Common Core and the upcoming levy

[Roy Pitchford]

"Identifying common standards is just the starting point. We'll only know if this effort has succeeded when the curriculum and tests align to these standards."

So, don't take it from me or Glenn Beck or Michelle Malkin. Bill Gates, speaking as the head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has a vested interest in Common Core, freely states that curriculum will change to fit the standards.

Matthew:

1) Is cursive really necessary to spend time teaching? This is open for debate. When is the last time 90% of the population even wrote a letter in cursive?

You need to know how to sign your name to a check, right? What about a signature for your driver's license? We ask for a signature when you sign up for a library card.

The way you conduct yourself in professional settings goes a long way toward a successful career.

You are absolutely right.

4) I can't remember the last time I used the word "pharmacopoeia". Actually, this post is probably my first time. I'm ambivalent on spelling. One should, of course, know the basics to spelling. But, just like cursive writing, spelling isn't set in stone either. Many of our words have come from generations of adding/subtracting/changing letters and the spelling changes with it.

Wouldn't conducting yourself in a professional setting equally involve writing as well as speaking? It does not, to me, convey confidence in a person's intelligence when I receive an email or read a forum post which lacks proper spelling and grammar.

5) Not sure exactly what the point is here. Is it that teaching Greek and Latin lead to being president?

The specific question was how we have dumbed down the curriculum. I'd contend that removing the languages of the classics and pushing foreign language to later grades is a dumbing down process.

6) Can't tell you how much I disagree with this statement. Please keep religion out of the public schools. That is a family's decision and NOT any board of education or department.

First, school curriculum used to be in the hands of families, not the hands of a government-based board or department. In stating that I would plan to home school any children I am blessed with, I was trying to make that point.
Second, shouldn't all education be the "family's decision?" Teachers aren't raising my child (figuratively speaking) despite anything that Melissa Harris-Perry says in MSNBC promos. What makes religion so special that it should be a "family decision" and subjects like history, math or science shouldn't?
Third, do you disagree with my contention that religion holds certain morals that are sorely lacking in our society? Couldn't strengthening morals fix a lot of our problems?

1) Debatable.

(On Jamestown.)
Why not have that debate in the school? My point was, I was only taught that the Jamestown colony existed...why not dig into some of the failures/successes?

2) Is this really a missing story or you just wanted to point out that Benghazi was a failure?

Had you heard the story at any point in your schooling? I think it shows a great deal about how the United States used to be. It stood up for the rights of its citizens.
If I were to contend that our school education had been scrubbed by a 60s, leftist educational complex, I'd say this story disappeared because it didn't fit their narrative that the United States was evil.
If I were to make that contention...

4) Also again, I don't really see how this is a "missing" story. As a matter of fact, several years ago I read a great book on this (borrowed from the Lakewood Public Library) "The Pirate Coast : Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines and the Secret Mission of 1805". Highly recommended.

I was speaking about missing from the schools. Sure, you can go grab a book at the library, but if you don't know an event occurred, how do you know to look for it at the library to investigate further.

The Lakewood schools do a monumental job addressing the needs of their diverse student population.

It's sad and scary how many people in Lakewood are afraid of that wonderfully beautiful diversity!

If the people of Lakewood were so afraid of diversity, wouldn't they be fighting against Common Core?? Aren't "standards" the antithesis of diversity?

[Gary Rice]

Roy,

I would suspect that if the public schools fully jumped on to the Common Core bandwagon, then the public school detractors would claim that the public schools were too uniform.

On the other hand, if the public schools supported totally individualized education, they'd probably still get hammered by the naysayers as being too open-ended.

Of course, the public schools try to support ALL ends of the spectrum and they still catch grief from the naysayers.

Sometimes I just wonder....

Back to the banjo.

[Peter Grossetti]

I would suspect that if the public schools fully jumped on to the Common Core bandwagon, then the public school detractors would claim that the public schools were too uniform.

On the other hand, if the public schools supported totally individualized education, they'd probably still get hammered by the naysayers as being too open-ended.

The solution to most problems is often found somewhere in the middle-ground; rarely at the extremes. And OMG, that might actually require (dare I say that filthy, dirty word) compromise!

[Roy Pitchford]

I'd like to go back to Common Core for a moment. I found some interesting stuff I thought I'd share.

Its about this thing called the National Education Data Model (NEDM).
http://nces.ed.gov/forum/datamodel/information/aboutThe.aspx

Now, it specifically states:

It delineates the relationships and interdependencies between the data elements necessary to document, operate, track, evaluate, and improve key aspects of an education system.

