Does Common Core Repeal Stop Students From Participating in FFA and Prevent ACT/SAT/AP Testing?

I am not  an HB3399 apologist - the bill needs some changes and additions to be a workable solution for teachers (at least) from my perspective - but I also know Governor Fallin is Chairman of the NGA (one of the organizations that owns the copyright for the standards) and an obvious true believer in the Common Core and nationalized education.  I don't see her throwing herself and her NGA agenda under the bus, so I don't know where that leaves those of us that disagree with the Common Core and the hydra it's become within state law, school code and testing contracts.

Still and all, I am sick to death of the hysteria (LOVE that picture of the FFA kids, that look so sad as if their state government is set to rip away their beautiful blue jackets) the Daily Oklahoman continues to pump out about a Common Core repeal (Common Core Bills Impact Many Other Programs).  The FFA thing is simply nonsense.  The FFA is a chartered entity - not a federal entity.  I see no way HB3399 would harm the FFA.  Here is the public law on FFA, please read it yourself.  

All officers are members of a CORPORATION, not federal employees.  From the law:  (2) The board consists of the Secretary of Education, four staff members in the Department of education and, four State supervisors of agriculture education.  The Secretary is chairman of the board.  As said in the article, "Significant standards, assessments, and in some cases curriculum are dictated from the National FFA Organization".  So?  These are not state 'subject matter standards', they are standards specific to the program of FFA and as such would fall outside of the state 'subject matter standards' purview.  There is nothing in HB3399 that prevents any school or district from making ADDITIONS to the state standards.

Quite apparently, the editorial staff has simply overlooked the wonderful research engine that is the World Wide Web.  If you (Daily Oklahoman) believe this analysis to be incorrect, please feel free to educate us with FACTS, not mere speculation (likely, may, ).

I also read nothing in the bill that should lead anyone to the conclusion that ACT or SAT or AP testing will be prohibited.  Please, read the bill - you can find it here.

Page 19 line 1 begins, 

"The State Board of Education shall not enter into any agreement, memorandum of understanding or contract with any federal agency or private entity which in any way cedes or limits state discretion or control over the process of development, adoption or revision of subject matter standards and corresponding student assessments in the public school system, including, but not limited to, agreements, memoranda of understanding and contracts in exchange for funding for public schools and programs."  

Do the SAT, ACT or AP tests 'cede or limit state discretion or control' over 'subject matter standards'?  They have nothing to do with 'subject matter standards' (ie; any standards used for k-12 education).  Are SAT, ACT or AP tests related directly to the current "subject matter standards"?  No. They are independent general knowledge tests - becoming aligned to the Common Core, that's true - but they are not tests that correspond directly to the state standards.  Please, Daily Oklahoman, point to the place in this bill that identifies the evil plot to make Oklahoma's students stop taking nationally/internationally benchmarked tests?

I feel the need to point out here that Robert Sommers isn't from Oklahoma, he's from Ohio where he was an education policy adviser to Governor Kasich that helped institutionalize all the education 'reforms' we're institutionalizing here in Oklahoma.  He also worked  for a Charter School (Carpe Diem) that has ties to Jeb Bush and the Foundation for Excellence in Education - an organization that has spawned Chiefs For Change.  Janet Barresi is a Chief For Change.  

In fact, more and more of the upper management positions in the OSDE are becoming simply arms of the Common Core machine - John Kraman, the Student Information Officer (chief data gatherer on students) comes from Achieve, the newest Superintendent over TESTING comes from PEARSON.  Oklahoma has no people skilled enough for these jobs - people that might desire to keep the best interests of Oklahomans in mind?

It seems to me that this entire Education 'Reform' pile of nonsense, is exactly that.  It's not about what's best for students or parents or teachers, it's about what's best for the careers of those involved in the never-ending, revolving door, money-making scheme, Bill Gates grant-receiving, echo chamber that is COMMON CORE.  It has to be, or the Chamber of Commerce would not misrepresent data to push the Common Core and Stand For Children wouldn't present a petition of 7000 names claiming to be FOR the Common Core to the State legislature that appears to be fraudulent. Why does the Pro-Common Core side need to misrepresent itself to press their side of the issue?  It's an important question to ask.

NOTE:  When you read an editorial in the Daily Oklahoman about Common Core, please remember that one of their editorial writers is Ray Carter, husband of Jennifer Carter, former Chief of Staff to the State Superintendent Janet Barresi (http://www.koco.com/Barresi-s-Chief-Of-Staff-Issues-Statement-Regarding-Tweet/10738470). I believe this to be a conflict of interest. Certainly, as the DO mentioned in another Common Core repeal hit piece recently, Stand For Children has met with their editorial board. Restore Oklahoma Public Education has NEVER been asked to meet with their editorial board. I think that says quite a bit as well. (Ray Carter Editorial Writer rcarter@opubco.com ) http://newsok.com/home/nic

Current Status: Common Core in Oklahoma (3/13/2014)

March 12, 2014 was a BUSY day in the Oklahoma Capitol.

HB3399 - a bill to repeal Common Core standards by Speaker of the House Jeff Hickman PASSED OUT OF THE HOUSE last night; 78 AYE to 12 NAY.  This bill repeals Common Core from law and allows 2 years in which to develop standards and tests.  It does not specify standards or testing for the interim.

This is now the only vehicle in the Oklahoma legislature with the possibility to stop Common Core State Standards and associated testing.  

Late Monday evening (2/10), an amendment to SB1764, was filed by two brave Oklahoma Senators, Josh Brecheen and Anthony Sykes via gutting a bill that had already passed out of the Senate Education Committee and inserting new language to stop Common Core.  Before the bill could be heard on the Senate floor, however, another amendment was added late on the evening of the 11th.  This amendment -  eerily similar to that of Indiana - effectively neutered the intent and purpose of that filed on 3/10 by providing 6 months for the State Department of Education to create new college and career ready standards - a veritable impossibility.  

As Chamber of Commerce and Stand For Children (ExpectMore.org) lobbyists moved into overdrive Wednesday, a representative of the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce sent an email from Secretary of Education and the Workforce, Bob Sommers (an Ohio transplant from Kasich's administration) indicating the amendment would, "...eliminate our ability to engage with national youth organizations such as the FFA", among other consequences.  

ROPE was able to obtain consultation with Emmett McGroarty, an attorney with American Principles Project who has worked with a large number of states in helping to draft Common Core legislation, and determined this - and several other assertions from the email - to be false.

This would prove not enough in the end, however, as Governor Mary Fallin herself was seen on the fourth floor of the Senate, pulling members off the floor into private meetings one by one.  By the end of the day Wednesday, Senators had been silenced and a press release formulated indicating the body wanted to 

"...ensure no rash decisions are made and policy changes are carefully considered and vetted (by the committee process) by all interested parties as to avoid unintended consequences." 

Senator Brecheen noted, 

"We have the assurance of the Senate Education Chairman that a bill that addresses Common Core and passes the House floor will receive a hearing in his committee.  We also have the commitment from Senate Leadership that there will also be a floor vote allowed on that bill if it moves forward."

ROPE's response to the press release follows:

The decision by Senate leadership today to kill SB1764 under the guise the bill could present unintended consequences is laughable at best. Where were the concerns about unintended consequences when the common core were placed into state law in 2010 before they were even available to read in final form? The notion the bill couldn't be heard because it hadn't been properly vetted through committee is the most dishonest, disingenuous comment conceivable. Of course it hadn't. Senators Brecheen and Sykes had to circumvent regular procedure due to the insistence of Senate Education Committee Chair John Ford to hear no bill regarding Common Core in his committee! How was the voice of the people to be heard? How were these brave senators to represent their constituency in the face of a governor who wants nothing more than to protect her chairmanship at the National Governor's Association. Infuriated might possibly sum up my thoughts, but DISGUSTED is probably more accurate.

Though it's anyone's guess as to when HB3399 will be heard in the Senate Education Committee, it will more than likely occur following Oklahoma's candidate filing period April 9-11.  After all, if the two Senate Education Committee members up for re-election draw a primary opponent, the Governor's arm twisting will become all that harder.

The battle lines are clearly drawn - parents, taxpayers and teachers against special interests, Senate leadership and the chairmanship of the NGA.

We expect our Grassroots Day of Activism, Monday, March 17 (St. Patrick's Day), will show our Senate leadership and Governor that our votes count and if they want to get them, they'll STOP COMMON CORE!

Is Oklahoma Education Being Sold to Out Of State Interests?

