For those of you wishing to meet up with me in ways other than Twitter, Blog, Facebook or e-mail, here is a list of upcoming events where you will be able to spot me, listen to me blather on, or chat me up.
Saturday February 1st Coach Frank on “What’s Going On” from 4:00pm to 5:00pm Central (radio appearance)
If a charter cheats in the forest, and nobody makes a sound, do they still meet their AYP?
Thursday February 20th from 6pm Central . . . till my ears bleed. Common Core Information Forum, Baton Rouge. . (In-person; as a random guest not as a speaker or backup dancer)
More Common Core information than anyone should have to be tormented with, but I want to hear some of this info from the source. Common Core is still around folks. Come out and hear what these guys have to say if you want to know the truth behind the fictional highly promoted account that organizations bribed by Bill Gates regurgitate on cue.
Sunday February 23 with Shaun Johnson and Tim Slekar on At the Chalk Face, progressive EdReform radio, from 5pm to 6pm Central (radio appearance)
Specific topics to be determined. . . I have a feeling it will be about education issues and not my Lego collection (which was immense until I shared it with my son.)
Ok, this one is creepy
Saturday and Sunday March 1st and March 2nd in Austin Texas at the NPE Conference. (In-person panelist both days)
We will be discussing student and teacher privacy and data sharing issues; how we exposed sales and sharing of student data; and legislation you being introduced in our states and around the nation. I will also be floating around to different sessions throughout these two days to collaborate, share ideas and strategize. It’s possible I might have time for a beer or three in the evening and talk smack about deformers. (I have a tendency to get very loud when engaging in either one of these activities so be forewarned to bring your earplugs if you tag along with me in the evening.)
I have no expectation of privacy after a few beers. . .
For those of you who missed the Social Media Summit put by Louisiana Progress this past weekend during our Louisiana Blizzard: Here’s the link to all the footage in smaller byte-sized YouTube chunks. Edushyster and I got into a little amusing discussion about being anonymous bloggers at around minute 40-42 or so of her keynote speech during the Q and A part of her session. Don’t tell her husband or my wife, but between you and me, I’m pretty sure she has a thing for guys with claws.
If you want to see the education bloggers panel specifically you can use this link:
I am the first speaker. I was out chatting in the hall too long so I got stuck with a weird roller chair that reclined a little too much, and just a sliver of table because Michael Deshotels was hogging it all, so I’m constantly fidgeting throughout my section. J
Note to self: if you plan to use your phone as a substitute for index cards next time, make sure you turn the screen shutoff to longer than 30 seconds. (For a social media technology guy, sometimes I’m not all that bright.)
This was fun and I hope to do it again, but next time I’m taking the center spot. Who invited Mercedes anyways? She doesn’t even have a twitter account! #WhyMercedesIsLame Hopefully Jennifer was able to secretly sign her up for one after the conference. . . .
Tom needs a Twitter account too but I’m not telling him. . . He’s probably got plenty of dirt on me. . . I am a mud bug after all. #StayingOffTomsRadar
Recently the producer of LPB’s monthly Louisiana Public Square, Kevin Gautreaux, reached out to me to address some concerns I raised on my blog about LPB’s recent show on Common Core. The show was horribly biased, you can view it here. http://beta.lpb.org/index.php/publicsquare/topic/01_14_-_decoding_common_core/
I wrote a post condemning the obvious one-sidedness of the whole production.
At best you could say the pre-recorded intro spots were balanced. The majority of the production most certainly was not.
Kevin tried to convince me that he was not aware that Maya Bennett was a Common Core advocate. I find that exceptionally hard to believe considering their own byline for her indicated as much.
Nevertheless, here is part of Kevin’s response to me.
I made an effort to include an equal number of pro-CCSS folks – LDOE rep and ExxonMobil Rep – and con-CCSS folks – Retired Educator and State Legislator. It was my understanding that Maya Bennett was not an advocate for the CCSS but invited to participate to address questions that would arise from teachers having difficulties with implementing the standards since that is what she does as a Teacher Leader. I agree that she was definitely an advocate.
