Common Core Standards or Nationalization of Education Leads To National Disaster)

5.28.11 -- Politico.com

A ‘Common’ Education Disaster

By DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN & ANNIE HSIAO

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55857.html#ixzz1NsJZQKOh 

Education standards are hot. The hottest are the Common Core Standards –- cooperatively-developed standards for k-12 English and Mathematics classes. Sadly, this voluntary movement is being distorted into a sweeping federal centralization and control of what students learn.

Reflecting the growing popularity, standards-based reform is now the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s education agenda. The President’s Blueprint for Reform – his top four priorities for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – begins by “calling on all states to develop and adopt standards in English language arts and mathematics.”

But not just any standards, it turns out. The administration has chosen to sanction precisely the same Common Core Standards.

For example, it tied $4.35 billion of the Race to the Top federal funding to their adoption – even before they were finalized. On top of that, it is already funding – to the tune of $345 million – two consortia to develop assessments, instructional materials, and professional development based specifically on the Common Core Standards – perilously close to a de facto curriculum.

In short: voluntary out; coercion in. Federal control up; local control down.

That would be fine if international evidence showed that national standards and curriculum improved global competitiveness. High-performing countries with national curriculum, like Finland and South Korea, are more homogenous than the United States — which is poorly suited for a sweeping one-size-fits-all centralization of educational content.

Moreover, even those countries preserve local flexibility. Most national curricula highlight a few key topics, and permit teachers to develop the content to address them.

Usurping local control from states and districts is an unprecedented overreach by the federal government into education. It robs schools of the freedom of flexibility and opportunity for innovation.

Perhaps most important, once the feds take over who gets to decide what the curriculum and standards look like? Dense concentration of decision-making could lead to special-interests groups driving the agenda for their interest, not the students’.

The federalization of the Common Core Standards has provoked an outcry from a bipartisan group of leading education reformers. They released a letter reminding the nation that there is no constitutional authority for a national curriculum. In addition, there is no evidence demonstrating that national standards improve educational outcomes, or a track record showing that the Common Core Standards are rigorous and first-rate.

The latter point brings the debate full circle. Yes, standards are a good idea. But critics of the Common Core Standards include five dissenters of the Common Core Validation Committee, some of the most internationally reputable standards experts.

They argue that these English language arts standards for grades six to 12 do not reflect knowledge needed for college-level work and that the standards themselves are unclear and ambiguous. Though proponents of these standards claim they have been informed by research, no research was ever provided.

Similarly, in math, the standards were found to be poorly organized, lowered expectations for college-readiness, were confusing and focused on low-level mathematics.

National standards are a bad idea. Nationalization of the wrong standards is even worse.

Education reform is a serious issue. Too serious to let the administration’s penchant for education pork-barreling lead America’s students down the disastrous path of federal curriculum micromanagement, and the overthrow of local school boards, districts — and ultimately parents.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin served as a director of the Congressional Budget Office. He is now president of the American Action Forum. Annie Hsiao is the director of education policy at American Action Forum. 

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

Shanker Institute Manifesto--A Critical Response To It As America Should Not Be Dumbed Down--By Those Whose True Goal is Power

Why One National Curriculum is Bad for America       

Closing the Door on Innovation

A Critical Response to the Shanker Institute Manifesto and
the U.S. Department of Education’s Initiative
   to Develop a National Curriculum and National Assessments
Based on National Standards

We, the undersigned, representing viewpoints from across the political and educational spectrum, oppose the call for a nationalized curriculum in the Albert Shanker Institute Manifesto “A Call for Common Content.”1 We also oppose the ongoing effort by the U.S. Department of Education to have two federally funded testing consortia develop national curriculum guidelines, national curriculum models, national instructional materials, and national assessments using Common Core's national standards as a basis for these efforts.2

We agree that our expectations should be high and similar for all children whether they live in Mississippi or Massachusetts, Tennessee or Texas. We also think that curricula should be designed before assessments are developed, not the other way around.

But we do not agree that a one-size-fits-all, centrally controlled curriculum for every K-12 subject makes sense for this country or for any other sizable country. Such an approach threatens to close the door on educational innovation, freezing in place an unacceptable status quo and hindering efforts to develop academically rigorous curricula, assessments, and standards that meet the challenges that lie ahead. Because we are deeply committed to improving this country’s schools and increasing all students’ academic achievement, we cannot support this effort to undermine control of public school curriculum and instruction at the local and state level—the historic locus for effective innovation and reform in education—and transfer control to an elephantine, inside-the-Beltway bureaucracy.

