The Common Core Weekend Reads – 2-15-15

Posted on February 15, 2015 by A.P. Dillon

Pepperidge Farm Remembers Jeb BushThese are the Common Core Weekend Reads for February 15th, 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: 2-8-15

 

NC Academic Standards Review Commission (ASRC) Updates:

NC ASRC Site 
Next ASRC meeting: February 16th, 1-5 pm. Be aware, location published for February is Dept. of Administration, but January’s meeting was moved on short notice to Dept. of Public Instruction. READ: Common Core ASRC Meeting Details for February 16th

NC UPDATES:

APUSH:  Deadline for public comment is approaching!

U.S. History Curriculum Framework Public Comment Form

If you wish to propose evidence-based changes to the AP US History Curriculum Framework, please do so from October 1, 2014 through February 28, 2015. After that time, all collected feedback will be reviewed and considered by the AP U.S. History Course and Exam Development Committee. If you have any additional questions, please email apcourses@collegeboard.org.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

CP: I saw recently that you do not support Common Core. What is your main concern — federal involvement? The standards themselves? All of the above?

Fiorina: America’s future prosperity requires that changes be made to Common Core. The facts are pretty clear, the bigger our education department becomes, the worse our public education becomes. There’s no connection between spending more money in our nation’s capital and a better school system. Parents should be given choice, competition, and accountability in the classroom. Teaching entrepreneurship, innovation, risk taking, and imagination comes with local control and we have to maintain this in our school system.
-Christian Post, Interview: Potential GOP Presidential Candidate Carly Fiorina Talks Abortion, Common Core, Gay Marriage and Her Christian Faith

The vigilant mom warns parents nationwide: “While we are being treated like serfs of the State, Pearson publishing is raking in billions off our children.” And she is not going to just lie down and surrender because some bloviating suits told her “it’s the law.”
– National Review Online, Michelle Malkin – Choose to Refuse on PARCC/SBAC Testing

 

Heather Crossin, anti-Common Core Indiana activist, said in an email to Breitbart.com, “It is apparent that since Gov. Pence is considered to be contemplating a presidential run, he will have to start answering to the nation about what occurred in [Indiana] on Common Core. As a Republican candidate seeking the Oval Office, he will have a hard time explaining that with a Republican supermajority and an appointed [State Board of Education], tweaking and rebranding Common Core was the best he could do.”
– ElkhartTruth.com​, Common Core becomes a minefield for Indiana’s Mike Pence

 

LEGISLATIVE/LEGAL:

POLITICAL/PROTESTS:

HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLES:

THE WEEKEND READS:

TESTING UPDATES:

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

TWEETS OF THE WEEK:

Posted in Common Core, EDUCATION | Tagged | 1 Comment

About That Gas Tax Proposal…

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

Americans For Prosperity (AFP) is circulating a petition to halt a bill that includes a temporary cut to the state’s gas tax rate and that also sets a new minimum rate level to stabilize the revenue stream, which the DOT depends on.

The AFP petition doesn’t that the current floor minimum is 37.5 cents:

If it’s not bad enough that Congress is considering a federal gas tax hike, our very own state general assembly is trying to pull a fast one with Senate Bill 20.

While it temporarily lowers the gas tax, SB 20 sets a new floor on the tax at 35 cents and thereby keeps the gas tax artificially inflated over time. At 35 cents the tax is 6 to 8 cents higher than it would be under current law.

Enough is enough. Families are struggling and temporarily lower gas prices are no excuse for our legislators to play fast and loose with our gas tax. Tell your legislators to vote no on SB 20 and any legislation hiking our gas taxes.

Could this lead to higher gas taxes down the line? Sure.  I tend to agree with some of Becki Gray’s list of alternatives to messing with the gas tax.
UPDATE: Haymaker weighs in – #ncga: Things looking rather dicey in House for NC Chamber’s gas tax hike  Civitas: Bad Bill of the Week – Billion Dollar Gas Tax Hike

Let’s take a look at the math and what’s going on nationally.

For drivers, the falling gas prices are a welcome change, but for state departments of transportation they present a budget problem.  One might think a gas tax hike is on the way, as may the case nationally or in South Carolina, but in neighboring North Carolina, the opposite is happening.

A proposal to lower the state’s gas tax by 2.5 cents was introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly and passed the Senate. See SB 20.

The gas tax cut would put in place a new minimum rate and would be effective on March 1. This would take the current of 37.5 cents per gallon down to 35 cents.

The main purpose for the change appears to be an attempt to steady the revenue stream the tax provides and which is critical to the state’s Department of Transportation budget.

“There’s an immediate tax cut” in the new proposal, said Sen. Kathy Harrington, a Gaston County Republican who co-chairs one of the Senate’s budget-writing committees. “And it freezes it by putting a floor in place — and provides stability going forward, (to guarantee funds) for road projects that are already in the queue.” – The State.com

The current law governing gas taxes has a mechanism that allows for adjustment according to market pricing every six months.  The formula currently in place starts at 17.5 cents and then adds which ever is greater of 3.5 cents or 7 percent of the average national wholesale price.

The new proposal would change the existing formula to make a new minimum rate of 35 cents. To meet that minimum, whichever amount is greater would be used; an additional 17.5 cents or 9.9 percent of the average wholesale fuel price. Remember the current minimum is 37.5 cents.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), NCGA | Comments Off on About That Gas Tax Proposal…

Pete Kaliner Show: ‘You’re a Monster for Parent Concerns’

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

In case you missed it yesterday, I went on the Pete Kaliner show to discuss the Wake County ‘book club’ controversy.  Hit the 76 minute mark.

