Anita B. Hoge -- States Under Republican Leadership Fall For Obama's Carrot

STATES UNDER REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP FALL FOR OBAMA'S CARROT

By Anita B. Hoge
March 29, 2013
NewsWithViews.com

The Next Generation Schools

It's easier to understand an agenda with a picture. A picture is worth a thousand words. The following graph was used in a power point presentation about how the Innovation Lab Network will change and redesign how American schools will function in the future. This is a 'Race to the Top' education model. The graph was taken from a power point presentation from the Stupski Foundation, the OECD, the international Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, with a grant from the Chief State School Officers, CCSSO, about the Next Generation Schools, called the Innovation Lab Network.

These are the original states that are included in this pilot research project from Obama's 'Race to the Top' -Maine, West Virginia, Wisconsin, New York, Kentucky, and Ohio. Race to the Top was funded from the Recovery Act with $400 billion dollars. Since that time waivers have been given to states that need flexibility in using their Elementary and Secondary School Act (ESEA) funding In the "No Child Left Behind" legislation to move toward this model since the current Congress has not passed a budget. More states are involved at this time. The most profound concept in this graph shows how the next generation school will eliminate representative government. Notice that the new system bypasses the community, governance, and finance. Draw your attention to the blue lines that are most important to this agenda. They are: your child, called human capital, assessment which is testing, technology, and any time and any place. Testing and technology become the most important part of this agenda to create the human capital of the future for the international global workforce.

How will abolishing representative government work? In order for this graph to become a reality, there are three barriers that must be removed. Community; families, parents, and churches must have no options or legal authority, only a choice of which school to send their children; Governance; your locally elected school board or other elected local or state officials that could become a hindrance will be eliminated or reduced to minor functions: parents will not have any voting power over a for-profit charter school; Finance; the neighborhood school no longer depends on your local tax base to fund schools under equality or leveling the field. The mantra that will be quoted is, under fairness and equity there should not be rich school districts or poor school districts, only schools. Your tax money will be pooled regionally or toward a county base to be distributed equally for each child. Federal funds will now fund individual students. Your elected school boards will no longer have the tax base from which to run their school. Your local neighborhood school will eventually be pushed out through academic bankruptcy and/or taken over by charter schools.

This is the new model for school choice. Federal monies, ESEA Title I, is being changed in new laws being proposed that will follow the individual child and the Individual Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) will change the definitions of who can receive funds to include any child not meeting Common Core Standards (CCS) in an Individualized Education Program (IEP), individual education plan similar to the special education plans for handicapped children. This will mean ANY and EVERY child can receive choice money to go to the school of their choice. The entry point solutions are the end results or the child meeting government Common Core Standards and what must be done to achieve these goals. This is a design down program, start with what the government wants and work backwards....what a child will know, do and be like, or beliefs, values and actions....Blooms taxonomy, the whole child theory.

This graph from the Next Generation Schools, Race to the Top agenda, spells out how to mold the child toward those objectives. It shows how representative government, as well as parents, will be erased from any authority in educating their children or how the schools of the future will function through a computerized monopoly of selected profit making corporations, otherwise known as corporate fascism.

This is the model for for-profit Charter Schools that use public taxpayer funds with no elected school boards or taxpayer accountability and this is the model for the takeover of all education in America including private schools. Private schools are included because, when these stipends are given to each child under Choice from Title I which is being proposed in the new ESEA legislation in the federal budget supported by Republican Congressmen and Senators, Republican governors and unknowingly by many conservative groups, any child accepting that federal stipend to go to a charter, private, Catholic, Christian, home school, or other school, will be mandated under accountability, to take federal testing to meet the federal standards. Many tests are being aligned to the Common Core Standards using federal objectives from National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test item banks already validated to meet government goals. Inevitably this will control all education in the United States if you take the money. The CCSSO has had model legislation waiting in the wings for years. Perhaps we can ask why Governor Jeb Bush is in Maine pushing his Charter school agenda with his ”Foundation for Excellence in Education" that is widespread in Florida? Legislation in Michigan, under Republican leadership, House Bill 6004 and Senate Bill 1358 would expand a separate and statewide school district Education Achievement Authority (the EAA) overseen by a governor-appointed (unelected) chancellor and functioning outside the authority of the State Board of Education or state school superintendent. These schools are exempt from the same laws and quality measures of community-governed public schools. The EAA can seize unused school buildings (built and financed by local taxpayers) and force sale or lease to charter, non-public or EAA schools. This is proof that there is some truth to an agenda of eliminating representative government.

