News and Observer Shills For BEST NC

Posted on March 23, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

Apparently BEST NC’s PR firm, EducationNC, isn’t high-profile enough to get the right amount of spin out.

The News and Observer had to be called in to do a cloying op-ed praising them.  It starts out slapping around Republicans and then offers BEST NC as the solution.

At the top of the article, emphasis added:

“The alliance of businesses, educators, government officials and foundations is helping to raise the goals for North Carolina’s education system.”

Read it here and be sure to check out the comments.

This op-ed, of course, is setting the stage for when Rep. Graig Meyer rolls out his ‘big bill’. It is more narrative driving of education by a non-governmental organization or NGO.

BEST NC is an NGO; An unelected and publicly unaccountable entity. NGO’s  give their work validity by pulling in elected officials and getting news outlets to give them credibility. At the end of the day, it is still the Chamber of Commerce getting what they want of education; just like Common Core.

I was surprised this section was included in the News and Observer PR piece:

The Best NC push is based on an effort that worked well in Massachusetts. Starting 26 years ago, the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education set a reform vision it summarizes as: “All students can, and must, be better educated; schools must meet higher standards and be held accountable for performance.” The group helped pass Massachusetts’ 1993 Education Reform Act and the results have been impressive. The Bay State’s education system is ranked as the best in the nation.

Tennessee has launched a similar effort – State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) – and is now credited with having the nation’s fastest improving schools.

Both the Mass. Business Alliance for Ed (MBAE) and SCORE have been identified as being arms of the Chambers of Commerce there; both drove Common Core in their areas.

I’d like to know where N&O got the idea that SCORE was responsible for the ‘nations fastest improving schools’. There is no proof of such other than on the SCORE website.

What there is proof of is the long list of grants SCORE had from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. The most recent is over $2.3 million for “general operating support”.

Office Space NGOThe MBAE is also a Bill Gates grant recipient, but for far less.

The largest grant for MBAE was in 2013 for $250k to, “to fund a study of Massachusetts’ current K-12 system and how it compares to public education systems in other states and nations that consistently achieve high levels of student performance“.

That grant description kind of sounds JUST like what BEST NC is doing.

I looked for a Gates grant for BEST NC, but didn’t find one.

So who is funding their ‘vision’ and/or study? Ask them.

Also, ask yourself: What does the Dept. of Public Instruction do in our state other than farm out most of their jobs to NGO’s?

Read all about “BEST NC“.
Read all about Graig Meyer’s ‘search for common ground‘.

 

RELATED: Word of the Day: “de facto”. As in Common Core “de facto” Curriculum.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Common Core, EDUCATION, Media Bias | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

#DM7 Article: Laws Are For The Little People At State Dept.

Posted on March 22, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

This is a reposting of my weekly Da Tech Guy column: Laws Are For The Little People At State Dept.

By A.P. Dillon

For the last two weeks, I’ve been keeping track of the Hillary email scandal, including her upholding of  the level of transparency we’ve come to know from the Obama administration and the media’s reactions.

After weeks of badgering by the press on the legality of her private email server, it is looking like the laws and policies surrounding email accounts are just for the little people at the State Department.

Those policies include an exit agreement (form OF-109), which the State Department confirmed Mrs. Clinton did not sign.

Multiple reporters pressed the State Department’s Jen Psaki to answer if Clinton had signed such an exit agreement. Psaki dragged out answering that question for days.

The Daily Caller is reporting that a State Department whistleblower has made statements that State Department employees who don’t sign the exit form OF-109 face ‘dire consequences’.

Psaki downplayed the OF-109 form and mentioned that neither Condoleeza Rice nor Colin Powell signed the form either.  This admission by Psaki of into looking into past files with apparent ease is at odds with her inability to answer reporter questions in a timely fashion about Hillary Clinton.

