News
Randy Osborne, lobbyist for Florida Eagle Forum, strategist for the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition and chairman of the Marion County Republicans, is taking on the important issue of religious bias in student textbooks. The global publishing giant Pearson who is deeply involved in imposing Common Core textbooks and tests, is the publisher of World History. This 10th grade textbook covers Islam for 36 pages and gives a paragraph each to Judaism and Christianity. In excerpts from interviews in the Ocala Star Banner Mr. Osborne highlights the problems with this controversial text and why he came forward:
Randy Osborne, chairman of the local Republican Party, told the board that the book's 36 pages about Islam were actually a "propagation" of the world's second biggest religious faith.
"It's something we will not tolerate in Marion County," Osborne said...
...Osborne said he came forward because School Board member Nancy Stacy had publicly taken exception to the use of the book back in the spring, and that her concerns had been ignored by the rest of the panel.
"We are going beyond asking," he added in saying the School Board should yank the textbook from classrooms, or add a supplement to it.
Osborne urged the board to hold a workshop on "World History" within 30 days, meaning before Christmas. Others at the meeting echoed Osborne's comments, sometimes as part of a wider broadside against the Common Core education standards
Marion county School Board member Nancy Stacy added other significant information to the situation:
She did not specify which parts were wrong. She only noted that the publisher agreed to make changes to the text after Jewish leaders in Palm Beach County complained. Stacy also pointed out that family members of the late Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi owned shares in Pearson.
It is important to note that Palm Beach County refused to pay for the book until changes were made and Pearson complied. Besides Marion and Palm Beach counties, this textbook has caused problems in Volusia, Brevard, and Miami-Dade counties. Miami-Dade completely rejected it. The Palm Beach and Miami-Dade efforts were spear-headed by the group Citizens for National Security.
The Pearson World History text is actually the most conservative of the three adopted by the state of Florida. If a state like Florida with a Republican and putatively conservative legislature and executive branch cannot obtain a balanced, accurate discussion of world religions in the textbooks it adopts, what will it be like under the Common Core standards that are controlled and promoted by national or federal level, private, and unaccountable interests?
Tony Bennett, the former Indiana state superintendent of schools that lost his re-election bid there, and then leaving the Florida education commissioner post under a cloud of suspicion related to allegations of fixing the grade of a charter school owned by a GOP donor, is now facing new ethics charges. According to the Associated Press reporter Tony LoBianco who was the same reporter that revealed the grade fixing shenanigans:
The former Republican schools chief and national education star is also the subject of ethics charges filed by Indiana's inspector general. Bennett is accused of misusing state resources and staff in his failed re-election bid. The Associated Press obtained campaign fundraising lists Bennett and his staff had maintained on state computers and emails suggesting his Statehouse staff were campaigning for him on state time. (Emphasis added).
Apparently none of this is too much fot the ACT testing company, because Bennett is now hawking the ACT Aspire test, which is one of the tests that several states are considering to replace the PARCC and SBAC state tests that are going to be the implementation hammer of the low-level psychocially based Common Core standards. In fact ACT officials are even admitting that these ACT Common Core tests will include "interest inventories for students, as well as assessment of behavioral skills for students and teachers to evaluate."
The whole Bennett saga is another black mark on the still ongoing education control of Florida by former Governor Jeb Bush and raises two important issues: 1) If there was so much alleged malfesance by Bennett in Indiana, what revelations about his tenure in Florida await the citizens and taxpayers of Florida? 2) Given all of these allegations, maybe Bennett should take the ACT "assessment of behavioral skills" that he is being so handsomely paid to try to impose on the children of America. Then again, he might lose yet another job...
Breitbart and Truth in American Education have recently reported the strong support of Common Core bordering on blackmail from Exxon-Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson in a May letter to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett. The Breitbart story also mentioned similar statements made about Florida at Jeb Bush's fall foundation education conference. They quoted Tillerson in an interview with another publication saying the following:
"Ms. Shanahan stated that Rex Tillerson, CEO, Exxon Mobile [sic], employs 77,000 people and has stated that he will only hire from states using Common Core State Standards."
The list of Florida Republican activists realizing the truth of the disaster of Common Core continues to grow. On December 11th, the Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee (REC) voted overwhelmingly to override their new chairwoman who wanted to delay a vote on an anti-Common Core resolution until February. They then passed the anti-Common Core resolution. This brings the total to at least 23 counties out of 67 RECs that have passed these resolutions.
Here are some excerpts from the Palm Beach Post article on the event:
"Yours are financial interests. Mine are the future of this country," said an REC member who said she has four kids and wants to combat "this insanity that comes home in my children's backpacks." (Emphasis added).
After voting to defeat a motion to delay the Common Core vote until February, REC members voted for the resolution expressing the party's opposition to the national educational standards.
Erika Donalds of coalition partner Southwest Florida Citizens' Alliance and Kids Rock and Dr. Effrem participated in a radio debate with Michael Brickman of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The event was hosted by Drew Steele of WFSX, 92.5 Fox News. Thanks to all involved! The lively conversation is available on podcast.
Dr. Richard Swier of Florida Watchdog wrote an excellent article for the Education Action Group about the New York data breach as well as the snide, mocking, and racist comments of Arne Duncan, Jeb Bush and Don Gaetz that quote Randy Osborne and Dr. Effrem. Thanks so much!
President of Salt and Light Productions and constitutional attorney Stuart J. Roth did an in-depth interview about some of Common Core's major problems with Dr. Karen Effrem and Chrissy Blevio, including low academic quality, lack of transparency, the political push of former Governor Jeb Bush and many other issues. The interview aired on November 30th and may be downloaded HERE.
Joy Pullman, Robert Novak journalism fellow at the Heartland Institute, did a superb article for the Federalist Society, on the politics of Common Core called, "Common Core, The Biggest Election Issue Washington Prefers to Ignore" In it, she discusses the sneering derision heaped on concerned parents, grandparents, and taxpayers all over the country, as well as what appear to be meaningless gestures by state officials to appease Common Core opponents. Here is the excerpt about Florida where Pullman links to and quotes two of our articles:
Pullman concludes with the warning to arrogant politicians:
But the biggest thing Washington politicos may be overlooking about Common Core is the simple fact that wedge issues matter. Most of the populace does not show up to vote for most elections. People who have strong reasons to vote do, and turnout often determines elections. Getting passionate people to vote is half the point of a campaign. The Common Core moms have a reason to vote, and boy, do they have a lot of friends.
They fail to heed that warnng at their own political peril.
The Miami Herald published Dr. Effrem's response on November 23rd to incoming Florida university chancellor Marshall Criser, the AT&T executive with no academic experience who published a very pro-Common Core column on November 14th. Criser's support for Common Core is rather ridiculous when the major architect of the math standards admits that the math standards will make student inadequately prepared for college work.
Common Core will not adequately prepare Florida's students
On academic rigor: How can Criser say that Common Core standards are rigorous when the chief architect of the math standards, Jason Zimba, has publicly admitted, "[Common Core is] not only not for STEM, it's also not for selective colleges." As the chosen chancellor of Florida's university system, isn't Criser concerned that Common Core will not adequately prepare Florida's students for engineering at the University of Florida, which is in the top 30 engineering schools in the nation? Is he not concerned when even the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, one of the major proponent groups in the nation, ranked Florida's previous math standards higher in rigor than the Common Core?
And with regard to the English standards, don't the grave concerns and warnings about these from Prof. Sandra Stotsky, one of the nation's leading standards experts and member of the validation committee; Dr. Terence Moore of Hillsdale College, author of The Story-Killers: A Common-Sense Case Against the Common Core; curriculum expert Dr. Duke Pesta of the University of Wisconsin; and 132 Catholic scholars and administrators give Criser just the slightest pause?
On comparability: Why is Criser so concerned about using these poor quality national standards for comparability between states via federally funded and supervised national tests when we already have state comparability with the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), and the Trends in International Math and Science Study? Why would Criser uproot the great progress that Florida has made without the untried Common Core when, as Gov. Scott justifiably likes to brag, Florida's fourth-grade students scored second in the world on the 2011 PIRLS?
On student mobility: How in the world can Criser use student mobility as justification for imposing these untested, low-level psycho-social and workforce training skills on the entire state of Florida and the nation, when according to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 1.6 percent of the student population moves across state lines in any given year?
Finally, the Board of Governors should be asked why they are choosing a businessman like Criser with no academic experience, who is pushing admittedly inferior standards, and, as stated by the Catholic scholars, "standardized workforce preparation" to prevent a "waste of resources to over-educate people." FSCCC believes that Florida deserves better.
Dr. Effrem provided a detailed rebuttal to a letter sent to Representative Marlene O'Toole, chairwoman of the House Education Committee, from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The Fordham Institute is, along with Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education, one of the leading proponents of the flawed Common Core system in the nation. Dr. Effrem's letter refuted several contradictions and the ideas that there is no federal interference, that there is no indoctrination of students, and that Common Core standards are high quality.
There was a lot of discussiion around the process and time line for both potential changes in the Common Core standards and for choosing a new aligned statewide test at the November State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting held yesterday in Gaineville. In our opinion, however, the most important part of the meeting was the call by the state association of district superintentdents to pause implementation of Common Core along with the accountability systems and the continued arrogant lack of concern for local control by the appointed SBOE and commissioner.
As reported by Travis Pillow of the Tallahassee Democrat, Volusia County Superintendent Margaret Smith, speaking on behalf of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, said:
"It is not realistic to expect that we can have a full and quality implementation in all K-12 grade levels by next year," she said. "Teachers are under a tremendous stress, because they're being trained while being expected to teach the new standards at the same time."
