Seattle Schools Community Forum

Must be the month for "I knew it" moments (the first being the Washington State charter school law.) Common Core may be toast now.  Except that states and districts, like ours, have invested millions on following and using it.  And invested millions in testing those standards. Guinea pigs - your children were nothing but guinea pigs to these people.  Shame on them. 

Cracks in the Common Core push starting to get bigger.  Statement from Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York State (bold mine):

Update 2:  Arne strikes back.  Today Sec'y Duncan, in an apparent effort to shore up support (and that's putting it nicely), pretty much threatened the state of Oklahoma for backing out of Common Core. Word to the wise, Secretary Duncan, want to make even MORE people suspicious of Common Core? Try the federal government strong-arm. You're only giving them more to work with. From Yahoo News: Duncan had ominous words for states that buck the Common Core trend. “We partner with states whether they’re in Common Core or have their own high standards. But where we will challenge status quo is when states dummy down standards,” he warned. End of update. Update:   the NY Times is reporting the Gates Foundation has "called" for a two-year moratorium on states making any "high-stakes decisions based on tests aligned to the new standards."  Well, that's big of them considering THEY have caused this rush to new standards and testing.  The letter ...

No matter how many tweets that DFER or ReadyWashington or any other group that supports Common Core send out saying that it's here to stay, the evidence is mounting that it may survive but not in exactly the way its end game was pictured. Update on CC across the country: Indiana has already bowed out of Common Core but only to replace it with their "own" standards which appear to be a cut-and-paste of CC.  Minnesota adopted the LA standards but kept their own math standards saying they are "more rigorous" than CC.  The Oklahoma state legislature, both houses , approved a bill to exit their state from Common Core standards.  It is going to their governor's desk soon.  Rep. T.W. Shannon had this to say: The federal government sold Common Core with the promise of increased standards, but instead gave us an inflexible curriculum that does not equip our children for college,” said Shannon. “The federal government has disregarded parental rights, over-r...

I had been seeing a lot of Twitter buzz around Portland School District and the outspokeness of one Board member but now it's ramping up. (The Seattle Times put it in their ed news roundup but blandly said, "Portland school board members express concern over Common Core.") What is fascinating to me is the silence from the district and our own School Board on this issue.  I suspect once CC really hits schools and impacts curriculum, test prep and resources, Seattle Schools parents may wake up.   Most of the concern of Board members is one of the issues I have raised - where was the preparation for Common Core for schools and teachers?   From The Oregonian : Despite clashing opinions on a group of controversial state standards , six Portland School Board members appeared united on at least one issue:  They all had concerns about the rollout of new state exams aligned with the Common Core state standards. “Is the state providing sufficient time an...

 Update: Finally! An thoughtful piece about why Common Core is failing (and likely will be weakened).  It's by Jay P. Greene at Education Next and he has it right.  Supporters of Common Core have made some of the same political mistakes that opponents of gay marriage did.  They figured if they could get the US Department of Education, DC-based organizations, and state school chiefs on board, they would have a direct and definitive victory.  And at first blush it looked like they had achieved it, with about 45 states committing to adopt the new set of standards and federally-sponsored standardized tests aligned to those standards.  Like opponents of gay marriage, the Common Core victory seemed so overwhelming that they hardly felt the need to engage in debates to defend it . But in the rush to a clear and total victory, supporters of Common Core failed to consider how the more than 10,000 school districts, more than 3 million teachers, ...

Seattle Public Schools has re-defined the word "curriculum" no fewer than six times in the past four years. It seems to change with each new Chief Academic Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, or Executive Director of Curriculum. It also changes anytime the District needs to weasel or make other people (the Board or members of the public) appear ignorant.

The fight is still on in many states over Common Core.  New wrinkles have emerged like all kinds of products "aligned" to Common Core and being pushed to states. First (and thanks to Dan Dempsy) is a YouTube video from Ben Swann on the issues around Common Core.   This is the best, most distilled down information on CC I have ever heard.  Recommended. Think CC isn't linked to DOE money?  I'll let Diane Ravitch tell you what happened to Georgia: A few days ago, Georgia announced that it was dropping out of PARCC, the Common Core testing consortium funded by the U.S. Department of Education. State officials said the state could not afford the technology or the cost. The U.S. Department of Education was swift to respond. It wrote Georgia to warn that it is withholding $10 million from the state’s Race to the Top funding . Maybe the timing was a coincidence. Maybe not.  The state says it needs more time to fix its educator evaluation system befo...

First off - read Anthony Cody's column from his Living in Dialogue slot at Education Week.  READ IT in its entirety.   Why?  Because it gives quite the total picture of Common Core and why so many - yes, including Tea Party folks - are against it.  Worried about it.  And will fight it.  You should be, too, if only to protect your child's privacy. Here's the basics from his column but again, READ IT: "1. Sharing of student and teacher data with third party developers of all sorts, with no guarantees of privacy.  As noted in this post, there are plans in place in some states such as Illinois and New York, and others as well, to collect massive amounts of data, which will be housed in a cloud based databank maintained by inBloom, a non-profit created by the Gates Foundation for this purpose."

Over at Diane Ravitch's blog, there was a discussion about the national PTA and links to the Gates Foundation (and maybe that is why the PTA showed Waiting for Superman" at their national convention in 2011.)  I mentioned our state PTA and its ties to McDonald's and Diane put it up . Turns out that the National PTA received a grant in Feb. 2013 from the GE Foundation to further the PTA efforts for Common Core. Here's what the national PTA president had to say:   "As the largest child advocacy organization in the country, National PTA has played a leading role in educating families and communities about the Common Core State Standards for years, creating a groundswell of support for this historic reform," said Betsy Landers, National PTA President. "The need for creating awareness of the standards remains a high priority. We believe that new resources focused on assessments and accountability systems must be included in the public dialogue to ensur...

