Comment

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on August 26, 2013 at 9:21am

Thanks Leanne, and with that, I am out of here. 

Comment by Leanne King on August 26, 2013 at 9:15am

Great information and all in one place.

Our Children's Future

I, along with many organizations and thousands of individuals across the state represented by the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, as well as many others appreciate that Governor Scott has decided to convene this education summit to deal with the four critical issues of the Common Core standards, state assessments, teacher evaluations, and the school grading system.

Here are our views of the problems with the Common Core system and our proposal for solutions (much more detail along with extensive footnotes is available in the Policy Analysis written by Dr. Karen Effrem and myself available at http://www.flstopcccoalition.org/files/EAE4EA1E-7BEA-4B4D-8542-C6E46F841BB2--D8FA73FF-C0D2-49E3-B697-8AFB974E3C51/florida-s-common-core-standards-policy-analysis-4.pdf):

1. The many problems with the Common Core standards include:  

• Development by unaccountable private groups of copyrighted standards that states were required to adopt verbatim
• Incentivizing adoption of the standards with federal money and waivers is a violation of the Constitution and three federal laws
• Adoption by appointed instead of elected officials
• Florida did not even take advantage of the opportunity to create 15% of their own standards 
• Lack of field testing
• Florida’s current standards are rated higher in math and just a bit lower in English than Common Core, so it is hard to see how these national standards will solve Florida’s education ills.  
• Many other states’ standards were more rigorous than Common Core. 
• Very low quality (seventh grade level for the high school math and English standards)
• Developed by five major architects, none of whom have any K-12 classroom experience
• A serious curtailment of literary study that will harm vocabulary development and critical thinking
• Admission by a math author that college readiness is geared to a non-selective community college
• Delay of math skills that will harm acceptance to a selective four year university
• Standards drive curriculum that will be taught in order to pass the high stakes tests (see below), so protests that radical curriculum examples in the official list of text examples for the Common Core English Standards, the federally funded model curriculum, or others are just local aberrations ring hollow.
• According to federal documents, there are plans to teach, test, and collect data on psychological attitudes values and beliefs.
• There is no evidence of international benchmarking, with repeated denial of data requests causing five highly respected academicians to refuse to sign off on the final version of the standards.
• One of the only academic mathematicians on the validation committee believes that students using the Common Core math standards will be two years behind their international peers at the end of eighth grade and farther behind by the end of high school.

1. The federally funded and supervised assessments also have many issues:

• Federal involvement in testing is a violation of federal law
• The Florida Department of Education has put out false information stating that there is no federal involvement in testing.  [See HERE for more information.]
• The test results will have many high stakes consequences that include student grade advancement and graduation, teacher pay and tenure and school district grades and funding
• The new assessments will greatly expand time needed for testing, which will decrease instructional time in favor of test preparation and narrow the curriculum to emphasize subjects that can be tested
• Teachers are being forced or at least strongly encouraged to use highly scripted or computerized lessons in order to maximize test results, which reduces teacher flexibility and creativity
• Federal documents show that students will be psychologically tested by the assessments and that individual student data from the assessments will be collected and given to the federal government. 
• Because the computerized assessments will determine the next question based on a student’s answer to the previous question, the claim that the national tests will uniformly measure student learning across the country are not valid.
• Claims that districts and teachers will be able to choose and locally implement curriculum of their choice are not logical. Because the stakes for the tests are so high, they will be forced or highly motivated to choose federal model curricula or use the text examples listed in the Common Core English standards. 
• Reducing everything a student learns and a teacher teaches to a test result impoverishes education
• Teachers and students have not had enough time to assimilate the new standards and aligned curricula before the tests are proposed to become high stakes in 2015. 
• The costs for implementing the tests are both unaffordable and unsustainable and far outpace what Florida has received in federal grants requiring local tax increases and new federal charges to provide the funds for technology. 
• Florida laws passed in the 2013 session requiring the test implementation schedule to be based on “funding, sufficient field and baseline data, access to assessments, instructional alignment, and school district readiness to administer the common core assessments online” as well as adequate and independently verified technological load testing for all districts are being violated.

1. Because teacher evaluations are based on these flawed standards and tests, these cannot be improved until the many problems cited with them above are remedied.
2. The school grading system is problematic because it is also based on the standards and tests.  This A-F school grading system had already lost significant credibility. The SBOE, including under the leadership of Tony Bennett, had made it so complicated and arbitrary that parents, teachers, districts and the public were already questioning its validity. Bennett recommended continuing the manipulative practice of preventing school grades from dropping more than one letter grade for a second year in a row.  This was in part to cushion the blow from the disastrous implementation of Common Core in the early elementary grades and prevent the department from looking worse than it already did. The board complied after a contentious 4-3 vote on July 16, 2013. Then on July 30, 2013, an AP article reveled evidence that Bennett had already manipulated school grade data in 

Indiana, in this case to help a political donor.  This evidence and these allegations ultimately resulted in his resignation.   If Tony Bennett, as a member of the highly touted Chiefs for Change and one of the greatest Common Core experts and proponents in the entire nation cannot even begin to implement that system without doctoring test and school data in two different states, how can Common Core remain a credible and viable alternative for Florida or any other state? 

Given this situation and these many problems, we recommend the following:

1. Florida should withdraw completely from using the Common Core standards.  If they are as “voluntary” as proponents claim, there should be no problem in doing so.
2. Ideally, parents and duly elected school boards should control standards, curriculum and assessments.  The federal government’s involvement since 1965 and the imposition of state standards and tests via Goals 2000 and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind) has cost US taxpayers over two trillion dollars while achievement scores have stagnated or declined, the achievement gap is unchanged, state and local sovereignty has eroded, and parents’ rights and data privacy are routinely violated.
3. At the very least, the current Florida standards should be continued as the math standards are already rated higher than Common Core and the English standards are roughly equivalent.  The math standards could be improved by aligning them more closely with the standards of the four best state standards – California, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Minnesota.  The English standards could be improved by aligning more closely with the best states such as California, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Texas.  Dr. Sandra Stotsky has made excellent English standards prepared for consideration in Massachusetts available at no charge.
4. Using a different testing system as suggested by Speaker Weatherford and President Gaetz will not improve the situation if the same flawed standards are implemented in Florida, nor will it cure the significant data privacy problems.
5. The concept of high stakes testing should be reconsidered.  Accountability should be to parents and locally elected school boards, not to the state, the federal government, or corporations.  A child’s educational experience and a teacher’s performance should not be reduced to one number. 
6. The inculcation, monitoring, and data collection of psychosocial attitudes, values and beliefs must cease immediately.  That has no place in a free republic.  It is the job of families and religious institutions, not government via the schools to do that work.
7. Data privacy protections need to be significantly strengthened.  Instead of bills like SB 878 that give our children’s individual data to the federal government without consent, we need real protections such as the ones our group furnished during the last session.
8. There needs to be legislative review of all federal education grants to check for constitutionality, cost and unfunded mandates, state sovereignty, data privacy, and parental rights.
9. The commissioner of education and the state board of education should be elected and not appointed.

Sincerely,

Randy Osborne
Heartland Research
Florida Eagle Forum

 Click the link for a 44 page document. I just copied so that I can study

Comment by Leanne King on August 26, 2013 at 8:39am

Let's all just agree to disagree on some things and work to ensure the best possible education for the children by taking the actions that we feel are necessary.  Enough said here.

Comment by amanda choate on August 25, 2013 at 11:36pm

Patty my dear, your arguments are hollow and vaccuous. Oops that is redundant. You arguments are vaccuous and banal. I have kids in school, so I have been following this story for years. Unfortunately they will not benefit from its total potential. It is perhaps not perfect,granted, but it is a means to measure ourselves against the best,establish best practices, and improve. If we measure ourselves against failure then that is all thst possible.

Comment by amanda choate on August 25, 2013 at 11:28pm

Florida history is taught in the fifth grade and offerred again in high school. US history is taught as civics,history and geography in grades 6-8. High school students are required to complete courses in US history, world history, comparative economics, and geography. There is plenty of coursework available but the fact is that Florida has been dismal in execution.
You complain that the schools stink, but rail against changing.
As far as community and junior colleges providing a bachelors program, it is divised for students who seek these degrees without the necessity of attending research universities. Many of these lrograms provide degrees that are technical in nature,computer sciences,various nursing programs,health sciences, etc. It provides a cost effective means for these students to attain these degrees or to do so while working. Many of the research universities place time limits on obtaining a degree.
What we are doing isn't serving our needs. Our graduates do not stack up in the global marketplace. Demanding accountability is proper. I do not attempt to beguile you with facts,I expect better results. We pay for them. Show a better way. Plus the best part of these standards is that they are not static. There are for instance two testing programs being researched simultaneously to determine the more effective measure. 53 of Florida's 67 districts received a grade of "B" or better in the last assessment. Only one received a "D". Does that seem like accountability?
This program has been researching its standards and expectations since 2009. Hardly rammed down our throats. We took the money willingly enough, now it is time to live up to our end of the bargain. Perhaps students will get a more rigorous education.
The inclusion of historical information during a language course seems like a reasonable thing to do. Reinforcement.

