There's a catch.  There's always a catch, isn't there?

We are told that Tennessee will be developing our own Science Standards, and NOT adopting the controversial Common Core Next Generation Science Standards.  The TN Department of Education posted on their website seeking:

"excellent educators and content experts to serve on science standards development teams.  Up to 30 science standards development team members will be selected, representing all grades and subject levels. Teams will work together to develop proposed grade and course level standards and assessment design specifications."  

Sounds reasonable and fair, right?  Here's the catch...

The application to be considered to belong to this elite group of decision-makers specifically asks the applicant's opinion about Common Core, and even asks why the person believes that Common Core will benefit students in TN.  If you don't agree, then you don't get to answer the rest of the question.  (In other words, they don't want to hear anything negative about Common Core.  You need not apply for this job if you don't love Common Core as much as they do.)

We're not kidding.  See:

(Click HERE to see the other 8 questions on the application )
 
The Question we should all be asking:

Q: Who gets to pick the people to be on this new TN Science Standards Team?  

The Answer we are all slapping our heads over because it is so clear:

A: The Department of Education led by the appointed Commissioner of Education, Kevin Huffman (who all just love love love Common Core).

In fact, the person to submit applications to is none other than Dr. Bethany King Wilkes, who is pictured below grinning like a Cheshire cat and holding the Next Generation Science Common Core standards learning map with a bunch of other important people.

She gave a speech the day that picture was taken.  In her speech, she used all the reform Common Core buzz-words that people are growing sick and tired of hearing:  

“The Mission is to provide Tennessee students access to rigorous pathways aligned to STEM labor market needs in order to develop and promote a workforce that is educated and skilled in STEM fields”

(Click HERE to read more of her speech and to find out who those other important smiling people are in the photo)
 
So when the TN DOE unveils the new Tennessee State-Led Science Standards, don't be surprised when they are the same pig with different lipstick.  

Indiana did the same thing last month.  Their legislature and Governor revoked Common Core standards to the cheering crowds of parents and teachers. Then, after a process that resembled a "state-led" effort, they slapped a new name on the Common Core standards to rebrand them as the new Indiana standards.  Voters aren't fooled.  Not one bit.

The reality is that these standards must align with the other states for the testing and database fields to be compatible.  This matters to the Federal Government.  This matters to Bill Gates.  This matters to those who stand to profit from tracking our children's personal data.  They don't care what we color lipstick the pig is wearing, as long as they still bring home the bacon.
 

Click HERE to read the secret report from the Governor's puppets
 
You'll clearly see:  The State Board of Education will get the incredible power to decide the Standards for our children.  Yes, the same State Board of Education that voted, through a telephone conference call with dogs barking in the background, to revoke the licenses of teachers over test scores.  The same State Board of Education that is APPOINTED and serves at the whim of the current administration.  Tennessee citizens did not elect this board.  This board does not answer to us.  In fact, they won't return our messages.  Two of them even unsubscribed from our emails.  They don't want to hear from parents.  They know who they serve and obey:  Governor Haslam.

As it seems right now, we are ALL being played right into the Governor's hands... parents, local school boards, Superintendents, legislators, and worst of all... our children.  
 
Legislators: when you go home tonight, exhausted after this Legislative session... will you be able to sleep soundly at night knowing you have sold out our children to corporate interests? 

A couple of weeks ago, Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey met with a dozen pastors from Tennessee.  These pastors represented many different denominations and despite their theological differences, they all felt called to speak against Common Core.  They could not remain silent any longer when our children's futures are at stake.  They decided to do something about it.  

They met with Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey.  

These spiritual leaders read aloud to him some of the Common Core suggested exemplar text for high school students.  

(Legislators, remember when TN Parents tried to send you the some snippets from The Bluest Eyeby Toni Morrison, but the government email filters wouldn't even allow it to get to you because it was so profane?  We had to add all sorts of **** to get it through to your inboxes.   But it is a perfect example for high school juniors to read???  The same people that wrote the Common Core standards think so).

Anyway, Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey turned red in embarrassment and finally said, "Stop! I don't want to hear that cr*p!"  

Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey then pledged his word, as a man of INTEGRITY, that he would not only get Common Core and PARCC out of our public schools in TN, but as "a man of INTEGRITY," he told those 12 Ordained Ministers that he would go even further than the House bill that had just overwhelmingly been amended to delay it 2 years.  He would do even better than that.  He said multiple times that "I am a man of my word.  I am a man of integrity."

Those men of God believed and trusted Ron Ramsey.  So did Rep. Womick who was told that the Conference Committee was including the delay of Common Core & PARCC and including strict wording to protect our children.

Integrity?

or a deliberate move by the Governor's puppets to force them to keep quiet?

until the last day of Legislative session.  Today.

TN Parents won't keep quiet.  We'll broadcast loud & clear which liars need to be voted out of office.  They have lost our trust.  We'll broadcast which politicians voted against our children.
 
Legislators: when you go home, exhausted after this Legislative session... will you be able to sleep at night knowing you have sold out our children to corporate interests?  
 

TODAY is the last day of the Legislative Session but there are many BIG questions still unanswered...

The word on the street is that there is a SECRET Conference Committee report prepared by Commissioner Huffman (okay, actually, by his lawyer) that not only allows Common Core and PARCC, but locks Tennessee into it because of the deceptive wording and testing criteria.  

Not only that, this agreement would give Commissioner Huffman (who is ON the Executive Committee of PARCC) and the TNDOE the power to expand Common Core to include the Next Generation Common Core Science Standards, Social Studies Standards, and those Common Core Sexual Education standards that parents have been freaking out about. 

Also very disturbing, things that were promised to be included, like protection for student data, have been so watered down, they are worthless.  FERPA is not the safe law everyone thinks it is.  FERPA doesn't protect our children against data sharing without parental consent, it just makes it legal for companies and organizations to do so, and there's nothing that parents can do to stop it.  This is sickening and scary for parents.

Politicians that vote for this will be just playing right in to their hands, and they know it.  This is a deliberate, underhanded move by the administration.

Remember just a few weeks ago?
82 Representatives bravely voted to delay Common Core
88 Representatives wisely voted to delay PARCC

Heads up:  They are also trying to SNEAK the VOUCHER bill through on another bill (again).

It is a shame that the leaders of the House & Senate are doing the bidding of Governor Haslam and corporate-interests instead of representing the people that elected them to serve.

Once we get this SECRET CONFERENCE REPORT, we'll send it out for everyone to read.

STOP bullying teachers!

and while we're at it, we demand that politicians:

STOP giving away our public schools!!!
 
We elected you to PROTECT and STRENGTHEN our communities, 
not weaken give them away to private interests to profit from.

Never before have parents become so politically involved.  We've been busy raising our families without any inclination to become involved in politics.  However, Common Core, excessive testing, school takeovers, the bullying of teachers, and greedy mismanagement by our elected officials has turned ordinary parents into political activists.  Don't be surprised by what happens during future elections when lifelong legislators find themselves out of jobs.  Parents know exactly which buttons to push in the ballot boxes: the names of servant leaders who will strengthen our world for future generations.

Think about it…

Students in poverty, who have the lowest test scores of the state, who don't have parents willing or able to do what it takes to get them in a voucher school, won't be helped by vouchers.  In fact, vouchers will HURT those children because funding will be taken away from their local schools.  It is a cycle that is designed to make their schools fail.

The students in the bottom 5% cannot possibly afford the required uniforms for private schools or the additional cost of textbooks, and many parents cannot provide transportation.  Vouchers won't help them. 
  
________________________________________

Important Voucher Questions:

Q:  If there is no money in the budget to increase teacher pay as promised (again), why does Governor Haslam want to spend money we don’t have on vouchers? 

Q:  Our public schools are in survival mode, literally starved of funding (just look at the buckets & trash cans placed under the leaks in our schools because there is no money for new roofs or repairs), why does Governor Haslam want to funnel our tax dollars to vouchers and charter schools? 

