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Remember this.
As you view the results posted saying how Common Core has improved our teaching over the past year between the first taking and second taking of the tests…. these tests are graded on a curve…
One cannot compare one year’s test to another because the curve is set each new year to show a different result..
In plain language, this means the level of proficiency is NOT set by the number of right answers…. but is set by how your right number of answers compare to everyone else…
I have seen nothing regarding the cut scores setting remaining consistent between 2015 and 2016. Being changed by the committee overseeing them, results in better scores (although we can see they were not set much better)…
This was predicted when we first debated Common Core and the Smarter Balanced. It has now come to pass.
Secondly.
If this overall program were working, we should have seen far greater positive results than what we did. There are political reasons as well as financial reasons for this slow improvement… (If you show too much improvement too fast, no one will invest to gain greater improvement..)
Showing one or two percentages of people doing better is not glowing results. Not after two full years of teaching to the test…
The real result is how these same children will do on the next NAEP, the nation’s report card. Overall in both Delaware and the nation, ever since Common Core was affected, those scores (which since the 80’s had always climbed), have gone down…
If you brag about increased Smarter Scores, yet your real report card score goes down, you are no better than those teachers denigrated as passing people into the next grade who failed to meet the expectation…
In conclusion, all of this is completely meaningless. The scores show us nothing for they are arbitrarily made up. The tests show us nothing because they too are made up. The grading shows us nothing because it is made up… Only the NAEP shows us anything now, because it is a test not curved which has been consistent for years… If it shows improvement then this program is indeed working; if it doesn’t, then we need to pull the plug and return to what once worked so well.
What we DO have (since these tests do not show us anything) is a big waste of money… Make that a huge waste of money…. Money that could have been spent on???
Something like an 11:1 student teacher ratio in all schools over 50% poverty levels….
So do not be persuaded by appeals that improvement is at hand.. For the data included has some rather darkening and troubling implications… The Science and Social Studies DCAS scores have dropped consistently since Common Core was invented and put into practice…
Our Delaware kids ARE becoming dumber and dumber..Our solitary focus on math and ENGLISH has eclipsed time for civics and science. Everyone knows how to understand and speak English, even if they don’t know what an indecent participle is. But science and social studies are the determiner of an ignorant society or a knowledgeable one.. Delaware is becoming more and more ignorant the more we embrace Common Core… readily seen because those two scores are not arbitrarily set on a curve; they are based on the number of right and wrong answers. More Delawareans are getting the answers wrong consistently every year since Common Core was enacted.
So let’s grade Markell’s administration….
Our English(reading) scores have gone down over his administrations (due to test change).
Our Math scores have gone down over his administration (due to test change).
Our Social Studies scores have gone down over his administration.
Our Science scores have gone down over his administration….
Our NAEP scores have gone down over his administration….
How can that be called a success?
If there is anything a numbers person admires or appreciates, it is someone who does state budgets 7 years in a row. Yours was a herculean task. Like Clark Kent, laymen will never understand the super powers that lay therein, but rest assured, some of us do know.
You are a credit to our kind…..
Welcome home, soldier…….
Massachusetts, long considered the most successful state when it comes to education, released their PARCC scores….
You may remember that Massachusetts was always the state at the top of the NAEP, which is considered the nations report card. You may also remember that when considered as a separate unit in the PISA, Massachusetts had one of the highest scores for any geographic region….
Yet a state doing this well in education, suddenly upon taking the PARCC now has fewer people proficient than did the previous state testing which was handled by Massachusetts itself…
This does not mean the PARCC is harder. This proves all along what we have said. The PARCC is stupider… The entire reason for outrage against the consortium tests is that they unnecessarily create roadblocks to learning. Whereas one can easily do fractions using single digit denominators to prove one knows how, the PARCC requires the same calculations using weird congruities not seen in the real world like 13/17ths when doing the math. This creates unnecessary headaches without any gain of knowledge for the student…
This simply means that the PARCC is not an good indicator of student abilities. Whereas the older system made Massachusetts one of the top educational powers in the world, using the PARCC is like putting carpet tacks on the 100 yard running track and asking Hussein Bolt to run across it… Then crow that your test was more challenging because scores were lower, like his times, than before……
If there ever was a test designed solely to make large numbers of children fail, it is this one.