This is analogous to the frequently used but seemingly true in this instance remark about building the plane while flying it. That does not bode well for our children. Both outgoing board member and Jeb Bush ally, Kathleen Shanahan, and Commissioner Pam Stewart quickly dismissed the concerns of these local officials, both elected and appointed, that are trying to deal with the forced imposition of these untried standards and unwritten tests:
"It sounds like those are adults that we are trying to take care of in the system," Shanahan said of the call to push back the timetable.
...After the state board's meeting in Gainesville, expected to be its last of the year, Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said that rather than looking to "pause" before applying the new standards, the state should focus on helping districts prepare for them."Our teachers are going to need support," she said. "Our students are going to need support, and the way we provide that to the districts, and the districts down to the school level, is going to be key as we make this transition."
So now we have the entire state association of superintendents in addition to hundreds of thousands of parents and citizens, dozens of state and national groups in our coalition and across the country, Governor Scott, Representative Mayfield and several co-sponsors in the Florida House, both Republican National Committee members from Florida, two dozen Republican Executive Committees, the Democratic Progrssive Caucus of Florida, and the Florida Constitution and Libertarian Parties all opposing, questioning, or seeking a pause on some part of the Common Core system. Yet, the appointed bureaucrats seem to want to do everything in their power to continue to implement this boondoggle no matter what.
Something is very wrong with this picture.
The real facts about Common Core associated data privacy problems completely void Politifact's bogus attacks on Dr. Effrem and FSCCC. Nancy Smith, executive editor of Sunshine State News, did an important story on the recent breach of private student data from the inBloom database in Sachem, NY that allowed a hacker to "access records in the Sachem School District and leak personal student data to a web forum. The records included medical and disciplinary reports." (Emphasis added.) Medical records may also include psychological records.
Smith rightly points out the origin of these alarming data privacy problems:
Smith interviewed Dr. Effrem to both gain a Florida perspective on how this data breach is not surprising given Common Core and Race to the Top and how government is gathering this data:
Karen Effrem, M.D., president of Education Liberty Watch and co-founder of Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, called the Long Island incident "more evidence that the student database is not secure."
What's more, these concerns aren't limited to school districts in New York. According to The New American, schools in Delaware, Colorado, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Illinois, Louisiana, Georgia and North Carolina have committed to "pilot testing" and information dissemination by sending students' personal information to the inBloom database.
Effrem told Sunshine State News, "A number of standards will be used for the psychological training of children starting at a young age ... One of the main goals for uniform national assessments is for the federal government to have access to highly personal individual student data.
"It isn't just teachers and school officials who can request and get students' records," Effrem said. "It's also 'a contractor, consultant, volunteer, or other party to whom an agency or institution has outsourced institutional services or functions ...'
"Common Core completely strips the child of privacy," she said.
Effrem has outlined the Common Core process of data collection on the Stop Common Core Coalition website.
Many New York districts are fighting to get out of the inBloom database, but are being held in against their will by the state. These problems will only worsen as the federally funded, federally supervised national tests aligned to the psychosocially based Common Core standards come on line. Both national testing consortia, PARCC and SBAC, have signed agreements to give individual student test data to the federal government that will contain responses to psychological and attitudinal questions.
In her continued excellent work of showing rare journalistic balance, Allison Neilsen, reported on yesterday's statement regarding Marshall Criser III, the AT&T executive that will likely be appointed as the next chancellor of the Florida university system. Read her article HERE.
The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition (FSCCC), an organization of thirtyeight state and national groups representing hundreds of thousands of Floridians, is deeply disappointed in the imminent appointment of Marshall Criser III as Florida's next university chancellor. Criser has absolutely no academic experience, having worked in the business community his entire career.
He also is a huge proponent of the Common Core standards which he misleadingly called in a recent op-ed, "The Florida Standards, our version of the Common Core State Standards," as if there is any difference. The truth is that the state of Florida made a conscious decision to adopt the copyrighted Common Core standards word for word in 2010. There is no Florida version of the Common Core. It is also clear from that column that Criser sees workforce skills training as far more important than academic education.
"I am appalled and deeply concerned that the new leader of Florida's university system would support Common Core when even the principal architect of the math standards, Jason Zimba, has publicly admitted, '[Common Core is] not only not for STEM, it's also not for selective colleges,'" said Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch, and a co-founder of FSCCC. "If Florida wants to continue its nation-leading economic recovery, it will need to actually educate its students, instead of merely training them in the low level, psychosocial workforce skills embedded in the Common Core."
"Our state is headed for serious academic and economic trouble if the incoming university chancellor supports these untried, academically inferior standards. Florida's students have already made great strides both nationally and internationally without Common Core," said Randy Osborne, director of education for Heartland Research and lobbyist for Florida Eagle Forum. "We don't need trained workers. We need educated citizens. Florida deserves better."
Florida Department of Education officials continued the trend set by Commissioner Pam Stewart and Race to the Top coordinator Holly Edenfield stating that the Common Core standards are not expected to change significantly and that implmentation will proceed full speed ahead. This latest incident occurred during a webinar hosted by the department on October 30th, one day before the public comment was scheduled to end. The latest official to give evidence that the hearings and comment period were all just to try to appease the public was Mary Jane Tappen, K-12 Deputy Chancellor, who said on page 3 of this just released transcript:
"We are moving forward with the new more rigorous standards. So, if anyone is hesitating or worried about next year, the timeline has not changed. We are moving forward and we will have new course descriptions for next year and ... new assessments."
Although later in the call, Tappen admitted that there might be some changes, again, she did not seem to think they would be significant:
These statements combined with the copyright issues and the 15% rule that prohibit meaningful changes in the standards without withdrawing from Common Core paint a bleak picture for Florida students, teachers, and families receiving any relief from the onerous federal and national control of the the poor quality psychosocial standards, the assessments, and the associated data collection system.
If this information concerns you, consider expressing your disappointment to Governor Rick Scott at 850-488-7146 and let your legislators know that they need to support Rep. Mayfield's bill HB 25 in the House and author a companion bill in the Senate.
In an excellent column for the Florida Sun Sentinel, Neil McCluskey, Associate Director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom, ably debunks that idea that anyone who opposes Common Core is crazy. The column, titled You Aren't a Total Kook if You Oppose Common Core, he lists the strong intellectual opposition to the Common Core from Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institute, Eric Hanushek of the Hoover Institution, education historian Diane Ravitch, as well as his own excellent research in response to the sneering mockery that has come from Jeb Bush, the Fordham Institute's Chester Finn and Michael Petrilli, and Florida's Senate President Don Gaetz.
McCluskey ends with this important admonition to those here in Florida that would dismiss the many substantive concerns about Common Core:
Let us hope that Florida's leaders take heed.
According to an article in the Orlando Advocate that was written by the Florida News Service, Senate President Don Gaetz openly mocked the concerns of Florida parents and citizens regarding the federal role in the Common Core system of federally incentivized national standards, accompanying federally funded and supervised national tests, and federally required data collection. Senator Gaetz, as confirmed by his office, defended Common Core by saying the following when "answering a question from the audience after a speech on education policy Monday" (11/4/13):
"Apparently both Senator Gaetz and the former governor also believe that nearly the entire US House Republican delegation, the entire Republican National Committee, the National Federation of Republican Women, Home School Legal Defense Association, Focus on the Family, the American Principles Project, FreedomWorks, Heritage Action for America, the American Family Association, the thirty-seven groups comprising the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, Florida Family Policy Council, and the Florida Parent Home Educators Association, among many others, are all delusional, said Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch and co-founder of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. "And if you want some trans-partisan flavor, one could add the Florida Progressive Democratic Caucus, the Libertarian Party, and the Constitution Party. Officials are accountable to the people, not the other way around. Governor Scott, Mr. Bush, and the current legislature will find it increasingly difficult to get support in the next election cycles if this type of nasty, disrespectful behavior is continued."
CONTACT: Chrissy Blevio at 941-737-7743 or flstopcccoalition@gmail.com.
Allison Neilsen of Sunshine State News did an excellent story on the Exxon Mobil ads promoting Common Core, with a quote both from our letter to Governor Scott and from Dr. Effrem:
Florida Stop Common Core Coalition has been a strong voice to denounce the standards and what they see as corporate entities able to profit immensely from implementing Common Core.
FSCCC wrote a letter to Gov. Rick Scott earlier this month, urging him to stop supporting corporate interests involved in the education system.
"You need to stop supporting the corporate interests that are manipulating Florida's education system for their profit at the expense of our children," read the letter. "Otherwise, be prepared for a major backlash."
Dr. Karen Effrem from FSCCC expressed her disappointment over the TV ad.
"I am saddened that this corporation has bought into and is promoting the lie that national standards in general and Common Core in particular will solve education problems," she told Sunshine State News. "[ExxonMobil] appear[s] to be another large corporate interest that wants national control over our education system to have schools train children in low level, non-cognitive, psychosocial, workforce competencies ... instead of educating them with broad-based knowledge so they can maintain our republic and be the entrepreneurs and innovators of tomorrow."
Congratulations! Our work together to protect the hearts and minds of our children has the corporate and political establishment running scared. Instead of admitting the truth that Common Core is a grave danger to academic achievement and student, family, and teacher privacy, Politifact ignored extensive documentation sent to them by Dr. Effrem, committed atrocities on the truth, and carried the water for Jeb Bush and Common Core proponents who wish to profit at the expense of our children.
Selectively mentioning only one piece of the detailed and referenced information that Dr. Effrem sent her in response to her inquiry about student privacy, and conflating the responses to two different questions, Amy Sherman tries to dismiss the very real concerns about the political agendas and data privacy concerns inherent in Common Core system of national standards, tests, and data collection. Dr. Effrem's email carefully laid out the issues with many quotes and references:
- That the Common Core standards are intended and will be used to teach and instill non-cognitive/psychological attitudes is beyond dispute. (See page 8 of the PDF of this US DOE document for example)
- That there is psychological and attitudinal teaching in curriculum and lesson plans aligned to the Common Core is also evident by the type of curriculum aligned to the standards. (See this lesson tied to specific standards)
- Plans to assess psychological traits (p.49) in the Common Core aligned assessments are also abundantly clear.