Q:  Everyone knows that vouchers don't work.  Other states that do have vouchers have lower test scores in students, increased segregation bu race and by income, a wide achievement gap that only gets bigger, rampant fraud, and lots of lawsuits.  Why is Tennessee not learning from their mistakes?

Q:  Why hire even MORE staff at the TN DOE to run the voucher program when our state budget is stretched too thin to fund the priorities that constituents truly want and need?
  
________________________________________
 
There's a LOT of money being poured into TN from out-of-state interests to support vouchers.  Because vouchers weaken and cripple even the strongest public schools, these entrepreneurs are salivating at the prospect of siphoning our tax dollars from our public schools to send to their private hands. Tennessee will be no different if the Voucher bill is passed.  

Vouchers will drain funding away from our public schools and send OUR tax dollars to mediocre private schools (because the best private schools wouldn't dare accept vouchers... they've already said they won't).

Not only that, the cost of the lawsuits against vouchers in other states is making many lawyers super rich!  Wouldn't you rather that money go to help students and their community schools that desperately need it?
 
Here's a solution:

Something in me snapped today and I realized that I am finished using the phrase "education reform." 

That's how folks refer to the constellation of ideas firmly entrenched in the White House right now, upheld by almost every governor of every state, red and blue, and most mayors, notably our own. It includes the tenets that privatizing our schools will improve them, that the Common Core State Standards are the fix for all that ails our failing schools, and that testing our students more and more will raise test scores.  

But this, truly, is not "reform." Some of these are ideas that have been implemented for 25 years all over the country to little effect. 

This is the status quo. 

So I'm not going to call it reform anymore. 

I'm going to call it what it is. Corporate control of education. 

And here's why. In every instance, every plank in the platform, every element of this effort can be traced back to cash--flowing into the coffers of very rich corporate entities and individuals. 

Like Pearson, one of the testing companies that is creating the tests and the test prep materials, all new and improved and Common Core aligned, and who lobbies Congress to mandate more tests. 

Like Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, a huge proponent of charters and innovative uses of technology in schools. What kind of technology does he advocate as the best fix for students today? In Learning Lab modules at his Rocketship Charters kids sit at a computer monitor, streaming video content for 100 minutes per day.  

Or Rupert Murdoch. He is a cheerleader for what he calls a $500 billion industry of education technology including content and assessment.   

Or Bill Gates. His push for the Common Core, the inBloom initiative to harness students' big data, and his vision for the classrooms of the future, which will be heavily dependent on his own technologies. 

The proponents of this snake oil have managed to control the rhetoric for so long that we don't even blink when they say that their education plan is "the civil rights issue of our time." They say this a lot. 

So if we wish to stand up against the corporate control model we are not only anti-reform but anti-civil rights. 

They say they want "excellent teachers," and by this they mean they want to get rid of union teachers and replace them with uncertified, pensionless staff handling up to 50 kids at once who receive their education from handheld devices or monitors. 

They say they want "school choice," which usually means less choice: families can't choose their neighborhood schools that the city has underfunded to the point of death throes, pouring its available money instead into privately supported charters. 

They say they want all children to be "college and career ready," and to ensure this they prescribe as many as 25 standardized bubble tests every year starting in Kindergarten, using a standardized scripted curriculum. 

The testing piece is a critical component of corporate control of education. And it's very important to them that we don't question this. As we saw in Chicago, retribution for opting out of tests is real and administrators don't care if they have to isolate children to get them to rat on their teachers. Anything to stop parents, teachers, and principals from reconsidering what all these tests mean, how they contribute to children's education, and who they benefit. 

But the corporate education controllers will not accept that ordinary well-informed people are questioning their plan. They and the Department of Ed portray dissenters as Tea Party crazies or entitled white suburban moms who cannot face their disappointment that Boopsie is not actually a genius. 

Another grab for narrative control. The only possible opposition comes from insane people or delusional ones. 

But it's getting harder and harder to keep the little man hidden behind the curtain. It's getting harder and harder to uphold the illusion of the actually naked emperor's fancy new suit. 

Little bits of reality pop out now and again. 

