MORE's Patrick Walsh: Fear and Loathing and the Common Core

... everything about the Common Core State Standards

Initiative, beginning with its name, stinks to high heaven. Everything about this privately funded, privately owned, secretly created scheme, sponsored by the un-elected National Governors Association and given pseudo academic legitimacy by the equally unelected but lofty sounding Council Of Chief State School Officers, is meant to obscure or hide altogether what the Common Core is, why it exists and how it came — ready or not –  to be rammed down the throat of almost every school kid in American — including the ten year olds I saw pointlessly suffer through  it the  past three days. --- Patrick Walsh

While MORE as an organization has not delved into the common core waters, most MOREs like Patrick are strongly against it. I for one am against it because people like Susan Ohanian and Leonie Haimson are against it while all the corporate slugs mentioned by Patrick, a MORE candidate for UFT Executive Board elementary school, are for it. Plus of course Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew.

Patrick, another great MORE candidate, writes the Raginghorseblog.
He is a chapter leader in a Harlem elementary school. 

Fear and Loathing and the Common Core

April 18, 2013

This morning, like yesterday morning and the morning before that, I was complicit in the wholesale corporatization of American public school education, playing my small but essential role in a corporate experiment of unprecedented proportions and titanic intent.     This morning and yesterday morning and the morning before that, I, like thousands of my fellow teachers, administered to my students the first of a promised endless battery of New York State standardized tests, all aligned to the new Common Core State Standards, all designed to insure the ten year olds in my charge were on track to be “college and career ready”, the better to help them succeed in the global economy and “win the future.”

Read MORE at
http://raginghorse.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/fear-and-loathing-and-the-common-core/

Change the Stake's Fred Smith on Common Core and Duplicty of Tisch, Surransky, King and Walcott

When Bill Gates, the entire DOE/SED mafia, Obama and the UFT/AFT all line up on the same side, forget the details, just run like hell. Sorry, don't run. Attack back.

Aside: Just in from a teacher

Today is the beginning of testing day and also the beginning of what will eventually become a crescendo of resistance by parents, some of whom are not just opting out but claiming child abuse. The other day I heard a story that the DOE had denied a request for a 10-minute break for the 3rd grade test, which is longer than it need be because some of the question will not count, instead being used to field test questions for future use.

I met Fred Smith, the king of knowledge of the field test issue,  many years ago when he started coming to ICE meetings with his research on the fallacies of the testing program. Why did he come to ICE? Because from its very beginnings in late 2003, and before that when Ed Notes took up the issue from its founding in 1997, the impact of high stakes testing on children and teachers was a primary issue, unfortunately ignored by the UFT and even the opposition parties, New Action and TJC. (In fact that fact was one of the driving forces in the founding of ICE.)

As ICE morphed into GEM in 2009, Fred became even more active and helped start the GEM Change the Stakes committee, which has become a leading wedge in the growing parent revolt against high stakes testing, which the common core agenda now leading the way.

When Bill Gates, the entire DOE mafia, Obama and the UFT/AFT all line up on the same side, forget the details, just run like hell.

One commenter on the MORE site raised the issue of why MORE has not taken a stronger stand on Common Core. I know I have tried to raise it but the agendas always seem so busy that we never got to discuss it. I still think there is a portion of MORE not truly aware yet. I felt we should have made the UFT support for CC a campaign issue. But so many issues, so little time.

After Friday night's very hot Change the Stakes meeting, with 30 people, mostly parents, coming from all parts of the city, Fred put this piece together which the wonderful Valerie Strauss published


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/16/common-core-testing-begins-in-ny-but-are-exams-ready-for-prime-time/

Susan Ohanian: The best rebuttal of the Common Core. The BEST.

Susan has a plethora of common core critiques. Now, not being directly involved in teaching anymore, I really don't pay much attention to the details of common core. "So why are you opposed," I am often asked? Because of the people and orgs who are supporting it: Every ed deformer and the UFT/AFT. When Tweed and the UFT are on the same side, watch out.

Susan also highlights an article by MORE candidate for UFT Secretary Brian Jones:

Teaching By the Numbers
Brian Jones

2013-01-22
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1068

New York City teacher Brian Jones explains  that standardized testing has more to do with controlling teachers than it does with improving learning.

Other bloggers like Ravitch and RBE have some CC pieces today:

• Perdido Street School

  How Damaging Will Common Core Be To Young Children?
  
• 
  Diane Ravitch's blog

  Special Education Teacher on Common Core

Here is a batch of Susan's CC stuff (Updated):

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A Weapon of Mass Distraction
Susan Ohanian with letter by Stephen Krashen
blog
2013-01-18
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=409

Here's a little quiz on the Common Core posted at the Christian Science Monitor.



Their side is winning.

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Sense of Urgency
L2Gura
Stories from School: Practice Meets Policy blog
2013-01-24
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=408

This teacher presents very clearly the harm Common Core rigor is doing to first graders--and then presents the only answer

 

Common Core State (sic) Standards: An Example of Data-less Decision Making
 Christopher H. Tienken
AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice
2011-01-01 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=400

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The Common Core State (sic) Standards Update on the Ten Commandments Susan Ohanian
blog
2013-01-25 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=406
Here's an update on the 10 Commandments.

------------------- Playtime's over, kindergartners: Standards Stressing Kids Out Susan Edelman
New York Post
2013-01-27 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=407
The Common Core Standards are making kindergartners cry. Small wonder.

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Where Bill Gates Got the Idea to Call CCSS 'State' Standards http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=706

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The Final Word on the Common Core http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=842

NON CC FROM SUSAN BELOW

Steve Krashen and I have a Test Your Public Ed Savvy quiz over at The Progressive. Please pass it on. The Progressive gives us a chance at talking to a different audience
http://www.progressive.org/test-your-public-ed-savvy
 
I have reprised my cover story for Phi Delta Kappan Goals 2000: What's in a Name? because it offers a quite thorough look at what brought us to where we are now. I am struck by how similar the language of ed reform is. I urge you to read this, definitely proof of that warning: Those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it.
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=404
I've overloaded you with grim news. Don't miss the Good News: Bob Gliner's film is coming to PBS: Schools That Change Communities. We should rally around this film. It changes the conversation. http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=799
Plus some cartoons:
Why Isn't That Ever On the Test? http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=844
Improving on Reading Tests http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=843

Follow the Money Trail on Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CCSS Funding http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=707
Whew!
Susan
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Goals 2000: What's in a Name? Susan Ohanian
Phi Delta Kappan
2013-01-26 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=404
I wrote this piece in 2000 and even I am surprised by how very depressingly current it still is. It is actually informative about how we got to where we are today.
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ASCD  Poll About Arts as Handmaidens of Common Core Subjects Susan Ohanian
blog
2012-01-24 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=401
One more attempt to reduce the important of the arts.

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Parents Beware! Teachers Had Better Wake Up Too Susan Ohanian with extensive quotes from 2 Parent
Daily Censored
2012-01-22 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=399
This is the massive data system funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that will put your students' data up to the highest bidder and eat you alive. Why hasn't your union told you about any of this?

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To the editor Susan Ohanian
2012-01-23 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1514
Sarcasm is undoubtedly a mistake in letters to the editor, but I like the letter.
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To the editor
Stephen Krashen, professor emeritus, USC
Education Week
2012-01-23 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1514
GREAT letter.
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Go Team! Three Cheers!
Robert Bligh
2012-01-25 http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1498
Go, Nebraska gadfly and true school reformer, Robert Bligh!
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Schools That Change Communities Film Coming to PBS Susan Ohanian
0000-00-00 http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=799
Schools That Change Communities

, a one hour documentary about schools that use their communities as classrooms has begun airing on many public broadcasting system stations across the country. Watch it. Order it for your school board and PTA.
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Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs) http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 26
Charlotte, VT 05445

 By the way, Susan is coming into town on May 4 to speak at a high stakes testing conference. I will keep you posted.

Run Like Hell From Common Core Scam Pushed by UFT/AFT and DOE/Deformers

Imagine someone trying to sell you a car with a speedometer but no engine.... Patrick Walsh, Raging Horse Blog

Patrick Walsh nails the common core.

Somehow in the frenzied production of all these Common Core based paraphernalia, both city and state failed to insure the production of the element most essential to the possibility of the Common Core having any kind of real educational success.      Somehow both city and state failed to produce a curriculum.  It is difficult to overestimate how grand a failure this is.

There's a scene in the movie "Lincoln" where he does geometry - If A=B and B=C then A=C -- easy and obvious -- not so easy 2300 years ago.

Let me change the equation: If UFT/AFT promotes common core and the DOE/Obama/ed deformers promote common core then UFT/AFT = DOE/deformers and you better run like hell.

I really don't need to know much more. I have my own simple formula: If the union and the deformers agree then it must be bad. Don't bother me with the details. I'm against it.

Now there's lots of amazing stuff out on common core.

See Susan Ohanian's constant onslaught as in this recent post:

Substance went over the top in illustrating my latest Common Core expose, but alas they are offline at the moment. Here's a more modest presentation:
http://susanohanian.blogspot.com/2012/11/heres-how-common-core-assessments-plan.html

The words are the same. George Schmidt has provided lots more pix--with captions.

I can't remember if I sent this cartoon:
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=821

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Common-Core Deal in Florida Sparks Legal Feud
Jason Tomassini and Nikhita Venugopal
Education Week
2012-11-14
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=375

Florida signed a $20 million contract with 'a consulting and software development services company' to build a website planned to prepare teachers and students for the Common Core. Now they are suing each other.

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Middle Schoolers in a Common Core World
Mike Evans
Pearson Always Learning
2012-11-19
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=374

And when you go through the ratio example you'll see that the Pearson computer whizbang wonder--supplanting old-fashioned textbooks for those who feel the Lorelei call of the global marketplace--produces fish swimming in seaweed.

Here's a good one by Paddy Walsh at Raging Horse with some excerpts below (READ IT ALL HERE).

The Common Core: Putting Corporations First. Always

Except, it seems, when tending to the needs of corporations like Pearson and their  (equally misleadingly named ) Common Core State Standards, currently  being presented to the nation as the panacea to all that ails American education.

Not to mention the millions of dollars to be made in the production and sale of Common Core based tests, Common Core Text books, Common Core guides, and Common Core learning aids and accessories of every conceivable (and inconceivable) kind.

UFT/AFT Sells Out on Common Core

collaborate: to cooperate, usually willingly, with an enemy nation, especially with an enemy occupying one's country--Dictionary.com 

I can't get behind AFT's resolution on Common Core Standards. To me it contradicts their resolution on testing. http://lockerz.com/s/223095221 --

Mike Klonsky ‏@mikeklonsky

Mike Klonsky's tweet hit the nail on the head on the tactics being used by Randi Weingarten on the national level at the AFT and her henchman Michael Mulgrew and the rest of Unity Caucus on the local level to divide and conquer opponents of their policy, a policy decided in the halls of power where the classroom teacher has no say.

Hold out the carrot of what appears to be on the surface, a strong resolution on testing while at the same time offering up slavish support for the Bill Gates/corporate deform common core, disguised as a sheep but really a testing wolf, with lots of money to be made by the testing/publishing (often one and the same) companies.

Given that Bloomberg/Walcott/Tweed back the Common Core 1000% as does the UFT, doesn't that give you some pause? I mean this is not about agreeing on some program to feed starving children -- unless we are talking about children starving from lack of testing.

A pic of the AFT CCS reso from Klonsky