The Federalist: Schools Ditch Academics For Emotional Manipulation


We are grateful to the Federalist for posting the latest article on social emotional learning from Jane Robbins of the American Principles Project and Dr. Effrem:It is great that Georgia has joined Tennessee in withdrawing from the CASEL SEL standards movement, but sadly, CASEL is pushing on with a new effort detailed in the article along with a detailed discussion of the dangers of SEL.**************************************************************************************This summer the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) announced it had chosen eight states to collaborate on creating K-12 "social emotional learning" (SEL) standards. All students, from kindergartners through high-school seniors, would be measured on five "non-cognitive" factors: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.Under such a system teachers become essentially therapists, and students become essentially patients. Supposedly this will clear away the psychological deadwood that obstructs a student's path to academic achievement. But less than two months later, two of the CASEL states (Tennessee and Georgia) have withdrawn from the initiative. Parents have begun to realize the dangers of SEL and to challenge their schools' lemming-like march toward psychological manipulation of children.

Federal Government Probes Students' Psyches

We've written about the push by the U.S. Department of Education (USED) and the rest of the progressive education establishment to transform education from academic content instruction to molding and assessing children's attitudes, mindsets, and behaviors. The infamous "outcome-based education" (OBE) in the 1990s began the trend, and Head Start and the Common Core national standards advance the same foundational principles.The new federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) ramps up the trend in several ways. ESSA requires rating schools based partly Read more

Posted in School to Work. Tagged as CASEL, data collection, Dr. Karen Effrem, Georgia, Head Start, Jane Robbins, Linda Darling Hammond, NAEP, SEL, SETRA, Tennessee.

Anti-Common Core Grassroots Score Victories Over Establishment

Congratulations and thanks to all the candidates, whether they won or lost, for their great efforts in the Florida primary. We are especially pleased and thankful for their strong efforts in the realm of education to stand for academic excellence, parental rights and local control and against federal overreach, mindless testing tyranny, data mining, and psychological profiling. Education in general and specifically, the Common Core system was a very important issue in the just completed Florida primary. Regardless of their records, politicians clamored to sound pro-parent and to portray themselves as anti-Common Core. Our grassroots voter guides were an attempt to separate the rhetoric from the records. We thank you for reading and distributing them. We thank our partners and allies at The Tea Party Network, Liberty First, the Republican Liberty Caucus, and the Florida Citizens' Alliance for all of their tremendous grassroots work with ratings, endorsements, forums, and interaction on Common Core and other important issues. However, education was not the only issue on the ballot yesterday. There was much money and many competing interests on a whole range of issues involved, of which the pro-Common Core Tallahassee and corporate establishment was only one, albeit significant, part. Yet despite the massive funding arrayed against us and our partners, we believe that these rating and all of our work together made an important difference in these races.Here is a brief recap of results for the races we evaluated:Senate District 17 Winner Mayfield: This race was a stellar example of how courage, integrity, authentic efforts against Common Core, and grassroots support can win elections against great odds. Rep. Debbie Mayfield has been the standard bearer in Florida against the invasive and ineffective Common Core system for the last three years, often standing alone against the special interest groups and the education establishment in her own party and Read more

Posted in Political Aspects of Common Core. Tagged as 2016 FL Primary, Debbie Mayfield, Dennis Baxley, Doug Holder, Florida Chamber of Commerce, Greg Steube, HD 4, Joe Gruters, Kathleen Passidomo, Laurie Bartlett, Marlene O'Toole, Matt Hudson, Mel Ponder, Ray Pilon, Rick Scott, Ritch Workman, SD 12 David Gee, SD 17, SD 23, SD 28, SD 73, Steve Vernon.

Social Emotional Standards = "Psycho Common Core"