Intertangled ugly trails of cash and power come to light--as in the (Chicago) Sun-Times' Dan Mihalopoulos' work on how many Illinois legislators are connected to Turkish power broker Fethullah Gulen and his charter schools. Just as a for instance. 

Or, perhaps, occasions of obvious cruelty to children becoming public. 

Like the CPS schools that have taken away play from 5 year olds by removing kitchens, blocks, paints, dolls, everything from Kindergarten. {TN Parent note: These were removed from TN kindergarten classes several years ago}  Because "Kindergarten is the new first grade" and we have to get these little dudes college and career ready. (I am assuming this also means that 5 is now the new 6.) 

Enough little bits of reality have popped out that folks are starting to notice. The stranglehold grip on the narrative held by the corporate education controllers is beginning to weaken. Because we can all see with our own eyes that it isn't actually civil rights for kids to have their school closed or subjected to a turnaround. It isn't actually higher order critical thinking to bubble in bubbles. And it isn't education and it isn't reform to work toward the dismantling of public schools in our city and our country. 

It's stale old rhetoric that is losing its power. And it can no longer conceal the naked emperor, nor the naked greed of the corporate power grabbers.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Julie Vassilatos blogs as South Side CPS Mom in Chicago. She provides a valuable and important perspective on education everywhere. She graciously gave us permission to share her article with our elected officials and on our TN Parents website

I just got an email from STUDENTS FIRST. The email said, "We will host you at the Capitol!" and "Most importantly, we'll save a spot for you at the committee hearings!"

EXCUSE ME???

Students First employees - fighting in favor of Common Core and Charter Schools - are:
(1) PAID to show up, and
(2) Given PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT over REAL Tennesseans,
who are NOT paid to be there, 
who have traveled long distances, and
some have even taken vacation time from their jobs in order to attend these very important hearings.

I keep showing up with my kids HOURS early, to make sure we can get in only to find no available seats!  THIS IS WHY!!!  Sorry, I am not exaggerating one bit when I say your children's education is for sale!

(shared with permission from a Mom in Williamson County)

Email from StudentsFirst to their mailing list:

Paige Donaldson, Field Coordinator for StudentsFirst, is probably a very nice girl.  Her LinkedIn profile shows that she recently graduated from college and that during college, she worked weekends at a Sportsbar to supplement her college expenses.  We know Paige Donaldson was just doing her job, and we wish her luck someday if she has kids of her own.  We doubt she will appreciate out-of-state parties (who send their own kids to private schools exempt from these issues) meddling with her own children's education or her community's public schools.

Unless you have a Mom or Dad - a real TN parent - in that coordinator spot, there is no credibility.  StudentsFirst is a heavily-funded, out-of-state organization who saves seats in OUR state committee meetings and gives money to OUR elected officials to influence them.  Not nice.

 

A Tennessee parent recently met with a TN legislator and tried to share with him what is happening in other states regarding Common Core and standardized testing.  This legislator, who we won’t name, replied, “I don’t care what other states are doing. I am only interested in what Tennessee is doing.”
 
That is scary. 
 
That close-mindedness can be dangerous.  That is like sweeping your own kitchen floors while the neighborhood around you is in flames.  Look up!  Pay attention!  Danger!!!  You could prevent your own house from going up in flames.  That legislator could prevent getting voted out of office, if only he would listen and respond to his constituents. 
 
 
Does it matter that other states are pulling out of Common Core and out of the PARCC agreement?  Absolutely!  Oklahoma, Georgia, Indiana, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Florida, & Kentucky have all withdrawn from the PARCC test.  Others, like TN, are in the process.
 
Does it matter that other states "rebranded" Common Core Standards by simply changing the toxic name?  Same pig, new lipstick.  Voters aren't fooled.  New legislators to be elected very soon in these states:

• Arizona (aka: "Arizona's College & Career Ready Standards")
• Iowa (aka: "The Iowa Core")
• Florida (aka: "Next Generation Sunshine State Standards")
• Indiana  

Does it matter that Indiana withdrew from Common Core, only to implement nearly identical standards to Common Core?
Whatever you call it, they are still developmentally inappropriate, not state-led, and are the same nation-wide standards written by and for testing companies.  These attempts to change the name of Common Core just make voters even more upset.  Voters sure don't like to be tricked or manipulated, and they remember that in the ballot box. 
 

