• • Exposing the Common Core Fraud
• • Tennessee picks new TNReady test company, will phase in online exams
• • Mississippi: Public-school Tests Glitch Across State [Questar Assessment]
• • Tim Farley: The Frightening Plans for New York: Competency Based Education, or Embedded Testing
• • Educators to review feedback on social studies standards

June 22, 2016, Phyllis Schlafly.

If you want to understand the catastrophe of education during the Obama administration, a new book by Dr. Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, is a must-read. His book is entitled Drilling through the Core: Why Common Core Is Bad for American Education.

Common Core is the education fad that swept the nation with the deceptive slogan "higher standards." Everyone is for "higher standards," right? Who could possibly object to higher standards for all our kids?

As Dr. Wood explains, though, the word "higher" did not mean higher intellectual content of the standards, but a higher percentage of students passing them. Simple math shows that the easiest way to get more students to pass a test is to make the standards (or the passing score) lower, not higher.

The goal was revealed in a famous "white paper" that Common Core architects David Coleman and Jason Zimba wrote for the Carnegie Corporation in 2008. Coleman and Zimba called for new standards that would result in "dramatically raising the number and diversity of students performing at the highest levels."

The education establishment quickly accepted the theory that new standards would help close the "achievement gap" between minority kids from poor families, whose test scores are very low, and students from middle-class homes. With millions of dollars of support from foundations, corporations, and the Obama administration, Coleman and Zimba launched a new career developing the Common Core State Standards.

Well, the results are in. Far from closing the gap, Common Core makes the achievement gap even worse.

In 2010, Kentucky was the first state to sign up for Common Core's allegedly "higher standards," with the help of federal money from the Obama administration, before the standards had even been written. By 2011-2012, Kentucky had fully implemented the standards and was administering statewide assessments aligned to the Common Core.

The results for the 2014-2015 school year in Kentucky were recently published. Over that three-year period, the performance gap between black kids and white kids expanded from 25% to 27% in reading and from 20% to 24% in math.

Now that the damage has been done to Kentucky's lower-performing students, it's easy to see why. Common Core math is based on the theory that students are expected to discover math principles for themselves, instead of memorizing time-tested math shortcuts that almost everyone can learn.

Common Core math forces students to waste an inordinate amount of time on what Dr. Wood calls "tediously complicated forms of computation" instead of simple shortcuts. He says these methods "deliberately drive a wedge between parent and child, since very few parents can crack the code."

The Common Core's reading standards replace literature with non-fiction "informational texts" which require students to engage in "close reading." Even classic literary works are presented only in short excerpts which are treated primarily as sources of information rather than inspiration.

One educational curriculum that has delivered on its promises is the abstinence program used in the public schools of Collier County, Florida. In the eight years since the program began, births to unwed teen mothers, ages 15 to 19, have fallen an amazing 50 percent, and cases of STDs among girls in the same age group have also dropped from 29th to the third lowest among Florida's 67 counties.

The curriculum distributed by the Collier County Abstinence Program (CCAP) was introduced ten years ago in the 7th and 8th grades, and proved so successful that age-appropriate versions are now used in the 6th and 9th grades as well. CCAP materials published by A&M Partnership are used in all 17 middle schools and all 8 high schools throughout the county.

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The Tennessee Department of Education wants Questar Assessment to administer standardized testing in Tennessee, but will take a slow approach in how it requires districts to move toward online exams.

For districts statewide in the 2016-17 school year, that means students in grades 3-8 will take tests on paper and pencil. And the department will work with Questar to provide an online option for year-end high school exams if both the schools and the testing platform demonstrate early proof of successful online administration.

Education Commissioner Candice McQueen told reporters Wednesday there might be further exceptions after three years, when the state expects to fully switch to online testing.

"We are even looking past three years to provide exemptions for younger grades," she said.

The state offered the two-year, $30 million per year contract on Wednesday morning, and pursuant to state contract rules, the deal will be finalized in seven days, according to the department. The state expects to release a timeline detailing 2016-17 testing next year after the contract is finalized.

The Tennessee Department of Education was left without a vendor after it canceled in April a five-year, $108 million contract with Measurement Inc. to administer TNReady online tests statewide. Measurement Inc.'s online platform couldn't meet the demand, and the company later couldn't provide enough paper exams on time.

"Students, teachers and parents deserve a better testing experience in Tennessee, and we believe today's announcement is another step in the right direction," McQueen said.

In 2014, along with Measurement Inc., the state received bids from CTB/McGraw Hill, Pearson, Questar Assessment and Vantage. The state reviewed those firms, along with several others.

Over the past month, the department has been vetting those companies and their ability to administer standardized testing. The department didn't need any approval from lawmakers for the contract, despite concerns from legislators.

The education department expressed confidence in their new vendor, saying Questar has a proven track record of excellence in statewide testing and administering large-scale assessments through paper and online formats.

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Tim Farley is a parent and educator in upstate New York. He is on the board of New York State Allies of Parents and Educators (NYSAPE), which led the historic 2015 opt out movement. When leaders of NYSAPE met with Commissioner MaryEllen Elia in August of this year, she said that the post-Pearson testing would be embedded into instruction. Farley explains what the future holds in store for students in New York and elsewhere.

The Camel's Nose of Competency Based Education

There is a fable in which an Arab miller reluctantly allows his camel to stick his nose under his tent on a cold night in the desert. This is quickly followed by other parts of his body until the camel is entirely inside the tent and refuses to leave. The moral of the fable is to illustrate that once the "camel" (Governor Cuomo's $2 billion Smart Bond Act) gets his nose in the tent, his body (competency based education) will soon follow. This is what we have with the Questar testing company, with which the NYSED Commissioner, MaryEllen Elia signed a $44 million contract (http://www.nysed.gov/news/2015/3-8-assessment-contract-awarded-questar-inc). The contract locks into place a five year deal and offers districts the "option to administer the tests on computers". Isn't that convenient.

