Whose Side are you on in the Common Core Standards War?

The Common Core Wars are heating up.  Today we will write about one battle brewing over at Diane Ravitch's site.  Ms. Ravitch published a small posting entitled In Defense of the Common Core Standards:

Roz Linder is tired of reading uninformed rants against the Common Core standards. She says most of the comments come from people who have never read them.

She says that it would be a worthy exercise to read the Common Core standards as informational text before making unfounded claims about what they recommend.

You can find them here. Please read them.

Most of the readers who took the time to read Ms. Linder's blog were clearly unimpressed with her defense of the standards and her writing skills.  From Don’t Throw out Baby Macbeth: Common Core says think bigger, better, and beyond the book:

This is the official blog of Dr. Rozlyn Linder, an academic, Language Arts Specialist, former elementary, high schojournalism teacher, and all-around rabble rouser. Interested in with how we equip students to compete in an global community that grows increasingly flatter every millisecond, this blog is about exploring the practical application of digital communication pedagogy and Common Core standards.Situated at the intersection of cultural, racial, social, and digital literacy, this blog is all about fostering and supporting the recognition that we don’t teach in your grandad’s America, and being happy about that. Let's stop telling students what to think or belive, but prepare students to think critically and often. Knowledge. Get some.  (MEW note: printed directly from the site, typos intact).

Dr. Linder writes:

Throw in the opportunity to read informational text about his plays, to explore themes and central idea, to stop being told what to think and just be given the tools to think. We have those tools nicely packaged…Common Core.

With stories emerging every day about teachers lamenting having to use them and questioning their effectiveness, I wondered why Dr. Linder (a former teacher according to her biography) supports them.  It looks as if she has become a capitalist offering her services to district so teachers/administrators can learn implementation techniques.  From her website:

Ready to bring professional learning to your city, school, or district? Email us at scheduleme@rozlinder.com for a customized quote or info@rozlinder.com for more information or questions.

 


I didn't see any of Ravitch's readers writing about this possible conflict of interest in her positive reviews of CCSS.  I applaud Dr. Linder for her enthusiastic support of the standards and that she can now be paid for helping districts to implement them.  The readers took her to task for her views on Common Core in the comment section.  An interesting comment came from a now famous ex-teacher in the education reform circles:

Kris Nielsen

December 19, 2012 at 12:46 am

Read them and was named a “specialist” at one of my schools. Here’s my take…freshly pressed: http://mgmfocus.com/2012/12/18/this-is-how-democracy-ends-an-apology/

Mr. Nielsen was the teacher who garnered much attention from his resignation letter sent to his North Carolina school district.  He entitled it "I Quit" and he spelled out the reasons which included his inability to teach students utilizing Common Core standards.  He speaks to Dr. Linder's praise of Common Core standards with his experience as a teacher and former CCSS facilitator. He DID read the standards.  He was "for the standards before he was against them" and he explains how he came to the realization that CSSS is misguided in This is How Democracy Ends--An Apology:



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Almost a year ago, I offered my time to the middle school at which I was employed to give a two-night presentation that promised to ease parents’ concerns about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Connected Mathematics Program (CMP).  I was given kudos by my boss, my coworkers, and many of those parents.  We talked about the future, the upcoming tests by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), and we even did some hands-on math demonstrations.  It was a good time for me, and I hope those parents can say the same.  My message was simple: trust us–we got this!

Some of them were still skeptical, and they should be praised for that skepticism.

First, I want to offer you my apologies.  It wasn’t long after my presentation that I had a crushing realization that the entire thing (minus the hands-on stuff) was completely misguided.  I felt like a flip-flopper, but I’ve always valued the truth more than feeling good.  So, I’m here to clear the air.  The truth hurts and it should start scaring the hell out of you, because your children are your most precious gift and you will do anything to protect them.

The whole reason I was part of the team that put those presentations together was to ease your worry about the changes that were coming.  I’m here to retract everything I said.  You should be worried.  Very worried!

I was wrong.  The Common Core State Standards is a sham, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is an instrument of devastation, and it’s all run by the process you see in the following Venn diagram (don’t you love Venn diagrams?):

(MEW note: For better diagram clarity, visit Nielsen's website).

Before I start sounding too nutty, let me get down to the reality.  You’ll see that I’m not exaggerating.

America has long been known–despite our problems–as the country of freedom, innovation, and wealth. 

There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is our democratic and free public education system. Prior to NCLB in 2002 and Race to the Top eight years later, standardization was limited to SAT and ACT tests, NAEP and PISA tests, and graduation exams for Advanced Placement courses.  We valued music, art, drama, languages and the humanities just as much as valued science, math, and English (for the most part).  We believed in the well-rounded education.

Now, the Common Core State Standards has one goal: to create common people.  The accompanying standardized tests have one purpose: to create standardized people.  Why?  Because the movers and the shakers have a vested interest in it.  It’s about money and it’s about making sure all that money stays in one place.

It’s been happening for a few years already.  StudentsFirst, ALEC, the Walton and Broad and Gates Foundations, and other lobbying groups have created a false crisis in American education.  They want you to believe that America is in sad educational shape so that they can play the hero.  However, what they’ve begun is a snowball effect of legislation that devastates public education, teachers, and an already underfunded school system so that they can replace the public system, the unions, and the government employees with private systems that promise to pay less, bust unions, and remove benefits and pensions.
Teach For America is a prime example of a way to steal government funding, place it in the hands of private corporations, and remove that pesky career (tenure) teacher problem.  It’s worked like a dream–the average TFA teacher stays in the classroom for about 2-3 years.  Only a few remain for 5 or more years.  So, the new American teacher is a mass-produced, temporary worker in an ongoing assembly line.  Cheaper?  Usually.  And they don’t complain about pay, pensions, or benefits, since this is just a step in their career ladders.

Which means that students don’t have highly-qualified and seasoned teachers leading their learning anymore.  Even worse that that, TFA teachers are prepared and trained with test data as the be-all-to-end-all of priorities.  These teachers only know effectiveness by the scores their students receive on standardized tests.

Cooperation? Collaboration? Creativity? Communication? Critical thinking?  Life skills?  Only if there’s time (which there isn’t) and don’t expect it to be integrated or cohesive.  That’s not what the training is for.  Our students are now part of a larger plan–to prepare them for the “college and career readiness” laid out by the “job creators” on Wall Street–the ones that want your kids to understand that a job is what they’re trained for and that they are lucky to have, so stop whining about your pensions and benefits.  And forget about belonging to one of those pesky unions–we will have outlawed them completely by then.

But more importantly, all of the skills linked above lead our students to be profound, critical, and meaningful participants in a modern democracy.  Some would argue that our days as a free country for the people and by the people are limited, and running out fast.  If we continue to support the path that our nation’s educational system is on, we will speed up the end of our democracy.  When students are forced to learn for the sake of a score and are denied the opportunity to think and reason and question and appreciate the world in which they live, they are all the more easy to control and deny basic rights.

It’s already happening.  I despise watching people discuss and debate issues in this country these days.  No one knows how to do it.

America did not become what it is today because of common people.  We celebrate our diversity, exceptionality, and bravery at the same time that we are attempting to bury those traits.  The world is following our educational models of the past few decades at the same time that we are turning our backs on those successful models.  We are digging a grave for our democratic process at a time when we should be paying extra special attention to keeping it healthy.

Our next generation of learners can save us and keep us strong through their diversity, ingenuity, creativity, friendliness, cooperation, and forward thinking.  And their dreams.  The Common Core State Standards, standardized tests, and privatized teacher corps are stifling those dreams.  Our democracy will ultimately be the victim.

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In the Common Core Wars, I think I'll join Mr. Nielsen's army.  Skepticism about unproven/untested theories being taught to students while others cash in on questionable practices should be forefront in these battles.

Another Teacher Says "I Quit": An (Un) Intended Consequences of "The Complete Lives System"?

Does music therapy fit within the Obamacare law or does the scarcity of resources to a needy population dictate its demise?

Another teacher says "I Quit". 

This teacher has requested anonymity to protect former colleagues.   Teacher Kris Nielsen in North Carolina quit because of the increasing impossible top down mandates for teachers and students.  This anonymous teacher was "frozen" out of providing services to special needs students when the district tightened criteria for assessment/evaluation referrals.  This teacher believes this indicates the beginning of the scarcity of services to the special needs population.  Note these students are the neediest in the educational system for services.

Read the Complete Lives System on which The Affordable Care Act in 2014 is based, "Principles for allocation of scarce medical interventions", and see if you agree with this teacher.  Are affordable care and educational services only available to the "common" student, the student who can adapt to a "common" system?  Is the new health care system designed to help/protect special needs students or to eradicate services for this population?

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

Director of Educational Services

XYZ School District

Anytown, USA

Dear  *****,

Until the 2009-10 school year, I provided music therapy services to an average of 25-30 students.  During 2010-11, my caseload decreased to approximately 15 students.  In 2011-12, my caseload dwindled to 8 students.  This year, I received a purchase order and contract, but  no students in this district are receiving music therapy services or being referred for assessment/evaluation.  Based on conversations with other staff members, it is evident that the district has begun the process of systematically tightening the criteria wherein students are referred for assessment/evaluation to the music therapy program and encouraging therapists to reduce current caseloads

Pre-determined reductions in services to special education students are especially concerning given the upcoming implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2014.  I urge you to review this legislation, along with the enclosed document, "Principles for allocation of scarce medical interventions", AKA "The Complete Lives System", co-written by Ezekiel Emanuel (brother of Rahm Emanuel, former Chief of Staff for President Obama). 

America's current national debt is more than $16 trillion and our government will be proposing yet another increase in the debt limit before year's end.  At some point, America's deficit spending will STOP and students at our district will be among the first to feel the effects of the, "allocated...attenuated", care outlined by Mr. Emanuel and implemented through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

I was the first Board-Certified clinician to provide music therapy services to students in this district in 1997.  It has been a pleasure to work with other knowledgeable special education professionals over the past 15 years and a privilege to provide necessary quality services to many, many students.  Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that I am returning the purchase order and contract for my services.  I will no longer be providing services for the district because I see the district actively implementing allocation of services, AKA rationing, described in the Complete Lives System.

Sincerely,

xxxxxx

Teacher Says "I QUIT": The (Un) or Intended Consequences of Common Core?

One more bullet point: Ask school administration how much Common Core mandates had to do with the resignation. Explain that to a small child: a "one sized fits all" education is good enough for her.

Parents, when you go to conferences, take a copy of a teacher's (Kris Nielsen) letter below and ask your child's teacher and administrators their thoughts on what this teacher has written.  Ask:

• how common core has affected their teaching and district autonomy
• how a top down centralized "one size fits all" program actually "fits" all the students they teach
• if they agree with this statement: "The silence of our professional organizations plus complicity of the unions has made Common Core a done deal." —Susan Ohanian (and maybe write an email to your state NEA and ask its statement about Ohanian's comment)
• your principal if he/she can provide a school/district that educates to its mission statement and what that mission directed education looks like with the common core standard model in place 

I would wager to guess most mission statements are similar to my district, Kirkwood School District in Missouri:

The mission of Kirkwood R-7 schools, a personalized educational network rich in tradition and energized by future possibilities, is to create environments characterized by a passion for learning, purposeful discovery and expectations of excellence in order to guarantee that each learner achieves personal goals, academic success, and becomes a leader in society.

Personal goals have to be secondary to common goals now as Kirkwood School District and the majority of public school (and charters) are now under common core standards.  That "passion for learning" is increasingly being overtaken by a passion for testing.  Missouri schools are under the same standards/assessment mandates as North Carolina schools where this teacher taught.  Find the mission statement of your district and send them our way.  It would be interesting to compile a list of mission statements and figure out how districts will accomplish them with top down mandates.

The letter below should be shared with your teacher/administrator/superintendent.   You can follow the teacher at his twitter handle, @klnielsen74.

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Dear North Carolina Public Schools: I Quit

October 26, 2012 7 Comments
 

Thanks to all of my friends who have already published this on their sites.  Let’s get our schools back!

To All it May Concern:
I’m doing something I thought I would never do—something that will make me a statistic and a caricature of the times.  Some will support me, some will shake their heads and smirk condescendingly—and others will try to convince me that I’m part of the problem.  All I know is that I’ve hit a wall, and in order to preserve my sanity, my health, my family, and the forward movement of our lives, I have no other choice.

Before I go too much into my choice, I must say that I have the advantages and disadvantages of differentiated experience under my belt.  I have seen the other side, where the grass was greener, and I unknowingly jumped the fence to where the foliage is either so tangled and dense that I can’t make sense of it, or the grass is wilted and dying (with no true custodian of its health).  Are you lost?  I’m talking about public K-12 education in North Carolina.  I’m talking about my history as a successful teacher and leader in two states before moving here out of desperation.

In New Mexico, I led a team of underpaid teachers who were passionate about their jobs and who did amazing things.  We were happy because our students were well-behaved, our community was supportive, and our jobs afforded us the luxuries of time, respect, and visionary leadership.  Our district was huge, but we got things done because we were a team.  I moved to Oregon because I was offered a fantastic job with a higher salary, a great math program, and superior benefits for my family.  Again, I was given the autonomy I dreamed of, and I used it to find new and risky ways to introduce technology into the math curriculum.  My peers looked forward to learning from me, the community gave me a lot of money to get my projects off the ground, and my students were amazing.

Then, the bottom fell out.  I don’t know who to blame for the budget crisis in Oregon, but I know it decimated the educational coffers.  I lost my job only due to my lack of seniority.  I was devastated.  My students and their parents were angry and sad.  I told myself I would hang in there, find a temporary job, and wait for the recall.  Neither the temporary job nor the recall happened.  I tried very hard to keep my family in Oregon—applying for jobs in every district, college, private school, and even Toys R Us.  Nothing happened after over 300 applications and 2 interviews.

The Internet told me that the West Coast was not hiring teachers anymore, but the East Coast was the go-to place.  Charlotte, North Carolina couldn’t keep up with the demand (why did this city need over 300 teachers?)!  I applied with three schools, got three phone interviews, and was even hired over the phone.  My very supportive and adventurous family and I packed quickly and moved across the country, just so I could keep teaching.

I had come from two very successful and fun teaching jobs to a new state where everything was different.  During my orientation at CMS, I noticed immediately that these people weren’t happy to see us; they were much more interested in making sure we knew their rules.  It was a one-hour lecture about what happens when teachers mess up.  I had a bad feeling about teaching here from the start; but, we were here and we had to make the best of it.

Union County seemed to be the answer to all of my problems.  The rumors and the press made it sound like UCPS was the place to be progressive, risky, and happy.  So I transferred from CMS to UCPS.  They made me feel more welcome, but it was still a mistake to come here.

Let me cut to the chase: I quit.  I am resigning my position as a teacher in the state of North Carolina—permanently.  I am quitting without notice (taking advantage of the “at will” employment policies of this state).  I am quitting without remorse and without second thoughts.  I quit. I quit. I quit!

Why?

Because…

I refuse to be led by a top-down hierarchy that is completely detached from the classrooms for which it is supposed to be responsible.

I will not spend another day under the expectations that I prepare every student for the increasing numbers of meaningless and expensive tests.

I refuse to be an unpaid administrator of field tests that take advantage of children for the sake of profit.

I will not spend another day wishing I had some time to plan my fantastic lessons because administration comes up with new and inventive ways to steal that time, under the guise of PLC meetings or whatever.  I’ve seen successful PLC development.  It doesn’t look like this.

I will not spend another day wondering what menial, administrative task I will hear that I forgot to do next.  I’m far enough behind in my own work.

I will not spend another day wondering how I can have classes that are full inclusion, and where 50% of my students have IEPs, yet I’m given no support.

I will not spend another day in a district where my coworkers are both on autopilot and in survival mode.  Misery loves company, but I will not be that company.

I refuse to subject students to every ridiculous standardized test that the state and/or district thinks is important.  I refuse to have my higher-level and deep thinking lessons disrupted by meaningless assessments (like the EXPLORE test) that do little more than increase stress among children and teachers, and attempt to guide young adolescents into narrow choices.

I totally object and refuse to have my performance as an educator rely on “Standard 6.”  It is unfair, biased, and does not reflect anything about the teaching practices of proven educators.

I refuse to hear again that it’s more important that I serve as a test administrator than a leader of my peers.
I refuse to watch my students being treated like prisoners.  There are other ways.  It’s a shame that we don’t have the vision to seek out those alternatives.

I refuse to watch my coworkers being treated like untrustworthy slackers through the overbearing policies of this state, although they are the hardest working and most overloaded people I know.

I refuse to watch my family struggle financially as I work in a job to which I have invested 6 long years of my life in preparation.  I have a graduate degree and a track record of strong success, yet I’m paid less than many two-year degree holders.  And forget benefits—they are effectively nonexistent for teachers in North Carolina.

I refuse to watch my district’s leadership tell us about the bad news and horrific changes coming towards us, then watch them shrug incompetently, and then tell us to work harder.

I refuse to listen to our highly regarded superintendent telling us that the charter school movement is at our doorstep (with a soon-to-be-elected governor in full support) and tell us not to worry about it, because we are applying for a grant from Race to the Top.  There is no consistency here; there is no leadership here.

I refuse to watch my students slouch under the weight of a system that expects them to perform well on EOG tests, which do not measure their abilities other than memorization and application and therefore do not measure their readiness for the next grade level—much less life, career, or college.

I’m tired of watching my students produce amazing things, which show their true understanding of 21^st century skills, only to see their looks of disappointment when they don’t meet the arbitrary expectations of low-level state and district tests that do not assess their skills.

I refuse to hear any more about how important it is to differentiate our instruction as we prepare our kids for tests that are anything but differentiated.  This negates our hard work and makes us look bad.

I am tired of hearing about the miracles my peers are expected to perform, and watching the districts do next to nothing to support or develop them.  I haven’t seen real professional development in either district since I got here.  The development sessions I have seen are sloppy, shallow, and have no real means of evaluation or accountability.

I’m tired of my increasing and troublesome physical symptoms that come from all this frustration, stress, and sadness.

Finally, I’m tired of watching parents being tricked into believing that their children are being prepared for the complex world ahead, especially since their children’s teachers are being cowed into meeting expectations and standards that are not conducive to their children’s futures.

I’m truly angry that parents put so much stress, fear, and anticipation into their kids’ heads in preparation for the EOG tests and the new MSLs—neither of which are consequential to their future needs—in addition to the all of the other testing that happens almost weekly.  As a parent of a high school student in Union County, I’m dismayed at the education that my child receives as her teachers frantically frontload trivial information in preparation for more tests.  My toddler will not attend a North Carolina public school.  I will do whatever it takes to keep that from happening.

I quit because I’m tired being part of the problem.  It’s killing me and it’s not doing anyone else any good.  I will now take my place among the rest of the American educators, parents, citizens, and children who are dedicated to getting our schools–and our future–back.

Farewell.