Kevin Gautreaux, the producer for LPB’s monthly “Louisiana Public Square.
He agrees she was definitely an advocate. . .
Ya think?
I don’t think John White is as big an advocate of CCSS as Maya.
I wonder what finally gave it away?
Kevin needs to tell us who gave him the “understanding” that Maya was just an ordinary teacher. Kevin was gravely misled, or he is misleading us. There is no way the person that referred Maya to Kevin did not know of her background, which was easily googleable.
Kevin might also want to read LPB’s own bio of Maya on his website promoting this piece and Maya Bennett. Her title is Common Core teacher leader. Her title on the program is the same. How on earth could she not be considered an advocate??? Come on Kevin and LPB. Are you that stupid, or do you think we are that stupid?
Here’s the link to Maya’s Linkedin for additional goodies on her background as just an average Louisiana teacher.
Maya is a former Miss Teach for America, a Stand for Children All-star and literally the LDOE poster child for Common Core. She stars in an introductory video that LDOE produced and loaded to their CCSS Toolbox, (which will probably get more hits from my referral than the last year it’s been available for viewing because by most accounts I’ve heard the toolbox is a useless cruel joke used to torture teachers into believing LDOE wants to help them.
You know, just a random undecided teacher LPB decided to include to represent Louisiana teacher viewpoints.
Before this show I was not sold on the idea that there is a “Common Core conspiracy.” After watching this LPB show, which is supposed to represent the public, not a specific viewpoint as the moderator Beth Courtney did, as the majority pre-selected or moderator selected audience did, and as the panel selection obviously did, now I’m starting to wonder if maybe there isn’t more truth to that than I thought.
The proponents brought up the “conspiracy is ridiculous” argument themselves multiple times and derided it, but there is this manipulation of a public broadcasting station for private and governmental gain.
This is by no means meant to be a complete summary of this awesome experience put on by Louisiana Progress, but I thought I would share a few thoughts of mine that came out of this get together. The livestream for this summit was www.louisianaprogress.org/live I was told Louisiana Progress will post a link to the video in a few days. When they do so I will update this post.
Before I start with my summary I wanted to thank all the folks that put this together and especially all of my fans who came out for this event just to see me. I was truly touched and amazed by this, that people from other cities around the state would drive through what for us, in Louisiana, were treacherous and dismal conditions, sometimes stuck in traffic for hours, just to come out and see me. I’m not sure I made my appreciation known at the time, but I was really blown away by your interest in me and your passion for improving our state. Your gestures made my work that much more rewarding and a simple thank you from me seems inadequate. I will promise to continue with my work and I hope to include those of you with the interest and time as well in the future. As was discussed at the summit and I discussed with some of you, I am very interested in hosting guest blogger posts or opinions. As was the case for Bob Mann, one of my most popular posts was a speech I heard and reposted, that someone else wrote. Our words have power.
It was also great to see many of my personal heroes up close and in person. Hopefully I didn’t talk too much (I know I did talk too much, but hopefully not so much as to have been super annoying) as I tend to do when I’m excited. . . If someone had told me 2 years ago I would be sharing a stage (or in this case a fold out table) with these folks I would have told them they were crazier than I pretend to be.
Here are some points I’d like to highlight:
Bob Mann suggested turning our blogs over to others for guest spots or posts. I have posted blog posts or Letters to the Editor for Savvy Squash, Pegleg Mickey, Samantha Thibodaux, Lottie Bebee, Debbie Sachs and others from time to time. I also reblog the content of others to cross-pollinate work that I think is important for my readers to see.
An idea was raised by me and other folks throughout the day of reaching out to parents and other stakeholders through other types of media such as radio, podcasts and YouTube videos that people could play in their cars on the way to work (not the videos). These forms of contact might be easier for many folks to work into their daily lives and stay abreast of issues important to them.
Dayne Sherman discussed some tricks we can use to reach legislators attention more prominently through texts even if you don’t have their phone number. I will review his info when the video is posted and provide a little summary.
