#WCPSS Proposed Budget: $1.4 Billion… Yes, Billion with a B.

Posted on April 21, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

In case you missed it:

Superintendent Merrill – ‘we’re playing catch up’. Wait, what?

Wake County School district is the largest in North Carolina and last I checked, the 16th largest nationwide.  Wake’s Superintendent has proposed a $1.4 billion dollar budget, which is a 14% increase.

There will be a public hearing on this budget – punchline below, keep reading.

News and Observer Ed blog has the goods:

The public will have its first chance this week to comment officially on a Wake County school budget proposal that includes a request for $48.3 million more in local funding.

Superintendent Jim Merrill has proposed a $1.4 billion operating budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year. But much of the reaction has focused on how Merrill wants the Wake County Board of Commissioners to provide $389.8 million – a 14 percent increase in funding.

School administrators say the bulk of the $48.3 million increase would go toward keeping up with enrollment growth, providing staff pay raises and starting some new academic programs. The request sets up a political scenario in which the all-Democratic board of commissioners will have to give a thumbs up or down to a budget request from the nearly all-Democratic school board.

Keep reading there’s a Q & A Section. The first question includes the details on a public hearing on this budget to be held this evening apparently:

Q. What has to happen for the school and county budgets to be adopted by June 30?

A. On Tuesday, the school board will review the budget proposal during an afternoon work session. The public hearing on the budget will be held during the regular meeting that begins at 5:30 p.m. in the main board room, 5625 Dillard Drive in Cary. The board is expected to adopt a budget May 5

What great advanced notice of this public hearing.

Anyone who attends tonight should ask for the line by line accounting of last year’s budget be made public and be posted online for all Wake residents to see.

The Wake County Schools website has a post up about this proposed budget. The largest listed expenditures are $16 million in teacher compensation increases and then $5.3 million for new school construction. Other large expenditures on the list include:

  • $3.7 million  – “Elementary Support Model”
  • $2.3 million – Pre-K expansion
  • $1.8 million – Extra-duty Pay Increase

At the very bottom of the post is this nugget calling for increased per pupil spending, which when translated means raising your taxes:

Merrill’s proposed budget continues two long-range goals set last year. Specifically, it calls for the district to have the state’s highest local investment in students, which would require a per pupil increase of about $400. It also calls for an increase in teacher pay that would bring Wake County to the national average over a five-year period. That effort would require about $80 million.

Wake’s current per pupil spending is approximately $7,714.  This $400 increase pushes per pupil spending in Wake to over $8k.

Dear WCPSS board — Best districts do not necessarily spend the most.  I would encourage you all to buy the book, The K-12 Implosion. Here’s a peek.

Related reading:

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

#NCed Legislative Update – 4-21/15

Posted on April 21, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

NCED IconI’ve been engaged in fighting Common Core and the NC legislature was complicit in putting Common Core in our state statutes.

The name Common Core has since been removed via SB 812, however there was a lesson learned.

That lesson is that it’s up to parents and citizens to keep track of what the legislature in North Carolina is doing from day to day.

There are over 30 education related bills floating around the House and Senate  that I’ve been tracking. I’ve started a list of these education bills moving through the legislature.

This list is not comprehensive and I may have missed a few. Readers, feel free to leave any not on this list in the comments section.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, NCGA | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Pearson Is Everywhere: Over 175k Opt Out of Pearson PARCC in NY

Posted on April 21, 2015 by A.P. Dillon
Pearson: Always Earning

Pearson: Always Earning

Welcome back to another installment of Pearson Is Everywhere!

Last time, we looked at Pearson getting dumped by LAUSD in California.

Today, we get a look at the over 175,000 students who opted out of the Common Core PARCC test, which is created and written by Pearson.

Not only did droves of students opt out, there are reports of horrifyingly bad test questions.

Small wonder. Remember, pretty much anyone can write a test question for Pearson.

Washington Post‘s Valerie Strauss reported:

I wrote a post yesterday saying education activists were reporting more than 175,000 New York students had opted out of Common Core English Language Arts exams given last week — and many more districts were still unheard from.  New York is at the center of a growing movement among parents around the country to protest new standardized tests aligned to the Common Core (or similar state standards) that they think are unfair to students and teachers because the results are used for high-stakes decisions against the advice of assessment experts. The post also mentioned some complaints from teachers about the composition of the tests, which are aligned to the Core and were created for the state of New York by Pearson, the largest education company in the world.

