IMPORTANT MAP:  PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH YOUR STATES’ LEGISLATORS AND POLICYMAKERS

This map dated 2.26.13 shows the many states that are pulling back from the Common Core Standards.

Legislators in Alabama today are holding a public hearing on HB 254 (companion bill SB 190) that would repeal Alabama’s commitment to the Common Core Standards.

Some of the Alabama legislators are using scare tactics to say that if Alabama decided to leave the Common Core Standards, they would become an “island” all alone among the other states.

This map shows that that is absolutely not true. Numerous states are pulling back from the Common Core Standards:

https://www.box.com/s/0jcz6zo5otf0ojtfe3tu

In fact, more and more states are pulling back from Common Core Standards once they know how terribly expensive it is going to be for states’ taxpayers to pay for the cost of the national assessments.  The federal government will not pay for the cost of administering and implementing the national assessments; the states’ taxpayers will.

For instance, Alabama taxpayers will have to come up with $282 Million to implement the Common Core Standards assessments built upon Common Core curriculum standards that have never even been piloted nor internationally benchmarked.

Nobody knows definitively whether or not the Common Core Standards and the accompanying national assessments will increase students’ academic achievement in any way.

In fact, students’ academic achievement could well go down since the Common Core Standards do not include a systematic approach to the teaching of reading nor grammar/usage/spelling/cursive writing – the most important skills that a student must master to be successful in all other courses.

Former Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott has recently testified that he was pressured to commit Texas to the Common Core Standards before they were even written. The same thing undoubtedly occurred in other states, too.  (Thankfully Commissioner Scott and Gov. Rick Perry rejected the Common Core Standards early-on, and Texas has adopted its own curriculum standards and state tests.  Since Texas used public dollars to adopt its own curriculum standards (TEKS), those standards can be utilized by other states free of charge.)

California has received $104 Million in federal funds but would have to spend $2.1 Billion to implement the inferior Common Core Standards assessments built upon the inferior national curriculum standards that are not as rigorous as the ones California has in place right now!

The cost to states’ taxpayers for the implementation of the Common Core Standards assessments is no secret.  Henry W. Burke has published a report that details the costs for each of the states:

10.15.13 – “States’ Taxpayers Cannot Afford Common Core Standards” by Henry W. Burke —

/states-taxpayers-cannot-afford-common-core-standards/

For taxpayers to spend such atrocious amounts of money on these non-proven/unresearched national standards, national curriculum, national assessments, national teacher evaluations, and a nationally intrusive database of all students/teachers/families is as foolish as “spitting in the wind.”

Donna Garner

[email protected]

Two reports have come out in the last several days. One is from the Centers for Disease Control, February 2013, “Incidence, Prevalence, and Cost of STI’s in United States” — http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats/STI-Estimates-Fact-Sheet-Feb-2013.pdf

The other is in the Dallas Morning News, 2.14.13, “Morning-After Pill Use up to 1 in 9 Younger Women” —  http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20130214-morning-after-pill-use-up-to-1-in-9-younger-women.ece

We need to realize that these two articles are closely tied together.  In the first article published by the Centers for Disease Control, we learn that sexually transmitted infections (STI’s, STD’s) are skyrocketing among women ages 15 – 24; this age group accounts for 50% of all new cases of STI’s.

In the second article, we learn that the morning-after pill (i.e., a high-dose birth control pill) is now being used by 1 in 9 women; that is almost 10% whereas in 2002, it was 4%.  The morning-after pill offers no protection against STI’s.

Putting two and two together, we should realize that the more our culture engages in sexual activity using the morning-after pills — whether married or not — the higher the number of people who will contract STI’s.

End result: The higher the costs of healthcare will go for everyone

Logical conclusion:  To keep down the costs of healthcare, our country should be pushing abstinence-before-marriage and then living in a monogamous relationship.  This would decrease the STI rates all across our country.

However, the Obama administration’s agenda actually encourages everyone to have sex with any and all, including lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender sexual activities.

The Obama administration pushes the morning-after pill even though it gives no protection against STI’s.

The Obama administration pushes condom use even though when used consistently and correctly every single time (which is almost impossible to do), there is still a 15% chance of contracting HIV.  Condoms have not been proven to greatly reduce a person’s chances of contracting other STD’s.

To learn the facts, please read my article dated 10.3.13 entitled “Adults Must Protect Our Country’s Children” —

http://educationviews.org/adults-must-protect-our-countrys-children/

Donna Garner

[email protected]

Michael F. Shaughnessy –

1) First of all , can you tell our readers a bit about yourselves and your past education and experiences.

