Weekend News: The IES and the ESSA

In yesterday’s ‘Tech Thursday’ article, I gave you plenty of information about the CCSS Machine’s efforts via the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) and digital education. In the ‘Closing’, I assured you we would look at the IES (Institute of Education Sciences) next.
Why? Section 9210 of the ESSA discusses the IES’s role in federal overreach into not only education, but our homes as well.

 

Section 9210, Bottom of Page 943:

In the ESSA Final Conference Report (that is the 1,059 page document; the Final Law Version is 391 pages long), this section is titled “Report on Student Home Access to Digital Learning Resources”. (Lines 14 and 15)
Beginning on Line 16 and ending on Line 20, is the General Statement for this Report. “In General-not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences shall complete a study on the educational impact of access to digital learning resources outside the classroom.” So what does this mean? Anytime between December 9, 2015 and July 9, 2017 this Study will be conducted!
Lines 21-24 of Page 943 begin the Contents that will be studied. (The Contents description ends near the bottom of Page 944) Below is a summary of these Contents:

1) Analysis of student habits related to digital learning resources outside the classroom.
2) Location of where the resources are.
3) The types of devices and technology used for educational purposes.
4) Barriers students face in accessing digital learning resources outside the classrooms will be identified.
5) Descriptions of challenges students without home internet access face daily.
6) Related challenges to #5 will encompass a student’s ability to complete homework as well as how engaged in the classrooms they are. It will also measure their participation in class.
7) How the challenges of #5 and 6 impact a student’s educator and their instructions.
8) How SEAs and LEAs (State Education Agencies and Local Education Agencies), schools, P3s (Public, private partnerships), and others can develop ways to break down the challenges and barriers of digital learning access outside the classroom.

What follows the Contents of the Study? How the Director of the IES will include the general public in results of the Study. What other groups get the results? The Committee on Education and Workforce (U.S. House) and the HELP (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) of the U.S. Senate. Finally, all this data will be shared electronically with the U.S. Dept. of Education and posted to their website.

 

Warriors Against the Core: Do you see the process? Do you realize the implications? Do you recognize the 2 main parties receiving the results (Congress and the Dept. of Ed) are the same ones who help plot and plan the HR5 and the S1177 which were combined to give us the ESSA?!
The HELP, the Ed/Workforce also have their hands on the SLDS (Student Longitudinal Data System from the U.S. Dept. of Ed); are helping oversee the re-authorization of the HEA (Higher Education Act); have access to  the WQDI (Workforce Quality Data Initiative from the U.S. Dept. of Labor); and will now be measuring our students OUTSIDE the schools! So where does this usually point? Homes! After school programs! Will this include their trips to Grandma’s or a favorite hang out location where they meet friends, too? While not specified, the descriptions in the language are so opened ended, it does make you wonder.

If you are a number cruncher, here is what all this looks like in our tax dollars:

IES, Up Close:

Well, if the IES will be measuring our students and homes so up close and personal, maybe we should be looking at THEM rather closely.
The website: www.ies.gov
The Director: Ruth Neild (her  bio:
https://www.nagb.org/content/nagb/assets/documents/what-we-do/quarterly-board-meeting-materials/2015-08/06-Ruth-Curran-Neild-Bio.pdf)
To see her requirements in conducting research: https://ies.ed.gov/director/sro/legislative.asp

From what I have been able to find, the Study mentioned in the ESSA is not available on the IES website. However, I have been able to find some related documentation which may help us in our War Against CCSS.

For example, the IES is great about granting large sums of money to others in the name of research. I was able to find one such grant given to UCLA back in 2008. The sum? Over 9 million dollars. The name of the grantee, specifically? National Research and Development Center on Instructional Technology: Center for the Advanced of Technology in Schools (NCATS). The money was good for 5 years.
See: https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=630
Another one was a slightly over one million dollars given to the CAST, Inc. back in 2011 (good for 3 years) and combined technology with the Universal Design for Learning, struggling readers, and more digital learning. See:
https://ies.ed.gov/ncer/projects/results.asp?ProgID=18&InvID=129

I  was also able to find a pdf document where activities for social, emotional, and behavior competencies; student outcomes in school and in life for PreK to Adults are in need of studying, measuring, and researching, especially for virtual learning. See the document:
https://ies.ed.gov/funding/pdf/2016_84305C.pdf

Want to access the ‘Future of Education Technology’ the IES has published?IESfutureedtech
One thing I noticed in relation to this publication was the E-Rate legislation. I wrote about how that is also tied to Common Core in the past (2014). See:  http://preventcommoncore.com/?p=1223
(*Note: This is a huge piece of ‘ammo’ for our cause!)

Want to access the ‘National Education Technology Plan (2016)’ which aligns to the ESSA’s “Effective Use of Technology”? It is from the U. S. Dept. of Education, so no wondering what alignment there may be there, right? See: http://tech.ed.gov/netp/
(*Note: the ESSA language about outside the classroom can best be described in a picture. To see what the U.S. Dept. of Ed has put together:
http://tech.ed.gov/netp/infrastructure/)

If you are curious as to the picture I included showing the dollar amounts for technology in the ESSA, please see the rest of the article, you won’t be disappointed.
http://americanactionforum.org/insights/education-technology-in-the-every-student-succeeds-act

Lastly, the recent announcement of the White House Initiative for Computer Science for All? Yep, same agenda, same players from the CCSS Machine, and our tax dollars are joined together to continue the grinding down of our educational system and all those involved!
See: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/01/30/computer-science-all