Beware the "common core standards" in govt schools

[Mimi]

I don’t understand why you would post all this without clearly outlining a single objection to the common core.

I expect ppl to go to the web sites, click on the info available there, and read for themselves the critiques of those who have been much more involved in CCS, IB & C Scope than I.

You may draw your own conclusions.

Re: Masonic snakes
Veritas Lux Mea, did you read the entire article?
C. Iserbytes credentials and depth of knowledge on topic of education is practically unparalleled.
Another ed whistleblower is Beverly Eakman.
beverlyeakman.com/

Here is an interview (part 1 of 7), The Deliberate Dumbing Down of the World
youtube.com/watch?v=I6FKkWFHyi0

Charlotte Iserbyt served as Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, during the first Reagan Administration.

Ever since, she’s been exposing how educational systems throughout the world have been, gradually and by design, homogenized under UNESCO coordination. The purpose has always been to create a dumbed down, collectivized, easily manageable, global population. That population would easily be transitioned into a new form of government: a world governance system, run on a Soviet type system, for the benefit of the dominant global hierarchy of world bankers and ‘establishment’ families. A global, high-tech, slave plantation, if you will.

(Snip of description.)

re: International Baccalaureate criticism
Catholic Opposition to I.B.
truthaboutib.com/catholicoppositiontoib.html

Our primary purpose here at TAIB is to focus on how IB is not a good fit for American public schools. Recently, we have encountered many objections to IB coming from the private Catholic school arena. Catholic schools should do due diligence in comparing IB’s philosophy with that of the Catholic Church before bringing IB programs into its parochial schools.

and

But critics say IB is anti-American, undermines national sovereignty, and promotes radical environmentalism. Until recently, IB endorsed the Earth Charter, which supports population control and socialism. The Earth Charter argues that all nations should implement its principles in an international treaty.

Some also criticize IB’s non-traditional curriculum and lack of transparency. To discover the actual curriculum, outsiders must buy course guides from the foundation itself. But even then the course guides are vague, McLoughlin says.

McLoughlin became interested in the curriculum after it arrived at her family’s public high school. She created the website, www.truthaboutib.com, described by a Washington Post column as “remarkably fair” despite its clear anti-IB agenda.

With the number of Catholic and other parochial schls closing, and the lakcadaisical attitude of some who do not see these programs as a threat to Christianity and US soveriegnty and the Republic, I seriously doubt we will be able to push back this juggernaut. 
But I must try as that is what I expect God wants me to do at this time.

Mimi

 

[1ke]

MiMi,

No one will take you seriously as long as you persist in conspiracy theory websites and mudslinging at our bishops. It is gravely wrong to accuse our bishops and the Vatican as being full of being “Masonic snakes”.

 

[Mimi]

Paper:
Common Core Unlikely to Improve Standards or Close Learning Acheivement Gap
written by Dr. William Mathis entitled “Research-based Options for Education Policymaking” published by the National Education Policy Center out of the University of Colorado.

Read it here:

truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards/common-core-unlikely-to-improve-learning-or-close-achievement-gap/

 

[Mimi]

Common Core threatens Home Schoolers:

truthinamericaneducation.com/home-schoolprivate-school/

Particularly, the national standards movement raises grave concerns for private, religious, and home-school families. These concerns include the following:

• Leads to a National Curriculum and National Test (paragraph snipped)
• Establishes an Uneven Playing Field (paragraph snipped)
• Normalizes Controversial Societal Issues (paragraph snipped)
• Threatens Autonomy of Private, Religious, and Home Schools (paragraph snipped)
• Alters the Accreditation Process (paragraph snipped)
• Restricts Parental Involvement in Children’s Education (paragraph snipped)

National standards will contribute to the federal trend of diminishing parenthood in favor of greater control by centralized federal and state bureaucracies.

Hope that gives everyone a few more specifics.

Mimi

 

[Mimi]

More specifics to objecting to CCS:

advocatesforacademicfreedom.org/bod.asp#.UR5w0fL7iM4

scroll down to see this paragraph:
LOCAL CONTROL OF SCHOOLS IS SACRED IN AMERICA

snip:

A state department of education cannot require any text book company to include state standards in their social studies text books. Individual school districts are not required to adopt the standards created by the state department of education. Each school district has a choice to adopt the Common Core State Standards or write their own. For example, schools that cannot afford new text books may write their own standards based on the content of their current text book.

Too many parents believe that the state departments of education have more power than they really do because school boards feign responsibility to the Common Core State Standards in an effort to discourage any changes to their current policies. Conservative legislation can have a positive impact on school change at this point. If that legislation becomes part of the Common Core State Standards, the parent has “state support” for his requested changes. When parents are unaware of the process, they often surrender their influence because they are frustrated, confused, and intimidated. Advocates for Academic Freedom was created to help provide parents with the necessary information to push back effectively. Once parents are successful, they must be willing to support a local referendum to cover the cost of updated textbooks which include the new standards.

More: %between%

**OBAMA IGNORES LAWS TO IMPLEMENT COMMON CORE STANDARDS **

snip:

SLDS will collect data on public-school students. According to A Pioneer Institute and American Principles Project White Paper: Controlling Education from the Top, all fifty states agreed to build an SLDS to become eligible for stimulus money. The DOE now has authority to collect data on students from preschool to their experiences in the workforce. According to the National Education Data Model, these records may include everything from health-care history, disciplinary records, social security numbers, and family voting status.

According to The Guide to Protecting the Confidentiality of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Special Publication 800-122, the DOE issued new regulations in January, 2012, which allow “sharing” the information with any governmental or private agency. Each organization accessing the information will be reminded that they must be respectful of its sensitive nature, but parents need not be notified.

During a February 2010 speech at the National Governors’ Association, President Obama explained that states would have to adopt Common Core to receive federal Title I education funding. The Pioneer Institute quotes the president, “We’re calling for a redesigned Elementary and Secondary Education Act that better aligns the federal approach to your state-led efforts while offering you the support you need…first, as a condition of receiving access to Title I funds, we will ask all states to put in place a plan to adopt and certify standards.” This maneuver allows the standards to now be called Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This name falsely implies that the standards are state developed.

snip:

A purpose of A Guide to Motivation in Education by Ronald G. Havelock is to transform educators into change agents. The guide explains that people who resisted their suggested changes had “really bad hang-ups” and that they needed “psychiatric help when they returned from training labs” because they were involved in an “extreme right-wing group”. The guide emphasizes that most conservatives are from the country and void of the enlightenment that comes from exposure to outside influences. The book repeatedly explains how and why it is necessary to “quell the irrational doubts and fears which the extremists (conservatives)…exploit.”

To exterminate conservative interference, the Behavioral Science Teacher Education Program (B-STEP) was developed to prepare teachers for a “changing society” and to alter “their impact on the program and on student attitude.”

I urge all to read the entire article.

Mimi

 

[mommamaree]

If that is what is going on in your school, I would be up in their business so far it would make their heads spin. I do not know what is going on, but the curriculum the teachers are being required to follow is not CCSS. Maybe CCSS is a convenient foil for someone else’s agenda, maybe it is a misunderstanding, maybe it is a curriculum selling itself as CCSS.

I don’t know, but I sure would be finding out. Two hours of homework in one subject for that grade level is way out of line.

I have not looked at the standards in great detail, but from what I did look at, I could not see anything out of the ordinary. And, I joined a CCSS group on LinkedIn about 6 months ago and have not seen anything you describe talked about.

I would be in the adminstration office TOMORROW demanding an explanation, and I would not take “CCSS requires it” as an answer, because that is a lie.

Clearly, you have a background in education and you certainly are concerned about your children.

My husband and I already have been “all up in their business” a couple times. It led to the teacher criticizing our daughter for her slowness. My daughter gets straight A report cards and is the top of the class!
We are also seeing daily bullying problems where our daughter tells stories about lack of supervision and teacher behavior and student behavior shocking enough to make your blood boil.
We are pretty much done with the school at this point.
Homeschooling was way more fun, educational, and beneficial than this ****.
As I said before, I have had some serious concerns over the “CCS” based curriculum (now to be placed in quotation marks for ever after) but through my participation in this thread and my conversations with my husband, we have come to the conclusion that there are bigger problems here. I am going to be diligent about my research and selecting homeschool curricula, but a lot of this is about o become a moot point for our family.
Thanks, 1ke, and everyone else.
Thanks, MiMi for opening this thread.

 

[AnastasiaRomano]

MiMi,

No one will take you seriously as long as you persist in conspiracy theory websites and mudslinging at our bishops. It is gravely wrong to accuse our bishops and the Vatican as being full of being “Masonic snakes”.

This.

I’ve been doing plenty of research into the public and private schools near us as we choose what school option to pursue for next year. While I have some concern about our current state standards and current state testing system, I do not take seriously critiques of curriculum that include name-calling of bishops and the Vatican as “Masonic snakes.”

 

[Mimi]

My husband and I already have been “all up in their business” a couple times. It led to the teacher criticizing our daughter for her slowness. My daughter gets straight A report cards and is the top of the class!
We are also seeing daily bullying problems where our daughter tells stories about lack of supervision and teacher behavior and student behavior shocking enough to make your blood boil.
We are pretty much done with the school at this point.
Homeschooling was way more fun, educational, and beneficial than this ****.
As I said before, I have had some serious concerns over the “CCS” based curriculum (now to be placed in quotation marks for ever after) but through my participation in this thread and my conversations with my husband, we have come to the conclusion that there are bigger problems here. I am going to be diligent about my research and selecting homeschool curricula, but a lot of this is about o become a moot point for our family.
Thanks, 1ke, and everyone else.
Thanks, MiMi for opening this thread.

You are most welcome. Please help spread the word to your email contacts, friends, neighbors, priest - anyone who is concerned about the future of our country.

Mimi

 

[Mimi]

Another web site: What’s Wrong with the Common Core Standards
Diane Ravitch: [My website is dianeravitch.com.
I am a historian of education and Research Professor of Education at New York University.]

dianeravitch.net/2012/08/17/whats-wrong-with-the-common-core-standards/

The Common Core State Standards initiative is an expensive farce. and the initiative is
mislabeled. These are national standards. Mr. Coleman and others have amplified on a flawed concept of education and in spite of early claims to the contrary, now assert unearned authority over curriculum decisions, publishing criteria, new national tests, and “best” teaching methods.
snip
The structure is still being marketed as if it can function as a complete curriculum for studies in the arts, sciences, and humanities, not only in grades K-5, but by making every teacher in every subject devote time to close readings of texts and writing about the content in the texts. And the texts must be selected to fit a formula for “complexity,” other criteria are secondary.
snip

A comment I copied: (underlines added by me)



> Bill    August 17, 2012 at 10:04 am	

> It’s not just standards that are being handed down. There seems to be a continuous stream of “clarifying” documents, like their Publisher’s Criteria, which double down on unverified approaches to learning, teaching, and curriculum design. These aren’t just academic standards anymore. Because writing standards involves a committee of multiple stakeholders, agreement is reached by allowing room for interpretation. But now, after the CCSS have been adopted, any room for interpretation and innovation that was created during the standards drafting process is being eroded by three men, two of which are handily available for consulting services. States may love this guidance. But understand what it does: dictates major curricular choices. Check out the math criteria. Among other things, you’ll see a mandated narrowed curriculum with rationale peppered with the same alarmist buzzwords common to the corporate reformers. You’ll also see where they demand instructional time follow the same proportions set by the national assessment consortia — making teaching to the test another mandated reality. You’ll see other things, too. Their sense of authority is stunning. It’s worth a look.

 

[mommamaree]

See, here you have provided a few snippets that address my actual concerns with what I have observed and learned about CCS. This is another reason why I am going to do more reading about this. I have also been watching documentaries chronicling the abject failure of the Amercian government educational system. Education has become big business with a LOT of money…not being used for kids, but for lining pockets of corrupt politicians and school administrators. I have zero confidence that inviting yet another group to tell each of us at the state level (and even to private schools who are selecting identical curricula to govt schools) how to educate our kids will actually create a better situation. Less freedom for actual teachers means inferior education. There are other tremendous problems, too, contributing to this mess. But with any crisis, following the money/power trail is a good place to start. And the fact of the matter is, tests were rewritten PRIOR to CCS acceptance in the states. Who does that benefit? Certainly NOT the children. Nor the teachers or schools. So who benefited? Hmmm…see the problem?

Another web site: What’s Wrong with the Common Core Standards
Diane Ravitch: [My website is dianeravitch.com.
I am a historian of education and Research Professor of Education at New York University.]

dianeravitch.net/2012/08/17/whats-wrong-with-the-common-core-standards/

The Common Core State Standards initiative is an expensive farce. and the initiative is
mislabeled. These are national standards. Mr. Coleman and others have amplified on a flawed concept of education and in spite of early claims to the contrary, now assert unearned authority over curriculum decisions, publishing criteria, new national tests, and “best” teaching methods.
snip
The structure is still being marketed as if it can function as a complete curriculum for studies in the arts, sciences, and humanities, not only in grades K-5, but by making every teacher in every subject devote time to close readings of texts and writing about the content in the texts. And the texts must be selected to fit a formula for “complexity,” other criteria are secondary.
snip

A comment I copied: (underlines added by me)

 

[Em_in_FL]

I do understand those concerns… but I’m looking at it from an entirely different perspective.

Government schools are in the business of educating the next generation to be productive members of the modern economy of this nation. Period. That is the goal of public education.

In my opinion, that’s a very amoral thing - not “right” or “wrong”. There is nothing wrong with learning modern techniques that will gain you profitable employment in today’s world, assuming the work itself is amoral as well.
In fact, a positive side of this would be that we are benefiting from new standards in order to be able to make a good living and raise happy, holy families as we see fit.

So, yes, government schools are in the “business” of profiting from this. They want to have a workforce that can meet the expectations of the future economy.
As an engineer, I see many positive benefits to the new math standards. I see more practical application and I see more opportunities open when students are able to use these practical skills in the work force. I also see many positive benefits to the language sections - focusing more on non-fiction and being able to evaluate and analyze a situation in clear, concise language formats.
There is nothing stopping you from doing the additional studies on top of the standards.

Are our children being fully, “classically” educated to the same extent that children were in the past? Making them more “worldly”? Not necessarily… but that, again, is neither “right” or “wrong”… it’s amoral.

 

[mommamaree]

I do understand those concerns… but I’m looking at it from an entirely different perspective.

Government schools are in the business of educating the next generation to be productive members of the modern economy of this nation. Period. That is the goal of public education.

In my opinion, that’s a very amoral thing - not “right” or “wrong”. There is nothing wrong with learning modern techniques that will gain you profitable employment in today’s world, assuming the work itself is amoral as well.
In fact, a positive side of this would be that we are benefiting from new standards in order to be able to make a good living and raise happy, holy families as we see fit.

So, yes, government schools are in the “business” of profiting from this. They want to have a workforce that can meet the expectations of the future economy.
As an engineer, I see many positive benefits to the new math standards. I see more practical application and I see more opportunities open when students are able to use these practical skills in the work force. I also see many positive benefits to the language sections - focusing more on non-fiction and being able to evaluate and analyze a situation in clear, concise language formats.
There is nothing stopping you from doing the additional studies on top of the standards.

Are our children being fully, “classically” educated to the same extent that children were in the past? Making them more “worldly”? Not necessarily… but that, again, is neither “right” or “wrong”… it’s amoral.

No, I am sorry but you have misunderstood my concerns. I have been reading and observing this for almost a decade now. Even if you feel that government schools are the best choice for your family, or a good option for families in general, that does not negate the millions of pages of documents and hours of interviews chronicling the increasing corruption going on in the public school systems of America.
The government schools were at one time genuinely concerned with creating productive workers, but no longer.
However, this is not my debate. I will make decisions that are in the best interests of my children (with my husband of course) and I am quite used to having people disagree with me. I know what I know, having done enough research. But I am no expert debater. I will leave that to sharper minds than my own. But if you are at all curious, start watching documentaries and reading books, interviews and websites devoted to the American crisis in education. Very eye-opening stuff.

 

[Em_in_FL]

But if you are at all curious, start watching documentaries and reading books, interviews and websites devoted to the American crisis in education. Very eye-opening stuff.

Can you be more explicit?
What is this American crisis in education?.. specifically.
What should be the goal of education, in your opinion?

 

[Mimi]

mommamaree: See, here you have provided a few snippets that address my actual concerns with what I have observed and learned about CCS. This is another reason why I am going to do more reading about this. I have also been watching documentaries chronicling the abject failure of the Amercian government educational system. Education has become big business with a LOT of money…not being used for kids, but for lining pockets of corrupt politicians and school administrators. I have zero confidence that inviting yet another group to tell each of us at the state level (and even to private schools who are selecting identical curricula to govt schools) how to educate our kids will actually create a better situation. Less freedom for actual teachers means inferior education. There are other tremendous problems, too, contributing to this mess. But with any crisis, following the money/power trail is a good place to start. And the fact of the matter is, tests were rewritten PRIOR to CCS acceptance in the states. Who does that benefit? Certainly NOT the children. Nor the teachers or schools. So who benefited? Hmmm…see the problem?

YOU GOT IT!!
And the govt schools will NEVER ever stop asking for more $$ for everything. If you research the history, you will find they have been doing this for the last 35-40 yrs or so, and what does the public get for it?? You know…

Watch Michelle Malkin’s column for continued coverage on this topic:
Rotten to the Core: Obama’s War on Academic Standards (Part 1)
By Michelle Malkin • January 23, 2013

michellemalkin.com/2013/01/23/rotten-to-the-core-obamas-war-on-academic-standards-part-1/

There should be a mass exodus arranged if at all possible. This has been called for in the past; now is the time, IMO, for parents to ACT.

Mimi

 

[Mimi]

1ke:

No one will take you seriously as long as you persist in conspiracy theory websites and mudslinging at our bishops. It is gravely wrong to accuse our bishops and the Vatican as being full of being “Masonic snakes”.

---

1ke, I did not make those accusations, Ms Iserbyt did. I didn’t even say I agreed with her point of view, I’m just passing on info & wonder what others think of what she has to say. She is, after all, a woman with a high degree of experience in education issues. So perhaps you should write a rebuttal to Charlotte I. herself:

E-Mail: dumbdown00@yahoo.com

> Vatican II and American public education went down the same ungodly New Age humanistic path to Liberation theology...





I do not think Vat 2 was a mistake, however I have personally witnessed  the repeated incursions of Liberation Theology, disguised as an "interfaith community organization" trying to get a foothold in my parish & community. Thank God, my bishop & his staff listened to a presentation of the facts & saw it for what it is & helped keep them at bay.

Without the keen discernment of lay ppl being able to see & willing to expose this (& other types of) corruption, the Church will continue to disintegrate. It may do so anyway. I cannot sit back & just watch it happen. It breaks my heart to see so many fellow parishioners whose parents sacrficed to give them a Catholic education leave and become 'nones', or think it's okay to join any other non-Catholic community.

There are other examples of how our Church has been infiltrated by those who want to see female ordination, acceptance of abortion, contraception and other things. If Catholic schools accept Common Core, they will be subjecting children to more ideas which seek to ruin their souls, mocks the Church, and will result in fewer adults adhering to religion (which is part of the goal of the left, always has been).

Mimi

 

[Monte_RCMS]

2013/05/06/stop-common-core-rally-draws-9.7-million-n1587821/page/full/

finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2013/05/06/stop-common-core-rally-draws-97-million-n1587821/page/full/

In today’s news

 

[mjmckinley]

Sorry if this is a repeat of information, but here are two vital websites:

catholicschoolstandards.org/common-core and truthinamericaneducation.com/

I am a father of three and a public HS teacher. My children currently attend public schools, and my wife and I are considering putting them in our parish school to escape Common Core. Unfortunately I just received (today) an email from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that it is implementing CC. The first link above was supplied by one of its representatives. This is not good!

 

[PTL]

Based on what I have heard from two reliable sources, common core is communism.

1. A school teach from NY said the social study curriculum is horrible. Her school uses IPad for students for home work, starting from real young age. One parent complained that she could not see the content of her child’s home work and demanded a print out copy. One question on the homework paper shocked her to death: On one side of the paper, there are pictures of many people and few food. The question is "There are so many people and so little food, how should we solve the problem?’
   You flip the paper over to see the answer: It is time for old people to die.
2. A school board member in our county said she was fighting hard against the common core but unfortunately it has been implemented by voting. The “core” of common core is communism. It is disguised with good explanations and theories but basically it is to destroy what American people’s belief, starting brain wash from young age.

 

[CatholicGeek1]

Based on what I have heard from two reliable sources, common core is communism.

1. A school teach from NY said the social study curriculum is horrible. Her school uses IPad for students for home work, starting from real young age. One parent complained that she could not see the content of her child’s home work and demanded a print out copy. One question on the homework paper shocked her to death: On one side of the paper, there are pictures of many people and few food. The question is "There are so many people and so little food, how should we solve the problem?’
   You flip the paper over to see the answer: It is time for old people to die.
2. A school board member in our county said she was fighting hard against the common core but unfortunately it has been implemented by voting. The “core” of common core is communism. It is disguised with good explanations and theories but basically it is to destroy what American people’s belief, starting brain wash from young age.

1. I have seen no reliable source to say that the common core is communist. That is a word that gets thrown around quite a bit, and it is usually meaningless. The case that you cite in number 1, is another example of what we have seen on this topic, anecdotes that at best are isolated incidents caused by improper implementation of the standards or at worst flat out misleading. I understand the concern with the question, my other question though is what on Earth is wrong with using an iPad, and how can the mother not just pick up the iPad and look at what is on it?

 

[PTL]

The point is not no if the mother know how to use IPad, many people do not know how to use IPad. The key point is the nature and teaching of the question - old people should die.
Your response is a typical case of distracting attention from the key point which we shoud be concerned about. I see too many such techniques nowadays. Like Hilary Clinton used emotional approach “what difference does it make?” to turn people’s attention from the fact four Americans were killed. People without careful independent thinking will think on “what difference does it make” and stop thinking the truth needs to be known.