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Colorado Legislators Stun Parents with Common Core Comments
April 11, 2014 at 5:00 am by Kathryn Porter read from source at Politichicks
Republican Chris Holbert, a member of the House Education Committee, introduced an amendment to Colorado House Bill 14-1336 also
known as the "long bill" which establishes the state’s budget. The proposed amendment offered on March 27, 2014 would have removed 16.8 million dollars
allocated for PARCC testing . Had it passed, it would have resulted in the intended effect of the "Colorado Mom’s Bill" killed earlier this year in the
Senate Education Committee—delaying the Common Core aligned standardized tests for one year. The introduction of this amendment can be viewed at the
224-minute mark here.
While it’s no surprise the amendment failed, the elitist attitude of both Democrat and Republican legislators , whose comments insinuated that Colorado
parents must be ignorant for not supporting the Common Core, stunned constituents around the state.
At approximately the 2:47:32 mark, Democrat Sue Schaffer states, "What we do have are called Colorado Academic Standards. We do not have core curriculum which is how the standards are taught." (Come now, Representative Schaffer. Let’s call these standards for what they are. Common Core State Standards. These are copyrighted standards that Colorado signed up for sight unseen.) She continues, "There are some parents complaining that they can’t understand, they don’t know how to do the math or they don’t even know how to do the reading and the writing. Well, we said and we still say world class standards." (Shame on you for calling your constituents’ communicating concerns about curriculum as complaining! And world class standards? When you have a Common Core validation committee member whose background includes serving as a mathematician with NASA refuse to sign off on the standards, they are far from world class.)
At around the 259:22 mark, Republican Carole Murray urges a no vote on the amendment for a third time. She infers the ignorance of parents by stating, "Well, I… I think that what parents are discovering is that there is such a thing as standards. And I think that most people don’t know the difference between standards and curriculum." (Representative Murray, you sorely underestimate the intelligence of your constituents. We know the difference between standards and curriculum. Furthermore, we know that the standards drive the testing which then drives the curriculum. And these are standards that you may be personally profiting
from—even if indirectly--because your husband works for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.)
But Murray doesn’t stop there. She then insults the states choosing to pull out of Common Core. "We should have standards and they should be high standards. And many of the… the states are going away from these because they’re hard. They… they took the first tests and their scores went down. Excuse me, is that what we want to do? Give up on it because it was hard? This is the United States of America! If it’s hard, we can do it. We’ll overcome it." (No, excuse me. These states are moving away from the Common Core because they are opening their eyes to the fact that these are not quality standards. This is the United States of America! Some states do not want to be held hostage to expensive federal mandates and unproven standards as a condition for accepting Race to the Top funds. They realize that they can do better.)
"We’ve had teachers come in and talk to us in the education committee, who are excited about the fact that the complexity of their instruction has changed
significantly as a result of the Colorado Academic Standards." (Representative Murray, if these standards were so great, parents would be excited about them too. They want their kids to be challenged by high standards while developing a love for learning.) "And I want kids to think and these standards and this test is all about teaching kids to think. It’s more than just two plus two or reading a sentence correctly. It’s challenging children and teachers to think." (Actually, it coerces teachers to teach to the test, especially when their jobs depend on the scores. There is little to no incentive to teach beyond the test. Testing is not learning. It conditions children to give the answer the testing company wants. That doesn’t teach critical thinking.)
Colorado parents, it’s time to take these representatives to school. Let them know the problem is not that you don’t know how to do the math or reading or
writing. The problem is the ridiculous way in which your kids are being forced to draw pictures in order to prove that 18 is less than 32. The problem is that
your kids are no longer being taught place value, but instead are told to solve addition through decomposition. The problem is that the standards place
developmentally inappropriate expectations on young children whose brains have not matured for the abstract thinking required in many word problems. Send them your children’s homework—not because it’s hard, but because it takes the most convoluted route to answer a simple question.
