Just received this email from the district superintendent. Dr. Stotsky’s views of Common Core are substantially aligned with that of Dr. James Milgram–in a word: Negative.
I think Common Core is a ‘happy name’, meant to inspire confidence in ordinary citizens who don’t have the time to do their own research and are inclined to defer to so-called ‘experts’. In reality, the slightest interest paired with cursory research and at least some independent thought and analysis would reveal to almost every citizen and voter in Ridgewood that while we were busy doing other things, K-12 education in this country has devolved into a true farce.Some derive substantial monetary profit from this circumstance (remember our dalliance with the new superintendent and his wife who turned tail and fled when they found the path into Ridgewood was not paved with rose petals?).
Some, like former Assistant Superintendent Regina Botsford, have been ‘All In’ on this development from the start due to their ideological bent being in favor of warping K-12 curriculum and policy toward their goals and dreams in other areas of life. For example, deliberately disadvantaging boys in math has long been a tool for those who wish to reduce what they see as a stubborn performance disparity in STEM academic subjects and perceived under-representation of women in relatively high-paying STEM jobs.
Still others, like Bill Ayers, and in the decided opinion of this anonymous author, Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Rahm ‘Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste’ Emanuel, and Eric Holder, have found comfort and strategic advantage in creating and maintaining an environment of doubt and uncertainty, and if necessary, chaos. They envision a fundamental transformation of this country and are simultaneously targeting every institution that arguably represents or upholds a worthwhile tradition in the realm of Civil Society, be it religious, social, cultural, educational, moral, or otherwise, for degradation and destruction. And yes, you are right to observe that none of these people has articulated even a murky vision of what it is that they intend to build on the rubble they leave in their wake.
Finally, we have the Foundations, and the wealthy backers of same, like Bill and Melinda Gates, that are obsessed with perceived global overpopulation. Any collection of relatively well-heeled or at least arguably well-credentialed misanthropes with a sufficiently anti-social agenda, including most reform math zealots and other promoters of substance-denuding constructivist educational theories will be at or near the top of the list when it comes to attracting funding and other types of largesse from these organizations, who see themselves as citizens of the world and therefore do not concern themselves with the niceties of local accountability.
With this much firepower on the side of limiting the depth, breadth, value and utility of our children’s K-12 education, it is easy to become overwhelmed and leave it to the next guy or gal to show up at a local panel discussion that, likely as not, is intended to provide nothing more than the appearance of objectivity as Ridgewood and other New Jersey towns continue the process of throwing themselves headlong into the destructive morass of modern constructivist educational theory.
Watch Bill Gates Confirm Everybody’s Worst Fears About Common Core
Rather than defend Common Core from accusations of creeping nationalization, Bill Gates finally confirmed that yes, this is exactly what Core proponents are trying to accomplish—less local autonomy is a good thing.
Robby Soave|Sep. 30, 2014 10:42 am
Common Core critics contend that national education standards will erode local decision-making on school issues while promoting a national curriculum of sorts. Most Core proponents generally dismiss these concerns as unfounded.
But Bill Gates, a major financial backer of the standards, was atypically direct about what peddlers of standardization are trying to accomplish during aPolitico event on Monday. Rather than defend Common Core from accusations of creeping nationalization, he finally confirmed that yes, this is exactly what Core proponents are trying to accomplish—less local autonomy is a good thing, as he says in the video:
“Common Core I would have thought of as more of a technocratic issue. The basic idea of, ‘should we share an electrical plug across the country?’ Well, you can get partisan about that I suppose. Should Georgia have a different railroad width than everybody else? Should they teach multiplication in a different way? Oh that’s brilliant [sarcasm], who came up with that idea? Common Core, the idea that what you should know at various grades, that that should be well-structured and you should really insist on kids knowing something so you can build on it, I did not really expect that to become a big political issue.”
There you have it. Gates views the education system—the many myriad ways Americans could pass on knowledge to their children—as akin to choosing the correct railroad track size. The implication is obvious: after all, there is only one right railroad track size! Similarly, there is only one correct way to teach children, and all children must be taught that way, according to Gates.
The Ten Dumbest Common Core Problems Sample questions guaranteed to make your brain hurt in all the wrong places. By Alec Torres
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is widely denounced for imposing confusing, unhelpful experimental teaching methods. Following these methods, some have created problems that lack essential information or make no sense whatsoever.
Some 45 states and the District of Columbia have so far adopted Common Core standards, leaving students all around the United States to puzzle over mysterious logic and language devised in accordance with Common Core’s new methods.
