MORE Controversial Reading Assignments In NC…and Beyond

Posted on May 14, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

Over the last six months, I’ve covered the controversial reading assignment of One Crazy Summer dealing with the Black Panthers given to 4th graders in a Wake County school
and another one involving The Kite Runner in Buncombe county.

School Did What The Stupid BurnsIt’s Orange County’s turn.

The book, King and King, deals with homosexuality is being read to 3rd graders. For those without kids, 3rd graders are typically 8 and 9 year-old kids.

ABC 11 reported:

EFLAND, N.C. —

Third grade students in an Orange County classroom were given a lesson in homosexuality, and some parents are furious over the subject matter because they were not notified about the book beforehand.

ABC11 has learned a school administrator was made aware of the reading selection and physically handed the book to the teacher.

Three complaints have been filed.

“They keep religion out of school. Let’s be careful what else we want to enter into school,” said Efland resident Frederick McAdoo.

A teacher at Efland-Cheeks Elementary School, who is openly gay, read the book in class.

“This is something that should be taught by parents or at least the parents be aware what is being taught to their kids,” said parent Mary Palmatier.

“It’s just too young,” said McAdoo. “We shouldn’t have to go through this.”
The book in question is called King and King. The fairytale is about a prince who defies his mom and marries a man, not a woman.

The ABC 11 article also had this bit of backtracking by the school and a nugget referencing Common Core (emphasis added):

Principal Kiley Brown told ABC11 that while the assistant principal knew about the reading selection, she did not. She said parents should have been notified.

“We are dealing with this matter and following policy as best we can in light of the situation and I think this will be a huge learning experience for our staff and our community,” said Brown. “I think that letting parents know and be key aspects of the educational process is huge.”

Brown said staff is now reviewing the common core state standards. People feel that is the appropriate course of actions for the children in this school.

The ABC 11 article goes on to say that the teacher used this book to address ‘bullying’. From reading the comments on the article, parents aren’t buying it.
Some comment examples:

“What this teacher did, supposedly to prevent bullying, in my opinion IS BULLYING – pushing his views on innocent children. Just my opinion.”

“So the book was supposed to be about bullying? I’m sure there are other reads you could have chose dude. And kids shouldn’t be taught to defy there parents in 3rd grade. Sorry this was more about pushing an agenda in my eyes but everyone has an opinion.”

“I am a grandparent and I feel like they should have talked to the parents first before reading this .”

“Home school your children if you want them to have morals, values and beliefs as you have raised them. Public schools are breeding grounds for dysfunction.”

This book in Orange county NC has competition in Missouri via the popular and widely used Scholastic Book Club.

The book, George, in Missouri deals with individuals identifying as ‘transgender’. The book’s star is the same age as 3rd grade children.

Missouri Education Watchdog reports that George is, “a book about an eight-year-old girl named Melissa, who was born a boy named George.”

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Common Core, EDUCATION, LGBTQ Issues, Parental Rights, Poltical Correctness, THE LEFT | Tagged , | 6 Comments

More Unnamed ‘Moral’ Arrests On Taxpayer Dime

Posted on May 14, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

Yesterday Moral Monday held another protest. News and Observer reported 10 people were arrested but didn’t name who.

One would think that given the taxpayer dime is funding the officers who arrest these people, surely who they are should be known right?

Wrong.

Last year, the Wake Sheriff’s site logged all the incidents and arrests up until ‘someone’ complained that Civitas (and WRAL) had created a protester database.

After last week’s April 29th arrests, I contacted the Wake County Sheriff department after being unable to locate an incident report or associated arrests from the Moral Monday held that day.  The Wake Sheriff told me to check with the Capitol Police.

I called the Capitol Police and inquired. I am on day 6 of waiting for a return call.

By the way, the protest yesterday was about raising the minimum wage. It was largely attended by union backed outfits like ‘Fight for 15’. Of note in attendance, was UNC’s very own millionaire–hypocrite ‘poverty warrior‘, Gene Nichol.

N&O reported:

Gene Nichol, a UNC-Chapel Hill law professor who has been a critic of recent legislative actions and an advocate for the state’s poorest residents, told the crowd that more than half the jobs created in North Carolina since the Great Recession offer wages that barely cover everyday bills. Few workers at the lowest rungs of the pay ladder are “after big government programs,” he said. “They want wages they can live on in exchange for a difficult and demanding day’s work. They want to have a chance to advance and make economic progress.

