Common Core

A Great Minds (Common Core, Inc.) History: Eureka Math, Wit & Wisdom, And More.

October 8, 2019 Mercedes Schneider, Deutsch29.wordpress.com Educate! Common Core, Education

Actually, in 2008, there was no nonprofit named Great Minds, and there wouldn’t be until 2015. The nonprofit formed in 2008 was named Common Core, Inc., which just happens to share a name with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) that did not yet exist in 2008 (though, as Washington Post reporter Lyndsey Layton publicized in June 2014, in the summer of 2008, CCSS “lead writer” David Coleman and Council of Chief State School Officers exec director Gene Wilhoit apporached billionaire Bill Gates and asked him to bankroll CCSS). Common Core, Inc., began with $285,200 in contributions and grants...

Common Core And Corporate Colonization: The Big Picture

August 11, 2016 Staff, www.educationalchemy.com Educate! Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporatization, Education, Public Education, Youth

By Staff of Educational Alchemy - I said it over three years ago and I’ll say it again. Common Core was, and is, an agenda crafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). It was never about “communism,” or “socialism.” It was the state and federal governments serving as the delivery boys for the privatization of public education at the hands of global corporate interests (think: Trans Pacific Partnership and UNESCO).

Gates Foundation Tied To Suit Against Common Core Ballot Measure

February 15, 2016 Evan Lips, www.yesmagazine.org Educate! Common Core, Education, Gates Foundation

By Evan Lips for New Boston Post - BOSTON – A lawsuit that aims to prevent Massachusetts voters from weighing in on the controversial Common Core educational standards has backing from people connected to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a major sponsor of Common Core. Since 2010, the year the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to implement Common Core, through last year, the Gates Foundation donated $776,431 to the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education.

Boycott ExxonMobil Because #ChildrenRNot4Sale

December 31, 2015 Staff, www.educatingthegatesfoundation.com Resist! Common Core, Education, Exxon, Oil and Gas, oligarchy

By Educating the Gates Foundation. Rex Tillerson’s CEO of Exxon) viewpoint is anti-education, anti-American, anti-human. It’s a reminder that the education debates are not about Left versus Right or GOP versus Dems. The education debates are about the interests of the human beings who are citizens of a nation and stakeholders in its public institutions versus the interests of a those who believe their power and money entitle them to stripmine an entire nation in order to gather more power and money for themselves. The education debates are about democracy versus oligarchy. The education debates are about valuing the voices of all citizens versus giving voice only to the special few Who Really Matter.

Common Core PR Offensive Rewrites History To Ignore Failures

August 23, 2015 Anthony Cody, www.livingindialogue.com Educate! Common Core, Education, Testing

By Anthony Cody for Living Dialogue - This week we have seen a renewed attempt to rehabilitate the beleaguered Common Core standards, just as the scores arrive in many states, largely meeting projections that they would yield increased failure rates and a wider “achievement gap.” These results are the most basic problem that the Common Core has. These standards were designed to deliver massive failure, and the tests are delivering as promised. But rather than question these results, some advocates are trying to shift the focus onto a brighter view. The headline from Think Progress is beyond belief. “People Like Common Core Better Once They Know What It Is.” But when you read the article, you discover that support for Common Core is actually continuing to drop.

Gates Foundation Supports Hold On High-Stakes Tests

June 17, 2014 Jesse Hagopian, www.commondreams.org Resist! Common Core, Education, Gates Foundation, Protest, Testing

“…the Gates Foundation agrees with those who’ve decided that assessment results should not be taken into account in high-stakes decisions on teacher evaluation or student promotion for the next two years, during this transition.” — Vicki Phillips, director of the U.S. education program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation How do you know the United States is currently experiencing the largest revolt against high-stakes standardized testing in history? Because even the alchemists responsible for concocting the horrific education policies designed to turn teaching and learning into a test score have been shaken hard enough to awaken from the nightmare scenario of fast-tracking high-stakes Common Core testing across the nation. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation issued a stunning announcement on Tuesday, saying that it supports a two-year moratorium on attaching high-stakes to teacher evaluations or student promotion on tests associated with the new Common Core State Standards. Labor journalist Lee Sustar put it perfectly when he said of the Gates Foundation’s statement, “Dr. Frankenstein thought things got out of hand, too.”

6th Graders Seek Payment For Taking Common Core Field Tests

June 4, 2014 Valerie Strauss, www.washingtonpost.com Resist! Common Core, Education, Student Activism

Some sixth grade students in Massachusetts who spent hours over several days taking practice versions of newly developed Common Core tests decided that they should be paid for their work and are seeking payment for serving as “guinea pigs.” The Ipswich Chronicle reported in this story about what happened after students at Ipswich Middle School field tested new exams written the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), one of the two multi-state consortia developing new Core exams with $360 million in federal funds. PARCC and the other multi-state consortia, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, are now field testing their Core-aligned exams, with millions of students taking part, for use in the next school. Public school students often “field test” questions on standardized exams created by testing companies that then sell the exams to states. In this case, states will pay PARCC and Smarter Balanced for use of the tests that students are field testing. The story quotes teacher Alan Laroche, whose A and B period math classes were randomly chosen to take the field tests. Laroche said that some of the 37 students who took the exams on May 19 heard a teacher joke that the kids should be paid for their time and they asked him if it was really possible. He was quoted as saying:

Video: Parent Arrested from Common Core Meeting for Speaking Out of Turn

September 21, 2013 Ann Miller, www.examiner.com Educate! Common Core, Education

As the pom-pom and rah-rah session neared an end about 20 minutes before the meeting close, parental frustration was mounting as our questions were still going unanswered. One parent, Robert Small, decided to interject to try to force some answers. He said: “I want to know how many parents here are aware that the goal of the Common Core standards isn’t to prepare kids for full-fledged universities, it’s to prepare them for community college.....Parents, take control. We’re sick of this. This is not a CNN political game. This is a public town hall... Listen, don’t stand for this. You’re sitting here like cattle. You have questions. Confront them. They don’t want to do it in public.... Parents, you need to question these people."

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