A Mom Has Questions About Common Core. No One is Held Accountable for Answers. Lois Lerner Revisited.

Do state agencies, politicians, school boards, superintendents in Missouri all have the Lois Lerner disease?  None of them will answer Common Core questions.  It's not just Washington DC that's sick. It's in our state legislature, school districts and bureaucracies.

We've written how our state agency won't answer questions on Common Core.  Take a look to the right on this website and see how long Missourians have been waiting to get answers from the statewide May 2 meetings about Common Core.

Crickets.

Read the letter below from a mom who wants answers from her superintendent, DESE, state politicians, ANYBODY who has answers about Common Core.  Read about Senator David Pearce's aide who dismisses taxpayers as torch bearers and Common Core will be implemented whether they like it or not.

Read about the dismissive and arrogant attitudes of these bureaucrats and politicians making decisions for your children using your money without your approval.  Then get as angry and tenacious as this mother and start calling, start petitioning, and start pulling your children out of the public school systems. 

This is taxation without representation and this lack of accountability smacks of Lois Lerner.  These are your kids and your money.  It's time to demand answers.  By the way, Senator Pearce's number is (573) 751-2272.  I'm sure he would appreciate hearing from all you moms, dads, grandparents and taxpayers concerned about Common Core.  Tell him you will keep your torches at a minimum, but that you do not appreciate his support of the Missouri NEA's position of Common Core and its endorsement of his campaign should not sway his constitutional understanding of the development/delivery of Missouri education.

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To anyone out there with a listening ear:

I am a mom seeking answers to, what I feel, are very basic questions surrounding Common Core and what its implementation will mean to my children, school and community.  I have been at this a short time, so I am either not aware of who the right contact is, or there is something terribly amiss. I guess that remains to be determined. 

I feel that my children are worth taking the time to find the answers to a few basic questions, especially when it has the potential of affecting them at this level and magnitude.  I honestly want to believe this is a great program, that someone has my child's best interests at heart.  That there are those who still believe that while there should be some accountability, a teacher should have flexibility to be creative, innovative and passionate and in so doing will inspire children to become their best.  I want to believe that teachers still become teachers because they care, and that school boards still function, as quoted from the MSBA website, "...as guardians of the public trust, and through the policies they make are ultimately responsible for the success or failure of local public education.  The board serves as the advocate for educational excellence for the community's youth and puts those interests first..."

Will Common Core help us stay true to these ideals?  Are these ideals old fashioned?  Are they old fashioned partly because we as a people have become unengaged in our children's education, therefore leaving superintendents, school boards and teachers alone to face the overwhelming task of trying to turn out bright, engaged and well educated children?  I could be more engaged and informed, and I am trying to do so. What I'm in the process of learning is if the system, at this point, will even allow such a thing.  If  there are still school boards, superintendents and teachers who still want or believe that the "ideals" can be recaptured.  I'm here.  I have questions. I'm seeking answers.  I am a vested parent who will not allow apathy to dominate the arena and therefore risk my child's future.

Listed below are the people we have made efforts to contact and their responses.  I’d like to believe we are not getting answers because of our lack of understanding of who the proper contact is.  Maybe someone else has some suggestions, which we will gratefully accept!  

*Local school board and superintendent:   Hands are tied concerning CCSS, we cannot stand up to DESE.

*Speaker of the House at a meeting in Joplin:  Schools should stand up to DESE, we will be looking at legislation next session.  (There has been a bill for three years in the Missouri house that would kick Common Core out of Missouri HB 616, it’s never got to the floor of the house and there was a senate bill SB 210 that would have required DESE to answer public questions, it was killed by Senator David Pearce, Education Chairman)

*Contact with Mike Wutke, area C supervisor with DESE. “I checked with Dr. Cooper, assistant commissioner, to see if the department would be expending more resources on individual community meetings across the state.  He indicated that our open meetings were held on May 2nd and we would not be presenting at other meetings at this time.  We have an abundance of information on the department’s website… on that site are PDF links to the lists of the questions that came out of each of our 8 regional meetings held on May 2, and I am told that it will soon have a link to the answers to all of those questions.” 

Our response:  “We would like you to come very much and we would be so happy to pay for expenses so that you could represent DESE at this meeting.  Would you please reconsider?  Thank you for posting others' questions on the website but we already have questions, what we are lacking are answers.  Since this will be implemented in the fall it is not much help to get answers sometime.  This is an important matter affecting our children and their education and we are taking this very seriously and we trust that you take it seriously too. Please either come and/or send a representative, we will have a chair for you.  Let us know about the expenses you incur and we will be happy to assist in that matter.”  Since then there has been no response.

*Representative Mike Moon, Education Committee member calls DESE in our behalf; Response:  Please email questions. (see our concerns about this above.)

*Representative Scott Fitzpatrick, calls on our behalf; Response: DESE will NOT be attending.

*Senator David Pearce: He was set to filibuster the bill that would have required DESE to answer questions, maybe he knows something I don’t.  Maybe he would be willing to come or send someone that knows the answers?  I called and spoke to Matt Michelson, explaining our situation and desire to have both sides equally represented. I told them that there were questions people had.  He possibly misunderstood my concern over CCSS because he said, “Answer their questions by telling them that they can bring their torches, but this is being implemented whether they like it or not.” Hmm, really??? 

He was nice enough to tell me to call the State Board of Education or the Missouri Chamber of Commerce.  More questions:  Why would he have the attitude of “this is being implemented whether they like it or not, and also, why would the Chamber of Commerce have any interest in CCSS?” 

Senator Tom Dempsey   Is he the one that determines who sits on these committees?  Maybe he might know of someone that can come.  His staff was helpful.  His secretary gave me the contact information for Chris Nicastro.  Education  Commissioner and head of DESE.  We have gone full circle.  We did try to contact Ms. Nicastro.  Her secretary said we may have a good chance of reaching her if we call at 1:00 today, which we will do.  She also gave me the name of Stacy Preis.

*Stacey Preis:  Executive Director on the Joint Committee on Education.  From what I was told, that committee is a non-partisan committee for education.  I called and explained where we were at, and our situation.  She didn’t think the Chamber of Commerce would have anything to do with it, but she did say DESE should be contacted and she would be willing to call them for us.  She did call me back.  She was told that the superintendents should present and field questions from local school districts.

*Peter Hurschend. President of the State Board of Education:  We left a message with his secretary.  We are waiting for a return call.

*Governor Nixon  The secretary took my information and said she would pass it down to the right people.  I tried to explain who we had contacted.  She asked who was coming to our meeting.  I expressed my concern and desire to have a balanced meeting and told her I needed to know either way if they knew of someone that could come.  She didn’t promise anything, but said she would pass the information along.

To be totally honest, I have not pursued having a superintendent present at the meeting.  My superintendent can’t answer these questions. We asked them at the school board meeting.  The point in having the meeting is to have questions and concerns alleviated, not perpetuated.  Is it fair to expect superintendents to answer the questions, when DESE tells us they have pdf files of questions posted, but no answers?  Who gives the superintendents answers??  Isn’t that DESE?

The only person I can think of who we haven’t tried is Lt. Governor, Peter Kinder…. I will try his office before lunch. 

Here is a list of some of the questions we are hoping to find answers to at the meeting concerning Common Core: 

Who is going to pay for Common Core?  Will our property taxes go up to fund it?

Has there been a cost analysis on how much this is going to cost our schools?

Does this mean more unfunded mandates for our schools?

Does this reduce Federal spending and/or control?

Who developed the standards and assessments in the CCSS?

How will this affect homeschoolers, private and Christian schools if the ACT and SAT are realigned to the CCSS? 

What recourse do we have if some of the curriculum does not represent our values? 

What lies ahead for student privacy?  What data is being collected now on my child?  What data will be collected in the future?  Where does that data go, and what is done with that data?

Why are there thirty-two U.S. Congressmen expressing their concerns to the U.S. Department of Education over the legality of CCSS, data mining and the violation of the FERPA laws.  These concerns mimic some of the same concerns we have.  Are these concerns unfounded?

What will happen to our local school board if these education decisions are being made by a consortia of states? 

If we don't like these standards, teacher evaluations, mandates or assessments, can we get out?

Are the assessments available for viewing at any time under the Sunshine Law?

Why would we adopt these standards and assessments before they were even written?

Did the Governor have the authority to sign a Memorandum of Understanding of adoption of CCSS without legislative approval or adoption, pursuant to Missouri Revised Statute 160.518? 

Did my school have to adopt these standards and assessments?  Can they choose not to adopt these standards and assessments?  What are the ramifications if they don't?

Are teachers allowed to use whatever curriculum they want to teach these standards?

Will lessons be scripted?

Will our children have text books that can be subject to review or will most lessons be done in class or online?

Can teachers deviate from the standards to teach other things they think are beneficial?  Will they have time to teach other things, or are we again, teaching to a test?

I understand that half of teacher evaluations are based on the assessments.  Is this true?

Are there cameras in the classrooms, or will there be cameras in the classrooms to ensure teachers are teaching "how/what they should"? Who decides if a teacher is teaching "how/what they should"?

Is it true that teachers can only deviate 15% of their class time from the standards?  Does that equate to about 6-7 min. a day to teach something NOT in the standards, such as Missouri Constitution, cursive handwriting, etc.?

What prevents us as a state from adopting more rigorous standards without all the oversight, mandates and strings?

Who is in charge?  From the school board level to the DESE, from DESE to the Governor, we have not been able to get answers to these questions.

Our children are worth taking the time to answer a few basic questions.  Please help us understand!! I am running out of time as there is currently no bill to stop CCSS ‘s implementation and at this point, I’ve been unable to get answers or even have someone willing to come explain it.

Thank you!

A Missouri Mom

Angry Moms are Rising Up Against Common Core

Anne Gassel, co-editor of Missouri Education Watchdog was quoted in USA Today about her opposition to Common Core.  From Include parents in standards debate: Opposing view:

Across America, moms are rising up against the Common Core, national standards for English-language arts and mathematics adopted by 45 states. As Anne Gassel, of Ellisville, Mo., said, "Parents and their legislators were cut out of the loop. Even now we can't get straight answers."

Read more here.

Anne is correct.  We are still waiting in Missouri for answers from DESE and their statewide May 2 meetings.  Tick tock.  The clock on the site (to the right) keeps ticking away.  The answers to the questions were to be posted within a week of the meetings. 

As Alisa Ellis states in the USA Today article:

Now, parents are waking up. Alisa Ellis, of Heber City, Utah, typifies their resolve: "Administrators want parents like me to step back and be quiet, but we will not. These are my children, and my voice will be heard."

You will be reading one angry and loud mom's account on MEW tomorrow about her attempts to get answers from Missouri politicians, bureaucrats and school officials.  It's time to start demanding straight answers from these people who are using our children and our tax money with no accountability.

Lamar Alexander Educational Plans Then (1989) and Now (2013). Same or Different?

Lamar Alexander's thoughts on revamping No Child Left Behind, 2013 from The Foundry and  No Child Left Behind: Alexander Unveils Rewrite:

Senator Lamar Alexander (R–TN), ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, has just introduced a proposal to “fix” No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

While restoring excellence in education will require more than a fix to the bureaucratic law—states should be allowed to opt-out of NCLB entirely—Alexander’s Every Child Ready for College or Career Act would improve upon existing statute in several ways.

Notably, it would allow states to make their Title I dollars portable, giving children the option to use funds at any public school of choice. Title I portability is a good goal, but it should also include the option for children to use their share of funding at a private school of choice as well.

Other improvements to Title I include the elimination of “Adequate Yearly Progress,” the well-intentioned but inappropriate federal goal of universal student proficiency in math and English by the 2014–2015 school year. The proposal maintains the requirement for states to set challenging content and achievement standards (defining levels of content mastery at basic, proficient, and advanced) and retains the requirement for states to test students annually in grades 3–8 and again in high school in math and reading. And it still requires states to make that information available on public report cards.

The proposal also eliminates the Highly Qualified Teacher (HQT) provision, which placed significant emphasis on credentialing, despite little evidence that credentialing improves teacher effectiveness. Under existing statute, the HQT provision mandated that any teacher of a core academic subject be state-certified and hold a bachelor’s degree. In its place, school districts would be encouraged to develop teacher and principal evaluation systems that take student achievement outcomes into account.

Read more here.  Upon cursory reading, it sounds good (although the title "Every Child Ready for College or Career Act"  should raise warning bells) and a relief from the centralization of education we are currently facing.  But as you read it again, it's more of the federal government setting mandates for how schools should use curriculum and funding,  and more mandates on teacher certification and testing.  Is Alexander just using different words for the same policies?  Agreeing if this is good policy or not requires having historical knowledge on politicians and educational movements.

Revisit a MEW article on Lamar Alexander and his words from 1989.  From Are Arne Duncan's Educational Reform Plans from a Republican Playbook?:

Lamar Alexander lays out the plan to restructure education at the 11-2-1989 Governors Conference on Education in Wichita, Kansas. The Conference title was "Schools, Goals and the 1990s". As George Bush, Sr's Secretary of Education, he implemented education restructuring as America 2000 that specified creation of the New American Schools Development Corporation. He is currently senior Senator from Tennessee and Conference Chair of the Republican Party.

Transcript of Speech

1989 Governors Conference-Lamar Alexander


.... As far as I know, this is the first state summit following the President's summit, and I think that's a great credit to your governor of the State of Kansas, to be doing that. At least your timing is good!

I would suggest three things:

Number 1: Find out what's really going on because I don't think most people know---- what's going on in schools, how children are growing up, what's really going on in the world.

Number 2: I want to suggest that you create, in Kansas, a brand New American School. Brand New American School.

Number 3: I want to suggest that when you do that, you help that new school develop some new goals and new report cards for itself.

I would go down to the maternity ward of the local hospital, or whatever you call the part of the hospital where the nurses are who are there when the babies are born. Find out how many babies are born out of wedlock, how many babies are born with single parents. Just so you know that!

I would think the Brand New American School would be year-round, open from 6:00 to 6:00.

A second characteristic might be that these schools will serve children from age 3 months old to age 18. That may be a shocking thought to you; but, if you were to do an inventory of every baby in your community and think about what the needs of those babies were for the next four or five years, you might see that those needs might not be served any other way. They have to be served in some way and maybe around the school. Or, if you study a little more, you might go back and think the school might have to serve the pregnant mother of the baby in terms of prenatal healthcare....

...teams of teachers. Albert Shanker suggested that maybe there ought to be a team of teachers attached to a child from the day that child arrives in the school to stay with that child all the way to the 8th grade.

All this would mean there would have to be a very professional corps of teachers, wouldn't it? They'd have to be very, very good because they would have to be dealing with lots of volunteers. We have a big national service feeling in America today. Why aren't those people working in schools? Well, one reason is it's hard to handle volunteers!

So, this team of highly trained principals and teachers would have to have career ladders. They would have to be master teachers. They would be paid $50,000-$60,000-$70,000 a year to create a Brand New American School in every state capital.

The great advantage of that is there wouldn't be all these arguments of whether to do this program, or that program, or which one to do first. You wouldn't do any of them! You would create just one school and you'd give the responsibility to one person who would form one team. You give them one year or so, and if they succeeded, then all the rest of us would want to be in that school, too! Wouldn't we?

Senator Alexander advocated for:

• Tracking students from birth
• Community schools providing various services other than academics
• School open year round
• 12-hour school days

These ideas from 1989  have been incorporated into Arne Duncan's Race to the Top mandates. Later postings will provide information on how educational policies presented at this 1989 Governor's Conference foreshadowed the elitist takeover of education we currently find ourselves.  

You can thank George Bush Sr. for arranging this conference.

So exactly what is Lamar Alexander's underlying belief of educational direction? Is is 2013 or 1989 vintage?  Or is the same, just repackaged?

Common Core Tests, FOIAs and Is This the Education You Want for Your Children?

Reprinted with permission.  Parents take note and take action:

          Common Core Tests

          How are children are being “Dumbed down”

                                                By Jessica Chiong

          Recently I requested through an FOI (Freedom of Information Act) to have access to see my Children’s “Secured” tests that are not sent home and are adopted through the CC Standards. A couple days ago I was able to see two of my three children tests. I have a kindergarten, first grade and second grade children. The tests I saw were Kindergarten and First grade. I will start with Kindergarten.

          In Kindergarten in just homework alone, I have seen her come home with adding and subtracting, reading and writing, shapes and comprehension. I am fortunate that my daughter is a quick learner and has had no problems with homework in fact she is ahead of most students. But 75% of her classroom is not so lucky and some of them did not know how to use a pencil, speak English among other things. In the Comprehension tests (with prompting and support) she had to Identify characters, settings, and major events of the story.

          In one of the tests for Math, they score on a point level. One point if you get half of the question correct. Two points if answered correctly in full. I noticed in her tests that she did not “comply fully” and only received one point. For example the teacher would read aloud to her 2+4=? In this test she had to use a space allotted to draw two cookies, and then draw four more cookies to come up with the answer and then write the equation down after with the answer. My daughter already new what 2+4 was and did not draw the “cookies” and simply wrote out the math sentence and answered six. So because she did not draw the cookies she only received one point and did not pass that question in its entirety. (dumbing down)

          Next she was asked to write in number sequence starting 10-20. She was able to do it in the correct order but because her number 7 and number 9 was written in backwards for 17 & 19 she got it wrong. (dumbing down)

On the over all sheet that shows where she was “Core standards” or not “Core standards” they let me take this paper home where it was not an actual test.  It is broken down as a graph from Beginning of the year, middle of the year, and the end of the year. Here is the break down of this graph:

·       TRC (comprehension)

·       FSF (this was not broken down for me)

·       LNF (Letter Naming)

·       PSF (word sounding out)

·       NWF (Nonsense Words)

·       TRC (reading) Beginning of year was fiction, Middle of year was Non-Fiction, and End of year is Fiction

All of these tests are done on a one-minute time allotment. The ONLY thing she did not do well in was Nonsense words to sound out like “BIF”. Here we see the dumbing down of making our children read nonsense words and get tested on them. Also for them to realize in Kindergarten the difference between Fiction and Non Fiction books is to me the rigorous part of testing (She was not “Core” in Fiction, but was on “Core” with NON fiction). Each time there is a unit to be taught. There is a Pre-Test, The Actual Test, and then the Post-test. The only test recorded and graded on is the Actual test. I noticed on the tests they were not called Quiz, or test but they are now using the term “Dipstick”

          Our school has adopted Common Core standards in their curriculum and are using codes like:

·       CCKRF.1.D

·       CCKRF.3.A

·       CCKRF.2.A

·       CCKRF.3

Now onto First Grade, here it was I discovered that I found very alarming and I will discuss it before I go on too what I saw for his tests. The way First Grade is tested is they start at a “Kindergarten level” with homework and testing. Once they have “Mastered” those they then move up to the First grade level. What I saw is that even at the end of the year he has only “mastered” a few out of the “Kindergarten” and has not technically moved up to First grade levels, because he has to “Master” all Kindergarten levels first, so here we are at the end of the year. And my child is technically onto a “Kindergarten” level and will be moving onto Second grade. (Dumbing Down)

Let’s start with Symphony Math, which is what our school uses. And example of the kindergarten level math is this:

·       26+22= (but they are 26 on top and 22 on bottom)

He did not pass this test. Next was a question showing an Ice Cream Cone asking what shapes in the Ice Cream Cone make 3D shapes, this he did Pass.

         

          For Reading, he was read a story, in which he had to answer several questions about the story. For the most part the were easy, except for this one question:

·       What is the root word of climbs? (He did not get this right)

·       Is this story Fiction or Non-Fiction, or a Poem? (He did not get this right)

Everything else I saw was basically the same thing my kindergarten student is doing including the Nonsense words, but their lists on the yearly report differ. They still show if you are at “Core Goals” or “Strategic” (meaning not core) and of course the part of the testing that is bringing his grades down are the “Nonsense words”

Here is what his report graph states with codes:

·       TRC (actual grade or they use “letters” like PC=Far Below, RB=below, C=below, E=Far below, J=Proficient

·       LNF (letter naming)

·       PSF

·       NWF (Nonsense words)

·       DORF (reading levels)

Again same thing with the testing for First grade, there is a Pre-Test, Actual test, and a Post-Test. The Actual test is what they are graded on.

So in my opinion the dumbing down is clearly shown in some tests but the fact that my First grader is actually learning on what they call a Kindergarten level is what I find most upsetting. I printed out from my local School Board Website what they list and break down for curriculum. I will post the link on here. But I suggest to better “understand” your school’s curriculum is to go on your school website and take a look around:

·       http://acesmathcouncil.wikispaces.com

·       http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

·       http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/1/OA

·       http://www.whschools.org/page.cfm?p=6167

·       http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/1

Any questions please feel free to email me at lukychrm77@yahoo.com or visit my two Common Core sites on Facebook

·       https://www.facebook.com/groups/390489631065262/?bookmark_t=group

·       https://www.facebook.com/StopCommonCoreinCT?bookmark_t=page

Thank you and I hope this will be helpful. Please remember your rights as a parent and contact your local school board and request to see your children’s tests. If you have to use an FOI (Freedom of Information Act) they have the tests in the school locked away. They can’t deny you your rights to see the tests. They just will not allow you to take copies because they are “secured” tests.