Jane Robbins,attorney and senior fellow for the American Principles Project, has written another excellent column about the dangers of the next big edu fad - social emotional learning standards. Eight states are working with CASEL to adopt them. These are California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington.We have long written about the dangerous loss of freedom of conscience and privacy inherent in social emotional research and data gathering via the allegedly academic Common Core aligned tests that are being amplified in the Every Student Succeeds Act's accountability paradigm. Mrs. Robbins was kind enough to cite Dr. Effrem's research paper on this topic. Here is an excerpt: Assessment and development of students' social and emotional skills is risky business. What kind of training will teachers or other school personnel have for this responsibility? Psychologist Dr. Gary Thompson points out the extremely sensitive nature of evaluating children's social-emotional makeup and warns about having inadequately trained personnel implementing plans designed to alter students' psyches.When non-psychologists dabble in these murky waters, the result is tremendously subjective analyses of what a child is thinking or feeling as opposed to what the government thinks he should be thinking or feeling. Dr. Karen Effrem, who has researched and written extensively about the issue of SEL, warns about the subjectivity of this kind of analysis, particularly with young children.
Even prominent SEL proponents caution that assessing students on SEL standards, especially with the common mechanism of student surveys, can be a shot in the dark. Researchers Angela Duckworth and David Yeager have said that "perfectly unbiased, unfakeable, and error-free measures are an ideal, not a reality." [Read the whole column titled: The Latest Big Education Fad, Social-Emotional Learning, Is As Bad As It Sounds ]
CASEL or the Read more

Posted in Psychological Manipulation. Tagged as CASEL, Dr. Gary Thompson, Dr. Karen Effrem, ESSA, Jane Robbins, NCLB, Social Emotional Standards.

Rooney Supports Failed Federal Pre-K While Bongino & Goss Oppose More Social Intervention

Karen R. Effrem, MD - Executive Director
The three Republican candidates to replace outgoing constitutional conservative Congressman Curt Clawson in District 19 - former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino, Sanibel Councilman Chauncey Goss, and millionaire businessman Francis Rooney participated in a recent forum in Naples. From this account, federal early childhood and social programs was the only education issue among many important issues discussed. Here is an excerpt from the Naples Daily News. As for domestic policy, Rooney stood apart from his opponents, saying he supported giving federal support to families with young children because "early learning is very important to a child's development."To accomplish this, Rooney proposed an overhaul of welfare to figure out how to put "some of the money we're spending and wasting into preparing our children to be nurtured and learned."But Bongino countered."The federal government, tragically, has no answer here. We have literally spent, not figuratively, tens of trillions of dollars in anti-poverty programs, and the percentage of Americans living in poverty has not moved a hair. Maybe a hair, we'll give them a hair," he said.Goss said he didn't support increasing funding for families with young children because the country already is a "nanny state as it is" that has developed a "culture of dependency."
As well-intentioned as Rooney's idea may be, it is quite concerning. Bongino is absolutely correct about the failure of federal social programs in general despite trillions of dollars spent. And Goss' statemenst about these engendering "a nanny state" and "a culture of dependence" are also spot-on.Specifically, there are more than two dozen studies about federal and state early childhood programs show one or more of four different possibilities: 1) Little or no benefit 2) Fade out of beneficial effect 3) Academic harm 4) Emotional harm. Even center and center left think tanks are starting to admit this. Read more

Posted in Early Childhood. Tagged as CD 19, Chauncey Goss, Curt Clawson, Dan Bongino, Dr. Karen Effrem, federal preschool, Frances Rooney, home visiting, William Jeynes.

Effrem Explains Parental Fury to Big Data Regarding Data Mining - The Pulse 2016

We continue to marvel at the imperial sense of entitlement and cluelessness of Big Data in thinking both that they deserve sensitive personal student and psychological data without consent and that parents are "afraid" of student research. Here is an excerpt from Dr. Effrem's latest privacy article posted on The Pulse 2016 in rebuttal to this Brookings Institute attorney titled Memo to Big Data: Parents Are Furious -- Not Fearful -- About Data-Mining: Perhaps we can clarify reality for Ms. Leong. First, parents are not fearful, they are furious. That's why parent groups joined together to sue the Gates/Murdoch/Carnegie cloud database system called inBloom, successfully bringing down the multi-million-dollar venture. Yes, parents "distrust" the state longitudinal data systems (SLDS) -- because they can't get straight answers about what data is collected and with whom it is shared; because data-mining proponents speak of collecting data on their children's "affective states"; because under current federal law and regulations, access to personally identifiable information (PII) is available to researchers, tech companies, multiple federal agencies, and even "volunteers"; and because recent congressional hearings have exposed the horrifying lack of data security within the U.S. Department of Education [HERE and HERE].Parents also object that in too many cases, government collects and discloses their children's data without parental consent. They don't appreciate hearing that it's just too much trouble to get their consent or that their right to protect their children's privacy by opting out of data-collection is secondary to having full data sets for "research" (as was discussed in the March House hearing that Leong touts).Nor is "trust" engendered when data-collection involves psychologically profiling innocent children to provide the "individual and micro data" advocated by Leong, using creepy, Orwellian devices such as those described in a recent op-ed in U.S. Read more