- Despite what the FL DOE says on its website, it is clear that the federal government has a very large role in funding and supervising the development of the national tests for the two multi-state testing consortia, SBAC and PARCC, to the latter of which the state of Florida still belongs even though Governor Scott's order only removed the state from serving as fiscal agent, and whose test, the state is still considering (See Analysis - What Governor Scott's Documents Do and Do Not Accomplish). The US DOE announcement of the formation of the technical review panel in March of this year indicates that the federal government is involved in supervising the writing of the test questions for the Common Core tests that will include testing of these psychological attitudes and traits.
- Finally, PARCC and SBAC have signed memoranda of understanding with US DOE to give them individual, student level data from the assessments, including the psychological data that will be assessed on these tests.
Jeff Solochek did the same sort of thing in his emailed question to Dr. Effrem about the role of teachers. He ignored the facts supplied that there were only five major authors of Common Core, that none of these people had K-12 teaching experience, that there was almost no representation on any of the major committees by K-3 teachers, and that only one quarter of one percent of the alleged 10,000 comments were released to the public.
It is because we are being so effective in discrediting the proponents that the willing shills in the media are doing the attack dog work of the corporate and political elite that want to profit enormously at the cost of our children and sneeringly mock your grave concerns. Don't let them get away with it! Here is what you can do:
- Spread this email with the truth to everyone you know, especially your legislators.
- Continue to call, visit and email your legislators in support of Rep. Mayfield's HB 25, and tell them that you want a senate companion bill and a data protection bill.
- Take copies of the detailed emails along with the policy analysis to show how wrong Politifact is about this issue.
- Make sure they know that they owe their allegiance to you, their constituents, and not to Jeb Bush or the corporate interests that are trying to ram Common Core down our throats.
- Be sure to comment on the problems with specific standards at www.flstandards.org by October 31st. Specifics are available HERE, HERE, and HERE.
- Please support us financially. We are up against millions of special interest dollars. Although we have the truth on our side, it takes money to fight these groups, especially the fake conservative ones.
Many thanks and God bless you!
Here is a sampling of the coverage of the Common Core standards hearings:
- Jeff Solochek of the Tampa Bay Time's important education blog Gradebook interviewed Dr. Effrem before the hearings:
"I think (Scott) realizes what deep political trouble he is in with his base, and is trying to do everything he can to appease them," she said. "But he also has to, unfortunately, deal with the corporate business community and the political influence of people like Jeb Bush who want these standards. So he is walking a very fine line."
- Allison Neilsen of Sunshine State News did a blog post announcing our press conference.
- WFLA Channel 8 covered our press conference with Coalition partners including Tampa 912 and the Tampa Tea Party that also quoted Dr. Stotsky.
- Allison Neilsen of Sunshine State News did an excellent in-depth interview with Dr. Sandra Stotsky, Ze'ev Wurman and Dr. Effrem on the day of the Tampa hearing:
Wurman warned that the biggest loser of Common Core won't be the brightest children, but the disadvantaged.
"By lowering the standards, you're not doing the disadvantaged any favors," he said. "There will always be people who get to the top -- but those people are the ones with power, money. When the general curriculum is diluted, it's the disadvantaged that will not be able to step up because they don't know what to strive for ... they think 'Oh, the school is giving me a [passing grade], this is OK. I'm on track to be college ready.'"
He noted that Florida has already made so much progress with academic standards, but Common Core could set that progress back.
"Florida has actually made great strides with their current standards," he said. "Now you've basically kicked [the progress] out of the window and decided to change to something that is mediocre and takes control out of your hands."
- Karen Yi of the Sun Sentinel quotes both Dr. Effrem, who spoke for 15 minutes at the Davie hearing, and Charlotte Greenbarg, president of Coalition partner Independent Voices for Better Education:
She said the standards de-emphasized literature in favor of informational texts and placed standards in the wrong grade levels...
...Hollywood resident Charlotte Greenbarg said Common Core was a bipartisan problem.
'We need empirical evidence that it works and there is no empirical evidence that what you're proposing works,' she said."
- Finally, while Kathleen McGrory of the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times points out that we brought in experts and worked to comment on the standards, she portrays those who brought out larger concerns about government intrusion as extremists. Apparently she doesn't understand the history of the people in that area, with so many coming from Communist Cuba, who clearly have experienced the dangers of increased government involvement in education:
Other critics booed and shouted and referred to the standards as "Obama Ed," "Communist Core" and Marxism.
Opponents at the Tampa and Tallahassee meetings were more subdued but shared strong sentiments with Education Commissioner Pam Stewart.
"These standards are just another way for government to control the minds of people," parent Carlos Ramirez said at the Tallahassee meeting.
The Florida and even national media has done an excellent job in covering our letter to Governor Rick Scott raising concerns about the upcoming hearings on the Common Core standards. Here is the list:
- Karl Dickey of the national website Examiner.com quoted the letter, Dr. Effrem and Randy Osborne extensively.
- Allison Nielsen of Sunshine State News did a great job of explaining our concerns and quoted Dr. Effrem
"If you really want the things you put in your order and letters to happen and be effective, the hearings truly need to be open and transparent. You need to stop supporting the corporate interests that are manipulating Florida's education system for their profit at the expense of our children," read the letter. "And you need to see that Representative Mayfield's bill, HB 25, is faithfully carrying out the concepts that you say you wanted in those documents. Otherwise, be prepared for a major backlash."
- James Call of the Florida Current mentions our concerns and quotes Randy Osborne.
"These actions combined with the deceptive radio ads promoted by former Governor Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education, a foundation funded by the coporate interests that stand to profit immensely from Common Core at the expense of our children, are an insult to Floridians and an assault on our liberties," Osborne said in a prepared statement.
- Lloyd Dunkelburger of the Sarasota Herald Tribune mentions our support of Debbie Mayfield's bill, HB 25.
- Sammy Mack of State Impact Florida lists all of our concerns about the hearings from the letter.
- Kathlyn Shirley of the Heartland Institute does an excellent article about the Florida situation while putting it in the context of where things stand nationally about Common Core:
- Travis Pillow of the Tallahassee Democrat not only mentions our concerns about PARCC still being on the table, but quotes another Department of Education official who admits that they do not expect significant changes to the standards after the hearings. Talk about tone deaf!
Today the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, a statewide coalition representing dozens of organizations and hundreds of thousands of Florida parents and citizens, sent a letter to Governor Rick Scott with copies to Commissioner Stewart, Board of Education Chairman Gary Chartrand, and the legislature. This letter outlines our grave disappointment with statements from Commissioner Stewart and plans for the hearings indicating that the "plan is to leave the standards essentially in place with a few cosmetic changes up to the superficial 15% that Florida declined to do when adopting them in 2010, as well as choosing PARCC, which your commissioner has stated in documents is still on the table, or some other national 'off the shelf' test aligned to the Common Core national standards."
"The plan for these hearings and the statements by the commissioner are reminiscent of the manipulative practices employed during the education accountability summit," said Randy Osborne, director of education for Florida Eagle Forum and Heartland Research. "These actions combined with the deceptive radio ads promoted by former Governor Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education, a foundation funded by the corporate interests that stand to profit immensely from Common Core at the expense of our children, are an insult to Floridians and an assault on our liberties."
"All of this evidence that these hearings are meant to be manipulated to the pre-determined outcome of continuing to ram Common Core down the throats of Florida families and citizens, as was done during the education summit, is a major betrayal of the trust of Floridians," said Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch and a co-founder of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. Our statewide coalition calls upon Governor Scott and the legislature to stop protecting the wealthy and powerful special corporate and foundation interests at the expense of our children. We demand open and transparent public hearings now and support of Representative Mayfield's HB 25 to completely stop funding and implementation of Common Core until much more information is available regarding academic quality, cost and data privacy. HB 25 is the true implementation of concepts in Governor Scott's order and letters."
Contact Chrissy Blevio: flstopcccoalition@gmail.com 941-737-7743
Today the Florida Department of Education announced the times and locations of the three public hearings on the Common Core standards as outlined in Governor Rick Scott's executive order issued last week (see details below). Sadly, despite repeated assurances from the governor's office that these hearings would be open and transparent and a good faith effort to really change the standards, Florida's leadership, including the governor, has gravely disappointed its citizens as indicated by the following:
- Commissioner Pam Stewart has made statements to the press that "while the Department of Education plans to hold community town hall meetings to hear from the public about the pros and cons of the new Common Core State Standards, she [Stewart] expects little changes in the curriculum as a result." (Emphasis added).
- Statements made by the commissioner to opponent groups indicate that parents will have a mere three minutes per specific standard to make their concerns known, forcing them to wade through hundreds of pages of standards documents and become pedagogical experts in order to advocate for their children, mirroring the same intimidating process put forth by Senator John Legg in his call for input.
- The planned format will not allow for parents and experts to discuss what is missing from the standards, poor organization, and other problems.
- Each hearing is scheduled to be only three hours long, which will be inadequate for both the public and experts to testify about the many flaws with the standards themselves, much less the very important related concerns regarding data mining, psychological manipulation and testing, etc.
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Tuesday, October 15, 2013 TAMPA
5:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Hillsborough Community College Dale Mabry Campus
Student Services Building Auditorium Room 111
4001 West Tampa Bay Boulevard, Tampa, FL
Wednesday, October 16, 2013 DAVIE
5:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Broward College Davie Campus
Bailey Concert Hall Building 4
3501 SW Davie Road, Davie, FL
Thursday, October 17, 2013 TALLAHASSEE
5:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Tallahassee Community College
Ghazvini Center for Healthcare Education Auditorium
1528 Surgeons Drive, Tallahassee, FL
Many media outlets covered our press conference and lobbying efforts in Tallahassee. Here is just a sample:
- The Tampa Bay Times quoted our own Randy Osborne and Thais Alvarez of Bear Witness Central:
"What we want is to take out the Common Core 100 percent," said Thais Alvarez, a Miami-Dade teacher.
