NC Chamber Has To Get The Last Word On Common Core?

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

Earlier this week, I published the results of a Freedom of Information Act request that yielded a letter to the Co-Chairs of the Common Core Academic Standards Review Commission (ASRC) from Gary Salamido of the NC Chamber of Commerce.

His letter pushed for revisions that would mirror rebrand states like Florida and Kentucky, while pressing for a particular course of action when it came to the ASRC hearing feedback from parents and teachers.

Co-Chair Tammy Covil answered Mr. Salamido very directly — and I may add, Co-Chair Covil responded extremely accurately and honestly.

 

Mr. Salamido apparently didn’t like being called on the carpet, and has fired off another letter to the Co-Chairs, this one even more condescending than the first.  Salamido’s second letter was about one thing: Jobs.

Of the 11 paragraphs, 9 were about what the Chamber wanted and needed. Most of the letter had barbs couched in them, clearly meant as shaming ploys. Not one mention of what the parents want or what the children need was in this letter.

In one paragraph, Salamido characterizes Covil’s response to yet more Chamber input as “hostile” with “disregard for business organizations, their members, and their families.” It dawned on me as read this current letter and when I re-read the prior letter that when Salamido refers to feedback from parents and teachers, he means the NC Chamber’s parents and teachers.

StopTheChamberOfCommerceCore“Hostile” and “Disregarding”
Let’s talk about hostility and disregard.

Who was it threatening campaign donations again?

The NC Chamber has been nothing but “hostile” and has disregarded the parents of North Carolina from the start. The Chamber instead has built a well-funded coalition of businesses called “Hire Standards” to crush the voices of opposition — namely parents, students and teachers.  Mr. Salamido’s hypocrisy is truly incredible.

Business has a place at the table, Mr. Salamido, however, business now seems to own the table and all the chairs around it these days. Your second letter reveals very clearly that you don’t like someone bringing their own chair and refusing to vacate it.

The final paragraph made me chuckle.  I sincerely hope the irony of it is not lost on the author.  A shorter translation would be, ‘Be reasonable, do it our way’.

Read the second NC Chamber letter:

Posted in Academic Standards Review Commission, Common Core | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Event Alert: Skills Clinics On Holding Officials Accountable

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

Action ButtonJust wanted to let those in North Carolina know that a couple of skills clinics are coming up. (List below)

These clinics being held in Durham and Roxboro are free and are being held by Heritage Action.

Learn more about holding elected officials accountable, how to participate in local elections and get involved in policy conversations that affect you.

Durham Skills Clinic
Saturday, March 14, 2015 from 9:00 AM
Another Broken Egg Café, 2608 Erwin Rd, Durham, NC 27705
REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/heritage-action-sentinel-skills-clinic-durham-nc-tickets-15769318456?aff=mhs

Roxboro Skills Clinic
Saturday, March 14, 2015 from 3:00 PM
City Hall, 105 Lamar Street, Roxboro, NC 27573
REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/heritage-action-sentinel-skills-clinic-roxboro-nc-tickets-15840782206?aff=MHCemail

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FOIA: NC Chamber Pushing ASRC To Consider Rebrands Like Florida

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

A Freedom of Information Act request sent to New Hanover County School System has yielded a letter sent by Gary Salimido of the NC Chamber of Commerce to the Common Core Academic Standards Review Commission (ASRC).

The letter from Salamido came attached to an email from Andrew Meehan of the Chamber’s Common Core coalition, “Hire Standards“.

In the letter, Salamido urges the co-chairs and the commission overall to look at rebrand states like Florida and Kentucky.

The letter also calls into question the solicitation of feedback from parents. The Chamber wants parent and teacher feedback to come before revisions are made.

Mr. Salamido, the Chamber and related parties have had numerous opportunity to comment. We (parents and teachers) have had one opportunity to speak out.  Did you miss the 40 of us at the Legislative Research Commission who stood up and spoke out?  We continue to comment through phone calls, emails, tweets and letters because, to date, that is all we have been afforded in this ‘public discussion’.

