SB210 Is Laid Aside

Today politics prevailed. The interests of the people were laid aside with SB210 allowing a state department to continue ducking the public’s questions and the legislature’s authority. Our countdown clock continues and will remain at the top of our page awaiting DESE’s response to at least some of the questions the public has about Common Core.

We may never get answers to the conflicting comments we have heard about common core.

The National Governor’s Association and common core proponents in general site a main reason for having common standards is so that children moving from state-to-state, district-to-district will not experience an interruption in their education. There will be no subject matter holes because everyone is being taught the same thing. Yet when pressed, DESE insisted in front of a House Committee that Missouri owns the standards and can change them at any time. In fact, all states can, and have, changed the standards. That, by definition, would mean that the standards are no longer “common” among the states and a child would once again experience an interruption in his/her education should he/she move. This would also make the state’s standards out of line with the assessments. So which is it: alignment state-to-state or autonomy to set one’s own standards?

DESE staff stated that some schools have been implementing Common Core for
3 years and have shown “tremendous results.” How are they calculating these tremendous results? This statement is impossible to make as no common core assessments have
been approved or administered. If the results are found in the existing MAP assessment scores, how is that possible? Those tests are not aligned with common core. What is actually being measured? If we are seeing improvement in an existing test, why do we need SBAC tests?  The indication from states who were early
adopters of CC like Kentucky, is that following curriculum aligned with CC
produced a 30% drop in student scores on existing state standardized tests. How are we not seeing a decline, but in fact an improvement?

DESE has stated that they do not share data with the federal government, that it stays in state. But the MOU’s signed by the state with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia (SBAC) in May 2010 states the consortia will provide “Reliable , valid and fair scores for students and groups that can be used to evaluate student achievement and year-to-year growth; determine school/district/state effectiveness for Title I ESEA…10) Professional development focused on curriculum and lesson development as well as scoring and examination of student work…. 14) A consolidated data reporting system that enhance parents, students, teacher, principal district and state understanding of student progress toward college and career readiness.” SBAC is housed in Washington state.

http://www.moagainstcommoncore.com/documents/Missouri%20SMARTER%20Balanced%20MOU.doc

This means that individual student data will be retained by SBAC who in turn has an agreement with the US Dept of Ed that says it will “Comply with, and where applicable coordinate with the ED staff to fulfill, the program requirements established in the RTTA Notice Inviting Applications and the conditions on the grant awarded, as well as to this agreement, including, but not limited to working with the Department to develop a strategy to make student level data that results from the assessment system available on an ongoing basis for research, including for prospective linking, validity and program improvement studies; subject to applicable privacy laws.” The reality is that once the data leaves the state we no longer have control of where it goes and who has access to it. Changes to FERPA (the laws they are referring to) means there is little appreciable protection of that data.

http://www.moagainstcommoncore.com/documents/SBAC%20USED%20agreement%20copy.pdf

Additionally, DESE promised in the Race To The Top application (p.15) that they would “Provide a database accessible to researchers throughout the nation that is the first-ever link between student performance, teaching practices, and leadership decisions.”

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7ljWzvYU6irOTMtMVJOTXhjc2c/edit

Commissioner Nicastro has said that it is not costing the state any new money to implement common core. She further testified that the reason the RTTT costs were so high was because that application was for a Cadillac program that we were not fully implementing, because we did not get the grant. However, in that grant (p. 40) she wrote “Implementation of the reform plan described in this proposal will not stop if the State does not win Race to the Top funding. Missouri has a long tradition of fostering innovative improvements in education, and this will not change. Race to the Top funds will allow the State to move forward aggressively and comprehensively in adopting these reforms. In the absence of Race to the Top funding, the State and its partners would continue moving forward but will do so over a longer time-period and, in some areas, will have to adopt a more incremental approach.“

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7ljWzvYU6irOTMtMVJOTXhjc2c/edit

One Word Explains the Avalanche of Obama Scandals

Original Post: One Word Explains the Avalanche of Obama Scandals.

I’m a coward. It was the final zone inspection of boot camp. Navy Recruit Training. Get hit in this inspection, and you’re set back a week. Maybe two weeks. My mom and dad had already booked a hotel room in Orlando. They couldn’t wait to see their son pass in review. I knew everything in my area was perfect. My rack (bunk) was made to perfection. Every garment of clothing was folded to its ridiculous,

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Will Delphi Techniques Be Taught In Common Core?

Being a freedom-loving American in the present political climate is becoming increasingly more difficult since the re-election of Barack Obama in 2012. On a daily basis, our liberties are being assaulted from every direction, on both state and national levels. Between Obamacare, attempts to register gun owners and restrict our 2ndamendment rights, and parental rights […]

Culture Vigilante-Missouri Grassroots Radio 5/8/13

We had a great show, this evening! Bob McCarty talked about his new book, The Clapper Memo. And Tom Martz of Locke & Smith pointed out some more Yankee Doodle Legislation. Eggs, Family Farms and Kids. All controlled by the state. So much for freedom. We had a great panel discussion on the Delphi Technique, […]

MGC Radio Culture Vigilante 5/1/13

Great show with lots of heated discussion! If you were a radical leftist and wanted to overthrow the culture, what segment of society would you target? FAMILY. Here’s how we begining to connect the dots. Karin Piper, of Parent Led Reform, and Shane Van der Hart, of Truth in American Education brought us more Common […]

Culture Vigilante Missouri Grassroots Radio 4/10/13

If you missed last night’s show, you missed a good one. The good news, you cans still listen here! We are always pod-casted for your convenience. This week we spoke to Patrick Werner, of Americans for Prosperity, about their plan to bring awareness of oppressive taxation and how to fight back against it. More than […]

Hey Reince Priebus: Fire Mike Shields

Original Post: Hey Reince Priebus: Fire Mike Shields.

On Tuesday, RNC Chief of Staff, Mike Shields, lashed out at the “professional right” and grassroots groups, blaming conservatives for all that ails the GOP. Yesterday, RNC communications director, Sean Spicer, told Breitbart that Shields didn’t mean what we all heard him say. (You gotta see Mike Leahy’s excellent overage of this story, btw.) Here are my thoughts: I’ve made some boneheaded comments myself, but I have a hard time buying the notion that Mike Shields didn’t

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Missouri Grassroots Radio – Culture Vigilante 4/3/13 and 3/27/13

Forgot to post last week, but we had a great show and didn’t want you to miss it. All shows are pod-casted so you can listen anytime! Thank you, Al Gore, for this wonderful internet!  (please infer the appropriate amount of sarcasm) Last week we had Dr. Gina Loudon talking the culture war and her […]

Sadly Prop P Passed

“Every penny taken from you in taxes is a penny someone else decides how to spend. It’s a penny you earned but forfeited to someone else’s arbitrary discretion,” said Bill Hennessy co-founder of the St Louis Tea Pary Coallition. Today is a sad day for the residents of St Louis…

Rebuking the Rebuker of the Rebukers

Ed Martin called it right. In my view, there is an enormous overburden of crap that the GOP could be criticizing about the Democrats.  They spend too much, they have a warped view of what freedom is, they are bullies.  Every one of their policies have the opposite effect of what they are supposed to [...]