Zach Koppelin described all the hard work that goes into making something go “viral.” While I choose to provide constant updates rather than fewer widely reaching content, for more significant national content his ideas and methods could prove very valuable in the future.
Jennifer Berkshire (Edushyster) mentioned a potentially flammable situation in New Orleans related to the elimination of choice for many parents coupled with more brutal and unforgiving discipline policies than most of us would put up with for our own children. I had already been investigating these issues and will continue to do so until I have enough for a piece or two.
We all agreed we need more gatherings like this to communicate with each other and with the public. The idea was mentioned that we should try engaging PTA groups, as well as local civic organizations and parents groups to answer questions. The Louisiana Department of Education does a terrible job of reaching out to parents and individual stakeholders, preferring to use large flashy advertisements and endorsements. Rather than listening to parents concerns they try to wear them down with long presentations and power points, and faux experts and research groups like Stand For Children and CREDO.
Most of our local media appears to be wedded to the idea of replacing public education with “anything else” (as the advocate’s editorial board relayed to fellow education blogger Michael Deshotels). As a result they almost unfailingly provide favorable and often fawning coverage to Bobby Jindal and John White’s education policies, ignoring all but the most egregious failings.
Here was what I intended to say at the summit. (Canned laughter not included.) I know I drifted off my talking points in a few spots but hopefully I conveyed most of this message. I inserted some comments I thought of after in green.
Good afternoon. I want to thank Louisiana Progress for putting together this little shindig on for us to all get acquainted in person, instead of just behind a computer or phone screen.
My name is Jason France, and I run a local education and politics blog called Crazy Crawfish. I also answer to “Crazy” and “Crawfish” as a result. But there are much worse things to be called, like Bobby Jindal, John White or David Vitter.
I started my blog about 2 years ago after leaving the Louisiana Department of Education, but that was not my intent when I left. I knew I did not want to take part in the destruction of Public Education when I left, but what I did not know is no one would listen to my warnings or investigate the things I told them that were happening to public education, and even public service as a whole!
I contacted numerous reporters, government agencies and politicians over the weeks and months that would follow my departure, but no one responded and no one heeded my calls. To them I was a nobody and I would come to learn that corporations have bought up most of our newspapers and TV news not to inform us but to herd us toward their coffers. [Something I thought of during the conference is that now people ignore me because they know who I am. Not sure if that is an improvement but it is amusingly ironic.]
I realized I would have to do something myself, but for most of my life I have been very shy and introverted. To do something would require me to open myself up to people and expose myself to criticism and scrutiny. What I was contemplating seemed crazy, which is one of the reasons I picked that part of my name.
But I realized the real folks without power are our children who can’t speak up. My own children, other people’s children. To remain silent was no longer an option. [When a bout of shyness starts to overtake me during a public speaking situation I try to picture myself standing in front of my children and that they would have to be the ones to fight for their rights if I did not. I do not use the technique where you picture everyone that you are speaking to is naked.]
So I spoke out, and nothing happened. So I tried again, and again. I went to public meetings, met with other activists in the community and listened to their problems and reported on them. Before long people did start to notice, and other people started contacting me directly to report their problems, for me to report their stories.
Today I’m no longer a nobody. [Well, perhaps just less of a nobody?] None of us are. When we all work together; when we all tell our stories and refuse to be misled or to go with the flow because we are afraid, we all become somebodies together.
That is what those in power fear the most. I am just here to do my part, but all of us working together through our blogs, Facebook pages, twitter feeds and communities can do so much more. I see this as just the beginning and I hope we can all continue to build on this together.
Recently John White has been trying to stir up a lot of controversy about what he initially called a “cheating” scandal. Here is one of the earlier reports of what is turning out to be a completely made up EBR cheating scandal. He unloads quite a laundry list but to date has not been able to back it up and has scaled it back every time anyone asks about it. However the damage he made to public perception may already be done, which was probably his intent from the start. . .
Here is a brief synopsis of what happened and what I’ve heard cobbled together from several sources.