So, this is data mining, for the purposes of improving education.

Let's look at one key definition briefly (I'll come back to it):
http://nces.ed.gov/forum/datamodel/Information/TermsDefinitions.aspx

Attribute
An Attribute is information about an entity that you can measure, classify, or describe. An attribute is not a calculation or statistic, and it generally does not contain counts.

How does this NEDM plan to improve education? The information gathered will be shared so it can be evaluated and lead to the improvements.
http://nces.ed.gov/forum/datamodel/Information/howToUse.aspx

Information will go to educators, vendors and researchers. Wait, vendors?? Meaning, non-government corporations??

Alright, it can't be that bad, right? What kind of information could they possibly need to improve education, right? Well, let's look.

This page lists the atttributes to be used at the elementary/secondary education level.
http://nces.sifinfo.org/datamodel/eiebrowser/techview.aspx?instance=studentElementarySecondary

Let's peruse...
Technology Literacy Status in 8th Grade
Religious Affiliation
Religious Consideration
Nickname
Alias
Distance from School to Home
Death Date
Allergy Alert
Activity Type
Activity Status
Transportation Status

Some of these seem very relevant to "improving education." Others do not.

Now, in addition to attributes for students, I also found a section for "Parent/Guardian." What might this contain...
Monthly Earning Rate of Pay
Family's Primary Insurance Status
Life Status
Alias
Nickname
Services Covered by Insurance
Services Not Covered
Services Partially Covered

I'm not sure how parent/guardian data is relevant to "improving education."
All-in-all, there's some 400 data points.

I find it interesting that there is also a category for "Library Patron."

So, Sean, if the schools aren't going to be data mining, what is your alternative explanation for all this stuff??

[Matthew Lee]

Third, do you disagree with my contention that religion holds certain morals that are sorely lacking in our society? Couldn't strengthening morals fix a lot of our problems?

I actually do disagree with the use of the word "sorely".

However, I agree that religion holds certain morals that are good for society. But so does "Star Wars". And Aesop's Fables. And any number of any books, movies, tv shows, music etc. Obviously, there are good morals and bad morals but there are plenty of ways to teach it without organized religion.

Look, I have absolutely NO problem teaching religion from a historical/philosophical/scientific perspective. In fact, to be part of today's society, it is imperative (in my opinion) that one understand, for example, the differences between a Shiite and a Suni Muslim, why the Papal reign split between East and West or the importance of Shinto religion in Japan. Without an understanding of how religion happened, and what they believe in, a global society can be incomprehensible.

What I do have an issue with is if public school all of a sudden said "We are going to teach you that the way of Buddha is the one true way and here are his precepts and what you need to memorize and follow". There is a huge difference between studying the religion and being told it is the one to follow.

JMHO.

[Gary Rice]

To the best of my knowledge as a retired public school teacher, it has never been considered wrong to teach religion comparatively in the public schools, nor has it ever been "wrong" to offer a Bible as literature class. As well, different religious groups have been able to have after-school clubs, and even student-led prayers.

To my understanding. the line gets crossed in America when a single religious point of view is advanced or held up by the State as being the only, best, or single way to Divinity.

What some of the "bring-back-prayer-in-schools" people forget is that no one to my knowledge has ever tried to forbid individual or small group informal prayers anytime. Prayers will always be around. (and as one who strongly believes in personal prayer myself, I appreciate that!)

But for the sake of argument, if public prayer...The Lord's Prayer for example, were somehow brought back to the public schools, (we prayed that one in my 1st grade Pennsylvania public classroom before the court decisions discontinued the practice) you'd immediately run into even more issues:

Is it "forgive us our trespasses" or "forgive us our debts"? Do you stop at "deliver us from evil" or do you continue the prayer with "For Thine is the kingdom.."?

Do you cross yourself...or not? Do you use a modern language version of the Bible, or debate whether to use the King James or the Rheims-Douay version of the Bible?

And those are just the Christian issues!

In our society, an official government led prayer can get into very uncomfortable areas, even for Christians, and that's why it's been held to be unconstitutional.

The American government, so far as my understanding of the Constitution goes, is not supposed to support any one faith tradition above another.

As for common core Roy, where that all starts to get into trouble is with skills measurement. Measuring student achievement and even teacher effectiveness can be difficult and controversial. How do you quantify learning and success scientifically in all academic and life areas? Figure that one out, and you've really achieved something.

