“Conformity Readiness”

Warriors Against the Core: In today’s “Tech Thursday” article, I will be taking an in-depth look at the ‘College and Career Readiness’ so interwoven in the ESSA. How does it connect to the Common Core? History, updates, resources, and much more information you need to know.

You recognize CCR, right? The College and Career Readiness that was to replace CCSS (Common Core State Standards), that was to be better than CCSS? That was to be one of the ways the ESSA(Every Student Succeeds Act) ditched the CCSS? Yeah, right..I we all have beach front homes in KS!

“Air Apparent”:

It is no secret how much a part of the CCSS Machine Air, Inc. is but in case you haven’t seen some of the latest CCR (College and Career Readiness) propaganda, you are in for a ‘treat’!
Before we continue our look at AIR, Inc. let’s take a step back in time to see the foundation for CCR (College and Career Readiness).

 

A Step Back:

One of the only truly apparent things about CCR is that they were woven into the RttT (Race to the Top) applications and waivers..right along WITH CCSS! Below (as an example) is what NC did with its RttT money for CCR:

Access the document: NCCCRRttTguide

From the blast of the past concerning the screen shot above, comes this excerpt that will help continue the point I am making today.
“Career & College: Ready, Set, Go! is designed to mobilize all of these individuals and groups toward the goal of graduating all students from high school prepared for further education and successful employment. This high-level goal encompasses many smaller goals and objectives that will move North Carolina public schools forward. In their successful application for federal Race to the Top funding, state education leaders capitalized on the work that was already underway and received federal funding to help North Carolina move further and faster toward realizing Career & College: Ready, Set, Go! for every school district, every public school and every student.”

Now, notice that “public schools” were stressed. Back when this was written, most school choices were not conforming to the CCR.
Fast forward to 2016..and every school choice, in some way or other is conforming to CCR!

This is NOT a NC specific problem, either, this is a nation-wide one. Before we move on, take one more look at this old NC document. Notice the SAT ties, the AP ties, the post-secondary aspects (community colleges and major 4 year universities). Notice the timeline. The 2016-17 school year is the LAST year before ESSA’s complete implementation is to take place. (Per the ESSA, everything must be in place no later than the 2017-18 school year.) Again, a nation-wide problem, not just a NC issue!

So what do you think the rest of the States will do with the money coming down from D.C. with the CCR ties in the ESSA? If what the States did with RttT is an example, they will use it to continue breeding master conformers NOT citizens with free will! However, if your State didn’t get RttT funds, you still have the CCR..thanks to the CCSS Machine! All so conformity can be the end result of education for workforce needs.

 

Those Handy, Dandy Air, Inc. CCR Pocket Guides:

These are rather dated as well, the post I found was from 2013. Again, before the ESSA and its passage, but also another portion of the CCR foundation. It is here we will see the point in time when our States truly sold us out.

The Guides were created in a way to ‘help state and local policymakers and practitioners implement the college- and career-ready reforms included in the flexibility waivers approved by the U.S. Department of Education. In 2011, the Department of Education waived certain provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in exchange for reform plans related to four principles, including achieving college and career readiness.’  What were the other 3 reform plans? Revamping state waivers to adhere to CCR; how CCR would be defined; and using best practices to help shape the States for CCR. Air, Inc. just helped promote the CCR to the States (at that point, 35 in total). It was the ESEA Flexibility Waivers the States received to help them conform to CCR

It is important to point out that the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) does contain a passage where it declares the ESEA Flexibility Waivers as expired. However, there are other passages where the CCR lives on without them. Go back and read those Flex Waivers,however.
Why? The ESSA gives MORE power to the SEAs(State Education Agencies) in alignment for CCR’s Outcome Based Education. ESSA also gives the Feds MORE power when it comes to approving any State’s education plan. The old Flex Waivers study by Air, Inc. will tell you the CCR was rapidly replacing the importance of high school graduation. Why? The economic impacts!
The CCR Pocket Guide (below); read it to also see the involvement of the NGA (National Governors Association), the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers), the P21 (Partnership for 21st Century Skills) and how the embedding of CCR into the CCSS (Common Core State Standards) would bring about all this conformity!
To get the CCR Guide this information is from: CCR_Pocket_Guide_0

Warriors, did you catch that? CCR was embedded INTO the CCSS! Since the ESSA embraces CCR that means the CCSS will live on! ESSA does use the phrase Common Core State Standards Initiative(CCSSI) 4 times in its Final Conference Report (1,059 pages), which means it is ALSO in the 391 page ESSA Final Law!! (Pages 130 uses CCSSI in relation to standards states use and their assessments; 825 uses CCSSI in relation to State educational waivers; 843 uses CCSSI in relation to federal financial support to the States; and 859 in relation to not prohibiting the States from withdrawing from the CCSS.)

