Today’s News Journal finally posts a piece giving the other side of the educational issue.  In a way that is kind of silly because some of the best writing written on this topic has been taking place in Delaware over this past session of Delaware Legislation, and the News Journal has kindly looked away and forceably ignored it, to it’s own peril I might add…  Now faced with the inevitable, they have embraced truth.

The Education Program we endured, … that one which didn’t work no matter how much we bore down harder to force it into a square hole…. was all based on sham…

It was lights, microphones, power points, and carefully sculpted results carved with meticulousness in dark rooms, then thrust into the public’s eye as a random product achieved from following certain pathways…….

Did you ever sit down in a restaurant, look at the picture on the cover of their menu, say “I’ll take this?”, and then…..  wish you hadn’t?

“What the hell?  This isn’t the same thing that’s in the picture?  That was so big, juicy looking!”

Dudes and Dudesses!  We were marketed!… so how does it feel?

Well, we still have the educational system we always did… One that is probably still the best in the world…  The bottom tier of our civilization is more worldly educated than the bottom tiers of any other civilizations on this planet… It should be!  Considering that as a nation, we spend one percent of our GDP on education each year, far more than any other nation on this planet….

How were we bamdoozled?  By false test results.  Having bad data replace the good.

Rhee’s underling:  These tests results don’t prove a thing…  Rhee:  Get everyone here for the weekend,  We are camping out until these results show something different,   And better buy a lot of extra erasures…”

We were lied to.    Now that no one is looking.  Now that no one is there changing test results between closing Friday and opening Monday, the children of DC are doing what they always did before Michelle Rhee took over.  Learning to their ability….  Apparently when you fire teachers who don’t give you results you want, you don’t get results you want anyway.

What does work?  The same thing that works with adults!  (Making the assumption you are an adult) …Are you more productive when you  a)  have to pretend to your boss  who you totally despise that you are being productive, or b)  when you throughly enjoy what you are doing, knowing you are really making a difference, and without you the results would be far inferior?

Kids are just small adults.  They have the same feelings.  Make a kid want to learn, and he will do most of the work himself..  As a nation we have been going down the wrong road, doing the opposite of what our human nature tells us really works…  An 11 to 1 teacher ratio.

So. In the big picture, how can we make inner city children learn math and science?   By making it relevant, and fun.

Seriously if you want to teach chemistry, spend the money, buy the chemicals and then go out to some swampland, mix them and blow things up… Chemistry will become the most sought after class in that school.. Then, you can limit those entering based upon their other grades.  You have just given them an incentive to learn…

Some may not like blowing things up.  Give them a reason to learn as well..

Almost every review points out that at some point in their lives, every child wants to learn.  In a recent video making the rounds titled Changing Education Paradigms, the claim is made that 98%  of all children are geniuses at age 5.  When you measure how a genius thinks, looks at things, analyzes and sorts, their thought processes rare as emeralds in the adult world, but at age 5, are present in 95% of all children… From that point, as children progress we dull that innate skill down to the infrequency we find it in the adult world…

That is the problem we have with education.. We make into a “have to” instead of a “want to”…..

The sad reality is that today’s life outside of school, is the most exciting it has ever been in the history of the world.  In a couple of clicks, a menu of the entire earth’s knowledge is at our fingertips.  Anything we want to watch; is available.  Anything we want to hear; is available.  Ideally if we could force the dulling down of the real world, and conversely make our schools more interesting than home, so children couldn’t wait to get out of the house…. our scores could go up more than a bevy of teachers erasing and changing the answers could ever accomplish….

And so… we have silliness.  We are taking tests three times a year.  We are firing teachers; we are removing principals, we are closing schools, we are withholding funding…  … all for something that doesn’t exist in the “real world”….   Even the tests are contrived so that children will fail. ..

I’m curious.  If we passed legislation that said all entities that provide education services must be a non-profit… if all this madness would simply go away.  No reports of failing schools. No bills  like SB51 change the 35th best teaching institution in America to something someone had in a dream once… None of that. None of that…

Just “Kids, …. today we are going to talk about _____________ …..”

So when the Democrats after the War on Terror was over.  proposed to curtail some of the stringent powers which the Federal Government held over the press,  the Republicans naturally refused.  ”We can’t have that”,  they screamed.  ”National Security.”  What they were truly concerned about was their own political security.  A press that was not intimidated by them, could do their party harm…

The Democrats countered with this: … ‘but when it’s a Democratic President who is intimidating a Republican Press, you’ll come to your senses then”….

