When President Obama unveiled his Race to the Top initiative in 2009, the idea was to award $4.35 billion in federal grant money to states to replicate policies that boosted student achievement. That quickly changed and the federal money was instead used to persuade states to adopt administration-backed nationalized K-12 English and math standards and…
“For over half a century, a succession of Congresses and presidents has sought to do two things for American elementary and secondary education: raise overall achievement, and narrow the gaps between high- and low-income students as well as between minority and white students. The federal government has spent roughly $2 trillion on these efforts since…
Parents in Polk County, Florida are outraged after learning that students in area schools had their irises scanned as part of a new security program without obtaining proper permission.continue reading…http://on.rt.com/d4seys
Three federal laws explicitly prohibit the U.S. Department of Education from directing, supervising, or controlling any nationalized standards, testing, or curriculum. The U.S. Department of Education subsequently awarded $362 million to directly fund two national testing consortia to develop common nationalized assessments. The consortia funding application clearly state that they will use federal funds to…
A rising number of teachers, parents and taxpayers are expressing concerns about South Dakota’s adoption of the Common Core Initiative (CCI), its accompanying federal standards for states (CCSS) and its federally overseen and controlled testing arm (SBAC). Why? 1. South Dakota did not seek out CCI; the initiative was presented as an eligibility enhancement by the U.S. Department…
From Utah’s Republic: • 1988: Marc Tucker became the president of the National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE) where he joined up with Hillary Clinton, Mario Cuomo, and Ira Magaziner to get states to move away from local control of their schools and migrate to national standards. (link) • 1990: George H. W. Bush signed an…
Please join FreedomWorks for a nationwide conference call discussing Common Core, on Thursday, June 6, 7:30CT/6:30MT. The call will last for one hour.Here is the link to reserve your spot. http://connect.freedomworks.org/node/371780?source=FWem0528cc
From Laurie H Rogers:As an education advocate, I’m asked regularly how we fix our public schools. After six and a half years of advocacy, I’m no longer confident we can. Solutions exist, and they’re neither difficult nor expensive to implement. But most board directors and education administrators won’t do those things, and no one can make…
If this teacher feels this way, imagine how the children feel… http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/05/23/veteran-teacher-resigns-disgust-youtube
In defense of traditional math: What is reform math, anyway? Note from Laurie Rogers:When you explain the flaws of reform math and excessive constructivism to parents, they tend to see it right away. When you explain the flaws of reform math to proponents of reform, they tend to dismiss all concerns with some variation of, “You just don’t…
South Dakotans Against Common Core 