UPDATE 3/27/14 see bottom of post

As Dorothy chanted "There's no place like home" in reference to Kansas, I feel the same way about Oklahoma.  As a 51 year resident of our fair state, imagine my frustration then, at the following situations occurring in our own Oklahoma education system:

• Last year about this time, we wrote about the fact that numerous FOI'd emails from the State Department of Education (OSDE) indicated that state education policy was being written by Jeb Bush's Foundation for Educational Excellence (FEE)- particularly Oklahoma's NCLB waiver and the A-F grading system.
• We then wrote about Oklahoma's new Secretary of Education and the Workforce, Robert Sommers, a former employee of Governor John Kasich in Ohio who also has ties to FEE.
• John Kraman, the Executive Director of Student Information at the OSDE came to Oklahoma from Washington D.C. where his previous post included working for Achieve, where he was the Lead Research Analyst for development of the Common Core State Standards.
• And now we have Wes Bruce.  Wes has taken over for the 'retiring' Meredith McBee, Assistant Superintendent for Accountability and Assessments. Wes Bruce was formerly the Chief Assessment Officer for the Indiana Department of Education.  Wes also currently chairs the PARCC Technology Committee (Barresi made Oklahoma a member of PARCC) and served on the US Department of Education's technical advisory Committee.  He was the 2006-7 Chair of the Education Information Management Advisory Consortium (EIMAC) for the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).  He chaired the NCES Forum task force on accounting for student exits, dropout and mobility.  Wes previously served as an administrator with South Bend Community School Corporation, and also served 11 years in the Kanawha County Schools of Charleston, West Virginia.  He has a B.A. in psychology from Rice University and a M.S. in computer science from the University of Charleston, West Virginia. 

In order to jog your memory, Indiana was where Jeb Bush favorite, Tony Benett was State Superintendent until he was fired by Indiana citizens in a snit over his love of Common Core.  He then went on to become Education Commissioner in Jeb Bush's backyard - Florida.  Unfortunately, he had to resign that post after it was found he changed grades of an Indiana charter school to make them look better on the Bush-designed A-F grading system.

March 20, 2014, another new hire was made at the State Department of Education. 

Lisa Chandler is the agency's new assistant superintendent in charge of assessments.  Chandler earned a Master's Degree in Public Policy and Administration from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. and a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Texas at Austin.  After 20 years at the Texas Education Agency, she worked as a national measurement consultant for Pearson PLC.

Hmmm.  So first, we have Kraman - a previous employee of Achieve - and now Chandler - a previous employee of Pearson (the world's largest textbook company, the world's largest supplier of Common Core-aligned books, ancillaries and testing!).  

As a longtime resident of the state, I'm incensed.  We have no good Oklahoma candidates for these jobs?  Apparently not - since the latest Barresi hire comes from the same revolving door as all the other employees in positions key to implementing Dr. Barresi's NON-LOCAL, NON-OKLAHOMA education reforms that come via Jeb Bush via President Obama.  Nothing to see here.  Business as usual.  Please drive on.

Garbage. Seriously, just garbage.

The new exciting article for today that made me crazy..."CareerTech director wants to link education, workforce to strengthen Oklahoma's economy.  Oklahoma's CareerTech Director Robert Sommers wants education and business officials to work together to create good jobs in the state and to prepare Oklahomans to fill them".

Not long ago, I wrote a blog entitled, "Made in the USA? Why Common Core Standards Will Never Produce A Stronger America". If you didn't read it (and if you didn't, shame on you ! LOL), my thesis was this,

our current education 'reform' nonsense is not going to prepare any kids for the current, non-technical, public service jobs available today and they shouldn't anyway as that is the job of the hiring company

This interview with Robert Sommers, Governor Fallin's current appointment to a newly created secretary position, "Secretary of Education AND THE WORKFORCE", explains how public schools (taxpayers) should be training kids for jobs (as though they are automatons) and to attend the four year college of their choice (to put more and more kids into the real world in debt without a job in Women's Studies, the major from the college of their choice).

“High school diplomas without any career technical instruction or additional well-rounded technical training really leaves you with an opportunity to continue education, but not very many living-wage job options,” Sommers said. 
“You have to have high academic, plus technical skills, foundation skills — those manifest themselves in CareerTech credentials or college degrees — and that's become the new minimum,” he said.

Gosh, I guess Sommers isn't acquainted with the way it used to be done (and often still is in rural America).  Kids left school at 8th grade (rather than being housed in an educational detention facility until the construct now called 12th grade), went out and found either a tutor (if they were wealthy enough) or a skilled tradesman under whom to apprentice until he could go out and open his own shop.

Even after America became mired in the Industrial Revolution and the notion that machines could do much of the work a set of matched mules or 2 guys on a saw could do, businesses - even those that became enormous industrial giants (FORD for example) - trained those that came to work for them ON THEIR OWN DIME.  These businesses didn't go to the local taxpayer with their hand out and say, "Pardon me ma'am, spare a farthing so I can train my line crew?"

