Well, the new U.S. Dept. of Education Secretary is wasting no time when it comes to selling higher education opportunities. But are these opportunities truthful ones? Will these opportunities come with MORE Common Core State Standards strings attached? What about College/Career Readiness? Career Tech Education (and all its other names) and their strings?
I guess it all DEPENDS! Join me in my “From the Files” Tuesday article as we explore this ‘dependent truth’.
The U.S. Dept. of Ed’s ‘Dependent’ Story:
If you just look at the Tweet above, you would think, ‘sounds great, we need more opportunities for low-income students’. However, as we have learned with the pro-CCSS U.S. Dept. of Ed, you can NOT take what sounds great and prove it out to BE great..there is ALWAYS some ‘dependent truth’ embedded. So just WHAT is the Tweet referring to, in hopes of drawing you in? Let’s find out!
First ‘dependent truth’: since the Tweet refers to ‘higher education’, you need to go directly to the OPE (Office of Post Secondary Education) WITHIN the U.S. Dept. of Education. See: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/index.html
But I guess Sec. King depended on you to know that already. As a new leader, it would of been kind of him to point you to where you could find more out if you wanted from the labyrinth Dept. of Ed is. Instead he points you to a research paper. (that is another ‘dependent truth’ for later).
Once you are in the OPE website pages, you can find this declaration
“OPE works to strengthen the capacity of colleges and universities to promote reform, innovation and improvement in post-secondary education, promote and expand access to post-secondary education and increase college completion rates for America’s students, and broaden global competencies that drive the economic success and competitiveness of our Nation.”
How does the OPE pull this off? Lots and lots of programs! There are policy programs (which will shape how reform is carried out), programs to get educational institutions on the reform band wagon, programs for all kinds of students, too..and all chock full of reform under the guise of improving life.
All this leads us to the Second ‘Dependent Truth’: If all the reform and improvements were LEGALLY based and NON Common Core (or any of its other names) aligned, these programs would be better off. BUT, I guess the Dept. of Education depends on the fallacy of our believing them, right?
The Third ‘Dependent Truth’? Simple, policy is NOT law! But I guess no one at the U.S. Dept. of Ed exercised their ‘Captain Obvious’ muscles in this area. The Free Dictionary website stated that policy in relation to governments is “intended to influence and determine decisions, actions, and other matters” They also continue on with this, “A course of action, guiding principle, or procedure considered expedient, prudent, or advantageous”. Since we know the U.S. Dept of Ed sides with all things CCSS, we know their dependence is on the ‘truth’ that prudence, advantage, and influence are subjective, NOT objective! The Free Dictionary offers one last definition of ‘policy’, whatever is “shrewdness” is the basic idea. That, my fellow anti CCSS Warriors, is exactly where the CCSS Machine has been focusing on when it comes to ‘dependent truths’! Contrast the definition of ‘policy’ to ‘law’, and I think you will see yet another ‘dependent truth’ being skewed by the CCSS Machine and the U.S. Dept. of Ed!
If you want to see the 2015-16 Negotiated Rules for Higher Education and what this means for your students,
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2016/index.html
This brings up another ‘dependent truth’: Much of the hype around higher education is the cost of it. Much of the language in these negotiated rules has to deal with student loans. So what ‘dependent truth’ is the U.S. Dept of Ed using (as well as the CCSS Machine)?
Many states are now requiring kids to complete FASFA forms (these are the government financial aid applications) in order to graduate! The U.S. Dept. of Ed is basically hog-tying students to CCSS aligned post-secondary education as well as massive debt!
Because the HEA (Higher Education Act) will be up for re-authorization soon (as I believe it will be due to the ‘success’ of the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act)). Higher Ed is the LAST link in the “cradle to career alignment” which HAS NOT been cemented by the CCSS Machine.
So what is my point? We know where to look when the negotiations begin! See the U.S. Dept. of Ed’s resource for HOW the rulemaking process is conducted! http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=ED-2015-OPE-0103-0001
Other ‘Dependent Truth’ Participants:
The U.S. Dept. of Ed is hardly the only ‘dependent truth’ entity involved in the education alignment activities. Refer back to the Tweet featured above and you will notice Sec. King is sharing with you a report from another source. What source? What report? Read on, my Warriors!
Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is the source.
“True Merit” is the report.
Wanna bet how many ‘dependent truths’ we can find?..First, look below at the screen shot from the Foundation’s website. Notice how young the students targeted are. Not post-secondary age, yet, but much younger.