LDOE reported in the media that EBR was being investigated for a cheating related scandal. When asked about Chas Roemer said he was briefed and “very concerned” about what he had heard. (Who knows what that was since he never elaborated. ) When EBR and others started investigating and asking specific questions about this scandal, LDOE tried to change it to a massive graduation fixing scandal that was reported by an anonymous tipster. When this story was questioned LDOE admitted it involved one child who may or may not belong to an EBR school board member that may have been marked as a graduate while being 1 credit short. EBR claimed this was caught, LDOE has not released the text of the anonymous “tipster” to my knowledge (which they could do and redact the identity) if any such tipster actually existed. Now LDOE is frantically trying to search for any evidence of erroneous data to try and smear EBR with.
This is not a new technique. LDOE uses audits to try and intimidate and drum up negative material on districts they are targeting for takeovers. They have reportedly audited St Helena at least 7 different times in the last few years trying to get enough dirt to take over the rest of their school district. This may be in part due to a personal dispute between Jessica Tucker Bagian (former TFA recruit and current head of Accountability and LDOE) and Superintendent Dr. Kelli Joseph, who Bagian is reported to be holding a personal grudge against because she was once a teacher that reported to Dr. Joseph when Joseph was her principal.
Once LDOE targets your district for takeover, expect them to pull out the dirty tricks textbook and go through it play by play.
LDOE does not really care about data or cheating of allies and may even encourage it to bolster their case for more charters and reform policies. Many districts have been accidentally or intentionally masking dropouts for years by flagging them as entering adult education programs. . .from which they never receive a GED and never get marked as dropouts, thus dramatically improving the state’s dropout rate while not significantly improving their completer rate. I reported this error to them many times. I’ve had some honest districts reach out to me about this after I resigned and I helped them correct it.
LDOE doesn’t even care if some school districts don’t even report entire schools to them like in St James and Iberville. (They built brand new schools, Academies, which they send high achieving students to which have never been reported to LDOE and thus skew accountability for their entire parishes.) As long as the superintendents are subservient or completely compliant to their demands, they can get away with almost anything.
EBR superintendent Bernard Taylor and Superintendent White have long had a contentious relationship. In no small part due to the fact White and LDOE see EBR as a vulnerable and valuable next target for privatization of the public schools in the model of New Orleans. We even have a New Schools for Baton Rouge program lead by a former LDOE staffer selecting charter schools for most of North Baton Rouge. The reason for this timing is because of South Baton Rouge though. With the new legislative session starting in a month or so, White is/was trying to drum up reasons to implicate EBR in some sort of scandal damage the perception of EBR in the news and minds of EBR citizens so they and the legislature would be more inclined to vote to divide Baton Rouge into two cities, St George and Baton Rouge. This would allow St George to form their own wealthier whiter district in the south, taking 2 thirds of the sales tax revenue dedicated to all EBR public schools in the process. This would simultaneously bankrupt the EBR system by saddling them all the retirement costs and paying of the bonds for the schools in the South they no longer owned, while also dramatically lowering their SPS scores making it possible for the State to take over all of East Baton Rouge’s remaining schools. After just getting hit with a 1.5 billion dollar judgment for how they handled kicking out veteran teachers in New Orleans, you can be sure all the teachers will be put on a RIF (Reduction in Force) list and simply never called back to create a lot of unemployed teachers in both the new city of St George (many of which work in the incorporated zone and all of which won’t be employable in a new St George school system.
However the strangest twist I have heard is that all of this scheming was done at the behest of Jindal staffers and some legislators which may even include Senator Bodi White, who sponsored the successful drives to create Central, Zachary and Baker school systems and is the driving force behind the creation of new School District and now a new city in south Baton Rouge in the form of the proposed city of St George.
My what a tangled web we weave, Louisiana.
If anyone finds the smoking gun about intentional lying and collusion Jindal may have his own Chris Christie Bridge Scandal to explain before his presidential run.
Based on these comments on a Nola.com article about this “scandal” White’s tactics appear to be working.
PHONE SURVEY ****** a phone survey is being done on COMMON CORE here in Louisiana. Each and every question referred to “State Standards” and were “push poll” questions making the “State Standards” sound great.