Lindsey Graham, the Republican icon from South Carolina, is proposing that we now pass the law he was previously against…. It protects  journalists from being investigated…. For you see, now Fox news was investigated, in his mind that changes things.

Our press, for better or worse, is a big part of the people’s hold over their government.  A press needs to be free to publish what it will, and let then public debate determine whether or not it has merit. For example. All three of these current scandals do not involve illegality. All three were accomplished completely within the law. It is because we have the press, we can know this.

At first one side publishes the accusations.  This person is guilty their headlines scream, and to a point when only one side is allowed to offer up arguments, it sort of does look like that person is guilty…  But then the other side dug up stuff too.  What they found were only the current accusations, with nothing substantial to back them.   Simple posturing, finger pointing, and nothing else.  No crimes were committed.  In fact, all the alleged activities were sanctioned by law.  If one didn’t do what one was accused of, one could have gone to jail for probably breaking the existing law…..

It is just that now that Republicans aren’t the ones in power, they don’t like the actual existing law, Even though it was them, who passed and enforced it back when they held the White House and both branches of Congress, even over the democrat’s vocal opposition..

So, now that the Democratic prediction has come true, Republicans are coming on board.

And if it protects the press and allows them to print the news, America ultimately in the end, prospers.  And that is a good thing….

So if you see a republican walking down the street, laugh hysterically at their stupidness, pettiness, and inability to think outside their box… Roll on the sidewalk clutching your sides, point at them the whole times… Get your friends to do the same…..

Then thank them, for finally coming to their senses, realizing Democrats were right all along,  and jumping on the bandwagon of Democratic policy, to do their part and help make America a much better place….

The US tests everyone. Special Ed, IEP’s, all vocational students. Other nations just test their cream of the crop, their college bound. In most nations, you have to pass an exam to get into high school. In India, which Markell uses in his comparisons btw, only 15% reach High School, and only 7% graduate.

When we take our top 15% and match it up against the rest of the world, the US is number one.

Not only that, they are 31st in the top ranked educational teacher training country in the entire world… Apparently there is no educational crises in America when it comes to teachers receiving top notch training.

Overall, the top 10 countries in rank order are the United States, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore and the United Kingdom….

What just passed last Thursday in Delaware, now requires the University of Delaware, again now ranked 31st in the top educator nation in the world, to be judged solely on how its teachers administer Common Core when they go out into the field…

Common Core?

Just how good is this Common Core we are talking about?

New Attack on Common Core From Pennsylvania Democrats

Common Core Standards attacked by Republicans

‘Common Core’ Standards Come Under Attack By Lucas Johnson, Associated Press

Nation at Risk Anniversary, Common Core Under Attack

Common Core Conundrum

Common Core State Standards Under Attack

The RNC’s Attack on Common Standards

The War Against the Common Core

911: Common Core Under Attack

Rotten to the Core: Conservatives spearhead drive at RNC meeting to stop Common Core

Weingarten Calls For A Moratorium on the Implementation of the Common Core: A “Save Harmless” Year for Planning That Includes Parents, Teachers and Principals.

Washington Post: Common Core is in Trouble

Common Core Standards Facing Increased Opposition

Common Core – Language

Common Core Makes Waves

Indiana Among States Acting to Oppose Common Core Standards

Lisa Nielsen: Is the Common Core an Attack on Progressive Education?

Common Core: Education Without Representation

The Common Core: The Good, the Bad, the Possible

Your Children Need a Néw Brain for Common Core

Kentuckians Against Common Core Standards

Toynbee Predicted Privatization

One would think someone in Legislative Hall would have at least looked into Common Core before mandating that the 31st best teaching institution in the best ranked nation for turning out good teachers, would have to be judged on its effectiveness by the results of a program everyone is having so much trouble with.

Progressives are against it. Tea Party Advocates are against it. Democrats are against it. Republicans are against it.. Red States are against it. Blue States are against it. How could this be? Could it be possible they all have children?

In fact, it appears there is no one who is in favor of common core, across this entire great nation we are so fortunate to live in… No one except 59 Delaware legislators, who apparently didn’t get the memo…..

With all due respect, I didn’t have to be awakened to the horrors of this poorly written and intended piece of legislation. I argued against it in the House Committee to no avail and spoke with some of the supporters, (DSEA), to attempt to alert them of its flaws.

The reality of this is that the administration, through its DOE policy head, was not honest, (on the floor, or in any of discussions leading up to the bills disposition), about the support it had from “higher ed. institutes” in Delaware.

The DSU Provost’s response (on the House floor, during debate) to the question “did your institution participate in crafting this legislation” was an unequivocal “NO” and my investigations lead to evidence that none of the institutions of higher learning participated in crafting this ill-conceived piece intended to reflect positively on the DOE and administrations abdication to RTTT compliance.

If you paid close attention as to how the alleged support was phrased/explained you can see the reality of the situation. DOE implied/suggested that a lack of pronounced objection implied “full” acquiescence to DOE’s contrived policy and this is at the least “intellectually” dishonest. If you ask yourself why none of the higher ed institutions voiced any trepidation in the matter I advise you to look at The calendar and note that starting this week the Joint Finance Committee meets to rule on recommended and suggested budget money increases for these institutions and only a fool would feel confident in challenging anything that might put them at a disadvantage in that arena.

As for the DSEA, I tried to make them understand that this legislation can and will be used as the first (and perhaps only) validation of “component 5″ test score evaluations of teacher effectiveness but I imagine I wasn’t convincing enough.

So I am copying you and your readers some of the talking points raised in support of the Potter/Kowalko amendment and in opposition to the bill.

Feel free to post or send this comment and content anywhere you please.

Respectfully,
Rep. Kowalko

SB 51 purports to be a method to set high completion requirements, high-quality teaching experiences and ongoing evaluation of teaching program participants and to prepare prospective elementary school teachers in age-appropriate literacy and mathematics instruction. The bill also requires new educators to pass both an approved content-readiness exam and performance assessment before receiving an initial license.

While these ambitions are laudable, (and when we address the bill we can speak to its ability or lack thereof, to do that), this bill, as written intrudes into the arena of subjectively judging, with no verifiable proof or proven data, the ability of students to succeed in the programs of education studies. It contrives to prematurely eliminate students from entering into their chosen career path by legislating away their choices and options. All schools of higher education have relatively strict requirements and acceptance standards merely to be accepted as students and some have even more rigorous standards for acceptance to education pathway courses. We might presume that a quantifiable measure of success in the matters of teacher preparation and certification and educator evaluation can be achieved by this legislation but the chapters that prejudge and preclude individuals from participation in these programs should not be a matter of the imposition of laws that deny opportunity and access and violates the principles of individual rights. The schools are well positioned and qualified to make those judgments that best serve their own programs and those impositions should be removed from this bill before passage.

The current system works. Between the entrance and exit requirements, UD and DSU already winnow out over two-thirds of the students interested in teaching careers.

This is Common Core. Point is: we are determining a student’s future, a teacher’s future, a school’s future, and the entire future of the combined Educational Departments of the University of Delaware, Delaware State, and Wilmington University’s …. based on a race between a pineapple and a hare…

Please send more examples… Thank you.

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“Inventory” was almost here. Miguel had to count all the product on his shelves. He didn’t have time. In the morning deliveries came and had to be stocked and rotated. Once he opened his doors, he had to handle customers, and never was a time that no one was in the building. Then in the evening, he had to stay to make sure his evening shift was running smoothly. His assistant came in at five, and Miguel would wait to make sure all staff was present and accounted for, that no manpower shortages would occur, and that all equipment was working properly, before he could leave. He started every day at 5 am…”

DISCUSS THOROUGHLY

ANALYZE CORRECTLY

WRITE THE NEXT SENTENCE

VOCABULARY

inventory
deliveries
customers
assistant
accounted
manpower
shortages
properly

WHAT IS THE KEY POINT OF THIS PARAGRAPH

WHAT IS THE AUTHOR TRYING TO SAY

WRITE A 5 PARAGRAPH TEXT ON HOW YOU WOULD SOLVE MIGUEL’S PROBLEMS.

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From Shakespeare to this….. Welcome to Common Core, ladies and gentlemen.

The main question I’ve received most often, is why did I take on this unattainable cause. Surely one could see the writing on the wall when the Senate voted? Wasn’t it a waste of time?

Oddly, no. And I’m perplexed a little as to why I feel that way. Because it did suck up a lot of time and it had only two people vote against it in the entire General Assembly, and two abstentions (one principled and one physical.) So I’m going to try and work it out here, in type, as to why it was important to lead a fight against it. One that if one was keeping score, turned out to be an unmitigated disaster.

The reason for SB51″s success, was its stealth. It was out of committee, in the Senate, out of the Senate, in the House committee, and on the House floor, each time with very little notice. In fact, it wasn’t until after it had passed the Senate that I began hearing how bad this bill really was. Perhaps in a regular year, that would not have occurred. Someone would have read the bill earlier as it hit the docket and passed that information along. It should be noted this is an extraordinary year. The recomposition of this General Assembly has made many big changes possible. Gay Marriage, Background Checks, Reporting Stolen Firearms, Repeal of Death Penalty, Kinder-Morgan, Assault Bans, Bans of High Capacity Clips, have kind of sucked the wind out of the room when it comes to a bill that says something sensible like we should be hiring smart teachers instead of dumb ones.

One of our most progressive commentators said something like “I can see no one having a problem with that.”

And indeed. This bill seemed to have everyone on board. DSEA, that educational labor union who represents teachers, RODEL who represents the corporate Investors, the Governor who put this prominently in his state of the state address, both parties whom neither wanted to be seen as being against better education, the Chamber of Commerce and those who fund the entities inside the Community Service Building on 10th Street, progressives, conservatives. There was no one who seemed not to want to rubber stamp it…

It took a lot of work to wake up even three people to contest it…. And that is a start….

With overwhelming support, my goodness, in percentage terms…. 93% of the entire General Assembly was in favor. That ironically was the same percentage of Delawareans that wanted Offshore Wind over the objections of 4 well place members of the Executive Committee back in 2007-8…

How can anyone “credible” be against such a good bill with “overwhelming” support?

I would say there is one common thread among those who first voiced opposition and carried the water for trying to educate the public about this bill. And if you agree or disagree, please feel free to chime in. This is an informal piece.

Anyone who has experienced Common Core, who has actually experienced it, would be against this bill. I experienced it by helping a student with their homework assignment. Teachers and administrators experience it in their professional capacity. School Boards experience it by being in the cross fire between the DOE and parents who are as upset as I was with the crap that is being passed off as “learning.”…

Obviously from the results of the vote, very few people in Delaware have experience Common Core. Once you see what it has done to your kids, you are outraged. Outraged. There is no other accurate description….

So the vote in support of SB51, was primarily based, if I could extrapolate, on ignorance. I too would have been right there with them if I had not had the cathartic experience of meeting Common Core face to face. Once one does, one quickly learns to hate it. For many, many years I have been privy to a lot of grumbling from educators over each new “program of the year”, but never, never have I experienced a deterioration in a student’s drive to do well, as I have seen across the board with Common core…. “A” Students just giving up and settling for “C’s”, because of the capriciousness of the teaching and those learning materials that come in “packets.”

Here is what has to happen. These tests and packets need to get leaked to the public. Once seen and ridiculed, the proper perspective and potential damage from Common Core becomes clearer. Further more, every single member of the educational committees of both the Delaware Senate and House, should take this bill. Then the General Assembly would finally be in alignment with where the parents will be next year.

This year was really the first where Common Core was trialed. Next year it will be much more extensive.

So when one says that our teaching colleges and universities will be rated by how well their student teacher’s students do on Common Core tests over the next five years, quite a bit of that sentence totally depends on how good or bad Common Core is… I can tell you… it’s really.. really… bad.

Common Core is no better than “No Child Left Behind.” That too was a landmark piece of legislation to make teachers accountable to teaching, and not sending unprepared students up the ladder. It was hailed as the crowning achievement of American Society. Those very few who looked at the detail, and questioned how it would work, were laughed at as being among those who wanted to “leave children behind.” But guess what? When that was implemented in full across the nation, it didn’t work. Students did worse instead of better. Gee, the educational structure asked? How can this be? Answer was, it didn’t work in Texas under then Governor George W. Bush, either. They just tweaked the test scores.

Common Core is no better. In fact, it is probably worse. And there are many reasons why, which have been discussed on this blog many times, as well as on Transparent Christina, Kilroy’s of Delaware, Delaware Way, and Seventh Type… It “can” be better, but those pieces are being squashed under “bigger” principles, such as busting the teachers union, paying off Wall Street investors, making fistfuls of dough out of charter schools and vouchers… Big money has got its roots into education and is now trying to choke off all competition from good crops..

This bill’s overwhelming victory is not the end…. In fact, I think it may just hasten the end of Common Core, instead of extending it… I think so because I know how bad this program is.. I know there is no way you, once you experience it’s insanity, its inadequacy, and its ineptitude, will be supportive of common core… You can’t be.. No one like being inside a Kafka novel. We have nine months to educate Delaware what Common Core will do to your children. Nine months… If we are wrong, and the public does not by then demonize this program, then perhaps it is good that this bill passed.

