Action Steps To Defend Against National Take-over of Education

ACTION STEPS: Please ask your Congressional House members to defund Common Core Standards and Race to the Top -- $900 Million in FY 2012.  The House has the authority to do this because they are the branch of government that appropriates funds.

Obama plans for these $900 Million CCS/RTTT federal dollars to go directly to local school districts.  Because superintendents are so desperate to obtain funding, they most assuredly would grab their share of the $900 Million without counting the real cost -- (1) the loss of any local control whatsoever over the day-to-day curriculum and (2) the sure-and-certain indoctrination of every public school child into the Obama administration’s social justice agenda.

 

“Do Not ‘Read Their Lips’ -- National Curriculum Is Upon Us”

by Donna Garner

5.26.11

As you read yesterday’s Education Week article posted further on down the page, please bear this in mind:  Whatever the Obama administration says with their lips is the exact opposite from what they are actually doing. 

Therefore, when Sect. of Education Arne Duncan said at yesterday’s NCEE meeting, "We have not and will not prescribe a national curriculum…it would be against the law to prescribe national curriculum,” we know that that is exactly what the Obama administration is doing.  In fact they are.  Common Core Standards and Race to the Top are nothing but a national curriculum which is absolutely against the law.

For more information, please go to my 5.16.11 article entitled “Rising Chorus of Voices Against Federal Takeover of U. S. Public Schools” --

http://www.educationnews.org/commentaries/insights_on_education/156088.html

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

================================

5.4.11 -- EducationWeek

“Arne Duncan: We Will Not Prescribe a National Curriculum
By Catherine Gewertz on May 24, 2011 1:57 PM  

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2011/05/arne_duncan_on_national_curric.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2

We've been telling you a good deal lately about the arguments over the role of the federal government in promoting common standards and in funding the development of curriculum and assessments for those standards. (If you've been napping, see here for a refresher.)

Until now, we've had only occasional words on this from federal officials (see U.S. Ed Department spokesman Peter Cunningham's comments last week). Most of the volleying on the federalism issue has come from advocates and policy wonks. Today, however, we've got weigh-ins from Rep. John Kline, the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, and from Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Kline's comments came during an appearance today on Bill Bennett's radio show, as my colleague Alyson Klein reports over at Politics K-12. During the 13-minute interview, the Minnesota Republican said he thought the federal government was using its Race to the Top program to "push" a "national curriculum." (RTT, you remember, gave states points for adopting the common standards and is also providing funding for state consortia to develop tests and curriculum materials for those standards.)

"My concern is if you look at what the administration is doing with Race to the Top and so forth, on the one hand they will say they want this bottom up, and yet it's all stick and carrot with Race to the Top," Kline said.

"You do what the secretary thinks is a good thing to do and you get rewarded, and if you don't, you get punished. ... That's the line we're talking about, where you get the federal government starting to push a national curriculum, or insisting on one, and as you know, that's been against the law, and I think correctly so. We don't want the secretary of education to decide what the curriculum is in every school in America..."

Duncan weighed in on the topic this morning as well. At a forum hosted by the National Center on Education and the Economy, Duncan was discussing lessons that can be learned from higher-performing countries, and he mentioned national standards and curriculum. But he said: "We have not and will not prescribe a national curriculum. I want to repeat that." This remark prompted laughter from the audience, my colleague Stephen Sawchuk, who attended the forum, reports. Duncan also said it would be against the law to prescribe national curriculum. (A webcast of the symposium is here.)

How, might you ask, could this debate affect the holding-together of the common-core movement? Good question. Worth watching.

Nation Without Borders In Support of Israel--It Is Time

Hear interview with our friend Luden in Israel as he shares his perspective on the latest speech by Obama that has sent chills to many hearts.  Indeed the Bible proves itself so true.  Hope you will get your house in order for the harvest is ripe.

Obama is posturing when he sends out a message to go for the borders that he knew very well the Israeli's could not give him.  He was shocked at the way Netanyahu dared to show his displeasure at the Pres request.  But then how could Obama expect anything else when he voices a plan that would open the total annihiliation of Israel.

Is it possible that his goal was to shock Israel into moving back to the negotiation table and after his announcement-- may instead give into his desire for the division of Jerusalem?  That is the prize he probably  believes they will now be a little bit more willing to negotiate--a more practical small piece rather than the larger indefensible one- he had asked for.  Some in Israel may see that as a good compromise and inside Obama and his staff hopes to see themselves as winners in the game of mideast manipulation.

Of course, most Christians who have read the Bible and are seeing it's predictions slowly but surely coming to pass knows who will be the Victor.   Obama and his plans are just pawns in the game between the Master and the great liar.  Hope you know which side your on.

Hear Part I  of the story about Israel and the Palestinians and the fight for one of the smallest nation in the world.  How did it start and what keeps adding fuel to the fire over this land (the apple of God's eye.)   Get informed so that you can know the small and big picture of this ongoing conflict over a land that the Jesus says will be a sign of his coming.  Listen and share this incredible history lesson with your children, friends and family.

The Twelve 23 Movement BecauseThere Is A Time For Pastors And Churches To Get Involved And It Begins Now

Hear an interview with Lou Campomenosi, Jo Savage of the Twelve 23 Movement along with Pastor Tom Anderson about their love for this great nation and that it is time to get involved and help get us back on the right course--following the Founders and the Legacy they left behind--The Constitution.  There is a movement in the air and it involves the churches and their pastors.  Hear what your church can do.

 Also hear about help for those struggling with depression or PTSD.  In the last portion of the program are some exciting insights about Passover.  Please be sure to tune in Monday thru Friday at 1:30 pm central time and enjoy the exciting guests on city on a hill radio show.  Listen and share the podcasts to bless others.

Fethullah Gulen and his “frog in the boiling water” plan for American charter school children

5.1.11

Subject::  Fethullah Gulen and his “frog in the boiling water” plan for American charter school children

The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out; but if the frog is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. 

The danger is that by the time parents (and the taxpaying public) are discerning enough to figure out that the children in the Gulen charter schools are being indoctrinated into pro-Islam/anti-American thinking, the children will already be “cooked.”  -- Donna Garner

==============================

December 2010 trip to Turkey shows big details elude Austin ISD

April 6th 2011 By Curt Olson

COlson@TexasBudgetSource.com

http://www.texasbudgetsource.com/2011/04/december-trip-to-turkey-shows-big-details-elude-austin-isd/

The signs of financial crisis flashed everywhere for Austin Independent School District leaders.

A drop in property values hit its revenue stream between 2009 and 2010 and they expected lower state aid in 2012-13.

The district has now declared financial exigency and cut $94 million from its budget.

The Austin-American Statesman recently chastised Superintendent Meria Carstarphen in an editorial for botching a move to consider early retirement incentives in Austin ISD. She responded that those incentives will be too costly to the district. Yet, Board President Mark Williams admitted the missteps and the incentives should have been brought up in January.

Perhaps Austin ISD leaders should give more scrutiny to teachers they let go.

Austin ISD’s 2011 “Teacher of the Year” spoke at the recent “Save Our Schools” rally at the State Capitol. She said she and other “excellent teachers” have received notices they could lose their jobs.

No one doubts this is a stressful time in Austin ISD. But it’s becoming obvious that on big issues, important details elude the leadership.

Consider the “free” trip halfway around the world that Carstarphen and 10 other district curriculum directors and teachers took between December 14 and December 23, 2010.

Austin ISD had a responsibility to do their due diligence – even for a “free” trip, but they did not do it.

Austin ISD has a new relationship with Raindrop Turkish House (RTH), which will assist district staff in creating a curriculum on Turkey. This should assist teachers in preparing students for certain questions on state assessment tests.

It seemed obvious that completing their due diligence was the least taxpayers deserved.

However, Austin ISD was enthusiastic about the trip to Turkey. That enthusiasm extended from the superintendent to the board. Carstarphen and Board President Mark Williams did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.

At one time 12 administrators and teachers were scheduled for the trip. However, 11 people made the trip before Christmas. The Austin Aztex soccer team gave Austin ISD $14,400 to cover the cost for airfares, meals, parking, visas, and other incidentals for Austin ISD leaders and staff to make the trip to Turkey and back.

RTH [Rainbow Turkish House -- a Gulen school] paid for the stay and activities in Turkey, with included meetings at schools that had some madrassas, Islamic religious schools.

Now, RTH in Houston and Austin will assist Austin ISD in drafting a curriculum design, resources and instruction.

The RTH is connected to Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish imam who exiled himself to Saylorsburg, Pa. in 1999 under armed guard. Saylorsburg, Pa. is in Northeastern Pennsylvania near the Pocono Mountains. Gulen exiled himself because he faced charges of trying to overthrow the Turkish government. It is believed Gulen, who is a billionaire with a vast network of organizations and schools, including charter schools throughout the world and in the U.S., wants to restore the Ottoman Empire to Turkey.

Gulen has more than 80 charter schools nationwide, and in Texas more than 30 affiliated with the Cosmos Foundation, which also is a Gulen organization.

This trip’s clearest connection to Gulen is a photograph taken of a few people from the Texas delegation while they were in Turkey. A picture and article of the Texas visitors appeared during their trip in Today’s Zaman, the English language version of the Gulen newspaper. Today’s Zaman’s U.S. correspondent has acknowledged the publication is Gulenist.

Many of Gulen’s organizations, including RTH and the Cosmos Foundation, have noble goals: open dialogue with people of different faiths and its charter schools.

However, foreign policy experts who have watched events in Turkey say there are reasons for concern.

One person is Michael Rubin, who worked as a Pentagon staff adviser on Iran and Iraq from 2002-04 in the administration of former President George W. Bush. Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Rubin described Gulen as “controversial,” “secretive,” and a man who “operates a number of front groups.”

Additionally, multiple cables from the U.S. State Department express concerns about Gulen because he is less than transparent about his goals. The State Department is no bastion of conservatism.

