Below was presented at Worcester County School Board Meeting on 3/18/14
September 2010, the United States Department of Education (USDE) awarded the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) $170 million grant to develop tests aligned to Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Worcester County School Board Members continue to promote that curriculum is still controlled at the local level. That’s not true. If you don’t own the test you don’t own the curriculum because no one builds a test unless they’re planning to teach the answers. As Bill Gates said in July 2009, “When the tests are aligned to the common standards, the curriculum will line up as well.” USDE even went further last year when they established a technical review panel whose sole purpose is to evaluate the aligned PARCC tests. In other words, the Feds will get what they want tested.
When PARCC was awarded their $170M grant they signed a cooperative agreement between them and USDE that offered some troubling terms:
1) "...including, but not limited to working with the USDE to develop a strategy to make student level data that results from the assessment system available on an ongoing basis for research."
2) "The Grantee must provide timely and complete access to any and all data collected at the state level to USDE or its designated program monitors, technical assistance providers or researcher partners.“ So anyone that the government chooses will have access to that information. In short, the government wants to collect a dossier on every child containing highly intrusive personal information without asking permission or even notifying parents.
According to a December report prepared by Maryland State Department of Education for the Legislative Budget Committee, the PARCC tests will be administered in two testing windows, March & May. The number of students being tested will increase from 300,000 to over 1.1 million. Testing time per student will increase a minimum of 70%. The report further shows that the vast majority of schools in MD are not technologically prepared to give the new online PARCC tests and at least $100 million will have to be spent by 2015 to get ready. That doesn't include the costs of the PARCC test which could be another $30 to $60 million per year.
There you have it::
Federal Government Intervention
Loss of Local Control of Curriculum
Data Mining
Increase Testing Times
Out of Control Costs
All Brought to you by PARCC and the Federal Government.
F. Gebhart
Berlin
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
6 comments:
When will the Worcester County Board of Education wake up? All the standard Common Core talking points spewed by the apparatchiks and STAKEHOLDERS who are complicit with big business and "non-profits" in the campaign to eradicate individualism and produce quality workforce profit-making units which used to be called THE CHILDREN. Your children and grandchildren are the targets.
Anonymous is one smart cookie.
All of this money is being spent because getting certain groups of students to pass basic tests as required by No Child Left Behind wasn't happening. So hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent trying to find something they can do.
A better way to educate our children starts with funneling billions of dollars away from administration that is so far removed from the classroom. Next move the money to find highly motivated leaders aka principles that actually will enter a classroom to monitor teachers on a daily basis. Principles lead by example, build motivation, evaluate teaching methods and test results to determine the effectiveness of methods used to teach. Students should evaluate teachers and teachers should teach students to learn not to take tests. Everyone should be accountable, principles to teachers, teachers to students students and parents, and vice versa. Accountability would eliminate bad teachers and principles and help identify those that truly need the help to close the gap in education. Common Core is not the answer.
Great synopsis Fran!
I'm with 3:43. How can we enact this in Wicomico county? By an elected school board and school vouchers for private school competition, that's how.
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