[…]

So, what is on the test?

Disgusted teachers and parents are defying the “gag order” and talking about the tests, anonymously, on blogs.  The sixth-grade test has consistently come under fire, especially during Day 3 when an article entitled, “Nimbus Clouds: Mysterious, Ephemeral, and Now Indoors” from the Smithsonian Magazine appeared on one version of the test.

Here is a passage from the article:

 As a result, the location of the cloud is an important aspect, as it is the setting for his creation and part of the artwork.  In his favorite piece, Nimbus D’Aspremont, the architecture of the D’Aspremont-Lynden Castle in Rekem, Belgium, plays a significant role in the feel of the picture. “The contrast between the original castle and its former use as a military hospital and mental institution is still visible,” he writes. “You could say the spaces function as a plinth for the work.”

You can read the entire article here.

The genius at Pearson who put that article on the sixth-grade test should take his nimbi and his plinth and go contemplate his belly button in whatever corner of that Belgian castle he chooses. The members of the State Education Department who approved the article’s inclusion should go with him.

Tar. Feathers. Apply liberally.

There were more examples. Read the whole thing.

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

Parents, Are You Watching Data Collection Expansion Bills #HB401 and #HB767?

Posted on April 20, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

I sounded the alarm several weeks ago on HB 401, which is titled “Authorize Data Sharing for NCLDS”.   This bill will give multiple state agencies access to student data stored in the Statewide Longitudinal Database System (SLDS).

From what I understand, HB 401 will heard by Rules, Calendar, and Operations committee of the House tomorrow.  So will a related bill, HB767 (SB560).

HB767’s purpose is “AN ACT TO RECODIFY, REORGANIZE, AND CLARIFY THE PROVISIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT DATA ANALYTICS CENTER STATUTE.”

This includes student data:

 

(2)        Powers and duties of the GDAC.duties. – The State CIO shall, through the GDAC, do all of the following:

a.         Continue and coordinate ongoing enterprise data integration efforts, including:

1. The deployment, support, technology improvements, and expansion for the Criminal Justice Law Enforcement Automated Data System (CJLEADS).

2. The pilot and subsequent phase initiative for the North Carolina Financial Accountability and Compliance Technology System (NCFACTS).

3. Individual‑level student data and workforce data from all levels of education and the State workforce.

4. Other capabilities capabilities as developed as part of the initiative.by the GDAC.

By the way, a little birdy told me that NC Dept. of Public Instruction is in Washington, D.C. today presenting on the P20-W Database.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Common Core | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Gee, A Little Heavy Handed With the Common Core Love @EducationNC?

Posted on April 20, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

Narrative keanuEducationNC is clearinghouse for driving education narratives. I’ve said this from day one and I stand by it. I’m not alone in that assessment, the public sees it too.

Two new cases in point, the Common Core Academic Standards Review Commission (ASRC) meets today and EducationNC throws up two really rather sadly trite pro-Common Core articles.

 

This article push by EducationNC is yet more evidence that the pro-Core crowd is clearly worried that the ASRC has been making real progress in identifying the numerous flaws in Common Core. The ASRC might actually make real, substantive recommendations.
OH…THE HORROR!

Tone Deaf and Blind To Reality
The first article is by a collection of Superintendents in the Triangle area and is titled, Triangle High Five: A letter to the Academic Review Standards Commission.

You can’t leave a comment on it, because comments are disabled for that post. How nice that they won’t wish to hear public feedback. You can comment on the EducationNC Facebook post though. *Update: EducationNC has responded that they enabled the comment function after I commented on it.

Common Core KissThis “letter” represents the same tone-deafness and resistance to believe the reality of Common Core that we’ve come to expect from proponents over the last 3 years in North Carolina.

If these 5 Superintendents are THAT blind to the flaws inherent in Common Core one has to wonder what their true motivations are in supporting it — because it isn’t “for the kids”.

The main thrust of this article is to protect a math pathways initiative  created by the group this collection of Superintendents comes from. This initiative seems to that rely on the Common Core progression.

The math focus of this letter is not an accident. March’s ASRC meeting brought in Dr. James Milgram and Dr. Sandra Stotsky.

These Superintendents are protecting Common Core and integrated math. Integrated math was shredded in the ASRC March hearing.  Neither should be protected when North Carolina kids, who have now had 3 years of Common Core math, are entering 4th grade and ‘have no number sense’ and ‘don’t know where to start’.