- The influential BizPac Review interviewed Dr. Effrem:
Its backers say Common Core stresses the need for all to students to reach widely accepted levels in writing skills and mathematics. But to the growing national movement opposing Common Core, it's "Obama Core," a federal takeover of the education system akin to Obamacare's takeover of the health system.It's a "complete transformation of another huge sector of people's lives and the economy," Effrem said.
- Media Trackers also interviewed Dr. Effrem:
"Florida is still a member of PARCC and the commissioner is still speaking, even on Monday, of PARCC still being a possibility for Florida's test," Effrem told Media Trackers Florida....
...Effrem said the Coalition is pleased that Scott is listening to the concerns of citizens and parents regarding implementing Common Core. Nevertheless, Scott's announcement is simply a first step on the path toward wise policy, said Effrem.
"The response of our Coalition is that this is a positive first step, but there are still many issues to be resolved," Effrem said.
Effrem noted that Florida's current math standards are rated higher in quality than the Common Core math standards.
Here is a sample of news coverage about Governor Scott's executive order and letters and FSCCC's response:
- Allisonn Neil of Sunshine State News quoted our statement extensively in a story about the Democrat Party attack on Governor Scott.
"The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition heartily commends the governor's efforts to hear the concerns of Florida parents and citizens about the many problems with the Common Core system of standards, aligned assessments, and data collection," wrote FSCCC in a statement released Monday. "These include issues regarding quality; state and local control; parental rights; the teaching, testing, and data collection of psychological parameters; and cost. We thank Governor Scott and look forward to working with him, the Legislature, Commissioner Stewart and the state Board of Education." Even members of the Democratic Party had expressed hesitation over Common Core and PARCC.
- Jeremy Kennedy of the Sarasota Herald Tribune in his column about how Governor Scott "threaded a political needle" quoted our commendation of the governor, but did not mention that we see this as only a first step:
Response to Governor Scott's Executive Order and Letters
Governor Rick Scott issued the following documents today in response to the many problems with the Common Core standards, aligned tests, data collection system, and accountability system:
- A letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan terminating the fiscal agent relationship with PARCC;
- A letter to Florida State Board of Education chairman Gary Chartrand detailing the governor's requests regarding public input on the standards, ceasing use of the national text examplars of the Common Core standards, the termination of the PARCC fiscal agent role, and the selection of a new state assessment; and
- An executive order detailing parameters to deal with the issues of the assessments, school accountability, teacher evaluations, and data security.
- Make sure that the Common Core standards are changed to become Florida's standards after being reviewed by outside experts and the public with real input so that they truly are rigorous, internationally benchmarked, developmentally appropriate, locally controlled, with parents having a say in standards and curriculum, and do not promote the teaching of psychological attitudes and beliefs;
- Insure that Florida does not lose control over its assessment again by choosing a national "off the shelf" assessment still aligned to the national standards or federal model curriculum; that Florida completely withdraws from PARCC and not merely its role as fiscal agent; it is truly Florida's assessment based on Florida's standards instead of the national Common Core standards with state comparability already achieved through the National Assessment of Educational Progress; and that any testing of psychological or attitudinal parameters in the academic assessments is strictly prohibited;
- Change the law to make sure student, family, and teacher privacy is truly protected not only via the data security issues mentioned in the governor's executive order, but that the type of data collected does not include non-academic political, religious, medical, psychological, biometric, or social data.
A broad consortium of organizations opposed to Common Core will be holding a press conference on the 22nd floor of the capitol building at 11:30 AM on Wednesday, September 25th to discuss these issues and pending legislation.
Florida Stop Common Core Coalition
Chrissy Blevio flstopcccoalition@gmail.com 941-737-7743
Florida Parents Against Common Core
Laura Zorc LauraDZorc@aol.com 772-643-5700
Article referred to in our latest press realease.
STATE IMPACT
A Q and A with House Speaker Will Weatherford
We caught up with House Speaker Will Weatherford at yesterday's meeting of the Suncoast Tiger Bay civic club.Weatherford, a Wesley Chapel Republican, took questions about Obamacare, Stand Your Ground and requiring power customers to pay the cost of new nuclear plants up front.
We asked him about the expected legislative debate over Common Core State Standards and why he was opposing..read more.
The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition (FSCCC) released a response to Senator John Legg's memo about the academic standards dated 9/6/13.
"Unfortunately, the Legg memo continues the strategy used by proponents at the governor's summit of trying to sidestep controversy by removing the name of Common Core without dealing with any of the underlying problems with the standards or data collection," said Randy Osborne. Mr. Osborne is director of education for Heartland Research and Florida Eagle Forum and served as a member of the Education Accountability Summit panel convened by Governor Scott August 26th through the 28th
"Our response deals with the many facts about these very flawed standards that will not be altered by superficial name changes," said Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch and a co-founder of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. "Even the Speaker of the House admits that our concerns and those of citizens, legislators and members of Congress across the state about federal overreach and data mining are 'legitimate.' We call on the Department of Education and our elected officials to stop with bait and switch tactics and to deal with the many problems of the national standards, assessments, and data collection. Florida needs to withdraw from the whole system and return to more local control."
Contact Chrissy Blevio: flstopcccoalition@gmail.com 941-737-7743
The Florida Current, a Tallahassee based news organization covering state news and the Florida legislature did a great three part series on the rapidly growing opposition to Common Core that prominently featured the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition and Dr. Effrem. Here are links to the stories and some excerpts. The press is starting to see that legislature is going to have a very hard time impsoing these standards:
Part I - Common Core: Opposition continues to grow
The "concern is taking some part of states' rights away," Mayfield told both WTSP television and the Tampa Bay Times in interviews during the Labor Day weekend.
Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, and House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, also have called on the Board of Education to pull out of the PARRC and to develop a Florida test. The high-level opposition to the test -- which would assess whether Florida students are meeting Common Core benchmarks and to the Common Core itself -- adds to the uncertainty surrounding the future of Florida's school accountability system.
In addition to the politicians voicing concerns, Sarasota County Republicans have launched an on-line petition to stop Common Core. And there is a handful of groups active on-line trying to gather opposition to the Core. On the right there are groups with names such as Florida Parents Against Common Core and Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, while education historian and policy analyst Diane Ravitch offers critiques from the left based on an over reliance on standardized tests and a fear of school privatization efforts.
Among Effrem's complaints is that Common Core will lead to greater reliance on standardized tests, which she said hinders a teacher's ability to teach.
Educators say the idea is to construct a framework that allows in-depth study and fosters critical thinking. Opponents say part of the problem is what educators want to place in front of children to study and think about. The Stop coalition points to alist of books showing examples of the kind of text complexity recommended for high school students that includes works by Julie Alvarez -- "heavy on feminism," and Toni Morrison -- "pornographic and pedophilic," said Effrem, a Minnesota pediatrician.
The Associated Press then published emails indicating that in his previous position as Indiana state education superintendent, Bennett may have changed school grades to benefit a campaign contributor. The revelation led to Bennett's resignation in Florida. He was one of Bush's Chiefs for Change, a national group of state educators committed to reform.
"If Tony Bennett, one of the greatest Common Core experts and proponents in the country, basically had to change the data in two different states to try to make this make sense then there is something wrong," said Dr. Karen Effrem of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. The FSCCC is among a handful of groups trying to persuade policy makers to drop the Core.
Core opponents are concerned about the reliance on standardized tests and the federal government combining the results with other data and sharing it with outside entities -- an invasion of the student's privacy and a data-mining opportunity for vendors.
"Accountability does not necessary need to be to the state or the federal government," said Effrem, a Minnesota pediatrician. "It should be to the parents and to duly elected school boards."
The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition (FSCCC) is pleased to see a legislator willing to stand up to the pro-Common Core education establishment and file a bill against this system of federally supported national standards and federally funded and supervised national tests. Representative Debbie Mayfield (R-Vero Beach) pre-filed HB 25 which does the following:
- Pauses implementation of the Common Core standards and tests pending public hearings and a fiscal analysis
- Withdraws Florida from the PARCC testing group
- Limits Common Core to English and math
- Limits and prevents the state board from ceding control of standards and tests to outside entities
"We are appreciative of this effort, especially after all attempts to have a meaningful and respectful discussion of the many issues related to the standards themselves were completely suppressed during the summit," said Randy Osborne, director of education for Heartland Research, lobbyist for Florida Eagle Forum, and a member of the governor's Education Accountability Task Force. "There are, however, so many flaws with these standards related to academic rigor, international benchmarking, and recommended curriculum that is radical and inappropriate, just to name a few, that we will continue to push for a complete withdrawal from the standards, and related tests and data collection system."
For more detailed information, please see our Policy Analysis.
While appreciative that Governor Scott convened this summit on critical education issues and hopeful that some meaningful discussion and airing of concerns about the Common Core standards system would ensue, The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition (FSCCC) is deeply disappointed in the results.
"The outcome on the issue of the Common Core standards themselves was pre-determined," said Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch and co-founder of FSCCC. "Continued implementation of the standards was assumed. No meaningful discussion of the merits or lack thereof of the standards themselves was allowed to take place. Any attempt to discuss concerns about rigor, content of the federally funded and supervised model curriculum and text examples aligned with these standards, psychological manipulation and testing as described in federal documents, or any other concern was immediately shut down. Lacking the ability or desire to meaningfully and respectfully discuss and work towards solutions to these critical concerns, prominent officials at this summit resorted to ad hominem attacks calling the citizens and taxpayers of this state with concerns 'crazies' and 'radicals.' Sadly this whole exercise was a massive waste of time and taxpayer funds."
