines for the use and display of the North Carolina and United States flags. The curriculum must ensure that no student will be compelled to salute the flag, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, stand to acknowledge the flag or stand to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance, or otherwise feel coerced to participate. In addition, the citizenship curriculum may encourage teachers to use the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance as an opportunity to teach students about the history concerning coercion and the importance of the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights. 

For fun, go read this comment  by “Edward Bellamy” on the News and Observer’s original article in March. Then read the history of The Pledge.

I replied to Mr. Bellamy’s comment, but it appears the News and Observer removed it. All I did was point out some history. Like how Mr. Bellamy ironically shares the name of the creator of the first Pledge of Allegiance and that the use and intent of The Pledge today versus that in 1892 as penned by a Socialist minister is as different as the versions themselves.

Officials are now saying they never had an intention of changing the policy and it was just a product of merging a policy from one place to another, according to a quote captured by The News and Observer:

“There was never any intent to change anything,” Tim Simmons, a Wake schools spokesman, said Monday. “In order to make that as clear as possible, the policy committee asked for staff to bring it back.”

Staff had previously recommended merging the district’s character education and Pledge of Allegiance policies into a new citizenship and character education policy, part of an ongoing effort to match the N.C. School Boards Association’s policy manual. No mention about the coercion wording was discussed at the March committee meeting.

“They looked at it simply as moving a policy from the school system’s numbering system to the School Boards’ policy numbering system.” Simmons said.

Mmmkay.

Posted in EDUCATION, Wake County School Board | Tagged | 1 Comment

WCPSS: Eat Your Peas For $45 more Bucks a Year

Posted on May 2, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

According to the News and Observer, Wake County schools may be increasing the price of meals in schools:

RALEIGH – Wake County school administrators are proposing a 25-cent increase in breakfast and lunch prices for the 2016-17 school year.

That means Wake County parents could pay $45 more per year for their children’s school breakfasts and the same additional amount for their lunches in what would be the school district’s first price increase since 2010. Multiple reasons are cited for the possible increase, including rising production and labor costs, fewer students buying food because of new federal nutritional standards and federal mandates over meal pricing.

Kids aren’t eating these meals. Michelle Obama’s lunch program has kids complaining and abandoning school meals. This has been documented in states beyond North Carolina.

Here, have a leaf. It's healthful. Me? I'm having the cheeseburger. With Fries.

Here, have a leaf. It’s healthful. Me? I’m having the cheeseburger. With Fries.

The feds even threatened to fine schools who were not complying with Michelle Obama’s lunch program. What an ‘eat your peas‘ moment for education.

Does no one remember how the First Hamburglar dictated all of this for our kids and told the world ‘we can’t just leave it up to parents to decide‘ all while she gobbled every cheeseburger and fries in sight?  Heck, you can order the ‘Michelle Obama special‘ at the Shake Shack.

Does no one remember how she strong armed major restaurant chains to get in line with her program? How about when she dumped Let’s Move?

Does no one remember how she banned media from photographing her eating after her hypocrisy was exposed?

It’s a sad statement when the government is dictating what your kids eat in schools, but an even sadder statement when states continue to what their federal masters dictate.

Such is the case with Wake county as the News and Observer article continues:

Wake is subject to a federal “paid lunch equity” requirement to make sure that the price of paid meals is close to the amount the district gets reimbursed for free and reduced-price meals.

“We’re a federally funded program,” said Brittanie Benge, director of operations for the Wake County school system’s child nutrition services program. “In order to receive our funds we have to adhere to regulations.”

Breakfast could rise to $1.25 in elementary schools and $1.50 in middle and high schools. Lunch could increase to $2.25 in elementary schools and $2.50 in middle and high schools.

There would be no change in the price for reduced-priced meals.

One of the more telling sections of the News and Observer piece is this one below that speaks to testimony by Lynn Harvey who is North Carolina’s school nutrition services chief at the Department of Public Instruction.

Harvey notes what I said earlier – kids aren’t eating this stuff:

In testimony before Congress in June, Harvey said the changes were well-intended but more food has been going to waste as students say the new items are unpalatable. For instance, she said students used to eating fluffy biscuits weren’t buying the dense whole-grain biscuits.

“Everyone wants to serve the most nutritious meals to students,” Harvey said in an interview. “The challenge as a culture is how do we make dietary changes so abruptly. In the South, we’re gradually adjusting to whole grains.”

Did you catch that last part?  Harvey says it’s a Southern cultural problem. 

Really? For years, kids coast to coast have been rejecting this flavorless, unappealing crap. It’s so bad kids have actually organized boycotts and have taken to social media to protest.

But hey, we’re ‘gradually adjusting’.

No. No we’re not, as this article makes clear.

So the answer?

Let’s raise the price of these meals. Because fixing the bottom line of a budget is more important than, you know, fixing the actual problem.