Stotsky and Milgram spoke frankly to the ASRC and laid waste to the arguments for Common Core that are commonly made by supporters.

In particular, the flaws of the Common Core math were prominently exposed and displayed by Dr. Milgram.  These 5 Superintendents would do well to watch the video of the question from ASRC member Jeannie Metcalf to Dr. Milgram regarding NC ‘integrated’ math. [Watch the whole meeting in segments courtesy of Major Dave.]

The Superintendent letter winds down and drops this statement:

“We believe the voices of North Carolina classroom teachers and teacher leaders need to be included in the Commission’s deliberations.”

According to NC DPI, classroom teachers and leaders were in the process which brought us Common Core in North Carolina.  They’ve had a constant voice throughout this debate process, or rather, DPI’s handpicked teachers and leaders have had a voice.  Those who have found significant flaws have been intimidated and told to ‘go along to get along’.

It’s the parents who should be included in deliberations at this juncture. We’ve been silenced, ridiculed and marginalized.

These Superintendents do not even address parents in their letter other than to dictate what they believe parents think about the standards and to note they ‘educated parents’ on Common Core. The condescension is amazing.

Making A Case With Swiss Cheese
The second article is titled, What does being a Core Advocate mean to me? and is authored by “instructional coach” Kenny McKee, who attended a Common Core pep rally.

No, really, it was pretty much a Common Core pep rally:

On the weekend of March 14-15, 2015, I attended the “Becoming a Core Advocate” training in Raleigh, hosted by Student Achievement Partners. Educators from across the state joined one another to learn more about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and strategies for implementing them. As an instructional coach in my district, I work with the standards often, but participating in the Core Advocate training enlightened me in new ways.

This event assumes that North Carolina will continue forward with Common Core.  Gee, what is the ASRC doing then?  Is the ASRC just for show?

What exactly is an ‘instructional coach’?
Mckee’s profile tells us that “My job is to work with educators to integrate effective instructional practices into all classes.”
Shorter: I moved from school to school and wanted more money so I left the classroom.

McKee’s article is made out of Swiss cheese.  Observe the holes.

Hole #1
Office Space NGOThe above paragraph mentions “Student Achievement Partners”. That’s their stage name. Their true name is actually “Achieve The Core”.

This event McKee attended likely included “Resources you can use to speak to parents and the community about the Common Core.”

Achieve the Core is a collection of people who wrote the Common Core and those who have supported it.

The list includes former CCSSO head, Gene Wilhoit and Core math writers Bill McCallum, Jason Zimba and Phil Daro. Daro has a history of being train wreck of math standards writing.

Who funds them? The Achieve the Core website doesn’t say.

ASRC Co-Chair, Tammy Covil, was right when she stated at the March meeting that ‘ it is difficult to find anyone who supports Common Core who is not somehow funded by Bill Gates or the federal Department of Education.’

Achieve the Core is financed largely in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In 2012, they received two grants in the amounts of $2,490,430 and $4,042,920. 

Hole #2
The fact that Mckee had to attend an event about being a ‘Common Core Advocate’ should be a red flag to even the casual reader. Why would advocacy be needed if Common Core is so wonderful?

Hole #3
You shouldn’t have to “deeply understand” a set of written standards. They should be self-evident to anyone who reads them.

Hole #4
Seeing the “standards role in student success” made me chuckle. They’re “just a set of standards”, Mr. McKee — they don’t have superpowers. Good teaching is what helps kids excel, not a set of standards.

Hole #5
‘Networking with amazing educators’? You couldn’t do that before Common Core?? You know, there’s this awesome thing called the internet. There’s a group for everything out there and it’s been that way since before Common Core and it will be that way after it.

Hole #6
McKee stated, “I believe that ultimately stakeholders have the final say on their approval of the standards, but to draw those conclusions, they need to have accurate information.” “Connecting with the Community” means actually listening to the main stakeholders – the parents.

We’ve been telling Core supporters for three years now, Common Core is a hot mess. Clearly, McKee is not interested in connecting with the community, just dictating to it.

 

Related:

NC ASRC Member Asks If Common Core Needs ‘Overhaul’. Answer Received Cheers and Applause. (Video)

VIDEO: NC Common Core March #ASRC Meeting (Updated)

Stotsky and Milgram spoke frankly to NC Standards Commission

How’s That Common Core Math Working Out For NC?