First up, this is not directly ed related (although peripherally), a letter from a whiter-than-white (his term) Republican who was mightily unhappy with his party this election.  (Caution: he minces no words so if you are a delicate reader, do not read this section.)  He does speak to some of what ed reformers on the Dem side like to do; namely, name-call and harangue which to my mind, never works.   One of the reasons my family is affluent is that my wife and I have a collective fifteen years of university education between us. I have a Masters degree in Science and Technology Policy, and my wife is a physician who holds degrees in medicine as well as cell and molecular biology. We are really quite unimpressed with Congressional representatives such as Todd Akin and Paul Broun who actually serve on the House science committee and who believe, respectively, that rape does not cause pregnancy and that evolution and astrophysics are lies straight from Satan’s butt ...

I will confess; I am NOT fully up-to-speed on this issue.  But I was reading over the minutes from the Board Work Session on CCSS that was held on October 19, 2011 and wanted to point out several issues around CCSS as well as what parents know or don't know. To note, some of the confusion is that we have Washington State Standards, SPS graduation requirements and CCSS and while there is overlap, I believe they all have differences.  What they are and what they mean to your child remains to be seen.   The following is straight from the minutes.

Monday, Oct. 17 Seattle Council PTSA meeting with Dr. Enfield and Director DeBell at headquarters where the discussion will be about school governance.   Socializing and light snacks at 6:30 p.m. with the meeting starting at 7 p.m.  (While I realize that this is not a SPS event, it would have been nice to put it on the district calendar since district leadership will be there as featured speakers.) Tuesday, Oct. 18 The next School Board candidate forum , this one in West Seattle put on by a coalition of West Seattle schools at Madison Middle School from 6:30-9 p.m.  The update here is that the moderator will be the always sharp (and ever lovely) reporter Phyllis Fletcher from KUOW.   There will be a meet-and-greet at 6:30 p.m. followed by a quick pro/con on the Families and Education levy and then the forum. Madison Middle School is at 3429 45th Avenue SW.    From the West Seattle blog : Question #1 is scheduled to be: “Given the sacrifice ...

The Times has an article about the smackdown between Governor Gregoire and State Superintendent of Schools Randy Dorn.  The issue is that the Governor is looking for more cuts and instead of prioritizing cuts, she's asked all state departments to submit cuts for taking 10% from their budgets.  That would mean about $97M in nonbasic education cuts.  Dorn said no.  He is refusing to submit any cuts, saying: "I cannot, in good conscience, submit a budget ... that is consistent with (your) requirements," he wrote. Now this is posturing because they largely protected K-12 last time around but now, cuts will be made.  (He is also spending a bushel on Common Core standards which are less stringent than the Washington State standards.  He could start there.) The outcome? And by not submitting a list of ideas to guide the Legislature — as all of the other agency directors have — Gregoire spokesman Cory Curtis says Dorn is making it harder for the state ...

The Seattle Times ran an editorial today, Core Academic Standards Bring Promise of Consistent Student Preparation , in which they touted the mythical benefits of national common core standards for K-12 education. Once again, the Seattle Times got it completely wrong. Here's a sample: Imagine if parents could know with certainty what their children are learning and in what grade they need to learn things. The result would be a coherent educational system with the opportunity of education truly equalized. Well we already had standards here in Washington state, standards which were more clearly written than the common core standards. So parents already could know with certainty what their children were supposed to be learning and what grade they needed to learn things, yet, somehow, mysteriously, it did not result in a utopian coherent educational system in which the opportunity of education was truly equalized. Gee. I guess it takes something more than just setting standards. H...

First off, bless Melinda and Bill Gates for being willing to give away money for world health and public education in the U.S.  I applaud anyone who steps up to help.  They are likely helping many people. However, we all know, as citizens in a city where we have more than one billionaire, that while philanthropy is a great thing, these people giveth...and they taketh.   The new mantra is " venture philanthropy" - they expect a return on their investment.  

I know that the most important thing going on right now is all of the day lighting of the incompetent and criminal behavior going on at the John Stanford Center for Education Excellence. Please don't let up on this until every rock has been overturned. However, Cliff Mass wrote an Op-Ed in the Seattle Times that was published on Friday about the possibility that Washington may adopt the Common Core national standards. This would be a major tragedy for our students, especially in mathematics. Now I freely admit that I do not like the books that I have been saddled with to teach Algebra 1 and Algebra 2, but I do have to say that the new standards are excellent and I see no reason to do anything to them. To adopt the Common Core would be a step backward, as they are not as rigorous as out current standards and are hard to understand. Please remember as we send the current top administration down the road, the idea is to educate children and prepare them for the future. Please do...

From Concerned Teacher: The last OSPI Public Forum on the Common Core Standards and SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) is being held tomorrow night (Monday)18560 1st Avenue NE, in Shoreline. The forum will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Mount Rainier Room at Shoreline Center. OSPI is also seeking public input at the forums and through an online survey (available to take until Oct 31 ) because it is required to deliver a detailed report on the common core standards in January 2011 to the state Legislature. Formal adoption and implementation of the new standards may not occur until after the 2011 legislative session, which will provide an opportunity for legislative review. The forum will include information on how the new common core K-12 standards for English language arts and mathematics were created and how they build toward college and career readiness. In addition, the forum will contain information about: * The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortiu...