Over the weekend, I shared some globally impacting education news. For today’s article (Monday Musings), I have even more to share. Anti CCSS Warriors, hang on, there are sure to be many parts of the CCSS Machine exposed.
The Webinar, Again:
In case you didn’t read my Weekend News, here is the link.
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/05/22/ed-for-sale/
The Webinar I am discussing in today’s article, is embedded in the News and can also be accessed: http://www.edweek.org/ew/marketplace/webinars/webinars.html#archived
Hosting the Webinar was EdWeek (Gates Foundation funded) and the ISC (International School Consultancy). The topic? Global businesses in education and their profit potentials, especially with the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) now law.
The ‘Hosts With the Most…’:
1) The most educational P3 (public private partnerships) in mind, not the academic quality of your student’s education.
2) The hosts have the most diabolical workforce based credentialing system in place and are using it without abandon, globally.
The fact that the US now has federal laws* which not only support workforce based education, but mandate it, should be of no surprise to us, as those opposed to the CCSS/Fed Ed Machine. We should be able to see that many key events, organizations, and agenda points are geared carefully for the continued shift in American education.
(*Note: WIOA, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014; ESSA of 2015; HEA, Higher Education Act of 2008 and is being re-written now to be passed into new federal law soon. All 3 laws have the CCSS embedded. You will find it under Career Pathways, Career Tech Education, College/Career Readiness, STEM, post-secondary readiness, and/or Career Clusters. Of special note, ESSA uses ‘challenging state academic standards’. The CCSS agenda is STILL there, just a name change to try to fool us.)
Seeing Through the Hype:
As a long time researcher against Common Core and all that goes with it, it takes a tremendous amount to shock me when it comes to the vastness of the CCSS Machine, as I refer to the education reform. While most of the Webinar’s attendees appeared to be blown away by the information packed into all those PowerPoint slides and spoken words, I was not. I was disgusted. I know you are too, Warriors.
Seeing Through ISC:
As I stated above, ISC (International School Consultancy) was a co-host. What or who is behind ISC? Let’s see what we can discover. Below is what the home page looks like. Notice the number of country flags you see.
The website: http://www.iscresearch.com/
The company is big on educational research for not only K-12, but post-secondary, too.
ISC is based in the United Kingdom, but has offices all over the globe. They also partner with some well known CCSS Machine members. For example, College Board is one. Why? All that data mining information! However, before we delve into the CCSS Machine partners, take a look at this one minute video about ISC.
https://youtu.be/DBL8WJW7zNY
As far as those CCSS Machine member partners….
1) To see all of them: http://www.iscresearch.com/company/partners.aspx
2) ECIS (European Council of International Schools), ECIS also is a member of the Council of International Schools, CIS.
3) CIS has a specialized Child Protection Task Force where you can also find the U.S. State Dept.’s Overseas Branch for Education as a banner member.
(Task Force’s website: http://www.cois.org/page.cfm?p=2465, as seen below in the screen shot.)
4) As far as the U.S. State Department’s education branch, it has an OSAC (Overseas Schools Advisory Council). That Council? It is FULL of Private businesses!!
5) This Council also partners with the National Association of Elementary School Principals Foundation. NAESP is tied to the CCSS Machine in many ways.
They are the ones who gave us “GRIT” in our schools, which positively championed for the ESSA’s passage, and more disgusting education reform moves. Here is one of my previously published articles on the Principals. See: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/10/18/weekend-news-ccss-school-officials-alignment/
5a) As far the Foundation portion of the Principals? Tied to the United Way, UW.
United Way is also internationally tied to the CCSS Machine! Here is just one of the UW articles I have. You can usually find UW where you find Promise Neighborhoods (now, a mandated part of the ESSA.) See: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/04/30/weekend-news-for-the-war-against-the-core/
6) College Board, we already have lots of information on them.
As you access some of the previous research I have done, notice the OTHER federal level American government agencies; the repeated use of some of the same CCSS Machine members; and, how all this fits oh-so-nicely with the global information research.
Is There More?!
Oh, yes, Warriors, there is. Much like the ‘Song That Never Ends’, the CCSS Machine grinds on.
A couple of odd notes from the Webinar you may want to investigate on your own.
1) The OERs, Open Educational Resources are becoming big profit makers for those making money off our schools and at our students/teachers expense. One of the EdWeek’s favorite resources for OERs is known as CMX powered by EdGate. EdGate is a division of EdMin.
To access the OERs for CMS, See: https://correlation.edgate.com/cmx/login.php
This OER website is for teachers AND students. It aligns with not only CCSS, but CTE (Career Tech Education), too. CTE is embedded in both the WIOA and the ESSA.
2) To see EdMin’s tie to international workforce based education, see the screen shot below.
Link to the international CTE information: http://www.edmin.com/news/cte-cctc-international-and-supplemental-standards-added-edgate-repository-standards
3) The International Teacher Standards were also featured in the Webinar.
To access these, see: http://www.theptc.org/ttc-standards/
One name to note: Bambi Betts. Her name is also seen above in the CIS screen shot, but with a different named organization. In the CIS shot, she is representing the Academy of International School Heads. Her connection to the International Teacher Standards is organization which has the Standards, the Principal’s Training Center, PTC. PTC is based in Florida. To see PTC’s member schools (all with international education in mind),
http://www.theptc.org/current-members/
(*Special note, when visiting the PTC website, be sure to scroll over the “Standards”. You can select International Teacher, Principal, or Counselor.)
To understand why I pointed out Betts to you, see below:
You can also tie Betts back to the ISC (International School Consultancy). She authors a regular column in TIE ( The International Educator), a partner group of ISC. If you would like to see Bambi Betts’ brief bio: http://www.theptc.org/bambi-betts/ (*notice the absence of American education positions.)
Betts and her PTC organization are hosting a workshop in July 2016. It is geared for school leaders, but targets student assessments. Use this link to find out how the workshop is described, then be sure to click on the web/print resources. It is here you will find many CCSS Machine member assessments. See: http://www.theptc.org/ptc301/
In case you cannot access the separate web/print resources, http://www.theptc.org/assess-resources/