Here are eleven Common Core–compliant problems that have caused parents, students, and even teachers to scratch their heads or respond in outrage:
1. Starting with an easily solvable problem, New York takes the simple “7+7″ and complicates it with something called “number bonds.”
Ridgewood teachers union supports Common Core opponents
SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014, 9:18 AM BY JODI WEINBERGER STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood teachers union gave a boost to parents opposing the Common Core and assessments it is linked to at the kickoff to the new school year last week.
Parents and teachers alike say their questions and concerns about Common Core have largely gone unanswered, with parents worried about the future of their children’s education and teachers worried about the future of their careers.
Superintendent Daniel Fishbein addressed some of the queries at a Board of Education (BOE) meeting on Sept. 8, standing firm on two points: The district does not have the right to ignore the Common Core standards or opt out of the assessment, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC).
September 12, 2014 Last updated: Friday, September 12, 2014, 9:28 AM
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Why are we moving to Common Core?
Marlene Burton
Marlene Burton
Marlene Burton
To the Editor:
I have spent some time looking at the Common Core ELA standards, as well as the math. A couple in particular caught my eye:
The first, and I quote: “With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.”
For what age child is this intended? You might think a 6th grader, but perhaps too ambitious and too grandiose for an 11-year-old – certainly a diversion from more fundamental activities.
But no, it is a kindergarten standard. The proponents of the Common Core want 5-year-olds on computers exploring digital tools to publish their own writings and the writing they have done in collaboration with their peers.
Here is another one: “Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of books by a favorite author and express opinions about them).” Also a kindergarten standard.
Yes, your little ghouls and gobblins were back at school this morning, Save Jersey, ready for another year of ruining new expensive sneakers, learning bad words at recess and, of course, having their sweet little heads packed full of liberal mush courtesy of the Common Core standards.
But in between the endless annual bus stop photo ops and after-school homework grumbling, please don’t lose sight of an all-important fact: you’re paying out the ass for a substandard product.
Assuming, of course, that you’re paying property taxes like I do.
The number crunchers over at NJ Spotlight recently broke down the latest statistics and what they found is staggering (though not surprising); on average, New Jersey spent $18,891 per pupil for the 2013-2014 school year, buoyed by $9 billion in direct aid from the state, representing a significant 4.8% overall spending increase from the 2011-2012 academic cycle. Since our genius politicians decided to tether property taxes and education funding, your taxes continue to climb (though somewhat less precipitously, on average, thanks to the 2.0 cap), to pay for an indoctrination program which leaves little Bobby and Susie ill-equipped to compete with the kids in China who are kicking your kids’ butts in mathematics.
Do the math. We’ve talked about it plenty of times before here at Save Jersey. That works out to almost $500,000 per class room. When the average teacher salary in N.J. is $60,000, then even when you take account of things like teacher benefits, electricity, chalk, etc., you still come nowhere close to justifying nearly $19,000 per student. Each of our kids should sport a solid gold laptop, Star Trek-style tricorder and 140 IQ score for that kind of money. But they’re not.
SEPTEMBER 4, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2014, 3:26 PM BY JODI WEINBERGER STAFF WRITER
At the annual all-staff convocation event at Benjamin Franklin Middle School on Tuesday, the theme of “Celebrating Change” was given a bittersweet embrace.
A backdrop on the stage used the metaphor of a caterpillar transitioning to a butterfly to highlight the theme, but those at the event seemed less convinced that the transformation of curriculum to meet the new state standards would end as beautifully.
Each person who spoke had something to say about the three biggest changes in the district: the one-to-one Chromebook initiative, Common Core and standardized tests.
“This year’s convocation theme is ‘Celebrating Change,’ and to be perfectly frank, this is not something that comes naturally to me,” said Michael Yannone, president of the Ridgewood Education Association (REA). “I am a bit of a traditionalist; I am a history teacher after all. If it has worked successfully in the past, why change?”
His speech gave a scathing criticism of the way education reform happens in America.
“The current educational reform movement is not about spending money to address the needs of schools and students, it is about making money,” Yannone said. “Perhaps I am too cynical, but the playbook seems obvious to me. Step one: Make Americans believe that their public schools are bad by bashing teachers and cherry picking faulty data. Politicians then get involved and support costly one-size-fits-all solutions that their donors stand to make a nice profit from.”
Yannone said the REA plans to partner with a new parent-led advocacy group, Ridgewood Cares About Schools, whose members have urged the district not to adopt the Common Core curriculum and oppose the increase in standardized testing for students.