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on August 25, 2013 at 9:57pm

Leanne, she is so brainwashed and brain dead, she doesn't get it.  She just repeats the list of talking points the fools who are buying into this garbage feed her or whatever she finds on liberal sites that tout this horror story of an educational program.   This president should be tried for treason and shot for what he has done to this country.  This is a nightmare.

Comment by Leanne King on August 25, 2013 at 7:59pm

OH, The information in my last comment came from one of the NEW FLORIDA TEXT BOOKS.. I have a copy. While we destroy the future of America, and our children we line the pockets of the politicians, the likes of Pearson, Jeb Bush, and Bill Gates to name just a few.

Comment by Leanne King on August 25, 2013 at 7:56pm

The new text books are truly frightening. It is not only HOW they teach but WHAT THEY TEACH and WHAT THEY NO LONGER TEACH.

What ever happened to CIVICS???? GONE long ago. 

The following is titled.. THE UNITED NATIONS MILLENNIUM DECLARATION

The General Assembly
Adopts the following Declaration:
United Nations Millennium Declaration
I. Values and principles
1. We, heads of State and Government, have gathered at United Nations
Headquarters in New York from 6 to 8 September 2000, at the dawn of a
new millennium, to reaffirm our faith in the Organization and its Charter as
indispensable foundations of a more peaceful, prosperous and just world.
2. We recognize that, in addition to our separate responsibilities to
our individual societies, we have a collective responsibility to uphold the
principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level. As
leaders we have a duty therefore to all the world’s people, especially the most
vulnerable and, in particular, the children of the world, to whom the future
belongs.
3. We reaffirm our commitment to the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations, which have proved timeless and universal.
Indeed, their relevance and capacity to inspire have increased, as nations and
peoples have become increasingly interconnected and interdependent.
4. We are determined to establish a just and lasting peace all over the
world in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter. We
rededicate ourselves to support all efforts to uphold the sovereign equality
of all States, respect for their territorial integrity and political independence,
resolution of disputes by peaceful means and in conformity with the
principles of justice and international law, the right to self-determination of
peoples which remain under colonial domination and foreign occupation,
non-interference in the internal affairs of States, respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms, respect for the equal rights of all without distinction
as to race, sex, language or religion and international cooperation in solving
international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian
character.

Has anyone noticed that most Junior Colleges are no longer that but State Colleges? Find the logic behind that and then work backwards to where we are today. Then look at the future plans for the children.  Have you read that based on where you performed, it will be decided IF you get to go to a 4 year college?  My highly successful son would never been allowed to follow his dreams if the plan for the next few years were in place a few years ago.

Teachers have already said that NOT ALL CHILDREN LEARN THE SAME WAY AT THE SAME TIME..

There is so much in this entire CC program, we could debate all day long. However, let's just agree that it was NEVER FIELD TESTED. IT WAS NEVER APPROVED BY CONGRESS, IT WAS NEVER REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY THE STATES. THEY TOOK THE MONEY AND WITHOUT PAYING ANY ATTENTION BOUGHT A FAULTY PRODUCT.  Our children should not be the ones to pay the price.

Comment by Leanne King on August 25, 2013 at 7:33pm

Just for the record. My grandson is being home schooled. Kindergarten virtual program. Boxes of materials provided, sent to the home. Common Core all over it. Language Arts is full of non related subjects like history, etc.

My granddaughter, had Common Core openly  embedded in her work last year in a charter school and in 5th grade this year it is the same thing.

So, it is already in the schools and is to be FULLY implemented next year.

Comment by amanda choate on August 25, 2013 at 6:26pm

Kentucky was the first state to implement CC. In Florida it will not be be implemented until the 20!4-2015 academic year.
In Idaho 85% of students pass tbeir state tests, yet over half need remedial college math courses. Be ause gheir assessments do not work.
As for local control, in Kentucky, schools in the same district are taking different approaches to teaching math. In fact every state is free to develop their own approach so long as they match the CCSI standards.
FDOE provides tons of information. Patricia, as one who taught I would think you would find it exciting that students will be challenged. Dumbing down the curriculum so that students pass is not the answer

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• Next ›
• Page