Moreover, transferring power to Washington, D.C., will only further subordinate educational decisions to political imperatives. All presidential administrations—present and future, Democratic and Republican—are subject to political pressure. Centralized control in the U.S. Department of Education would upset the system of checks and balances between different levels of government, creating greater opportunities for special interests to use their national political leverage to distort policy. Our decentralized fifty-state system provides some limitations on special-interest power, ensuring that other voices can be heard, that wrongheaded reforms don’t harm children in every state, and that reforms that effectively serve children's needs can find space to grow and succeed.

The nationalized curriculum the Shanker Manifesto calls for, and whose development the U.S. Department of Education is already supporting, does not meet the criteria for sound public policy for the following reasons.

First, there is no constitutional or statutory basis for national standards, national assessments, or national curricula. The two testing consortia funded by the U.S. Department of Education have already expanded their activities beyond assessment, and are currently developing national curriculum guidelines, models, and frameworks in accordance with their proposals to the Department of Education (see the Appendix). Department of Education officials have so far not explained the constitutional basis for their procedures or forthcoming products. The U.S. Constitution seeks a healthy balance of power between states and the federal government, and wisely leaves the question of academic standards, curriculum, and instruction up to the states.3 In fact, action by the U.S. Department of Education to create national standards and curricula is explicitly proscribed by federal law, reflecting the judgment of Congress and the public on this issue.4

Even if the development of national curriculum models, frameworks or guidelines were judged lawful, we do not believe Congress or the public supports having them developed by a self-selected group behind closed doors and with no public accountability. Whether curriculum developers are selected by the Shanker Institute or the U.S. Department of Education’s testing consortia, they are working on a federally funded project to dramatically transform schools nationwide. They therefore ought to be transparent and accountable to Congress and the public.

Second, there is no consistent evidence that a national curriculum leads to high academic achievement. The Shanker Manifesto suggests that the only possible way to achieve high academic achievement is through a single national curriculum. Yet France and Denmark have centralized national curricula and do not show high average achievement on international tests or a diminishing gap between high- and low-achieving students. Meanwhile, Canada and Australia, both of which have many regional curricula, achieve better results than many affluent single-curriculum nations. The evidence on this question has been exhaustively addressed elsewhere.5 It does not support the conclusion that national standards are necessary either for high achievement or for narrowing the achievement gap. 

Moreover, population mobility does not justify a national curriculum. Only inter-state mobility is relevant to the value of a national curriculum, and inter-state mobility in this country is low.  The Census Bureau reports a total annual mobility rate of 12.5% in 2008-9,6 but only 1.6% of the total rate consists of inter-state moves that a national curriculum may influence. Other data indicate that inter-state mobility among school-age children is even lower, at 0.3%.7

Third, the national standards on which the administration is planning to base a national curriculum are inadequate. If there are to be national academic-content standards, we do not agree that Common Core’s standards are clear, adequate, or of sufficient quality to warrant being this country’s national standards. Its definition of “college readiness” is below what is currently required to enter most four-year state colleges. Independent reviews have found its standards to be below those in the highest-performing countries and below those in states rated as having the best academic standards.8

Fourth, there is no body of evidence for a “best” design for curriculum sequences in any subject. The Shanker Manifesto assumes we can use “the best of what is known” about how to structure curriculum. Yet which curriculum would be best is exactly what we do not know, if in fact all high school students should follow one curriculum. Much more innovation and development, and research evaluating it, is needed to address this knowledge gap. This means we should be encouraging—not discouraging—multiple models. Furthermore, the Shanker Manifesto calls for national curricula to encompass English, mathematics, history, geography, the sciences, civics, the arts, foreign languages, technology, health, and physical education. We wonder what is not included in its sweeping concept of a national curriculum.

Fifth, there is no evidence to justify a single high school curriculum for all students. A single set of curriculum guidelines, models, or frameworks cannot be justified at the high school level, given the diversity of interests, talents and pedagogical needs among adolescents. American schools should not be constrained in the diversity of the curricula they offer to students. Other countries offer adolescents a choice of curricula; Finland, for example, offers all students leaving grade 9 the option of attending a three-year general studies high school or a three-year vocational high school, with about 50% of each age cohort enrolling in each type of high school. We worry that the “comprehensive” American high school may have outlived its usefulness, as a recent Harvard report implies.9 A one-size-fits-all model not only assumes that we already know the one best curriculum for all students; it assumes that one best way for all students exists. We see no grounds for carving that assumption in stone.

Conclusion

The Shanker Manifesto does not make a convincing case for a national curriculum. It manifests serious shortcomings in its discussion of curricular alignment and coherence, the quality of Common Core’s national standards, course sequence and design, academic content, student mobility, sensitivity to pluralism, constitutionality and legality, transparency and accountability, diverse pedagogical needs, and the absence of consensus on all these questions. For these reasons, we the undersigned oppose the Shanker Manifesto’s call for a nationalized curriculum and the U.S. Department of Education’s initiative to develop a national curriculum and national tests based on Common Core’s standards.

         **************************************************************************************************************************

Signatories

Initial signatories before May 6, 2011

John Agresto
President, St. John’s College, Santa Fe, 1989-2000, Member Board of Trustees & Past Provost, American University of Iraq, Author, The Supreme Court & Constitutional Democracy

G. Donald Allen
Associate Head & Professor, Department of Mathematics, Texas A&M University, Director, Center for Technology-Mediated Instruction in Mathematics

Hon. Steve Baldwin
Former Chairman, California State Assembly Education Committee, Former California State Assemblyman, Former Executive Director, Council for National Policy

Gary Beckner
Founder & Executive Director, Association of American Educators

Hon. Marian Bergeson
Former California State Secretary of Education, Former President, California School Boards Association, Former California State Senator

Michelle D. Bernard
President and CEO, the Bernard Center for Women, Politics, and Public Policy

Ben Boychuk
Former Managing Editor, School Reform News, Heartland Institute

Hon. Christian N. Braunlich
Vice President, Thomas Jefferson Institute, Former Member, Fairfax County (Va.) School Board

Matthew J. Brouillette
President & CEO, Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives, Former middle and high school history teacher, Former charter school board member

Morgan Brown
Director for School Improvement, Charter School Partners, Former Assistant Commissioner, Minnesota State Department of Education, U.S. Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education for Innovation and Improvement, 2006-2008

Audrey V. Buffington
Former State Supervisor of Mathematics, Maryland State Department of Education, First Recipient, Mathematics Educator of the Year Award, Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1978

Doug Carnine
Former Director, National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators, Co-Author, Direct Instruction mathematics series, Former Member, Advisory Board, National Institute for Literacy

Michael C. Carnuccio
President, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs

M. Bloucke Carus
Chairman, Carus Corporation, Chairman, Education Committee, Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, Publisher of 14 leading children’s magazines, Past Chairman, International Baccalaureate North America, Developer, Open Court reading program

Walt Chappell
Member, Kansas State Board of Education

John E. Chubb
Distinguished Visiting Fellow & Koret K-12 Education Task Force Member, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Former Chief Academic Officer & Co-Founder, Edison Learning, Co-Author, Politics, Markets, and America’s Schools

Paul Clopton
Research Statistician, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center, San Diego, Past Member, California State Mathematics Curriculum Framework and Criteria Committee, Past Commissioner, California State Commission on Teacher Credentialing

John Colyandro
Executive Director, Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute

Kim Crockett
President & General Counsel, Minnesota Free Market Institute

David Davenport
Counselor to the Director & Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, President, Pepperdine University, 1985-2000, Past Distinguished Professor of Law & Public Policy, Pepperdine University

Timothy C. Draper
Founder & Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (venture capital), Former Member, California State Board of Education

Brandon Dutcher
Vice President for Policy, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Publishing Editor, Choice Remarks

John C. Eastman
Founding Director, Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, Donald P. Kennedy Professor and Former Dean, Chapman University School of Law

Michelle Easton
President, Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute
Former Deputy Undersecretary, U.S. Department of Education, Former President and Member Virginia, State Board of Education

Karen R. Effrem, MD
President, Education Liberty Watch

Robert S. Eitel
Member, Talbert and Eitel,PLLC, Deputy General Counsel, U.S. Department of Education, 2006-09, Senior Counsel, U.S. Department of Education, 2005-06

Siegfried Engelmann
Professor of Special Education, University of Oregon, Recipient, Award of Achievement in Education Research of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents, 2002, President Engelmann-Becker Corporation (curriculum development)

Robert C. Enlow
President & CEO, Foundation for Educational Choice

Richard A. Epstein
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, New York University Law School, Peter & Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law Emeritus & Senior Lecturer, University of Chicago Law School

William A. Estrada
Director of Federal Relations, Home School Legal Defense Association

Bill Evers
Research Fellow & Koret K-12 Education Task Force Member, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Policy, 2007-2009, Commissioner, California State Academic Standards Commission, 1996-98, 2010

William Felkner
Founder & Director of Policy, Ocean State Policy Research Institute

Liv Finne
Director for Education, Washington Policy Center

Will Fitzhugh
Founder & President, The Concord Review

Greg Forster
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Educational Choice

John Fonte
Senior Fellow & Director of the Center for American Common Culture, Hudson Institute

Jamie Gass
Director, Center for School Reform, Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research