A more detailed list of concerns will be forthcoming. Our recommendations for dealing with this issue are available in the article titled "Our Children's Future"
After the recent release of the well-documented response [CLICK HERE] from twelve Republican leaders from all over Florida to the Common Core propaganda [HERE] put forth by Senator John Thrasher and other former Republican (RPOF) leaders, support was overwhelming from many others within the RPOF. So much so, that twenty-five additional leaders RPOF and a few other officials have asked for their names to be added, and the letter has been released again.
"This effort to impose Common Core on our children and divide our party must end," said Randy Osborne, Marion County chairman, director of education for Heartland Research, and lobbyist for the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. "The signers of this letter represent Republican Executive Committee membership - parents, grandparents, concerned citizens, and grassroots activists from all over this state, the heart and soul of the Republican Party."
"The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition is extremely pleased and appreciative of the stand taken by these wise leaders," said Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch and a co-founder of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. "It is not these leaders, the Republican Executive Committee membership or the many groups and individuals that have joined our coalition that are "misinformed" or "laboring under conspiracy theories," but rather it is Senator Thrasher and the many other proponents that are trying to force this untested education system on Florida and the nation. Even during Governor Scott's education summit, instead of engaging in or even allowing a respectful, academic discussion of the merits of the standards or the lack thereof, all some proponents were able to do is resort to name calling. The standards are academically inferior to what many states, including Florida, already have. There is no evidence that they will raise student achievement. Failed attempts at this type of centralized education planning litter the ash heap of history all over the world. We call upon the RPOF and elected officials to reject the Common Core system and return education accountability to local instead of federal control."
Below is the complete list of Republican officials that reject the imposition of the Common Core standards system in Florida and have signed on to this rebuttal letter.
Contact: Chrissy Blevio flstopcccoalition@gmail.com 941-737-7743
Randy Osborne - Chairman Marion County Republican Executive Committee
Eric Miller - State Committeeman, Martin County
John Drozinski - Chairman, Republican Executive Committee Highlands County
Teri Armstrong - State Committeewoman, Marion County
Michael Levine - Chairman, Lake County Republican Executive Committee
Elvira Hasty - Former State Committeewoman, Saint Johns County
Gaye Ellis Chair - Okaloosa, County Republican Executive Committee
Tony Ledbetter - Chairman, Republican Party Volusia
Sheri Ortega - Chairman, Republican Suwannee County
Patricia Sullivan - State Committeewoman, Lake County
Alan Burton - State Committeeman, Volusia County
Marguerite Cavanaugh - Former State Committee Woman, Marion County. Executive VP Florida Eagle Forum
Carlie Rogers, Brevard State Committeewoman
Bradley Maxwell Leon County Chairman
Larry Taylor, Wakulla County State Committeeman
Mrs. Taylor, Wakulla County School Board Member District 2
Debi Large, Okeechobee County Chairman
Sandra Atkinson, Okaloosa County State Committeewoman
Anne-Marie Shaffer, Flagler County State Committeewoman
Frank Meeker, Flagler County State Committeeman
Dave Sullivan, Flagler County Chairman.
Bill Fochi, Charlotte County Chairman
Steven Czonstka, Okaloosa County State Committeeman
Robert E. Hagaman, Citrus County State Committeeman
Jane Sturges, Charlotte County Committeewoman
Lindsay Harrington, Charlotte County Committeeman
Joe Arnold, Okeechobee County State Committeeman
Melissa Arnold, Okeechobee County State Committeewoman
Mike Cribby, Putnam County State Committreeman
BryAnne White, Calhoun County State Committeewoman
Mark Cross, Osceola County State Committeeman
William Paterson, St. Lucie County Chairman
Michael Hofstee, St. Lucie County State Committeeman
Mary Ann Russell, St. Lucie County State Committeewoman
Joseph Sowell, Holmes County State Committeeman
Susan Sowell, Holmes County State Committeewoman
Ryan Anderson, Broward County State Committeeman
Recently when Governor Rick Scott was asked if he supported the data mining aspect of Common Core, Scott answered 'no' to the question. It appears the Governor did not get the memo from the Florida Department of Education that public schools have been data mining for years using "student surveys".
Florida parents were shocked when their children came home from their first day of high school with surveys asking personal questions about their habits, family and beliefs. Students at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Florida were given forms to fill out by their teachers.
Read the whole article here... http://watchdogwire.com/florida/2013/08/22/students-leave-their-privacy-at-the-school-house-door/
I, along with many organizations and thousands of individuals across the state represented by the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, as well as many others appreciate that Governor Scott has decided to convene this education summit to deal with the four critical issues of the Common Core standards, state assessments, teacher evaluations, and the school grading system.
Here are our views of the problems with the Common Core system and our proposal for solutions (much more detail along with extensive footnotes is available in the Policy Analysis written by Dr. Karen Effrem and myself available at http://www.flstopcccoalition.org/files/EAE4EA1E-7BEA-4B4D-8542-C6E46F841BB2--D8FA73FF-C0D2-49E3-B697-8AFB974E3C51/florida-s-common-core-standards-policy-analysis-4.pdf):
- The many problems with the Common Core standards include:
- Development by unaccountable private groups of copyrighted standards that states were required to adopt verbatim
- Incentivizing adoption of the standards with federal money and waivers is a violation of the Constitution and three federal laws
- Adoption by appointed instead of elected officials
- Florida did not even take advantage of the opportunity to create 15% of their own standards
- Lack of field testing
- Florida's current standards are rated higher in math and just a bit lower in English than Common Core, so it is hard to see how these national standards will solve Florida's education ills.
- Many other states' standards were more rigorous than Common Core.
- Very low quality (seventh grade level for the high school math and English standards)
- Developed by five major architects, none of whom have any K-12 classroom experience
- A serious curtailment of literary study that will harm vocabulary development and critical thinking
- Admission by a math author that college readiness is geared to a non-selective community college
- Delay of math skills that will harm acceptance to a selective four year university
- Standards drive curriculum that will be taught in order to pass the high stakes tests (see below), so protests that radical curriculum examples in the official list of text examples for the Common Core English Standards, the federally funded model curriculum, or others are just local aberrations ring hollow.
- According to federal documents, there are plans to teach, test, and collect data on psychological attitudes values and beliefs.
- There is no evidence of international benchmarking, with repeated denial of data requests causing five highly respected academicians to refuse to sign off on the final version of the standards.
- One of the only academic mathematicians on the validation committee believes that students using the Common Core math standards will be two years behind their international peers at the end of eighth grade and farther behind by the end of high school.
- Federal involvement in testing is a violation of federal law
- The Florida Department of Education has put out false information stating that there is no federal involvement in testing. [See HERE for more information.]
- The test results will have many high stakes consequences that include student grade advancement and graduation, teacher pay and tenure and school district grades and funding
- The new assessments will greatly expand time needed for testing, which will decrease instructional time in favor of test preparation and narrow the curriculum to emphasize subjects that can be tested
- Teachers are being forced or at least strongly encouraged to use highly scripted or computerized lessons in order to maximize test results, which reduces teacher flexibility and creativity
- Federal documents show that students will be psychologically tested by the assessments and that individual student data from the assessments will be collected and given to the federal government.
- Because the computerized assessments will determine the next question based on a student's answer to the previous question, the claim that the national tests will uniformly measure student learning across the country are not valid.
- Claims that districts and teachers will be able to choose and locally implement curriculum of their choice are not logical. Because the stakes for the tests are so high, they will be forced or highly motivated to choose federal model curricula or use the text examples listed in the Common Core English standards.
- Reducing everything a student learns and a teacher teaches to a test result impoverishes education
- Teachers and students have not had enough time to assimilate the new standards and aligned curricula before the tests are proposed to become high stakes in 2015.
- The costs for implementing the tests are both unaffordable and unsustainable and far outpace what Florida has received in federal grants requiring local tax increases and new federal charges to provide the funds for technology.
- Florida laws passed in the 2013 session requiring the test implementation schedule to be based on "funding, sufficient field and baseline data, access to assessments, instructional alignment, and school district readiness to administer the common core assessments online" as well as adequate and independently verified technological load testing for all districts are being violated.
4. The school grading system is problematic because it is also based on the standards and tests. This A-F school grading system had already lost significant credibility. The SBOE, including under the leadership of Tony Bennett, had made it so complicated and arbitrary that parents, teachers, districts and the public were already questioning its validity. Bennett recommended continuing the manipulative practice of preventing school grades from dropping more than one letter grade for a second year in a row. This was in part to cushion the blow from the disastrous implementation of Common Core in the early elementary grades and prevent the department from looking worse than it already did. The board complied after a contentious 4-3 vote on July 16, 2013. Then on July 30, 2013, an AP article reveled evidence that Bennett had already manipulated school grade data in Indiana, in this case to help a political donor. This evidence and these allegations ultimately resulted in his resignation. If Tony Bennett, as a member of the highly touted Chiefs for Change and one of the greatest Common Core experts and proponents in the entire nation cannot even begin to implement that system without doctoring test and school data in two different states, how can Common Core remain a credible and viable alternative for Florida or any other state?
Given this situation and these many problems, we recommend the following:
- Florida should withdraw completely from using the Common Core standards. If they are as "voluntary" as proponents claim, there should be no problem in doing so.
- Ideally, parents and duly elected school boards should control standards, curriculum and assessments. The federal government's involvement since 1965 and the imposition of state standards and tests via Goals 2000 and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind) has cost US taxpayers over two trillion dollars while achievement scores have stagnated or declined, the achievement gap is unchanged, state and local sovereignty has eroded, and parents' rights and data privacy are routinely violated.
- At the very least, the current Florida standards should be continued as the math standards are already rated higher than Common Core and the English standards are roughly equivalent. The math standards could be improved by aligning them more closely with the standards of the four best state standards California, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Minnesota. The English standards could be improved by aligning more closely with the best states such as California, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Texas. Dr. Sandra Stotsky has made excellent English standards prepared for consideration in Massachusetts available at no charge.
- Using a different testing system as suggested by Speaker Weatherford and President Gaetz will not improve the situation if the same flawed standards are implemented in Florida, nor will it cure the significant data privacy problems.
- The concept of high stakes testing should be reconsidered. Accountability should be to parents and locally elected school boards, not to the state, the federal government, or corporations. A child's educational experience and a teacher's performance should not be reduced to one number.
- The inculcation, monitoring, and data collection of psychosocial attitudes, values and beliefs must cease immediately. That has no place in a free republic. It is the job of families and religious institutions, not government via the schools to do that work.
- Data privacy protections need to be significantly strengthened. Instead of bills like SB 878 that give our children's individual data to the federal government without consent, we need real protections such as the ones our group furnished during the last session.
- There needs to be legislative review of all federal education grants to check for constitutionality, cost and unfunded mandates, state sovereignty, data privacy, and parental rights.
- The commissioner of education and the state board of education should be elected and not appointed.
Sincerely,
Randy Osborne
Heartland Research
Florida Eagle Forum
Karen Effrem, M.D., Education Liberty Watch
State Rep. Erik Fresen, (R) District 114
Randy Osborne, Florida Eagle Forum
Mark Truitt, Center for College & Career Readiness
Governor Rick Scott has called for a statewide education task force to be convened on Monday August 26th. This panel will deal with the Common Core standards, the state assessments, teacher evaluations, and the school grading system. The group will be composed of educators, legislators, and citizens from across the state. Included will be the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition's (FSCCC) lobbyist and political strategist, Randy Osborne, who also serves as director of education for the Florida Eagle Forum and Heartland Research.
"We are gratified that Governor Scott is willing to include voices that oppose the Common Core system of national standards, national tests, and invasive student and teacher data collection on this task force," said Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch and a co-founder of the FSCCC. We are especially proud that the fine work of Mr. Osborne along with the research, lobbying, and grassroots activism of our large and growing coalition has reached his and other policymakers' attention. This is an opportunity to try to deal with the many serious issues associated with the Common Core standards, tests, evaluations and the related, arbitrary and complicated school grading system. We hope that Florida's education leaders will hear the concerns and do what is best for the students and citizens of this state by returning control of education to the local level where it belongs."
Here are details about the meeting from the Governor's office:
MEDIA ADVISORY
THREE-DAY EDUCATION ACCOUNTABILITY SUMMIT KICKS OFF ON MONDAY
~Florida's top education leaders to discuss state standards for students, school grades, student assessments and teacher evaluations~
Tallahassee, Fla. As the school year is beginning for Florida's students across the state, Governor Rick Scott has asked a panel of Florida education leaders to discuss the sustainability and transparency of the state's accountability system to ensure each student has the opportunity to succeed.
Governor Scott asked Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart to convene the summit to provide the opportunity to openly discuss ideas and options to continue improving Florida's public school system.
"Florida's education accountability system has become a national model, but we are at a critical point in our history," said Governor Scott. "Our students need and deserve a quality education that emphasizes critical thinking and analysis. Our teachers and schools need our support as we continue to compete nationally and globally in preparing students for success in college, career and in life."
Governor Scott asked Stewart to lead the summit with a focus on four strategic priorities:
- State Standards. Continuing to raise the bar on education standards, by including an emphasis on critical and analytical thinking, to drive continued improvement by Florida students;
- State Standard Assessments. Ensuring the assessment that replaces the FCAT will accurately measure the more challenging standards that will be taught to our students, provides meaningful performance information to our students, is cost effective, results are timely provided and we do not unnecessarily become intertwined with the federal government.
- School Grades. Improving our education accountability system to further ensure transparency and fairness while providing meaningful and useful information to our parents and educators about how our students and schools are performing; and
- Teacher Evaluations. Understanding how our teachers are evaluated, ensuring transparency throughout the process and using a fair system to identify, recognize and reward our highly performing teachers.
"Governor Scott's Education Accountability Summit will provide the leaders of our Senate Committees on Education and Education Appropriations the opportunity to collect various perspectives and ideas which will be used in committee meeting discussions scheduled to begin next month," said President Gaetz. "The Senate looks forward to working with the Governor to build on the gains Florida's public education system has made over more than a decade and we appreciate the opportunity to have a seat at the table for this significant event."
"Florida has made significant progress in improving education over the last 15 years, and it's important to have a vision so we can continue to ensure our children are succeeding and have the skills they need to compete in today's global economy," said Speaker Weatherford. "I commend Governor Scott for convening this education summit and taking a strong leadership role on the future of educational standards, assessment, school grades and teacher accountability in Florida."
"Everyone attending this summit shares the same goal: Ensuring that every student in Florida is given the opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful in the career of his or her choice," said State Board of Education Chairman Gary Chartrand. "This is a great opportunity for educators, business leaders, and policy makers to share strategies that will benefit not only our students but our state as a whole."
To view the meeting via live webcast, visit Florida Department of Education.
To submit ideas or feedback, please share via email at educationsummit@fldoe.org.
WHAT: Education Accountability Summit
WHEN: Monday, August 26, 1 p.m. through Wednesday, August 28, 4 p.m.
(A more detailed schedule will be posted at www.fldoe.org)
WHERE: EpiCenter
Collaborative Labs at St. Petersburg College
13805 58th Street North
Clearwater, FL
Attendees include:
Invited by Governor Scott and Commissioner Stewart with the assistance of education partners:
| Gary Chartrand | State Board of Education | |||
| Marshall Criser | Business Community Leader | |||
| Mark Wilson | Business Community Leader | |||
| Superintendent Alberto Carvalho | Miami-Dade County | |||
| Superintendent Joe Joyner | St. Johns County | |||
| Superintendent Bill Husfelt | Bay County | |||
| Patricia Levesque | Foundation for Florida's Future | |||
| Andy Ford | Florida Education Association | |||
| Jeff Wright | Florida Education Association | |||
| Joanne McCall | Florida Education Association | |||
| Patty Hightower | School Board Chair, Escambia County | |||
| Wayne Blanton | Florida School Boards Association | |||
| Eileen Segal | Florida PTA | |||
| Linda Kearschner | Parent | |||
| Juhan Mixon | Florida Association of School Administrators | |||
| Laura Zorc | Parent, Florida Parents Against Common Core | |||
| Anthony Lockhart | School Principal, Atlantic Community High, Palm Beach County | |||
| John Kirtley | Florida Charter School Alliance | |||
| Doug Tuthill | Step Up For Students | |||
| Keith Calloway | Professional Educators Network, Broward County | |||
| Steve Chambers | Professional Educators Network, Okaloosa County | |||
| Dorina Sackman | 2014 Teacher of the Year, Orange County | |||
| Alex Lopes | 2013 Teacher of the Year, Miami-Dade County | |||
| Apryl Shackelford | Teacher of the Year, Duval County | |||
| Jennifer Grove | Business Community Leader, Workforce Florida Inc. Vice Chair | |||
| Randy Osborne | Community Leader | |||
| Joe Gruters | CPA, Sarasota County | |||
| Mark Wilson | Florida Chamber of Commerce | |||
| Maureen Wilt | Florida Power & Light | |||
Senator John Thrasher
Senator John Legg
Senator Bill Galvano
Senator Bill Montford
Invited by Speaker Weatherford:
Representative Marlene O'Toole
Representative Erik Fresen
Representative Janet Adkins
Representative Reggie Fullwood
The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition greatly appreciates the courage of Representative Ray Pilon (R-Sarasota) for taking a public stand against the Common Core standards. He is the first legislator to our knowledge to so boldly repudiate this top-down system of inferior national standards, national tests, and invasive data mining in a major Florida newspaper.
The very thorough and well balanced article by Jeremy Wallace of the Sarasota Herald Tribune is available HERE. Both Dr. Karen Effrem and Chrissy Blevio of the Coalition are extensively quoted.
If you live in his district, please thank him. Contact information is available HERE. If you live in other districts, please contact your own legislators, offer to meet with them, bring them a copy of our policy analysis available HERE, and urge them to follow Representative Pilon's example.
Thanks to all of your efforts calling, writing, and visiting our public officials, there are starting to be cracks in the seemingly impenetrable wall of Common Core support by the establishment. Keep up your great work!
Please also consider a generous donation to help us continue this vital work. [HERE] Thank you!
The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition thanks the Collier Coounty Libertarian Party for joining the rapidly growing group of political, grassroots, policy and academic organizations that oppose the Common Core standards system of national ostandards, national tests, and data mining. You may find their press release and passed resolution HERE.
The Orlando Sentinel has cited the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition's newly released policy paper in an article on Common Core. The 45 page paper with over 130 footnotes was written by Dr. Karen Effrem and Randy Osborne. Many of the comments to date on the online article are pro-Common Core. Our readers may like to go to the article and voice their opinions in the comment section to allow both sides of the debate to be heard from. If you would like to read or comment on the article please click here. If you would like to read the policy paper, please access it here
A dozen different Republican leaders from eight different counties across Florida came out this week with a well researched and strongly worded letter in response to the propaganda sent by Senator John Thrasher and four other former Republican leaders. All of the signers are current or former Republican Executive Committee chairmen or members of the Republican State Committee.
This is the email introduction:
The email of July 22nd by John Thrasher merits a strong response. As people across the United States learn the innumerable problems with the Common Core system of national standards, tests, and data mining and rise up in horror to oppose their imposition on our innocent children, the proponents continue to recycle the same tired arguments. They continue to claim that opponents of this program are "misinformed" and laboring under "conspiracy theories."
