Tag Archives: Common Core

The Gates Coup Of Education

Posted on June 9, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Over the weekend, the Washington Post featured an article on Bill Gates and his foundation, which supplied nearly 3 billion in funding to develop, promote and push Common Core. Gates couldn’t do it alone, he needed the Department of Education on board and dangle a carrot in front of the states. He got it with the Race To The Top grant. What resulted was an education coup.
What opponents have been saying from the start is true: Common Core is not state-led. It’s Gates-led.

The follow-up article today in the Washington Post calls it just that, an education coup. The opening of this article lays bare the key spots of how this happened, with little or no vetting by the states.

KEEP READING…. Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

NCSPIN Re-Runs N&O Op Ed Smearing Parents

Posted on June 8, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Another day, another N&O anonymous Op-ed smearing those who oppose Common Core. More Common Core Shutuppery from our media. Gotta love it.

You can read it at NCSPIN. I won’t send the traffic to the N&O. Here’s my response (below), which I also posted in the comments of the NCSPIN piece.

I’ve added some hyperlinks where relevant.
Begin Comment:

Another Anonymous N&O Op ed likely written by the Chamber of Commerce for them in which they demonize parents, students and teachers who see the Common Core for what it is: a flawed set of experimental standards.

MEMO TO N&O: This isn’t Right or Left. This isn’t the Tea Party. One of my friends involved in this is as Liberal as they come and she LOATHES Common Core. This movement includes people from all walks of life and ideologies and we’re sick of our own news outlets smearing us.

Let me know how that “tea party is racist” label you are attempting to put on your readership works out for ya?

KEEP READING Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core, Media Bias | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

About That Wilmington Police Chief Supporting Common Core….

Posted on June 8, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

A Wilmington Police Chief opposes the repeal of Common Core? Do tell. Now, why would a Police Chief be weighing in on legislation like this? Via StarNewsOnline, emphasis added:

Wilmington | Wilmington’s police chief will join others Thursday at a demonstration in Raleigh in support of Common Core education standards, according to a news release from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.

Chief Ralph Evangelous is expected to join Fayetteville Police Chief Harold Medlock and Brevard Police Chief J. Phillip Harris Jr. to urge lawmakers to reject legislation to replace the nationally developed academic standards used in more than 40 states, the release states. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is an organization of more than 5,000 law enforcement leaders, including 91 in North Carolina.

The standards that establish what a student should learn in each grade level would be phased out in North Carolina under legislation that cleared a General Assembly committee Tuesday.

Last year students’ test scores fell by about 30 percentage points, which state education officials say is the result of more stringent testing than in the past. Many lawmakers say the tests may not be appropriate and are concerned the state is giving up its control of education.

– F.T. Norton

Let’s ignore the reason the end of year scores dropped 30 points was likely due to Common Core and look at why this police chief is involved here. Focus in on the highlighted passage above that include Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. That group has an acronym — FCIK. They have some sort of tie to ESEA, but their own page does not contain the PDF describing it anymore; the link goes nowhere.

I’m sure this organization does some wonderful things, however they and this chief are out of their depth and very misinformed about the Common Core. This letter shows that misinformation both on the bills in question and the Common Core quite painfully.

On their website, they have this disclaimer at the bottom of the page:

2014 © Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is a membership organization of law enforcement leaders and crime victims under the umbrella non-profit Council for a Strong America.

Council for a Strong America rang a bell for me.

It rings a big bell at the Gates Foundation – $1.7 million last year alone to promote Common Core.

KEEP READING Continue reading →

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Call Governor McCrory. Tell Him The Truth About Common Core.

Posted on June 6, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

This Is A Call To Action On Common Core: Governor McCrory​

Keep Calm Stop Common Core sm
NC Governor McCrory said this week that the “Republican-driven bill to repeal the Common Core education standards ‘is not a smart move,’ using his strongest language yet to warn against an effort pushed by conservatives in his own party.” – News and Observer 6/5/14
1. It’s time to FLOOD his office with phone calls, faxes and emails. Let him know how much support this bill has from all the people of NC:

Phone: 919-814-2000

Fax: 919-733-2120

Email Contact Form

The Governor is being misled about Common Core and public opinion of it by his Democrat education advisers, all of whom have strong connections to parties interested in promoting Common Core:
“But again, you don’t just throw out the whole thing if you have some minor issues you need to fix. We are trying to get some of the language out of the current bills in which we toss the whole thing out with no replacement.” – News and Observer 6/5/14

This statement is misleading. No one has mentioned “throwing out” Common Core and having no replacement. The Common Core bills set up a commission to create the highest possible standards for NC. Nothing will be removed until new standards are set.

Let the Governor know the truth about these bills, the support for them and why North Carolina opposes Common Core. Give Governor McCrory the FACTS:
The CCSS Are Not Rigorous, High Reaching or ‘Internationally Benchmarked’
The CCSS Are Not “State Developed”, “State-led” or “State Controlled”. The CCSSO and NGA own the copyright on the standards – NC has NO say in it.
The CCSS Are Costly – conservative estimates for NC taxypayers over the next five years are over $642 million dollars.
Federally funded Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has developed national tests and RttT Grant Conditions that requires student level data collected be made available to the U.S. Department of Education – much of which is without parental consent!

2. Continue to encourage final passage of the Common Core bills passed in the NC Senate (SB812) and House (HB1061), which are on their way to being reconciled in conference.

Lt. Governor Dan Forest supports the bills and is confident the final bill will become law.

3. Pass it on! Tell as many people as you can to contact the Governor. Headed to the GOP Convention this weekend? Print this email out and take it with you! Continue reading →

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Common Core, NCGA, Pat McCrory | Tagged , | 1 Comment

MI Charter School Prez Resigns Over Common Core

Posted on June 2, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

A Charter school president in Michigan has resigned and he cites Common Core as the reason in a rather harsh letter. It truly holds no punches. BRAVO! Brian Polet calls out the Common Core AND the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) as his reason for leaving.

North Carolina is still tied to the SBAC and we need to withdraw post-haste. While the funding for the big tests were put on hold by the General Assembly, Pilot tests for the SBAC went on in NC this Spring in a lot of schools anyway.

Related Reads:

North Carolina Must Withdraw from SBAC Part 1
North Carolina Must Withdraw from SBAC Part 2

Hat tip to a reader for this link over at RedState: Continue reading →

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Roxboro 8th Grader’s Controversial Reading Assignment

Posted on May 24, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

A parents sent me screenshots of a book being read by an 8th grader in the Roxboro, North Carolina area. The book is Endgame by Nancy Garden. It’s rated by Gates funded Scholastic Books as being for 9th-12th graders, yet this 8th grader is now reading it. The book is described like this on the Scholastic site:

A new town, a new school, a new start. That’s what fourteen-year-old Gray Wilton believes as he chants,” “”It’s gonna be better, gonna be better here.” But it doesn’t take long for Gray to realize that nothing’s going to change–there are bullies in every school, and he’s always their punching bag. Their brutal words, physical abuse, and emotional torture escalate until Gray feels trapped in a world where he has no control, no support systems, and no way out–until the day he enters the halls of Greenford High School with his father’s semiautomatic in hand.
Award-winning novelist Nancy Garden, author of the groundbreaking novel “Annie on My Mind,” once again goes out on a limb, this time to show readers the cruelty of bullying and the devastating effects it can have.

The description fails to mention a boy being forced by a group of boys to perform fellatio on another boy. According to the Heart Based Language site, this is what critical thinking and close reading is all about. Then again, they have the book from the White House’s professional bully, Dan Savage, on their list too. It only gets better!

Fair warning, some graphic content: Continue reading →

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