Warriors, ask yourselves this: How can you keep the Initiative without the Initiative’s Standards??

Air, Inc.’s 2015-16 CCR Resource Guide:

What is the most interesting about this guide (not available in pocket size) is that while it says College and Career Readiness Standards and Assessments, scroll through and see how many of the resources are in fact, Common Core State Standards and Assessments. Notice how many other CCSS Machine members you see! Get this Guide: College-and-Career-Readiness-Assessment-Resources-Winter-2015-16

 

‘New America’ Maps CCR:

This member of the CCSS Machine has a handy, dandy website where you can literally see a map of the USA in colors to denote just how CCR they truly are. To see it: http://atlas.newamerica.org/mapping-college-readiness

How I know they are a CCSS Machine member: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/01/21/wybi-new-america-ed-central-pre-k-to-high-pay/ (*Note: the biggest clue to The Atlas website and my article? Beside the name, the logo gives it away.)

 

 

ESSA’s CCR:

When you search for the exact phrase ‘college career readiness’ in the ESSA Final Report, you will receive nothing. However, shorten it to one word (in my search, I used ‘readiness’). I found the following page numbers which will tie up the point:
CCR is most definitely embedded in the ESSA! It isn’t going away!
*Be sure to note that these are summaries. How did the writers omit CCR as we know it? ‘Post-secondary readiness’ OR ‘career readiness’, but NOT ‘College and Career Readiness’!

Page 85, Page 324, Page 328, Page 340, Page 374, Page 439, Page 462, Page 482, Page 516, Page 597, Page 601, Page 611, Page 615, Pages 626/629, Page 631, Pages 677/684,
Page 695, Pages 723/724, Page 803, Page 884, and Page 951.

Warriors Against the Core, just because the writers and sponsors of ESSA performed ‘language foul play’ by not using the exact phrase “College and Career Readiness”, doesn’t mean CCR isn’t there..it is, in plain sight with words that mean the same thing!!

 

Other Handy, Dandy Pocket Guides from the Government:

Directly related to the ESSA (and the supposed return of state control/CCR improvements/ and more) I give you the U.S. House of Representative’s EdWorkforce Committee Pocket Guides. 
http://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/top10.png
http://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/gop_principles.png

From the U.S. Senate’s HELP (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) page, I searched for their take on CCR, the top resource? A group of supportive statements for the ESSA’s passage into law, where CCR was mentioned by several. See: http://www.help.senate.gov/ranking/newsroom/press/widespread-support-for-every-student-succeeds-act
To see their pdf documents for ‘CCR in Practice’:
http://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/career-and-college-readiness-in-practice

Also of note from the HELP website is a document they have in their archives titled
This undated document is from the WV Dept. of Education and its addressing of the (then) newly released, voluntary CCSS.
Why do I bring this up? The search I conducted was for ‘College Career Readiness’, the description HELP has this document labeled with is that the NGA and the CCSSO published the CCR Standards(see the screen shot). Do you see the connection? The NGA and CCSO did publish Standards, but they were the CCSS, this document serves as proof the CCS AND the CCR are one and the same!

Here’s the most CCR excerpt I could find from the document, “Lastly, the common standards are aligned with college and work expectations. By preparing all students to be both college and career ready, all students are able compete in their post-secondary education and/or career choice. Preparing all students to be college and career is absolutely critical to the long-term success of the country. By providing a set of expectations that are clear to students, parents and educators about what it takes to be college and career ready, the states have taken a major step forward in producing students who are ready for later success.” To access the entire document: Paine1 
To see the 2014 CCSSO CCR Task Force Report: EmbargoedCCSSOTaskForceonCareerReadiness120114

Warrior Question, why is it ‘Standards’ if they are ‘expectations’?

 

Other CCR Standards WannaBes:

Pearson Publishing’s CCR: CCR_WEB_FINAL Pearson
EPIC’s (Education Improvement Policy Center’s) CCR:
 Defining_College_Career_Readiness
ACT, Inc’s CCR Standards claim: https://www.act.org/standard/
Their pdf document (be sure to see the bottom of Page 2): ACTAlignment-White-Paper

Closing:

There you have it Anti CCSS Warriors, the story of the CCR, CCSS, ESSA, and conformity in excess. We have much information to share, many more battles to fight, so let’s get busy!