Terrific Tuesday! Anti CCSS News

Hi Anti CCSS Warriors, it’s been a whirlwind of busy times for the CC Diva, but have no fear, I’m back with anti Common Core news you can use!! I’m breaking from the my “From the Files” Tuesday to bring you important information. Please read on….

Fresh from the News:

The HR5, aka “Every Child Succeeds” Act (the most current name to the re-authorization of No Child Left Behind) is set to be back in front of our Congress members in the upcoming week. However, don’t stop there. The HEA, aka “Higher Education Act” re-authorization is ALSO being fast tracked. Why? Well for starters, BOTH are being re-written by the SAME pro CCSS/CTE Congress member. At least he’s heading up the re-write team. Sen. Alexander has a long track record of education reform that’s down right scary. Many anti CCSS warriors, myself included, have warned of his activity, some for a very long time, and others, more recent.

While the HR5 has gotten most of the spotlight due to the K-12th grade nature, please don’t overlook the post-secondary bill or think the CCSS/CTE moves begun in the HR5 will stop once your student graduates high school. Far from it, the purpose and intent is to CONTINUE the CCSS/CTE pipeline from one bill to the other! All the curriculum alignment, the assessments, and the data mining are locked in from PreK-20. But, stop to consider, what if I’m an older adult seeking to go back and earn a degree from a post-secondary school.. you’ll be in the pipeline too!

While I Was Away:

When I last posted it was a few days ago. Since then I’ve attended an out of state educational conference which catered to home educators. While Common Core wasn’t a main feature I did observe quite a bit of the CC in plain sight. Trouble was, not many noticed the Standards presence. Why is this an anti CCSS warrior’s concern? The CCSS Machine likes to be stealthy in being among those who educate in ALL school settings.

While those who brought up the fact they’d left the public school system in this state to home educate, most said they were anxious to find virtual schools or being placed in magnet schools, especially the STEM ones. Please do not misunderstand, I am NOT criticizing these school choices. What I’m pointing out is, that we, as anti CCSS warriors need to step up our game and help as many know and understand that ALL school choices have (or can have) CCSS/CTE in them.

For example, all school choices have access to many textbooks, virtual or physical. All school choices have teacher development workshops they can be a part of. (*Note: Not, the development for a home educator will not look like the ones a more traditional educator has, but I can speak from personal experience that I’ve attended workshops hosted by my state’s wildlife resources department where I was shoulder to shoulder with educators spanning the gamut of school choice and including elder care leaders. ) All school choices have field trips, camps, and other extra curricular events. The CCSS Machine has rolled out their agenda in a community wide effort. This includes our libraries, museums, and camps like STEM ones.  Proof has been offered to document each one of these facts. Again, others who are adamantly anti CCSS/CTE, myself included, have shared this knowledge. Don’t forget free curricula that’s CCSS/CTE aligned is also available to all school choices. For example, the Smithsonian Institution, the Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities (separate endowments), MIT online courses, Teaching Tolerance, and others all are CCSS/CTE aligned.

The Slick Goody Bags:

Another surefire way to identify CCSS/CTE while I was at this conference was via the slick ads in the goody bag I received once I walked in.  You know these bags, they’re the ones filled with ads for this company and that. Ads which help sell you on why this educational opportunity is the best thing since dirt was invented. As seasoned anti CCSS warriors, we should know what to look for that are easily recognized clues. Why? So we can help others learn to spot the CCSS Machine’s slick sales job!
The ones from my goody bag that I spotted right away:

NASA, the clues? STEM camps, classes and educator workshops, a Smithsonian Institute partner, Boy Scouts partner (yes, even the Boy Scouts are choosing to align to CCSS, that’s recent news, too.I’ll share more on that in a bit), and the fact that I’d already connected NASA to CCSS. In the slick brochure it was evident that these opportunities are available to all educational choices..including homeschoolers. The sad news: you pay for these opportunities, sometimes in pricey sums.

The CLEP brochure, the clues? The College Board logo. (*Note:Once upon a time, CLEP (meaning College Level Exam Program), was an ideal choice as an assessment for all school choices, but most especially home educated ones. ) As seasoned anti CCSS warriors, we know David Coleman is the ‘mastermind’ at College Board, but do others? The vast array of CCSS/CTE aligned CLEPs include: some foreign languages, science, math, composition, business, history, social sciences, and literature. The sad news: you pay to take these assessments.

Mr. D Math, the clue? SAT boot camps. The sad news? This former public school teacher has written not assessments for a HI public school rooted in the P20 community agenda, but has been featured in the RefinED publication discussing the 21st century math teacher. (*Note: RefinED is an active partner to the American Center for School Choice which is a social justice, education reform Walton family funded group. Walton is a known CCSS supporter)

Liberty University’s Dual Enrollment, the clue? The phrase ‘dual enrollment’. The sad news? I’d researched Liberty University in a previously published article exposing their CCSS alignment, especially in their education majors.

There are other slick brochures I can share, but that will be a follow up post for a later time.

Links to use to help educate others where CCSS/CTE is openly hiding:

Helping the Boy Scouts with virtual badges is the Computer Science Student Network. Their CCSS tie? Carnegie Mellon University and DARPA (a special arm of the Dept. of Defense) (*Note: We already learned as anti CCSS warriors that the DofD is participating in student data mining)
To access the above information, see: http://www.cs2n.org/about
To learn more about DARPA: http://www.darpa.mil/

NASA’s CCSS/STEM statement: http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/media.html

Mr.D’s Math: www.MrDmath.com
RefinED’s statement of activity: http://www.redefinedonline.org/
American Center for School Choice: http://www.amcsc.com/
Walton Family Education Reform Grants 2013: http://2013annualreport.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/grant-reports/education-reform-grants/
The HI school with the P20 community agenda: http://www.kamaile-academy.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=197475&type=d&pREC_ID=422740

My Liberty University article: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/12/05/fom-friday-christian-colleges-exempt-from-common-core-not/

CLEP’s College Board tie: https://clep.collegeboard.org/

Project Learning Tree (which provided the free curriculum at the educator based workshop I attended with others who educate in all arenas, as mentioned above) https://www.plt.org/correlations (*Note; you’ll also be able to find the Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, and other ‘non formal’ groups included here)