After reading natural sciences at Cambridge, I did a PhD and post-doc on evolutionary biology and population genetics. I then trained to be a teacher and taught in schools for five years before returning to higher education. I am currently Pro-Director: Research and Development and Professor of Science Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, Chief Executive of Science Learning Centre London, Director of the Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology Project and an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. I was Director of Education at the Royal Society, have written extensively about curricula, pedagogy and assessment in science education and have directed a very large number of research, evaluation and consultancy projects over the past twenty years funded by UK Research Councils, Government Departments, charities and international agencies. For further information see www.reiss.tc<http://www.reiss.tc>.

2) How would you define an Aims-Based Curriculum ?

An aims-based curriculum is one that starts by asking what schools are trying to achieve. It therefore begins with the fundamental purpose of education and goes on from there to consider what is the most suitable curriculum. This is different to what normally happens which is that one starts with school subjects.

3) You write about human flourishing in the schools. What exactly
do you mean by this ?

Human flourishing occurs when humans develop so as to maximise what is best about being a human ­ to develop one potentials and to be thoughtful and respectful of the needs and desires of others. We see it when learners are motivated to learn more, believe that they and others are worthwhile, and enjoy life without being overly worried if they don’t succeed at everything.

4) Blunt question,should the schools be equipping each learner to read,
write, do maths, spell, or should the focus be to equip each learner to lead a personally fulfilling life and help others to do so also²?

Part of leading a personally fulfilling life and helping others to do so too entails not only being able to read but to wish to read and to read a range of literatures including some that are challenging and stretch one. In the same way, both John and I want all learners to be capable and confident at mathematics. At the same time, we do not start from the assumption that a large proportion of curriculum time in every school year must be devoted to mathematics. We are attracted, for many subjects, by the notion of a ‘core and options’ model so that learners would have more opportunities to exercise choice over what they study than is generally the case at present. Reasonable spelling is need to read and to communicate in writing effectively, though its importance is sometimes over-emphasised. Spelling conventions change over time (as any reader of literature knows ­ I’m re-reading Pride and Prejudice at present).

5) Is the purpose of the schools in 2013 to facilitate a life of personal, civic and vocational well being or to prepare them for the electronic, computerized, technological world in which we live?

We do live in an electronic, computerized, technological world but that is not the only world in which we live. We also live in a world rich in human relationships and we live in a world with unacceptable levels of inequalities, including those that result from increasing damage to the environment. A life of personal, civic and vocational well being should help young people live in whatever circumstances they find themselves.

6) Do you envision having to lengthen the school day or school year in order to achieve your goals?

I see no reason to lengthen the school day or year. There are educational reasons to wonder if vacations might be of more even length (rather than varying from a fortnight to close on two months). At the same time, I see schools as becoming more ‘porous’ than they were a few decades ago. The new technologies and transport possibilities mean that much more valuable learning is available outside of school than used to be the case.

7) How involved should the state be in determining curriculum? How involved should OFSTED be in evaluating curriculum?

John and I are in favour of both the state and individual schools having a say in the curriculum. The state’s role is at a more overarching level; the school’s is dependent on its student intake and socio-geographical situation. We don’t say a great deal about Ofsted or any other system of school inspection. In principle, one wants some sort of inspection arrangements to check that schools are not under-performing or abusing their authority. Unfortunately, much of the recent history of school inspection in England is of a reduction of expertise among the inspectorate combined with an increasingly rigid focus on student attainment in public examinations. When I was teaching in schools, Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMIs) (which is what we had then) were less in the public eye and more concerned with providing feedback to individual teachers as well as to the whole school so that teachers could improve however well they were performing.

8) Let¹s talk student choice—should students be given the option of preparing to learn at Oxford or Cambridge or preparing to work at Harrod¹s or as a gardener in Hyde Park?

It’s hardly rocket science but an important aspect of 11-16 education is enabling learners to keep their options open. With an increasingly high proportion of learners going on to universities across the world, one doesn’t want too early to force learners to decide between the possibility of higher education, getting a job or some sort of apprenticeship as soon as they leave school. One failing in the English school system has been to equate ‘vocational education’ with ‘education for low attaining students’.
Yet, for many students medicine, for example, is a vocation whereas stacking shelves at a supermarket isn’t.

9) What do you mean by school ethos ?

School ethos is the ‘feel’ and presumptions of a school. For example, does it value the creative arts? Are students given lots of choices or few? Is religious faith presumed to be the norm, a valid possibility or odd?

10) What changes in teacher education would you envision should your ideas be adopted?

Teacher education nowadays has less space for reflection on the fundamental purposes of education than when I trained to be a secondary school teacher in 1982-3. A good teacher education is all about learning how to manage a classroom, how to communicate one’s subject so that students learn and are motivated to learn and becoming the sort of person who finds teaching to be a fulfilling, albeit a demanding, career.

11) Where could interested teachers and others get this book?

