Good News For Us; Bad News For JYAKWRAL

It goes to show why if you believe in something you should never give up.  You never know who is listening… Despite the doubling down by our Chief of Change (pennies on the dollar, get it?) here in Delaware, in a land far, far away, (believe me it is far removed from the real world), a budget gets passed and signed that all but does in Race To The Top and the former Common Core, now called JYAKWRAL

And as touted here and other blogs, the real area that does so much to improve education in poverty areas, is  Head Start’s early childhood.education.

It won big, with a billion increase over their past record… That is wise. That is good.

But, wiser and better, are who lost….

Drumroll please…. xxxx—xxx—-xx-x-x-x—-xxxx—xxx—x-x-x-x—-x-x-x-

Two initiatives high on the Obama administration’s wish list—a Race to the Top for higher education and $750 million in new grants to help states improve their preschool programs—won’t receive funding in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 of this year.…..

Before one gets upset over the $750 cut in pre-school programs, that was all signed off to go to think tanks developing early learning Common Core (I mean JYAKWRAL) standards for children too small to fill in bubble tests properly enough to assess their teachers. That money was earmarked to be used teaching 3-5 year olds how to mark tests adequately enough so scanners could read them….

Good thing it’s gone!

So while Arne Duncun and Jack Markell and Dave Coleman and Mark Murphy and Dave Sokola and the Rodel Foundation all turned a tin ear towards parents, students, and teachers, Congress was listening…

Congress chose to put money into students, instead of corporate pockets….  It’s a small victory, but it does show, that the fight against Common Core (JYAKWRAL) is indeed the right fight to be having….

The true fixes for poverty laden schools are:

• Early preschool education to build up word vocabulary.
• 11:1 Student teacher ratio
• Standardized tests used to track educational development; not as a firing tool for teachers
• Rank students by their abilities on those tests; not their ages.

Simple, simple, actions, which if followed, would again give the promise of America’s dream back to 80% of the American population.

Further good news out of the Federal education budget…..

Under the spending bill, schools would no longer have to choose one of the administration’s four controversial turnaround models, which call for dramatic actions such as extending the school day, putting in place merit pay programs for educators, and replacing school leadership. Instead, the measure offers schools and states two new choices, including the chance to try out any school improvement strategy that’s been proposed by the state and gotten a green light from the U.S. Secretary of Education. On top of that, the measure adds a fifth model, known as “whole school reform,” which would allow schools to partner with an outside organization that has proven track record in turnarounds.  And the bill would allow schools to receive the grants for five years, not just three as under current law…

Christina School District comes out smelling like a rose; not so much for Markell and Murphy who appear to have been undercut by the unusual politics of compromise in Washington….

 

Delaware Follows Lowery; Drops Common Core Moniker For JYAKWRAL

It is a really odd name, isn’t it?  But seeing it in writing barely makes up for the fun one has in having it roll off one’s tongue. The easiest way to explain it’s pronunciation, is to mention it sounds a lot like ‘jackel”  The first syllable is pronounce like “yak” but with an audible J pronounced in front of it.

Jyak

Jyak

Jyak

(Don’t talk back….)

(Sorry, 50’s song reference….)

The second syllable is pronounced as it looks… wral… and should be said with a similar snarl as does a cat when it takes a swipe with claws fully extended….

Wral

Wral

Wral….

Put the two together and you have it….

Jyak wral

Jyak wral

Jyak wral….

Pretty good you all.  You are good learners…  So this is the new Common Core. Why change the name?  Isn’t an Edsel still and Edsel even if you call it a Ford Fairlane?

The answer is flat no… It is not an Edsel, even though it once was.  When you change the name of things, you open up new possibilities.  It becomes a chance to suspend ones momentary grasp on reality and grab a tether to a dream emanating from the next world…. It IS a Ford Fairlane, because you say it is a Ford Fairlane… Ford Fairlanes are really cool, so this former Edsel, is now really cool…

It works like magic.  If you don’t like the Edsel because it was an Edsel, and someone says… “Hey, that is no longer an Edsel, It’s a Ford Fairlane”,… then you had better like it, because Ford Fairlanes are really cool.  You don’t want to be considered a real square now, do you?

And that is why Governor Markel overruled Mark Murphy and changed the name…  Common Core just wasn’t cool enough… With our new Chief Of Change, we had to have a name that was different, cool, slides off the tongue so well one can’t stop saying it….  and so now, Delaware, the Small Wonder, The First State, The Diamond State, teaches JYAKWRAL to its students….

Imagine the reactions of friends and family… “Where do you live.”  “Uhhhhhhhhhh, it’s a little state on the East Coast, across the river from Chris Christie’s New Jersey, and at the end of the Philadelphia Airport …..”  OH MY GOODNESS! YOU DON’T MEAN DELAWARE, DO YOU?  YOU HAVE JYAKWRAL.  WE LOVE JYAKWRAL.  WE WISH OUR STATE WOULD GET JYAKWRAL TOO. JYAKWRAL IS SOOOOOOOOOOO COOOOOOLLLLLL……..YOU GUYS IN DELAWARE ARE SO LUCKY….

It is possible since we are now so cool, other problems will go away.  We won’t need a 248 MW power plant in Newark to be cool, we have JYAKWRAL  We won’t need to gut the Coastal Zone Protection Act, because we are so cool for JYAKWRAL, people will flock here and bring jobs.  We won’t need to sell the Port, for the same reason.  We have JYAKWRAL…..

It will probably turn Goveernor Markell’s future around… Jobs go up, Tax revenue goes up, House construction goes up. Transfer taxes go up. District funding goes up. Test scores go up. Teacher’s moral goes up. Racino income goes up.  WDEL advertising revenues go up…

So!. let’s get this show on the road, turn things around and bring our little Delaware back out of the doldrums… Cause… nobody puts “Baby” in the Core-ner…..

No more Common Core… Starting tomorrow!  Onward with JYAKWRAL