In an e-mail response, Austin ISD dismissed the need to check out RTH by not even answering a couple of questions. Again, the superintendent did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.

The trip to Turkey likely will benefit those who went – and it will benefit the preparation of Austin students for future state tests.

However, the trip in December – in light of the financial crisis confronting Austin ISD – displays the epitome of tone deafness. Why would you travel halfway around the world with a financial crisis of this magnitude?

Additionally, the lack of due diligence on Gulen reveals that on the big issues the big details get overlooked. Perhaps some important financial questions were overlooked because the district’s leader was out of the country for 10 days just before Christmas.

Austin ISD will get their new Turkey curriculum, but at what price?

There were enough red flags about Gulen. All they had to do was look and ask some probing questions.

=============================

List of U. S. publicly funded Gulen schools: 

http://turkishinvitations.weebly.com/list-of-us-schools.html

Total number of schools currently in operation:  119
Number of states with schools in current operation:   25

============================

4.20.11 -- “A Closer Look at the Cosmos Foundation/Harmony School Charter Operation in Texas” -- by Peyton Wolcott --

http://peytonwolcott.com/

===========================

“Harmony Science Academies Tied to Gulen Charter Schools”

by Donna Garner

3.1.11

Here is the documentation to show that the Harmony Science Academies in Texas are directly tied to the Gulen Movement. We always need to bear in mind that Fethullah Gulen is an Islamist imam:  

1.  Guidestar -- Cosmos Foundation, Texas (a.k.a., Harmony Public Schools -- http://www2.guidestar.org/organizations/76-0615245/cosmos-foundation.aspx )

Cosmos Foundation is the management company for Harmony Science Academies, and the CFO of Cosmos is Umit Pecen; he attends the funding board meetings with Sonar Tarim. 

(Please see http://harmonyparenttruth.blogspot.com/2011/01/harmony-science-academy-charter-school_18.html to learn more about Umit Pecen.)  

(Please go to http://www.chroniclewatch.com/2010/06/21/islamic-movement-engulfs-lone-star-state/ to learn more about Sonar Tarim.)

2.  Oct. 7, 2010 -- Dr. Helen Rose Ebaugh -- “Mapping the Gulen Movement” -- Professor of Sociology, University of Houston --  Please slide the marker to 11:52 where Dr. Ebaugh says there are 25 Gulen charter schools in Texas (a.k.a., Cosmos Foundation -- Harmony Science Academies).  If these are not the Harmony Science Academies, to what other schools is she referring?  Obviously she means the Harmony Science Academies and that they are Gulen schools.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJmldzfD884&feature=related

In Dr. Ebaugh’s remarks, she stated that she had traveled to Turkey to study the Gulen Movement; and she learned that after Gulen investors put up the capital for the Gulen schools for a couple of years, the schools operate on their own.

This should be the same model used in the United States. If individual citizens want to put up the money for the Harmony Science Academies to get them started, that would be a matter to be decided in the private sector; but we taxpayers should not have our tax dollars used to pay for any schools that are tied to the Muslim movement.

3.  PBS, “The Gulen Movement,” Jan. 25, 2011:  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/january-21-2011/gulen-movement/7949/

Excerpts from this website:

SEVERSON: Gülen-inspired volunteers from Turkey bring Turkish language and culture with them. In Houston they sponsor a Turkish Olympiad where American students compete in Turkish dance and song. The winners compete in an annual competition in Ankara, Turkey. There are more than a 1000 Gülen-inspired schools and universities in over 100 countries...

SEVERSON: In Texas there are 33 nationally recognized public charter schools with over 16,000 students grades K through 12. They’re called Harmony schools, and the Turkish superintendent insists they are strictly secular and in no way connected to Gülen. [As shown in Points #1 and #2, the Harmony Science Academies most certainly are Gulen schools. -- Donna Garner]  Professor Ebaugh says there’s a reason for this kind of sensitivity. [Dr. Ebaugh has stated publicly that she believes the Gulen charter schools in the United States should be more forthcoming about their links to him and to Turkey because she does not believe they have anything to hide. -- Donna Garner]

(4)  Students in the Gulen schools celebrate various Turkish Muslim holidays, and students frequently win trips to Turkey. 

Donna Garner
wgarner1@hot.rr.com

===========================

“Gulen Is Indeed a Dangerous Man” -- 3.26.11 --- by Donna Garner http://www.educationnews.org/political/152367.html

Donna Garner - The subject of the cable was Fethullah Gulen, an Islamist imam, who is behind the Gulen Movement and the Gulen Charter Schools in America (a.k.a., Harmony Schools in Texas). Ambassador Jeffrey gives what he wants America’s stock answer to be if anyone ever charges the United States with “sheltering” Gulen.

A link was posted as a comment under my 3.24.11 article on EducationNews.org — http://www.educationnews.org/commentaries/insights_on_education/152233.html  –  entitled “FBI Investigation of Gulen Schools (a.k.a., Harmony Science Academies in Texas).”

Someone named Francis Venturini posted his comment on 3.25.11 at 5:18 A. M. and proceeded to give a link to the original Wikileaks cable sent on 12.4.09 from Embassy Ankara, Turkey, by Ambassador James Jeffrey [U. S. Ambassador to Turkey from 2008 - 2010].

I have never read a cable released by Wikileaks before (link posted at the bottom of this e-mail), but I believe this is what it said: 

The subject of the cable was Fethullah Gulen, an Islamist imam, who is behind the Gulen Movement and the Gulen Charter Schools in America (a.k.a., Harmony Schools in Texas).

Listed in the header to the cable are such words as Confidential, Ambassador James Jeffrey, Embassy Ankara, Secretary of State/Washington D. C., Secretary of Defense, CIA, Joint Staff, etc.  

At the end of the 2009 cable, Ambassador Jeffrey gives what he wants America’s stock answer to be if anyone ever charges the United States with “sheltering” Gulen.

I found it very disturbing that by 2009 when Ambassador Jeffrey wrote this cable, the Gulenists had already taken over the Turkish National Police by giving applicants the answers to the exams.  If this is standard protocol in Turkey by the Gulenists, I have to ask whether there is any outside monitoring of test security when the Gulen Charter Schools in the United States administer the state-mandated tests (TAKS in Texas) and the SAT/ACT.  If not, can we trust the Gulen Charter Schools’ (a.k.a., Harmony Schools in Texas) test results to be credible?

Notice that this cable from Embassy Ankara was written back in 2009. It was after that time in May and June of 2010 when the Gaza Strip flotilla fired on the Israelis; Turkey helped Iran to create a plan to avoid sanctions; and the Turkish prime minister said he regarded Iran’s President Ahmadinejad as a friend.

 

The author of  the 6.3.10 article entitled “It’s Not About the Flotilla: Turkey Changed Sides Years Ago” stated that the breakdown in U. S. and Israeli relations occurred in 2008 when Turkey elected an Islamist government: 

 

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/its-not-about-the-flotilla-turkey-changed-sides-years-ago/

 

All of this occurred during the time that the Gulen Movement was infiltrating Turkey and becoming more aggressive by taking over the news media, political structure, security police, educational system, and other institutions.  It cannot be a coincidence that as the Gulenist Movement in Turkey has grown, the Turkish relationship with the United States has deteriorated.

 

Is it any wonder that many Americans are worried about the Gulen Charter Schools and their Islamic influence upon our own public school children?  It is not a stretch to think that the Gulen Movement may be trying to take over our country using the same strategies they have used in Turkey.  

Combine this with the fact that a Texas legislator recently told me that he, unlike some of his fellow legislators, had refrained from accepting free trips to Turkey offered by Gulen/Cosmos Foundation/Harmony Schools.  I have also been told that many high-level policymakers on both sides of the aisle, selected news media pesonalities, and Congressmen have taken these free trips to Turkey — the center of the elegant Ottoman Empire — where they have been wined and dined royally by the Gulenists.  Students at the Harmony Schools also are sent on these Turkish trips.  

FYI:  The United States has two key permanent bases in the Middle East.  Incirlik, Turkey, and Riyad, Saudi Arabia. These are strategic installations.  For reference, Incirlik was the home base for all U-2 flights over Russia before satellites.  Riyad was the staging point for both Iraqi Wars. Both bases are essential in the Middle East.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incirlik_Air_Base

============================

4.19.11 -- World Net Daily

Flood of Turkish teachers prompts investigation
Witness says feds looking into Islam-influenced network

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=289153

=============

In Texas:

“…there were also 401 applications filed by the Houston-based Cosmos Foundation for a state-wide cluster of Turkish-sponsored charter schools, a Gülen organization…These H-1B hirings were taking place just as school systems across the country were preparing to lay off tens of thousands of public school teachers…” (CIS -- Center for Immigration Studies -- April 2011; http://www.cis.org/h-1b-teacher-recruitment/)

=======================

“Harmony Charter Schools: Gaming the System?”

Introduction by Donna Garner

4.10.11

Dr. Ed Fuller’s study shows that Texas’ Harmony Charter Schools have an exceedingly high disappearance rate of low-performing students.  Dr. Fuller says this definitely is “one way to increase the overall average performance and obtain higher accountability ratings than otherwise would have been obtained.”  

Harmony Charter Schools may well be gaming the system.  Also, are there any Texas Education Agency TAKS, ACT, or SAT monitors who unexpectedly drop in to observe the test security of these Harmony Charter Schools to make sure that they are not cheating on their test scores?  Regular public schools in Texas are monitored for TAKS test security. -- Donna Garner]

http://fullerlook.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/harmony-charters/

A "Fuller" Look at Education Issues

Examining K-12 and higher ed issues across the country by Dr. Ed Fuller

Teaser on Charter School Report

Posted on April 9, 2011 by Dr. Ed Fuller

===========================

Re:  FBI Investigation of Gulen Schools (a.k.a., Harmony Science Academies in Texas) -- 3.23.11  

Here is a YouTube (Parts 1 and 2) by a TV news station in Pennsylvania that tells of the FBI investigation of the Gulen schools in Pennsylvania and across the country:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN04cOqLc9g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZtg9jfVZbo 

If you have pertinent information or have observed anything suspicious about the Gulen schools in Texas (a.k.a., Harmony Science Academies), here is the phone number for the Dallas FBI office (972-559-5000).  When you call, ask to be directed to “Intake.”  I verified this contact information this morning.  