You can access the picture above: http://www.jkcf.org/
According to the website, the Foundation is “The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is a private, independent foundation dedicated to advancing the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need. The Foundation supports exceptional students from elementary school to graduate school through scholarships, grants, direct service, and knowledge creation and dissemination.”
The Foundation has only been around since 2000 and is based in VA. According to a pdf I found buried in the website, the following is used in determining which students get help, “The Foundation chooses recipients for these awards following a rigorous review process led by independent, expert selection committees. Selection criteria include academic excellence, unmet financial need, will to succeed, leadership and public service, critical-thinking ability, and strong interest in the arts and humanities.” Want to see the pdf? http://www.jkcf.org/assets/1/7/back_matter.pdf
SO here is Cooke’s ‘first dependent truth’: “Research shows: There is a profound and widening excellence gap through elementary and secondary school.” Their second ‘dependent truth’ is(also from research): “High-achieving, low-income students are less likely to pursue rigorous coursework or to score highly on achievement tests.” I guess they are depending on the truth that their research left out how poorly ALL students are doing in both these areas due to CCSS and all that goes with it! Cooke has many more ‘dependent truths’ where I found these two beauties. It is on their ‘Guiding Principles’ page. Among them you will find why students must be academically engaged during, after and through summers to perform well.
Another of Cooke’s ‘dependent truths’: Their Community College Initiative. As I have shared with you in the past, community colleges across the nation are aligned to CCSS via the CTE (Career Tech Education) and its paths. From the document detailing this Initiative, here is an excerpt, “The Foundation issued $6.8 million in grants to the institutions to increase the number of high achieving, low‐income community college transfer students at the participating four‐ year colleges and universities. The grants would enable the institutions to foster programs, policies, and partnerships with community colleges to improve student preparation, assistance with admission and financial aid processes, orientation and “bridge” programs, and post‐admission support. The eight institutions were Amherst College, Bucknell University, Cornell University, Mount Holyoke College, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina‐Chapel Hill, and University of Southern California. To evaluate the CCTI, the Foundation selected the Center for Youth and Communities at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management.”
Their research team? Another ‘dependent truth’: “Prior to awarding the CCTI grants, the Foundation, in collaboration with the Lumina Foundation and the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, commissioned research…” If you would like the entire Report, CookeCCTI
Before we leave Cooke, you need to know the Tweet Sec. King made was not referring to this Report, but Cooke’s latest, called “True Merit”.
Before I share True Merit’s document, here is the fancy, You Tube video to sell us on this idea the U.S. Dept. of Ed is embracing and tweeting about:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpeio1ScIo8&w=560&h=315]
Some of the ‘dependent truths’ in “True Merit”:
1) SAT/ACT prep and courses, assessments
2) Under served student populations (just a few days ago I wrote how the ESSA used this phrase in the language for purposed CCSS/CTE alignment)
3) Student funding
4) CCSS/CTE/CCR aligned post-secondary education institutions which include Harvard, MIT, and others
5) Educational Longitude Studies and other data mining
6) School counselor guidance (I have also exposed the White House Initiative concerning school counselors and their purposed alignment to CCSS/CTE in the past.)
7) AP/IB courses and assessments
Get the entire document: JKCF_True_Merit_Report
If you are not sure how Lumina and Nellie Mae are part of the CCSS Machine and where their ‘dependent truths’ are, see:
https://www.commoncorediva.com/?s=Lumina and
I will suggest you search out Emily Talmadge’s website for her look into Nellie Mae. Her website: http://emilytalmage.com/
One last resource I found within the OPE of the Dept. of Ed and pertains to ‘dependent truths’ for higher education ties AIR (American Institutes of Research) into the alignment efforts in America! See: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012046.pdf
Closing:
Well, my Warriors Against the Core, you can see we have lots to look into in the coming days concerning higher education and the continued quest of aligning every educational choice to that of the CCSS Machine.
Remember to join me tomorrow morning on the Negdog Radio (a BlogTalk Radio Station) as we take a look into the College and Career Readiness Centers located across the nation. You can find Negdog Radio (FL based):
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/negdog-radio/
My host has devoted 11:30 am to 1:30 pm Eastern Standard Time for War vs the Core Wednesdays. You can listen in or call in with questions, 347-843-4165. Shows are archived as well. Then join me again on Women on the Wall national phone call, 8:30 pm, Central Standard Time. That call in number is: 302-202-1110, code 702165.
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