Let me also remind you, Mr. Salamido, that our children are not your ‘workforce’ as you so callously described them at that same Legislative Research Commission forum. It was not missed by those who attended that you didn’t use the word child, children or kids a single time. Your talking points from that forum had no empirical data or proof behind them then nor do they have any now.

Co-Chair Tammy Covil fired back a response to Mr. Salamido.  

Her response sets the record straight on a number of accounts, but addresses the feedback concerns (and hypocrisy) of the Chamber of Commerce quite effectively. I’ve included that portion of the letter below:

You seem to suggest that feedback from the businesses community is more valuable than those most impacted by academic standards – teachers and parents.  To paraphrase SB 812, it is the ASRC’s charge to make sound, meaningful, and evidence-based recommendations regarding standards revisions.  It would stand to reason, therefore, that input from the primary stakeholders involved is critical.   

If you’ll note the timeline, we will soon establish teacher and parent subcommittees.  These committees will not only assist us with the final review of our recommendations, they will maintain an active role in the revisions process as well.  

Pardon my candor, but I fail to understand how feedback from corporations predominantly interested in protecting their financial investments would be more relevant than a classroom teacher or parent’s perspective.  I will add that many of the organizations the Chamber represents were covertly and intimately involved in the development of BEST NC’s 20/20 Education Vision Initiative.  There are far too many of them to list here.  Suffice it to say, the stakeholders conspicuously absent from that list are classroom teachers and parents. 

I can’t help but note the irony in bemoaning a misconstrued inability to offer feedback, while simultaneously prohibiting the public (through secrecy and concealment) from participating in an identical opportunity.  That said, those wishing to offer testimony are encouraged to do so any time via email.

Read the whole thing.

Co-Chair Covil mentions BEST NC’s ‘2020 Vision Initiative’.
Read more about that initiative:

StopTheChamberOfCommerceCore

In conclusion, it would appear that the Chamber, by way of this letter to the ASRC,  is now trying to influence what direction the commission takes to do its work?

Perhaps that is because the commission is actually performing the work intended by SB 812? Replacing and not rebranding?

If South Carolina can do it, so can we.

Reminder: The Chamber bashed HB 1061 and backed SB 812, which created the Commission in the first place.

Reminder: The Chamber threatened to choke of donations to legislators who didn’t go with the bill they wanted.

“The big stick the business people are using is the threat with campaign contributions could slow down.” – Gene Arnold, NCSPIN 5/15/14

 

 

RELATED:  

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Academic Standards Review Commission, Common Core | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Sen. Tillman On Opportunity Scholarships – Watch Out For Muslim Schools?

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

Senator Tillman continues to harp on school choice options, mainly what he thinks is the appropriate choice for Opportunity Scholarship applicants.

What the parents think is right for their child? Not really a factor for the Senator, apparently.

His main focus seems to be on “Muslim schools”.  He stopped short of calling them “Schools of Terror” like NC Superintendent June Atkinson did.

Someone ask the Senator how many of those “Muslim schools” there are in North Carolina and whether those parents should be able to decide as to which school their kids go to learn. Here’s a hint – you can probably county them on your fingers.

By the way, here’s the law regulating private schools. There are plenty of regulations in place.

From Sen. Tillman’s weekly newsletter:

And the State will pay for it…

Under North Carolina’s present Opportunity Scholarship program the state (taxpayers) will pay for Muslim students to attend Muslim schools in North Carolina.  As further icing on the cake, they can teach whatever they choose to teach and the State will not oversee nor regulate what they teach.  No, I’m not making this up.  It is the law.  Taxpayers who have half a brain wouldn’t have any part of this.  Unless the State Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional—it is now in their hands—it will continue.  You might think this dangerous precedent is ok—don’t expect me to join this illogical and ill-advised folly. 