At the bottom of this e-mail, I have posted some recent articles on the Gulen Movement and also information about Turkey and why it is so important for the United States to maintain a definite presence there. -- Donna Garner

==================

3.22.11 -- http://www.centredaily.com/2011/03/22/2597590/charter-school-faces-scrutiny.html#ixzz1HJbliDXz

YOUNG SCHOLARS by Ed McMahon

Young Scholars charter school faces scrutiny over ties with Islamic leader

===============================================

 Other recent articles on the Gulen Movement and its harmful influence both in Turkey and in the United States:

3.14.11 -- Education or Indoctrination? By Gadi Adelman:  http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.8968/pub_detail.asp

3.21.11 -- Newly released Wikileaks documents show increased concern among U.S. officials of the Gulen Movement by Dr. Paul L. Williams:

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/34651

3.10.11 --  U.S. charter-school network with Turkish link draws federal attention

by Martha Woodall and Claudio Gatti -- Philly News:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/118313549.html?viewAll=y

========================

For Your Information -- Why America needs to maintain good relations with Turkey --

We have two key permanent bases in the Middle East.  Incirlik, Turkey, and Riyad, Saudi Arabia. These are strategic installations.  For reference, Incirlik was the home base for all U-2 flights over Russia before satellites.  Riyad was the staging point for both Iraqi Wars. Both bases are essential in the Middle East. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incirlik_Air_Base

Incirlik Air Base (Turkish: İncirlik Hava Üssü) (ICAO: LTAG) is located in İncirlik, five miles east^[1] of Adana, Turkey's fifth largest city, and 56 kilometres (35 mi) from the Mediterranean Sea. The U.S. Air Force and the Turkish Air Force are the primary users of the base.

Incirlik is the home of the 10th Air Wing (Ana Jet Üs or AJÜ) of the 2nd Air Force Command (Hava Kuvvet Komutanlığı) of the Turkish Air Force (Türk Hava Kuvvetleri). Other wings of this command are located in Merzifon (LTAP), Malatya/Erhaç (LTAT) and Diyarbakır (LTCC).^[2]

Incirlik has a United States Air Force (U.S.A.F.) complement of about 5,000 airmen, with several hundred British and Turkish Air Force airmen also present (-late 2002). The primary unit stationed here is the 39th Air Base Wing (39 ABW) of the U.S.A.F.

Incirlik has one 3048 meter-long main runway ^[1] and one 2740 meter-long secondary runway, both located among about 57 hardened aircraft shelters.

================================

4.30.11 -- “Is Gulen in Bed with Politicians and the CIA?” --  http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc043011AM.html -- Dr. Aland Mizell

Excerpts from this article:

Gulen teaches that hearts are created as safes for keeping secrets. Intelligence is their lock; will power is their key. No one can break into the safe and steal its valuables if the lock or keys are not faulty. He urges his followers to bear in mind that those who carry others' secrets to you might bear yours to others. Further, he cautions them not to give such tactless people any chance to learn even the smallest details of your private concerns. A secret is a power only as long as it stays with its owner but is a weapon that may be used against its owner if it passes into the hands of others.

Developing his point, Gulen explains, “This is the meaning of one of our traditional sayings: ‘The secret is your slave but you become its slave if you disclose it.’” The details of many important affairs can be protected only if they are kept secret.

Often enough when the involved parties do not keep certain matters secret no progress is achieved. In addition, serious risks might confront those who are involved particularly if the matter concerns delicate issues of national life and its continuation. This doctrine admonishes them, “Explain what you must but never give away all of your secrets. Those who freely publicize the secrets of their hearts drag themselves and their nation toward an inevitable downfall. If a state cannot protect its secrets from its enemies it cannot develop. If an army reveals its strategy to its antagonists it cannot attain victory. If key workers are won over by the competitors their employers cannot succeed.” Secrecy undergirds Gulen’s life and movement…

What Gulenists want is total power and one-man rule; they want a status so that none could dare to object to them or to their leader, because they sincerely believe that Allah has chosen them to disseminate their brand of Turkish Islam to the world, and therefore that everything they do is right and without mistakes. That is why the best weapon for a dictator’s regime is secrecy, but the best weapon for a real democracy is openness and transparency, is it not? How democratic, open, and transparent are the Gulenists?

…Why would the Gulenists deny their relation to the CIA? The truth seems to be optional for Gulenists. According to Gulen’s teachings, his followers have an obligation to know the truth but that truth cannot be revealed anywhere anytime, because if the time is not right, they cannot tell the truth.  For example, the strategy of denial is fabricated to appear that they are not part of any movement or community if any charge against them appears in the news…Rather, they are to work patiently and silently until all the institutions are in order to seize power. Timing about when and how to reveal their true goal is very crucial for the Gulenists. Gulenists are experts on how to buy and use persons for their interest.

===================================

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

Helping Those Devastated By Recent Tornadoes and Update on Tea Parties

Hear an interview with Pastor Mary Shellnut regarding the devastation in North Alabama that she knows of and the pain it brought many.  Hear what you can do to help.  Please call and share in the barn (home) building as many hands will be needed.  Prayers are a must and if you can also please call and give them your support:

Call Ground Zero Ministry and help at:

256-668-7889 or donate at their website at this link

Here is the link--bottom portion of interview is with Dawn Wildman who needs our help to rebuild our country and stop our government's fast track of an economic and cultural downward slide to destruction.

States Beginning To Figure Out They Will Be Left Holding The Bag With National Assessments They Can't Afford to Implement--Will Governors Be Seeing Wisconsin's Woes In Their Own States Soon?

“The Other Shoe Drops:  National Testmakers Worried”

by Donna Garner

4.12.11

Summary of worries revealed in this Education Week article (posted below):

1.  High expectations for these national assessments may outpace the ability of states to pay for the technology required to administer them.

2.  Both of the consortia have to provide -- for each tested grade level and course -- benchmark assessments (a.k.a., periodic, formative) and summative assessments (a.k.a. finals).

3.  The consortia are worried that the tight timelines set by the feds won’t allow for well-done piloting of the assessments.

4.  Both consotia have to create formative and summative assessments that are of equal content and difficulty and which can be taken by all types of students.

5.  The national assessments were originally intended to save states money, but the federal grants contain no money for administering the assessments. 

6.  States are beginning to figure this out and are worried they will be left with national assessments they cannot afford to implement.

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

=================================

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/04/12/28aera.h30.html?tkn=UPOFcmH8A3r0yI7V24Ln%2FSE7SKR6Bu7TcRC8&cmp=clp-edweek

Published Online: April 12, 2011

Includes correction(s): April 12, 2011

Experts See Hurdles Ahead for Common Core Tests

By Sarah D. Sparks

As America’s “next-generation” assessments for common core academic subjects begin to take shape through two state consortia projects, researchers and test developers alike are beginning to worry that expectations for the tests may outpace states’ technology and budgets.

Michigan and Louisiana education officials and leaders of the two consortia tasked with developing the new assessments—the 25-state SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium, or SBAC, and the 26-state Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC—discussed challenges to the tests at a panel here at the annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education.

The panel was organized by the Council of Chief State School Officers, one of two Washington-based group that spearheaded efforts to create new common standards for college and career readiness, now adopted by 44 states and the District of Columbia.

The tests are expected to roll out in 2014, and “the amount of innovation we’ll be able to carry off in that amount of time is not going to be that much,” warned Joseph Willhoft, the executive director of the SMARTER Balanced Consortium. “There’s an expectation that out of the gate this [assessment] is going to be so game-changing, and maybe after four or five years it will be game-changing, but not immediately.”

Both consortia received grants through the federal Race to the Top Assessment competition created in the federal economic-stimulus law to develop new tests based on the common standards. Each consortium must develop computer-based tests for each tested grade level and subject, as well as optional interim benchmarking tests to allow teachers to monitor how students progress and change instruction accordingly.

Both groups are developing both the end-of-year summative tests that can be used by any state in the country, and the ancillary benchmark tests that teachers or principals can use to track the progress of individual students or groups throughout the year.

The SMARTER Balanced Consortium’s tests are intended to go beyond simply moving questions from a paper to a computer screen, to adapt the difficulty of each question as students progress on the test. Ideally, individual test items will be tagged with the accommodations allowed for students who require them based on a disability or limited English proficiency, according to Laura M. Slover, the senior vice president of the Washington-based Achieve, Inc., which is helping develop assessments for PARCC.

Yet all of that is still in the works.

“One of the biggest problems I’ve seen with state assessments and national assessments is they are typically not done on a budget and a timeline that allow people to go out and do the pilot testing and tryouts that you would like,” said Mark D. Reckase, a professor of measurement and quantitative methods at the University of Michigan. “I’ve looked at the timelines for this, and they are fast; there will be incredible pressure to just get it done.”

Moreover, making sure the tests will serve their intended accountability use has become trickier in the wake of high-profile, test-based teacher evaluations, such as that done in Los Angeles last fall. “If we are trying to look in a crystal ball about educator evaluation … That is likely to be the most difficult use of any data we put out and therefore requires the most thought and care in designing the models,” said Joseph Martineau, the director of educational assessment and accountability for the Michigan Department of Education, part of the SBAC.

PARCC plans to train thousands of teachers both in how the assessments will work and how the resulting data can be used for accountability or classroom instruction, said Ms. Slover. “One of the purposes [of the consortia project] was to really change assessment, both the way it’s done and the way it’s experienced by the students and teachers in the classroom,” Ms. Slover said. “As we think about how to transform the test to make it more useable for teachers, teachers have to embrace it and think it’s something being done for them and with them—and not to them.”