But I’ve seen Common Core face to face… so I sincerely doubt that outcome….

Then, come next January, January 2014 an election year no doubt, we again will see these familiar words with a lot of support behind it.

“Section 1. Amend the title of Chapter 12, Title 14 of the Delaware Code, by making insertions as shown by underlining and deletions as shown by strikethrough as follows:”……

Did a crime occur in the Republican caucus surrounding Darrell Issa.

ABSOLUTELY.  Evidence was tampered…..

CBS News reported that at least two of the Benghazi e-mails that were leaked by Republicans last Friday were altered.

One of the altered e-mails was from Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes. The other altered e-mail was from U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Here’s the Republican version of the Rhodes e-mail:  We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation.

Here’s the White House version of the Rhodes e-mail:   We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation.

Here’s the Republican version of the Nuland e-mail:  The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about all the previous warnings provided by the Agency (CIA) about al-Qaeda’s presence and activities of al-Qaeda.

Here’s the White House version of the Nuland e-mail:  The penultimate point could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings.

BUSTED!!! 

Evidence was tampered to imply a crime.  Under all state codes this can be either a misdemeanor or a felony.  We need these investigated…  The law was broken.  Congressional Hearings are in place to get to the bottom of the truth.  They are not intended to be kangeroo courts to make up evidence that doesn’t naturally exist….

The law was broken.  Arrests need to be made… This is not about Democrats or Republicans… This is about the trust and truthfulness of the United States of America.

If Congress were run as were DC’s Schools?   Darrell Issa would be thrown out of Congress…. From the DC school manual…….

Tier IV behaviors result in off-site Suspension.
(a) The following behaviors shall be considered Tier IV behaviors:

(1) Acts of vandalism, destruction of property, or graffiti (tagging);
(2) Documented theft of school or personal property without force;
(3) Interfering with school authorities or participating in a major
disruption of the school’s operation.
(4) Tampering with, changing, or altering an official record or
document of a school;

Here is the Texas’s definition of tampering.   Darrell Issa would be in jail if this took place in Texas….

A person commits an offense if, knowing that an investigation or official proceeding is pending or in progress, he:

(1) alters, destroys, or conceals any record, document, or thing with intent to impair its verity, legibility, or availability as evidence in the investigation or official proceeding;

(2) makes, presents, or uses any record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent to affect the course or outcome of the investigation or official proceeding;

(3) knowing that an offense has been committed, alters, destroys, or conceals any record, document, or thing with intent to impair its verity, legibility, or availability as evidence in any subsequent investigation of or official proceeding related to the offense; or

(4) observes a human corpse under circumstances in which a reasonable person would believe that an offense had been committed, knows or reasonably should know that a law enforcement agency is not aware of the existence of or location of the corpse, and fails to report the existence of and location of the corpse to a law enforcement agency.

In Texas, this is a felony in the third degree.

The evidence brought forth a week ago that inflamed the nation, was a fabrication. “Directly it was an attempt to make, present and use a record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent to affect the course or outcome of the investigation or official proceeding….”

18 USC § 1001 – Statements or entries generally

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;

In their quest to call it terrorism –and it is– the republicans just opened themselves up to a crime.

I demand an immediate arrest of Darrell Issa for breaking the law…. Full Censure by the House of Representative of this common criminal is called for immediately…..

This money was strictly tied to starting a habit for which there would be no money next year…If the board accepted the money, at the end of funding which is this year, the board would have to pay for this extra little thing we have to do just to get our state RTTT funding.

It would be like taking up heroin because it was free.  Then you got to pay for it after you are addicted.

The Board of Education made a shrewed and very smart business decision. Many who do not have a clue will yell at the headlines.  However those of us who appreciate the power of money, who understand money, who know that money works on rules of its own and is not subject to the whims of popular opinion, KNOW this was a very smart choice.  

One that clearly was the right thing to do, even though emotionally it may be hard to bear because after all it was the right decision and not the “easy” one.

There may be criticism for awhile, but by next year, when every other district is debating whether to cut this  RTTT program or fund it with another referendum,  the Christina School District will be focusing on education… as it should…

I for one, am always glad when someone, anyone, is clear headed and makes a tough decision based on what is right.;;;

Now lets see who’s stupid and self serving as they line up to criticize the board for turning this down, and who will say…”Oh, this is a stupid decision..  Who passes up free heroin!” ..

Mr. Street:  The floor is yours.  The line starts here. 

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