Anti CCSS Warriors, we’ve seen time and time again, especially in the past month, how the CCSS Machine has been cranking out the “parents checklists”, the ‘parents toolboxes’, and the like. However, did you know there’s a new “Parent/Community Checklist” by the U.S. Dept. of Education? Yes! The Gates Foundation even helped them pull it off. But wait, so did the Scholastic Books Company! I’ll be sure to include the link to the checklist, but to see the Gates/Scholastic mentions, you’ll need to see the footnotes.
As far as the U.S. Dept. of Education’s suggested resources to help you become a better aligned parent/community? Great Schools, National PTA, and the federal government. Need I mention that each of these ‘resources’ are subjective about Common Core and not objective?!
There are a couple of other groups which helped create the aligned guide to the ‘high standards’. They are the UNCF and NCLR (UNCF stands for “United Negro College Fund”/NCLR stands for “National Council of La Raza”) So are these groups also sold out to the Common Core State Standards Initiative? Let’s see!
UNCF, United Negro College Fund:
Their website: http://www.uncf.org/
Their CCSS/CTE ties include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation via the scholarship program set up between the two. (See: http://www.gmsp.org/publicweb/aboutus.aspx)
See this screen shot from the webpage and note that the now CCSS aligned GED is included as a qualifier for the scholarship. Note that the abbreviation CCR stands for “College/Career Readiness”, CTE stands for “Career Technical Education”, and, CCSS stands for “Common Core State Standards”.
Another tie to help fuel the CCSS Machine’s agenda? The support of the “America College Promise Act” which includes free community college tuition (community colleges are sold out to the CCSS/CTE alignment), data mining, universal design for learning, and that continues the grinding down of our communities and their citizens.
See their supportive statement: http://cqrcengage.com/uncf/app/write-a-letter?6&engagementId=117276
Another tie? This tie includes two other pro CCSS financial backers. The Walton Foundation and the Koch Foundation. Walton’s program is targets ‘reform’. Helping them out with this agenda? See this excerpt about the Summer Intern Program, “One of the principal elements of the paid summer internship program that exposes Fellows to professional careers at leading K-12 education organizations and schools focused on education reform. Specifically, Fellows are deployed as interns to organizations and schools located in such cities as the District of Columbia, New York, Boston, New Orleans, and Atlanta. Examples of internship host organizations included: Teach for America, New Schools Venture Fund, Paul Public Charter School, BUILD, Black Alliance for Educational Options, Thomas B. Fordham Research Institute, and Stand for Children.” If you’d like more evidence about the Walton/UNCF: http://uncf.org/sites/Walton/index.walton.asp As far as the Koch Foundation’s interaction, $25 million for scholarships (began in 2014 and will end in 7 years). The scholarships are targeted to those students in post-secondary education and concerned about their communities. There are other parameters. To see more: http://uncfkochscholars.uncf.org/
Now, are you ready for a bit of irony? Even the UNCF has noticed that College/Career Readiness isn’t improving at all, in fact, their July 2015 reports a lag. See: http://www.uncf.org/sections/News/SS_PressReleases/pressrelease_details.asp?prID=420
NCLR, National Council of La Raza:
Their website: http://www.nclr.org/
Their CCSS/CTE ties include so much Common Core and College Career Readiness support, there’s an entire section of the website devoted to it. Complete with the fallacy of the ‘state led’ CCSS. There are plenty of resources on this page, including two You Tube videos. One is from a charter school using CCSS, the other is how the ‘global economy’ is involved. Gee, can we tell where we’ve heard THAT fallacy before? To see the entire page, complete with the videos, http://www.nclr.org/index.php/issues_and_programs/education/common_core/
From their NCLR blog, here’s the fifth reason they claim teachers love the CCSS:
“If you want your kids prepared for college and career, then you’ll love Common Core State Standards because…They are aligned to higher education standards that demand the skills students need to be successful in college and in their careers. The Common Core State Standards are our best hope for ensuring our kids are well-served and college-ready, but we’ll need all our teachers on board for this effort to be truly successful.”
To see a webinar from 2014 concerning the “Step Up, Step In” (their name for the NCLR campaign in support of CCSS and CCR), set aside at least one hour.
https://youtu.be/mA_GzAThfys
The NCLR also has it’s own type of “Career Pathways” programs, too. Oh, no questioning the CTE ties with this effort! Their support stretches all the way to the WIOA (Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act) as well. See it all for yourselves: http://www.nclr.org/index.php/issues_and_programs/economic_policy/workforce_development_programs/ Be sure you look at their in-depth blog articles about how the community needs to weigh in on education/workforce efforts. Below you’ll find the corporations which advise the NCLR. ” AT&T; Bank of America; Chevron; Citi; The Coca-Cola Company; Comcast/NBCUniversal/Telemundo; ConAgra Foods, Inc.; Ford Motor Company; General Mills, Inc.; General Motors; JPMorgan Chase; Johnson & Johnson; Kraft Foods; McDonald’s Corporation; MillerCoors LLC; PepsiCo, Inc.;Prudential Financial; Shell; State Farm Insurance Companies; Time Warner Inc.; TOYOTA; UPS; Verizon; Walmart; and Wells Fargo”
To see the many, many funds the Gates Foundation has granted the NCLR, visit:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database#q/k=La%20Raza
To see the U.S. Dept. of Education’s new checklist, visit: http://www2.ed.gov/documents/family-community/parent-checklist.pdf
Note that every group you, as a parent, are pointed to in this checklist is somehow tied to CCSS/CTE/CCR. Note the IB and AP (International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement) are also tied to the CCSS/CTE/CCR and the UNESCO ‘Education for All’ agendas.