Please hear us loud and clear: We are not misinformed. We do know exactly what this is. We do not want it for our children, our party and our nation. These Progressive Ideals have no place in our schools.
Attached is a detailed letter with reference to the disinformation sent by Senator Thrasher and his cosigners. We welcome your attention to the letter attached and hope you will take the time to review it. Please feel free to reach out to us if you desire more information.
Sincerely,
Randy Osborne - Chairman Marion County Republican Executive Committee
Eric Miller - State Committeeman, Martin County
John Drozinski - Chairman, Republican Executive Committee Highlands County
Teri Armstrong - State Committeewoman, Marion County
Michael Levine - Chairman, Lake County Republican Executive Committee
Elvira Hasty - Former State Committeewoman, Saint Johns County
Gaye Ellis Chair - Okaloosa, County Republican Executive Committee
Tony Ledbetter - Chairman, Republican Party Volusia
Sheri Ortega - Chairman, Republican Suwannee County
Patricia Sullivan - State Committeewoman, Lake County
Alan Burton - State Committeeman, Volusia County
Marguerite Cavanaugh - Former State Committee Woman, Marion County. Executive VP Florida Eagle Forum
Download PDF of letter.
Pam Stewart's actions as chancellor to implement the Race to the Top program that required the Common Core national standards and tests as well as the invasive data mining system as well as her previous history in the Florida schools show her not to be the person that will promote the academic, locally controlled education that Florida students desperately need and deserve.
We call upon Governor Scott to appoint a new commissioner who understands the problems with the Common core system, for the board to pull out of PARCC, and for the legislature to withdraw Florida from Common Core and make the state board and commissioner positions elected so that they are accountable to the people.
Thanks to your strong opposition to Common Core that helped result in Tony Bennett's resignation, on Friday, August 2nd at 11 AM, the Florida State Board of Education is meeting in an emergency conference call to appoint an interim commissioner. They are likely to appoint current public schools chancellor Pam Stewart who held the post of interim commissioner before Bennett was appointed. She is a strong supporter of the Common Core system as she has worked to implement Florida's federal Race to the Top grant. That grant required adoption of the Common Core national standards and tests and the state longitudinal data system responsible for the horrible data mining bill SB 878, that thanks to your united voice, Randy Osborne's lobbying, and Dr. Karen Effrem's research, we were able to kill in the 2013 session.
We believe we need to raise our voices again against Pam Stewart, show the SBOE and Governor Scott that we want the whole Common Core system repealed, and that we do not want another pro-Common Core commissioner. Although Dr. Effrem is very grateful for the kind recommendations of her to fill Tony Bennett's position, she feels that there are great people with much more experience in state education that would fit the bill. The two currently at the top of her list are:
Sandra Stotsky Dr. Stotsky was a member of the Common Core validation committee for English that refused to sign off on the final version of the standards. She was heavily involved in the development of the very rigorous and effective Massachusetts standards, made excellent suggestions on standards all across the country as states developed their standards before Common Core, and has bravely testified all over the nation about the many problems with and dangers of the Common Core English standards. She has also written a set of academic, content rich standards that could be used in place of the Common Core that she is making available to any state that wants them for free. (More information is available HERE.
We urgently request the following actions for the board meeting Friday, August 2nd at 11 AM:
1) Please, if at all possible, listen in by dialing 1-866-318-8612 and passcode: 59457686.
2) During the public comment time, please say who you are and the GROUP to whom you belong so that we can create an impression of widespread opposition to Common Core and the people that promote it.
3) If you agree, please consider including some or all of these types of points in your comment time, which is likely only to be 2 minutes:
· Tony Bennett's grade fixing in both Florida and Indiana shows how corrupt and unworkable Common Core is and that we want out of the national standards, tests and data mining, not a continuation of it.
· Pamela Stewart should not be brought on to continue implementing Common Core and the Race to the Top, especially the data mining, nor anyone that supports Common Core.
· Michael Sentence or Sandra Stotsky would be far better alternatives.
If you cannot join the conference call, please make your voice heard with these contacts:
Governor Rick Scott (850) 488-7146 or by clicking HERE to email him.
Board Chairman Gary Chartrand leave a message with the clerk at 850-245-9661 or email gchartrand@acosta.com
Thank you for all of your work and support to end Common Core in Florida.
The resignation of Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett sadly confirms the grave concerns of The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition about the workability of the Common Core system. We highlighted these concerns in our statements this week both about the data manipulation in Indiana and Florida and the false information from the DOE.
Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch and co-founder of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition gave the following statement:
We call upon Governor Rick Scott to both withdraw from the Common Core standards, tests and data collection system, as well as to appoint a new commissioner that will promote locally controlled academic education for all of the Florida's public school children. Pam Stewart, given her support of and close work with implementing Florida's federal Race to the Top grant that requires the Common Core national standards, aligned national tests, and the data mining of our children, is not the person that the children and citizens of Florida need at this critical time."
Little did the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition realize when we were composing yesterday's press release about false information being disseminated from the Tony Bennett led Florida Department of Education and alluded to the Florida school grade data manipulation, that there would be such dramatic and immediate confirmation of our concerns.
The decision of the State Board of Education to follow Bennett's recommendation to continue doctoring school grade data by limiting drops to one letter grade was already controversial enough, barely passing by a vote of 4-3. Board members that opposed that decision questioned the integrity of the grading system and rightly pointed out that it was becoming "acceptable to manipulate the truth just because the truth has become uncomfortable." The Coalition believes that this decision was made to make Bennett and the Department of Education look good while trying to save the reputation of Florida's unworkable school accountability plan that has not done anything to narrow the achievement gap or decrease the appallingly high number of high school graduates that need remediation in college.
The news yesterday of strong evidence that then Indiana Superintendent Tony Bennett and the Indiana Department of Education changed that state's grading system to make sure that the charter school owned by a wealthy donor to Bennett's campaign received an "A" grade adds further fuel to the fire.
"This news of such massive corruption from his time in Indiana obviously casts major doubt on the credibility of his school grade system changes here in Florida, on Tony Bennett's fitness to serve as Commissioner of Education, and on the entire accountability scheme of using high stakes testing based on government imposed standards like the Common Core to control schools, teachers, and students," said Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch and co-founder of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. "The system was already so complicated and arbitrary that it was close to meaningless. With this new stench of corruption from Bennett's previous job in the midst of implementation of the dubious Common Core standards and tests, how can parents, taxpayers, and policymakers have any confidence at all in Florida's public education system?"
"All of these issues raise serious concerns about the integrity and honesty of Commissioner Bennett's leadership for the education of our children. They also raise significant questions about the wisdom of implementing the Common Core system that he so heavily promotes. We need local control of our schools by parents and duly elected school board members, not unaccountable, appointed government bureaucrats and foundations," said Effrem.
Contact: Chrissy Blevio
flstopcccoalition@gmail.com
941-737-7743
www.flstopcccoalition.org
The Florida Department of Education under Commissioner Tony Bennett is doing exactly what they accuse Common Core opponents of doing spreading misinformation. In fact, their document entitled, Demystifying the Movement: Answers to Common Myths About the Common Core State Standards[1], contains several misleading and demonstrably false statements.
The worst of these is the one that says, "The federal government does not have a hand in development of the aligned assessments pertaining to the CCSS."[2] Both state testing consortia, SBAC and PARCC, the latter of which Florida leads as fiscal agent with Commissioner Tony Bennett on the board, are working with over $300 million of federal grant money to develop the assessments. To make sure the federal "investment" for these national tests is according to the federal plan, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) announced what was called a "technical review panel" in March of 2013. According to the USED website:
"The review will focus on two broad areas of assessment development: the consortium's research confirming the validity of the assessment results and the consortium's approach to developing items and tasks." (Emphasis added)[3].
This means that in addition to the monetary control, the federal government is supervising the development of questions for the national tests that are aligned to the national Common Core standards. There can be no bigger federal involvement in test development than that.
"This type of blatantly untrue statement combined with Commissioner Bennett's continued truth challenged data manipulation of the school grading system and his gross miscalculation of the Common Core implementation costs that was off by $342 million, portrays a very disturbing pattern of either incompetence or falsehood. The students, families, and taxpayers of the Florida need competence and honesty at this critical time," said Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch and co-founder of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition.
The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition urges Governor Scott to fulfill Commissioner Bennett's request to "hold him accountable" if he "capitulates to the federal government" as he stated during an interview with Drew Steele on WFSX in Naples[4] as well as for all of these other serious concerns.
Contact: Chrissy Blevio flstopcccoalition@gmail.com 941-737-7743
http://925foxnews.com/mp3/Podcast_Dr._Tony_Bennett__5_24_2013.mp3
The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition would have responded sooner to this letter from five former Republican Party of Florida officials, but there is absolutely nothing new here. Common Core proponents continue to offer the same tired talking points without data or references. They continue to try to defend the indefensible. The Coalition has thoroughly debunked this information many times at the links listed below. Our detailed policy analysis will be published very soon and we are confident that responses will be coming shortly from others as well. Do not be troubled by this latest propaganda piece.