Will the NC Supreme Court rule against the State paying for Muslims and other religious education?  Your guess is as good as mine… We’ll see… A ruling is expected this Spring. 

I don’t know what the Muslim Schools are teaching; neither do you—chances are we will only know when the damage has been done.  That’s the law…As Johnny Cash said, “I don’t like it, but I guess things happen that way.” 

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, NCGA, Opportunity Scholarships (OSP) | Tagged , | Comments Off on Sen. Tillman On Opportunity Scholarships – Watch Out For Muslim Schools?

NC Common Core Commission Meets March 16th

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

Action ButtonThe next meeting of the Academic Standards Review Commission (ASRC) will be March 16th.

If there is one meeting you get to for the ASRC, this one is it.
See: NC ASRC Press Release For March 16th Meeting: Stotsky, Milgram To Attend

Official notice from DOA:

Academic Standards Review Commission – The Commission will meet from1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the State Board of Education meeting room, Education Building, 301 N. Wilmington St., Raleigh. A live audio stream of the meeting can be found here: http://stateboard.ncpublicschools.gov/live-audio-streaming. The purpose of the meeting is to continue the Commission’s comprehensive review of all English Language and Mathematics standards that were adopted by the State Board of Education under G.S. 115C-12(9c), and propose modifications to ensure that those standards meet all of the criteria listed in Section 2(c) of Senate Bill 812. For more information, please contact Co-Chairs Andre Peek atAndre.Peek@nc.gov or Tammy Covil at Tammy.Covil@nhcs.net.

Materials currently posted for the March 16th meeting:

Agenda (pdf)
Errors In CC Math Standards Milgram-Wurman (pdf)
Effective Implementation of Standards (pdf)
Individual Lessons Russion Grade 1 (pdf)
Testimony for NC’s ASRC (pdf)
Standards Implementation – Kevin Perks (pdf)
NC Details On Validation and Related Matters Expanded (pdf)
Math Teacher Feedback Template (docx)

For past meetings and materials, visit the website for the ASRC.

Crossposted at StopCommonCoreNC.org

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

#WCPSS Whiplash

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

If you’re a Wake county parent, you know about the snow day make-up debacle and the Wake County School Board has likely given you whiplash over it.

Wake County Schools (WCPSS) incurred 8 days of snow days in a two-week period in February.

The first round of make-up days sucked up early release days, teacher work days and for some tracked calendar schools, tacked on a Saturday class which was promptly canceled due to weather.

School Did What The Stupid BurnsTraditional calendar schools make-up days, somehow, were harder to calculate. First the Wake School Board considered taking Good Friday as a make-up day and adding a few Saturdays.  The usurping of a religious holiday did not sit well with families and likely became apparent to the Board that this would turn ugly.

Next on the chopping block for Traditional calendar kids was Spring Break. This is what the Board ended up using.  Overall, Traditional calendar schools got the short end of the stick. Just a hunch, but one might imagine that messing with the Traditional calendar schools wasn’t somewhat intentional; most of the Wake Board seem keen on making all schools tracked calendar schools, as was the previous board, despite public protest.

The Wake County Board decided to use the first three days of Spring Break because they received ‘significant parent feedback’ that this decision was the best one. From the WCPSS website’s Make-Up Days Post:

Why are we using the first three days of spring break?

State calendar laws combined with the lateness of this year’s school closings left the school system with limited options to recover eight days of instructional time. Five of those make-up days were already decided, leaving three days to recover.

The school system explored the option of using the Good Friday April 3 holiday, one Saturday in April and one Saturday in May. But a closer review of those dates and significant parent feedback revealed numerous conflicts that compromised the quality of that instructional time. 

State law allows school systems to recover time by using teacher work days, extending early release days, using banked instructional hours and using scheduled vacation days. A decision was ultimately made to use all of those options to provide as much focused academic time as possible.

While June 9-11 are listed as teacher workdays, they are used primarily for teachers to close out the school year.

