This post is for the many, many homeschool families who ask me about the middle school years and how best to prepare for high school when a competitive college admission is the ultimate goal.
I've met many parents of middle school students who feel stranded. They want to be prepared for the high school years that are skulking around the corner. They want to get this right, but they're unsure. School administrators, grandparents, and well-meaning friends offer "do this, do that" sound bites. But, inertia and uncertainty prevail.
There are two distinct phases of home education, after the elementary years wind down: The Interrogatory Phase (middle school) and the Execution Phase (high school).
It is in the Interrogatory Phase that you learn what you will be doing in the Execution Phase. The Execution Phase is a terribly busy time and as the name implies, you are putting into action all of the plans you made in the late middle school years. If you wait until high school to ask the important questions, you will find yourself bogged down, confused, and feeling rather ineffective.
What happens in the Interrogatory Phase other than school?
Figure out your kid
What does my student love best and where does he/she excel? For example: Does she like to build things? Is he quick with his math? Does she read above grade level? Can he write better than most boys his age? Do topics in science, music, art, or history hold her attention more?
It might seem like a lot to know about your student but if you pay close attention to your days, the answers are there. Your goal is to get an academic lock on your student and know his strengths, weaknesses, and special interests. Pay attention to your student's skill set and talents. These are the headwaters from which good things can flow.
Test
For an objective "stock-taking", you'll need to test. I am not a big advocate of testing, especially in elementary school, but by middle school you really need to get a fix on how your student measures up against the general population. We are not very good scorekeepers for our own kids.
(There are many online resources for testing your student in the privacy of your home, if you prefer. A google search will reap a harvest of them.)
1. You can have your older middle school student take the PSAT or the SAT. Scores prior to 9th grade are purged - no one but you will ever see them. You don't have to get upset with low scores here because you will adjust down for his/her age. For example, if your 7th grade student has an SAT math score of 500 - you should be very encouraged; that is quite good for that grade level.
2. There is also a test called the SSAT (not administered by the College Board). The SSAT is similar in shape to the SAT, is geared toward the middle school student, and it will give you a projected SAT score, depending on the age of your student when he takes this test. The SSAT is a personal favorite of mine.
What does this testing accomplish?
1. You will have a reality check.
2. You will know where you need to concentrate your efforts.
3. If your student has real strength in one area, it will be revealed and you may have a ticket to gifted learning programs.
4. Since all of these achievement exams are (at minimum) 3 hours long, your student will know ahead of time what it feels like to sit through this endurance test. Better your kid do this before it counts than do it for the first time when it really does count.
Preparedness
Is my student ready for high school? Is he ready to work hard? Does she know how to manage her time? Does he know why he needs to do all of this work? Are we on the same page?
Most students do not know what they want to do with their lives. But, they should still have goals. Without goals, how will you get them to study into the late hours of the night and on weekends when that time/need arrives. It is very hard to push a kid who does not have a shared vision of excellence and achievement. To instill this desire in your student, he must see the goal(s). You should do college tours. It might sound foolish to traipse across the campus of Columbia University with a middle school student - it is not. Pick a beautiful day, travel without time constraint on a day when classes are in session, jump in to an organized tour or just walk the campus and hang in the nearby eateries to get a sense of the intellectual energy and excitement that you will find everywhere. If you can get your student excited about attending ONE college, ANY college, then you are on the "go" square of the game board. You can build goals from there. Without this, you will find yourself parroting admonitions which will fall on deaf ears. A student needs a tangible goal, especially if no particular career goal is present. Invest in your student's enthusiasm.
Does my middle school student even KNOW what hard work looks like?
This is critically important. Your daughter might view 20 math problems per week as punitive. Your son might think that a weekly 250 word essay is pure torture. Most middle school students need to calibrate what they think is hard work to what hard work actually is. They need good models. Middle school students who want to land in a competitive college need to meet other students with similar goals.. Your job is to find them. The homeschool community is filled with success stories. Find the families who have high-achieving kids. Ask them what they did. If your 12 year old son or daughter sits down with a 21 year old who has a proven academic track record and they hear it straight from the source, they will never forget it. It is golden.
To find peers, try to get your middle school student into one high-achieving program, whether online or through your local community.
From Ideas to Action Plans
During the Interrogatory Phase of the middle school years you should try out different things. This takes time but it is worth it. If math seems to come easy, find a math club. If your student loves science, do science fairs. If writing is at the top of the list, find contests and competitions to enter. Your goal is to get some traction. Once that happens you will see real progress. Advice for mom - get on numerous homeschool discussion loops and scour the digests from these groups nightly. This is how you learn about cool, local opportunities. You will have to make a regular investment of time to do this research. Here is a terrific website with lists and lists of competitions in science, art, history, math, computers and writing. A good place to start - http://cty.jhu.edu/imagine/resources/competitions/index.html
This list includes a good number of competitions for middle school students.
If a student is preparing to compete for something - anything - he will be more focused. Then you (mom) can reverse-engineer your school year around this event. Big events like these actually ADD structure to your year.
Plan, Plan, Plan Some More
Once you have gathered up activities, events and competitions, you are one easy step away from creating a calendar for the year with clear goals mapped out. Keep going with this. Do a hypothetical 4-year high school plan. Involve your middle school student in this. Of course, this plan is going to morph. But if you have no plan at all, you are bound to fall short of a high standard.
Broaden Horizons
A desire to achieve and the determination to do hard things won't come out of thin air. You need to nurture it. There are wonderful educational events run by Learning Unlimited throughout the year. Middle school students can take exciting classes on the campuses of some of the best universities in the country for as little as $30 for a full weekend of amazing courses. No grades are given. University students volunteer to teach. Often a middle school student discovers an entire field of science or language they did not even know existed. Inspiration is everywhere. Do this! Do it as often as you can.
http://www.learningu.org/current-programs Get on the mailing list. Have it on your calendar. The MIT and Yale programs are especially good.
Your Leadership
Many years ago a homeschool family asked to meet with me. Mom and dad could not get their kids to read books. They wanted advice. Most home educating families know that in order to be poised for the academic world kids need to read - a lot. They need to read hard stuff and they need to read often. These parents were worried. Their kids did not have dyslexia or ADHD. They were neurotypical kids. "Why can't we get them to read?" they lamented. I asked them what they (mom and dad) were currently reading, looking high and low for a sign of books. "We don't read, we don't have time for it." Hmm.
The prescription is simple. Kids will read more if you have a set reading time and lead by example. Kids will also read in the absence of other forms of entertainment and if most table top surfaces hold a small stack of interesting books.
If your middle school kids are glued to glowing rectangles, have technology free hours built into the day and have good books ready to fill the gap. It is harder now than it ever was before to encourage kids to read books. The glowing screens hold far more appeal. We cannot extricate ourselves from these devices entirely but we can claim back a few hours a day - this is a reasonable goal. Lead the way on this.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The middle school years are a period of intense mentorship. It is during these years that you can establish that you and your student are on the same team. The road to excellence is arduous, but it is made easier when the prize is clear, the goals are reasonable, and your leadership is obvious. You got this ! Godspeed !
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Sunday, March 16, 2014
The Doubleplusgood New SAT Duckspeak
In the past several days I have read so many articles and heard so many talk-show discussions on the big SAT changes announced by the College Board, that I just had to tune out. I hit my doublethink quota on day two. By day three after the announcement, I had to shut down or risk becoming a doubleplusgood duckspeaker.
