Common Core Aligned: Texas Instruments

Posted on November 1, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

CommonCoreAligned“…to create just these kinds of tests—next-generation assessments aligned to the common core. When the tests are aligned to the common standards, the curriculum will line up as well—and that will unleash powerful market forces in the service of better teaching.” – Bill Gates, 2009 Speech To Natl. Conference of State Legislatures

The goal is to align everything so that students and the money have nowhere to go but Common Core.

 

Many of you out there might think about E.T. and the Speak and Spell when the name Texas Instruments comes up.  Heck, I had one as a kid.

Many of you who got the E.T. reference are probably also parents, so now you can think Common Core when you hear the name Texas Instruments.  Yaaaay… death of a childhood memory.

PR Newswire:

DALLAS, Oct. 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Texas  Instruments (TI), the most trusted brand in graphing technology, is excited to announce a collaboration with The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), the public voice of mathematics education. TI and NCTM have joined forces to develop practical ideas and classroom activities to help teachers respond to the changing educational landscape and implement effective teaching strategies that allow all students to succeed in mathematics. The new activities will be unveiled at the 2014 NCTM Regional Conference, October 29 -31 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The new classroom lessons for middle grades through high school support the teaching practices outlined in NCTM’s new publication,Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All.  This landmark publication supports implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM).  The activities use TI-Nspire™ technology to demonstrate for educators how to implement the eight essential Mathematics Teaching Practices in Principles to Actions.

*SNIP*  Read the rest. Links to NCTM and Texas Instruments included there.

Related Texas Instrument/Common Core alignment and money making partnerships:

 

 

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Did Wake Commissioner Candidate Move Just To Be In Specific District?

Posted on November 1, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

As I wrote yesterday, the NC Democrat candidates for Wake County Commissioner are unraveling.

It appear that “More with Four” candidate Jessica Holmes likes to house hop… right into a specific district before an election.

Holmes has lived at least three places since moving to Wake County in 2012:

  • 5304 Underwood Arbor Pl., Cary (apartment)
  • 1322 Renshaw Ct., Cary (Condominium)
  • 301 Dove Cottage Ln., Cary (Townhouse)

Holmes purchased the Renshaw Court address on March 25, 2013.
She lived there until Jan. 17, 2014.
Both the Underwood and Renshaw addresses are in Commission District 4, represented by Democrat Caroline Sullivan.

Holmes then moved to Dove Cottage, inside the 3rd District, on Jan. 17, 2014- just one month before filing for office.

It begs the question: did she move just to get into the right district?
The records lend themselves to that interpretation. This is a stark contract between her and her long time Cary resident opponent, Rich Gianni.

It also appears her statement of organization filing was done on Christmas eve 2013, when Holmes was still living in District 4.

Holmes official candidacy form was filled out on Feb. 20, which means she lived in the 3rd district for 1 month and 3 days before filing to run there.  Not what one would call a native of the district.

It is also worth noting that Holmes has only been registered to vote in Wake County for TWO years (Sept. 5, 2012). Before that, Holmes was registered in Pender County.

She’s only voted in one primary; this past one.

For more details with screenshot documentation of all I’ve stated above, click here.

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Wake Commissioner Candidate Can’t Pay Taxes On Time? Update: Ticket for Revoked License?

Posted on October 31, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

The Democrat’s “More with Four” candidates keep unraveling.

It appears that Candidate John Burns can’t pay his own taxes on time?

Burns and Skelly have paid property taxes on their home on time, but their cars are apparently  another matter. Source: Wake Co. Property Tax Office

According to the tax records, Mr. Burns has been late paying his car tax every year but one since 2002. Not some years. Not most years. Every year but one.

How does that even happen? Wouldn’t one pay it on time by accident every once in a while? This is the man who wants to control an entire county’s taxes and he doesn’t even have his own act together? Please.

See the chart below for a more up close view of his delinquencies. Keep in mind, this chart only counts a payment as delinquent if it’s paid after the date that interest begins.