Last school year, WCPSS’s Board tacked on extra days to make up for snow days. This year? Nope — they are saving them for teachers to close out the school year.

Well, the Wake Board heard ‘significant parent feedback’ about Spring Break in the form of a petition with over 4,000 signatures in a matter of days and a grand total of signatures for the week of more than 8,000 as of the writing of this article.

The Wake Board made a statement to WRAL, which is also present on the Snow Days Make-Up post on the WCPSS site, indicating those who miss the Spring Break make-up days apparently won’t be penalized. Instead, it’s up to parents to make the best decision for their families.

“We recognize many parents make plans for spring break,” school board Chairwoman Christine Kushner said in a statement on Saturday. “But we also appreciate many more children will be right here at home and could take advantage of the only available stretch of quality instructional time left on this year’s calendar. We trust parents will make the best decisions for their families.”
– WRAL, 3/10/15

What happens if we miss additional school days?

Per state law, we will be required to make up any additional missed days. The decision will be determined in part by how much time must be recovered and how many days are left in the school year.
– WCPSS.net, WINTER WEATHER MAKE-UP DAYS 03/11/15

Somehow, these statements feel like a trap.

Parents went after the WCPSS Twitter account for announcing ‘Spring Break was safe’. Folks need to remember that the WCPSS Twitter account announces mostly what is given to them by officials like the Wake Board.  The WCPSS staff pretty much threw the Twitter account under the bus:

District leaders wouldn’t say Monday if the social media message was sent in error, or should not have been sent at all. In response, they said the district will review their communications efforts and look for areas of improvement.
– WRAL, 3/10/15


Some Quick ‘Calendar’ Fact Checking
State statute states that, “Each local board of education shall adopt a school calendar consisting of 215 days all of which shall fall within the fiscal year.” [READ: NC State Statue 115C-84.2.  School calendar]

WCPSS’s Board blamed the ‘late date’ of the snow days and state calendar law as the reason they went for taking out three days of Spring Break.  That is somewhat true.

The snow days in 2013-2014 school year were roughly at the same time frame, but there were less of them.

Traditional calendar schools, by current state law, have to open “no earlier than the Monday closest to August 26, and the closing date for students shall be no later than the Friday closest to June 11.”  On this year’s traditional calendar, school began on August 25th and June 12th is the closest Friday to June 11.

The NC State Statutes on School calendars in North Carolina require 1,025 hours of instruction time. That’s roughly around 185 schools days.  Teachers can only work 195 days in a 10 month period.

Let’s not forget, it’s High Schools that are really driving the calendars for the whole county:

The district’s traditional calendar – created two years in advance – lists June 9-11 as makeup dates. Officials said when they used last year’s June make-up dates, they didn’t work because state tests were already given and seniors had already graduated. School officials added that they will reevaluate makeup dates for next school year.
– WRAL, 3/10/15

According to Wake Board Member Christine Kushner, Traditional school calendars in Wake County are created two years in advance. The board will be ‘revisiting’ the calendar to increase ‘clarity’:

The district’s traditional calendar is created two years in advance. Kushner said she and the school board will review next year’s make-up days which are already listed.

“We will need to look at the process. We’ll certainly be revisiting the ’15 – ’16 school year calendar and making sure that we release it in a way that has clarity,” said Kushner.
– ABC11, 3/9/15

Let’s hope the next version of ‘clarity’ includes looking at how High Schools are apparently driving the calendars in Wake County and doesn’t give parents whiplash again.

Fun Foot Note: Wake County is the largest school district in the state and the 16th largest in the country. It’s been said by many it is too big and is only getting bigger. Arguably, the time has come for it to be divided up. Don’t expect that to happen because… money!

 

RELATED: Angry Parents Confront Wake County School Board Over Reassignment Plan

 

 

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, Wake County School Board | Tagged , | Comments Off on #WCPSS Whiplash