The Ministry of Plenty (aka The College Board) has made adjustments to this famous test and presumably it will benefit the proletariat, the commoner, the peasants, the hoi-polloi. Color me skeptical, but I’m not ready to jump for joy just yet.
The SAT has been long-detested by many. It is especially abhorred by those who take it unprepared.
THE PROBLEMS
There are five things about the SAT that students hate:
1. Math problems are presented in a tricky way.
2. An essay must be written in 25 minutes.
3. The vocabulary is arcane.
4. The critical reading passages are dense and, again, the questions try to trip up the test taker.
5. The test is almost 4 hours long.
THESE ARE SOLUTIONS?
The new SAT promises to be less tricky, although now for some sections of the math, a student may not use a calculator. I don’t see how this can help anyone except the students who are very competent with math and who do not need a calculator. I think that the academically disadvantaged student is going to struggle without a calculator. Also, if the math is to be more like ACT math, then it will include more trigonometry. Again, I ask, how is this going to help the academically disadvantaged students?
The essay is now optional, but this only helps students who are not applying to selective colleges. Those colleges are going to require the essay. Students aiming at schools that are traditionally hard to get into will still write the essay; everyone else won’t have to. What does this tell you? The bar has lowered – true. But for whom? Less selective schools have claimed that they do not look at the writing score anyway, which is just appalling because the writing score is NOT just the essay. Included in that score (through multiple choice questions) is the demonstrated ability to write a grammatically correct and properly punctuated sentence. It doesn't get much more basic. However, now that the essay is optional, students least inclined to learn to write will eagerly skip it altogether. Yet the students who have been groomed and propped up for entry to an outstanding four year college will continue to hammer away on their writing, and they will write that essay. I see a widening gap here, not a leveling field.
When it comes to vocabulary, if high school students were reading Dickens, Melville, Conrad, Tolstoy, Hawthorne, Eliot, Faulkner, Joyce and Solzhenitsyn – as they should be – they would have no trouble whatsoever with arcane vocabulary on the SAT. The trouble is not arcane vocabulary. The trouble is the trash that passes for literature in our public schools.
If the new critical reading questions include primary source documents from US history, which is something the College Board promises, then bravo. However, this would include The Federalist Papers, John Locke, and Thomas Paine. It surprises me that anyone would consider this a leveling of the playing field. Students studying AP US History will be pleased. Students who already possess outstanding critical reading skills will be pleased. Other students should be warned – these questions could be quite difficult. Current critical reading scores have fallen behind scores from 35 years ago and we can thank technology for that. Free technology. For example, the free technology that provides cell phones to all students whose families receive any kind of welfare. FACT: The more our kids text and tweet and fool around on phones, the lower those critical reading scores will be.
From the college-board website: Students will encounter challenging texts and informational graphics that pertain to issues and topics like these in the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section and the Math section. Questions will require them to read and comprehend texts, revise texts to be consistent with data presented in graphics, synthesize information presented through texts and graphics, and solve problems based in science and social science.
This sounds more like college-level analysis to me. I love it, but it will NOT be easier than what is on the test now.
Finally, no one has said anything at all about these changes shortening the test. If you are skipping the essay, then your test will be "about" 3 hours long. For everyone else it will be "about" 3hours and 50 minutes long. It is not shorter.
SOME TRUTHS – UNUTTERABLE BY THE MINISTRY OF PLENTY
Although the College Board has marketed this as something that will help impoverished students, this I do not believe. I think these changes will keep the struggling students in the hole they are in, while it will be neutral (or helpful) to kids born into success and who have prepositioned assets in place from day one to ensure a trajectory to academic success.
The College Board certainly wants to capture more of the testing market. They have been losing market share to the ACT. So this new SAT is more like the ACT. The College Board wants to make more money. This I believe.
David Coleman, President of The College Board, is in very deep on the Common Core Initiative and he cannot afford to have states pulling out of this preposterous homogenization project. He said himself that the new SAT will be alignedto high school curriculum – a long, slow curve ball to keep states on the Common Core bus. The new SAT is the Common Core’s pimp. Coleman has a side-business -http://achievethecore.org/about-us If you are really curious about his actions as president of The College Board, you ought to read about the goals of this business of his.
Anyone who thinks that our best interests or the best interests of those living in poverty are being served by David Coleman and The College Board needs some kind of reality triagecare.
A steady decline over the past few decades in academic performance from the students in our country speaks all of the truth that any parent, student, or politician needs to hear. There is no government program, no free access to test prep, no elimination of hard vocabulary words, and no hand out that can stem the tide. The problem is foundational and organic and so must be the solutions. These solutions will be born in the family unit, not a township, state, or federal unit. It does not take a village to raise a child; it takes a village to betray a child.
Have you ever wondered why the explosion of free online courses and free test preparation hasn't had an impact on knowledge and test scores? The more free stuff we throw at the problem, the further away we move from getting at the real culprit. A student has to have the time and the desire to use the free help. It's just that simple.
The US is loath to speak plain truth and we are all handicapped by this. Alas, the truth will never buy votes. The truth will never get the wheels of commerce turning. Only fantasy does this and it does it so very well.
With the new SAT - The kids of the 1% are going to continue to do quite well. Everyone else: you are in a world of doublespeak insanity. Do not listen to policymakers. Take the high road and choose to do hard stuff every day. Then you can create your own path to excellence.
The new SAT is not doubleplusgood. It’s doubleplusungood.
====================================================
Notes: Some of the terms used in this essay are from George Orwell’s, 1984, which may or may not be part of the Common Core, but it is part of my curriculum.
Newspeak terminology:
Duckspeak- a Newspeak term meaning literally to quack like a duck or to speak without thinking.
Doublethink- the act of ordinary people simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct.
Doubleplusgood– to say that someone or something is the best.
Doubleplusungood– to say that someone or something is the worst.
Ministry of Plenty – In 1984, The Ministry of Plenty is in control of Oceania's planned economy, where the central theme is that a poor, weak populace is easier to rule over than a wealthy, educated and powerful populace.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
That dang SAT ....
A friend of mine shared this article. It appeared yesterday in The New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/03/03/140303fa_fact_kolbert?currentPage=2
It is a good read and I do admire this mom's pluck. But, I think what she details in this article reveals more about the American "school-conditioned" thinking than it does about the SAT.
The author of the article sets out to conquer the SAT herself in order to motivate her kids. It backfired. My hat is off to her for even trying! (I really have to meet this mom!) I've been humbled multiple times by questions on this exam.
Couple of facts: The SAT (while we all hate it) actually does a good job at predicting a student's success in college. These words from Duke University sum it up well: The SAT I measures verbal and mathematical skills that are important for college success; as such, it furnishes colleges with a relatively easy and inexpensive way to acquire information about students’ abilities in these areas. Colleges also respect the SAT I because it provides a yardstick with which to compare applicants from different high schools and communities.
So why are there SO MANY articles ridiculing the SAT? The answer to this, I think, is simple statistics. Look at the distribution of SAT scores for college bound students in 2013:
494 students scored a perfect 2400
6,600 students scored 2000
20,063 students scored 1510
20,394 students scored 1400
18,561 students scored 1300
10,360 students scored 1100
1,660,000 students took the test in 2013. The average score was 1499.
When there are so many more students doing poorly on this test, there will be many more writers denouncing it openly. I have never heard a student who scored high on this test doubting its virtues. If you examine the drop-out and transfer rates at highly competitive colleges, it is remarkably low. Most of those high-scoring students seem to be where they belong. Even more interesting is the fact that transferring to less competitive colleges is most common in students whose SAT scores were borderline in the first place. We do not have to like these facts but we should not, as a culture, look for ways to make the test easier.
The problem does not begin with this test. The problem begins with unrealistic expectations in parents and students.
For over a decade I have heard parents tell me that their kids go to "one of the best public schools in the state". I marvel at this statistical impossibility and the naivete that clings to it.
In fact, engaged parents who have used their public schools should not encounter any surprises when the time comes to have their kids take the SAT. They should have looked up the average SAT scores for their local public schools and they should know what the predicted outcome is long before they are dealing with their own teenager's preparedness for this exam. If a parent has high hopes for her student, then she should have this student on board the same cruise ship she is on before he begins high school. There would be fewer surprises and less frustration and discord.
There is nothing wrong with the SAT, other than the fact that it is hard. But, it does not test a student on the specific curriculum used in her school. It tests the student's ability to think. This is why a good high school student can get a lousy score. A kid who gets straight A's at Joe Jones High School is not necessarily going to do well on this reasoning test.
Will rich families with plenty of $$ to toss into SAT Prep get a better result? Maybe. But, remember - all the money in the world cannot purchase a kid's cooperation. It cannot purchase a shared vision. It cannot purchase determination in a kid. But any parent can plant these seeds early on in a kid's life.
Academically successful families tend to spend LOTS of time, beginning in elementary school, bringing their kids into the fold - preparing them for academic leadership - molding them to stand out by committing to the very hard work of being better. These kids start high school with clear goals, fully participating parents, and a family culture of excellence through tremendous focus and effort. These families are never caught off guard. These families do not rely solely on what their public school tells them. They send their kids to the public school - but they lead their kids. They do not abdicate to weary counselors or distracted administrators. Most importantly, the kids want the same things as their parents - they are on the same team. THIS is the goal.
There are many things a parent can do, regardless of income:
1. Engage early - don't be caught off guard.
2. Have reasonable expectations. Not every kid belongs in college.
3. Do your own research on the SAT scores of the students in your local schools.
4. Get your kid on your side - work as a team
Much can be learned by looking at the habits of families with academically successful children, but, of course, academic success is only one kind of success.
=======================================================
UPDATE !
That's right - only 24 hours after posting the above, the College Board announces sweeping changes! David Coleman says it is to help the underprivileged. What? I doubt that. Most of the math section must be done without a calculator, now. How will this help, exactly? Were calculators holding these kids back in some way? I think the changes have more to do with David Coleman's other business ....his deep involvement with Common Core.
The College Board: Magnanimous or Megalomaniacal ? (You probably won't see these vocabulary words on the "new" SAT. I think the latter - for what it's worth.)
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/03/03/140303fa_fact_kolbert?currentPage=2
It is a good read and I do admire this mom's pluck. But, I think what she details in this article reveals more about the American "school-conditioned" thinking than it does about the SAT.
The author of the article sets out to conquer the SAT herself in order to motivate her kids. It backfired. My hat is off to her for even trying! (I really have to meet this mom!) I've been humbled multiple times by questions on this exam.
Couple of facts: The SAT (while we all hate it) actually does a good job at predicting a student's success in college. These words from Duke University sum it up well: The SAT I measures verbal and mathematical skills that are important for college success; as such, it furnishes colleges with a relatively easy and inexpensive way to acquire information about students’ abilities in these areas. Colleges also respect the SAT I because it provides a yardstick with which to compare applicants from different high schools and communities.
So why are there SO MANY articles ridiculing the SAT? The answer to this, I think, is simple statistics. Look at the distribution of SAT scores for college bound students in 2013:
494 students scored a perfect 2400
6,600 students scored 2000
20,063 students scored 1510
20,394 students scored 1400
18,561 students scored 1300
10,360 students scored 1100
1,660,000 students took the test in 2013. The average score was 1499.
When there are so many more students doing poorly on this test, there will be many more writers denouncing it openly. I have never heard a student who scored high on this test doubting its virtues. If you examine the drop-out and transfer rates at highly competitive colleges, it is remarkably low. Most of those high-scoring students seem to be where they belong. Even more interesting is the fact that transferring to less competitive colleges is most common in students whose SAT scores were borderline in the first place. We do not have to like these facts but we should not, as a culture, look for ways to make the test easier.
The problem does not begin with this test. The problem begins with unrealistic expectations in parents and students.
For over a decade I have heard parents tell me that their kids go to "one of the best public schools in the state". I marvel at this statistical impossibility and the naivete that clings to it.
In fact, engaged parents who have used their public schools should not encounter any surprises when the time comes to have their kids take the SAT. They should have looked up the average SAT scores for their local public schools and they should know what the predicted outcome is long before they are dealing with their own teenager's preparedness for this exam. If a parent has high hopes for her student, then she should have this student on board the same cruise ship she is on before he begins high school. There would be fewer surprises and less frustration and discord.
There is nothing wrong with the SAT, other than the fact that it is hard. But, it does not test a student on the specific curriculum used in her school. It tests the student's ability to think. This is why a good high school student can get a lousy score. A kid who gets straight A's at Joe Jones High School is not necessarily going to do well on this reasoning test.
Will rich families with plenty of $$ to toss into SAT Prep get a better result? Maybe. But, remember - all the money in the world cannot purchase a kid's cooperation. It cannot purchase a shared vision. It cannot purchase determination in a kid. But any parent can plant these seeds early on in a kid's life.
Academically successful families tend to spend LOTS of time, beginning in elementary school, bringing their kids into the fold - preparing them for academic leadership - molding them to stand out by committing to the very hard work of being better. These kids start high school with clear goals, fully participating parents, and a family culture of excellence through tremendous focus and effort. These families are never caught off guard. These families do not rely solely on what their public school tells them. They send their kids to the public school - but they lead their kids. They do not abdicate to weary counselors or distracted administrators. Most importantly, the kids want the same things as their parents - they are on the same team. THIS is the goal.
There are many things a parent can do, regardless of income:
1. Engage early - don't be caught off guard.
2. Have reasonable expectations. Not every kid belongs in college.
3. Do your own research on the SAT scores of the students in your local schools.
4. Get your kid on your side - work as a team
Much can be learned by looking at the habits of families with academically successful children, but, of course, academic success is only one kind of success.
=======================================================
UPDATE !
That's right - only 24 hours after posting the above, the College Board announces sweeping changes! David Coleman says it is to help the underprivileged. What? I doubt that. Most of the math section must be done without a calculator, now. How will this help, exactly? Were calculators holding these kids back in some way? I think the changes have more to do with David Coleman's other business ....his deep involvement with Common Core.
The College Board: Magnanimous or Megalomaniacal ? (You probably won't see these vocabulary words on the "new" SAT. I think the latter - for what it's worth.)
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Homeschoolers Get Ready to Regulate the Public Schools
Caveat: This blog entry is intended to shine light on the absurdity of our laws and our lawmakers, the illogical straw-man arguments made by panic-master politicians who are greedy to unearth votes in the dark corners of ignorance, and the monstrous nature of a government seeking to encroach on every aspect of our daily lives. While researching the child abuse statistics to prepare this blog entry, I thought my heart would break in two. I pray for all of America's abused and neglected kids, whether the abuse comes from felons, families, brutal bullying in schools, coaches, or social networking. I do not take child abuse lightly. No one should.
An Open Letter to Ohio Lawmakers
To your recent proposal that ALL home educators be investigated by social services before being permitted to home educate, I have the following observations:
Tragically, nearly 5 children in the USA die every day from abuse and neglect. This statistic comes from National Statistics on Child Abuse. The annual death toll is approximately 1,600. Just awful.
Statistics on the number of abuse-deaths in home school families are hard to come by. But, based on the homeschoolphobic mainstream news histrionics, it is roughly one per year. Based on my math, this represents approximately .032 % of the victims. It is very important to note that truant families and these vile human beings who hurt their kids ALWAYS purport to be home schooling. The .032 % is probably much lower.
The more appalling statistic:
99.97% of the children who die from abuse in the home attend public or private school (100% minus .032%). What in the world is going on here? Of course, of course, I know , I know - - correlation does not equate causation (unless, of course, you home educate). But, folks, 99.97% is a staggering statistic! Ohio lawmakers - do not ignore these numbers. Ohio's children deserve the best - even the kids who get on the big, yellow bus every day.
I suggest that a task force be formed to review known cases of abuse. Based on the well-documented successes of home educated students, this Board of Overseers should obviously be headed by experienced home school families (without prejudice to race, religion, gender identity or marital status).
In addition to determining the safety of the home and the safety of the school environment, the Board will be charged with identifying those students who are not reading at grade level and whose math scores are borderline or below grade level. If performance is found to be substandard, the child(ren) should be immediately pulled out of the school in order to be home educated.
If any physical abuse is reported to the Board of Overseers, then social services will be contacted immediately.
Based on the academic performance of home educated students and based on the safety standards in their learning environments, these families are surely best-equipped to advise and supervise in the public schools, where currently a disproportionate number of students suffer from severe depression, chronic fear of bullying, and exhaustion.
This country and the State of Ohio should not stand by while 99.97% of the reported cases of abuse - all kids who attend public or private schools - goes unfixed.
Most sincerely,
Rosemary Laberee
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Homeschool Whistleblowers and the Religious Thought Police
Home educators are perhaps the most mystifying group of people on the planet. We are all dissenters of one kind or another. Some flat-out reject mass education, others feel their special-needs kids cannot be served well, and many fear negative socialization, violence and bullying. But the majority of home educators do the arduous work of schooling at home for religious reasons. These families were the pioneers decades ago who blazed the trail for the rest of us. Most of mainstream America cannot fathom why sane parents would choose to spend every day and night with their kids. The whole world thinks we are weird. That's our burden to bear. Thanks to this article, our job just got a little harder:
http://prospect.org/article/homeschool-apostates
Ms. Joyce begins her attack on Christian Fundamentalist home educators by telling a shocking tale of a young adult woman who is basically held hostage in her home by a mentally ill mother. For her to imply that this is emblematic or typical of home education is disingenuous at best. It is a lousy introduction to what is an otherwise informative essay.
A few clarifications - I am not a fundamentalist, but I am a Christian, and I've home schooled for 15 years. We home school for academic excellence. I've met hundreds and hundreds of home school families, most of them Christian. It is safe to say no two families are alike. As a population home educators are practically impossible to categorize. We defy generalizations. Not knowing any better, Kathryn Joyce stubbornly tries to categorize home educators but only succeeds carrying out a crazy witch hunt.. This is so regrettable because she does unveil other important issues - issues that merit more discussion. But, the most worthy aspects of her essay are buried in her own bigotry. More on this later.....
As mentioned, the most conspicuous flaw in this essay is found on the launch pad - the author devotes the first few paragraphs to the awfully sad, extraordinary, and rather dreadful circumstances of Jennifer's schism with her parents. News flash: Correlation does not imply causation! Jennifer's parents are a little nuts. Home school or not, these parents eventually would have been a force for poor Jennifer (and Lauren) to deal with.
After Kathryn Joyce primes the pump with this theatrical opening, she proceeds to throw many people and organizations (all of them conservative Christian in scope and sequence) right under the "religious-thought-police bus". She has sat behind the wheel of this buggy for many years, but she seems only to steer toward Christians, cheerfully eager to plow them down. She is a bigot and she is barreling around in the bigot bus, targeting Christian initiatives with all of the zealotry she seems to detest in others.
There are many ways she could have addressed some of the valid issues that exist in very conservative Christian home school circles. An even-handed approach would have borne more fruit. For example, this article would be more plausible, if it had included a discussion of what the Amish are taught in their homes and churches. Additionally, if Ms. Joyce is truly concerned about what children are learning outside of this nation's state conditioning centers, she really should have included a discussion of ultra conservative Judaism, which is most analogous to the very conservative fundamentalist Christian. For example, in conservative orthodox Judaism, marriages are often determined by parents and it is frequently a financial arrangement. Boys and girls are taught separately. They are opposed to viewing secular movies and reading secular newspapers. They are told to be fruitful and multiply. This sounds like just the thing to get Ms. Joyce's knickers twisted, but she does not talk about them or other groups.
Kathryn Joyce is deeply interested in religious liberty. Well, why doesn't she focus on the oppression of young Muslim girls? Here, a storehouse of great exposés await her golden pen. Imagine the good she could do by raising awareness of the ocean of brutality and subjugation in the extreme forms of this religion. Instead she spends her time accusing Christians of evil-doing when they rescue children through adoption. Better those children should die slow and painful deaths from infection, neglect and abuse, right, Kathryn? Anything would be better than having them cared for by Christians.
Also, I cannot help but wonder why Kathryn Joyce did not give any space in her article to talk about the amazing achievements of home educated students. It is a glaring omission. It robs her thesis of integrity.
The Homeschool Apostates (the title of her essay) gave voice to a growing group of young adults who feel they were robbed of a normal childhood. This is a terrible thing - a heart breaking outcome. I am glad these young people have found each other and have a public forum for airing their grievances. Their parents may wish they had done things differently. Many parents do and most of them did not home school. But, I had no idea that there were homeschool recovery groups, and it was deeply challenging to read the personal stories of so many young adults on these homeschool refugee websites. It is important to read how things can go sideways - it doesn't only happen in school families - it happens in homeschool families, too. I am glad that Kathryn Joyce put these websites out there. Together, all of these recovery stories present a complete manual on what NOT to do if you plan to home educate. Ideally, some of these stories would make it into the "new homeschooler info packet".
I do not want to detract from the stories of these defectors. However, much larger than this apostate group (by several million) are the public forums for young adults who wish their parents had rescued them from a hellish existence in school.
Here's the thing - some conservative Christian families do go over board in my opinion. I know families who do not allow their teens to date and where the "Master of the House" dad is viewed as an overlord. There are some families who meddle constantly in their children's lives and who smother them with rules. Some have a highly flawed approach to academics. But, at the end of the day, this is no more my business than is the neighbor's kid who gets on a big, yellow bus every day and who at the age of 12 still cannot read.
Kathryn Joyce seems very alarmed by the fact that home education puts most control into the hands of parents. Who else should have control over our children's lives - the marauding, predatory, minions in Washington? It is obvious that this author wants everyone to have the same life views. Yes, a mob of automatons would be a manageable mob. Hmmmm. Don't you wonder what Kathryn Joyce really wants?
In this article, she was trying to get at some of the flaws in home education but her hostility toward Christians derailed her effort. Hate is a terrible burden to bear. Ultimately, I think this author degrades herself with her evident hatred of Christians and the result is a lack of imagination in her research.
http://prospect.org/article/homeschool-apostates
Ms. Joyce begins her attack on Christian Fundamentalist home educators by telling a shocking tale of a young adult woman who is basically held hostage in her home by a mentally ill mother. For her to imply that this is emblematic or typical of home education is disingenuous at best. It is a lousy introduction to what is an otherwise informative essay.
A few clarifications - I am not a fundamentalist, but I am a Christian, and I've home schooled for 15 years. We home school for academic excellence. I've met hundreds and hundreds of home school families, most of them Christian. It is safe to say no two families are alike. As a population home educators are practically impossible to categorize. We defy generalizations. Not knowing any better, Kathryn Joyce stubbornly tries to categorize home educators but only succeeds carrying out a crazy witch hunt.. This is so regrettable because she does unveil other important issues - issues that merit more discussion. But, the most worthy aspects of her essay are buried in her own bigotry. More on this later.....
As mentioned, the most conspicuous flaw in this essay is found on the launch pad - the author devotes the first few paragraphs to the awfully sad, extraordinary, and rather dreadful circumstances of Jennifer's schism with her parents. News flash: Correlation does not imply causation! Jennifer's parents are a little nuts. Home school or not, these parents eventually would have been a force for poor Jennifer (and Lauren) to deal with.
After Kathryn Joyce primes the pump with this theatrical opening, she proceeds to throw many people and organizations (all of them conservative Christian in scope and sequence) right under the "religious-thought-police bus". She has sat behind the wheel of this buggy for many years, but she seems only to steer toward Christians, cheerfully eager to plow them down. She is a bigot and she is barreling around in the bigot bus, targeting Christian initiatives with all of the zealotry she seems to detest in others.
There are many ways she could have addressed some of the valid issues that exist in very conservative Christian home school circles. An even-handed approach would have borne more fruit. For example, this article would be more plausible, if it had included a discussion of what the Amish are taught in their homes and churches. Additionally, if Ms. Joyce is truly concerned about what children are learning outside of this nation's state conditioning centers, she really should have included a discussion of ultra conservative Judaism, which is most analogous to the very conservative fundamentalist Christian. For example, in conservative orthodox Judaism, marriages are often determined by parents and it is frequently a financial arrangement. Boys and girls are taught separately. They are opposed to viewing secular movies and reading secular newspapers. They are told to be fruitful and multiply. This sounds like just the thing to get Ms. Joyce's knickers twisted, but she does not talk about them or other groups.
Kathryn Joyce is deeply interested in religious liberty. Well, why doesn't she focus on the oppression of young Muslim girls? Here, a storehouse of great exposés await her golden pen. Imagine the good she could do by raising awareness of the ocean of brutality and subjugation in the extreme forms of this religion. Instead she spends her time accusing Christians of evil-doing when they rescue children through adoption. Better those children should die slow and painful deaths from infection, neglect and abuse, right, Kathryn? Anything would be better than having them cared for by Christians.
Also, I cannot help but wonder why Kathryn Joyce did not give any space in her article to talk about the amazing achievements of home educated students. It is a glaring omission. It robs her thesis of integrity.
The Homeschool Apostates (the title of her essay) gave voice to a growing group of young adults who feel they were robbed of a normal childhood. This is a terrible thing - a heart breaking outcome. I am glad these young people have found each other and have a public forum for airing their grievances. Their parents may wish they had done things differently. Many parents do and most of them did not home school. But, I had no idea that there were homeschool recovery groups, and it was deeply challenging to read the personal stories of so many young adults on these homeschool refugee websites. It is important to read how things can go sideways - it doesn't only happen in school families - it happens in homeschool families, too. I am glad that Kathryn Joyce put these websites out there. Together, all of these recovery stories present a complete manual on what NOT to do if you plan to home educate. Ideally, some of these stories would make it into the "new homeschooler info packet".
I do not want to detract from the stories of these defectors. However, much larger than this apostate group (by several million) are the public forums for young adults who wish their parents had rescued them from a hellish existence in school.
Here's the thing - some conservative Christian families do go over board in my opinion. I know families who do not allow their teens to date and where the "Master of the House" dad is viewed as an overlord. There are some families who meddle constantly in their children's lives and who smother them with rules. Some have a highly flawed approach to academics. But, at the end of the day, this is no more my business than is the neighbor's kid who gets on a big, yellow bus every day and who at the age of 12 still cannot read.
Kathryn Joyce seems very alarmed by the fact that home education puts most control into the hands of parents. Who else should have control over our children's lives - the marauding, predatory, minions in Washington? It is obvious that this author wants everyone to have the same life views. Yes, a mob of automatons would be a manageable mob. Hmmmm. Don't you wonder what Kathryn Joyce really wants?
In this article, she was trying to get at some of the flaws in home education but her hostility toward Christians derailed her effort. Hate is a terrible burden to bear. Ultimately, I think this author degrades herself with her evident hatred of Christians and the result is a lack of imagination in her research.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
CCSI = Common Core Standards Initiative - the aligned gets maligned
You would have to be living on a deserted island to have escaped the interminable carping over the CCSI. It is runner up for the Most Detested Sweeping Statist Change in America. You can guess what takes first place, of course.
For the rest of this post, I'd like to ask you a favor. Every time you see the words "National Standards" and "align/ment", please also hear the crisp, brush and clip of the goose-step executed by a sea of uniformed enforcers.
A few administrators remain giggly over CCSI (Common Core) - these are the people who plaster every inch of the school with "You CAN do IT" and "Today is YOUR day" signs. These buffoons don't count. Then, there is the avalanche of publishers trying (poorly) to conceal their glee. After all, that which is "aligned" has to be rewritten, sold, and then thrown out soon after. It's a publisher's dream come true.
Why in the world did a bankrupt nation busily engaged in the ignoble work of losing its exceptionalism in every imaginable realm decide to jump onto the curriculum alignment bandwagon? If it is part of a bigger plan - it is a wicked plan indeed. If it is not part of any plan at all, if it is just more flailing desperately at the new congenitally subordinate intellect that our moocher nation has bred, God help us all. Warning - when you see the pieces of the puzzle float together, you will be ill at ease. It is a nasty, confusing, and, in the end, gloomy business.
The entire US of A is being "aligned". As of three days ago, all of the schools (except in Texas, Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska and Virginia) are changing .....well, everything. There is now a National Standard which is developing rapidly into a Common Curriculum for all states. This has resulted in big companies like Scholastic, Inc publishing books that omit Israel from the world map and AP History textbooks misstating the 2nd and 3rd Amendments. Oversights? Maybe...I am not bothering to mention in any detail the flood of complaints about a pro-Islam agenda that has slipped into every subject book. The only research creepier than the evolution of Common Core is botfly removal.
What out-of-touch, ivory tower clown cooked up the idea of one standard which would then belch out a common curriculum for states as diverse as Alaska and New York, Montana and New Jersey, California and Kentucky? That would be Bill Gates.
A little history. Many years ago, Bill Gates said something about education that got the attention of a few people who can smell money from miles away. Gates said (in so many words) that he thought the states should all have the same academic guidelines - the same standards. "We need a National Standard." If you want to know what happened after his pontifications on education, all you have to do is follow the money. There is a chilling conclusion to be drawn at the end of that trail.