This protest video is as relevant today as it was four years ago:

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, Video, Wake County School Board | Tagged | 1 Comment

Man Confronts Planet Fitness GM over Open Bathroom Policy [Video]

Posted on May 2, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Remember when Steven Crowder changed his gender identity and filmed himself going into a Planet Fitness last year? Well this isn’t the same video.

A man named Rodney Davis posted a video of he and his wife confronting a general manager of a Planet Fitness gym was posted to Facebook on April 26th, but the confrontation apparently took place on April 24th.

Davis had purchased the membership as gift for his wife only to later learn the gift could be putting her safety at risk due to the Planet Fitness locker  room and bathroom policy.  Davis was concerned for his wife as that policy enables anyone ‘identifying’ as female to use the women’s facilities.

From the conversation in the video, it appears that Planet Fitness hope paying customers will police the bathrooms and report anything ‘suspect’ or ‘suspicious’. That policing, of course, assumes unless they’re being assaulted and can’t report it.

Davis confronts the general manager, apparently named Meagon, about the fact this open bathroom policy was no where in the contract he signed for his wife’s membership.

At one point, the General Manger (GM) states that it’s Planet Fitness policy that they can verbally change any policy at any time and that those becoming members acknowledge that when they sign a contract with them.

Watch the video HERE.

GM: “What, um,  our policy says is you can go into the bathroom of your gender identity. If there’s suspicions.. like say a guy that we feel is going in there under false pretenses we have every right to call the authorities…. and.. and let them know.”

Davis’ wife: “So you’re saying they should be looking like the person that they claim they are?”

GM: “I they are identifying themselves as a woman and they’re going in there but if say you go in there and there’s something suspicious about this person going in, all you have to do is come up to myself or my assistant manager Cody or any of the staff members and we can alert our regionals  and proper authorities if necessary.”

Davis: “Wouldn’t you consider a man going in there suspicious already?”

GM: “Well, I mean, I can’t judge or…anything I just go on our policy. And our policy for Planet Fitness is that if they … if you identify yourself as a female or a male you can go into that room.”

Davis’s wife: “Alright so…I walk in and he walks in there behind me (gestures to husband) looking like he looks but he says, ‘I identify as a woman’, then what?”

GM: ” I mean…I’m not exactly sure. Like I said… I mean, transgender.. I can’t really answer .. you know, all I can go by from Planet Fitness is that that’s our policy. If you identify as yourself as a female then you know.. like…”

Davis’ wife: “So it’s based on their words?”

GM: “It’s based on their genner… gender identity.”

Davis’s wife: “What they say.”

GM: “If you’re going to pronounce yourself as a female, if they have a female name, if they have — you know — a female presence then they can go into the female….”

Davis: “So you’re saying I can self identify myself today as Meagon the general manager and fire you?”

GM: “No.”

Davis: “But really, you don’t know me very well and you do a background check and I’m actually a pedophile. And then I go in there [ladies room] and do something to something to a child and then now it’s on you.  And my problem was I got her this membership. And I… there’s no where in your policy that states… even your bathrooms clearly state ‘male’, ‘female’, correct?”

GM: “mmhmm.”

Davis: “And now I feel that I’ve let her [his wife] down and you all didn’t hold up to your standard of your policy of making people feel comfortable because she’s not comfortable and I’m doing the policy… I’m using it as an example.”

GM: I understand, but..”

Davis: “Here’s my.. here it is — you didn’t tell me that when I got the membership. So her safety was jeopardized because she knows very well anyone can go in there and do something.

Davis’s wife: “and say, hey I am whatever…”

Davis: Because a pedophile is looking for any kind of way to… you could get in there tomorrow and just stand there and look at naked women all day and you can’t do nothing about…. If I’m… good at what I do.  But my point is you…”

Davis’s wife: “So the point is that it’s not discouraged… in your policy and your bathrooms are not marked.”

GM: “well in our policy it does state that we can change our policy verbal at any time and you’re signing to that policy.”

Davis: “But there’s no policy that I’m signing. Your policy… I mean we’re talking common sense here.. your bath… there’s no, there’s nothing on your policy that mentions anything about a bathroom or locker room.  I mean, anyone can say anything anytime of the.. at any time.”

Davis’s wife: “The biggest thing is the policy is talking about non-judgmental and being comfortable in your environment. And so that makes me feel very uncomfortable.”

GM: “I understand.”

Davis’s wife: “The other consideration we see is taking account of is a woman who has been raped or assaulted.”

GM: “I completely understand.”

Davis’s wife: “And so that would make that woman feel super… and so I think that there needs to be some kind of way to notify people so that we are informed completely that… that you guys are ok with this — that type of person going in there.”

GM: “I understand but all I can do is for the policy — our contract states that we can verbally change our policy or write it. I understand you guys are frustrated and that you guys are worried and I know your concerns and the only thing I can tell you is you can contact my regional if you like and talk and discuss with them. There’s nothing much I can do on my end.”

Davis: “Can I get a refund on my membership?”

GM:“That’s something they would have to… you would have to discuss with my regional because I can’t make that umm decision.”

Davis asks for name.

GM: “I can write that down for you that’s not a problem. Let me get you… yeah, I have my card up here.”

Davis: “I want to talk to her.”

 

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EXCLUSIVE, LGBTQ Issues, Video, YWBMTC | Tagged | 8 Comments

Rep. Jackson Finds Protecting NC Women and Children ‘immoral’ and ‘offensive’ – #ncga

Posted on May 1, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

In my Inbox (see below) — A message from Rep. Darren Jackson (D, NC 39-Wake) who sides with the dangerous Charlotte Ordinance and is apparently uninterested in protecting North Carolina’s women and children.

Immoral? Offensive?
What is immoral and offensive is this elected official putting public safety at risk. The Charlotte Ordinance was immoral and offensive AND dangerous.

Make no mistake, this bill is designed to fail and thereby extending the outrage machine’s lifespan on HB2.

 

Friend —

Earlier today, I introduced House Bill 946 to the North Carolina legislature, calling for the full repeal of House Bill 2.

The fact of the matter is that Republicans here in Raleigh pushed that bill through in a one-day special session, and Pat McCrory signed it in the dead of night just hours later — and that tells me that they all knew what they were doing was wrong. Since that day, business leaders all over the country have made statements denouncing this law, including Apple, Bank of America, Lowe’s, and the National Basketball Association. And PayPal has gone even further, reversing their plans to build their global headquarters in Charlotte, costing North Carolinians hundreds of well-paying jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue.

But more than anything else, the bottom line is that this law is simply immoral and offensive. Discrimination has no home in any corner of this state — full stop. HB 2 does not represent who we are, and North Carolina Democrats refuse to stand by while McCrory and his friends in the legislature use our government to impose their desire to allow discrimination against any of our fellow North Carolinians.

That’s why we’re doing everything we can to repeal this law — so that North Carolinians can move forward from this shameful moment in our state’s history. And I’m asking you to stand with me.

So if you agree with me, add your name to say it’s time to repeal House Bill 2 in its entirety:

http://action.ncdp.org/Repeal-HB-2

Thank you for standing with me today, because this is so important.

Rep. Darren Jackson

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EXCLUSIVE, LGBTQ Issues, NC Dems, NCGA, YWBMTC | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Context Is Everything. What Newton Said and What He Meant. [Video] – #HB2

Posted on May 1, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

An article by Colin Campbell reads, NC Republicans embrace pro-HB2 religious groups; Democrats distant from NAACP’s Barber.

I am not sure if Campbell realizes how hilarious that headline is to the majority reading it. It’s like saying water is wet and Democrats are allergic to their own dirt.

The article is mainly about the Pro-HB2 rally. Near the end it highlights that Senator Buck Newton spoke at that HB2 Support Rally on Monday, April 25th.

Local media, like Campbell, is making hay over Newton’s comments in an attempt to boost his opponent in the NC Attorney General’s race — former Senator Josh Stein. This is not their first attempt either:

I say former, because Stein resigned his Senate seat right before the vote on HB2 was taken, thereby excusing himself from having to defend his vote. Arguably, he would have voted against it, however his colleagues in the Senate abandoned their duties and they all walked out on the vote.

What North Carolina media has latched onto is a partial statement from Newton at the rally. See the excerpt below, with emphasis added,  reported in an article by Colin Campbell appearing in both the News and Observer and Charlotte Observer.

Newton’s speech at Monday’s rally indicates he’s betting on the latter outcome. He invoked God and called the Charlotte City Council “a bunch of crazy people.”

“I am not worried about how I am judged by some people at another rally,” Newton said. “I am worried about how I am judged by the man upstairs. And if I can’t win this election because I ran HB2, then so be it. Bring it on.”

Newton then made national headlines when he ended his speech by calling on the crowd to “fight to keep our state straight.” Some considered that an anti-gay statement, but he later said he “never mentioned anything about homosexuality.”

This remark came at the very end of his speech. In fact, Newton was not making an anti-gay statement. He was not referencing homosexuality as the PC police would like you to believe.

In the context of his  remarks, by saying ‘keep our state straight’, Newton is talking about keeping our state safe and orderly.

“Thank you for letting me speak today. I thank you for being here on this beautiful day. Go home. Tell your friends and family who had to work today what this is all about and how hard we must fight to keep our state straight.”

Watch the full video of Newton’s remarks:

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), BlueprintNC, ELECTIONS, LGBTQ Issues, Media Bias, Moral Monday, NC NAACP, NCGA, Reverend Barber, Video, YWBMTC | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments