FTF: PreK Research: CCSS, CBE, and a Host of Others

As anti CCSS Warriors, we’ve heard of educational research on the K-12 level, the higher education level, but did you know there’s an educational research group for those in pre-kindergarten? I first wrote about the National Institute for Early Education Research and their Zero to Three involvement: 
https://www.commoncorediva.com/tag/national-institute-for-early-education-research/
While that article will name the same groups below, this time I’m taking a much closer look at each of the lesser known groups involvement into CCSS aligned preschool. What is interesting, is the NIEER is housed in Rutgers University.

 

NIEER’s Mission:

From the website’s ‘mission statement’, “The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) conducts and communicates research to support high-quality, effective early childhood education for all young children. Such education enhances their physical, cognitive, and social development, and subsequent success in school and later life.”

As part of the Vision/MIssion of NIEER, 
“NIEER also leads the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO), one of 22 comprehensive centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education to strengthen the capacity of State Education Agencies to lead sustained improvements in early learning opportunities and outcomes.”

Before we get to HOW the NIEER influences early education, I think you might be interested in what groups fund the National Institute for Early Education Research.

From the website the following pro CCSS groups fund the research. Most of these are well known supporters. The ones you may not recognize have links you can follow to learn more:
U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI)
The Pew Charitable Trusts 
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation (CCSS/STEM ties can be proven by the Foundation’s paper: http://www.grdodge.org/fileadmin/Dodge_News/Dodge_Foundation_June_2013_Grants_Announcement.pdf {refer to the education paragraph}
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
The Prudential Foundation {see my article from “Prevent Common Core”:
http://preventcommoncore.com/?p=1154 {Prudential’s CCSS ties will be revealed second in the article}

Other funders are below. Are the ‘other funders’ pro CCSS? Great question. Let’s find out!

The Fund for New Jersey, see their 4/2015 pdf document’s section 3 which details NJ education: NJKids (one of the key components? Extended preK to full day classes)
You can also find the Fund for NJ has granted the Education Law Center money to further strengthen public schools and extend preschools to full days. Find that evidence:
http://www.fundfornj.org/grants-awarded/2015 (The Ed Law Center grant is the 2nd one from the top. There are many other education grants as well which are classified by the organization’s name. To see their CCSS support, use the link: http://www.edlawcenter.org/search-results.html; you can see much about not only preschool expansion, but other education levels as well.) Before we leave the Fund for NJ and its grantee, the Ed Law Center, you might find it interesting that one of the Ed Law Center’s initiatives is for the “Great Schools of NJ”. If you didn’t know it, “Great Schools” is very much CCSS aligned/funded. How do I know? After all the “Great Schools of NJ” is a non-profit organization. The Gates Foundation has funded ‘greatschools.org’ for quite a while. You can find that evidence on both the links below:
http://www.greatschools.org/  and http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database#q/k=Great%20Schools

The Schumann Fund for New Jersey, before we delve into their ties, I wanted you to see the screen shot below. The latest grant is to an early education program named “Brick”.
“Brick” stands for “Building Responsible Intelligent Creative Kids”.

Want to learn more about “Brick”? After all it’s targeting early learners. Be sure to visit:
http://bricknewark.org/curriculum-and-instruction/ (look at the formative assessments, the digital technology that’s been tied to CCSS before)
There are other grants this Foundation you’ll want to investigate. As well. Especially their support of the ‘Grantmakers for Education’ which is tied to  the Fordham Institute, as well as others. To see for yourselves, visit:  http://www.edfunders.org/ (scroll down to see the logo for Fordham) As far as the Grantmakers members list? It’s massive AND very CCSS Machine connected. See all the member organizations:  http://www.edfunders.org/our-community/member-organizations

Smith Richardson Foundation, you can find out more about this Foundation at their website, https://www.srf.org/
That stated, here’s an excerpt about education from their ‘domestic public policy’ page,
“ In terms of human capital development, the Foundation has been supporting work to identify how schools can become more productive by, for example, increasing the quality of the teacher workforce or adopting more effective curricula.  Because success in the contemporary economy requires individuals to acquire education and training beyond high school, the Foundation is building a portfolio of projects on post-secondary education.”
Among the past grant recipients are the pro CCSS groups: Brookings Institute and  Harvard University (well documented ties to CCSS)
You can also find the the CCSS tied Urban Institute among the Smith Richardson Foundation’s grants.(see their 2010 publication, where they go into detail about early education success for immigrants via CCSS on page 7: 412330-Young-Children-of-Immigrants-and-the-Path-to-Educational-Success) Then, contrast that with their other 2010 publication, http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/alfresco/publication-pdfs/901345-Will-We-Ever-Learn-What-s-Wrong-With-the-Common-Standards-Project.pdf
Urban’s Board of Directors and you’ll find members from PBS, Bank of American, the University of NC, Harvard University, and MIT. Each of these groups have support for the CCSS alignment. See the Board:
http://www.urban.org/about/board-of-directors

 The Smith Richardson Foundation has other groups with grants you need to read to believe. You will see a wide variety of educational levels from preschool to GED and everything else in between. Visit their entire ‘education’ grants,
https://www.srf.org/page/1/?s=Education&post_type=grant&s_type=standard#038;post_type=grant&s_type=standard

Tulsa Community Foundation, their website: https://tulsacf.org/  Their ties to early education, CCSS alignment? See below:

What you see above is from the Coalition for Community Schools. I’ve covered this Coalition in previously published articles. However, I’m including the most relevant one.
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/06/19/fom-a-new-ccs-coalition-for-community-schools/

To access the Tulsa Community video featured in the screen shot: http://www.communityschools.org/about/early_childhood_education_news.aspx

To access the Coalition’s ‘perfect fit’ article where they connect early education and CCSS:
http://coalitionforcommunityschools.blogspot.com/2012/04/early-childhood-linkages-with-community.html

To see how the current Tulsa CCSS alignment efforts grew from an earlier Tulsa Community Foundation movement, TulsaCommunityFoundation (scroll to the bottom of page 50 and look on the right hand side for “Step Up Tulsa!”)

 

Back to NIEER:

I found buried in their publications and research this document which was presented in the ‘resources’ section of their newsletter detailing the re-authorization of the ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act). This document was published by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). The topic? “Making PreK to 3rd Grade Assessments Matter”. You won’t believe what you read. It is full of CBE (competency based education). CBE is a huge portion of not only CCSS, but CTE (Career Tech Education).
To access the document: leading-pre-k-3-learning-communities-executive-summary
You really should look at the entire July 2015 newsletter. Why? You’ll find a global investment summit where the topic was early childhood education; you’ll find a federal budget for early childhood learning; you can find studies, and links galore.
To access the NIEER newsletter: http://nieer.org/publications/online-newsletters/volume-14-issue-14

As far as the NIEER state by state yearbook (the original screen shot of this article), you’ll want to investigate that, too. CCSS is listed in the glossary of abbreviations. You’ll also see Title One funding and TANF funding (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). I was able to tie abuse of TANF funds by CCSS in the states in my previous article, https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/09/29/ftf-more-tracking-the-workforce-aligned-society/ 
To access the 2014 Yearbook: Yearbook2014_full2_0