Paul J. Gessing
President, Rio Grande Foundation

Ronald J. Gidwitz
Co-Founder & President, GCG Partners, Former CEO, Helene Curtis, Member, Board of Governors & Chairman of Governmental Relations Committee, Boys and Girls Club of America, Former Chairman, City Colleges of Chicago, Former Chairman, Illinois State Board of Education

Jay P. Greene
21st Century Chair & Head of the Department of Education Reform, University of Arkansas, Fellow in Education Policy, George W. Bush Institute

Walter Mellor Haney
Professor, Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation Program, Lynch School of Education, Boston College

David R. Henderson
Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Former Senior Economist, President’s Council of Economic Advisers

Collin Hitt
Senior Director of Government Affairs, Illinois Policy Institute

Hon. Pete Hoekstra
Former Member, U.S. House of Representatives, Former Member, U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce, Former Member, U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education

Robert Holland
Senior Fellow for Education Policy, Heartland Institute, Policy Analyst, Lexington Institute

Gisele Huff
Member, Advisory Committee, Program on Education Policy and Governance, Harvard University

Lance T. Izumi
Koret Senior Fellow and Senior Director of Education Studies, Pacific Research Institute, Immediate Past President, Board of Governors, California Community Colleges

Franklin Pitcher Johnson, Jr.
Founding Partner, Asset Management Company, (venture capital), Former Member, Board of Trustees, Foothill-De Anza Community College District

Krista Kafer
Fellow, Centennial Institute

Kevin P. Kane
President, Pelican Institute for Public Policy

Hon. Greg Kaza
Member, Michigan State House of Representatives, 1993-98, Executive Director, Arkansas Policy Foundation

C. Ronald Kimberling
U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Postsecondary Education, 1985-88, Former Chancellor, Briarcliffe College, Member, Illinois Task Force on Higher Education and the Economy, 2008

Hon. Keith King
Co-Founder, Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy; James Irwin Charter High School, Colorado Springs Early Colleges, Colorado State Senator, Member, Colorado State Senate Education Committee

E. Floyd Kvamme
Partner Emeritus, Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers (venture capital), Past Executive Vice President, Apple Computer, Past Co-Chairman, President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology

John R. LaPlante
Policy Fellow, Minnesota Free Market Institute

Hon. Yvonne W. Larsen
Past President, California State Board of Education, Past President, San Diego City School Board, Vice Chair, “A Nation at Risk” Commission

Casey Lartigue , Jr.
Director, Overseas Relations, Center for Free Enterprise (South Korea), Former Education Policy Analyst, Cato Institute, Co-editor, Educational Freedom in Urban America: Brown v. Board Education after a half century

Doug Lasken
Retired English Teacher & Debate Coach, Los Angeles Unified School District

Howard H. Leach
Vice President, Leach Capital, Former U.S. Ambassador to France, Former Chairman, Board of Regents, University of California

Briana LeClaire
Education Policy Analyst, Idaho Freedom Foundation

George Leef
Director of Research, John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, Former Vice President, John Locke Foundation, Book Review Editor, The Freeman magazine

George W. Liebmann
Executive Director, Calvert Institute for Policy Research

Dan Lips
Former Senior Policy Analyst, Heritage Foundation, Former Research Associate, Cato Institute, Senior Fellow of Education Policy Studies, Maryland Public Policy Institute

Hon. Peggy Littleton
El Paso County Commissioner, Colorado, Former Member, Colorado State Board of Education

Carrie L. Lukas
Executive Director, Independent Women’s Forum, Former Policy Analyst, Cato Institute, Former Senior Domestic Policy Analyst, U.S. House Republican Policy Committee

Paul Lundeen
Member, Colorado State Board of Education

J. Robert McClure
President & CEO, James Madison Institute, Former Member, State of Florida Education Strategies Planning Council Member, Florida Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Michael W. McConnell
Richard and Frances Mallery Professor of Law, Stanford University, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Former Federal Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Kelly McCutchen
President and CEO, Georgia Public Policy Foundation

Michael McKeown
Professor of Medical Science, Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry, Brown University, Co-Founder, Mathematically Correct (math-education advocacy group)

Matt A. Mayer
President, Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions

Edwin Meese III
Former Attorney General of the United States, Former Rector (chairman of governing board), George Mason University, Former Professor of Law, University of San Diego

John D. Merrifield
Professor of Economics, University of Texas, San Antonio, Editor, Journal of School Choice, Director, E.G. West Institute for Effective Schooling

Stan Metzenberg
Professor of Biology, California State University Northridge, Science Consultant, California State Academic Standards Commission, 1998, Former Commissioner, California State Curriculum Commission