IF YOU GET THIS CALL: please answer NO or DO NOT AGREE to their misleading questions.
Although they then cover reasons why “some” are opposed it is very short and thin on those reasons.
I am for State Standards.
Common Core are Federal Standards and Commercial Standards not State Standards.
In the grogshop this week, I heard a snatch of conversation that warmed my rotten soul. There’s been a bit of story boiling up in the Advocate about the LDoE investigating East Baton Rouge Parish for cheating on tests and then it switched to graduation. Seems some counselor okayed a student graduating when the student was short one credit.
Considering the number of students who graduate from EBR public schools each year, I think one error is pretty small potatoes, but it seems “White Lies” White wanted to investigate 4 years of graduation data. I’ve been very surprised that nothing more has shown up in the Advocate on the topic.
It seems Superintendent Taylor told White that he’d have access to the data as soon as he produced the law or policy that allowed the LDoE to dig around in the district’s records. Ain’t that a poke in the eye. The district is fairly certain that the LDoE will be looking for anything they can use to harass Taylor and the district, not just checking credits. It’s been obvious for a long time now that White and his minions the Rubber Stamp BESE, and their mouthpiece, TheAdvocate, would like to convert EBR into another RSD system like the one in Orleans.
Accountability policy DOES allow for auditing graduation data. The accountability staff is sharp enough to evaluate the data and point out a few choice spots where problems are highly likely to be found. An MFP audit is also well within the rights of the LDoE. Seems White may be cowering a bit because a few legislators have jumped into the fray on EBR’s side. The session starts early this year, and there are predictions that Jindal has lost some support. The Common Core hullabaloo has yet to diminish, and of course Bobby still has hopes to gather his stupid party members (his words) for a run at the White House … but I meander.
Kudos to Taylor for poking White in the eye.
Maybe he can gouge it out next time.
I know a few good stores that carry eye patches.
A salty tidbit – there are murmurings of Pointe Coupee Central High School being turned back over to the district.
You read it here first.
For the full press release from Mickey please refer to the following PDF, which I was not able to format as a blog post.
This is the first I’ve heard of Pointe Coupee being returned to the school district but not the first but not the first time I’ve heard of the highly publicized but completely made up EBR cheating scandal. Quite a laundry list.
Here is a brief synopsis of what happened and what I’ve heard cobbled together from several sources.
LDOE reported in the media that EBR was being investigated for a cheating related scandal. When asked about Chas Roemer said he was briefed and “very concerned” about what he had heard. (Who knows what that was since he never elaborated. ) When EBR and others started investigating and asking specific questions about this scandal, LDOE tried to change it to a massive graduation fixing scandal that was reported by an anonymous tipster. When this story was questioned LDOE admitted it involved one child who may or may not belong to an EBR school board member that may have been marked as a graduate while being 1 credit short. EBR claimed this was caught, LDOE has not released the text of the anonymous “tipster” to my knowledge (which they could do and redact the identity) if any such tipster actually existed. Now LDOE is frantically trying to search for any evidence of erroneous data to try and smear EBR with.
This is not a new technique. LDOE uses audits to try and intimidate and drum up negative material on districts they are targeting for takeovers. They have reportedly audited St Helena at least 7 different times in the last few years trying to get enough dirt to take over the rest of their school district. This may be in part due to a personal dispute between Jessica Tucker Bagian (former TFA recruit and current head of Accountability and LDOE) and Superintendent Dr. Kelli Joseph, who Bagian is reported to be holding a personal grudge against because she was once a teacher that reported to Dr. Joseph when Joseph was her principal.
Once LDOE targets your district for takeover, expect them to pull out the dirty tricks textbook and go through it play by play.
LDOE does not really care about data or cheating of allies and may even encourage it to bolster their case for more charters and reform policies. Many districts have been accidentally or intentionally masking dropouts for years by flagging them as entering adult education programs. . .from which they never receive a GED and never get marked as dropouts, thus dramatically improving the state’s dropout rate while not significantly improving their completer rate. I reported this error to them many times. I’ve had some honest districts reach out to me about this after I resigned and I helped them correct it.
LDOE doesn’t even care if some school districts don’t even report entire schools to them like in St James and Iberville. (They built brand new schools, Academies, which they send high achieving students to which have never been reported to LDOE and thus skew accountability for their entire parishes.) As long as the superintendents are subservient or completely compliant to their demands, they can get away with almost anything.
EBR superintendent Bernard Taylor and Superintendent White have long had a contentious relationship. In no small part due to the fact White and LDOE see EBR as a vulnerable and valuable next target for privatization of the public schools in the model of New Orleans. We even have a New Schools for Baton Rouge program lead by a former LDOE staffer selecting charter schools for most of North Baton Rouge. The reason for this timing is because of South Baton Rouge though. With the new legislative session starting in a month or so, White is/was trying to drum up reasons to implicate EBR in some sort of scandal damage the perception of EBR in the news and minds of EBR citizens so they and the legislature would be more inclined to vote to divide Baton Rouge into two cities, St George and Baton Rouge. This would allow St George to form their own wealthier whiter district in the south, taking 2 thirds of the sales tax revenue dedicated to all EBR public schools in the process. This would simultaneously bankrupt the EBR system by saddling them all the retirement costs and paying of the bonds for the schools in the South they no longer owned, while also dramatically lowering their SPS scores making it possible for the State to take over all of East Baton Rouge’s remaining schools. After just getting hit with a 1.5 billion dollar judgment for how they handled kicking out veteran teachers in New Orleans, you can be sure all the teachers will be put on a RIF (Reduction in Force) list and simply never called back to create a lot of unemployed teachers in both the new city of St George (many of which work in the incorporated zone and all of which won’t be employable in a new St George school system.
However the strangest twist I have heard is that all of this scheming was done at the behest of Jindal staffers and some legislators which may even include Senator Bodi White, who sponsored the successful drives to create Central, Zachary and Baker school systems and is the driving force behind the creation of new School District and now a new city in south Baton Rouge in the form of the proposed city of St George.
I believe in freedom of religion, not just the feedom to practice my own religion and to try and coerce children forcibly into following my own beliefs. If this had been a majority muslim or Buddhist school and it was a Christian being harrassed and told to change his religion by the principal or go to another school down the road with more anglo-saxon kids Fox News would be camped outside and sponsoring specials on the war on Christianity. This is a public school. Is our Constitution and country too small and insecure to tolerate other beliefs in the same public spaces? It would appear to be unimportant to these Sabine educators. This really is a sad lesson. When we stand by silently and allow this other people’s children, can we be upset or surprised when it happens to our own?
I have been covering these issues for years now, and despite the repeated protestations of Governor Bobby Jindal, Superintendent John White, and members of the Louisiana Senate Education Committee- most notably Senator Conrad Appel, it has always seemed abundantly obvious that they have absolutely no respect…
Many people believe that LPB is an unbiased news source. Some people might even think it is a liberal news source. I’ve had my own firsthand experience with how unethical Beth Courtney has acted covering education stories. Tonight’s show should demonstrate just how biased and ridiculous LPB is and has become under Beth Courtney. If you would like to see what a lopsided and one-sided panel looks like, then check this video out and try to hold your breakfast.
This program was portrayed as a discussion panel for parents to become more informed and to discuss Common Core as a topic, to address parents’ concerns.
Supporters say the standards will increase rigor and help every student learn what they need to succeed. Critics say the standards are untested, being poorly implemented and lower expectations for students.
So, what do Louisiana educators, parents and students think about Common Core? Do the new guidelines encourage students to think and be more persuasive, or do they stifle educational innovation by removing local control?
The bias in this program was so evident it made me ill watching it. If you watch it you should be very afraid for what this means for our media and our society. This program was paid for by Exxon, one of the chief supporters of Common Core. Exxon is a big supporter not because they believe this will give them more qualified engineers but because the primary benefactor of Common Core is Bill Gates who is also one of Exxon’s largest shareholders. With this programming purchase they certainly got their money’s worth.
For starters the majority of the panel was composed of supporters.