Pete and I discussed the media closing ranks to defend the schools, the Principal of the school’s statements not matching up with the documentation, the need for greater transparency in what materials schools are using and In terms of transparency, Pete noted that I seem to be ‘a monster for parent concerns’.  The most important piece discussed was the question, how appropriate is this material for 9 and 10 year-olds?

Books brought up were One Crazy Summer, where young girls get shipped off to a black panther summer camp by their negligent mother and Esperanza Rising, which deals with immigration, class and ethnic struggles’.

Another book briefly mentioned was Maniac Magee. On the show, I noted that a parent told me this book already had a controversial past.  The parent was correct and in fact, it appears this book was possibly given 3rd and 4th graders. Check out page 8 of this 2005 edition of Carolina Journal.

Maniac Magee was challenged 7 times in the past for its strong language content, including another challenge predating the Brauns/Guebert complaint in 2005.

It appears not much has changed from 2005 in the way parents are treated. As I said on the show, parents come to bloggers like me because they’re getting the blow-off from the school:

“Regardless of the decision, the Brauns and Julie Guebert say CMS’s rules and method of dealing with parents should be scrutinized. Peter Braun believes he and his wife were patronized and treated as secondary to their child’s education”
–Carolina Journal 2005

See the reading assignment Assessment Form.
See the reading assignment Letter to parents.

Related Reads:

Posted in EDUCATION | Tagged , | 2 Comments

“But she is informed, super-savvy, and driven by her love for her children.”

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

Common Core supporters don’t get what is driving the Common Core backlash.

American Principles Project’s Ed Director, Emmett McGroarty, totally gets it.

“The Common Core movement has become one of today’s most potent political phenomena. To understand it though, one has to empathize with the moms who are driving it.

The typical mom activist puts her children to bed and then sits down, often times for hours at a time to study research and correspond with other activists, psychologists, attorneys and even university professors of mathematics and literature.

There is a good possibility that before she has never stepped into the public square. But she is informed, super-savvy, and driven by her love for her children.”

YES.

Video embedded in the tweet as well:

 

Posted in Common Core, Twitter, Video | 3 Comments

Barber: NC Is Our Selma! Turns Around, Holds Embarrassing ‘Die-in’.

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

Last week, Rev. William Barber  compared the protests to the civil rights movement in Selma:

“Let me share all of my people of faith something: God does not keep you out of everything,” said the Rev. Dr. William Barber.

“We’re in a time, my friends, when we’ve got to do more than celebrate what Dr. King did, and Selma has got to be more than a movie you go see… We’re in the time where North Carolina today is our Selma.”

 

This week, Rev. Baber holds a totally cringe-worthy ‘die-in’ for Medicaid expansion:

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Moral Monday, Occupy 2.0, Reverend Barber | Tagged | Comments Off on Barber: NC Is Our Selma! Turns Around, Holds Embarrassing ‘Die-in’.

NC Book Assignment On Black Panthers Draws Controversy

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

Imagine a 9 or 10 year-old grappling with a story about a mom who sends her kids to a Black Panthers camp where they learn about‘racist, white pigs’ instead of going to Disneyland. That is what happens in One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia.

One passage from One Crazy Summer reads:

​”he didn’t have a leather jacket, but he was one of them. On his black T-Shirt was a dead white pig with flies buzzing around it and the words OFF THE PIG in white letters.”​

Parents in one Wake county school were notified in an email newsletter that their 4th grade child would be participating in a ‘book club’, whereby teachers would be assigning books to the kids.

In addition to One Crazy Summer, another book deals with immigration, unions and ‘ethnic class’ struggles titled, Esperanza Rising.  

School officials made statements on the ‘book club’, claiming it was optional. However, the email newsletter sent to parents simply stated “your child will be participating…”. There was no ‘opt out’ option given.

The newsletter also did not include the list of the books. Parents had to contact the school to find out what books were being chosen.

Principal Gamble also made statements that it was a ‘handful of kids’. If you call the entire 4th grade a ‘handful’, I suppose that’s true.

The email stated this assignment would count as a “significant portion” of their reading grade.  Additionally, parents were required to sign a “Book Club Assessment” sheet which indicated all of the different Common Core elements their child would be graded on as part of book club.

Local media coverage attempted to turn the story political in some cases and in others,  failed to focus on the real question, ‘is this content appropriate for a 4th grader?’.  Given that the Library school journal places these books at 6-9 ranges, one might conclude it’s not.

Read a full recap of this ongoing story in North Carolina – FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE.

Check out my IJ review article on this story for the video from ABC 11.

I’m wondering if the parents are going to call out Principal Gamble for lying on the ABC 11 segment about this being an “optional assignment” and parents could “opt out”.

How does one opt out when they send an assessment page home for parents to sign and a letter telling them a “significant portion” of the child’s grade depends on it?

The originating article never said this was on the Common Core reading list, in fact, just the opposite. Perhaps he should look at the assessment page parents were required to sign off on linked the book to fulfilling Common Core standards.

I’ll be on the Pete Kaliner show tomorrow starting around 5:05 pm to talk about this. Tune in and listen!

Posted in EDUCATION | 3 Comments