It comes with a caveat. To succeed he must return to his liberal roots. The ones he ran on in 2008 and before. I often hear newcomers praise Matt Denn and in the same breath curse Jack Markell. They probably do not know that at one time they were like butt-buddies in philosophy and direction. Both early supporters of Blue Water Wind over the evil Delmarva Power. (only 8 years ago). Both were against the Death Penalty. Both were for extending rights to Gays. Both were for helping the little guy. Both were against Charters. And both were against man made Global warming, and those corporate extremists who made it happen. Both were pro-business but it had to be ethical business. neither supported being for business so it could continue its unethical business practices…. Both were pro-FOIA, opening government to the scrutiny of its citizenry. Both were against Thurm Adams and his desk drawer veto.
it’s funny when newcomers try to take the current Markell back through his role as Treasurer as proof of his evil ways. For he wasn’t evil back then at all. He was a champion for reform, so much so that he challenged and won the governorship over the Democratic Party’s pre-chosen candidate, John Carney, who was seen as less the progressive.
It’s funny what a few years can do.
But Markell’s track record puts him in very good position to be a leading progressive candidate if he were to try. What better argument against Conservative counter punches could be made than this?
When I was governor and ran a state, I tried exactly what you propose…and it didn’t work.. What would have worked better would have been this: and then list progressive policy….
Still skeptical? Try these then make up your own…..
“When I was governor I tried cutting back on state spending by attempting to cut to my state employees salaries by 8% and my legislature held it to a 2% decrease. One would think that such a streamlining of expense would decrease taxation and cause businesses to move in and create growth. Instead, as the state’s largest employer those cuts had a 1.6% multiplier aggravating the economic damage. Fewer revenues then expected were generated the next year because it hurt those who lived on those earning government salaries as well. With hindsight, the proper approach would have been to keep them the salaries continuous, and to apply a tax on the top echelon who survived the depression rather well, and use that new revenue as the funding for the existing government…. As the economy improved, taxes could be lightened… That would have worked faster than the conservative approach I took.”
When I was governor I pushed Common Core hard. I led the nation in its implementation, though held off on being the first to use the test. I still believe some things in Common Core are good for society but with hindsight, I would divorce Common Core tests from being used as the sole ranking of teachers and schools. We found that no matter how hard we pushed accelerated learning, that having one standard set high for all, was defeating. A lower standard set for all works better because there is some realistic chance for all to achieve it. Those on the bottom CAN become proficient with lots of hard work. We found that even our best teachers in our worst schools still gave us the worst scores in our state. We found that mediocre teachers in our best classes still had the best scores. In essence we found no correlation between test scores and quality of teaching. All test scores do we found, is measure the quality of prenatal and infant care. With hindsight, I would say that to do well for our students, all of our students, we need to focus mostly on increasing the human element of education, and particularly in schools of high risk, where the poverty level is over 50% of the student body, we must guarantee an 11:1 student/teacher ratio, insist that it happens and willingly pay for its expense.
When I was governor I tried wooing companies into my state with bribes. I offered no taxes. state loans. even support fees tacked to citizens electricity bills. This was done primarily to develop jobs which were much needed in my state. With hindsight I would have focused more on making sure economic demand remained high instead of trying to get new business to come in. If the demand had stayed at pre-depression levels, jobs would have stayed and remained Instead we gambles on a few temporary jobs involving construction and then when they evaporated we were left continuing to pay the costs, which even today drag down the economy.