When did American business become encumbered by the idea that it was the duty of the PUBLIC to pay a good portion of their business expense for them?  When did the head of IBM decide it was perfectly fine to join the Chamber of Commerce, give them a big fat check and get them to break the arms of taxpayers to fund their corporate expenses?  Have we ALL become idiots?

If so, SNAP OUT OF IT!

The only voice of reason in this whole article is Oklahoma Businessman Bob Funk, who says,

“Because of the emphasis that has been placed on our students to get a college degree, we've seen a dramatic decline in the number of qualified workers needed for skilled labor jobs,” said Bob Funk, chairman and CEO of Oklahoma City-based Express Employment Professionals.
“We have good-paying jobs that are ready for people, but it's not easy to find the workers to fill jobs in industries like welding, CNC machine programming, CDL truck driving, accounting and IT.”
Funk said educators and leaders should emphasize the opportunities available to young people looking for work in fields that are too often overlooked.
“My advice to job seekers, especially to those without college degrees, is to be sure you learn a skill or a trade, otherwise this economy is very tough,” he said. “Keep applying yourself to the opportunities you do have and work toward the career you want no matter what it takes.”

Well, YES!  Nowhere did Bob say, "Go out and spend your parents money on a useless degree at a college that will warp your world view simply because American education elitists are trying to turn America into a culture of simmering wimps in order to make big bucks and you're too ignorant to see it", but he probably would have driven the point home a lot quicker had he!

I've said it once and I'm sure I'll say it again another hundred times - AMERICANS SHOULD NEVER USE PUBLIC EDUCATION TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR JOBS!  Public education is to provide basic skills and a set of basic knowledge to those unable to have that provided for them in their homes.  It is not to build a skilled workforce for big business.  Period.

Common Core Cronies - Foundation for Excellence in Education, et. al.

 

Janet Barresi, chair of the Oklahoma CareerTech board, announced in January Robert Sommers, chief executive officer and managing partner of Carpe Diem Learning Systems, had been hired as the state’s new CareerTech director.  In July (2013), Governor Mary Fallin announced that former Education Secretary Phyllis Hudecki's position would not only be filled, but modified.  After announcing that Robert Sommers would be filling Hudecki's shoes, Fallin also changed the name of the office from "Secretary of Education" to the "Secretary of Education and Workforce Development".

According to his biography, Mr. Sommers has worked in various levels of education policy in the state of Ohio, at one point serving as Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s education policy adviser for elementary through university levels.  During his tenure in Ohio, reforms for increased school performance transparency, teacher evaluation, school choice, digital education options and failing school transformation were implemented. 

Oklahoma has gone down the same yellow brick road of 'education reform'.  Coincidence?  No, association.  All points lead back to Jeb Bush and his Foundation for Excellence in Education organization - a proponent of the large package of education reforms above, including Common Core.

Thanks to emails released through an FOI request earlier in the year by In the Public Interest,  a very inspired web of activity can be pieced together in which FEE writes legislation for states, often through an FEE-created program called Chiefs for Change, that push reforms which utilize software packages created by donors such as Pearson and makes room for such publicly funded, for profit charter schools such as Carpe Diem.  According to National Post;

Bush foundation donors include family philanthropies, such as those established by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Corporate donors include Connections Education, a division of global publishing giant Pearson; Amplify, the education division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp; and K12, a publicly traded company that runs online schools.

Many of these donors sit on a Digital Learning Council that helped draft the Bush foundation’s policy agenda. Key planks call for states to require online course work in high school and to lift restrictions that hinder cyber-school growth, such as limits on class size.

In fact, Bush has flown educators from all across the country to Carpe Diem in Arizona to visit - including state superintendent Janet Barresi and former Indiana state superintendent Tony Bennett.  Today, Robert Sommers, CEO of Carpe Diem school, has become Oklahoma's new Secretary of Education and a new Carpe Diem campus opened in Fort Wayne Indiana before Bennett was relieved of duty as the state's superintendent.

In fact, Bush - through FEE - is so intimately involved in the process of instituting the education reform 'brand', Ogston said he and other charter and online school operators feel they can go to him to have the FEE write legislation or remove roadblocks that stand in the way of successful growth - which has happened in Ohio under Sommers.

"We come to them to say, 'These policies are in the way, and it would be great if you could change them,'" Ogston said. "That's what they do better than anyone."

In fact, as was written of Carpe Diem in Indiana,

Rather than seek a charter through Ball State or the Indianapolis Mayor's Office, Carpe Diem won its charter from the newly established Indiana Charter School Board, created as an easier path for charter expansion. 

I see little way this can be viewed as any other than cronyism (Karen Francisco of the Journal Gazette in Ft. Wayne, Indiana appears to see this plainly as well) but this isn't the only troubling aspect of the Bush education reform constellation. 

The Carpe Diem School in Yuma, recently had their test scores flagged. 

"In spring 2010, the company that administers the AIMS test, Pearson Education, flagged Carpe Diem's sophomore AIMS reading test for having a higher-than-average number of erasure marks. Flagging means the state gets an alert. Pearson's report said a group of 27 Carpe Diem students who took the AIMS reading test had a total number of wrong-to-right erasure marks seven times as high as the state average. The state has no plans to step up monitoring during the spring tests."

The Christel House Academy - another charter in Indiana run by a large Republican party donor - also ran into similar trouble by way of former State Superintendent Tony Bennett.  In a furor that ended in his resignation from Chiefs For Change (his subsequent place of employment following his loss to Democrat Glenda Ritz), evidence was found that Bennett had used a loophole in the charter regulations to take the 9th and 10th grade scores out of the school's grading formula in order to bring their overall rating up to an 'A'.

According to the Washinton Post,

Bennett has said that changing the grade made the rating system credible because he knew Christel House to be a high-performing school.

The linkages in the 'Jeb Bush inner circle' continue.  In 2011, Janet Barresi - Oklahoma's Chief for Change - was invited to an event hosted for Jeb Bush and Tony Bennett by Louis A. Piconi, founder and senior vice president of Apangea Learning, Inc.  (Apangea has a registered lobbyist with the state of Oklahoma)  According to a Tulsa World article:

In January 2012, Barresi’s department announced it would be spending $470,000 on a pilot program with Apangea Learning Inc. of Pittsburgh, Pa., to provide supplemental, online math instruction and tutoring services to 10,000 eighth- through 10th-grade Algebra I students attending the lowest- and next-to-lowest-performing schools across Oklahoma.

The Apangea program was expanded statewide for 2012-13 at a cost of $1.5 million and is now called “Think Through Math.” As of Jan. 31, 267 school districts, 584 schools and 64,667 students were participating from across Oklahoma.

A teacher who has requested anonymity told me that at first, the state offered Think Through Math at no cost to her district - the teacher had only to provide a number for each student to use TTM.  After that first year, things changed.  In order to keep using TTM, teachers were to give out student test scores.  This troubled several teachers, so the district asked if they would be able to use TTM without student test scores.  They were told that in order for students to have a seat, test scores must be provided.  This teacher told me of her concern that TTM was offering seats only to "targeted individuals" (it was intimated that these 'targeted' students were those with higher test scores) and that so much of the 'motivation' for students using the program was 'competition' - pitting schools against other schools. 

From the Apangea website:

Apangea Learning's innovative motivation system inspires students to learn by building self-esteem and confidence.  By rewarding students for consistent effort and achievement, students are driven to use Apangea – even on nights and weekends. 

Kids are 'rewarded' with points they can then redeem for iPods and gift cards.

Also in 2011, Oklahoma began using a Teacher Leader Effectiveness measure provided by Battelle for Kids.  Battelle, located in Columbus, Ohio, is a private, non profit

global research and development organization committed to science and technology for the greater good. We are solving what matters most through innovation for our clients, the nation and the world.

Battelle For Kids was created by the Ohio Business Round Table and Battelle in 2001.  'Impact Partners' include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Carnegie Corporation and Pearson Assessment Training Institute.  It is a partner in providing states programming to assist in implementation of the Common Core.

Battelle for Kids also provides Oklahoma Roster Verification.

Battelle For Kids was used in Ohio schools while Robert Sommers was in Governor Kasich's office.   This is concerning not only because, once again, it appears that vendors are running the 'education reform show', but because Battelle not only has the 'value added' and roster verification programs for sale, but programs that will "transform" rural schools as well as inventory student thoughts and feelings - surveys that cannot be seen by the public unless purchased for $195 dollars.

Interestingly, Jeff Wadsworth, President and CEO of Battelle, is also on the board of Achieve - the organization that has pushed out the Common Core State Standards to the National Governor's Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Clearly, there is a revolving door of educrat 'cronies' that not only originate with the FEE and Jeb Bush Foundation, but that pick certain vendors to 'market' to states who push their education reform efforts.  This is not free-enterprise - this isn't even free thinking - it's just simply good old boy crony capitalism.