 

YEAR CAR INTEREST BEGINS FULL PAYMENT DELINQUENT
2013 2007 Honda 10-1-2013 2-17-2014 139 days
2012 2007 Honda 11-1-2012 12-11-2012 40 days
2011 2007 Honda 6-1-2011 7-10-2012 405 days
2002 Acura 2-1-2011 8-25-2011 205 days
2010 2007 Honda 5-3-2010 10-26-2010 176 days
2002 Acura 5-3-2010 6-16-2010 44 days
2007 Honda 3-2-2010 10-26-2010 238 days
2009 2002 Acura 4-1-2009 6-4-2009 64 days
2008 2001 Mazda 11-3-2008 7-15-2009 254 days
2007 Honda 6-3-2008 6-4-2009 366 days
2002 Acura 4-1-2008 12-18-2008 261 days
2007 2007 Honda 5-1-2007 6-27-2007 57 days
2002 Acura 3-1-2007 6-27-2007 118 days
2006 2001 Mazda 6-1-2006 8-25-2006 85 days
2002 Acura 2-1-2006 8-25-2006 205 days
2005 2001 Mazda 6-1-2005 9-22-2005 113 days
2002 Acura 4-1-2005 9-27-2005 179 days
2004 2001 Mazda 5-3-2004 10-13-2004 163 days
2003 2002 Acura 1-1-2004 10-13-2004 286 days
2001 Mazda 6-2-2003 1-30-2004 243 days
2002 Acura 2-2-2003 2-28-2003 27 days
2002 2001 Mazda 4-2-2002 3-25-2002 PAID EARLY
2001 2002 Acura 1-2-2002 5-10-2002 129 days

UPDATE 10-31-14: It appears Mr. Burns has also been ticketed a few times for driving with an expired registration and a revoked license.  Again, this guy wants to be in charge of the purse strings in this county and has repeatedly blown off the legal process of registering ones vehicle and drove with a revoked license.

After a cross check of his address, Battleford Rd. and his date-of-birth of Oct. 14, 1970, the following came back tagged to Mr. Burns:

CASE NUMBER DATE CHARGE RESULT
06 CR 723997 9-28-06 Expired Registration Voluntary Dismiss
07 CR 753546 11-13-07 Expired Registration Voluntary Dismiss
08 CR 751098 10-30-08 Expired Registration Voluntary Dismiss
09 CR 059802 12-22-09 Expired Registration Voluntary Dismiss
Expired/No Inspection
09 IF 716790 Unsafe Movement
09 CR 766834 11-07-09 Expired Registration Voluntary Dismiss
Expired/No Inspection
10 CR 777921 10-16-10 Expired Registration Voluntary Dismiss
Driving While License Revoked

 
Some of the documentation I came across:

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More Proof Common Core Is Not ‘Just a Set of Standards’

Posted on October 31, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

CommonCoreAligned“…to create just these kinds of tests—next-generation assessments aligned to the common core. When the tests are aligned to the common standards, the curriculum will line up as well—and that will unleash powerful market forces in the service of better teaching.”
– Bill Gates, 2009 Speech To Natl. Conference of State Legislatures

 

“It’s just a set of standards.”

Yeah, right.
I’ve got some oceanfront property in Kansas to sell you if you believe that line.

Meet EQuIP:

EQuIP (Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products)is an initiative of the American Diploma Project (ADP) Network designed to identify high-quality materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). 

The objectives are two-fold:

  • Increase the supply of high quality lessons and units aligned to the CCSS that are available to elementary, middle, and high school teachers as soon as possible; and
  • Build the capacity of educators to evaluate and improve the quality of instructional materials for use in their classrooms and schools.

EQuIP builds on a collaborative effort of education leaders from Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island that Achieve facilitated. The outcome of that effort was the development of the “Tri-State Rubrics” and a quality review process designed to determine the quality and alignment of instructional lessons and units to the CCSS.

The days of  teachers and schools choosing their own curriculum and materials are ending.

Select groups like this are picking winners and losers. To borrow from Occupy,  they are the 1% dictating to the 99%.  Of course, the EQuIP page doesn’t say WHO these select people are.

Yes, North Carolina is tied to this thing via the American Diploma Project. Note the progressive moniker: Moving NC Forward.

EQuIP is not funded by Bill Gates. Shocker, I know. It’s Hewlett this time. See the bottom of the EQuIP handout:

“EQuIP is supported generously by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and MetLife Foundation.”