When I was governor, we had a automobile plant close up and a possible buyer for it needing some money up front to purchase it. We helped them but they went bankrupt. We lost our loans which we thought were guaranteed to be refunded from sale of its assets. Turns out corporate raiders were ahead of us in line. That points out a discrepancy in law needing adjusted. There is no way private investors putting up money at risk, fully knowing the risk, get first dibs of return over a government who puts up the people’s money to benefit its people. That was just plain wrong and an inexperienced candidate will fall into the same trap as did I. I know ahead of time it does not work.
When I was governor I tried to put in a toxic power plane in the middle of our college town. i thought that any reason to create jobs was reason enough. We tried very hard to engineer the town council and the electorate in order to get proper votes and we succeeded there. However the university walked away from the deal and the deal died. With hindsight, I would not put in a dirty power plant just for jobs. Oil, gas, and coal are done. There are always other options and anything that destroys the atmosphere and our climate, though helpful in the short run, cost far more in the long run than other cleaner alternatives. In truth we misjudged the sophistication of our electorate and their ability to counter our claims with scientific fact, which turned the population against us. The answer I can tell you to America’s future energy is in pursuing the clean energy options and by increasing their efficiency, we lower the cost per kilowatt. Any other way just does not work.
When I was governor I tried getting rid of our Port which is run by the state, by selling it to a private company Kinder Morgan. i thought we had negotiated a very good deal guaranteeing wages at current level for 3 years, and keeping everyone employed the same length of time. However, anytime one privatizes something that is state owned, it is an economic loss to the surrounding area. Private companies hire less than state because they run more efficiently. However, that also means less income and less tax pours into the city. With hindsight, I have learned that privatization is good if the public receives a benefit from better efficiency. But that it is bad, if the service being privatized is something that belongs to all, or requires constant upkeep and maintenance, in which case state ownership is better than private. When our state legislature passed legislation making them the final arbiter of decision, my client pulled out of the deal and the port is doing fine still under state control. I’m here to tell you that privatization of public works only benefits those who buy the operation at a low cost…. There is a reason they were originally state run and that is they are there to serve you first.
When I was governor i tried to weaken our environmental policy in order to bring in jobs. Some companies were used to not having to comply to environmental regulations and they were the only ones who seemed interested in our properties. So we catered to them. We were able to hide most environmental problems and get approval by most local governments. But with hindsight, I would argue now for the other extreme. Protect the environment at all costs. We can always pass on jobs. They are temporal; they rise and fall. But damage to the environment is almost generational, lasting as long as humans are alive. There are always new jobs being created; every day something new is created. But environmental damage is very harmful and lasts a long, long time, It continues doing its damage long after whatever company that caused it has folded and those jobs are now three states away…. I have learned by being governor that the most important thing we have is our environment and that never should we let temporary jobs blind us to the loss of many future jobs because of our polluted lifestyle..
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As a Presidential candidate these arguments would be hard to bust with theoreticals. Nothing works as well as saying I tried that, it doesn’t work. it would also focus the argument on policy instead of personal traits, something our media is scared to do.
The combination of a sharp younger looking candidate saying the right things people are dying to hear, would do well for our current governor if he ran as a liberal in 2016… And if he rigged the Delaware primary to be on January 2nd, ahead of all others, he would be the leader for a while with three delegates.
I know many are skeptical. But seeing Markell in action readily shows he can be presidential material. but only if he runs now, and only if he uses his mistakes to burst the bubbles always painted for Democrats by their Republican opponents. He plays a room well. He only gets in trouble by those outside the room who don’t appreciate what he is doing. If he just return to his own roots, and ditch the pro-business persona he has taken on, he could go far, possibly being offered the Vice Presidency on a winning ticket if he just would be more liberal.
The very reasons his detractors are calling for his head, would make him a great leader if he was only on the right side of the issues for a change…..
In perusing some supplementary data for the article below I stumbled over the makeup of charters in the most comprehensive Charter Study undertaken in America. It’s done by CREDO, an educational data cruncher headquartered out of Stanford University.
