seMissourian.com: Local News: Speaker talks problems with Common Core (07/17/13)

seMissourian.com: Local News: Speaker talks problems with Common Core (07/17/13)

The Cape Tea Party invited Gretchen Logue to speak Tuesday evening at the Cape Girardeau Public Library on Common Core Standards, a set of educational standards that have been adopted by 45 states and that will be fully implemented in Missouri schools in the 2014-2015 school year.
Logue is co-editor for Missouri Education Watchdog and an education researcher with the Missouri Coalition Against Common Core. She used research and government documents to better show the audience various aspects of Common Core.
Logue began by explaining that the federal government has a part in the implementation of the Common Core Standards, though it wasn't directly involved in writing the standards. She pointed to the stimulus bill, showing it allotted $4.35 billion to the U.S. Department of Education to fund the Race to the Top Grant and the Testing Consortia.
"Your Department of Education funded Common Core," she said. "If you've been giving money to do a job, are you going to write something that is so antithetical to what the funder wants you to do? No, you're going to use those funds for what the funder wants."
Logue also said the federal government will be able to receive individual student data now. Logue pointed out that while Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act only allows aggregate student data to be handed over to the federal government, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is able to release individual student data, teacher data and principal data to the consortia.
"[DESE] will tell you that our state isn't sending any information to the federal government, but the state signed the memorandum with the consortia to send the information to them," she said. Logue said the consortia then signed a memorandum to hand the information over to the U.S. Department of Education.
Logue also pointed out that the two groups that created Common Core Standards, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, own the copyright. States are allowed to add 15 percent of their material to the standards if they wish.
"They're giving 15 percent wiggle room, and you can teach about Mark Twain," she said. "And what's going to happen is teachers are going to teach Mark Twain, but students are not going to be assessed on Mark Twain, and if your kids aren't doing well in math or they're not doing well in English, you're going to drop the 15 percent because you want those assessments to be as high as you can hit because it's your job on the line."
Logue also discussed how this would affect student in parochial and private schools, along with families who home-school.
She said if students don't know the curriculum aligned to the assessments, they probably won't do well on the SAT if it is modeled after those standards.
"We have to get out of the mindset that education is hard," Logue said. "It's education. Home-schoolers do it all the time. Do we need choice architects to tell Missouri how we're going to do education?"
Debra Jenkins is a mother of two, one senior and one seventh-grade student, and she home-schooled both.
Jenkins said she's concerned about Common Core because the standards ultimately will affect all the schooling in the state.
"If we're teaching everyone how to color in the lines, how are we going to get those entrepreneurs that think out of the box if we're teaching them to think only in the box?" she asked.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Missouri Schools - The Washington Post

Missouri Schools - The Washington Post Some schools brag about their high passing rates on AP or IB, meaning the percentage of test-takers who scored 3, 4 or 5 on the 5-point AP exam or 4, 5, 6 or 7 on the 7-point IB exam. Passing scores make students eligible for credit at many colleges and universities. I decided not to count passing rates in this way because I found that many high schools kept those rates artificially high by allowing only top students to take the courses. AP, IB and AICE are important because they give average students a chance to experience the trauma of heavy college reading lists and long, analytical college examinations. Research has found that even low-performing students who got a 2 on an AP test did significantly better in college than similar students who did not take AP. On the list, we also give readers a sense of how well each school’s students are doing on the tests by posting the Equity and Excellence rate, which is the percentage of all graduating s...
Read more

My Letter Requesting To Become A Board Member

Sherri R. Tucker 1200 SE London Way Lee’s Summit, MO   64081 816-554-3017 autism@kc.rr.com Lee’s Summit R-7 School District C/o Linda Ismert, Board Secretary Stansberry Leadership Center 301 NE Tudor Road Lee’s Summit, MO   64086 Ms Ismert I would like to submit my name for the position on the Lee’s Summit R-7 School Board.   As you know, I have expressed an interest in being on the school board in the past.   On my first attempt I only lost by 2% which would indicate that the voters have an interest in me being on the board as well.   I would think that the voters’ wishes would be taken into consideration. I have a strong relationship with many of the districts’ families and I can help to bridge the gap between them and the district.   I understand the commitment to the time and energy required each week for meetings, phone calls, conversations, visits to schools, and professional development seminars and workshops.   I already do that with the f...
Read more

School Board Candidates

I am attempting to find information on the school board candidates.  It has been much easier in the past.  This year it has been more difficult.  Susan D. Coffman Susan Coffman has served as the Outreach Program Coordinator and Finance Officer for Lee’s Summit CARES since 2008. She has been a mayor-appointed representative to the Human Services Advisory Board, facilitated alcohol retailer trainings, organized the annual Holly Festival with the DARE program, managed bookkeeping and accounting, and served as the community liaison between LS CARES and local business, universities and the cities.  Coffman’s financial background includes work as a customer support specialist at Jack Henry & Associates Inc. for 11 years and assistant vice president and customer support specialist at Merchants Bank for 17 years.  Her community activities include serving on the Human Services Advisory Board, Paradise Park Advisory Board, Lee’s Summit Social Services Board, form...
Read more