Liar Liar Pants On Fire - Bringing The OSDE Into Reality About Common Core

October 21st, Julia, Lynn and I went to visit the Carter County Republicans.  Chairman Anna Flat asked us to attend and speak about the Common Core.  She wanted to hear both sides of the issue so she also asked the Oklahoma State Department of Education to appear.  Joel Robison, Chief of Staff for Superintendent Barresi came.

As I've said before, we don't have a problem with Joel - we don't have a reason to - he's never been anything but decent to us - we just don't like the direction in which our State Superintendent is taking Oklahoma education.  We also have a problem with the fact that Dr. Barresi herself frequently embellishes the truth, spins fact, regularly talks around questions without answering them and has a tendency to be unkind to dissenters.

One of the biggest "truth embellishment" of late is the fact that Oklahoma has Oklahoma Academic Standards instead of Common Core - well, at least she doesn't mention Common Core now that it has become a political hot potato - she only chooses to talk about "her" new Oklahoma Academic Standards. 

So, to kill two birds with one stone, I put together a brief slide presentation to cover BOTH the lie that Common Core is "state led" (aka local) and the truth about the Oklahoma Academic Standards.  Below are the slides with captions - almost all are screenshots either from Common Core or OSDE websites. (If you can't read the slides, click on them and they will open to original size).

The Common Core website shows that the CCSS are licensced and copywrited by the NGA and CCSSO.  They also provide a liability waiver in case you hate them so both the NGA and CCSSO can say, "Too bad, so sad, we're not to blame for them."  If, however, you want to sue for damages done by using the standards, you'll have to do it in DC!  very local - VERY Oklahoma!

Our RoadMap To the Common Core showing the "four pillars" of education 'reform'.  1.  Common Core State Standards (in blue), 2.  a State Longitudinal Database System, 3.  Using the Turnaround model on failing schools (created by Bill Gates and used in Chicago while Arne Duncan was superintendent there! - also in blue) and, 4.  Teacher accountability measures (yellow).  All four have been dictated by the USDE to state who took the SFSF funds (all 50), Race to the Top grants and/or a No Child Left Behind Waiver.  Gosh, the feds didn't want states to use them, did they?

 

 

So, business leaders met with state governors to create the standards because businesses were complaining they couldn't find any good workers.  What happened to OJT?  Why pay for OJT yourself, if you can get governors to pay for it FOR you through a series of public/private partnerships, tax breaks and a complete overhaul of the nation's education system from a learning model to a workforce training model?

But aren't we led to believe that the CCSSI movement was an 'organic', 'grassroots' education movement that filtered UP from the states in 2010?  This is not the case, obviously.  The CCSSI were being discussed by governors and business leaders for years!

Here is David Coleman - the 'architect' of the CCSSI.  Yes, he worked 5 years in health care, in financial institutions and did PRO BONO (?) work in education?  HE'S writing educational standards?  Interesting.

Dr. Barresi hired John Kramen out of Achieve.  His CV is available for download in the State's NCLB waiver application which can be found here; http://www2.ed.gov/policy/eseaflex/ok.pdf.

Just a couple screen shots of Ed.gov showing the four pillars of education reform for the Race to the Top grant.  Consequently, many states adopted the Common Core simply to be competitive for the money.  Oklahoma put CCSSI in state law in 2010 via SB2033, but Brad Henry put English/LA, Math, Social Studies and Science 'common core' standards into state law via executive order to increase the states

Mary Fallin - against the wishes of the Republican Party via a Resolution Against the Common Core State Standards - is advocating for the Common Core as NGA Chair.  The RNC resolution was written by Oklahoma's own State Committeewoman Carolyn McClarty and signed by the State Committeeman and Committeewoman of each state.

So, we've gone from Reading, Writing and Arithmetic to Accountability, Achievement and Alignment?

Here, we're told that the OSDE is using Common Core.  CCSSI is being portrayed as an umbrella covering every aspect of Oklahoma Standards.

Letter from Brad Henry indicating that ALL Common Core State Standards were adopted by Oklahoma in order to get a Race to the Top Grant.  The left screen shot is of the OSDE website where the school code is found.  This is a screenshot of that page.  The right is the letter that can be found in Oklahoma's RTT grant on the Ed.gov website.

Screen shot showing that when you click on the URL for the English/LA standards, they go directly to the CCSSI document.

Here are some combined screenshots showing where every link to the English/LA standards go on the OSDE OAS page.

Here are the links to the OAS math standards page.  Note that the link to the Math standards themselves go directly to the CCSSI document.

Here is the screenshot for the OAS Social Studies.  The underlined language and the box in the lower left shows that the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies include the Common Core State Standards.

This is a comparison of the National Council for Social Studies webpage about the national Social Studies standards and the FAQ page of the CCSSI webpage showing that the CCSSO worked on both standards and they are "state led".

The left is a screen shot from the Oklahoma Academic (C3) Standards Implementation Guide that shows that the OSDE is teaching our Oklahoma children that we live in an "American Constitutional Democracy".  I have asked Constitutional scholars about this term - they do not know what it means.  We live in a Republic - as I have written before.  The right side are screen shots from the National Social Studies standards.  Please note that they ALSO refer to America as a Constitutional Democracy. 

The left side of this slide contains screen shots from the National History Standards.  The right side contains screen shots from the Oklahoma Academic Standards for History.  Please NOTE:  C3 is the same (one c is Citizen, the other is Civic Life), they BOTH have the four main areas as shown.  The national standards have something called an Inquiry Arc and the OAS have something called a 'coherency storyline' - these are essentially the same thing. 

Oklahoma History Standards Could Very Well Be Common Core History Standards

For the most part, the Oklahoma media has been squarely in the Common Core camp through editorials that often blast dissenters as Tin Foil Hat Wearing Conspiracy Theorists.  Ok.  Name calling may be the only way to sell those papers, I'm not sure, but that doesn't make us any less RIGHT on the issue of Common Core.

In fact, I think it important to point out here that it appears Superintendent Barresi has been untruthful with Oklahomans and certainly Republicans, because I believe it speaks to the issue of credibility of Dr. Barresi and other Common Core supporters.

Dr. Barresi has told Oklahomans over and over and over that Oklahoma would NOT be adopting the Common Core State Standards in History and Science.  On the very conspiratorial website www2.ed.gov, I found Oklahoma's addendumto their original Race To The Top application.   

Page 7 of this application has a letter from Governor Henry sent to the FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION saying that Oklahoma, through an emergency rules process, DID adopt the Common Core English/Language Arts and Math Standards, as well as Social Studies and Science as of July, 2010! 

210:15-4-3. Adoption and implementation.
(a) The Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts, Literacy in History/Social Studies and Science, and Mathematics shall be adopted and implemented as follows:
(1) Effective immediately, the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts, Literacy in History/Social Studies and Science, and Mathematics are adopted by the State of Oklahoma;
(2) Beginning with the 2010-2011 school year, the school districts of the state shall develop and begin implementing a plan for transitioning from the Priority Academic Student Skills to full implementation of the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts, Literacy in History/Social Studies and Science, and Mathematics as described in (b) of this rule by the 2014-2015 school year or the school year in which common assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards will be available, whichever is later;
(3) Beginning with FY 2011, the Oklahoma State Department of Education shall pursue participation in consortia of states, as appropriate, to develop common assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards; and
(4) The Priority Academic Student Skills shall remain as the assessed standards until such time that full implementation of the Common Core State Standards are required and common assessments aligned to those standards are available.

Dr. Barresi has made quite a public show (the most recent at a meeting of OCPAC May 15th where she waxed so fondly of Oklahoma's social studies standards being Oklahoman I thought she would cry) of having David Barton come out and sit in on the gathering of social studies teachers assembled to write Oklahoma's 'new' social studies standards (DavidBarton did not agree with her assessment).   I have read the new social studies standards and commentedon them.  They DEFINITELY contain the Common Core English/LA standards which have trimmed down the actual history students will learn.

It is certain that Dr. Barresi gathered input from Oklahomans for the History standards.  But how much of this input was used to formulate these standards and how much was simply 'lip service' to placate teachers/taxpayers?  It certainly does appear that the new Social Studies/History Standards for Oklahoma follow those outlined in the RTT agreement with the federal Department of Education.

Again, according to Oklahoma’s Race to the Top addendum: 

(b) By the 2014-2015 school year or the school year in which common assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards will be available, whichever is later, the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts, Literacy in History/Social Studies and Science, and Mathematics shall be fully implemented by replacing or being added to the Priority Academic Student Skills as follows
(1) English Language Arts for grades K-12 shall replace the Priority Academic Student Skills in Language Arts for grades K-12 with the provision that the State Board of Education reserves the right to add up to 15 percent additional standards to the Common Core State Standards as appropriate;
(2) Literacy in History/Social Studies and Science for grades 6-12 shall be added to the Priority Academic Student Skills in:
(A) World studies for grade 6, world geography for grade 7, and United States History 1760-1877 for grade 8;
(B) Economics for high school, Oklahoma history for high school, United States government for high school, United States History 1850 to the Present for high school, world geography for high school, and World History for high school;
(C) Inquiry, physical, life, and earth/space science for grades 6-8; and
(D) Biology I, Chemistry, and Physics

Please, go to the History/Social Studies standards.  You can also find them through the main Oklahoma C3 standards page.   

Interestingly, these also correspond nearly exactly to the C3 Standards produced by the Council of Chief State School Officers.  Though not found at this link, the standards themselves can be found here.  Please note the agreement of one central theme between both sets of standards.  Both indicate that America is a Constitutional Democracy instead of a Constitutional Republic.  It is also important to note that the Oklahoma document is arranged in the same manner as the C3 standards and that our department calls these standards also C3.

Compare these standards by going to Oklahoma’s RTT Addendum opening it and opening Oklahoma’s History/Social Studies Standards and comparing them side by side.  Does Oklahoma’s document NOT follow the addendum nearly* exactly? 

• Page 38 of Grade 6 says, "Literacy Skills Standard 2: The student will develop and demonstrate Common Core Social Studies writing literacy skills" and "Grade 6 WORLD GEOGRAPHY".
• Page 42 of Grade 7 says, "Grade 7 WORLD GEOGRAPHY"
• Page 46 of Grade 8 says, "Grade 8 UNITED STATES HISTORY"
• Page 51 of High School says, "High School ECONOMICS"
• Page 55 of High School says, "High School OKLAHOMA HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT"
• Page 67 of High School says, "High School UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT"
• Page 78 "High School WORLD HISTORY" 
• Page 82 "High School WORLD HUMAN GEOGRAPHY"

*I say ‘nearly’ exactly because Oklahoma has added Psychology (pg 59) and Sociology (pg 63) to our History Standards.  This must represent the 15% over the written Common Core State Standards we're allowed to use under the RTT grant (Pg 12).

Of course there is nothing controversial introduced in Psychology and/or Sociology.  In fact, why are these not separate courses OUTSIDE History/Social Studies Standards?  When I was in high school in the 70's/80's, I had Oklahoma History, US History and Psychology as a separate class.  Sociology was never brought into the mix.

Wikipedia explains the foci of sociology as including:

social stratification, social class, culture, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, and deviance.

As a parent, I'm uncomfortable with the thought of my kids being taught many of these in public school because so many can be politicized in a manner not akin to our family's world view.

Other issues of concern surround quotes from several historical figures placed into the standards document itself, such as this one on page 66, 

“Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand” by Karl Marx   

- and this quote on page 62, 

“Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy” by Sigmund Freud.  

Why pick two of the most controversial people in history from which to use quotes?

There is also the issue that Oklahoma's HistoryStandards cite the Southern Poverty Law Center, as one of its supporting documents on page 96 and the fact that the document refers to America as a Constitutional Democracy onpage 11.

Unless there is some document of which we are unaware that nullifies Governor Henry's edict, Oklahoma already HAS Common Core State Standards for History.  Then again, even with the discovery of such a document, this examination of the standards doesn't lend itself to such an interpretation.  It certainly appears that Dr. Barresi either has not been forthcoming with the truth on the issue, or is so incompetent as to not be privy to law created by the previous administration.  Neither answer seems palatable to us.

CITATIONS:

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/amendments/oklahoma.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp33Ko-x3Vo

http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2013/04/oklahoma-history-standards-and-southern.html

http://ok.gov/sde/sites/ok.gov.sde/files/C3-SocialStudies.pdf

http://ok.gov/sde/oklahoma-c3-priority-academic-student-skills

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/executive-summary.pdf
http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2013/04/oklahoma-history-standards-and-southern.htm
http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-republic-maam-if-you-can-keep-it.html