Bill Gates and a couple of other guys decided they could create the image of a state-led education overhaul. Except the state had nothing to do with it. It was just a few guys setting out to change the country's schools. Why? Because they could. And, for Bill's money, of course. Why would Bill Gates underwrite every aspect of CCSI? Power? Bordeom? Wait and see. My speculation - there will be a Microsoft-based platform for CCSI in which all schools must participate and into which our tax dollars will be tossed willy nilly. How could 45 of our states jump on board this runaway train without looking more closely? Since US students are routinely eclipsed by international students, and since this embarrassing problem is growing worse each year, the US government is willing to try anything. Anything. And, if Bill Gates says it is necessary .... well, I guess that's good enough for our policymakers in DC. The fact that the "state" had little if anything at all to do with the National Standards might be reason to hope, but a look at some of the "aligned" textbooks reveals this fact: It is possible that government-led education reform is not the worst scenario. Now, that is just a ghastly thought and not just because it means I have to eat my "Pro-Privatization" hat.
Some downright terrifying background:
After Gates "shared" his thoughts on National Standards, David Coleman, the president of the College Board, immediately started a company called Student Achievement Partners. Bill Gates gave this SAP millions. David Coleman's new (side) business has one and only one purpose - to develop Common Core Standards. As president of the College Board, Coleman oversees the development and implementation of the PSAT, SAT, APs and SAT Subject Tests.....just about every test your kids needs to ace in order to prove their worthiness to the university-world. Are you starting to get scared? Pour yourself a stiff drink, because it gets a lot worse.
The public has been told that: "The standards were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts, to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare our children for college and the workforce." (This is from the CCSI website.) Baloney. There were two organizations that Bill brought into the circle. The National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council for Chief State School Officers. Here's the most interesting thing. Bill Gates has plowed up to $150,000,000 into these organizations (and Coleman's SAP) since that first fateful meeting of a few avaricious minds in 2008 under the guise of an "educational forum" on National Standards.
An entire country is following Bill Gates' trail of crumbs, like a whole flock of Hansel and Gretel's, and no one stops to ask.....why? What is at the end of this trail? I don't know. But, I feel compelled to run away. Maybe because I've read Hansel and Gretel - the nonaligned version.
Bill Gates is not a teacher. Although he is a parent, something tells me his kids did not suffer under overworked, underpaid public school teachers struggling in unsafe, underfunded districts. In short, he has no idea what he is doing. Unless, of course, there is a hidden agenda, in which case he knows exactly what he is doing. He and his "non-profit" partners, knew exactly what they were doing.
The NGA had 29 individuals present at the first pow-wow. As it turns out, though, only 2 of these individuals were not affiliated with an education company. As you will see from the list below, most of the education companies get boatloads of Gates' money. See what I mean?
It really does look like a handful of guys rammed this through. Not even a Hollywood B conspiracy theory flick could have created this kind of grandiose scheming. Scary thing - it has worked. Washington took the bait.
So what is the moral to this spine-chilling story? Well, when someone asks you nervously if the textbook you are using is "aligned", remember that just a couple of monkey suits banged this out on their way to and from the bank each day, and in between their trips to the islands.
Keep your old textbooks because "aligned" means that matters of faith have been buried, matters of constitutionality have been buried and 4th grade math has been made utterly incomprehensible. You are about to witness conditioning that will make 1984 and Brave New World look like a Magic Tree House mystery. The "aligned" texts have an insidious form of "new-think" which skips the unpleasant task of swaying your opinion because in many realms, they skip the truth altogether.
This needs to be repeated - keep your old textbooks.
At the bottom of this blog are two lists. One is a list of the $$ Gates has paid directly to CCS architects. The second is a list of educational organizations that have been bought by Gates. These are from the deutsch29 Edu blog, but you can find the info in many places.
If you go to this blog, and I hope you do, you will see that included are links for every grant and contribution from Gates to back the research. http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/a-brief-audit-of-bill-gates-common-core-spending/
It you have a ton of time, you can ferret out all of these from the Gates Foundation website, directly:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database
========================================================================
=========================================================================
Final words:
One more time, because I cannot stress this enough: Hold on to your old textbooks. There will be more truth in them. Their content will have more integrity. They do not bear that most degenerate brand - "ALIGNED with COMMON CORE."
For the rest of this post, I'd like to ask you a favor. Every time you see the words "National Standards" and "align/ment", please also hear the crisp, brush and clip of the goose-step executed by a sea of uniformed enforcers.
A few administrators remain giggly over CCSI (Common Core) - these are the people who plaster every inch of the school with "You CAN do IT" and "Today is YOUR day" signs. These buffoons don't count. Then, there is the avalanche of publishers trying (poorly) to conceal their glee. After all, that which is "aligned" has to be rewritten, sold, and then thrown out soon after. It's a publisher's dream come true.
Why in the world did a bankrupt nation busily engaged in the ignoble work of losing its exceptionalism in every imaginable realm decide to jump onto the curriculum alignment bandwagon? If it is part of a bigger plan - it is a wicked plan indeed. If it is not part of any plan at all, if it is just more flailing desperately at the new congenitally subordinate intellect that our moocher nation has bred, God help us all. Warning - when you see the pieces of the puzzle float together, you will be ill at ease. It is a nasty, confusing, and, in the end, gloomy business.
The entire US of A is being "aligned". As of three days ago, all of the schools (except in Texas, Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska and Virginia) are changing .....well, everything. There is now a National Standard which is developing rapidly into a Common Curriculum for all states. This has resulted in big companies like Scholastic, Inc publishing books that omit Israel from the world map and AP History textbooks misstating the 2nd and 3rd Amendments. Oversights? Maybe...I am not bothering to mention in any detail the flood of complaints about a pro-Islam agenda that has slipped into every subject book. The only research creepier than the evolution of Common Core is botfly removal.
What out-of-touch, ivory tower clown cooked up the idea of one standard which would then belch out a common curriculum for states as diverse as Alaska and New York, Montana and New Jersey, California and Kentucky? That would be Bill Gates.
A little history. Many years ago, Bill Gates said something about education that got the attention of a few people who can smell money from miles away. Gates said (in so many words) that he thought the states should all have the same academic guidelines - the same standards. "We need a National Standard." If you want to know what happened after his pontifications on education, all you have to do is follow the money. There is a chilling conclusion to be drawn at the end of that trail.
Bill Gates and a couple of other guys decided they could create the image of a state-led education overhaul. Except the state had nothing to do with it. It was just a few guys setting out to change the country's schools. Why? Because they could. And, for Bill's money, of course. Why would Bill Gates underwrite every aspect of CCSI? Power? Bordeom? Wait and see. My speculation - there will be a Microsoft-based platform for CCSI in which all schools must participate and into which our tax dollars will be tossed willy nilly. How could 45 of our states jump on board this runaway train without looking more closely? Since US students are routinely eclipsed by international students, and since this embarrassing problem is growing worse each year, the US government is willing to try anything. Anything. And, if Bill Gates says it is necessary .... well, I guess that's good enough for our policymakers in DC. The fact that the "state" had little if anything at all to do with the National Standards might be reason to hope, but a look at some of the "aligned" textbooks reveals this fact: It is possible that government-led education reform is not the worst scenario. Now, that is just a ghastly thought and not just because it means I have to eat my "Pro-Privatization" hat.
Some downright terrifying background:
After Gates "shared" his thoughts on National Standards, David Coleman, the president of the College Board, immediately started a company called Student Achievement Partners. Bill Gates gave this SAP millions. David Coleman's new (side) business has one and only one purpose - to develop Common Core Standards. As president of the College Board, Coleman oversees the development and implementation of the PSAT, SAT, APs and SAT Subject Tests.....just about every test your kids needs to ace in order to prove their worthiness to the university-world. Are you starting to get scared? Pour yourself a stiff drink, because it gets a lot worse.