But the data itself was amazing as well. It shows the racial makeup of charter schools used by this study, ranked by states…
I should note that not all states are discriminatory. The ones you would expect to be most equal, are… Pennsylvania with 40.3% chartered whites and 46.8% chartered blacks, along with Rhode Island with 23.9% Chartered Whites and 20.1% Chartered Blacks, represent well the high tolerance levels of each of their state’s founding fathers….
What was more interesting were the two trends one quickly grasps as one runs down through this list….
Sometimes charters are used to cull whites out of black public schools…. and sometimes charters are used to keep blacks out of white public schools. The net result is that by averages alone across the entire spectrum, discrimination does not show its ugly face…
27-State Total
37% Whites
27% Blacks
30% Hispanics
But up close and personal, one sees single state results like these…….
Tennessee
1.5% Whites
97.1% Blacks
1.4% Hispanics
District of Columbia
1.9% Whites
93.5% Blacks
4.5% Hispanics
Missouri
4.3% Whites
89.2% Blacks
6.2% Hispanics
Louisiana
13.5% Whites
84.0% Blacks
1.5% Hispanics
New York
20.4% Whites
70.1% Blacks
8.9% Hispanics
Indiana
27.4% Whites
63.5% Blacks
5.6% Hispanics
Illinois
4.4% Whites
63.4% Blacks
30.7% Hispanics
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Then the mirror opposites…..
Oregon
85.4% Whites
3.1% Blacks
6.8% Hispanics
North Carolina
69.4% Whites
26.3% Blacks
3.3% Hispanics
Minnesota
64.9% Whites
22.4% Blacks
3.8% Hispanics
Colorado
61.8% Whites
6.1% Blacks
28.1% Hispanics
Arizona
59.5% Whites
5.6% Blacks
29.8% Hispanics
Nevada
55.2% Whites
15.0% Blacks
21.5% Hispanics
Where whites are being culled from the public school system…
Interesting trends were in states supposedly known for their tolerance of many cultures, their charter movements appear by the above results, to cater to the whites wising to flee multiculturalism in public schools… and in states well known for the prejudicial attitudes towards minorities, charters are used to keep blacks away: Shoo, shoo, go to THAT school. Separate but equal.
(Of course some states in this study have only 2% of their population as black, so low numbers are respective of their populations.)
But reflecting the growing influence of immigrants particularly those from American nations more southern than our own. here are some noteworthy surprises.\
Florida
40.1% Whites
20.4% Blacks
36.4% Hispanics
Georgia
38.4% Whites
46.1% Blacks
10.0% Hispanics
Regardless of the quirks in data, one of the biggest tools required to foster the breakdown of racial prejudices between all segments of society is the intermingling of its children before they develop those prejudices held by their parents.
Obviously charters are taking us backwards from that ideal..
They were 39 days late… but we got them… The preliminary Smarter Balanced Assessments….
The big takeaway was: is that all there is to it?
We’ve been arguing over this for 4 years. (I’ve been doing it for 3). We’ve spent $119 million dollars of Race To The Top Money to bring this to fruition. And we’ve been promised so much good would come from this test that we had no choice BUT to go forward with it…
But looking at the scores, it is the same as it ever was…. Nothing changed. Kids didn’t learn more. Kids may have learned less. If one takes the word of students and teachers, each student spent 8 hours taking this test spread over an average of 3.25 days…
At 70,000 Delawarean students taking the test, a total of 560,000 learning hours were spent on this actual test… One has to ask if that is worth the cost…
Over half a million hours were spent on this test… just so we can fire teachers. Is that the best use of our students time? Or should every parent be concerned with this, and insist that we return to the DCAS, one which took far less time and unlike this test, gave teachers feedback they could give students immediately afterwards.
Because we all know.
If experts say 8 years olds should be able to jump over a 3 foot high bar and you raise it to 5 feet, you are going to have fewer successful jumps… So anyone who says “see, how terrible education is today?: by looking at these scores, needs to be laughed out, ridiculed, and then ignored…. Because they don’t mean anything… Nothing at all.
