While a debate is proper, muddying the waters with lies doesn’t help
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
Tuesday night, there’s a big meeting planned at the Kennett Fire Company’s Red Clay Room, to talk about the issues with the proposed Common Core curriculum.
And while there are issues with Common Core, ranging from questions about the nature of the curriculum to who should pay for it, the attacks on Common Core from some groups have gone right through absurd to flat out lies. Based on the materials being sent out, you can expect to hear some mixture of both, Tuesday night.
Some folks, let’s be honest about it, oppose Common Core because President Barack Obama decided to support it. We can forget that it was largely created by the National Governors Association (dominated by Republicans) and business groups interested in having properly educated workers in the future. We can forget that it builds on the work of President George W. Bush and is publicly supported by noted left-wingers such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Oh and Gov. Tom Corbett, another noted flower child. And those hippies at the American Enterprise Institute.
For some folks — and I suspect no small amount of the people behind Tuesday night event — if Obama supports it, it must be some sort of socialist plot. By the way, I also understand Obama supports breathing oxygen, so those who seek to oppose him on all fronts should be advised accordingly.
Whatever the case, the hysteria way outweighs the reality — and some would-be politicians are cynically exploiting people’s fears for nothing more than political and even personal gain.
Maybe you saw an email that’s been circulating lately, which would be laughable except that some folks will swear by it as they peer out looking for the United Nations black helicopters coming to take away their guns and “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” DVDs.
And I quote:
“It tracks teachers and students, to the point where if a 2nd grader says the word ‘race’, it will be filed and stay with a portfolio for their entire school/career/life. It never goes away. Your child’s eating habits, personality traits, etc. Are recorded by the teacher and filed with the federal government forever, and can never be changed or challenged. Instead of preparing creative lessons at night, teachers will file reports on the kids (most are already doing it), and sending the reports to D.C. This portfolio is not allowed to be seen by the parent. Teachers, administrators, even vendors at the school (Microsoft, etc.) will have access. Why? Because it is a predetermined path the child will be put on to fill in the places in industry where they will be most fit to serve the good of the people. Your political history will follow the child, the time a parent is incarcerated, the social connections, the marriage status, etc. It will control elections, at the very least. It is federally mandated out of Washington and no district will have its own say by 2015. It effects homeschoolers, private and charter schools as well. Common Core is privately held, greatly funded by Bill and Melinda Gates, GE, etc.”
Yeah, every last word of that is wrong and intended to be — this isn’t an innocent confusion, but a calculated attempt to gin up outrage. It’s a big, fat lie.
And yet, there seems to be a cottage industry of folks making money going around stoking fear, misrepresenting the truth and pocketing money, usually your money, when it comes to this issue.
Don’t be fooled by these hucksters.
Virtually nothing in the above email is true. Are there some components of data tracking? Yes. Student performance is going to be used to evaluate teacher performance, although numerous administrators I’ve spoken with question exactly how over a three-year period one can weigh and assess the impact of student performance relative to one teacher. In theory, on a macro basis, it might be possible — but using, or even keeping, individual student data and applying it will be problematic.
The complete details on what it is — and isn’t — can be read in this document from the state Department of Education.
Don’t get me wrong, there are very legitimate concerns about Common Core — but this sort of deception prevents serious, sober discussions about how to improve it.
The concept behind Common Core was to ensure a fairly uniform educational experience and structure state to state — so that a student moving from say, Mississippi to Unionville wouldn’t find themselves quite literally years behind in school. School districts and communities will have some say on how to get to the goals, of course.
I keep hearing the argument that states should have the right to decide how to educate their kids — even if they use outdated or even ill-advised methods. But would we allow a state to use leeches for medical care, just because that’s how the locals think medicine should be practiced?
Instead of reasoned arguments about the value and pitfalls of common curriculum, we get claims that this is a deep, dark plot to enslave our children. And by the way, some of the same people screaming now — and speaking Tuesday — are the same folks who predicted societal disaster if the state adopted standards some two decades ago, which of course didn’t happen.
As a nation, in comparison to other wealthy, developed nations, we’re falling farther and farther behind. Even if the details aren’t perfect — and they aren’t — setting higher standards is something we need to do.
But, as I said, there are concerns — both in terms of how standards are being implemented and who is expected to pay for it. At a time that every single school district in the county is hurting for funds, thanks to the state legislature’s failure to deal with the pension mess it created, these districts are being asked to pay for the changes to make Common Core happen, which actually hurts education in some districts.
That’s led to opposition to Common Core from the left, including Sen. Andy Dinniman (D-Chester County), the minority chair of the state Senate Education Committee.
“We’ve already heard from the West Chester Area School District and the Downingtown Area School District that they are each spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in terms of staffing needs, substitutes and program restructuring to implement Common Core standards,” Dinniman said earlier this year. “And keep in mind we are only talking about two of the county’s twelve school districts.”
Dinniman argues that without the state paying for the changes, the cost will be dumped on taxpayers.
“The problem with Common Core is that these regulations make no mention of the state dollars necessary to cover the costs of the very programs they call for,” Dinniman said. “These are costs that will undoubtedly be passed directly onto local taxpayers in the form of school property taxes.”
Well, except, thanks to Act 1 which limits how much school districts can raise taxes, it’s more likely to mean cuts in staff and educational programs, rather than higher taxes — as most school districts don’t have a lot of room left under state limits for additional tax hikes.
So, it seems like it might be smart for the Federal Government to fund this transition — except that the U.S. Congress can’t agree on funding anything right now. The state is broke — and can’t manage to educate kids or pave roads — thanks to decades of financial mismanagement by Democrats and Republicans.
And that puts it right back on local school districts — which is a problem and should be discussed.
But Tuesday night’s meeting won’t do anything to address that issue and it will make a lot of people needlessly angry and upset, rather than focused on improving education.
And that’s a shame.
Here are samples of the “evil” Common Core State Standards for English/Language Arts:
Key Ideas and Details
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.3 Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
Craft and Structure
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5 Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.6 Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7 Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.1
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.9 Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
Does every state have a federally funded, interoperable State Longitudinal Database System that tracks people throughout their lives? Yes.
Every state has accepted 100% federally funded data collection (SLDS). The Data Quality Campaign states: “every governor and chief state school officer has agreed to build statewide longitudinal data systems that can follow individual students from early childhood through K-12 and postsecondary ed and into the workforce as a condition for receiving State Fiscal Stabilization Funds as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). A condition of getting the funding (ARRA money) was that the system would be interoperable.
Is the SLDS accessible by the federal government? Yes.
The SLDS grant explains that the SIF (state interoperability framework) must provide interoperability from LEA to LEA, from LEA to Postsecondary, from LEA to USOE, and from USOE to the EdFacts Data Exchange. The EdFacts Data Initiative is a “centralized portal through which states submit data to the Department of Education.”
The P-20 workforce council exists inside states to track citizens starting in preschool, and to “forge organizational and technical bonds and to build the data system needed to make informed decisions” for stakeholders both in and outside Utah. — http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/2/prweb9201404.htm
Is personally identifiable student information gathered, or only aggregate group data? Personal, identifiable, individual data is collected.
Many of us in Utah were present last summer when UT technology director John Brandt stood up in the senate education committee and testified that there are roughly twelve people in the state of Utah who have access to the personally identifiable information of students which is available in the Utah Data Alliances inter-agency network of student data. So it is not true that we are talking about only aggregate data, which leaders often insist. The Utah School Board confirmed to me in writing, also, that it is not allowed for any student to opt out of the P-20/ SLDS/ UDA tracking system, (which we know is K-workforce (soon to include preschool) citizen surveillance.)
Is the collected private student data accessible to agencies beyond than state education agency? Yes:
There are state data alliances that connect agencies. The Data Quality Campaign states: “states must ensure that as they build and enhance state K–12 longitudinal data systems, they also continue building linkages to exchange and use information across early childhood, postsecondary and the workforce (P–20/workforce) and with other critical agencies, such as health, social services and criminal justice systems.” What data will be collected? According to the new FERPA regulations, pretty much anything. Social security numbers, psychometric and biometric information (see pg. 4 and 6) are not off the table. According to the National Data Collection model, over 400 points. Jenni White mentioned another federal model that asks for thousands of data points.
The types of information that the Department will collect includes biometric information (DNA, fingerprints, iris patterns) and parental income, nicknames, medical information, extracurricular information, and much more. See page 4 at http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/pdf/ferparegs.pdf and see http://nces.sifinfo.org/datamodel/eiebrowser/techview.aspx?instance=studentPostsecondary
How does this affect parents?
Data linking changes being made in regulations and policies make former privacy protection policies meaningless. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) sued the Dept. of Education, under the Administrative Procedure Act, arguing that the Dept. of Ed’s regulations that changed the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in Dec. 2011 exceeded the Department of Education’s authority and are contrary to law. http://epic.org/apa/ferpa/default.html
The Federal Register outlines, on page 51, that it is not now a necessity for a school to get student or parental consent any longer before sharing personally identifiable information; that has been reduced to the level of optional.
“It is a best practice to keep the public informed when you disclose personally identifiable information from education records.” http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-02/pdf/2011-30683.pdf
Dec. 2011 regulations, which the Dept. of Education made without Congressional approval and for which they are now being sued by EPIC, literally loosen, rather than strengthen, parental consent rules and other rules. http://www.jdsupra.com/post/documentViewer.aspx?fid=5aa4af34-8e67-4f42-8e6b-fe801c512c7a
The Federal Register of December 2011 outlines the Dept. of Education’s new, Congressionally un-approved regulations, that decrease parental involvement and increase the number of agencies that have access to private student data: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-02/pdf/2011-30683.pdf (See page 52-57)
Much, much, much more at: http://www.what is commoncore.wordpress.com
Well you’ve pretty much labeled anyone who opposes Common Core haven’t you? I see name calling but no substance.
The bottom line is common core is not funded, and not tested.
Stop making guinea pigs of our kids.
It comes from companies and the Gates Foundation which will benefit Microsoft by selling materials to education, the biggest monopoly in the country.
So as you say, Huckabee, Corbett, and Jeb Bush support it, all RINO syncophants who will go with whichever party will get them elected or noticed in the case of the Huckster.
I can offer many criticisms but my first would be that this stuff is boring. Have you seen the non-fiction informational texts. My youngest loves non-fiction but not this stuff. And they are putting ads in there. Hope someone at least is getting some money for our schools out of that.
“The cost will be dumped on the taxpayers.” Well good luck with that. Our jobs are gone, our home equity is gone, our 401Ks value not what it was, and we have had it. Forget our guns, when you come for our kids, look out.