WYBI?? The GTN of North Carolina

Have you heard of a portion of Race to the Top Funding that was used to create a CCSS laden course of study for North Carolina?! Yes, RttT is old news, but as we’ve seen in all that the CCSS Machine controls, old money still corrupts education every new day. What IF your state has a GTN?!

What’s the “GTN”?:

It stands for the “Governor’s Teacher Network”. (website: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/rttt/gtn/)

It’s no secret how in love with Common Core the NC Public School System, the Governor, and many others in NC are. Add to that 450 hand selected teachers spread out across the state to not only be steeped in all things CC related, but to be paid $10,000 each to teach to the Standards is ghastly!!

What a GTN Teacher does:

From the website,

“Network teachers will be selected through a rigorous application process; will receive specialized training related to their projects, and support from NCDPI staff over the course of the year; and will be paid $10,000 for their work. Beginning in summer 2014, these teachers will serve for one year developing projects that support key RttT initiatives (professional development and digital instructional resources for Home Base) in their schools and districts. Network teachers will remain in their current roles, but will also design and deliver individual projects that address needs in the classroom, school or LEA level.  These projects will fit within one of two pathways:

• Pathway 1: Professional Development
  Teachers will create professional development sessions and materials (face-to-face, webinars and online modules) to address classroom instructional needs and  increase the PD offerings in the state-wide Professional Development system in Home Base.
• Pathway 2: Instructional Resources
  Teachers will create instructional sequences for Home Base that are aligned to the N C Standard Course of study and that consist of unit plans, lesson plans that seamlessly integrate the formative assessment process in daily practice, and where applicable, assessment items that are aligned to the standards to be taught in the lessons/unit.”

Here’s a You Tube video to promote the program.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDEr4MXaAU8&w=560&h=315]

Did you catch the “Home Base” reference? Did you understand the Day One peppy teacher’s task was to create a better social studies class via discipline? My, my..how about the ‘aligned to specific content standards’? Yep, CC in plain sight, but yet, not one ‘official reference’ to it.

So, What’s ‘Home Base’?:

Simply put, another way to data mine in NC. Pearson Publishing is behind “Home Base”. Wait, you didn’t know that?? Here’s the proof: “Home Base encompasses instructional improvement system and student information system components (IIS). In September 2012, NC began transitioning to a new SIS by upgrading from NC WISE to Pearson’s PowerSchool product. In December 2012, NCDPI awarded a contract to Pearson for the instruction, assessment and dashboard components of the IIS. In February 2013, NCDPI signed a contract with Public Consulting Group and Truenorthlogic, partnering vendors for the educator evaluation and professional development components of the IIS.” (See the rest of the official announcement, http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/homebase/faq/overall/ )

*Note: Many, many articles have been written about the massive amounts of data mining Pearson does. Truenorthlogic and PCG are in the mix as well. From a general internet search, I was able to locate CCSS aligned Truenorthlogic materials not only in NC, but also in GA, CT, and AZ. However, it’s the ties Truenorthlogic has with the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers) that should really set you off!
See: http://www.ccsso.org/Who_We_Are/Business_and_Industry_Partnerships/Corporate_Partners.html

Truenorthlogic is a “Level 3” Corporate Partner. CCSSO describes them as “the leading provider of comprehensive human capital management systems to K-12 education agencies working to improve student achievement by increasing educator effectiveness.”

So What About Your State?

How would you know if your state has a similar Network sold out to Common Core? Look in your Public Dept. of Education. Here in NC, across the top of the RttT page, is a tiny link that can take you straight to the Governor’s RttT Dept. However, that link is now defunct. (see below)

Here’s something else the old funding brought us in NC from the RttT funds that’s still in use (and on the rise) in 2015( you can click on the tabs of this website and get up to the date information):

So, is there anything else the GTN does?

Oh, when you consider all the indoctrinated RttT, CCSS, and other such, I’m sure of it.  In fact, one of my fellow anti CC warriors who gets updates from the NC Dept of Public Instruction alerted me that a ‘global rubric’ agenda action item is upcoming on 2/5/15 during a regular meeting. Here’s  a portion of the tip.
“Agenda items include an update on global education in reference to the Governor’s Teacher Network, a discussion on the internationalizing of teacher education.” Be sure to know that I’ll see what I can dig up after the 5th as a result of this meeting.

In the meantime:

Check out these other globally minded CCSS tied education organizations. Does your state have connections to these?:

The Center for International Understanding at UNC: http://ciu.northcarolina.edu/ (look at the corporate sponsors and you’ll get a ‘who’s who’ list of CCSS backers)

The Global Education Conference Network:
http://www.globaleducationconference.com/ (see the search results for “Common Core Standards”, http://www.globaleducationconference.com/main/search/search?q=common+core+standards)

The Asia Society:
http://asiasociety.org/education/resources-schools/professional-learning/common-core-getting-there-globally

There are probably more than these 3 above, however, my point ISN’T that learning about other cultures or countries is wrong. I think it’s a great thing. That said, look at HOW the teaching is going on..all filtered through Common Core AND right under our noses!

So, what else is your state cooking up in the name of networking its teachers? Find out!!