Remember, Nichol was using his ‘UNC Poverty Center’ to hold political events and the UNC Board of Governors broomed the Poverty Center out the door.

Related Reads: 

JOHN EDWARDS’ SUCCESSOR LIVES IT UP

 

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Moral Monday, Reverend Barber | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Opting Out Of Tests In North Carolina – PT II

Posted on May 13, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

Last October, I published a cursory piece on opting out of tests in North Carolina. Since then, I’ve been slammed for requests for more information.

how to pass a standardized textI am not giving advice with this column, I am just laying out what I found. What others do with it is their prerogative. Parents should decide what is best for their child.

As in my previous article, UnitedOptOut.com is a good place to start and I recommend exploring it thoroughly.  As a reminder, all major tests have been aligned to the Common Core. That includes the state EOG.

Below are all the sources I could find in state statute and State Board of Education policy that relate to testing and opting out. Near the bottom, I include Wake county specific information.

NC STATE STATUTES:

Article 10A – Testing
Link to statute.

Most End of Grade (EOG/EOC) tests are tied to reporting to the Federal government and related grants and monies. They also serve as a method of ‘grading’ schools.

Key Line:

“The State Board of Education shall adopt the tests for grades three through 12 that are required by federal law or as a condition of a federal grant.”

NC STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION:

Policy for Testing is listed under the section “GCS”, which stands for “Globally Competitive Students” in the Policy Manual files: http://sbepolicy.dpi.state.nc.us/

GCS-A is Testing.
It has sixteen sub-policies, of which 6 policies are ‘dead’ as of 4-30-15.

GCS-C is the Accountability Model.
It has 36 sub-policies, of which 23 policies are ‘dead’ as of 4-30-15.

The following State Board of Education policies are directly referenced by the March 25, 2014 letter from DPI’s Rebecca Garland to Superintendents on the topic of Opting Out:

  • GCS-A-001 – Policy governing test administration in the public schools
  • GCS-A-010 – Policy adopting a testing code of ethics
  • GCS-A-016 – Use of State-Designated Assessments for the North Carolina Teacher Evaluation Process
  • GCS-C-003 – Policy delineating use of end-of-course tests for accountability
  • GCS-C-021 – Annual performance standards under the READY Accountability Model

Of note in GCS-C-003, there is this provision, which forces compliance by tying the student’s grade to the test:

“Public schools shall use results from all operational EOC assessments as at least twenty percent (20%) of the student’s final grade for each respective course with the exception of students following the Occupational Course of Study. Public schools shall adopt policies regarding the use of EOC assessment results in assigning final grades.”

It is worth noting that the individual schools and LEA’s are responsible for implementing or using this arguably coercive method. From what information I gathered, this appears to be used more at the high school level. I was unable to locate an elementary in Wake county who employed this provision.

Of note in GCS-C-16 is the READY Accountability Model. This model is used to score the schools, using the EOG as a component:

“…shall use growth standards and performance standards to establish annual performance goals for each school.”

[…]

“Growth is defined as meeting or exceeding anticipated achievement as determined by previous achievement on state assessments.”

Under GCS-C-16, there are ‘penalties’ for the school that doesn’t get their students to comply with testing. The schools must maintain a “95% participation rate”:

Tested Students – All eligible students in membership (i.e., enrolled in a school) at grades 3 through 8 and 10 and in high school courses in which an end-of-course assessment is administered shall participate in the state assessment program adopted by the SBE.

(1)For Annual Measureable Objectives (AMOs) and for the READY accountability model, a school that does not assess at least 95 percent of its expected test population will be deemed not to have met participation rate requirements and shall be subject to the following:

(A) Year 1 Not Meeting Participation Rate Requirements: Within 30 days after the accountability results are approved by the SBE, the school must send a letter (text provided by the NCDPI) to all parents informing them of the participation rate. The letter must include a plan of action for ensuring full participation for all subgroups specifically targeting those that did not have adequate participation.

(B) Year 2 Not Meeting Participation Rate Requirements: The school will be designated as a “consistently low-participating school” and will be required to create and implement an intensive intervention plan aligned with ensuring the participation rate for all subgroups reaches 95 percent. At the state level, these schools will receive appropriate support around the issue of participation rates.

(C) Year 3 Not Meeting Participation Rate Requirements: The NCDPI will count non-participating students as not proficient. The number of additional students who will be counted as not proficient will be equal to the number of students that would be needed to achieve a 95 percent participation rate in any subgroup. An additional letter to parents (text provided by the NCDPI) must be sent by the school indicating a third year of inadequate participation and providing a plan to ensure full participation for all subgroups.

WAKE COUNTY SPECIFIC:

5530 R&P PROMOTION AND INTERVENTION
Link: http://webarchive.wcpss.net/policy-files/series/policies/print-friendly/5530-rp.html

Wake county policy appears to be tying promotion to 4th and 6th grade on the student taking the EOG. Parents should question their school officials if this practice is being employed at their child’s school.

Relevant Text:

Grades 3-5

    1. Students will perform at Level III (proficient) or above in the following areas:
      1. WCPSS Math Assessment
      2. WCPSS Literacy Assessment
      3. NC End-of-Grade Test of Reading Comprehension
      4. NC End-of-Grade Test of Mathematics
      5. NC End-of-Grade Test of Science (Grade 5)

[..]

At the end of the academic year, students demonstrating grade level proficiency are eligible for promotion to the next grade. Options for students not meeting promotion standards include:

Promotion with focused intervention or,

As a last resort, retention with focused intervention


5530 R&P PROMOTION AND INTERVENTION
Introductory Text:

Students in the Wake County Public School System are required to meet promotion standards and graduation requirements. State law grants school principals the authority to determine the appropriate grade level for each pupil. Promotion decisions are based upon multiple criteria including local assessments, standardized test scores, and final progress reports. Personal Education Plans (PEPs), focused intervention strategies, and accelerated activities are provided for students not performing at grade level. State law and State Board policies regarding who is required to be re-tested will always be adhered to.

Effective 2008-09, all students in grades 3-8 who score at an Achievement Level II on the EOG reading and math assessments (and science in grades where this test is administered) must be administered Retest 1. Students who score at an Achievement Level I may be re-tested if parents request it. After Retest 1, schools can begin making student accountability decisions at grades 3, 5, and 8. At that time 1 standard error of measure may be used to determine level.

Posted in Common Core, EDUCATION, Testing | 2 Comments

Educrats, Ed Reformers and their well-funded Potemkin Villages

Posted on May 12, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

Common Core supporters are ginning up their own love of Common Core – again.
The echo-chamber of Common Core support is swinging into action via an ever-increasing proliferation of ‘education non-profits’.

CCSS Equals MoneyThese ‘education non-profits’ receive grants and contributions from other ‘education non-profits’, who receive money from other ‘education non-profits’ and so on.

The idea is to create a web or network of Common Core supporting groups to give the appearance that support for the standards is bigger than it actually is.

This creation and funding of multiple supporting groups are much like a Potemkin village. They are used, in essence, to carpet bomb opposition. This is a common political tactic used during election cycles to sway public opinion.

If one really looks closely at the web, one will find central donors such as the Lumina Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hewlitt Foundation and Carnegie Foundation. To trace all of the connections takes time and patience.

To trace these connection one must employ what I call the W&B model — or Woodward and Bernstein model. Most people might refer to my W&B model this model as ‘follow the money’.

I’ve been following the money for almost 4 years now and have amassed files on over 220 ‘education non-profits’. The vast majority of them track back to Bill Gates.

The Washington Post has an article up titled, Gates Foundation pours millions more into Common Core.  This article is an excellent example of following the money.

The article notes that Gates has just dumped more than $10 million more into Common Core support; that is on top of the over $3 billion dollars already invested since 2009.

The article also connects a dot and follows the money. Emphasis added is mine:

Opposition to the Core has grown stronger this year with the rise of the opt-out movement, in which hundreds of thousands of parents around the country are opting their children out of Core-aligned standardized testing.  The attacks on the Core — which include moves by some states to repeal them and create new standards — have alarmed supporters, some of whom have been pushing back against the criticism. That explains a letter that a nonprofit group called Children Now just released,  disseminated via e-mail that had a subject line that says, “At critical juncture 500 California organizations affirm support for Common Core.” Not so incidentally, Children Now has received at least $2  million from the Gates Foundation since 2011.

The Washington Post article continues and lists the recent grants from Bill Gates’s Foundation. North Carolinians who have been paying attention to the NC Academic Standards Review Commission (ASRC) will see a familiar name: WestED.