The panelists include retired educator and public education activist Lee Barrios: against
Maya Bennett, a Teacher Leader on Common Core; (for CC and former TFA which runs LDOE and is not representative of most teachers)
Ken Bradford from the Louisiana Department of Education; (for CC and the guy that told me John White’s goal was to privatize the entire Department of Education on my last week of work while he was interviewing staff to fire. He oversees an our standard less Virtual Schools and Course Choice providers which don’t require certified teachers and are about as substandard and low quality as you can get. Who gives a crap if those kids are prepared for anything except skipping school and prison? Right Ken Bradford who supports high standards and rigor for our public students?)
Rep. Brett Geymann of Lake Charles: against
ExxonMobil Plant Manager Ken Miller.(for)
Likewise the questions from the audience largely came from supporters with long lead-ins. She statements are word for word straight from the LDOE handbook and John White (like the mile wide and an inch deep comment.)
80-90% of the time in this program went to pro Common core folks. So that seems about par of the course. . .
Beth Courtney, in her role as moderator, continuously questioned folks who were against common core and made confused faces when they were speaking. She nodded affirmatively and agree with or even expounded on the opinions of those for Common Core. When Lee Barrios or Representative Geymann answered questions directed at them Courtney herself often challenged their answers and even argued with her panel. . . over and over and over. When Pro Common Core folks made statements that were not backed up she agree and endorsed their assessments immediately and feigned to be perplexed that folks could not understand why these were such good arguments. Courtney is unethical in her role as a moderator, in her role as the head of LPB, in her role as a journalist, but more on this later.
Let me first restate the questions, material and statements made that went unchallenged (as usual) and provide the answers the pro Common Core guests were unable to, and have never been able to answer in any forum.
These are internationally bench marked standards!
This statement is made over and over. It is not true. It was never true. It will never be true no matter how many times they say it or you hear it. No international benchmarks have ever been produced to show that Common Core was “benchmarked” to them. Total BS.
Higher standards will make out students better!
We had some of the highest standards on paper in the nation. Our achievement is very low. High standards do not translate to magically improved performance. They may even depress performance f they are raised to where they are unreachable or children are promoted before they are ready. Common Core was rolled out without a phase in or transition period. This stranded many students and families in an educational nightmare where they didn’t learn what came before, and they will have trouble learning what comes after without this foundation.
These standards will eliminate poverty!
With magic? Will Exxon be giving out Common Core grants? It will take much more than unfunded standards to improve student performance. Are we supposed to simply discard the students we already have in the pipeline because we sure as hell ain’t educating them or working with the districts who are struggling. None of them were represented on this program, only one TFA teacher leader. Whoop de fricken do.
Our low standards have made our students low performers!
Our high poverty is responsible for our low performance. Our poorest district scores poorest. Our wealthiest district performs highest. We are the 48th or 49th poorest state. We score between 47th and 49th on standardized tests. States with the wealthiest populations like Massachusetts score highest on these tests. This is not rocket science folks. These people are not using their Common Core reasoning skills.
We have a top 5 or 10 ranked accountability system for the last 10 years or more: Many years the top 1-3. This is an entire generation of school children and that has not improved our students. I’m talking to you, Varney. You do realize that after around 12 years we get all new kids, right? When are we going to see this great improvement from our accountability system if that was actually a factor at all. . .
These standards were developed by educators!
If by “educators” you mean test companies, textbook companies, and Bill Gates and by “include” you actually mean exclude the only two educators on the panel, then yes.
I must confess I do not understand this new Common Core zombie reasoning. Must. . . . drink. . . . Koolaid! (brain flavored)
These standards will reverse the trend of fewer students being prepared for college!
There is zero evidence to support this assertion. These standards were thrown together haphazardly, not developed collaboratively, and districts were not prepared to teach them. While it is true we have had more students requiring remediation, this is in no small part due to LDOE decisions to eliminate the Graduate Exit Exam and to endorse “less rigorous standards” for graduating students with career diplomas. These decisions were undertaken by our legislature and Education Committee and embraced by reformers under Paul Pastorek. We are graduating students less prepared but this is not because of our standards but because of our lax graduation standards and over emphasis on standardized tests to the detriment of teaching our students actual content.
