Churning Waters Ahead

Anti Fed Ed Warriors, I’m not sure how much nautical experience you have or don’t have. I’ll be using some of the terms today to illustrate the recent CIEB (Center for International Benchmarking) and NCEE (National Center for Education and Economics) Seminar featuring Marc Tucker’s latest book, “Leading High Performance School Systems (Lessons from the World’s Best). This seminar was held on the 23rd of April 2019 in DC. (*Notes: a) CIEB is an arm of NCEE. b) Here’s the Feb. 2019 Press Release for the Tucker book. c) NCEE is funded by the CCSS Machine and is considered a ‘go to resource for credibility.)

Yes, Warriors, THAT Marc Tucker (Mr. “Dear Hillary”). Don’t think he disappeared from the educratic scene after his “Dear Hillary” letter.  (*Note, fellow Warrior, Dr. Young wrote about that infamous letter on her website, Crucial Voice of the People.)

The worst part of the “Tucker” ship upon education’s waters? It’s not the only ship!

The Seminar:

Warriors, the entire event was just over 3 hours. I’ve embedded the YouTube link for you. What follows are notes and pictures to illustrate the churning waters which are about to drown our nation..if we let it.

**Start around the 14 minute mark. During that time, I noted the following CCSS Machine member groups/people praising Tucker’s new book as they flashed on the screen:

a) The U.S. Dept. of Education’s Under Secretary (Duncan Era)
b) Linda Darling Hammond (both as Learning Policy Institute and CA State Board of Education leader). *Note: LDH was a guest during the seminar, too.
c) Representative of the Harrisburg, PA School District. *Note: the Superintendent for Harrisburg was a guest during the seminar.
d) DE’s New Sussex Technical School
e) Mr. Driscoll, former MA Education leader
f) OECD, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Ex. Dir. for Education/Skills. *Note: much of Tucker’s stats are based off OECD data. OECD is also responsible for the ‘human capital’ phrase.
g) Harvard Univ.’s School of Education *Note: They are big on school redesign, too. Harvard partnered with Pearson to help create the Pathways to Prosperity which ‘churned up’ CPs, Career Pathways.
h) NEA President, Lily Garcia
i) Asia Society

From Tucker’s Speech (aka Remarks):
Warriors, these are from the beginning of the seminar. Tucker will reappear a couple of times. If and when you watch the video, note his facial expressions from time to time. Very mean spirited looks (and words) are evident.

1) Tucker and his research team have been going to the top performing countries for the past 30 years and bringing back concepts to the US.
2) His book is geared to school superintendents and lays out how they are the biggest ‘wave walkers’. Superintendents can also bring folks with them to jump in the pool.
3) Other countries (in his ‘Did you know’ portion) have strong government supports in education, much more than the US. We must be like them. We must have more wrap around supportive services and CTE (Career Tech Education), or as it’s known in Europe VET (Vocational Education and Training).
4) America’s education system is so desperate we’ll take any teacher who can ‘fog a glass’. Other countries’ teachers are industry based top professionals.

5) Four steps we, as Americans must take to have education like the top performing countries: a) vision and plan that everyone can ‘buy in’ to; b) have powerful industries link to community colleges for CCR (College and Career Readiness) aka Common Core; c) the goal, all students CCR by 10th grade linked to a framework from 1st grade and up. Assessments to link all together. It appeared Tucker was suggesting that 10th grade wasn’t part of high school and/or that high school was any type of college filled with ‘real CTE’ and P3s (public private partnerships); and d) highly qualified, tenured K-12th grade teachers.

Warriors, what if a student is struggling to become CCR by any grade level in Language Arts and Math? Here was Tucker’s level of concern:

What about the teachers and students working together? According to the research Tucker has written about the teachers from other countries spend much less time being in front of their students and more time collaborating. Think ‘redesigning schools’ much like we’ve heard from DeVos and the CCSS Machine.

Just what is that ‘world class performance’? NWO or new work organization (could we also connect this to the NWO, New World Order? Sure sounds like it!) Why ‘new work organization’? We must streamline education for being more skill based and organized. Included in this ‘new organization’ must be more social webs of supports, especially for early learners and low-income families. We must have comprehensive wrap around services to close the equity gap.

One question comes to mind about the Constitution and Tucker’s comment. Where did the Constitution ‘assign’ education to the States? It didn’t. Education wasn’t ‘assigned’ at all! After laying out in Amendments 1-9 what was federal, the 10th Amendment gave everything else to the States to handle. At the time, education wasn’t even a State responsibility, but has since become one due to the wording of the 10th Amendment. Under certain parts of the 14th Amendment, free public education cannot be denied, but it is in the instance of undocumented immigrants, not natural born citizens or naturalized ones.

LDH’s Ship Of Indoctrination Sets Sail:

Warriors, yes, we really need to look at Linda Darling-Hammond’s part of this churning waters reform.
You’ll find her portion near the 58:22 time stamp.
LDH wrote the forward for Tucker’s new book (bait for the waters).