Here are some very loud warning bells from New York:
New York is one step ahead of Tennessee with Common Core implementation.  Their students took the Common Core PARCC ELA exam produced by Pearson last week.  A wise leader should heed these warning sirens:

• 31,000 of NY students (which is 10% of their students) opted-out of the test.  Even more are expected to opt-out of the math tests in a few weeks.
  
  
• "I administered Grade 4 ELA. Completely inappropriate passages and even worse questions. Students are totally set up to fail to make teachers appear incompetent. A number of my students had sick stomachs due to stress. THIS IS CHILD ABUSE!!!!
  - A 4th grade teacher in New York
  
  
• ADVERTISING embedded in the test:  "Today's 5th grade test book had a passage instructing kids on "how to be a smart risk taker." One of the instructions was to, "Think about Nike (TM) and their slogan 'Just do it.'"   Another example of product placement was in 6th grade - "Barbie."  Product placement in 6th grade, day 1 (this one actually made me laugh out loud): iPod -registered trademark of Apple Corporation." 
  - A teacher in NY
  
  
• "Proctored the 4th grade exam and was horrified by the lack of literary flow in just about every passage, but only in moments when I wasn't pausing to reflect on questionable grammar. Reading it was painful and the accompanying questions were ridiculous." 
  - New York proctor
  
  
• "I have been a principal for 10 years, with the last 7 in a district in Nassau County. In all my time as an educator, I have never seen a more disgraceful state exam. The third grade ELA was particularly complex and even inappropriate. The State Education Department should be ashamed at how they treat teachers and children! I work with the most brilliant and capable teachers, but they were completely demoralized and even saddened by what they witnessed today. When will politicians and Albany put teachers and children FIRST!!??" 
  -Eric Nezowitz, Principal
  
  
• "No, it's not a mistake.  Yes, the test makers knew what they were doing. What were they doing? Creating a set-up for failure to use as more ammunition to prove that public education is failing." - An upset NY parent
  
  

• This was written by a Principal to parents:  "Our 3rd, 4th, and 5th  graders have just completed three days of the New York State English  Language Arts Exam.   Your children were wonderful and worked incredibly hard.  On the whole, we think that we were able to protect them from the worst stresses of the test, and most seemed fine during most of the exam.  However, the teachers and administration are truly devastated by what a terrible test it was and how little it will tell us about our students.  Because we are bound by test security, we cannot reveal details but we can tell you that we have never seen an ELA exam that does a worse job of testing reading comprehension.  There was inappropriate content, many highly ambiguous questions, and a focus on structure rather than meaning of passages.   Our teachers and administrators feel that this test is an insult to the profession of teaching and that students’ scores on it will not correlate with their reading ability.  Because of this, the staff has decided to hold a protest outside of school TOMORROW, FRIDAY, APRIL 4, FROM 8:15-8:35 to express their extreme dissatisfaction with the ELA exam.  Parents are invited to join the staff before going into classrooms for Family Friday." - Principal at PS321 in NY

 

Legislators: Tennessee Parents know the tricks played in other states of renaming and/or delaying Common Core but still implementing it.  We know our rights as parents, and we know who these tests are designed to profit.  We know our votes count in the ballot boxes across the state.  Parents know what is best for our children.  Our voices are loud.  We hope you heed these warnings. 

April used to be poetry month,
Where we’d learn about rhythm and rhyme,
But now that standardized tests have set in,
They tell us we just don’t have time.
 
There was ‘Poem in Your Pocket’ day,
Where you share your unique voice,
But now creativity’s gone away,
Now it’s nothing but multiple choice.
 
They say tests show how smart you are,
And teach you all you know,
But how does filling in circles,
Help anyone learn and grow?
 
In class, when we could be thinking,
Learning how we can go far,
We’re categorized by the grades we get,
Like those numbers are all we are.

 - Eliya Ahmad, age 12 (written on back of ELA testing booklet, April 2, 2014)