Today’s educational reform movement ignores the valued American ideals related to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Without fully engaging the American people, the federal government, through the Race to the Top program, coerced states to accept significant changes of which every parent should be aware: the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, expansive high-stakes testing, and unprecedented data-gathering and sharing. As a result, students’ personal freedoms are being violated, and the rights of parents are being infringed. The very creation and adoption of the standards took place in a secretive, non-democratic, and non-representative fashion, so much so that six years into the process, most families and many legislators are still unclear. While we have been busy living our lives and raising our families, privately funded entities have single-handedly redefined what our children will need to know and master to meet some future workforce need, and have employed experimental or previously failed methods to meet that goal. Despotic in their creation and autocratic in their implementation, these standards are now being forced on all children nationally and right here in New Canaan, without consent, parental engagement or much needed feedback.
Additionally, fundamental changes with these standards, known as “shifts,” now limit how parents can help their children. In this revival of the failed “new math,” efficient and accurate calculations are no longer valued. Students must talk and write about math to be defined as successful, even if their answers are not correct. Conversely, those who find the most efficient way to answer, but fail to describe how, will be deemed unsuccessful.
In language arts courses, the “shift” in reading requires that students determine meaning only from the text in front of them, regardless of prior knowledge. Ignoring long-standing evidence that individuals derive meaning from reading, based on context and background knowledge, the standards creators claim that cold reading will, “level the educational playing field” for all students. What this means, however, is that now a student may select the wrong answer as a result of having contextual knowledge about a topic. Much of this leaves parents powerless to do anything but enforce these new definitions of success, despite our personal beliefs about educating our children or what we believe they truly need to be successful.
Similarly, the new federally funded tests were covertly developed and are shrouded in secrecy, even requiring teachers to sign “non-disclosure” agreements in some states, or banning teachers from discussing the tests with parents at the risk of losing their jobs. As a requirement of Race to the Top, the federal government will analyze these test results, to ensure our children are “on track” for colleges and careers. Yes, data has been analyzed in the past, but never before have our children’s names followed the data to this extent, nor have tests, beginning for children as young as six years old, had such implications for an individual’s future.
In the past, test results would inform parents, schools and teachers about necessary changes to instruction. Now, an external, faceless entity (the “Consortium”) will decide where a student’s strengths will best serve the future workforce, possibly setting the course for a child without individual or family input. Who among us wishes our dreamy third-grader’s future to be set on a path as determined by state assessments, based on standards we don’t even understand or agree with?
Finally, data gathering, starting very young, is integral to this entire movement. Data on our children will be personally identifiable and will include and integrate up to 400 academic and non-academic elements, tracking students into adulthood in the mandated state-level P20 (pre-school through 20 years of age) databases. Also part of Race to the Top, much of that data must be shared with the federal government. Even worse, that data may be shared with non-governmental agencies, without consent of families, as a result of changes to the federal law called FERPA. This law, the former bastion protecting family and child privacy, was changed by executive order in 2011. As a result, our children are unsuspecting participants in a data-gathering, privacy-eroding and potentially life-defining mission funded and ultimately directed by the federal government.
Education reform, in its latest iteration, must be paused so Americans may fully consider exactly which freedoms we are willing to sacrifice at the altar of “the state.” Is it the freedom for parents to direct their child’s education? Is it the freedom to allow a child to reach his or her own potential without intervention? Is it the freedom to determine one’s own path in life without a massive government-held digital footprint? Will our children realize true liberty under this new system?
With Independence Day just around the corner, it would behoove all of us to remember that in America, the freedoms upon which our country was built still belong to us. Our Founding Fathers penned that, “governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The question remains: Have we given our consent?
Please don’t simply take my word, and definitely don’t take the word of those paid to promote these changes. True critical thinking requires that families do their own research on these issues, and come to their own conclusions. I fully urge all parents to do this.
http://ncadvertiser.com/34366/the-government-plans-to-track-our-kids-into-adulthood/
Additionally, fundamental changes with these standards, known as “shifts,” now limit how parents can help their children. In this revival of the failed “new math,” efficient and accurate calculations are no longer valued. Students must talk and write about math to be defined as successful, even if their answers are not correct. Conversely, those who find the most efficient way to answer, but fail to describe how, will be deemed unsuccessful.
In language arts courses, the “shift” in reading requires that students determine meaning only from the text in front of them, regardless of prior knowledge. Ignoring long-standing evidence that individuals derive meaning from reading, based on context and background knowledge, the standards creators claim that cold reading will, “level the educational playing field” for all students. What this means, however, is that now a student may select the wrong answer as a result of having contextual knowledge about a topic. Much of this leaves parents powerless to do anything but enforce these new definitions of success, despite our personal beliefs about educating our children or what we believe they truly need to be successful.
Similarly, the new federally funded tests were covertly developed and are shrouded in secrecy, even requiring teachers to sign “non-disclosure” agreements in some states, or banning teachers from discussing the tests with parents at the risk of losing their jobs. As a requirement of Race to the Top, the federal government will analyze these test results, to ensure our children are “on track” for colleges and careers. Yes, data has been analyzed in the past, but never before have our children’s names followed the data to this extent, nor have tests, beginning for children as young as six years old, had such implications for an individual’s future.
In the past, test results would inform parents, schools and teachers about necessary changes to instruction. Now, an external, faceless entity (the “Consortium”) will decide where a student’s strengths will best serve the future workforce, possibly setting the course for a child without individual or family input. Who among us wishes our dreamy third-grader’s future to be set on a path as determined by state assessments, based on standards we don’t even understand or agree with?
Finally, data gathering, starting very young, is integral to this entire movement. Data on our children will be personally identifiable and will include and integrate up to 400 academic and non-academic elements, tracking students into adulthood in the mandated state-level P20 (pre-school through 20 years of age) databases. Also part of Race to the Top, much of that data must be shared with the federal government. Even worse, that data may be shared with non-governmental agencies, without consent of families, as a result of changes to the federal law called FERPA. This law, the former bastion protecting family and child privacy, was changed by executive order in 2011. As a result, our children are unsuspecting participants in a data-gathering, privacy-eroding and potentially life-defining mission funded and ultimately directed by the federal government.
Education reform, in its latest iteration, must be paused so Americans may fully consider exactly which freedoms we are willing to sacrifice at the altar of “the state.” Is it the freedom for parents to direct their child’s education? Is it the freedom to allow a child to reach his or her own potential without intervention? Is it the freedom to determine one’s own path in life without a massive government-held digital footprint? Will our children realize true liberty under this new system?
With Independence Day just around the corner, it would behoove all of us to remember that in America, the freedoms upon which our country was built still belong to us. Our Founding Fathers penned that, “governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The question remains: Have we given our consent?
Please don’t simply take my word, and definitely don’t take the word of those paid to promote these changes. True critical thinking requires that families do their own research on these issues, and come to their own conclusions. I fully urge all parents to do this.
http://ncadvertiser.com/34366/the-government-plans-to-track-our-kids-into-adulthood/