Here is Carole Murray’s contact info as listed on both her Web site and legislative page: [email protected]
Sue Schafer lists two separate emails so send your comments and scanned homework to both addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]
Sue Schaffer and Carole Murray can also be reached by snail mail at: 200 East Colfax Avenue Denver, CO 80203
Colorado Legislators Stun Parents with Common Core Comments
April 11, 2014 at 5:00 am by Kathryn Porter read from source at Politichicks
Republican Chris Holbert, a member of the House Education Committee, introduced an amendment to Colorado House Bill 14-1336 also
known as the "long bill" which establishes the state’s budget. The proposed amendment offered on March 27, 2014 would have removed 16.8 million dollars
allocated for PARCC testing . Had it passed, it would have resulted in the intended effect of the "Colorado Mom’s Bill" killed earlier this year in the
Senate Education Committee—delaying the Common Core aligned standardized tests for one year. The introduction of this amendment can be viewed at the
224-minute mark here.
While it’s no surprise the amendment failed, the elitist attitude of both Democrat and Republican legislators , whose comments insinuated that Colorado
parents must be ignorant for not supporting the Common Core, stunned constituents around the state.
At approximately the 2:47:32 mark, Democrat Sue Schaffer states, "What we do have are called Colorado Academic Standards. We do not have core curriculum which is how the standards are taught." (Come now, Representative Schaffer. Let’s call these standards for what they are. Common Core State Standards. These are copyrighted standards that Colorado signed up for sight unseen.) She continues, "There are some parents complaining that they can’t understand, they don’t know how to do the math or they don’t even know how to do the reading and the writing. Well, we said and we still say world class standards." (Shame on you for calling your constituents’ communicating concerns about curriculum as complaining! And world class standards? When you have a Common Core validation committee member whose background includes serving as a mathematician with NASA refuse to sign off on the standards, they are far from world class.)
At around the 259:22 mark, Republican Carole Murray urges a no vote on the amendment for a third time. She infers the ignorance of parents by stating, "Well, I… I think that what parents are discovering is that there is such a thing as standards. And I think that most people don’t know the difference between standards and curriculum." (Representative Murray, you sorely underestimate the intelligence of your constituents. We know the difference between standards and curriculum. Furthermore, we know that the standards drive the testing which then drives the curriculum. And these are standards that you may be personally profiting
from—even if indirectly--because your husband works for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.)
But Murray doesn’t stop there. She then insults the states choosing to pull out of Common Core. "We should have standards and they should be high standards. And many of the… the states are going away from these because they’re hard. They… they took the first tests and their scores went down. Excuse me, is that what we want to do? Give up on it because it was hard? This is the United States of America! If it’s hard, we can do it. We’ll overcome it." (No, excuse me. These states are moving away from the Common Core because they are opening their eyes to the fact that these are not quality standards. This is the United States of America! Some states do not want to be held hostage to expensive federal mandates and unproven standards as a condition for accepting Race to the Top funds. They realize that they can do better.)
"We’ve had teachers come in and talk to us in the education committee, who are excited about the fact that the complexity of their instruction has changed
significantly as a result of the Colorado Academic Standards." (Representative Murray, if these standards were so great, parents would be excited about them too. They want their kids to be challenged by high standards while developing a love for learning.) "And I want kids to think and these standards and this test is all about teaching kids to think. It’s more than just two plus two or reading a sentence correctly. It’s challenging children and teachers to think." (Actually, it coerces teachers to teach to the test, especially when their jobs depend on the scores. There is little to no incentive to teach beyond the test. Testing is not learning. It conditions children to give the answer the testing company wants. That doesn’t teach critical thinking.)
Colorado parents, it’s time to take these representatives to school. Let them know the problem is not that you don’t know how to do the math or reading or
writing. The problem is the ridiculous way in which your kids are being forced to draw pictures in order to prove that 18 is less than 32. The problem is that
your kids are no longer being taught place value, but instead are told to solve addition through decomposition. The problem is that the standards place
developmentally inappropriate expectations on young children whose brains have not matured for the abstract thinking required in many word problems. Send them your children’s homework—not because it’s hard, but because it takes the most convoluted route to answer a simple question.
Here is Carole Murray’s contact info as listed on both her Web site and legislative page: [email protected]
Sue Schafer lists two separate emails so send your comments and scanned homework to both addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]
Sue Schaffer and Carole Murray can also be reached by snail mail at: 200 East Colfax Avenue Denver, CO 80203
CO School Board Seemingly Bought & Sold–Did Gates Buy Your School Board, Too?
