More Common Core Spin from Missouri DESE

Missouri Commissioner of DESE took to youtube to deliver a pro common core message.

What the Commissioner said:

Common Core standards are now called "Missouri Learning Standards" of which Common Core is a part of.  I guess the 15% of standards Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia "allows" Missouri to adopt in addition to CCSS supersedes the mandated 100% of standards Missouri has contracted with SBAC to follow.

The Commissioner fails to tell her viewers that if the bar was set too low for standards, she, as Commissioner, had the authority and duty to tweak the standards.  If she could not or would not, then we need a commissioner who could perform that job function.  The governor, DESE and the State Board did not have to sign an MOU (is that a contract?) to a 26 state consortia taking away local/state control and bestowing millions of dollars on to taxpayers in the form of unfunded debt for standards/assessments that are privately crafted/owned/copyrighted.

We hear the same old story that schools can set their own curriculum.  What is not said is that the curriculum must be aligned to common core standards.  It's like buying gasoline. You can buy it from different gas companies, but in reality, it's the same product.  The line of "you can pick your own curriculum" doesn't really mean much.  If it's all common core, it's the same curriculum.

The commissioner tells us we have:

• an initiative that is common core but not really
• standards that needed to be changed that we could have changed but didn't/couldn't/wouldn't
• curriculum that we can choose but it's really the same because of the CCSS alignment requirement

Is it as clear as mud now? 

If you are against Common Core in Missouri, sign this petition to rid our state of the implementation of Missouri Learning Standards or whatever they will be called next week.  Make your wishes known on this petition.  You can't make comments on the video.  DESE has disabled comments.

Common Core Adoption/Implementation. "This is the Hotel California that Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia Built"

Private trade organizations NGA/CCSSO say:   This is the house that we built via our specifications that you have to pay for and live in.  Just call it the "Hotel California"

Think of Common Core standards and adoption this way.  States can check in but they can never leave.  (At least not without the approval of the Federal Government).  Here's how CCSS evolved:

A contractor contacts you and says he will you build you a house in a subdivision of other homes.  He will give you $100,000 toward the construction, but he will build the house of his dreams, not yours.  He promises it will be a mansion and the best on the market.  It will be just as beautiful and quality constructed as the other homes in the subdivision.  He can't show you a blueprint and can't give you an idea of your final cost, but trust him.  It will be great.

You also don't know his credentials and his subcontractors but you decide his promise of giving you some money toward the initial construction is worth a gamble as you have been led to believe your living situation is dire and his offer holds the promise of a better home.  The meeting between all the construction vendors are held in secret and you don't have an idea of how big the house will be, what it will look like or if it suits your living style, but again, you have signed the MOU/contract so these decisions are out of your hands.

Only after signing on the dotted line do you realize:

• the contractor has never spent a day constructing a house
• the contractor has no finished blueprint 3 years after you have signed the contract or MOU
• the contractor has subcontracted out the work to firms that also have no contracting experience but they are really nifty in the IT business
• the contractor has mandated many items in your house are necessary that you can't afford to pay for (or want)
• the contractor's funds are being depleted and he will have to look to you for more money to finish the house plan that you didn't choose 
• if you are unhappy with the procedures and progress, the contractor will make it extremely difficult to rescind the contract

If a local building permit official told you that was how your house would have to be built and this was the process by which you must abide by to have a house built,  you would probably laugh him/her out of the room and insist he/she was delusional.   Any sane person would walk away from such a legally binding contract.  It is fraught with the unknown in terms of product, quality and cost and control of building your own house for your own needs within your own budget is out of your hands.


This parallels the process and issues in the CCSS adoption/implementation:

• the main CCSS writers are not educators and have spent little to zero time in the classroom
• CCSS assessments are still not finished for the 2014 implementation date
• CCSS is allowing private corporations (data mining companies) access to student data that are not educational in nature as well as various Federal agencies such as Health/Human services, Department of Defense and Labor 
• SBAC has mandated assessments and computer infrastructure that districts cannot afford
• SBAC is out of federal stimulus money as of 2014 and states are expected to pony up for the ongoing additional costs expected to be in the millions
• to leave the SBAC consortia requires the majority of other states' approval and the Department of Education's approval

Questions:  Is this an acceptable way to build a house?  Is this an acceptable way to institute educational reform?

If you don't think houses should be built in this manner or educational policies should be adopted circumventing legislative approval which contain unfunded and continually evolving mandates, please sign the petition of rid Missouri of Common Core standards.

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Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
They livin' it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)
Bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"
And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! " 

Full lyrics here.