These were voluntary standards developed by the states and not required by the Federal Government!
These were not voluntary for getting federal funding and for the No Child Left Behind requirements which were intentionally designed to be unattainable (100% proficiency of all students, including all Special Education students by 2014) It is quite clear there is overt pressure by the US Department of Education as evidenced by Arne Duncan’s recent comment addressed to soccer moms who he claims are simply upset because their kids are not as smart as they thought they were.
People against Common core don’t want kids to learn multiplication tables in 3rd grade!
I heard this one during this program. Just shut up and sit down idiot. (This was the answer this person should have gotten.)
Here’s the straight dope.
No training was provided to most districts.
The materials supporting Common Core are mostly crap.
I will show you how LDOE and John White intentionally sabotaged Common Core in my upcoming post on the subject.
Common Core is about power. It is about handing our children and their education over to corporations who want to churn them out as human capital or up as waste products if they don’t fit in their machine.
But for now I will leave you with my little experience with Beth Courtney and LPB. I was working on a story about Shadow Schools with one of her reporters. Week after week she made new demands for me to get expert witnesses, to appear in the video, to say this thing or that thing. Week after week my story was killed at the last minute. What I later learned was John White and his staff called Beth, who is reported to be a big Bobby Jindal fan and supporter, and they asked her not to do the story when they were notified of it for comment. She said this story about Shadow Schools, unfavorable to LDOE and Iberville, would never air on “her station.” (Shadow Schools are all the rage for Common Core proponents who want to hold students and districts accountable to higher standards – by hiding them.)
I was a bit shocked to learn Beth demands stories and cancels stories to show issues the way she wants to show them. She is not unbiased and as the head of a “public” broadcasting station her reporting and coverage is far from even ethical in my opinion. I have been told Beth treats her reporters like children, and she as their horrible abusive mother, and the Louisiana Public Broadcasting Station like her personal playroom. I had trouble believing this myself when I first heard it, until I received this anonymous recording of what I was told was Beth Courtney dressing down one of her reporters named “Jeff” Duhe. Her language is a bit brutal, her treatment psychologically damaging, but I am told this is how she treats many of her employees if they try to cover stories honestly, so I can’t really say I blame them for doing whatever she says and then getting the hell out of there when they get a chance.
fired employee releases an audio recording of his heated meeting with Louisiana Public Broadcasting President and CEO Beth Courtney.
February 28, 2006
Jeff Duhé says he’s the one who blew the whistle on Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s President and Chief Executive Officer Beth Courtney, who was recently fined $10,000 by the Louisiana Board of Ethics. At least that’s what Duhé told Accuracy in Media, a conservative media watchdog group. He also released an audio recording he made of a 2004 tongue-lashing he received at the hands of his former boss.
On Jan. 24, Cliff Kincaid, editor of the AIM Report, the online newsletter of AIM, revealed that Duhé had reported Courtney to the ethics board. On Jan.12, the board ruled that Courtney and her husband, Bob, had violated state ethics laws prohibiting state employees and their family members from doing business with the state agency where the employee works. Bob Courtney’s company, Courtney Communications, was paid $46,869 by John Camp Productions Inc. to develop three documentaries.
Duhé told AIM: “Just after I reported her unethical activities to the governor’s executive counsel, I was fired. A thorough, hate- and profanity-filled screaming fit came first, of course. Anybody want to hear it? I’ve got it in MP3 now. It’s 52 minutes long.”
We wanted to hear it. On Jan. 26, at our request, Duhé directed The Independent Weekly to a Web page with an audio MP3 file. But the audio was only 16 minutes long, not the 52 minutes Duhé claimed he had.
I have a copy here in case you would like to hear what goes on behind closed doors at LPB.
Yes folks. This is what a supporter of Common Core sounds like. This is the person responsible for our children’s programming and now for orchestrating their reprogramming under Common Core.
Crazy Crawfish 