- Major Problems with Common Core in Florida
- "School Board Should Reject Common Core"
- Fact Checking the Bush Foundations' Rebuttals
- Rebuttal to Senator John Legg's Pro-Common Core Column
- Florida Commissioner Tony Bennett's Unsuccessful Attempt to Defend Common Core
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The Effect of the Common Core Standards on Teachers and the Teaching Profession
Despite numerous communications from former governor Jeb Bush, Commissioner Tony Bennett and the Florida Department of Education, Governor Rick Scott, State Board of Education Member John Cologne, Majority Leader Steve Precourt, Senator John Thrasher, and numerous former Republican chairs that anyone who raises concerns about the Common Core system is "misinformed," "a conspiracy theorist," or "crazy," we are very grateful that the US House of Representatives did not get those memos. Great thanks and congratulations should go to the Reps. John Kline (chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee) and the 12 co-sponsors of HR 5, the Student Success Act, as well as the 200+ other members that voted for this bill that contained such strong anti-Common Core Language. The purpose of HR 5 is to reuathorize the Elementary and secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind. Here are two of several excellent examples of the anti-Common Core language:
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Voluntary Partnerships- A State may enter into a voluntary partnership with another State to develop and implement the academic standards and assessments required under this section, except that the Secretary shall not, either directly or indirectly, attempt to influence, incentivize, or coerce State--`(1) adoption of the Common Core State Standards developed under the Common Core State Standards Initiative, any other academic standards common to a significant number of States, or assessments tied to such standards; or`(2) participation in any such partnerships.
- SEC. 5521. PROHIBITION AGAINST FEDERAL MANDATES, DIRECTION, OR CONTROL.`(a) In General- No officer or employee of the Federal Government shall, directly or indirectly, through grants, contracts, or other cooperative agreements, mandate, direct, or control a State, local educational agency, or school's specific instructional content, academic standards and assessments, curricula, or program of instruction, (including any requirement, direction, or mandate to adopt the Common Core State Standards developed under the Common Core State Standards Initiative or any other academic standards common to a significant number of States), nor shall anything in this Act be construed to authorize such officer or employee to do so.`(b) Financial Support- No officer or employee of the Federal Government shall, directly or indirectly, through grants, contracts, or other cooperative agreements, make financial support available in a manner that is conditioned upon a State, local educational agency, or school's adoption of specific instructional content, academic standards and assessments, curriculum, or program of instruction, (including any requirement, direction, or mandate to adopt the Common Core State Standards developed under the Common Core State Standards Initiative, any other academic standards common to a significant number of States, or any assessment, instructional content, or curriculum aligned to such standards), even if such requirements are specified in an Act other than this Act, nor shall anything in this Act be construed to authorize such officer or employee to do so.
In addition, a "Sense of Congress" amendment to HR 5 was passed by 230 of 233 Republicans that "States and local educational agencies should maintain the rights and responsibilities of determining educational curriculum, programs of instruction, and assessments for elementary and secondary education." This amendment was authored by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer.(MO-3) who had also authored an excellent letter to Secretary Arne Duncan about the many problems with Common Core, federal overreach, and data collection. That letter was co-signed by three Republican Florida members of Congress: Rep. Richard Nugent (FL-11), Rep. Ted Yoho (FL-5), and Rep. Trey Radel (FL19). Rep. Radel said the following in support of that amendment:
- "The Department of Education heavily incentivized & pressured states into adopting the Common Core State Standards Initiatives. These national standards and assessments ultimately determine the curriculum and teaching materials used in classrooms across the nation."
Finally, Rep. Martha Roby (AL-2) along with eight co-sponsors including Rep. Radel have authored HR 2089, The Defending State Authority Over Education Act of 2013. It is a separate bill that contains language similar to that of HR 5 quoted above. Both because HR 5 passed as a partisan bill with little or no Democrat support and therefore facing a steep uphill climb in the Senate, where a bill that seeks to centralize federal power over education even more has passed committee, and because this really should be a non-partisan issue, we urge you to contact your members of Congress and talk to them about supporting HR 2089 which only covers Common Core and federal control of education. Thank you.
Review the action plan of our FSCCC lobbyist and political strategist Randy Osborne to Stop Common Core in repsonse to the legislative leadership letter urging withdrawal from the PARCC testing group.
Florida Parents Against Common Core (FPACC)and Freedom Works hosted a very important training session and protest of a Common Core national conference on June 29th. They were joined by The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition and many other groups and individuals from all over Florida and several other states. We sincerely thank all who were involved and who attended, especially FPACC, Whitney Neal of FreedomWorks, and Drew Steele and the crew of Daybreak from Naples Fox Affiliate WFSX and the caravan that they organized.
The training session at the Sheraton Lake Buena Vista included presentations by Whitney Neal of FreedomWorks; Laura Zorc, Stacy Clark, Meredith Mears and Debbie Higgenbotham, the mothers who decided to start the protest against Common Core; and Randy Osborne and Dr. Karen Effrem of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. Randy spoke about the need for unity and the proper Rules of Engagement.
Interest in learning more about and then mobilizing against Common Core was so great that more chairs needed to be brought in into the ballroom to seat all of the more than 250 attendees. The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition table was very busy!
After the training, many of the attendees continued to the JW Marriott to protest the national Common Core conference. Despite two downpours, many people of all ages participated with attendance reaching over 150 at the peak.
"It was a great day and shows the growing tsunami of opposition to Common Core," said Laura Zorc, SE coordinator for FPACC.
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Dr. Karen Effrem, President of Education Liberty Watch and Randy Osborne of the Florida Eagle Forum recently participated in a debate on Common Core hosted by the Lake County REC and filmed by Vance Jochim of FiscalRangers.com.
in Tavares, Florida.
We thank the hosts and the panel for providing a candid and far reaching discussion of the Common Core system. As you will see Randy and Dr. Karen "took no prisoners."
The event was covered by a reporter from the Daily Commercial and the education reporter from the Orlando Sentinel. You may read the report from the Daily Commercial here.The Sentinel chose to publish a an extremely biased story about the event. Reporter Erica Rodriguez did not cover any of the issues brought up by the panelists. She didn't even name the panelists. She instead chose to portray the members of the audience as "fearful" and "confused." Even worse, she quoted elected school board member Bill Mathias as saying that "people are just so paranoid about our government" Please read the story HERE and submit your comments.
HIghlights Part 1:
107:57-113:06 Data Mining/Constitutional Issues
128:42-133:49 Standards vs. Curriculum
133:58- 1:40:56 Teaching to test/local control
141:00-147:44 Effect of Common Core on Teachers
149:50-155:23 Violations of federal law/psychological manipulation and assessment in English curriculum
Highlights Part 2
Closing Statements
Dr. Karen Effrem 13:54-16:54
Jim Miller 16:55-19:45
Khori Whitaker: 19:50-22:17
Mary Grabar, PhD, The Dissident Prof, has written an excellent article for the Selous Foundation about the dangers and harms of government preschool and home visiting programs titled Be Afraid: Government "Help" for the Children. In it she interviewed Dr. Effrem, who has been sounding the alarm about these programs for many years. This Obama administration preschool push is part of the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge and may be considered the "Baby Common Core" system, because it is composed of standards, assessments, and data collection just in grades K-12. Dr. Effrem has written about this topic in her articles: Early Learning Race to the Top Nationalizes Preschool, Government Preschool Tyranny "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet!" and State of the Union Statistics Mislead on Preschool Benefits. We thank Dr. Grabar for her great work!
The following is a response to the very pro-Common Core editorial titled,"Common Core is no threat" (Our View) that appeared in the Tampa Tribune on June 16th. Although we are grateful that the Tribune published Dr. Effrem's response in the June 23rd print edition, because it is not available online, we are making it available here:
A Threat to Our Education System
The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition respectfully but firmly disagrees with the Tribune's June 16th editorial "Common Core is no threat". The Common Core system of national standards, tests, model curriculum, and data collection is very much a threat on a number of fronts.This system is a threat to academic quality. While the editorial board is correct to point out the crisis of 78% of Florida high school graduates not being ready for college, there is absolutely no evidence that switching to the Common Core standards will help improve the situation. In fact, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, commonly cited by Common Core proponents as an authority on the quality of state standards, rated Florida's current math and English standards roughly the same as the Common Core. If the current Florida standards that are resulting in 78% of students needing remediation are basically equivalent to Common Core, how will adopting these new standards help? Why spend another projected $1 billion the state does not have for standards that will probably not improve anything?
Common Core is a threat to local control. Claims that states and districts can control implementation and curriculum choices are true only in theory. The federally funded and supervised national tests and model curriculum will determine curriculum because stakes are very high for test results, including graduation, teacher pay, and district funding. These tests are aligned to the national Common Core standards, NOT the 15% of so-called extra material that the states were "allowed" to add as their own after being required to adopt 100% of Common Core verbatim.
Districts will choose the curriculum that they think will help them pass the tests. Those choices are much more likely to be close to the model curriculum and the text examples in the English standards that include such controversial texts as the Julie Alvarez novel In the Time of the Butterflies. That novel is recommended for 9th and 10th graders even though some college professors are embarrassed to teach it due to its sexually explicit nature and its glorification of tyrants like Fidel Castro.
Finally, the state longitudinal data systems that states were required to adopt along with the standards in order to receive Race to the Top and other stimulus funding during a severe recession, is an enormous threat to students' and families' data privacy. This data system will link the test results for the new standards to the 300-400 points of other very private data, like the iris scans that occurred in Polk County without parental consent. This womb to tomb dossier will make the NSA's data collection look tame.
Do not believe for one moment that it is just the freedom-minded Tea Party groups that oppose Common Core. It is parents, teachers, professors, small business owners, and many highly respected policy organizations from different points on the political and philosophical spectra. Our coalition is growing and politicians of any party that continue to push this boondoggle will likely regret it.
At the kind invitation of the Port Charlotte Curmudgeon Club and host Ken Lovejoy, Dr. Effrem participated in a lively two hour long discussion with Mr. Lovejoy and Curmudgeons Tony Biell (president) and Bill Abbatematteo who graciously invited her to discuss this important issue during their monthly show. Audio is available here. Photos are available here.
Dr. Karen Effrem will be speaking on Common Core at the Port Charlotte Republican Club, Monday, June 18th, at 11:30am. Dr. Effrem is a nationally known education authority.
Shark Tank, one of Florida's most influential political blogs, featured Dr. Karen Effrem in a story on June 7th regarding Common Core. Click HERE to read the article.