Posted in Academic Standards Review Commission, Common Core | Tagged , | 6 Comments

#DM7 Article: The Clinton Core Standards”

Posted on April 19, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

This is a repost of my weekly Da Tech Guy Column:  The Clinton Core Standards

By A.P. Dillon

Common Core and the high-stakes tests associated with it continue to see enormous backlash nationwide.

In former Senator Hillary Clinton’s New York, two bills have been filed to allow for parents to opt out of the tests, however parents aren’t waiting for state approvals and are opting their children out at an incredible rate.

In multiple districts in the lower Hudson Valley, opt out rates soared with Mahopac’s middle school seeing an opt out rate of 55%.

Jumping over to the other side of the country, New Mexico students who had been protesting the PARCC test also showed an overall opt out rate of 5%. Looking at the individual schools, the rates in some schools were much higher – ranging from 9 to 36%.

The overall message being sent here is that of parental rights and local control over federal dictates and the big money behind it from public-private partnerships, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the publishing and testing behemoth, Pearson.

At an Education Roundtable this week in Iowa, Hillary Clinton’s support for the Common Core was crystal clear. So was Clinton’s position on those opposing Common Core:

“But your question is really a larger one. How did we end up at a point where we are so negative about the most important non-family enterprise in the raising of the next generation which is how our kids are educated?” – Caffeinated Thoughts

Got that? The education of our children is a “non-family enterprise”.
Clinton knows exactly how we ended up here; she was a part of it.

In response to a question about how Clinton would ‘bring the heart back into education’ in the United States, Clinton’s answer has ignited new fires.

You know when I think about the really unfortunate argument going on around Common Core it’s very painful because the Common Core started off as a bipartisan effort, it was actually non-partisan, it wasn’t politicized, it was trying to come up with a core of learning that we might expect students to achieve across our country no matter what kind of school district they were in, no matter how poor their family was, there wouldn’t be two tiers of education.  Everybody would be looking at what was to be learned and doing their best to try to achieve that,” Clinton responded. – Caffeinated Thoughts

Mercedes Schneider’s take down of these comments is not to be missed and this part of her response to Clinton’s remarks is almost exactly what I would have said:

“Implicit in Clinton’s message is that Common Core would have been just fine except that it became entangled in politics.

Get a clue, Hillary: Common Core was birthed in politics.

But I think you know that.”

Yes, she knows that all too well.  As I said earlier, she was a part of it.

Michelle Malkin reminds us of just how well Clinton knows this and where this data-driven, top-down approach to education has it roots — with NCEE, Hillary Clinton and her pal, Marc Tucker.

In the early 1990s, NCEE (established with $5 million in New York taxpayer-funded seed grants) paid Hillary Clinton more than $100,000 to direct the group’s “Workforce Skills Program” while she worked at the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas. After the Clintons moved into the White House, Tucker sent a now-infamous letter to Mrs. Clinton outlining a radical progressive plan “to remold the entire American system” through a centralized national-standards Trojan Horse.  – Michelle Malkin

In addition to NCEE, another group tied to Hillary Clinton should be on the radar: The New America Foundation (NAF).

NAF is a 501(c)3 that was started in 1999 by Ted Halstead and Steve McColl and whose board includes Jonathan Soros. After weeding through their site, the main purpose of NAF is to influence national Education policy at Congressional level; they’ve already spent millions on lobbying.

NAF, while mostly politically focused and is indisputably a Left leaning organization, NAF also has formulated ‘education policy‘ goals.

Some of the more visible backers include Bill Gates, George Soros and the Tides Foundation, Microsoft, Home Depot, Rockefeller, DISH Network, Google, Facebook, Arianna Huffington and the U.S. Dept. of State.

Watch the “Welcome To New America” video. You won’t have to go far into it to see Mrs. Clinton. The clip of ‘former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’ promoting NAF comes right after Senator John McCain’s glowing testimonial. Stick around, you’ll see Van Jones too.

Laugh.. cry.. or both?

DM7 small LL1885A.P. Dillon resides in the Triangle area of North Carolina and is the founder of LadyLiberty1885.com.
Her current and past writing can also be found at IJ Review, StopCommonCoreNC.org, Watchdog Wire NC

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Common Core, EDUCATION, ELECTIONS | Tagged , | Comments Off on #DM7 Article: The Clinton Core Standards”