Apple offers full suite of Common Core apps sure to indoctrinate
September 2, 2014
LOS ANGELES — Expanding from its previous partnership with Pearson Education to provide fact and quality deficient curriculum resources, Apple now offers even more — a full range of Common Core aligned curriculum and assessment tools for iPad.
A recent document published by Apple outlining several “amazing curriculum products for iPad” reveals that Apple is not concerned with providing quality education material to America’s students and teachers, but rather with competing for a share of the pot of gold at the end of the nationally leveraged Common Core rainbow.
Although Apple has offered iBook textbooks from Pearson, McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and DK Publishing since 2012, it recently upgraded its current offerings and added new products specifically aligned with Common Core, some of which are unique to iPad.
Aiming to be a one-stop-shop for all things Common Core, the iPad suite offers core curriculum content in English, Math, Science, and Social Studies, as well as assessments, learning systems, and teacher tools.
In addition to Pearson Education, who employs progressive indoctrinators to lead its Common Core Initiative, Apple’s menu of core curriculum apps includes lessons from other equally skewed publishers/providers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw Hill, Discovery Education, and The Choices Program.
By: Diane Weaver | March, 2013 | 11,282 views | No Comments | Posted in: Common Core State Standards, Technology in the Classroom
Digital literacy is integral component to the Common Core Standards. The skill of critically navigating, consuming, and producing digital text and media has increasingly significant influence on a student’s success as an adult. In fact, it is even mentioned in the Standard’s portrait of students who are college and career ready, which states,
“Students employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use. They tailor their searches online to acquire useful information efficiently, and they integrate what they learn using technology with what they learn offline. They are familiar with the strengths and limitations of various technological tools and mediums and can select and use those best suited to their communication goals.”
Reader , Thank heavens for the eminently qualified and blessedly plain-spoken Stanford professor James Milgram, who places the blame for this recurring nightmare right where it belongs: the ossified, math-allergic minds of this country’s education school faculties. If the husband-wife reform math zealots had safely touched down in the Ridgewood district’s superintendent’s office, as had been the plan before local parents merely suggested a conflict of interest with similarly off-kilter textbook publishers like Pearson, Ridgewood would now be a Botsford-powered Mecca for Common Core adherents looking for leadership in how to deprive high-potential students of decent foundations in math achievement.
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COMMON CORE BLOCKBUSTER: MATHEMATICIAN DR. JIM MILGRAM WARNS COMMON CORE WILL DESTROY AMERICA’S STANDING IN TECHNOLOGY
During a Friday conference call sponsored by Texas-based Women on the Wall, Stanford mathematician and former member of the Common Core Validation Committee Dr. James Milgram, told listeners that if the controversial standards are not repealed, America’s place as a competitor in the technology industry will ultimately be severely undermined.
“In the future, if we want to work with the top level people, we’re going to have to go to China or Japan or Korea… and that’s the future we’re looking at,” Milgram said during the call that was part of a day-long Twitter campaign to target Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s (R) decision merely to “rebrand” the Common Core standards in his state, even though he has a Republican supermajority in the legislature and an appointed state board of education.
Pence was in Dallas Friday for Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream summit, considered to be an essential stop for presidential hopefuls.
In less than 40 minutes, Milgram floored listeners with information about the Common Core standards, how they will affect the nation’s students and, ultimately, the country itself, and what parents and citizens can do to try to stop them. Listen to the podcast in full below:
Milgram began by addressing the reason why he was on the call: to let Pence know that his “rebrand” of the Common Core was a betrayal of Indiana’s citizens.
Born and raised in Indiana himself, Milgram that it was important to him as a fellow Hoosier that the state do a decent job with replacement standards after repealing the Common Core.
“The state actually paid me to evaluate new standards,” he said about his involvement in the review process.
The Stanford professor then explained to listeners a key reason why the Common Core standards will prevent students from moving into STEM careers.
Milgram said he was “incredibly disappointed that the drafts I was reading [of Indiana’s new standards] looked so much like the Common Core,” but was nevertheless happy to see that advanced math classes like pre-calculus, calculus, and trigonometry were left into the replacement standards.
“These were very well-done and absolutely impossible to teach if all these kids had were Core standards,” Milgram explained. “It was a complete disaster because even the things that they added—that were of high quality—were added to standards that couldn’t support them.”
Milgram described his experience in the 1990s when he was asked to assist with a project that would replace California’s “disastrous” education standards. The mathematician said he strongly recommended that students in the 8th grade take Algebra and that his recommendation was heeded.
From the time the new standards were put in place and until the time of the adoption of Common Core standards in California in 2010, Milgram said two-thirds of the students in the state were taking Algebra in the 8th grade and doing well, with over half of them at least proficient or above.
Milgram said this piece of information is critical because it showed that it was possible for almost every student to handle Algebra in the 8th grade.
“The group that made by far the most progress were the minorities – blacks and Hispanics – who had essentially been written off by the system,” Milgram explained, and then went on to reveal how the fact that challenging minority students – resulting in their increased performance – was a threat to faculty in universities.
“So, their numbers were increasing dramatically and I frankly think that the… faculty in the education schools throughout the country actually got extremely scared by this,” he continued, “because it contradicted everything that they’ve been telling us for the past hundred years about how education works and what one can expect and how one should train teachers.”
Milgram asserted that a strong education in mathematics is essential for success.
“If you don’t have a strong background in mathematics then your most likely career path is into places like McDonald’s,” he said. “In today’s world… the most critical component of opening doors for students is without any question some expertise in mathematics.”
Milgram explained that in the high-achieving countries, where about a third of the population of the world outside the United States is located, about 90 percent of citizens have a high school degree for which the requirements include at least one course in calculus.
“That’s what they [sic] know,” he said. “If we’re lucky, we [sic] know Algebra II. With Algebra II as background, only one in 50 people will ever get a college degree in STEM.”
Milgram warned that with the Common Core standards, unless U.S. students are able to afford exclusive private high school educations that are more challenging, they will be disadvantaged.
“This shows that, from my perspective, Common Core does not come close to the rhetoric that surrounds it,” he continued. “It doesn’t even begin to approach the issues that it was supposedly designed to attack. The things it does are completely distinct from what needs to be done.”
Milgram said, in California, they were able to deal with the problem of their poor academic standards in the 1990s because the curriculum was controlled by the state and the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley threatened to move all its research and manufacturing elsewhere if the problem was not addressed.
“The curricula we were fighting then… they’re back!” he announced. “We are hearing exactly the same kind of things now with Common Core as we heard back in the ’90s!”
“How can you have mathematics problems that don’t have a single answer or correct answer – any answer is correct?” Milgram asked. “Well, of course the answer is mathematically you can’t, and all of this is just a repeat of what went on 20 years ago in California – but this time, it’s national.”
“This time I don’t see any uniform or systematic way of getting rid of it,” Milgram said. “The only way you’re going to get rid of it is state by state and parent group by parent group. And if you’re lucky, industry will join you because high tech is ever a more important part of our economy.”
The bad news, according to Milgram, is that, returning to his experience in California in the ’90s, if students had been in that system with the older, poor standards for three or four years, “the damage couldn’t be undone,” he said.
“All of this should really make you angry at the people who are responsible,” Milgram said, directing himself squarely to the parents listening to him. “And the people who are responsible – I’m going to be blunt about it – are the people in the education schools – they’re the ones who had the ultimate say about all of this and they’re the ones whose beliefs are driving it.”
Milgram explained that a uniform perspective exists on issues in education and what is important to achieve among a vast majority of the faculty in schools of education. Because of this, he said, the same types of standards always come back.
“You must go after the schools of education and the faculty of these schools,” Milgram urged.
Asked about the fact that many industrial giants and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce actually support the Common Core standards, Milgram responded that in the ’90s, research centers in this country were still very much needed. Now, however, he noted that most of the research in top-level firms has moved out of the U.S. IBM’s main research center, he observed, is in India, and other companies have moved their research centers to Russia, Korea, and China.
“Even Microsoft has moved its software development to Beijing,” Milgram noted. The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, is the primary source of private funding of the Common Core standards.
“Production and manufacturing has also moved out of this country,” Milgram added. “The longer this continues, the more we’ll see our major industry move over to other countries and the jobs they generate will go with them.” Send
Support for Common Core plummets, especially among teachers
August 20, 2014
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Support for the national Common Core education standards is falling like a rock, dropping 30 percentage points among teachers and about 12 percentage points among the public since last year.
Results from a poll released by Education Next, a scholarly education journal, show public support for Common Core slipped from 65 percent in 2013 to 53 percent this year, while the decrease among teachers was even more dramatic. Educators in support of Common Core fell from 76 percent last year to a mere 46 percent in 2014, the survey shows.
It was the same story with opposition to Common Core, which doubled among the public over the last year, going from 13 percent to 26 percent this year. The percent of teachers who oppose, meanwhile, more than tripled, skyrocketing from 12 percent to 40 percent in 2014, according to the poll.
“Especially intriguing is the flip in the opinion gap between teachers and the public as a whole. In 2013, teachers were more positive in their views of the Common Core than the public (76% compared to 65%), but today teachers are less positive (46% compared to 53%),” the Education Next report notes.
