Hoosier Hospitality?

If this meme looks offensive to my fellow Hoosiers, it can't be helped. We have in Indiana a governor that doesn't know how to communicate with the state's chief education officer, who has ignored the concerns of parents and teachers that top down corporate driven education policies emphasizing performance around high stakes testing is not in the best interest of children.

Child poverty rates continue to hover somewhere between 31% and 41% in Indianapolis - Marion County depending on the demographic group one is examining. Here is the kicker. The poverty rate in Indiana is at 22% for children. Don't tell me that education policy makers do not know about the effects of poverty on the cognitive development of children. We've known for a long time it has detrimental effects to their developmental growth! What have state policy makers done to support children of poverty in schools? They coerced  children into trickle down, data driven Pavlovian learning experiences with mandated high stakes testing and closed Indiana public schools utilizing flawed accountability gimmicks!

Despite public outrage from Bennett's A-F grade tampering scandal, there is reason to be concerned about new trouble from Indiana education policy makers.

The Truth Will Be Told

Many, many thanks to Marla Kilfoyle for creating this haunting video!

Education Nation: Lloyd Blankfein Responsible for Increasing Child Poverty Rates Is Apparently An Education Expert

Lloyd Blankfein is a scheduled guest on NBC's public education propaganda fest, Education Nation.
Apparently NBC forgot who one of the principals responsible for the Great Recession was.
The last time I watched NBC's Education Nation, there were no, I repeat, NO public education classroom teachers on the program. There were however, a host of corporate reformers and talking heads that have an agenda. The agenda? Privatize public education. Don't count on NBC making any changes to their 2013 edition of this propaganda ploy.

Why So Much Testing?

We know why testing is big in the U.S.. It has everything to do with the bag the guy with the top hat is carrying.

Parent Arrested At School Board Meeting For Asking The Wrong Question On Common Core!

What happens when questions sent in by an audience of parents are edited and screened because they do not coincide with the school board's agenda?

One audience member, a concerned father spoke out about his concerns on the Common Core. This is what happened: 

Content provided by Front Line State.

Review: New Learners of the 21st Century

Rupert Murdoch, McGraw-Hill and Pearson have spent millions lobbying U.S. policymakers in order to develop and administer high stakes tests on unsuspecting American children.

I recently watched this PBS televised documentary and the production starts off with a quote by John Dewey, "If we teach today's students as we taught yesterdays, we rob them of tomorrow." I've heard education reformers shamelessly co-opt progressive educator quotes before and this is a good example of a shameless co-opt. The problem here is that one of the producers of this documentary, Pearson,  makes it's money by coercing children into taking standardized high stakes tests, turning them into tools in order to evaluate their teachers. This fact is omitted in the documentary and is something that would make Dewey roll in his grave.

New Learners of the 21st Century is a slick edu-propaganda piece to promote the message that creativity development is alive and well in this day and age of high stakes testing. The only problem with this message is that creativity development in schools is giving way to high stakes test preparation and the arts are on the chopping block. No doubt about it.

When teachers jobs depend on high stakes test scores, you can darn well bet, creativity development is going to take a back seat to test prep. The U.S. Dept. of Education has no comprehensive data on fine arts cuts or the amount of creative work children do in U.S. Schools and would not release such data because the American Public will shriek at the lack of such vital learning experiences.

One thing this documentary fails at is providing a comprehensive look at electronic portfolios. If the MacArthur Foundation is serious about creativity development, they will examine electronic portfolios as an alternative to high stakes testing.

The last time I checked the latest neuro-cognitive research, human beings still learn best through multi-sensory experience. Multi-sensory learning experience is something children are not receiving enough of in school. Instead they are working iPads and computer based multiple choice answers and other selected response assessments, a form of educational assessment John Dewey abhorred.

Another Dewey quote should really be examined by reformers: "Education is not preparation for life. Education is life."

How Much Will CCSS Cost?

Do we really need to do more testing on the most tested children in the World? How much are U.S. children losing with respect to hands-on arts and science learning? How much will CCSS vendors and their ancillary business partners make off of this national effort to standardize and homogenize children's educational experiences? These questions deserve answers!

What Does High Stakes Testing Do To The Formative Minds Of Children? As Long As There Is Money To Be Made, Rupert Murdoch Doesn't Care.

Predatory capitalists like Rupert Murdoch have no problem selling to an unsuspecting public the idea that high stakes testing and data driven instruction is a necessary part of children's education. Educators who understand child development know better. Quick question: What is the effect of incessant, mind numbing high stakes testing and narrow test prep curriculum coerced onto children masquerading as education reform?

Not only do high stakes testing events induce toxic stress on the formative minds of children, the whole curriculum gets screwed up! High stakes testing forced on children is a really dumb idea.

Emanuel Plans To Close More Public Schools, Create More Charters and Replace Certified Professional Teachers With TFA Over Next Five Years

This just in from Edushyster.

Why Would A Policy Maker Deploy the TFA Learning Experience On Unsuspecting Children and Communities?

So why get rid of committed, professional teachers and replace with pseudo teachers? TFA is a scab labor force. With a cheap pool of eager, young bodies to throw into the classroom who will unwittingly take direction from corporate overlords,  TFA recruits hired to work in newly formed charter schools, burn out quick and move on asap, displacing professional veteran teachers who are forced out of public school settings because of school closings due to manufactured funding crises. Here is how it works:

So now we know. Despite the altruistic drivel and gibberish that spews from the lips of corporate deformers, it's really all about something el$e.

New York State Culture of Cruelty

Drilling data driven test prep into the minds of children is no education at all and it is certainly not an education children will feel worthy of remembering. 

EMPIRE STATE BULLY

There is nothing worse than a school yard bully! Instead of supporting children and their teachers in public schools, Andrew Cuomo ignores the scientific evidence that poverty affects children's neuro-cognitive development and then has the arrogance to threaten school communities with the "DEATH PENALTY!"

Koch Brothers: Masters of Influence Peddling, Creating Education PoliciesThat Are BAD for Children!!!

We know from a neurological perspective that learning experiences that are anesthetic to the senses are bad for children. Over a hundred years of cognitive science research has been ignored by education deformers like the Koch's who are founding members of ALEC and masters of influence peddling. Today, American children are the World's most tested children. Not diagnostic testing but high stakes testing. Kindergarten students and primary aged children, whose cognitive capacities are barely formed are being subjected to high stakes standardized tests and subjected to a narrowed, damaging curriculum devoid of multi-sensory learning opportunities! Schools have no choice in this matter when they are subjected to A-F grading schemes that will determine whether or not they will be open based on their student's standardized test scores. The Koch's, their cohorts in education deform and their high stakes testing schemes are bad for American children, bad for education and bad for a citizenry who's existence is based on the capacity for independent thinking, entrepreneurship and a democratic way of life.