The public has been told that: "The standards were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts, to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare our children for college and the workforce." (This is from the CCSI website.) Baloney. There were two organizations that Bill brought into the circle. The National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council for Chief State School Officers. Here's the most interesting thing. Bill Gates has plowed up to $150,000,000 into these organizations (and Coleman's SAP) since that first fateful meeting of a few avaricious minds in 2008 under the guise of an "educational forum" on National Standards.
An entire country is following Bill Gates' trail of crumbs, like a whole flock of Hansel and Gretel's, and no one stops to ask.....why? What is at the end of this trail? I don't know. But, I feel compelled to run away. Maybe because I've read Hansel and Gretel - the nonaligned version.
Bill Gates is not a teacher. Although he is a parent, something tells me his kids did not suffer under overworked, underpaid public school teachers struggling in unsafe, underfunded districts. In short, he has no idea what he is doing. Unless, of course, there is a hidden agenda, in which case he knows exactly what he is doing. He and his "non-profit" partners, knew exactly what they were doing.
The NGA had 29 individuals present at the first pow-wow. As it turns out, though, only 2 of these individuals were not affiliated with an education company. As you will see from the list below, most of the education companies get boatloads of Gates' money. See what I mean?
It really does look like a handful of guys rammed this through. Not even a Hollywood B conspiracy theory flick could have created this kind of grandiose scheming. Scary thing - it has worked. Washington took the bait.
So what is the moral to this spine-chilling story? Well, when someone asks you nervously if the textbook you are using is "aligned", remember that just a couple of monkey suits banged this out on their way to and from the bank each day, and in between their trips to the islands.
Keep your old textbooks because "aligned" means that matters of faith have been buried, matters of constitutionality have been buried and 4th grade math has been made utterly incomprehensible. You are about to witness conditioning that will make 1984 and Brave New World look like a Magic Tree House mystery. The "aligned" texts have an insidious form of "new-think" which skips the unpleasant task of swaying your opinion because in many realms, they skip the truth altogether.
This needs to be repeated - keep your old textbooks.
If you go to this blog, and I hope you do, you will see that included are links for every grant and contribution from Gates to back the research. http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/a-brief-audit-of-bill-gates-common-core-spending/
It you have a ton of time, you can ferret out all of these from the Gates Foundation website, directly:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database
========================================================================
The four principal organizations associated with CCSS– NGA, CCSSO, Achieve, and Student Achievement Partners– have accepted millions from Bill Gates. In fact, prior to CCSS “completion” in June 2009, Gates had paid millions to NGA, CCSSO, and Achieve. And the millions continued to flow following CCSS completion.
Prior to June 2009, NGA received $23.6 million from the Gates Foundation from 2002 through 2008. $19.7 million was for the highly-disruptive “high school redesign” (i.e.,“small schools”) project, one that Gates abandoned.
After June 2009, NGA received an additional $2.1 million from Gates, the largest payout coming in February 2011,
…to work with state policymakers on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, with special attention to effective resource reallocation to ensure complete execution, as well as rethinking state policies on teacher effectiveness
Amount: $1,598,477 [Emphasis added.]
Amount: $1,598,477 [Emphasis added.]
Years ago, Gates paid NGA to “rethink policies on teacher effectiveness.”
One man, lots of money, nationally shaping a profession to which he has never belonged.
As for CCSSO: The Gates amounts are even higher than for NGA. Prior to June 2009, the Gates Foundation gave $47.1 million to CCSSO (from 2002 to 2007), with the largest amount focused on data “access” and “data driven decisions”:
March 2007
Purpose: to support Phase II of the National Education Data Partnership seeking to promote transparency and accessibility of education data and improve public education through data-driven decision making
Amount: $21,642,317 [Emphasis added.]
Purpose: to support Phase II of the National Education Data Partnership seeking to promote transparency and accessibility of education data and improve public education through data-driven decision making
Amount: $21,642,317 [Emphasis added.]
Following CCSS completion in June 2009, Gates funded CCSSO an additional $31.9 million, with the largest grants earmarked for CSSS implementation and assessment, and data acquisition and control:
July 2013
Purpose: to CCSSO, on behalf of the PARCC and SBAC consortia to support the development of high quality assessments to measure the Common Core State Standards
Amount: $4,000,000
Purpose: to CCSSO, on behalf of the PARCC and SBAC consortia to support the development of high quality assessments to measure the Common Core State Standards
Amount: $4,000,000
November 2012
Purpose: to support the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in helping States’ to build their data inoperability capability and IT leadership capacity
Amount: $1,277,648
Purpose: to support the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in helping States’ to build their data inoperability capability and IT leadership capacity
Amount: $1,277,648
October 2012
Purpose: to support strategic planning for the sustainability of the Common Core State Standards and the two multi-state assessment consortia tasked with designing assessments aligned with those standards
Amount: $1,100,000
Purpose: to support strategic planning for the sustainability of the Common Core State Standards and the two multi-state assessment consortia tasked with designing assessments aligned with those standards
Amount: $1,100,000
June 2011
Purpose: to support the Common Core State Standards work
Amount: $9,388,911
Purpose: to support the Common Core State Standards work
Amount: $9,388,911
November 2009
Purpose: to partner with federal, state, public, and private interests to develop common, open, longitudinal data standards
Amount: $3,185,750
Purpose: to partner with federal, state, public, and private interests to develop common, open, longitudinal data standards
Amount: $3,185,750
July 2009
Purpose: to increase the leadership capacity of chiefs by focusing on standards and assessments, data systems, educator development and determining a new system of supports for student learning
Amount: $9,961,842 [Emphasis added.]
Purpose: to increase the leadership capacity of chiefs by focusing on standards and assessments, data systems, educator development and determining a new system of supports for student learning
Amount: $9,961,842 [Emphasis added.]
Gates money also flowed to Achieve, Inc.; prior to June 2009, Achieve received $23.5 million in Gates funding. Another $13.2 million followed after CCSS creation, with $9.3 million devoted to “building strategic alliances” for CCSS promotion:
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 [Emphasis added.]
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 [Emphasis added.]
=========================================================================
Gates Buys Select Major Ed Organizations and Think Tanks
Let us now consider major education organizations and think tanks that have accepted Gates money for the express purpose of advancing CCSS:
American Enterprise Institute: $1,068,788.
American Federation of Teachers: $5,400,000.
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development: $3,269,428.
Council of Great City Schools: $5,010,988.
Education Trust: $2,039,526.
National Congress of Parents and Teachers: $499,962.
National Education Association: $3,982,597.
Thomas B. Fordham Institute: $1,961,116.
(For most of the organizations above, Gates has funded other reform-related efforts, including those related to charter schools, small schools, teacher evaluation, and data systems. Comprehensive listing of Gates grants for the organizations above [and then some] can be found here: Gates Foundation Grants to Select Education and Policy Groups)
Date: January 2011
Purpose: to track state progress towards implementation of standards and to understand how what students read changes in response to the standards
Amount: $1,002,000 [Purpose emphasis added.]
Amount: $1,002,000 [Purpose emphasis added.]
Even though CCSS was never piloted, Gates and Fordham want to watch state “progress” in implementing CCSS, and they even want to know how the untested CCSS shifts the curriculum– even though reformers are quick to parrot that CCSS is “not a curriculum.” This “tracking” tacitly acknowledges CCSS is meant to drive curriculum.
Next is this Gates purchase of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI):
Date: June 2012
Purpose: to support their education policy work in four distinct areas:
Exploring the Challenges of Common Core, Future of American Education Working Groups, Innovations in Financial Aid, and Bridging K-12 and Higher Ed with Technology
Amount: $1,068,788 [Purpose emphasis added.]
Purpose: to support their education policy work in four distinct areas:
Exploring the Challenges of Common Core, Future of American Education Working Groups, Innovations in Financial Aid, and Bridging K-12 and Higher Ed with Technology
Amount: $1,068,788 [Purpose emphasis added.]
Gates is paying AEI to promote educational policy that bolsters CCSS. And Gates is getting his money’s worth from AEI “scholar” Frederick Hess, who offers these twoarticles advising “Common Core’ites.”
Third is the Gates purchase of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT):
Date: June 2012
Purpose: to support the AFT Innovation Fund and work on teacher
development and Common Core State Standards
Amount: $4,400,000
Purpose: to support the AFT Innovation Fund and work on teacher
development and Common Core State Standards
Amount: $4,400,000
Even though AFT was not invited to the CCSS table until the “standards” had already been drafted by the CCSS Inner Circle noted above, and even though CCSS has not been piloted, AFT only called for a testing moratorium and not for a cease-and-desist of CCSS altogether. It appears that accepting $4.4 million in order to “work on teacher development and Common Core Standards” precludes “just saying no” to what amounts to the CCSS Colossal Education Experiment.
Fourth is the Gates purchase of the National Education Association (NEA). In July 2013, NEA officially endorsed CCSS, and in July 2013, Gates paid NEA for its support in the form of two grants totaling $6.3 million:
Date: July 2013
Purpose: to support the capacity of state NEA affiliates to advance teaching and learning issues and student success in collaboration with local affiliates
Amount: $2,426,500
Purpose: to support the capacity of state NEA affiliates to advance teaching and learning issues and student success in collaboration with local affiliates
Amount: $2,426,500
Date: July 2013
Purpose: to support a cohort of National Education Association Master Teachers in the development of Common Core-aligned lessons in K-5 mathematics and K-12 English Language Arts
Amount: $3,882,600
Purpose: to support a cohort of National Education Association Master Teachers in the development of Common Core-aligned lessons in K-5 mathematics and K-12 English Language Arts
Amount: $3,882,600
NEA was not at the CCSS birthing table with NGA, CCSSO, Achieve, and David Coleman’s Student Achievement Partners. However, after the establishment of CCSS without teachers, now Gates is willing to pay a teachers union to create curricula that in the end do not really matter since the CCSS power is in the assessments that are completely out of NEA’s control.
I have saved my favorite CCSS-Gates purchase for last, this one to the Council of Great City Schools (CGCS):
Date: June 2011
Purpose: to promote and coordinate successful implementation of the new common core standards in major urban public school systems nationwide
Amount: $4,910,988
Purpose: to promote and coordinate successful implementation of the new common core standards in major urban public school systems nationwide
Amount: $4,910,988
Date: March 2010
Purpose: to support the development of a cross-sector proposal to pilot test the new common core standards in a set of selected cities
Amount: $100,000 [Purpose emphasis added.]
Purpose: to support the development of a cross-sector proposal to pilot test the new common core standards in a set of selected cities
Amount: $100,000 [Purpose emphasis added.]
It seems that Gates paid CGCS $100,000 to propose a pilot study of CCSS in 2010 (not to conduct a pilot study– just to draft the idea for a pilot). Fifteen months later, there is no mention of a “proposal” much less a pilot study materializing; instead, Gates pays CGCS to “just go ahead” and “coordinate successful implementation” of the untested CCSS.
======================================================================Final words:
One more time, because I cannot stress this enough: Hold on to your old textbooks. There will be more truth in them. Their content will have more integrity. They do not bear that most degenerate brand - "ALIGNED with COMMON CORE."
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
The wisdom of a liberal arts education ....
Regarding a liberal arts education - here is a sobering look at trends from Business Insider. I have taken the liberty of pasting the whole article below, because every word is golden. However, if you only read the following words, you will get the gist and I hope be inspired to read it all.
My p.s. - With the US government exercising unprecedented control over the lives of its citizens, it is more important than ever before that we know how to think and express ourselves clearly. Otherwise, we have nothing more than a global society of sheep.
The article:
The decades-long war against English and the other humanities has succeeded in many ways, which has had some unintended and very negative effects, according to a new report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
A 2010 study from Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa found that students majoring in liberal arts fields see " significantly higher gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills over time than students in other fields of study."
De-emphasizing, de-funding, and demonizing the humanities means that students don't get trained well in the things that are the hardest to teach once at a job: thinking and writing clearly.
My p.s. - With the US government exercising unprecedented control over the lives of its citizens, it is more important than ever before that we know how to think and express ourselves clearly. Otherwise, we have nothing more than a global society of sheep.
The article:
The decades-long war against English and the other humanities has succeeded in many ways, which has had some unintended and very negative effects, according to a new report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Parents don't read to their children as much, K-12 humanities teachers are not as well-trained as STEM ones, federal funding for international education is down 41% over four years, and many college students graduate without being able to write clearly.
Although humanities degrees are not in total freefall, the bigger problem centers on the decline in pre-college humanities education and in the liberal arts curriculum in college.
Humanities get a tiny fraction of the federal funding that STEM programs do. Many schools, public ones in particular, are already under huge financial pressure, so they're going to focus more of their energies on the things that they can get others to pay for:
That means fewer offerings, less faculty, and a decline in the sort of introductory and mandatory classes that used to be standard in college.
The result is not only relatively fewer humanities majors but also a generation of students who get out of school and don't know how to write well or express themselves clearly.
The New York Times' Verlyn Klinkenborg, who has spent time teaching writing to both undergrads and graduate students at places like Harvard, Yale, Pomona, Sarah Lawrence, and Columbia'sGraduate School of Journalism, reports that kids are shockingly ill-prepared:
Each semester I hope, and fear, that I will have nothing to teach my students because they already know how to write. And each semester I discover, again, that they don’t.
They can assemble strings of jargon and generate clots of ventriloquistic syntax. They can meta-metastasize any thematic or ideological notion they happen upon. And they get good grades for doing just that. But as for writing clearly, simply, with attention and openness to their own thoughts and emotions and the world around them — no.
Those are undergraduate and even graduate students at some of the top colleges and universities in the country who have chosen to focus on writing to a certain extent. Things are presumably even worse elsewhere.
A 2010 study from Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa found that students majoring in liberal artsfields see " significantly higher gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills over time than students in other fields of study."
De-emphasizing, de-funding, and demonizing the humanities means that students don't get trained well in the things that are the hardest to teach once at a job: thinking and writing clearly.
CEOs, including Jeff Bezos , Logitech's Bracken Darrell , Aetna's Mark Bertolini , and legendary Intel co-founder Andy Grove emphasize how essential clear writing and the liberal arts are. STEM alone isn't enough. Even Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke recently gave English majors a shout-out.
The point is that good writing isn't just a "utilitarian skill" as Klinkenborg puts it but something that takes a great deal of practice, thought, and engagement with history and what other people have written.
Let's hope that argument keeps the field alive.
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