It was noted by LDH that many countries come to America to see how we’ve ‘innovated’ education. That’s good, she said, but we must scale up our innovations to meet THEIR high performance, organized systems. Part of those include national or state curriculum, philanthropy funded schools, government funded teacher prep or PD (Professional Development) which is aligned to a routine system.

Near the 1:09 time stamp, the moderator leads up to his question to LDH with this, “You’re deeply into the policy agenda in this country. So what’s your perspective as President of the CA State Board of Ed.” Her response? “Under ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) it returned a little to an idea called ‘think’. It increased flexibility and States re-investing in education. It’s systematic. How do we align all parts of this system? We have to come back to the 1990s (before NCLB, No Child Left Behind). We have to have funding and invest in our teachers and leaders.”

Warriors, let me pause here, if LDH really thinks ESSA allows us to dial back the 1990s, that would put us right smack dab in the vortex Tucker wrote Hillary about! When you get to today’s ‘related resources’, you’ll see the direct connection.

Near the 1:16:49 time stamp, the US will be compared to Finland in regards to teaching by LDH. She then launches into how we need to revolutionize the teaching profession (called ‘craft’ repeatedly by many in the seminar) to equal the revolution in healthcare (before Johns-Hopkins became the ‘benchmark’).

Near 1:25:00, Our need for centralized education ‘where locals dance to State support’s tune’. You’ll also hear how everything Gov. Brown started, she’ll extend. How CCSS and NGSS (Next Gen Science Standards) have allowed a framework to ‘center on top-down support for bottom-up reform’. Next, SEL (social emotional learning) and ‘collective efforts‘. Warriors, keep in mind, this is all AFTER Hammond professed ESSA’s greater flexibility.

Anybody Got A Bucket?

The next segment of the seminar was a round-table discussion:

Warriors, I want to focus on Fuhrman’s portion right here. You’ll see why, below. It’s what follows her comments above.

She followed these brilliant insights with, “US Legislators basically not performing like education ministers of other countries.”  Fuhrman also pointed out that NCLB (No Child Left Behind) narrowed American Standards while RttT (Race to the Top) was a backlash to the standards.
I’m still trying to figure out just how this makes sense, Warriors.

As far as her working with Brazil, it’s ironic that the UN (United Nations) used Brazil’s STEAM and SEL (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, Math and Social/Emotional Learning), open classrooms, IT (information technology),  and CBE, Competency Based Education to infiltrate US schools.

Then, there’s Dan Domenech…

Warriors, Domenech went on to say that we need more ‘multi-age groups’, more “early childhood education”. We want ‘sustained change’. Then when asked how to get the nation’s attention, his response “Keep throwing out there how inferior we are, that’ll tick people off. Then, look at Tucker’s 9 Blocks (in his book).  We need SEL and test scores, wrap around supports for families. We are doing this for the best interest of children.”
One of the most surprising comments by Domenech, was he, along with these progressive minded reformers, were tickled that Pres. Trump has embraced and pushed CTE (Career Tech Ed) and apprenticeships. Because that’s exactly how and what the other countries are doing to prepare their students! He went on to say Americans really like this! (You’ll find these near the 2:09:30 time stamp. It is near the end of D’s comments he uses the Lord’s name in vain.)

If you cannot listen to Tucker by himself, go back and listen to the Round-table. There’s so much more, especially when these 3 ‘tackle’ politics in education.

The Final Buoy:

Warriors, near the 2:13:02 time stamp, two PA Superintendents were brought on stage to talk about their portion of the churning waters. I encourage to listen to their CCSS Machine rhetoric, there’s more than what you see below:

Setting An Anchor:

Warriors, at the 2:53:26 to the end, listen to the moderator, the 2 ‘we’re not plants in the audience’, and Marc Tucker. You’ll find CCSSO (Counsel of Chief State School Officers) was there, Great City Schools, and, New America Ed Policy were in the audience.

Related Resources: 
1) From NCEE, 2017: The “Prepare to Lead” Report. Geared for principles in schools to be globally aligned via ‘best practices’.

2) From the Women on the Wall, 2014, several Warriors gathered to discuss the ramped up shift from academics to workforce education. There were 21 ways in which CPs (Career Pathways) were embedded in WIOA (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014). WIOA was embedded in ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015) when it stated on Page 17 that all education must be aligned to post-secondary readiness standards as laid out by WIOA.

3) From earlier this month, my expose on VET from Germany and how America’s kowtowing to it. Warriors, it’s THIS that Tucker’s entire platform for ruining American education is built upon.

4) Those “top countries” Tucker swears we need to be just like?

Closing:

Warriors, that’s quite a bit of agenda from Tucker, but he gave us clues as to Maryland and its part in this sinking ship. I’ll be heading there in my next article.