Tech Thursday: Decoding the Core

Warriors Against Common Core aka ‘anti CCSS Warriors’: Do you find sometimes those you are talking to appear to lost in the maze of words you use? While we wish to attract folks to the truths about Common Core (CC) sometimes we can have them walking away from us scratching their heads and muttering “What WAS all that about?”.

Today’s “Tech Thursday” article is an effort to help untangle the mass of words, decode all those ‘alphabet soup’ shortcuts used in daily anti CCSS (Common Core State Standards) activism. Not everyone opposing the educational takeover is in the educational setting. In fact, most of us are ordinary citizens. What makes us different, is we’ve chosen to jump in this fight for our schools. As we’ve learned in the past clear communication is a MUST. It is from this perspective, I will attempt to ‘decode the Core’.

First, the “Alphabet Soup”:

Formally known as ‘acronyms’ many in this War have jokingly called all the abbreviated jargon, ‘alphabet soup’. Acronyms are a favorite in the political realm of America. Since so much of the educational debacle IS rooted in legislation (thanks to the politicians supportive of federal overreach), we have educational acronyms. The shortened versions of what’s being said or written are favored as time savers AND/OR space savers..especially when using social media. It’s almost impossible to convey lengthy meanings using social media, yet it is vital to our activism because of the speed at which can you share news.

Second, Let the Decoding Begin!

In no particular order, here are what I believe to be the MOST confusing acronyms connected to education, especially Common Core’s education.

CC: “Common Core” (remember, it is copyrighted, so use quotation marks when writing it out if full form)
CCSS: “Common Core State Standards” (copyrighted name)
CCS: “Common Core Standards” (what some anti CC warriors use because they know ‘States’ had nothing to do with the Standards creation)
CCR: “College Career Ready” or “College Career Readiness” (supposedly new standards to replace Common Core, however, if you look close enough, you’ll notice the name is a rebrand of Common Core) This a tactic the pro CC folks use to distance themselves  and confuse the general public.
CP: “Career Pathways” (part of CC that’s designed to help create a trained workforce)
CBP: “Competency Based Pathways” (part of the CC designed to bring outcome based education methods to trained workforce curriculum)
OBE: “Outcome Based Education” (a method of education that focuses on results, not the person)
ESEA: “Elementary and Secondary Education Act” (this usually refers you to the 1965 legislation that’s been overhauled a few times and eventually led us to CC)
NCLB: “No Child Left Behind” (one of the previous overhauls of the ESEA)
HR5: The bill number from the U.S. House of Representatives known as “Student Success Act” (this is the House’s latest version of the ESEA, which is up for re-authorization now)
S1177: The bill number from the U.S. Senate known as “Every Child Achieves Act” (this is the Senate’s latest version of the ESEA, which is up for re-authorization now)
HEA; “Higher Education Act” (this refers to the older version of legislation created to impact post-secondary education. Post-secondary education means any type of education beyond high school. The HEA is also up for re-authorization very soon)
P3s: “Public, private partnerships” (ie: those unions which not only ‘gave’ us the “Common Core”, but who continue to propel it)
21st Century CLCs: “21st Century Community Learning Centers” (what our local schools are being transformed into to meet with the agenda where entire communities are aligned to the ‘Common Core’ way of life)
P-20W: “Preschool to Grade 20/Workforce” (a huge part of the “Common Core State Standards Initiative” to encompass the ‘cradle to career’ agenda)
CCSSI: “Common Core State Standards Initiative” (The agenda and movements behind the “Common Core State Standards”)
NGA: “National Governor’s Association (as is one of the two groups which own the copyright to the CCSS)
CCSSO: “Council of Chief State School Officers” (as is the second of the two groups which own the copyright protected Standards)
STEM: “Science, Technology, Engineering, and, Math” (part of the agenda and intent laid out by the PCAST  and which uses CCSS as the delivery system)
PCAST: “President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology” (the group which has great influence over the President. Helped create the agenda to help reform education to suit a specific non educational agenda)
STEAM: “Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and, Math” (more agenda with STEM, but added the Arts to become aligned to the CCSS)
STEM to STEAM: “Science, Technology, Engineering, and, Math” bridging over into becoming “Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and, Math” (Congress embraced this effort with gusto)
C3: “College, Career, and Civic Life” (as in the CCSS’s new version of Social Studies)
NGSS: “Next Generation Science Standards (as in the newest CCSS aligned Science)
SLDS: “Student Longitudinal Data System” ( the intended collection and profit making connected to your student’s private information; also can include the entire family’s private information)
WQDI: “Workforce Quality Data Initiative” (as in the data collection system designed with the purposed intent of collecting adult’s private information; also will encompass any student entering the workforce population with the express purpose of aligning education to match workforce needs)

Lastly,
The CCSS Machine: “The Common Core State Standards Machine” (my personal creation to refer to the entity behind the Standards which are destroying our nation)