R. James Milgram
Professor Emeritus, Department of Mathematics, Stanford University, Member, Validation Committee, Common Core Standards, 2009-10, Former Member, NASA Advisory Council

Charles Miller
Former Chairman, Education Policy Center of Texas, Former Chairman, Board of Regents, University of Texas System, Chairman, U.S. Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education (Spellings Commission)

Marcia Neal
Vice-Chair, Colorado State Board of Education

Hon. Janet Nicholas
Former Member, California State Board of Education

Grover Norquist
President, Americans for Tax Reform, Member, Board of Directors, ParentalRights.org, Former Economist & Chief Speechwriter, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Daniel Oliver
Former General Counsel, U.S. Department of Education, Former General Counsel, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Former Chairman, Federal Trade Commission

Gen Olson
President, Pro Tem, Minnesota State Senate, Chair, Minnesota State Senate Education Committee

Chris Patterson
Former Director of Research, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Member, Policy Advisory Board, Texas Institute for Education Reform

John W. Payne
Education Policy Researcher, Show-Me Institute

Hon. Betty Peters
Member, Alabama State Board of Education

Sally C. Pipes
President & CEO Pacific Research Institute

Daniel P. Racheter
President, Iowa Association of Scholars, President, Public Interest Institute, Co-Editor, Federalist Government in Principle and Practice

Howard Rich
Chairman, Americans for Limited Government

Roberta R. Schaefer
President & CEO, Worcester (Mass.) Regional Research Bureau, Former Vice Chair & Member, Massachusetts State Board of Education

Hon. Bob Schaffer
Chairman, Colorado State Board of Education, Former Vice-Chairman, Colorado State Senate Education Committee, Member, U.S. House of Representatives, 1997-2003

Wilfried Schmid
Dwight Parker Robinson Professor of Mathematics, Harvard University, Member, National Mathematics Advisory Panel, U.S. Department o Education, 2006-08, Member, Steering Committee, NAEP Mathematics Assessment, 2000-01

Pete Sepp
Executive Vice President, National Taxpayers Union

Gilbert T. Sewall
Director, American Textbook Council
Former history instructor, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., Former Education Editor, Newsweek magazine

Hon. John Shadegg
Member, U.S. House of Representatives, 1995-2010

Hon. Florence Shapiro
Chair, State Senate Education Committee, State of Texas, Member, Southern Regional Education Board, Commissioner, Education Commission of the States

Jane S. Shaw
President, John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy

John Silber
Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Texas, 1967-70, President, Boston University, 1971-96, Chairman, Massachusetts State Board of Education, 1996-99

Eunie Smith
(widow of Congressman Albert Lee Smith, Jr.), President, Eagle Forum of Alabama

Lisa Snell

Director of Education & Child Welfare, Reason Foundation

Don Soifer
Executive Vice President, Lexington Institute, Member, Public Charter School Board, District of Columbia

Joel Spring
Professor, Department of Elementary & Early Childhood Education, Queens College & Graduate Center, City University of New York

Shelby Steele
Robert J. & Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Author, The Content of Our Character

James Stergios
Executive Director, Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research

Terry L. Stoops
Director of Education Studies, John Locke Foundation

Sandra Stotsky
21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality, Department of Education Reform, University of Arkansas, Senior Associate Commissioner of Education, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1999-2003, Member, Validation Committee, Common Core Standards, 2009-10

Christopher B. Summers
President, Maryland Public Policy Institute

Robert W. Sweet, Jr.
Former Acting Director & Deputy Director, National Institute for Education, Former Reagan White House Policy Staffer, Former Senior Staffer, U.S. House Committee on Education & the Workforce

Kent D. Talbert
Partner, Talbert & Eitel, PLLC, General Counsel, U.S. Department of Education, 2006-09, Former Education Policy Counsel, U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce

Peter Thiel
President Clarium Capital (hedge fund), Managing Partner, The Founders Fund (venture capital), Founder, Former CEO & Former Chairman, PayPal

Abigail Thernstrom
Adjunct Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, Member, Massachusetts State Board of Education, 1995-2006, Vice Chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Stephen Thernstrom
Winthrop Research Professor of History, Harvard University, Co-Author (with Abigail Thernstrom), No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning.

Jeremy Thompson
Executive Director, Alaska Policy Forum

Lil Tuttle
Education Director, Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute, Former Vice President and Member, Virginia State Board of Education

Richard Vedder
Adjunct Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Ohio University, Commissioner, U.S. Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education (Spellings Commission)

Herbert J. Walberg
Distinguished Visiting Fellow & Koret K-12 Education Task Force Member, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, University Scholar, University of Illinois at Chicago, Former Member, National Board for Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education

Hon. Pete Wilson
Former Governor, State of California

Jim Windham
Chairman, Texas Institute for Education Reform

Ze’ev Wurman
Senior Policy Adviser, U.S. Department of Education, 2007-2009, Commissioner, California State Academic Commission, 2010, Past Member, California State Mathematics Curriculum Framework and Criteria Committee

Hon. Kimberly Yee
Member, Arizona State House Representatives, VIce Chairman, Arizona House Education Committee

         *************************************************************************************************************************

Appendix:  Excerpts from the Assessment Consortia’s
Plans to Develop a National Curriculum

According to the proposal by the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium in its application for a U.S. Department of Education grant in June 2010, it intends to:

“interpret or translate [Common Core’s] standards before they can be used effectively for assessment or instruction” [SMARTER Balanced Proposal. Page 34]

– “translate the standards into content/curricular frameworks, test maps, and item/performance event specifications to provide assessment specificity and to clarify the connections between instructional processes and assessment outcomes.” [SMARTER Proposal, page 35]

– provide “a clear definition of the specific grade-level content skills and knowledge that the assessment is intended to measure” [SMARTER Balanced Proposal, page 48]

– “convene key stakeholders and content specialists to develop assessment frameworks that precisely lay out the content and cognitive demands that define college- and career-readiness for each grade level.” [SMARTER Balanced Proposal, page74]

– “develop cognitive models for the domains of ELA and mathematics that specify the content elements and relationships reflecting the sequence of learning that students would need to achieve college and career-readiness” [SMARTER Balanced Proposal, page 76]

Similarly, the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) consortium proposed in its application to the U.S. Department of Education in June 2010 to:

– “unpack the standards to a finer grain size as necessary to determine which standards are best measured through the various components … To do this, the Partnership will engage lead members of the CCSS writing teams … and the content teams from each state, assessment experts and teachers from Partnership states.” [PARCC Proposal, page 174]

– “develop challenging performance tasks and innovative, computer-enhanced items … [that] will send a strong, clear signal to educators about the kinds of instruction and types of performances needed for students to demonstrate college and career readiness.” [PARCC Proposal, page 7]

– ”develop model curriculum frameworks that teachers can use to plan instruction and gain a deep understanding of the CCSS, and released items and tasks that teachers can use for ongoing formative assessment.” [PARCC Proposal, page 57]

**************************************************************************************************************************

End Notes

1. “A Call for Common Content,” American Educator (published by American Federation of Teachers), vol. 35, no. 1 (Spring 2011), pp.         41-45.

1.  

1. See

1. Grover Whitehurst, Don’t Forget Curriculum, Brookings Institution, 2009; Neal McCluskey, Behind the Curtain: Assessing the Case for National Curriculum Standards, Cato Institute, 2010.

**************************************************************************************************************************

Hope Alabama Board of Education Will Envision Their Legacy Nov 18th As They Vote On Common Core Standards

My response to Alabama Board of Education’s decision on Nov. 18 to commit to the Common Core Standards:

Please remember this little graphic that explains succinctly the dangers of the Common Core Standards/Race to the Top. 

*The arrow means “lead(s) to”: 

National standards  →  national assessments  →  national curriculum → teachers’ salaries tied to students’ test scores  →  teachers teaching to the test each and every day  → national indoctrination of our public school children  →  national database of students and teachers

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

The dangers of Alabama being forced to teach the Obama administration’s national curriculum:

“Obama’s Dangerous Agenda Sweeping over our Schools”

by Donna Garner

11.8.10

On Nov. 6, 2010, the New York Times weighed in on the bullying issue in schools, and the article affirms what I have been saying in my articles: The Obama administration aligned with Kevin Jennings’ gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender agenda is being forced into schools under the guise of the “bullying” issue.     

To give you important background information, please take the time to read through my three articles before you read the New York Times article (posted below).

One of the most gripping statistics that I found in the latest Centers for Disease Control HIV report (2005-2008) is the following; and I believe it says it all:

From 2005-2008…Most (74%) diagnoses of HIV infection in adults and adolescents were in males. Among males diagnosed with HIV infection from 2005-2008, 70% were attributed to male-to-male sexual contact. The percentage of diagnosed HIV infections attributed to male-to-male sexual contact was even larger (85%) among males aged 13 to 24 years.”

We as adults must protect our children from being indoctrinated into the homosexual lifestyle; it is truly a matter of life and death.

My Three Articles

(1) “What Is the Centers for Disease Control?” -- 10.23.10:  http://www.educationnews.org/breaking_news/health/101841.html

(2) “Bullying Agenda” -- 10.26.10:  http://www.educationnews.org/index.php?news=101979

(3) “Open Letter to Parents, Legislators, School Personnel: Which Policy Are You Going To Promote?” -- 11.7.10:

http://www.educationnews.org/blogs/102489.html

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

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

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/07bully.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=education

New York Times

November 6, 2010

In Efforts to End Bullying, Some See Agenda

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

Texas Gov Rick Perry asks "Why would we trade our ability to educate our children?"

Gov. Rick Perry on National Education Standards”

9.30.10

 

Quotes from Texas Governor Rick Perry in this excellent video:

“The fact is,” Perry said, “that Washington’s Race to the Top, with their national standards, and their national testing — yet to be worked out, of course — we think would be devastating to the young people in the state of Texas.”

“Why would we trade our ability to educate our children for some faceless bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., for, frankly, a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things?”

 

Please click on this link to watch a brief but very important video in which Gov. Perry warns about the federal takeover of the public schools by the Obama administration:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7hgCntt6zI&feature=player_embedded

 

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

 

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

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/29/dont-mess-with-texas-gov-rick-perry-leads-opposition-to-national-standards/

The Heritage Foundation -- The Foundry

Exclusive Interview with Gov. Rick Perry

Posted September 29th, 2010 at 3:00pm

President Obama and his administration have mostly escaped criticism during the week-long Education Nation series on NBC. But outside the friendly confines of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, there’s a different view of the Obama administration’s desire to centralize control in Washington, D.C.

While an alarming number of states have signed on to Obama’s education agenda — which seeks to consolidate power with federal bureaucrats — some leaders are willing to take a stand. Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) is one of them. He has led the opposition to national education standards. He makes a powerful and principled case for protecting local control and preserving federalism. Perry spoke exclusively to Heritage about the issue.

The administration has used its Race to the Top grant program to quietly convince 34 states to support national standards. Congress had no say in the matter. In fact, the standards were developed by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers.

“The fact is,” Perry said, “that Washington’s Race to the Top, with their national standards, and their national testing — yet to be worked out, of course — we think would be devastating to the young people in the state of Texas.”

Equally troubling for Perry is the process by which the Obama administration has persuaded states to support its education agenda. By dangling money before cash-starved states, many governors jumped at the chance to compete for Race to the Top grants. Perry wasn’t enticed.

“Why would we trade our ability to educate our children for some faceless bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., for, frankly, a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things?”

Perry might be the most vocal, but he’s not alone. After the first round of Race to the Top concluded, nine states had reconsidered and, for a variety of reasons, chose not to participate in the second round of competition. States with high standards — notably Massachusetts and Virginia — have expressed concern about moving backward. Still, it’s an uphill battle.

Perry recognizes the challenge, but remains hopeful that a new crop of governors might next year reconsider ceding so much control to the federal government.

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

Tying It Neatly--Title I Funds To Common Core=Nationalizing Education?

To:  All Texans 

Date:  9.18.10

Please read carefully these excerpts from one of my previous articles because there is a possibility that the Obama administration might try to tie Title I funds to Common Core Standards/ Race to the Top.  If that were to happen, we in Texas would need to be prepared to wage a huge battle to keep the feds from completely taking over our public schools (e.g., as my article below explains).

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

(1)  On 9.16.10, I wrote “Am I a Wacko Now?” (http://www.educationnews.org/index.php?news=100137 ) in which I tried to warn people all around the country that the Obama administration has succeeded in taking over the public schools of nearly every state (except for Texas and Alaska) through Common Core Standards (CCS) and Race to the Top (RTTT). This was done while many conservatives and Republicans basically “sat on their hands” and did nothing. 

Obama and his administration skillfully groomed CCS/RTTT to divide and conquer, thus silencing the usual conservative/Republican opposition to Big Government.  Obama, working with U. S. Sect. of Education Arne Duncan and using Bill Gates’ money, managed to inject into CCS/RTTT an  emphasis on charter schools (which the conservatives/Republicans basically like). 

Secondly, the Obama administration also tied individual students’ assessment scores directly to teacher evaluations, thus inflaming the teachers’ unions (another aspect that conservatives/Republicans generally like because they prefer private enterprise to unions).

By inserting these two provisions into CCS/RTTT, the Obama administration and the Democrats successfully silenced the usual opposition; and while the country was fighting the federal takeover of the public schools, most citizens missed the fact that the federal government was taking over their children’s public schools.

Unfortunately, the charter schools that the Obama administration is supporting are not the kind of charter schools that the conservatives/Republicans are picturing.  Remember that Sect. of Education Arne Duncan tried to establish a gay charter school while he was the superintendent in Chicago, and nothing could make the Obama crowd any happier than to have “social justice” charter schools.

As of Sept. 9, 2010, thirty-seven (37) states had signed up to follow the Common Core Standards.  

The following states “won” the right to have their students thoroughly indoctrinated by the federal government because these states are taking the federal funds from Race to the Top:  District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia,Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Tennessee 

The ironic part is that the threat/carrot/stick of Race to the Top caused other states to push through the Obama administration’s CCS/RTTT stipulations to try to get the funds, but the federal funds only pay the state a one-time fee of approximately $75 per student.  For this pittance, the above-mentioned states have put their students directly into the hands of the Obama administration.

As you study the graphic below (highlighted in red), please ask yourself how easy it would be for the Obama administration to input pro-Islam/anti-Christian, anti-Judeo and social justice bias (multiculturalism, political correctness, global warming, diversity, acceptance of homosexuality, etc.) into the national assessments.

The CCS (1) English / Language Arts and (2) Math standards have already been published; the (3) Science CCS are in the pipeline; and the (4) Social Studies CCS are coming soon.

No public hearings have been held on any of these curriculum requirement documents nor are any likely to be held in the future.

The people chosen to write these documents are aligned with the Obama administration.  The entire CCS/RTTT plan was never voted on by our elected members of Congress. 

As the graphic below shows, teachers will be forced by CCS/RTTT to “teach to the test” each and every day because their jobs will depend upon it.  Sadly, the “tests” will actually be “national assessments” meaning that they will not have right-or-wrong, up-or-down answers.

Instead, the national assessments will be performance-based and subjectively scored based upon the value system of the scorer.  Subjectivity allows for students’ opinions, beliefs, and emotions to be assessed by scorers who have opinions, beliefs, and emotions that may not be in line with those of students’ parents. The U. S. Department of Education has awarded $330 million for these national assessments to be developed.   

Worse yet, to whom will the parent go to complain if he feels his child’s national assessments have been graded wrong -- to the U. S. Department of Education in the insular world of  Washington, D. C.? 

This is the way that the Common Core Standards and Race to the Top work.  The arrows mean “lead to.”

National standards  →  national assessments  →  national curriculum → teachers’ salaries tied to students’ test scores  →  teachers teaching to the test each and every day  →  national indoctrination of our public school children  →  national database of students and teachers

It is past time for citizens to rise up and stop the takeover of the public schools by those who want to crush the principles upon which our country is founded.  

I would encourage each person who reads this e-mail to contact those who are running for elected office on Nov. 2, 2010, and get a firm commitment from them that they will commit to repeal the appropriation of funds for Common Core Standards and Race to the Top. 

So far, there was $100 Billion in the Stimulus package for public schools with $1.35 Billion in Obama’s 2011 budget for education. The jobs bill passed on 8.4.10 and contained $26 Billion for the public schools.  Enough is enough.  

I also believe it is time for Congress to repeal all funding for the

U. S. Department of Education because it has become a funnel through which indoctrination is pouring into our children’s minds.  Those duties that the U. S. Dept. of Education does that are imperative need to be shuffled off to other government agencies to perform.

Remember that Kevin Jennings was chosen to head up the U. S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. 

Jennings is also the founder of Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN); and it was his organization that led discussions at a “Fistgate” seminar in Massachusetts where young teens were guided on how to perform dangerous homosexual perversions, including fisting.

If you want to learn even more about Common Core Standards/Race to the Top, please read further:

Posted by Donna Garner on 9.8.10:

CCSI Exposed--Can America Afford To Be In The Dark?--The Price Are The Children--Beware and Act Now with Knowledge

Hear the true story of the takeover of the public schools by the Obama administration (with the help of Bill Gates et al) under the Common Core Standards Initiative and the Race to the Top. 

In this roundtable discussion, you will hear explanations from:

Professor Jim Milgram (mathematics content specialist, Stanford University)

Professor Sandra Stotsky (English / Language Arts content specialist,University of Arkansas)

Betty Peters (member of Alabama State Board of Education)

Peyton Wolcott (investigative journalist in Texas,www.peytonwolcott.com)

Beth Schultz (math educator, parent activist in Maine)

Diana Crews (Alabama radio host of City on a Hill,http://cityonahill.squarespace.com/city-on-a-hill-blogs/2010/9/4/nationalizing-or-federalizing-education-ccsi-the-inside-stor.html )

Donna Garner (activist and retired Texas teacher) 

Summary graphic:

National standards  →  national tests  →  national curriculum → teachers’ salaries tied to students’ test scores  →  teachers teaching to the test each and every day  →  national indoctrination of our public school children  →  national database

Please click here to listen to the roundtable discussion:

Direct download: 9-1-10_CCSI_part_2.mp3

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com