Pulse Article Explains Dangerous Hillary Pre-K Plan Citing Ed Liberty Watch Research

Jane Robbins, attorney and senior fellow at the American Principles Project wrote another excellent article about invasive federal involvement in early childhood education, this time in the context of Hillary Clinton's dangerous pre-K plan. In it she discussed Clinton's strong desire to to extend her work as First Lady of Arkansas where she expanded a failed childcare/home visiting program called Parents as Teachers and then as US First Lady when she wrote the book It Takes a [Government] Village. Robbins discusses the help Clinton has received on her quest from both President Obama who has been promoting universal preschool for his entire presidency and the Congressional Republicans who caved and gave him another $250 million for preschool in the Every Student Succeed Act. She also discussed the push for even more national pre-K standards aligned to Common Core, especially the invasive social emotional standards and the terrible track record of failure and harm caused by these programs. On the last two issues, she was kind enough to mention or link to Dr. Effrem's research in these areas, for which we thank her. Here is an excerpt:

In any event, the Gates-funded ETS argues that as long as the federal government has pushed Common Core onto the states, beginning in kindergarten, the accomplishment-inducing preschool standards should be aligned with Common Core. That way preschool can be standardized across the country, eliminating the dreaded "inequity" by ensuring all preschoolers are drilled according to the same garbage standards. Alignment would also allow teachers to share instructional strategies and all teach the same thing. We can't have children in Kansas coloring duckies while Minnesotans are focusing on kittens.And of course, these standards should emphasize "social-emotional learning." The government must expect teachers to observe and record toddlers' psychological development and attributes, which information will be fed into the Read more

Posted in Early Childhood. Tagged as Common Core Standards, Dr. Karen Effrem, ESSA, Hillary Clinton, Jane Robbins, preschool.

Federal Transgender Bathroom Edict Harms Everyone Involved

Friday's edict from the Obama administration demands that every public school in America must allow transgendered students to use the restroom/locker room and participate on the sports teams of their chosen gender identity or risk losing federal funding. Using Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 as a pretext, the joint Justice and Education Department decree redefines the term "sex," referring to the biological characteristic defined by chromosomes assigned at birth as "gender identity" which the letter defines as: Gender identity refers to an individual's internal sense of gender. A person's gender identity may be different from or the same as the person's sex assigned at birth.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force definition is even more alarmingly radical, vague and socially transformative as used in a pre-K curriculum called Making Room in the Circle: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Families in Early Childhood Settings: "Refers to a person's internal, deeply felt sense of being either male or female, or something other or in between. Because gender identity is internal and personally defined, it is not visible to others." (Emphasis added)
The incredible danger to the safety and privacy of the estimated 99.7% of American public school students that do not have gender fluidity/gender dysphoria issues is obvious, mostly because of how sexual criminals will exploit the opportunity to harm young girls. An extremely concerning, long list of sexual crimes has taken place in Target restrooms even before their ill-considered policy to allow restroom choice based on gender identity that has cost their business over $1 billion. And an 8-year old was choked to unconsciousness in the restroom of the Chicago restaurant.But this tyrannical proclamation is harmful to every group involved. This includes the very group this dictate alleges to protect: Transgendered Students
Dr. Paul McHugh, former chief of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Read more

Posted in Federal Education. Tagged as athletics, bathrooms, Brevard County, Child Protection League Action, Liberty Counsel, locker rooms, Marion County, Target, Title IX, Transgender.