Mr. Reckase warned that mistrust of the new tests during the transition could cause delays. “There’s a tendency to want redundant systems, computerized and paper-and-pencil, … but that causes a whole other set of problems because now you have to make sure the two tests are equivalent and ensure they work for all students.”

Betting on Technology

Ms. Slover said the consortia are “betting heavily” that emerging technology will help them create tests that can balance accountability on multiple levels—from annual student achievement reporting to ancillary data used to evaluate programs and curricula—with formative test information to help teachers tweak instruction for different students throughout the year. “One cannot be done at the expense of the other, so balancing those is critical, and then you add the cost factor into that,” she said. “Innovation in technology happens at lightning speed, so we are betting heavily on the fact that in four years there will be a new way of doing things, that iPads will be easily accessible or that handheld devices will be very affordable and will change the way we do testing in our schools.

“But we’re betting on that, and it does worry me,” she said. “I think technology is not really fully embedded in the world of classrooms at this point.”

Even among classrooms with computer and Internet access, state officials agreed there are few brick-and-mortar schools that fully integrate technology into instruction, which may make it harder for students to adapt to taking tests via computer.

Changes Difficult

Scott Norton, Louisiana’s assistant state superintendent for student and school performance, said states must be careful to get the tests right in the first shot. While jointly developing tests was intended to save states money, the grants do not include money for administering the new assessments long-term, and it will be harder to make adjustments to the tests once they are completed, because so many states will need to sign off on changes.

“The cost makes me the most anxious,” Mr. Norton said. “In today’s world if we have a [testing] cost problem, we own that: We can print on lighter paper or something. I’m not sure that holds up when we don’t own it alone. If we get into a test we can’t afford, we’re really left holding the bag.”

Vol. 30, Issue 28



Here's a Way Congress Can Save Money and Improve Education

“Congressmen: A Great Place To Cut Funding -- National Assessments”

by Donna Garner

4.9.11

Almost daily I continue to submit my requests to Congress, asking them to cut the federal funding of Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and the national assessments.  

Besides the obvious -- that CCS/RTTT is a federal takeover of the public schools and lies way outside the provisions of the U. S. Constitution -- American taxpayers simply cannot afford it. 

Besides the cost of states’ dumping their own textbooks, standards, and tests in order to implement the Common Core Standards, the cost of the national assessments alone would be horrendous!

An education technology expert whose name I shall keep confidential explained to me how expensive the national assessments would actually be, and the costs would fall squarely on the shoulders of local taxpayers.

To take the national assessments, every student in a school (K-12) would be required to have his own individual technology device because the multi-media, interactive assessments are to be given online; and students would continually be taking formative assessments (a.k.a., periodic, benchmarked) throughout the entire school year.

The USAC Universal Service Fund, which is presently tacked onto the price of all of our cell phones and home phone bills, already supplies Internet Access (IA) at a reduced fee for every public school and library in the country.

The USAC spends $2.5 Billion each year just on telecom, IA, and building infrastructure to these schools and libraries. Therefore, the costs are very substantial already. 

Recently the federal government put $10 Million into a pilot project to give Internet Access (IA) to individual school students.  The federal funding for this pilot project, which provides only the IA, was eaten up almost instantly by just a few school districts. 

For us to understand the scope of the problem, we must realize that states such as Texas have 1,237 separate public school districts and charters, 8,435 campuses, and over 4.8 million students.  California has 1050 districts.  The nation has over 35,000 districts.  

Unfortunately, there is not a cost-effective way to deliver IA to every public school student without their also paying a $30 a month IA fee along with the cost of the technology device.  In fact, the cost of the device itself is becoming incidental to the monthly fees over which AT&T, Verizon, and other companies are salivating.

This is similar to companies giving a free cell phone to a customer if he signs up for the two-year plan; the companies know the monthly fees will more than make up for the cost of the devices themselves. 

As people in the telecommunications industry consider the money to be made under the Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and the national assessments, talks have begun surfacing about building mesh networks around the public schools. This would allow Internet Access (IA) to everyone living around the schools (the outliers), and they could use the same IA that the feds through the USAC fees are currently purchasing at the school sites.   The “gotcha” is that the outliers would be required to pay the monthly technology usage fees. 

A huge fiscal problem is that building out these mesh networks around all the public schools in America would cost billions, and the USAC fees would not pay for this part.  

It is easy to see why AT&T, Verizon, Microsoft, Cisco, and Dell are all planning on benefitting from the implementation of the Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and the national assessments. [From the very first moment that Obama came into the White House, Bill Gates has been using his moneybags to promote CCS/RTTT.)  

As usual, it would be the taxpayers who would have to foot the bill for these national assessments and the technology infrastructure required.  

ACTION STEP:

Please contact your Congressmen and ask them to cut immediately the funding for the Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and the national assessments.