This exit policy at the State Department is just be the tip of the iceberg, according to a recent column by Dan Epstein at USA Today.  Epstein asserts that Clinton has broken three transparency laws  – The Federal Records Act,  Section 1924 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code and The Freedom of Information Act.

Transparency! 

DM7 small LL1885A.P. Dillon resides in the Triangle area of North Carolina and is the founder ofLadyLiberty1885.com.
Her current and past writing can also be found at IJ Review, StopCommonCoreNC.org, Watchdog Wire NC

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Video | Tagged | Comments Off on #DM7 Article: Laws Are For The Little People At State Dept.

Gates Funded and CCSS Tied ETS Study: American Kids Are Dumb

Posted on March 22, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) has a new report out. In a nutshell, one blog summarizes the findings as ‘American kids are dumb’.

The Economic Collapse Blog reported:

“As Americans, we tend to be pretty full of ourselves, and this is especially true of our young people.  But do we really have reason for such pride?  According to a shocking new report from the Educational Testing Service, Americans between the ages of 20 and 34 are way behind young adults in other industrialized nations when it comes to literacy, mathematics and technological proficiency.  Even though more Americans than ever are going to college, we continue to fall farther and farther behind intellectually.  So what does this say about us?  Sadly, the truth is that Americans are stupid.  Our education system is an abysmal failure, and our young people spend most of their free time staring at the television, their computers or their mobile devices.  And until we are honest with ourselves about this, our intellectual decline is going to get even worse.”

Read the whole thing.

When I read this my first reaction was to laugh, mainly because I know who ETS heels to and that their activity appears mainly to be a validation vehicle for Common Core and the related testing.

ETS is besties with Pearson and the College Board.

“The new PARCC blueprints and test assessments are the result of several rounds of reviews and revisions conducted over the last year and a half by classroom teachers, higher education faculty, PARCC staff members and consultants, and ETS and Pearson staff.” – TheJournal.com

*******

“ETS, Pearson, and the College Board have formed a collaboration to explore how innovative  approaches and best practices in high‐quality assessments can be applied to the creation of a common
assessment system.

Our objective is to work with states to develop an assessment
system that will improve learning.

We propose to design an integrated system that can provide  accountability data, instructionally actionable information, and
can inform teacher professional development and evaluation.
Combined, we have extensive experience in the research, development, and delivery of a wide variety of assessments. 

We have worked within and across all 50 states and have worked
together collaboratively for many years. Our expertise includes
the development of innovative computer based assessment
systems and student growth measures, and the application of a
wide range of item types and scoring approaches to provide
timely feedback to  teachers and students.”
– PearsonAssessment.com, Thoughts On The Assessment of Common Core Standards

ETS has been given a small fortune by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: $24,621,840.00

Reminder:

Gates HSLDA Curriculum aligned

 

 

Posted in Common Core, Testing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Common Core Weekend Reads – 3-22-15

Posted on March 22, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

Common Core KissThese are the Common Core Weekend Reads for March 22, 2015.

This is a review of the past week of news on Common Core nationwide and in North Carolina.

Articles are organized by category.

Prior Edition of Weekend Reads: 3-15-15

 

NC Academic Standards Review Commission (ASRC) Updates:

NC ASRC Site 
Next ASRC meeting:  April 20, 2015. 

NC UPDATES:

​

QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

“My breaking point came with a math problem asking kids to combine Grover Cleveland’s electoral votes won in 1884, 1888 and 1892, a sum that would mean nothing to even the most obsessive presidential historian.

The publisher of that workbook, Pearson, also holds the state contract to design the tests , leading schools to adopt its workbooks to get a hoped-for edge .”
– NY Daily News, A mother’s Common Core breaking point: Why Cuomo is failing parents’ test

LEGISLATIVE/LEGAL:

POLITICAL/PROTESTS:

HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLES:

THE WEEKEND READS:

TESTING UPDATES:

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

TWEETS OF THE WEEK:

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Academic Standards Review Commission, Common Core, Testing, Twitter, Video | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Pearson Is Everywhere: The ‘Turn Around’ Schools Program

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

Pearson: Always Earning

Welcome to another installment of Pearson Is Everywhere!

Last time, we looked at the Pearson “Boss” app, which tracks your child’s engagement level in the classroom and can be purchased on Itunes.

Today, we’re looking at the ‘Turn Around’ Schools program.

In 2010 in the state of Washington, Pearson was selected to ‘turn around’ underperforming schools.  The program is called ‘Pearson’s K-12 Solutions School Turnaround Education Partnership (STEP) model’ and is funded by the federal School Improvement fund.

Snippet from the announcement from PearsonEd.com:

When President Obama announced funding to help struggling schools, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire said she wanted every one of the state’s schools to be high performing, and to ensure teachers are able to expand their skills to be the best teachers they can be. The Governor said, “These federal grants will help us intensify our focus on these issues, and make sure our students are prepared for their next steps in life.” Commenting on the Governor’s statement, Drossos said, “Pearson is here to work with the Governor, the Superintendent of Education and everyone in the state of Washington to ensure the success of the next generation of Washingtonians.”

This federal funding, according to a letter to the Utah State Board of Education, appears to track back to the Center for School Turnaround run by WestEd. The opening paragraph of the letter reads:

Dear Utah State Board member,

Were you aware that the US Department of Education funds the federal Center for School Turnaround? This is a program that trains school and district leaders how to implement the federal education reforms linked to President Obama’s Race to the Top/Common Core. The goal is to “develop district and school leadership skills needed to meet the challenges of turning around low-performing schools.” The Utah State Office of Education has a 5-year contract to run district/school leaders through this federal program. The program is headed by WestEd and the 2009 Stimulus-created/funded testing consortia SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia)?

What Is Common Core has a lengthy article worth your time titled, What is WestEd and Why You Should Care.  Included in that article is that WestEd was run by US Department of Education:

How WestEd is funded:

In 1966 Congress created a network of Regional Educational Laboratories, under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, two of which became WestEd. Today WestEd is no longer officially run by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), but it is still funded largely by the federal government. With grants from the DOE and other federal and private granting agencies, WestEd laboratories work as “a public agency performing an essential government function, exempt from income taxes.” Last month, Nancy Pelosi congratulated WestEd on a $5 Million Department of Labor Award.

The question now remains, is WestEd basically a non-profit arm of the US DOE that can do the things that the US DOE is prohibited by law?

The answer to that question is arguably yes given that WestEd was given a $16.3 million dollar partner project management contract to work on the Common Core tests being created by the SBAC.

WestEd is also a partner of the CCSSO and is co-hosting a June 2015 conference with them.

 

North Carolina Related Links:

NC MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL TURNAROUND

North Carolina to Receive $14.24 Million to Turn Around Its Persistently Lowest-Achieving Schools (2011)

North Carolina to Receive $14.3 Million to Turn Around its Lowest-Performing Schools (2013)

 

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885) | Tagged | 3 Comments

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

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

Local media reported that testimony given by former Common Core Validation committee members before the NC Common Core Academic Standards Review Commission indicated that a ‘total rewrite’ was necessary.

As I noted earlier this week, that’s not quite what was said — you can’t simply ‘re-write’ the Common Core.  To reinforce what was actually said, I’ve put together a clip from video taken at the meeting.

Major Dave (who took video of the session) has given me permission to make clips from his footage. The audio level was a little low, so turn up your speakers.

Please watch it all the way to the end and pay attention to the follow-up question from Commission member Watts.

She asks if Massachusetts is using the standards Stotsky has made free to the public.  The answer she gets from Dr. Stotsky sends the room into cheers and applause.

 

 

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Academic Standards Review Commission, Common Core, EXCLUSIVE, Uncategorized, Video | Tagged , | 2 Comments