Look at the corporations that are flooding into these states to get contracts and compare them to who has access to the personal data explained below. Research to create these individual models for individual children with individual needs to meet Common Core Standards has attracted big business. Big money is being made and businesses are lining up at the door to get their share. But at what price? The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, (PARCC), a testing organization just applied for 501(c)(3) non-profit status which allows easy access to individual data under Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Link Smarter Balanced is another through Educational Testing Service, (ETS). American College Testing, (ACT), Pearson Foundation, Gates Foundation, and Wireless Generation who already are feeding at the federal data trough. Republican governors have been hoodwinked into an agenda that is racing toward ending representative government and school as we know it.

Obama unlocks data, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act OF 1974 (FERPA) is unleashed, and opens Pandora's Box of privacy invasion, psychological manipulation, giving data for free to organizations to make a profit, and falsely using children in research unknowingly to parents, school boards, and legislators. The "learning genome," which means testing and teaching the whole child, is not just about academics.

This is top news yesterday out of New York: Experts, Parents, Lawmakers Blast Database Providing Personal Student Information To Vendors March 14, 2013 1:45

NEW YORK (CBS New York/AP) –" A new national database that compiles personal student information for educational companies that contract with public schools is being blasted by privacy experts. In turn, Bloom reportedly plans to put this private information on a data cloud and share it with for-profit vendors. The information will include personally identifiable information, including student names, test scores, grades, home addresses, email addresses, linked to grades, test scores, disciplinary and arrest records, special education status, race, economic status and health conditions, according to Class Size Matters, a non-profit organization that advocates for class size reduction in NYC’s public schools." This is only the beginning.

Obama "unlocks" data by issuing FERPA's new regulations that were promulgated without congressional authority, now allowing written agreements with outside vendors to access personal data from the US Department of Education so that a plan can be developed. Each child will be evaluated as to their learning style and personality, strengths and weaknesses, not for the child to do the best of their ability, but do their best to meet government standards. This is for EACH and every child. "No Child Left Behind" has new meaning. No child will escape the threat of big brother forced on them through computer compliance programming. In January, 2012, in an Office of Science and Technology Assessment meeting, Obama names private corporate businesses that he has contracted with to make this government agenda become a reality. These corporations and businesses are developing systems, assessments, software, and curriculum that will be sold back to the schools and states when in effect, they get the data for free. Some of those corporations are ETS, Pearson and Microsoft to name a few. (I have requested a FOIA request for all written agreements that FERPA has entered into, to specifically attain a list of all organizations, foundations, and businesses that are receiving Personally Identifiable Information (PII) for free to do research, testing, and curriculum development. I have not received a reply as of today.)

This next graph explains how the system will work. It's not about academics, it's about control. The Next Generation indicators and diagnostics are: equity based, higher order/deeper learning, authentic affective engagement, leading to narrow accountability and system redesign. The indicators and diagnostics are important toward creating a profile that will force human capital to mold to a prescribed agenda. What is higher order and deep thinking? Most higher order questions on a test will measure " beyond text." Beyond text means you cannot get the answer from information provided in the story. You have to give your opinion or value judgment. Affective testing is measuring attitudes and values. This is critical thinking which sounds good to the parents or legislators. These value questions are scored to a criterion or standard set by the state. Higher order and deeper thinking and learning will be psychological intervention toward prescribed government attitudes and beliefs. Authentic affective engagement will be the psychological techniques used and needed to force the student to change their attitudes and behavior toward workforce objectives. This is the re-design of your neighborhood school.

The Next Generation School agenda will use "Personally Identifiable Information," (PII), to create this " learning genome" or the IEP for the individual child. Data has been UNLOCKED by Obama, so that, any foundation, business, corporation, non-profit, etc, can access data for free from personal micro-records collected by the government through testing and record keeping, to align software and curriculum for children to meet these government Common Core Standards. A customized, individual education plan, or Individual Education Plan (IEP) will be developed for every child, and technology will help the system accomplish their goals.