The real question that needs to be asked is this… By raising the bar to 5 feet, did more people jump over the 3 foot bar then before… That data would tell us if this program was a success or failure…
But we don’t have that data… All we know is that fewer people “passed” because we made “passing” beyond the capabilities of all but our most developed and well trained….
So.. parents… is this truly worth $119 million dollars? So teachers…. is this truly worth $119 million dollars… So administrators… is this truly worth $119 million dollars?
Money that was taken from reading coaches that the Minner administration placed in every school. Money that was taken from math coaches that the Minner administration placed in every school. Money that was taken from having a policeman in every school… Money that was taken from supplying classrooms. Money that was taken from extra curricular activities. Money that was taken from the libraries. Money that was taken away from field trips. Money that was taken away… .. from you… After all, it is your money now being spent on this…
Did you get all the worth over what you paid? Are your kids Smarter? Do they seem more balanced?
If yes, we can’t knock the program … It appears to have worked… But if no, then as many of us have pointed out, this is a boondoggle of epic proportions….
So, when you looked over the preliminaries… did you too say…. “Is that all there is?
Someone is getting rich… somewhere…
With what we currently know about the Smarter Balanced Assessments, it puts the rule of law in danger. IF we take the Smarter Balanced Assessment, here is what the current law says will happen to our children……
(d) The assessments required in subsections (b) and (c) of this section shall measure:
(1) Student performance as required by any federal mandate; and
(2) For grades 3 through 8, the academic progress of individual students.
Pay particular attention to (2). Then tell me how the lower score of the Smarter Balanced Assessment fits the tenor of the law above, since it rates children on this test with a completely different one last year… How can you determine the academic progress of students who scored well on the DCAS in 2014 and completely fail the poorly executed Smarter Balanced Assessment this year(2015)?
Obviously… there is zero accountability on progress made by any of these children this year.,… Which, ironically, breaks the law above…. Some lawyer should have caught this long ago… but I guess the assumption was that test would be so similar passing one would be like passing the other…. Not so. 70% passed the old test… 70% will fail the new test. We will at the end of this summer, have no clue how well any of these children learned over the 2014-2015 year….. (based on these tests; hopefully the classrooms still functioned regularly).
This shows exactly how Common Core damages education… How much time was wasted preparing precisely for these tests that will be meaningless; time which could have been better spent teaching older curriculums that even parents could understand?
Next:
An estimated number of up to 70% of Delaware’s students will show up in the fall and be told they have to repeat the last grade they thought they just finished…. 70%….
How can that be? How can we promote only 30% of our students, hold back 70% and still take in a new crop of student at the bottom… Where do we put all of them?
Since this is impossible. we are going to break the law… We really have no choice… The law says they shall not advance, but we have no choice but otherwise, and the law is thereby broken…
Same argument holds here as well. The law will be broken.
Now… here is the joke:
So we are going to hold them back one year for failing the test, but then promote them anyway the second year if they still have not passed the test…. Meaning that classes will still have people who can’t grasp the subject now but who are just one year older than they would be otherwise. So…. what’s the point of taking the test?
So what happens to all these failing kids? Glad you asked.
- an individual improvement plan (153 (d) (1) a)
- an individual improvement plan (153 (d) (2) a)
- an individual improvement plan (153 (d) (3) a)
- an individual improvement plan (153 (d) (6) a)
For every failure there is the option to enroll in a private individual improvement plan, paid for by the parents of the student…. It is all about money…. $$$…
How much is it worth to you to have your child keep up with his class and not be held back? $100? $200? $500? $1000? If you are indigent, you can even get a government secured loans to cover all education expenses. The quasi- governmental institution pays the vendor, and over time you pay back the institution… All loans secured by your tax refund if you ever renege.
Free public school is free no more…
That is why your child is taking this horrible test and as all smart people have been saying, will fail and you the parent, will still pay lots for them to graduate on time.
Thereby, for the quick fix, we need this following bill put on the table….
This act removes Subchapter Three of Chapter One of Title 14, in it’s entirety. (The numbers for all subsequent ones shall be move up by one)
We can add a new bill later… But this piece is so huge, so corrupt, so full of holes, it is better to remove it completely and continue forward with something brand new next year…..
Students: if all else fails… take a walk… Get up and go outside… Your counterparts are doing it all across this country. Carrying signs that say… We are not a test score…. They are leaving their computers, getting their stuff out of their lockers, and walking out… You have a Constitutional Right To Express Your Beliefs! You can never be punished for it!
Seniors need to lead the way… and all other classes need to follow… There needs to be a citizens’ uprising against this test. Most of your parents seem have no clue or be far too timid. … Not true with you… You need to set the moral example, like your parents or grandparents did in the 60’s.
Say “Fuck this Shit.” Get up, get your things and walk outside…. If you have signs hold them up for passing cars and shout… “Stop the Common Core… Down With Corporate Whores!”
Here buried in the Title 14, Education section of Delaware Code…….
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§ 4007 Unfair labor practices — Enumerated.
(a) It is an unfair labor practice for a public school employer or its designated representative to do any of the following:
________________________
(1) Interfere with, restrain or coerce any employee in or because of the exercise of any right guaranteed under this chapter.
(2) Dominate, interfere with or assist in the formation, existence or administration of any labor organization.
(3) Encourage or discourage membership in any employee organization by discrimination in regard to hiring, tenure or other terms and conditions of employment.
(4) Discharge or otherwise discriminate against an employee because the employee has signed or filed an affidavit, petition or complaint, or has given information or testimony under this chapter.
(5) Refuse to bargain collectively in good faith with an employee representative which is the exclusive representative of employees in an appropriate unit.
(6) Refuse or fail to comply with any provision of this chapter or with rules and regulations established by the Board pursuant to its responsibility to regulate the conduct of collective bargaining under this chapter.
(7) Refuse to reduce an agreement, reached as a result of collective bargaining, to writing and sign the resulting contract.
(8) Refuse to disclose any public record as defined by Chapter 100 of Title 29.
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If you are a public employee, who has faced any type of personal intimidation, subtle or otherwise, you are fully protected by law if you complain… They may still fire you illegally, power being what power does, but the courts ultimately will decide in your favor and make all the stress monetarily worthwhile… Maybe you can even retire in Costa Rica… Wouldn’t that be nice.
If you are a public employee who has faced personal intimidation, either perceived or otherwise, here is your first contact….
- Email Your Delaware Rep
- Email Your Delaware Senator
- Lookup Delaware’s Reps
- Lookup Delaware’s Senators
Your best bet would be to copy Rep. John Kowalko when you discuss your predicament with your legislator… You are protected by law… Which means, if you sincerely feel that opting out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment is the best option for parents to take in order to insist on the changes needed to fully improve our educational system, then you are protected if you communicate your objections directly to your students in order to have passed on to their parents….
The Smarter Balanced Assessment is this century’s colossal mistake: our equivalent of Prohibition…. Let us hope it doesn’t take 10 years for its repeal… Especially since instead of being socially neutral, it is actually abusive to those children who become ground up and left for dead over such extreme, unnecessary expectations.
Bluntly: since Mark Murphy took over from Ms. Lillian Lowery, the sole focus of Delaware’s Department of Education has been to privatize education across New Castle County. By “privatizing”, we are specifically mean “charters”.
This is Rodel , (a wealthy group who are paid to achieve one single business purpose), and it should be a surprise to no one, the the current head of Delaware’s Department of Education was culled from out of that organization.
The modus of operation is clear. They do all to achieve this one single mean.
Otherwise?
A. Why would highly damaging charter legislation be comprised in secret, a decision the Attorney General belatedly said was unconstitutional and illegal?
B. Why would that same bill be rushed through General Assembly without being debated in full? And quickly signed before any legislator could change their mind over a re-vote?
C. Why would bills that changed the level of test scores, making tests harder so scores would appear lower, be sneaked through both chambers by shills of the followers of this policy?
D. Why would when the above bill failed its first Senate, that the administration scrambled and with deal to put Greg Lavelle on Chuck Todd’s television show, got his vote to switch and put our children into the wood chipper of the Smarter Balanced Assessments (take it yourself here)… ?
E. Why would a search for someone to oversee accountability, (short for “manipulation of test data”) end up with a controversial figure from a Californian district that had a bitter charter battle where charters won, and now, all evidence shows, students and parents lost?
F. Why would charters waste $2 million of state money to landlords for each charter opened, when we have public education which own their buildings outright? Answer: to put money into those landlord’s pockets?
G. Why does the News Journal (slowly improving) only report the administration’s side and white-wash and disregard the mounting piles of direct evidence proving that charterization is not only less satisfactory then public schools, but are actually harming children overall?
H. Why were the Priority schools all chosen for their closeness to the Mega Charter? And schools far away, who are by non-affiliated sources, deemed to be doing worse, were ignored?
I. Why were all the $119 million RTTT funds used to push this agenda, instead of being used to fix schools and help even these students who now are being used as human shields for the DOE privatization of these schools?
J. Why is our current DOE so gung-ho on returning separate but NOT EQUAL schools upon the children of Wilmington?
K. Why did the Wilmington City Council vote to NOT allow charter school into Wilmington without their express approval.
L. Why did the DOE dismiss and not sign off on the highly acclaimed report publicized by the University of Delaware which stated that two of the priority schools were rated EXCELLENT on their achieving improvement in their students?
M. Why were those charters included in the bottom 5% of the DCAS scoring group, spared from being considered for priority schools, but just public schools were chosen, perhaps since you can’t increase the number of charters if you prioritize a charter school to turn it into a charter?
N. Why the one person who could bring up questions that provide balance against the DOE in House Education Committees, was unceremoniously removed for obviously no other reason?
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We are in a war… A war you may not be aware is going on around you, until it is too late.. There is a Rodel War on public education and as with any war, if you don’t take the right side, you end up losing…
As with any conflict around you, you have only three options.
- Fight against the side who seeks to destroy you.
- Stay out of the fray and accept whatever happens.
- Fight for the side who seeks to destroy you, hoping they will spare you for your good behavior.
Of these three for most of us, fighting and winning against those who seek to destroy you is our only option. Except instead of us, it is children who suffer. It is children who get less options. It is children who can’t complain that resources that once came to them at their desks, are now quietly siphoned off to wealthy hands sticking out across all our three counties…
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It’s a war. and what can you do?
Clearly you need to opt out of the test this spring… The test hurts children. The test destroys schools and teachers. The test allows more charters to invade Wilmington. Opting out of this test is the ultimate vote by all citizens over whether this policy shall go forward. If this state has to disqualify these test results… by mass opt-outs of all its citizens, this takeover will not go forward.
YOU are directly responsible for your child’s educational outcome… Your actions to opt-out or not opt-out, will ultimately decide the future upon which your children, your grandchildren, your neighbor’s children will inherit… These are your schools. Not the DOE’s. These are your communities. not the DOE’s. This is about you, not the DOE.
There is a war going on against Public education; that same education that gave most of you the tools you still use today.
Standardized tests do not determine a child’s worth… You can make that quite clear to those who seek to use them to destroy public education by opting out…..
It can even be classified as an unjust war, and we have been attacked by a well thought-out long-planned process… In war… all things are fair, or so our mom’s told us…
Opting out of the Smarter Balanced in this state, with a DOE which seems to pretend to listen to you, its citizens, but who’s actions certainly show the opposite to be true….
“They seek to change the people’s law, if it does not suit their purpose…” You need no more evidence.
kavips 