“Executive” Science

 Warriors Against the Core, have you heard about the SMD?

How does it connect to anything  we are fighting against in relation to CCSS (Common Core State Standards) or any of the other names attached to nationally aligned standards?

Simply put, SMD is another top-down control in the areas of science in education.
It easily combines the Sustainable Development Goals and the CCSS Machine. That, in turn, impacts education/school choice, ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act), the workforce in America, the post-secondary education, and life as we know it.

What follow is the research…..

“SMD” stands for ‘The Science Mission Directorate’. If you’ve never heard of a ‘directorate’ , it’s okay, it’s not a popular word. However, it can mean:
a) an executive staff or a board of directors (in its everyday use)
b) a group of people in charge of something (in ELL* use) *English Language Learners
c) membership on a board of directors (in legal terms)

Why should science need a ‘directorate’? What group is in charge? How did the SMD come about and what does it mean in the War Vs the Core? How will knowing about SMD help end the federal overreach in education?

The Federal Entity:

Warriors, the SMD is a part of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). I first learned about SMD when combing over the Presidential Proposed Budget Blueprint.

Here’s the excerpt, “Eliminates the $115 million Office of Education, resulting in a more focused education effort through NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The Office of Education has experienced significant challenges in implementing a NASA-wide education strategy and is performing functions that are duplicative of other parts of the agency.”

Warriors, here are the Anti Fed Ed Priorities surrounding NASA (from my previously published article) :
“1) This program of the federal government is 100% aligned to CCSS, STEM, NGSS, and CTE.
2) The Budget request is for $1.8 million for ‘balanced earth science’. With total alignment to non-educator created Standards, we must question how this money is to be used.
3) Elimination of $115 million for the NASA’s Office of Education and will shift it to the NASA Science Mission Directorate (see page 44). This Directorate streamlines all science disciplines into one flow of data. Is the the best use of taxpayer money to continue a CCSS/STEM program?
4) With NASA’s presence in cyber security, we must question the data collection/mining/sharing.”

The Directorate Itself:

You can find the website here. Below, is a screen shot, look at the added emphasis.

So who are those leading the SMD? Complete bios, here. There are several doctors, managers, technologists, and such. However, I didn’t see one educator in the leadership team.

Again, Warriors, we see non-educators in charge of a group supposedly for educaton!

Among the leaders,one doctor is tied to the Webb Telescope Project. Ironically, the former name of the Webb, was Next Generation Telescope. Why would the Webb be a concern to education Warriors in the US? It’s received global backing. See this.

Another of the doctors on board is tied to National Research Center (NRC).While that may sound innocent enough, the NRC is tied to not only Common Core, but NGSS (Next Gen Science Standards)!

Still another of the SMD doctor/leaders is tied to the Goddard Space Flight Center. How does that concern us? Goddard uses P3s (public/private partnerships) to share its technology discoveries/updates. Let’s remember that ‘technology’ is also called ‘innovation’ and directly applies to the education reform.

Warriors,the leader who caught my eye the most is the person from SMD who is the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and, Math) Director. Her name is Kirsten Erikson.
See below for why we should all be concerned:

Warriors, did you see her statements about advancing national education? What about using P3s to ‘leverage’ educational success? Where else have we heard this rhetoric?! (*Note: a big hint is the ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act. It’s full of increasing the use of P3s to have ‘student achievement’ become better than ever before.)

To access the entire “Sharing the Adventure” book where you’ll find out NASA’s SMD is directly tied to STEM and NGSS; where you’ll find the above screen shot, and so much more: 21751

Giving Us the GLOBE:

One of the NASA programs is called “GLOBE”. It’s a worldwide science and educational program. You can find it under the “Citizen Scientists” tab, here. (*Note: scroll down until you see it on the left hand side.)

Why would I point you to GLOBE? Several reasons. First, the entire name of the Program is
“Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment” (as we’ve been discovering more and more, lately, this smacks of the Sustainable Development Goals.)

The SDGs are a UN/UNESCO ‘brain child’ of conformity for all people.

Are there CCSS Machine contributions to GLOBE? Find them in the free Teacher’s Guide.

The Guide is accessible and encouraged to be used by all educational choices out there.
So, even if you pulled your student from a CCSS aligned school, if they are a member of GLOBE, they’re still being held in the grasp of the Machine. Oh, let’s not forget that includes STEM, too.
(*Note 1: If you look at what Standards are used you’ll see “National Science Education Standards published by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences”. You have to dig to discover that the National Science Standards have been replaced by the NGSS in 2013. NGSS blends CCSS and STEM together.) 

(*Note 2: “National Geography Standards prepared by the (U.S.) National Education Standards Project”. Finding the precise Standards prepared by this Project has proven to be a needle in a haystack. I did find National Geography Standards. I’ve also not been able to see how they connect to the ‘new’ C3 (College/Career/Civic Life) for Social Studies. )

(*Note 3: buried in the Appendix of the Teacher’s Guide, a reference to the National Social Studies Standards, 2000, was credited. Those Standards have been replaced by the C3 ones.)

If you look at the Teaching Standards in the Guide, you’ll notice a ‘national standards’ level and then a more ‘personalized’ regional or state level. Both the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) and the SDGs have ‘region specific’ education as mandates.

Somewhat related or an ICYMI file: the ETS (where you’ll find the National Research Center’s involvement) “National Education Standards” from 2009.

Closing:

Now that you know what the SMD does and how it’s connected to the War vs the Core we fight daily, we must also take into consideration how the U.S. Federal Budget’s funding to the SMD helps keep Common Core (and all that goes with it) firmly in place.