National Movement Hits a Nerve in the Reformer Camp

Certainly a sign that media mogul, owner of the NY Post, and education reform entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch and cronies are noticing the national movement by parents, community members and taxpayers against excessive, experimental, and expensive standardized testing. Groups all over the nation are organized, state legislatures are revisiting decisions on standards, testing, and database development. Washington State teachers are refusing to implement the tests.

What is the sign? Yellow journalism or presenting manufactured sensationalized new reporting and a personal attacks - classic and consistent with the NY Post reputation. Why else would yellow journalists Susan Edelman and Candice Giove fail to report on standardized testing itself and the national opposition rather than choose to launch a personal attack on Lisa Nielsen,  ONE long time critic of excessive national testing. The national opposition is large, but then real journalists with integrity would know that.

So what does the NY Post care about standardized testing? Its owner cares.

In June 2011 Forbes reported that Murdoch's News Corp hired New York State Chancellor Joel Klein to develop an education division. Kristen Kane, former chief operating officer of the New York City Department of Education, was tagged to become COO of this News Corp unit. Two weeks later, Murdoch purchased Wireless Generation, a company that develops software and data systems to track student progress. The company is a contractor for the New York city school system. But Wireless Generation was awarded a $27 million no-bid contract, it got attention - too much attention, and the deal was investigated and the contract was "quietly rejected" by New York State Controller Thomas DiNapoli.

Regarding the $360 million dollar purchase price for Wireless Generation, Murdoch had this to say:

"Education in the U.S. is a $500 billion sector “waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching,” said Murdoch in a statement, and Wireless Generation is at the “forefront” of individualized, tech-based learning."

No testing, no data. No data, no need for million dollar contracts in each state and school district in the U.S. No contracts, no return on big investments.

Who pays? Who benefits???  The critics will not be so easily silenced. There are far too many now and far too smart to be fooled.

Related articles:
http://q13fox.com/2013/01/15/more-teachers-refuse-to-give-map-standardized-test/#axzz2IXkUwqMY

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/06/09/new-york-state-dept-of-education-awards-27m-no-bid-contract-to-news-corp-company/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/27/new-york-scraps-21-millio_n_938929.html

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ed_big_is_class_clown_AypysRk8BeNdNb4XON70sO?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Local

Image: http://greenwichroundup.blogspot.com/2010/08/081210-sneaky-hearst-newspaper-editor.html

APP Press Release: ALEC Board Delays Vote on Common Core

Washington, DC – Today, the board of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), after considering anti-Common Core legislation introduced by the American Principles Project (APP), Goldwater Institute and the Washington Policy Center last summer, delayed a decision on whether to endorse the legislation until their next meeting.

“ALEC’s delay in endorsing the resolution is troubling and plays into the strategy of the multi-billion dollar private entities that are pushing the Common Core,” said APP’s Emmett McGroarty. ”This issue has been before ALEC for almost a year. The resolution was approved by the ALEC Education Task Force overwhelmingly last December, and ALEC has discussed it at three of its national meetings. The well-financed private entities and the federal government are moving forward with their implementation of the Common Core, and Americans have been cut out of the process.”

Dr. Tony Bennett, the Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, presented the pro-Common Core case to the board of ALEC. Dr. Bennett is also on the Board of Directors of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), one of the two trade associations managing the Common Core Standards (along with the National Governors Association). Additionally, he is the Chairman of Chiefs for Change, an initiative of Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education. The Foundation for Excellence in Education and CCSSO have received $1,000,000 and $70,000,000, respectively, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the primary force financing and pushing the Common Core.

Robert Scott, Texas Commissioner of Education, presented the case for the resolution to the board, which then deliberated behind closed doors. State Rep. Dave Frizzell of Indiana, ALEC’s National Chairman, reported that the board found that there was much to like about the legislation but decided to send it back to the Education Task Force due to concerns about some of the language. He stated that the board would forward the details of those concerns to the task force.

This week, APP and Pioneer Institute released a white paper that makes the case against state adoption of the national Common Core State Standards. Co-sponsored by Pacific Research Institute and the Washington Policy Center, Controlling Education From the Top: Why Common Core Is Bad for America argues in favor of a Common Core withdrawal resolution.

The white paper can be seen here:
http://americanprinciplesproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Controlling-Education-From-the-Top.pdf

The Resolution can be seen here:
http://americanprinciplesproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Comprehensive-Legislative-Package-Opposing-the-Common-Core-State.pdf

The American Principles Project is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to preserving and propagating the fundamental principles on which our country was founded - universal principles, embracing the notion that we are all, "created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
For more information, please contact Jameson Cunningham with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs atjcunningham@sbpublicaffairs.com or (703) 739-5920.
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NOTE: On May 2, reports of families of 400 students opted their children out of standardized tests.
In Texas, over 400 school boards have signed a Resolution opposing high stakes assessment.
In Florida, two school boards have signed a National Resolution opposing high stakes assessment.

2012: States Where Parents Oppose Excessive Standardized Testing

April 13, 2012 - 282 Texas school districts have now signed the resolution opposing high stakes assessment.
http://www.tasanet.org/adopted-board-resolutions

UPDATE March 29, 2012 - 219 Texas school districts have now signed the resolution opposing high stakes assessment.


UPDATE March 24, 2012 - School districts sign resolution opposing excessive high stakes assessment. So far 151 have signed, numbers increasing.
http://www.tasanet.org/adopted-board-resolutions

Texas in the news. Parent opposition to excessive testing and teaching to the test continues to grow, and they are not the only ones it seems.

The New York Times quotes Robert Scott, the commissioner of the Texas Education Agency on describing testing in Texas schools this way:

“perversion of its original intent”

The NY Times article is one of the few that brings national parent opposition out of the shadows. Texas parents are saying enough is enough finding opting out the only way to stop this "perversion."

Click on the map to see it larger.

Florida Parent Trigger: Too many holes

Parents, community members, and taxpayers pushed back on the Florida "Parent Empowerment" bill and those efforts were successful. The bill died on the last day of the legislative session in a tie vote, 20 to 20. The Miami Herald reported last minute arm twisting by former Governor Jeb Bush to influence a change of position by one Senator to ensure its passage in case the bill came up for a re-vote in the final hours of the legislative session. That did not happen and the bill can be declared officially dead and buried for this year.

Much has been reported regarding the way the process of the bill unfolded including the testimony provided by non-Florida parents and residents and lobbying by non-Florida non-profits to the exclusion of Florida parent groups such as, the Florida PTA and Florida League of Women Voters. The pressure injected all the way to the end is an indicator of how much money was riding on its passage.

Analysis of the bill itself received less attention. The Thursday night Senate debate included discussion of over 20 amendments, which exposed the bill as something far other than a thoughtfully crafted piece of legislation. The amendments were intended to close serious gaps, but instead made clear the bill was more akin to a piece of Swiss cheese than a movement toward parent empowerment, local control, and fiscal responsibility.

On its merits, this bill is little more than changing the deck chairs. As long as classrooms are test-centric and standardized environments for test preparation instead of student-centered environments of learning, there is no real reform.

The Florida legislature has a penchant for "pass it now, fix it later" legislating.
Proponents of this bill used the familiar and worn-out education reformer narrative that answers valid questions with disdain and insults. Why not answer the question with facts? Opponents were characterized as "conspiracy theorists" and concerns dismissed and ignored.

Undoubtedly, the bill will return next year. However, Florida parents, community members, and taxpayers learned much this year; and as others with legitimate concerns about education reform initiatives nationally, becoming more visible and active in federal and state-level shaping of education. The push back is real and growing.

Related article: Parent Trigger: "Scholastic Snake Oil with Deliciously Deceptive Spin on Parent Involvement."

Florida: Parent, community member, and tax payer opposition strengthens

Florida legislators introduced a Parent Trigger bill, calling it the Parent Empowerment Act. Under the bill, parents and teachers could vote to turn a public school into a charter school if 51% agree and the local elected school board has no say in the matter. However, in a combined statement, these Florida parent groups have come out publicly opposing the legislation:

• Florida PTA
• Fund Education Now
• Citizens for Strong Schools
• 50th No More
• Marions United for Public Education
• Save Duval Schools
• Support Dade Schools

The Tampa Gradebook reports Parents Across America - Florida opposes the bill.

Bill sponsors Rep. Michael Bileca, a Miami Republican and Senate deputy majority leader Lizbeth Benacquisto of Fort Myers did not comment on the opposing parent views.

Parent trigger advocates fail to acknowledge the lack of accountability at the federal and state for over ten years of failed education policy that developed both the US DOE and Florida DOE into overblown bureaucracies. Parent triggers merely change the deck chairs; but do not address the underlying expensive, expanding, and experimental unfunded and unfundable mandates driving U.S. education into the ground.

One central issue is the obsession with high stakes assessment, which has turned classrooms into testing centers instead of environments of learning. Florida is one of the recipients of Race to the Top funding and participating in the development of national assessments based on the common core curriculum. This initiative will increase the assessments students will take during the school year. In response, a petition is circulating to empower parents to opt-out of the FCAT.

The data required for the high stakes assessments and complex accountability systems rely on the student longitudinal database. New regulatory changes allows some student data to be shared with research organizations and governmental agencies without parent consent. Security and privacy concerns go unaddressed.

Florida is the next stop for the Republican primary candidates. So far, these important education matters have gone ignored at federal and state levels. Will that change? If not, Republicans are on notice with yet another petition.

Here's a petition you can sign and know exactly what you're signing: "Stop the Dept. of Education's Power Grab." The petition faults the media for never asking about education in the GOP debates; it faults the GOP for manipulating the candidates in such a way that the strongest candidate is the one who says nothing about education, and for pretending to be the opposition party when it accepts education reforms with open arms.

What do we want the winning GOP candidate to say? A few things:

1. Acknowledge that American public education is going bankrupt. We believe this fact is as important as the Afghan war or gay marriage. A civilization that ignores its young will not have a long life span.

2. Point out and oppose the great rip-offs of local control inherent in Obama's "Race to the Top" and "Common Core Standards": the dissemination of your family's personal information from the Dept. of Education to the federal government at large, a payout to publishing and testing corporations totaling $30 billion nationwide which the states will have to pay (who knows how?). The schools get nothing but the shiny new standards, laid off teachers, and, for the first time, control of curriculum from Washington.

To learn more, please go to the petition, scroll down to the bio of the petition author and the automatic signer. If you agree with our petition, sign it and send it to people and sites you think would agree. Thank you!

#OCCUPYEDUN17: Bring parent, community member, and taxpayer opposition out of the shadows

Public opposition to education reform initiatives is widespread although it receives little national news coverage. Legislators at all levels are unresponsive, uninterested, or part of the problem. The numbers of parents, non-educators, community members, and taxpayers who are becoming informed and organizing are increasing nationwide.

Weakening and undermining local control over education are outcomes of the education reform efforts. Local control is a cornerstone to our democracy and a constant in communities. There is broad agreement across ideologies on that fact.

In an effort to bring public opposition to education reform initiatives out of the shadows, below are some areas of consensus:

1. End the expensive, ineffective, and punitive high stakes assessment.
2. End classroom environments that have been converted into test prep and testing centers.
3. Use the savings from #1 and 2 to return interesting and valuable electives - drama, art, home economics, computer skills, physical education, and vocational education courses.
4. Use the savings from #1 and 2 to maintain manageable class sizes so that teachers are able to meet individual needs.
5. Stop sending large sums of dollars going to Pearson, McGraw-Hill and other companies for the purpose of implementing unfunded and unfundable compliance and data-driven mandates.
6. Use the savings in #5, to restore reasonable class size for core classes, vocational education, and electives.
7. Hold Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and these other companies accountable to the same degree as schools are being held accountable.
8. Apply greater transparency regarding deals and paid for "junkets" made with Pearson, McGraw-Hill and other companies jumping into the profitable education sector. Unsure on the "junkets"? Read about 10 state commissioners of education who traveled around the world on Pearson's tab, "When Free Trips Overlap With Commercial Purposes."
9.Ensure meaningful school-based accountability that meets the NUT principle (No Unnecessary Testing).
10. Use existing measures, such as NAEP, to give a snapshot of student achievement and to report on sub-group accountability.
11. Support local control via publicly elected School Board members and maintain a reasonable salary for those elected positions.
12. Ditch the preschool through college longitudinal database and maintain parent rights guaranteed under FERPA, requiring consent for sharing of student data.
13. Ensure parent rights to opt out of any and all assessments, punitive-free.
14. Leave it to local control to implement teacher evaluation systems that are not dependent on students taking high stakes assessment.
15. Support communities and families so that all students are fed, housed, and receive medical care versus supporting runaway testing initiatives.