Is THIS THE AMERICA You Want For Your Children?

Incredible article by the enigmatic Kavips. Delaware parents, if you are on the fence with opt out, you NEED to read this. NOW!!!!

kavips

South Korea, where more than 70 percent of high school graduates enter university, education is a national obsession that the government worries is actually damaging society.  Education accounted for nearly 12 percent of consumer spending last year, and parents spent the equivalent of 1.5 percent of G.D.P. on cram schools for their children.  There are now more cram school instructors in South Korea than regular schoolteachers, and the exams are so difficult that even college professors admit they could not pass them.

The paradox is these ridiculous tests don’t necessarily lead to demanding college classes. In Japan, where almost all college students graduate, it’s quite common for students to be asked only to parrot back lecture notes. Rigorous thinking, reading and writing too often is simply not expected.

Courtesy of Creative by Nature

When I asked a class (South Korea) if they were happy in this environment, one girl hesitantly…

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The View from Japan: Common Core is a Disaster in the Making

I had not heard it in a while, but Matthew Albright quoted the DOE as saying kids have to keep up with their peers from other countries. This is an intriguing look at exactly how those “peers” are doing. This is our future America. Keep selling the Kool-Aid Delaware DOE.

Creative by Nature

 “What many supporters of Common Core ignore is that the “rigorous” high-stakes testing approach that they wish to impose on our children has been experimented with in many other nations, and has been a complete failure. Once in place it dominates all instruction, turning schools into test prep factories, and students into test-taking machines.”

I’m a full-time University teacher, living and working in Japan since 1994.  We had our entrance exams a few weeks ago, and part of the job for University teachers here is to mark certain sections of the tests by hand. One of the things I notice each year is that most Japanese students get 30 to 50% of the answers wrong.

Sometimes answers are close but test markers are looking for the “exact” right answer. If the student spells a word wrong they may receive half credit or no points. Why are we so strict with spelling? Because these kinds of high-stakes tests are designed to select and sort…

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What’s Going On With $$$ At Academy of Dover?

The Charter School Performance Framework was published by the Delaware Department of Education in September, 2014.  In a couple days it will be March, 2015.  Six months later.  Guess who still doesn’t have their financial information listed on the DOE website concerning this?

http://www.doe.k12.de.us//site/Default.aspx?PageID=1731

Academy of Dover and money seem to be issues this school has been plagued with.  There is the unconfirmed by the school or the DOE that a former head of school who resigned had some purchase card issues.  Earlier this month I presented some board minutes where the school refused to pay paraprofessionals more money when they served as substitute teachers for the entire class.  And now this.  No entry in the DOE’s annual report on ALL the charter schools.  Any response to this DOE or Academy of Dover?

East Side Charter School Rakes In The Bucks In Private Donations

We hear it all the time from the pro-choice charter crowd.  “We don’t get the funding traditional schools get.”  “It’s not fair.”  Wah Wah Wah!  Traditional schools don’t get over a million dollars in contributions through foundations.  They get taxpayer money just like charters do.  And look at all the names on here!  Some of these are very familiar names in the corporate education reform movement here in Delaware!

Compare this to the priority schools in Wilmington.  They have been cash poor for years from tax cuts back in 2009 that were never restored.  It’s easy to have lower proficiency gaps when you rake in the funding which allows for more resources.  And now that you have your hooks in Family Foundations Academy, I’m sure you will be asking for more this year!

 

The New Jersey Standardized Testing Commercials

These are very powerful commercials.  If you haven’t seen them yet, you need to watch them.  If you still want your child to take the Smarter Balanced Assessment here in Delaware after viewing these, you need to do some further research.