Miami Dade Mom & Legal Expert Both Show Dangers of Student Data Collection

More evidence continues to flood into the news showing the privacy dangers of student data collection, digital education, psychological profiling and career tracking. Below are two videos and excerpts that clarify this very well.The first is a PBS News Hour discussion in their Making the Grade segment with Miami-Dade mom, researcher, blogger, and anti-Common Core warrior Suzette Lopez. Lopez's son's social security number was stolen. Here is the video followed by a partial transcript:

SUZETTE LOPEZ, Parent: I'm trying to protect my kids, and there's so much data collection that's going on right now that we we're not even aware of.JOHN TULENKO: Suzette Lopez is a graphic designer who sends her children to Miami public schools.SUZETTE LOPEZ: It's these third-party vendors that are what we're partnering with, that we're bringing them in. But then, how much oversight really is there with these partners? Who's keeping an eye on that data?
After teachers and students admitted that they go around the districts's security set-up all the time to download various apps, the reporter also interviewed a US attorney about how easy it was for a food service worker to log in and print out student social security number that she then used to set up fraudulent tax returns. This worker incident happened after the SSN of Lopez's son was stolen but the issues are the same. Lopez ontinues:
LOPEZ: My son's Social Security was stolen. So, it was stolen and it took three years to clear up and three years to keep telling the IRS that my son was my son.
In a related video student privacy expert and law professor Dr. Joel Reidenberg of Fordham University also discussed the dangers of the amount of data regarding how a child interacts with education software and applications, called metadata. Here is that video followed by what we see as the most important quotes from the interview:

REIDENBERG: The worst that could happen is several Read more

Posted in Psychological Manipulation. Tagged as digital education, Joel Reidenberg, privacy, Suzette Lopez.

The Pulse 2016 Publishes Effrem Article on Trump Including Education as Core Federal Function

We thank The Pulse 2016 for publishing Dr. Effrem's latest article on the role of education in the presidential election. This article has to do with businessman Donald Trump's answer to a a question about the roles of the federal government. Here is an excerpt: However, Trump added to his long string of contradictions and dizzyingly rapid position changes during last Tuesday's presidential town hall on CNN. A combat veteran asked, "In your opinion, what are the top three functions of the United States government?" The tycoon responded that after security, the top functions of the federal government were education and health care. He then added housing. Here is the video of the exchange:
As is his pattern when questioned, Trump tried to walk his statement on education back a moment later, which turned into this steaming pile of incoherence: ANDERSON COOPER: Aren't you against the federal government's involvement in education? Don't you want it to devolve to states?DONALD TRUMP: I want it to go to state, yes. Absolutely. I want right now...
But then when Cooper followed up again: COOPER: So that's not part of what the federal government's --TRUMP: The federal government, but the concept of the country is the concept that we have to have education within the country, and we have to get rid of Common Core, and it should be brought to the state level.
Despite this, as with his idea to expand libel laws to go after journalists that say negative things about him, Mr. Trump again displayed his frightening lack of constitutional understanding. Obviously, government control of education, health care and housing are exactly the big government establishment solutions parents fighting Common Core and Fed Ed, conservatives, and Republicans all oppose. That philosophy is much closer to the positions of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on all three......For parents who have been fighting the battles against the Common Core -- and who have been bringing to Read more

Posted in Political Aspects of Common Core. Tagged as CNN, constitution, Donald Trump, Federal role in education, Wisconsin.

Republican Presidential Education Voter Guide

INTRODUCTION: This voter's guide includes the American Principles in Action (APIA) Common Core Report Card on the Republican presidential candidates. There is additional insight from the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition on the report card HERE. This FSCCC report includes the candidates' stands on the federal role in education and some events that have occurred since the publishing of the APIA report. A downlloadable PDFversion of this voter guide is available HERE.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) APIA Report Card Grade A- PROS
Understood and explained the damaging effects and lack of constitutionality of Common Core back in 2011 while running for US Senate

Strongly supports home schooling

Signed Senator Grassley's letter and supported the Iowa Senator's efforts in 2013 and 2014 to end federal funding for Common Core

Multiple speeches and debates have discussed plan to "repeal" Common Core by "direct[ing] the Secretary of Education to immediately end the federal government's mandates that seek to force states to adopt this failed attempt at a universal curriculum"

Only candidate to explicitly say on his campaign website that he will abolish the US Department of Education and lays out a plan for transferring remaining federal programs to other departments

Voted against the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA - Reauthorization of No Child Left Behind) in July of 2015

Offered amendment 2180 in ECAA to end the federal testing mandate that received 40 votes.

Supported Senator Mike Lee's amendment 2162 in ECAA to allow parental opt out of testing that would not count against the 95% mandate of the US Department of Education.

Correctly voted against cloture (cutting off debate) on the final version of ECAA called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

Voted against $1.1 trillion omnibus funding bill that increases federal control of education

Read more

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