Reminder, Achieve is also drowning in Gates money.
Here’s their latest grant at over $9.2 million.

Date: June 2012
Purpose: to strengthen and expand the ADP Network, provide more support to states for CCSS implementation, and build strategic national and statewide alliances by engaging directly with key stakeholders
Amount: $9,297,699
Term: 49
Topic: College-Ready
Regions Served: GLOBAL|NORTH AMERICA
Program: United States
Grantee Location: Washington D.C., District of Columbia
Grantee Website: http://www.achieve.org

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Common Core Aligned: Benchmark Education Company

Posted on October 31, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

CommonCoreAligned“…to create just these kinds of tests—next-generation assessments aligned to the common core. When the tests are aligned to the common standards, the curriculum will line up as well—and that will unleash powerful market forces in the service of better teaching.”
– Bill Gates, 2009 Speech To Natl. Conference of State Legislatures

The goal is to align everything so that students and the money have nowhere to go but Common Core.

 

Trick or Treat?!
With Common Core, it’s almost non-stop tricks.

Those fighting Common Core know how age and developmentally inappropriate the K-3 standards are. Kids are melting down trying to do tasks that are beyond what is cognitively possible for the vast majority of them.  This is especially true in the reading and writing demands placed on our youngest learners under Common Core.  I know. I’ve seen it first-hand with my own child.

Proponents know this. They know the flaws of the ELA standards and the overwhelming criticism of the K-3 portion. What are the proponents doing about it? Are they altering them? Are they listening to the feedback?

NOPE.
They’re forging ahead with methods to try to force kids to accomplish what they cannot.

Enter Benchmark Education Company, which is attempting to do just that. Why? Because the thinking seems to be that if we just train more, provide more materials that somehow the brains in our kids will magically align to Common Core.

Yes. Benchmark Education Company is a Gates grant recipient:

Date: July 2013
Purpose: to fund development of Common Core-aligned units foucsed in argumentative writing
Amount: $25,000
Term: 6
Topic: College-Ready
Regions Served: GLOBAL|NORTH AMERICA
Program: United States
Grantee Location: Pelham, New York
Grantee Website: http://www.benchmarkeducation.com

Read more about this grant and what it’s for in this article:  Benchmark Education Receives Grant for New Online ACE© Research Project Organizer K-12 Publisher Benefits from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grant

Note this bit from the article above: “Headquartered in Pelham, NY, Benchmark Education Company is a leading publisher of K–12 core, supplemental, and intervention literacy resources in English and Spanish.”

 

More about Benchmark Ed
I wondered about the light load of info on the “ABOUT US” page on the Benchmark Ed site. I decided to do a WHOIS for the website, it yielded that “Merck and Co.” owns it? What? See below.

IP Address 54.184.33.20
Host benchmarkeducation.com
Location US US, United States
City Woodbridge, NJ 07095
Organization Merck and Co.
ISP Merck and Co.

 

Of note, the employees at Benchmark Education don’t think highly of working there.
Also note, “Revenue$10 to $25 million (USD) per year”.”  Common Core is a cash cow.

CCSS Equals Money

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Sign Shenanigans in Iredell Over Bond Vote

Posted on October 30, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Signs for Wake County Commissioner went missing in the last week. Looks like sign swiping is happening elsewhere too. Statesville.com is reporting that “Vote No” signs have disappeared from locations in Iredell County:

Turns out some people, or perhaps one vigilante, really want these school bonds to pass. So much so, in fact, that committing a crime is not deemed going too far.

Becky Galliher, director of the Iredell County Board of Elections, said on Wednesday that several signs attempting to sway voters with the “It’s OK to vote no” message on the school bonds have been unlawfully removed from the Stockton Street voting location.

“A lot of them have been taken up,” said Galliher, adding that she found the actions “very disrespectful,” not to mention illegal. 

Under state law, it is a Class 3 misdemeanor for a person to steal, deface, vandalize or unlawfully remove a political sign that is lawfully placed.

Glad to see the article points out this is a Class 3 misdemeanor.

Related – Iredell County Commissioner candidate encouraging people who want to vote NO on the bond issue to stay home and not vote at all.  Wow.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), ELECTIONS | Comments Off on Sign Shenanigans in Iredell Over Bond Vote