Markell is taking flack for this statement already. it’s barely noon.
How could something so completely wrong, be supported by classroom experience?
“Hello, Teacher.. SOandSO… This is Delaware’s Governor, Jack Markell, the man in charge of the state, including your boss, the Secretary of Education, Mark Murphy, as well as the head of the Delaware State Police. Can he ask a few questions.”
Thank you, I’m Governor Jack Markell, head of the Delaware State Police and YOUR boss, Mark Murphy, as well as all those in line over your head who are responsible to him…. I am also the person responsible for instituting Common Core into your schools. I’m here to find how well you appreciate all the work I’ve put into this.. Oh sorry, (smiles) Excuse me just one second…. Aide, can you get me Secretary Mark Murphy on the line for me, put him on hold so I can get to him when I’m done here… Then get the Police commissioner. I’m going to need some information out of the personal files…..”
“Yes, where was I? Oh right… Common Core. How do you like Common Core?”
“I like it.”
‘Good, is there anything I can do to improve on it?”
“No, it’s just great… just the way it is..”
“Students, do you like Common Core?”
“Yes, Sir, Mr. Jack.”
“Very well then… Common Core is obviously a success…”
=====
But what do teachers really say when their boss is not breathing down their neck?
They say this:
“This whole plan is absurd. I know I make a difference in children’s lives. This testing obsession is ruining education, our children, and our teachers. I come in early, leave late, work at home, volunteer for a million things, and yet am now deemed developing by some politically driven evaluation plan.”
Or How about the TELL survey? Those teacher’s phone calls made last Feb-March-April?
Under 57 percent feel they are “allowed to focus on education students with minimal distraction.” – Which means 43% DISAPPROVE.
40 percent of respondents said they were never observed by their mentor in the classroom –
47 percent of teachers believe that their allotted non-instructional time provided was sufficient – They specifically indicated not enough was done to minimize Common Core paperwork.
52 percent said they had never been to their mentor’s class to observe. –
In the area of professional development, 68 percent say sufficient resources are available, but only 44 percent believe those resources are tailored to individual teachers and just 42 percent feel the results are being communicated to teachers. –
Therefore for the News Journal to simply let pass this statement without a challenge: that teachers and students are supportive of Common Core (a known falsehood because they have the survey results too), is no different then acknowledging acquiescence by not challenging something like a Caesar Rodneys‘s assertion that: “Man-made Global Warming flat out does not exist”…
We all know better.
kavips 
5 comments
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September 4, 2013 at 11:39 am
John Young
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
September 4, 2013 at 7:51 pm
Nancy Willing
the cub reporter does what he’s told
September 4, 2013 at 8:18 pm
John Young
Common link: College Board’s Todd Huston
Karen Francisco | The Journal Gazette
Looking for a common thread in that continuing series on Indiana’s education-related emails outlined by Tom LoBianco of The Associated Press?
Look no further than Todd Huston, senior vice president at the College Board and a Republican state representative from Fishers. As chief of staff for former state Superintendent Tony Bennett, he appears to have served as the political wrangler and idea man for the Indiana Department of Education under the previous administration.
The latest round of emails described by LoBianco finds Huston in the fast company of GOP powerbrokers Al Hubbard, Mark Lubbers and Mark Miles. Decades younger than the others, Huston is none too reluctant to weigh in with his own thoughts. He was also the only one with a state email address subject to Indiana’s open records law.
Huston outlines the strategy for pushing school vouchers, beginning by leveraging the pro-voucher Friedman Foundation and its ample resources.
“They will want to take the lead and I am not sure that is best path but they must play a huge role,” Huston writes.
He also suggests bringing in “African-American leaders from New Orleans, Milwaukee and Washington DC (where they have had voucher efforts) to discuss how this benefits that community.”