“A year ago, only 12% of the teaching force expressed opposition—virtually the same as the public. Today, teacher opposition is nearly twice as high as opposition among the public (40% compared to just 26%).”
That’s likely because more teachers now understand the many pitfalls and restraints imposed by the national learning standards as states have implemented more aspects of Common Core over the last year.
Educators, of course, are more engaged in education policy and see the detrimental effects first hand, and many are obviously realizing the “rigorous” new standards aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
Ridgewood residents opposed to PARCC testing changes form group
AUGUST 22, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2014, 12:31 AM BY JODI WEINBERGER STAFF WRITER
A group of parents is growing the opposition to “Common Core driven changes in curriculum and the upcoming PARCC assessments” in the district through fact-finding committees and social media.
Too many regulations are overloading New Jersey’s schools: Opinion
By Patrick J. Fletcher and Daniel Fishbein
It’s an unsettling question, but we’re obliged to ask it. Has the rapidly accelerating pace of public education-related government mandates now become utterly unsustainable?
In just the past few years, New Jersey legislators have chosen to burden local school districts with the umbrella of AchieveNJ, which includes the recent TeachNJ tenure reform act that imposes upon us a new teacher and administrator evaluation system, with student achievement data included as part of the process.
And as if that weren’t enough, there’s also the new computer-based student evaluation system known as PARCC, as well as updated curriculum programs and textbooks related to the implementation of the Common Core Standards.
NEA Teachers unions turn on Obama
By Peter Sullivan – 07/12/14 01:49 PM EDT
Teachers unions have turned on Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and the Obama administration, creating a major divide in the Democratic Party coalition.
The largest teachers union in the country, the National Education Association (NEA), called for Duncan to resign at its convention on July 4, arguing his policies on testing have failed the nation’s schools.
Tensions between Duncan and the unions had been building for some time.
The administration’s Race to the Top program, which has provided $4.35 billion to states, incentivized changes that unions strongly oppose. One of the most controversial policies backed by Duncan is using students’ improvement on standardized tests to help evaluate teachers and make pay and tenure decisions.
“Our members are frustrated and angry,” said NEA president Dennis Van Roekel. “Number one is the toxic testing. There is too much.”
An added spark came on June 10, when a California judge ruled the state’s teacher tenure laws are unconstitutional because they keep ineffective teachers in the classroom and deprive poor and minority students of their right to an equal education.
Teachers unions, which are strong defenders of tenure, expressed outrage when Duncan said the plaintiffs in the case were just some of millions of students disadvantaged by tenure laws. He called the decision “a mandate to fix these problems.”
With the teachers unions at loggerheads with the administration, Democrats are suddenly at risk of losing one of their most reliable allies and fundraising sources.
New Jersey Senate to vote on slowing Common Core implementation July 8, 2014 ALISSA MACK
TRENTON, N.J. – Another state could put a crimp in the Common Core takeover by the end of this week.
The New Jersey Assembly passed a bill on June 16 with a 72-4 vote with two abstentions to delay the use of new student assessments linked to Common Core by at least two years, according to Capitol Quickies.
The bill (A3081) would create a task force to review the standards and give school districts the option of administering PARCC tests in the upcoming two school years.
Capitol Quickies reports:
The state Senate has scheduled a vote for Thursday afternoon on legislation (A3081) that establishes an Education Review Task Force to analyze the Common Core standards, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments and the use of students’ test results in evaluating teachers…
The bill says that for at least two years, or longer if the task force’s final report isn’t completed within the year it’s supposed to take, PARCC assessments can’t be used as a high school graduation requirement or for other school or students accountability purposes. It also says that growth in students’ test scores can’t be used for at least two years for a teacher’s or principal’s evaluation…
The task force would have 15 members, including acting Education Commissioner David Hespe or his designee and eight members recommended by the following organizations: the American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, the New Jersey Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the New Jersey Council of County Vocational Schools, the New Jersey Education Association, the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, the New Jersey School Boards Association and the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network.
Three public members would also be appointed to the task force.
The new site did not seem confident that Gov. Christie would sign the bill should it reach his desk this week.
West Bergen Tea Party Presents Immigration and Common Core Updates
Immigration Update by Gayle Kesselman Common Core Update
Governor Christie’s Executive OrderJoin us 7pm, Tuesday, July 8 at the Larkin House
380 Godwin Avenue, Wyckof (1/4 mile North of Stop & Shop on the right)
More information: 201 891-5918 conservative_caucus@aol.com
www.westbergenteaparty.com
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