News

Stewart Picks CCSS Testing Corp. that Promotes GLBT Issues, Psychologically Profiles Kids & Works for PARCC's Evil Twin

March, 2014

As we and others  recently reported, the testing company American Institutes for Research (AIR) was the leading candidate to develop the test to replace the FCAT.  They now have been officially chosen. This test will be fully Common Core aligned and will test Common Core despite the "copy editing,"" tweaks," and "minor" changes that the state now deceitfully calls the "Florida Standards."  AIR is developing the test for the Smarter Balanced Testing Consortium (SBAC), who like PARCC is the other federally funded, federally supervised national Common Core testing group of states.  AIR bills itself as "one of the world's largest behavioral and social science research and evaluation organizations"; AIR has also been involved in developing briefs and other information promoting acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle for elementary age school children.

"Commissioner Stewart and the Department of Education have failed Florida.  It is still all Common Core all the time, and the state has chosen a company promoting controversial sexuality and mental health issues to test and profile our children," said Dr. Karen Effrem, executive director of Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, Inc., and president of Education Liberty Watch.  "The State of Florida is not respecting the intelligence of its parents and citizens.  We are not deceived and not amused at this bait and switch effort.  We now can see that our children will be tested by the company working for PARCC's evil twin, SBAC, and that our children will be psychologically profiled by this company that also promotes very controversial issues.  We know that our children's tests will likely include these types of issues and that the test and other data will go to the state, the federal government, and to corporations.  We also realize that our children have no protection even with the current privacy bills in the legislature that rely on federal law (FERPA), because that law has been completely gutted by the Obama administration via regulation, sidestepping Congress."

"This is completely unacceptable. Besides implementing the same deceptive plan discussed at the governor's summit in August, the state has chosen a company that has a significant history of promoting identification of the GLBT lifestyle for children as young as seven years old, among parents and in churches said Randy Osborne, lobbyist for  Florida Eagle Forum. "The governor and legislature need to listen to the public that is outraged and the grassroots of the Republican Party of Florida who have rejected Common Core repeatedly via resolutions at many levels."

FSCCC, Inc. calls on the governor to use his executive power to pull Florida out of the Common Core memorandum of understanding from the Race to the Top agreement signed by Charlie Crist and develop true academic and developmentally appropriate standards in conjunction with early childhood experts and professors of math and English in Florida's college system that will really give students a broad based knowledge to prepare them to follow any path.  We also call on the legislature to stop funding the unsustainable implementation of Common Core, draft real privacy protection that also prohibits psychological testing in the assessments, and not spread the Common Core cancer to private schools.


Website Powered by Morphogine