January 20, 2014 at 5:00 am / by Macey France
France states, "If I have taught you nothing in this Common Core journey it is to follow the money. So let’s follow that Legacy Foundation money and see where it leads." She links the Colorado Governor's office and several members of Colorado Board of Education and school superintendent to Bill Gates funded Legacy Foundation. Read the rest of this PolitiChicks.tv article here.
January 20, 2014 at 5:00 am / by Macey France
France states, "If I have taught you nothing in this Common Core journey it is to follow the money. So let’s follow that Legacy Foundation money and see where it leads." She links the Colorado Governor's office and several members of Colorado Board of Education and school superintendent to Bill Gates funded Legacy Foundation. Read the rest of this PolitiChicks.tv article here.
Apr08 read from source Colorado Capitol Watch
Johnston calls his education policy critics "Cherry Creek Cheerleaders!" Really!
“Suck it up, soccer moms.” This artful advice, based on comments from US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, was splashed last month across the home page of the education reform non profit, America Succeeds.
America Succeeds was organized by Wall Street investment bankers. It has two prominent Coloradans on its five member board: State Senator Michael Johnston, D-Denver, and Donnell Kay Foundation Executive Director Tony Lewis.
Sen. Johnston recently added to America Succeeds’ snicker, calling some citizens objecting to his policies of relentless standardized testing and student data collection, “Cherry Creek cheerleaders.”
Johnston and allies lead state education "reform"
Johnston has allied himself with a gaggle of Big Ed Reformers: Colorado Legacy Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Donnell Kay
Foundation, Colorado Succeeds, Democrats for Education Reform, Teach for America, New Leaders for New Schools, Pearson Company, Microsoft, Google,
Michael Bloomberg, and wealthy New York hedge fund managers.
Ruppert Murdoch, the Australian media mogul of British phone hacking fame, has joined his fellow education reform supporters, cashing in with his Amplify product, aligned perfectly to common core reform instruction. Every child's key strokes are collected and stored for posterity and data mining.
These rich “reformers,” billionaires and foundations supported by billionaires, reflect the essence of the grassroots cheerleaders’ fears. Big Government, Big Foundations, and Big Corporations are using the Big Data Technology revolution to repeat the old VietNam war stratagem: We will blow up
your schools in order to save your schools.
Grassroots “cheerleaders,” short on Monied Underwriters, nevertheless showed up at the Capitol to lobby two Johnston bills, including SB14-165, giving districts a one-year break on using growth data in teacher evaluations (amend), and the ironically named Student Success Act, HB14-1292 (amend), a $100
million diversion of school funds for various Johnston programs defeated in the Amendment 66 debacle.
The cheerleaders even had the temerity to try to protect student data from the shark jaws of Big Business, HB14-1294 (see Murdoch,
MIcrosoft, Google above). They worked to allow parents to opt their kids out of the tests, HB14-1202, a bill now narrowed to assess assessments, their costs and impacts on kids, teachers, schools, and districts.
Tony Lewis at Donnell Kay will remake public education
Unlike the cheerleaders, Tony Lewis, the America Succeeds board member and FOJ, has the Senator's support to "reschool" education for all of Colorado using
digital advances and online distance learning as the solution to closing various achievement gaps. Colleen Broderick will lead this reform. She says, "Technology doesn't have to completely replace all components of today's current learning system; in fact, the element of engaging with people and community face to face is equally essential." Good to know.
Pearson profits from PARRC, the coming 2015 trainwreck
Pearson Company, the PARRC exam experimenter, received $185 million of Race to the Top money to build the tests. It's also partnering with Microsoft so kids can take advantage of Windows 8 touch screen technology to use curriculum, produced by Pearson, that's perfectly aligned with Common Core.
In a recent Education Committee hearing, Johnston rejected any prospect of reassessing the state's future testing program. Rather than take a pause based on the Pearson test results in New York identifying 66% of that state's children as not proficient in anything, Johnston insists that the state must move forward. President Dwight Eisenhower would recognize this scenario: the standardized testing industrial complex.