An Aims-Based Curriculum: the significance of human flourishing for schools by Michael J. Reiss and John White is available to order in North America from Stylus Publishing www.styluspub.com and can also be ordered from online book retailers such as Amazon.
In the UK it can be purchased from online retailers such as Amazon and all good bookshops.
This book is published by IOE Press ioe.ac.uk/ioepress

About the authors:

Michael Reiss is Pro-Director: Research and Development and Professor of Science Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. John White is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London.

The IOE:

A little bit about the Institute of Education, University of London

The Institute of Education is a college of the University of London that specializes in education and related areas of social science and professional practice. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise two-thirds of the Institute’s research activity was judged to be internationally significant and over a third was judged to be “world leading”. The Institute was recognized by Ofsted in 2010 for its “high quality” initial teacher training programmes that inspire its students “to want to be outstanding teachers”. The IOE is a member of the 1994 Group, which brings together 19 internationally renowned, research-intensive universities. www.ioe.ac.uk

Lansing — For the third year in a row, Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget is balanced by diverting nearly $400 million from a fund normally reserved for K-12 public schools to fund community colleges and four-year universities.

Snyder’s usage of School Aid Funds to make appropriations to community colleges and universities historically funded by the General Fund is a source of ire for public school leaders who contend that the Republican governor is raiding their revenue source to meet obligations elsewhere in state government.

Though former Gov. Jennifer Granholm once dipped into the School Aid Fund for year-end budget balancing, year-after-year use of the fund for appropriating money to community colleges and universities is a new trend, said Kyle Jen, deputy director of the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency.

“I consider this a shell game — you pull from K-12 education to shore up a General Fund that doesn’t have as much money as a School Aid Fund,” said William Mayes, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators.

Michigan’s Constitution allows School Aid Funds to be used “exclusively for aid to school districts, higher education and school employees’ retirement systems.”

“I’m just following the constitution,” Snyder told The Detroit News Editorial Board on Friday. “I don’t fully understand why people make such a big deal out of that.”

The diversion of $400 million from the School Aid Fund for community colleges and universities is the equivalent of $260 per pupil for cash-strapped school districts this year.

“What it did is in effect hurt public education by $400 million,” Mayes said.

Snyder’s Democratic critics say the annual diversion is a side effect of the Republican governor cutting business income taxes, which help support the state’s $9.3 billion General Fund.

“I think is a direct result of giving a $1.8 million tax cut to businesses, and we had to find the money somewhere, and we took it out of the mouths of children and out of classrooms,” said Rep. Vicki Barnett, D-Farmington Hills. Barnett said giving universities and community colleges School Aid Funds, which include sales and income taxes and proceeds from the lottery, violates “the general understanding” voters had in 1994 when they overhauled public school funding through Proposal A.

But Rep. Joe Haveman, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, doesn’t understand the fuss. He said in past years lawmakers haveusedGeneral Fund dollars to shore up deficits in theSchool Aid fundto stave off education funding cuts”and nobody seemed to complain.”

“It’s a little disingenuous to complain when it goes the other way,” said Haveman, R-Holland. “Forgetting where (the money) comes from or where it goes, I think we’ve made valid investments in education.”

The proposed 2013-14 fiscal year budget Snyder submitted to lawmakers Thursday takes $200 million from the $11.4 billion School Aid Fund to supplement a $1.43 billion appropriation for Michigan’s 15 public universities.

To provide the state’s 28 community colleges with about $336 million next fiscal year, Snyder proposes getting 59 percent of the money from $198 million in School Aid Funds.

During Snyder’s first two budget cycles, the 2011-12 and 2012-13 fiscal years, he’s gotten the Legislature to spend about the same amounts annually from the School Aid Fund for higher education institutions, Jen said. “He made a reduction in appropriations on the School Aid Fund and effectively moved that money over to the General Fund side to help balance out the budget,” Jen said.

In Granholm’s second term, her administration used $208 million from the School Aid Fund to balance a deficit in the General Fund and applied the money toward community colleges, Jen said. Community colleges went along with the accounting gimmick in 2010.

“We often say we were the plumbing through which this was flushed,” said Mike Hansen, president of the Michigan Community College Association. “We didn’t condone it. We didn’t support it. It was just an accounting switch on the books.”

But after hearing an outcry from public schools over the past two years, Hansen said, “we don’t want to be part of the K-12 School Aid Fund.”

Universities are more focused on reversing a decade of $1 billion in state funding cuts, said Mike Boulus, executive director of the President’s Council, State Universities of Michigan. “Where the money comes from for us is a nonissue, it’s all green,” Boulus said. “If there was exclusivity, it would have been written into the constitution.”

Tom Watkins, a former state superintendent of schools under Granholm, said Snyder’s philosophy that funding public education should span preschool to college is the right approach.

via Snyder criticized in school aid move.