“We have to lead the media,” Huston writes. “If we respond to the educrats, we will always be on the defensive. Instead, we should begin a strong communications effort focused on the major media markets. Our experience has been that the Indianapolis, South Bend, Evansville and Lake County papers really desire educational reform and those are the markets we have to win in. The rural and small town markets won’t care and could even be persuaded that it might mean more money for them.”
Fort Wayne’s exclusion from that group was no accident, of course. Some of us in the media have been critical of their so-called “educational reform” from the start.
Huston laid out how his future legislative colleagues should be handled: “We don’t need the politicians to lead (the voucher legislation) but we need them to support it. They should be providing affirmation of the effort but let’s give (House Speaker Brian) Bosma and others the chance to respond to it and not lead it. It will put them on record as supporting the idea, which is critical.”
He also proposes working with the archdiocese. During the voucher push, Bennett and Mitch Daniels personally went to the Indianapolis diocese to meet with Catholic school officials and sell them on the plan.
Huston’s overall strategy worked, of course. The GOP-controlled legislature fell obediently into line; diocesan school officials were on board, the Friedman Foundation rallied its troops. Huston’s time outlining strategy and meeting with the GOP heavyweights over scotch and steaks at Fleming’s was a success.
In another email thread, the former DOE chief of staff touched off the disparaging conversation about Chuck Little, director of the Indiana Urban Schools Association. Huston passed along a message Little sent to IUSA members about a GOP Senate budget proposal.
“This is from the group getting a mountain full of stimulus money and their only comments about the Senate budget is how bad it is for them,” Huston writes in an email sent to Tony Bennett, Mitch Daniels and state budget officials Christopher Ruhl and Ryan Kitchell. “Never, ever enough money for them. Unbelievable.”
In another email exchange, we learn that Huston was the one to suggest the governor appoint Amos Brown, an outspoken African American Indianapolis radio show host and columnist to the Education Roundtable, as a way to silence a “loud mouth.”
Huston wasn’t a party to the email exchanges involving the Christel House grade inflation — the incident that apparently cost Bennett his job as Florida’s state education commissioner. By the time his former colleagues at DOE were recalculating schools’ grades, Huston had left to rejoin Cisco Systems, Bennett’s vendor of choice for high-tech equipment.
Huston now is with College Board, a key player in the Common Core State Standards. His work restructuring Indiana schools is now done from his seat on the House Education Committee, where he likely is keeping close watch on his email correspondence.
September 5, 2013 at 9:55 am
anonymous
Yes, where was I? Oh right… Common Core. How do you like Common Core?”
“I like it.”
‘Good, is there anything I can do to improve on it?”
“No, it’s just great… just the way it is..“
“Students, do you like Common Core?”
“Yes Sir, Mr. Jack.“
“Very well then… Common Core is obviously a success…”
http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?ID=8401&Method=Full
“Students, do you like Climate Denial?”
“Yes Sir, Mr.Jack.”
A student raises his hand. “May I improve upon something Mr. Jack?
“No, it’s just great… just the way it is..”
http://bakkenshale.com/tag/delaware-city-refinery/
Mr. Jack continues, “Very well then… Bakken shale is obviously a success……..”
But what is success when success equals Failure, as truth remains – the truth as represented by the scientific evidence; the evidence reviewed and approved by knowledgeable scientific peer groups; the truth that stands up to the light of day.
But, there are those who operate below the truth, those who would call Failure, success. A lot of ‘success’ equals pipelines, shiploads and train loads of Failure.
There are those who seek and hold the positions of “political authority’ as so called ‘truth tellers,’ as they are so consumed by greed, denial and therefore lies, that they are willing to plunge offspring and generations into ignorance, chaos and suffering, as would prostitutes, liars and psychopaths.
A small voice from back of the room,
“But Mr. Jack,” lives and generations are at stake!”
“Silence him!”
Someone take that little egg head to the principal’s office and fry his young brain until he accepts the ‘failures’ of FF, Inc., Fossil Fuels that is.
July 6, 2014 at 5:43 pm
All About Common Core, Charters, and Public Education | kavips
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