As part of the NYSED press release, Elia is quoted as saying, "Questar, Inc. will also provide computer based TESTING (emphasis added) platforms that will help reduce the need for stand-alone field tests, and more importantly, help make our assessments even better instructional tools." For the sake of brevity, let's forget about the fact that the contract with Pearson is still in effect for the 2015-2016 school year and the multi-billion dollar British conglomerate will still be producing the spring 2016 NYS ELA and math tests.

According to Questar's April 1st publication (sadly, it is not an April fool's prank), "Reimagining the Classroom Experience" (http://www.questarai.com/reimagining-the-classroom-experience/), Eric Rohy, Questar's Chief Services Officer, writes, "Most educators agree that the current LECTURE-STYLE (emphasis added) approach to teaching is flawed." He further writes, "....this approach limits the teacher's ability to adapt his or her classroom to meet a number of 21st century teaching needs such as INDIVIDUALIZED AND PERSONALIZED INSTRUCTION (emphasis added), personalized learning, competency-based grouping and progression, seamless blending of instruction and assessment, and timely impact of assessment results to affect instruction." WOW! When was the last time Eric Rohy visited an American classroom, the 1950's? Teachers do not use "lecture style" anymore, nor have they in several decades.

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Melanie Balakit, mbalakit@tennessean.com 3:29 p.m. CDT June 1, 2016

Takeaway:  Not enough time to reach the current number of standards.

Tennessee educators will review thousands of public comments on the state's social studies standards this week, marking the third time the state has reviewed standards under a new rigorous process.

Standards are objectives students are expected to learn, and the review of the public feedback is an early step into a nearly four-year revision process. Most of the public feedback, or about 81 percent, came from K-12 teachers.

While the feedback has not been completely analyzed, one main takeaway is that there's not enough time to teach the current number of social studies standards.

"I don't think teachers are pushing back on the concepts. I think they've had to resort to low-level coverage of facts and not be able to go deep into those concepts because of that," said Todd Wigginton, a review project chair.

Other initial takeaways from the comments include concern about the type and number of primary sources to use and the recognition that some language arts standards are not driven by social studies contents. And at the third-grade level, there were suggestions to place Tennessee history alongside U.S. geography.

The high percentage of teacher feedback on standards was similar on the state's recent completion of new English and math standards and the ongoing review of science standards, according to Laura Encalade, director of policy and research for the state board of education.

"Teachers have been the largest percentage of the reviews that come in, which I think is really good. I think it hopefully means that teachers buy into this process, that they know their comments are going to be read," Encalade said.

The social studies standards review comes a few years earlier than planned - the standards were last updated in 2013.

"This is such an important topic. Learning the past is so important that it's sort of my perspective that we want to be as perfect as possible in the standards we have, to help cultivate the best citizens that we can in our schools," said Scott Ezell, a sixth-grade teacher at Westview Middle School.

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By MJ Slaby of the Knoxville News Sentinel

University of Tennessee President Joe DiPietro announced Thursday that he's created a new position to address diversity and inclusion across the system.

Noma Anderson will be special adviser to the president on diversity and inclusion starting July 1.

DiPietro said Anderson's role builds on a commitment to diversity and will address challenges related to inclusion.

Anderson is currently dean of the College of Health Professions at the UT Health Science Center in Memphis and chair of the Diversity Advisory Council for the system.

With her new position, Anderson will spend half of her time as an adviser to the president and chair of the diversity council. The other half will be as a faculty member working to streamline admissions, transfers and financial aid processes in the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology. She will be based in Memphis.

Anderson's salary will be $230,817.96 and dually funded by UTHSC and UT System, according to the university.

DiPietro made the announcement in Knoxville at the end of the Academic Affairs and Student Success Committee meeting for the UT board of trustees. During the meeting, two presentations, one by Anderson and one by UT Knoxville Chancellor Jimmy Cheek prompted questions about diversity from trustees.

And each time Cheek mentioned diversity during his presentation on Vol Vision 2020, the campus strategic plan, a group in the audience waved rainbow fans printed with "UT Diversity Matters."

The creation of the new role comes after state lawmakers defunded the Knoxville campus's Office for Diversity and Inclusion for one year and after strong support for diversity from faculty and students.

Jason Gonzales,
3:28 p.m. CDT June 20, 2016

Online standardized testing in a few states has seen first- and second-year implementation problems, with some of those states deciding to part ways with vendors after the issues.

That's the major takeaway from a Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury report released Monday detailing the status of online student testing across the nation.

Most states have seen no or minor issues in online testing, with only a limited number of states seeing problems to the level of Tennessee, where issues derailed TNReady assessments for grades 3-8 in the 2015-16 school year.

In February Tennessee decided to cancel online testing and move to paper and pencil tests after the network of its vendor, Measurement Inc., couldn't handle the number of students taking online assessments at one time. The decision led to the state eventually ending Measurement Inc.'s contract and a cancellation to the elementary and middle school grade TNReady tests.

Tennessee recently contracted with Pearson Education for $18.5 million to grade high school tests taken during the year.

Alaska also canceled testing in the 2015-16 school year after two years of issues with its vendor. It is searching for a new testing company, according to the report.

Twelve states are searching for new vendors, although not every search is tied to testing issues. And numerous vendors haven't been immune to problems with online standardized assessments.

Along with Measurement Inc., companies such as testing giant Pearson, Measured Progress and Data Recognition Company have seen states move on to other vendors.