Pearson will gain more profits through its cleverly named partner enterprise, Knewton. Knewton feeds kids Common Core-branded digital worksheets based specifically on a student's learning style. The goal is to help students do well on the PARRC exams, which may ultimately be used to replace ACT and SAT for college admission.
But many colleges are moving away from the test requirement. Over 800 colleges now offer no-test admissions, according to an NPR story, and have found
that a student's grades are the best predictor of student success in college.
Legacy Foundation goes back to '70s for classroom model
The Colorado Legacy Foundation, an amply funded non profit enabling Johnston's vision through its 41 employees, has received $22 million from the Gates Foundation, at last count. Legacy is running its own experiments in Big Data, promoting a non profit called New Classrooms.
School of One, a New Classrooms' "innovation" that looks a lot like the old open classrooms of the '70s, helps teachers provide "personalized education" from "multiple modalities of instruction." According to the New Classrooms design, over 100 kids will sit quietly and dutifully working either in teams, in a long line at computer terminals, or receiving lectures from two teachers with support from two other cheaper-to-employ adults.
Like every other Big Ed reform entity, New Classrooms has Very Big Technology and Investment Capital Money behind it, including the Bezos Family Foundation, New Profit Inc., Salmon River Capital, the Broad Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Carnegie Foundation.
Parents worried about the overwhelming import of data driven, digitally based instruction are told by Legacy to calm down and get rid of their “heebie jeebies.” Teachers should also stop “wigging out” over these initiatives, according to an elected official close to both the Legacy Foundation and the Colorado Department of Education.
Johnston: Don Quixote or Ahab?
Johnston, along with his benefactors and staff of four when every other legislator has one part-timer, has taken Colorado students, parents, and educators on a very long ride of teacher performance evaluation, school assessment, and student testing. Time, money, and human resources, all at the expense of other education priorities, have been sunk into the reform vision.
But it hasn't worked out the way Johnston and his fellow visionaries want. Colorado's achievement results, after 13 years of George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind, haven't budged in any significant way, according to standardized tests.
Johnston's initiatives have failed to produce replicable education programs helpful to all kids in neighborhood schools, comprehensive middle and high schools, charter schools, and especially the online distance schools. He is known for his Teach for America speech on "hard truths." These particular hard truths are apparently hard for him to swallow.
Little attention to parents' schools of choice: neighborhood schools
In fact, Johnston's and the Foundations' vision doesn't include much for neighborhood and community schools, the most frequent choice schools for parents and the backbone of Colorado's education structure. His policies have pressured rural schools, leaving them underfunded. His SB13-213 financially punished suburban schools to such a degree, and pushed such a massive state overreach into the affairs of local districts, that it was rejected 2:1 by Colorado
voters.
His latest foray into Big Money partnerships is the recently introduced SB14-185, the Pay for Success School and Community Performance Contract bill. The
idea of the bill is to give contractors the opportunity to save government entities future money through early childhood education programs.
The Office of State Planning and udgeting has to figure out the amount of money contractors have saved governments, one presumes, based on analysis of preschool student outcomes. If a contractor produces kids who don't go to prison, one way the program is used in Britain, the contractor could make some real Big Money. If the bill passes, the state will dump $25 million into a pay for success fund. Who can't get behind this idea?
Parents want fewer tests, more instruction
Despite Sen. Johnston's diss of Colorado citizens, parents resisting the reformer's vision are not afraid of assessment and accountability. A reasonable testing system based on reliable, not experimental, tests is what they want. They are not afraid of data. They are concerned about unsecured, misused, and inappropriate data collection.
In Johnston's world, asking local districts and parents what will work for their schools is not what he's about (see bills above). Just look at who's for and against HB14-1292, the Student Success Act, to see how school districts are now reacting to reform initiatives (go to the lobbyists link).
Education reform that delegates teaching to technology will fail. Education reform that isolates students in a digital cocoon will fail. Education initiatives that connect students and teachers and schools and communities and puts the human back into learning and the person back into personalized will ultimately make the most difference. PEN,CCW
This post was published on April 8, 2014. http://www.coloradocapitolwatch.com/blog/