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

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As a follow-up to this Education Week Teacher article (posted below), please read my March 18, 2011, article entitled “Taxpayers, Grab Your Wallets.” 

http://www.navigator-news.com/component/content/article/3-local/251-taxpayers-grab-your-wallets

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http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2011/04/high_tech_testing_on_the_way_a.html

High Tech Testing on the Way: a 21st Century Boondoggle?

Excerpts from this article:

by Stephen Krashen and Susan Ohanian

When the plans to create Common Core Standards were announced, Secretary Duncan told us that it would be accompanied by assessments to enforce the standards. We were also told that developing standards would be relatively inexpensive, but developing assessments, by contrast, will be a "very heavy lift financially" (USA Today, June 14, 2009).

It is gradually becoming clear that the lift will be extremely heavy. The new tests will be computer-based, administered online, and "will make widespread use of smart technology. They will provide students with realistic, complex performance tasks, immediate feedback, computer adaptive testing, and incorporate accommodations for a range of students" (Duncan, 2010). Duncan noted that "with the benefit of technology, assessment questions can incorporate audio and video. Problems can be situated in real-world environments, where students perform tasks or include multi-stage scenarios and extended essays."

An example:
The National Education Technology Plan 2010 (U.S. Department of Education; Office of Educational Technology) describes one kind of testing that is being developed, testing that takes place "in the course of learning" (xvii) and that tries to find out what students are thinking while doing projects:

As students work, the system can capture their inputs and collect evidence of their problem-solving sequences, knowledge, and strategy use, as reflected by the information each student selects or inputs, the number of attempts the student makes, the number of hints and type of feedback given, and the time allocation across parts of the problem.

(pages 29-30: "Assessing during online learning").

Aside from the mind-control aspect of this kind of testing, how much will it cost, in addition to the cost of developing, testing and revising the new tests?

If we are going to have computer-based tests, and if they are to be delivered to students via the internet, the first requirement is that all students need to be connected to the internet. A recent article in the New York Times gives us some idea of what will be involved. The article begins by noting that money is scarce these days:

Despite sharp drops in state aid, New York City's Department of Education plans to increase its technology spending, including $542 million next year alone that will primarily pay for wiring and other behind-the-wall upgrades to city schools ... and $315 million for additional schools by 2014...

(New York Times, "In city schools, tech spending to rise despite cuts," March 30, 2011)

Buried deep the article is a statement by "city officials" that the huge expenditures for technology are primarily to make it possible for students to take computerized national standardized tests.

We can expect this to happen nation-wide. If the New York figure is extrapolated to the entire country, the cost to connect all children to the internet will be at least 50 times the cost of connecting New York City alone, or $25 billion (New York City enrolls one million students, the USA as a whole, over 60 million). This is only to connect students to the internet. The whistles and bells needed to do "computer adaptive testing" with audio and video will cost more.

Technology, of course, continues to develop all the time, and consumers have repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to discard the old and embrace the new, even at considerable expense. We can expect that after every student is connected, sooner or later the set-up will become obsolete and need to be replaced, either in part or totally. The schools, we predict, will cheerfully pay up, eager for the "newest" technology, and the computer companies will cheerfully accept their money.

The billions spent so that students can take national tests will have a huge payoff for the entire computer industry in other ways. This was enthusiastically announced by Education Secretary Duncan's Chief of Staff and former CEO of the New Schools Venture Fund, Joanne Weiss. Weiss noted that because all students will have internet access in order to be tested, technology companies can now profit from one giant national market for all their educational products:

The development of common standards and shared assessments radically alters the market for innovation in curriculum development, professional development, and formative assessments. Previously, these markets operated on a state-by-state basis, and often on a district-by-district basis. But the adoption of common standards and shared assessments means that education entrepreneurs will enjoy national markets where the best products can be taken to scale

(Weiss, 2011)…

Of course, the administration has argued that these will be new and better tests, more sensitive to growth in learning, able to chart student progress through the year, and able to probe real learning, not just memorization. Before unleashing these "improved" tests on the country, however, there should be rigorous investigation, rigorous studies to show that these measures are worth the investment. Right now, the corporations and politicians insist that we take on faith the claim that these tests are good for students. Such claims exhibit a profound lack of accountability…

The Department of Education plans to use American students as experimental subjects to try out an extremely expensive, time-consuming and dubious testing program that will engulf classrooms. If it fails, the effect on students will be devastating, with schools robbed of money, and a generation of students poorly educated, teacher professionalism subsumed by data management, and schools robbed of funds for anything but technology repair. But the testing and technology companies will win, profiting regardless of the success or failure of their products and always ready to convince us that the next versions will be better…

Dr. Stephen Krashen is a professor emeritus at the University of Southern California. He has written numerous books on his research into literacy and language acquisition. In recent years he has emerged as a persistent voice pointing towards the basic steps we should take to build literacy and strong academic skills for our students.

Susan Ohanian, a longtime teacher, has written 25 books on education, including When Childhood Collides with NCLB and co-authorship of Why Is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools? Since the passage of NCLB, she has run a website of resistance, www.susanohanian.org, which received the NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public language. She is a fellow at National Education Policy Center and an editor at Substancenews.net…

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com