This is not a liberal-conservative thing either. Both of those groups supported many of these reforms originally. Nowadays it is well that people begin to take a hard look at education reform. There is much good out there, but there is still much waiting to be learned about.

Back to the banjo...

[Roy Pitchford]

Matthew,

I'm not suggesting that one religion be advocated over the others. That would violate our 1st Amendment constitutional rights along the lines the Founders intended. Their ancestors came to the New World to escape religious prosecution in their home countries.
Another look back to my 1904 history book, one of the early, failed American colonies was originally founded by French protestants, the Huguenots, in Florida. This is one of many examples I could use.

We appear to agree on this, at least to a degree.

[Sean Wheeler]

My alternate explanation is that the organization and material you are referencing are not part of the reality of education right now. The homepage calls all of the information you cited a "conceptual framework." As in, none of it is real. It's a proposal, like countless others.

My lived experience, the reality, is that's we collect no such data and do not plan to as far as I know. You're arguing something that is nonexistent in practice.

[Sean Wheeler]

Roy, I also want t be clear that I DO think there is a whole lot of data mining going on in education, and some of it is ptretty nefarious, but not entirely in the way you suggest.

Your post mentioned the selling of data to vendors. I'm pretty sure this is happening at the state level. For example, Ohio sells student test data to Pearson and other education publishers so that these publishers can use the data to create software and more tests back to the state. In my opinion, this isn't a healthy situation, and begs the question who are we collecting this data for in the first place. If you take a look at the PARCC assessment model that will be roles out over the next few years, you'll find many more references to state approved vendors. I don't think it takes much imagination to figure out how these vendors were approved by the state.

Another misuse of data, again, in my opinion, is that we confuse test data with learning. Scoring well on a multiple choice test does not an education make. This data is used to classify, sort, and measure students, as well as their teachers. The increased teacher accountability measures that have been on the rise the past two decades have now become a dominant force in shaping instruction and curriculum nationwide. When my salary is linked to student test scores, (in Ohio these scores will be 50% of my evaluation), you can imagine the pressure that the system places on measurable data (test scores, not religious or political affiliation.). The stories of the corrupting nature of all of this measurement on what most of us would recognize as valuable teaching and learning, are legion. Here's just the most recent example --> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/teacher-resignation-letter-gerald-conti_n_3046595.html

Like I've said, I too have issues with the state of things in education. However, I don't think that the issues you bring up are issues we're connected with here in Lakewood. We have great teachers, a strong community, and truly amazing students here. Our leadership on all fronts is solid, and I am proud of the high level of achievement that our students display regularly. I'm a believer that all politics truly are local, and with that in mind, I encourage you to keep interested in what's happening in education, but perhaps take a closer look at the schools at the city and state level and worry less about the politics of education at the national level, which are dominated by people with big voices but little influence.

[Sean Wheeler]

Sorry for the numerous editing errors in the last post. I'm at a coffee shop on my iPad and am burdened with fat fingers

[Roy Pitchford]

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/School-apology-Think-like-a-Nazi-task-vs-Jews-4428669.php#photo-4458888

School apologizes for 'Nazi' writing assignment
Think like a Nazi, the assignment required students. Argue why Jews are evil.

Students in some Albany High School English classes were asked this week as part of a persuasive writing assignment to make an abhorrent argument: "You must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!"
...
[Albany Superintendent Marguerite] Vanden Wyngaard said the exercise reflects the type of writing expected of students under the new Common Core curriculum, the tough new academic standards that require more sophisticated writing. Such assignments attempt to connect English with history and social studies.

[Sean Wheeler]

Really Roy? Nazis?

I'm through.

[Bill Call]

Really Roy? Nazis?

I'm through.

Roy justs wants people to know what is going on in schools across the country. I suspect his fear is that the common core standards will be hijacked.

We have American colleges hiring cop killers as college professors:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manh ... 7nFZds0HIJ

I suspect he thinks that is the kind of person that will be writing the future core standards.

Since I'm no longer a declinist but a collapsist I think he is certainly right.

[Roy Pitchford]

I'm not saying this WILL happen to Lakewood, but it could and that concerns me. There's a slow creep of teaching with an agenda and it is, more often than not, one which is left leaning and/or supportive of a big government mentality.

Bill is very correct...I am not in favor of terrorists, especially non-repentant ones, being in a position where they are regarded as mentors and potentially role models.

[Sean Wheeler]

Wow. That's not the way I see it. At all. Are there no depths?