Date: April 2015
Purpose: RFP for teacher networks, designed to deepen the implementation of the Common Core by leveraging effective tools and strategies; teacher leaders capable of scaling them to teachers in national and local networks; and network/system partnerships
Amount: $3,510,000
Term: 21
Topic: College-Ready
Regions Served: GLOBAL|NORTH AMERICA
Program: United States
Grantee Location: San Francisco, California
Grantee Website: http://www.WestEd.org

At the March ASRC meeting, Co-Chair Covil asked Dr. Kevin Perks of WestEd about his company’s ties to Common Core and funding by the Gates Foundation. It looks like her raising that question with Perks was spot on.

WestEd is also tied to another ‘education non-profit’ funded by Gates’s Foundation. Remember Mission: Readiness? The retired military leaders pushing Common Core in a series of op-ed’s in various states, including North Carolina?   Mission Readiness’s op-eds were informed by research provided by WestEd.

Mission: Readiness is part of a multi-pronged collection of ‘education non-profit’ groups who have been promoting Common Core. At the center of these groups is Council For a Strong America, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Since Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE) is a major broker in the Common Core Potemkin Villages, it is worth noting that Jeb Bush is still flailing about.

Related Reading

Pearson Is Everywhere: The ‘Turn Around’ Schools Program (More WestEd ties)

Is the Urgent Need for CCSS Based STEM Education & H-1B Visa Expansion a Lie and Another Debunked PR Talking Point?

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

Paul Kevin Curtis files lawsuit against Feds

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Liberty Speaks

The saga of the Ricin letters originating out of Tupelo, Mississippi has taken another legal turn.

Paul Kevin Curtis was originally arrested and accused of sending letters laced with Ricin to various individuals, including a judge, until information came to light that he had been framed by one James E. Dutschke.

In 2013,  Paul Kevin Curtis filed a lawsuit in Alcorn County Circuit Court in Mississippi against James E. Dutschke.

Mr. Curtis’s attorney, Christie McCoy, gave a statement in an interview after the filing regarding the Government’s role in Mr. Curtis’s arrest.  McCoy said that, ultimately Dutschke was the one who “put the wheels in motion,” and that “this does not in any way negate the responsibility of the government”.

Well, it looks like Paul Kevin Curtis and his lawyers Christie McCoy and Hal Neilson are following up on the 2013 suit and comments about the federal government’s responsibility.

According to the Clarion Ledger, on April 30th, 2015 an eighteen page complaint was filed against the U.S. Federal government specifically naming the FBI, US Attorney’s office, the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security regarding violations of Paul Kevin Curtis’s civil rights.

Within the complaint are demands for a trial jury, and ask for damages against the United States government.

When updates are made available to this story, we will post them.

Prior Articles On Paul Kevin Curtis and James E. Dutschke

 

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Government, LEGAL, Liberty Speaks, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

WCPSS: All Aboard the ‘Equity’ Train

Posted on May 11, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

Last Summer, I wrote about the hiring of Rodney Trice as the Director of “Equity Affairs” for Wake County Schools.  Trice is being paid $125k for that position.

In that 2014 article, I mentioned this was part of dealing with the ‘school to prison pipeline’ narrative and various related lawsuits filed against the district.

A recent article at News and Observer confirms I was right: Wake County to discuss equitable student discipline plan

Get ready for the new ‘equity’ report card.

I asked N&O’s Keung Hui if this ‘equity’ push was related to legal suits.

Update: 2010 complaint:

The N&O article links to the student achievement committee meeting, where talks about ‘equity’ occurred. There were two supporting documents attached there.

Scroll down to page 6 of ‘student achievement committee comp plan handout’ and you find a section that includes “tasks”.  One of them is setting up the ‘office of equity affairs’.

Another of the tasks to achieve ‘equity’ in Wake Schools involves training of various types. Number three on the “tasks” list is “Provide Cultural Responsive PBIS training for all PBIS schools.” Translated that is training teachers to identify their ‘white privilege‘.

Nowhere in the presentation materials is the term ‘equity’ really defined. I guess one could infer from the materials that ‘equity’ means cutting the overall number of suspension, expulsions and discipline for minority students because… ‘fairness’?

Posted in EDUCATION, Wake County School Board | Tagged , | 2 Comments