Families will be drawn into this agenda by stroking them into believing this IEP is for the good of their child. They will use words like learning styles, citizenship, character, career paths, civic learning and engagement. Here is the point, these attributes sound good, but they cannot be tested and scored in a pluralistic society. Do you want your child to be taught to the best of their abilities, or do you want them to be stymied toward only attaining government standards? One is a ceiling, the other is a floor. Remember the design down approach. You will design down from a ceiling, the only content that will be taught are Common Core Standards: you design up from the floor where the sky is the limit. The United States never had a ceiling on knowledge and we can confirm and document that there is a "Deliberate Dumbing Down of America" (author, Charlotte Iserbyt). We are talking about functional literacy, but with the right attitudes and values.

Ask yourself this question, "How do you measure character, or honesty, and integrity?" What is measured in Citizenship? How will these standards be scored? The answer is psychological testing and probing, writing about argumentation and challenging the students point of view or fixed beliefs. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, (NAEP), researched the testing of attitudes and values in Pennsylvania. Documents show that the Department of Education said it depended on the sophistication of your school district as whether you told parents about the testing. Citizenship tested thresholds, self esteem tested locus of control. They came under the umbrella of Quality Goals of Education, all scored to a minimum positive attitude according to reward and punishment, all according to the government group goals and group efforts...collectivism. Pennsylvania had to withdraw this controversial test. Is it appearing again in computerized IEP's?

Notice that the assessments, which are most important to collecting data on the individual, are linked to a new kind of credentialing. This new diploma will determine who is college bound or career bound in workforce training. The 20-80 percent agenda applies, those selected for college, those selected for workforce training. The agenda for teaching careers, starting in Kindergarten, or before in pre-school, will direct the child's learning path. ACT reported this past summer that testing will begin in Kindergarten to test the whole child to direct them toward a career. Work Keys, also an ACT credentialing program for the workforce also tests students in the affective domain, the testing of attitudes. These workforce standards were all spelled out in SCANS, Secretaries Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, from the Department of Labor. School to Work accomplishes the goal through direct intervention and guidance toward a new caste system of work that is being designed for Americans. At the State of the Union address the President also talked about a Race to the Top for high schools: "The President will call on Congress to consider value, affordability, and student outcomes in making determinations about which colleges and universities receive access to federal student aid, either by incorporating measures of value and affordability into the existing accreditation system; or by establishing a new, alternative system of accreditation that would provide pathways for higher education models and colleges to receive federal student aid based on performance and results." A Degree Qualification Profile is also being developed for college students by the Lumina Foundation documented in The Crucible Moment, Civic Learning and Engagement for global citizenship. Same standards, same objectives, testing college students in the affective domain, no one escapes having the 'right attitudes.'

Teacher training must also change to the new agenda. Differentiated roles, new career pathways, modular use of people and resources, redefined preparation, selection, licensing, and development.

In summary, this is a synopsis of current developments with questions that should be answered.

Data is " unlocked" by President Obama. He awards specific private partnerships to develop systems, technology, software, and curriculum toward individual students meeting common core standards. These partnerships have been experimenting in Race to the Top school districts. [Link]

FERPA is expanded January, 2012, without Congressional oversight. New regulations permits any organization, business, non-profit, foundation, etc., to be a "school official" that can access individual records of individual students for research. This expansion will include the private partnerships who will gain to make huge profits alluded to in unlocking the data.

The individualized packages become " learning genomes" that test and teach to the whole child. The whole child includes a psychological component of attitudes, emotions, values, and beliefs. What values will be taught? Who controls the standards? Can a computerized model teach attitudes and values? Will social justice and economic democracy be taught? Will the subject matter have a conservative or liberal bent? Who decides what the standards will be?

Do these contractors pay for the data on our children? Are they using the data to make a profit? Example, are contractors developing testing, software, or curriculum that must be paid for by the taxpayer when they get our children's data for free? Most businesses PAY for lists of people and are very expensive. Who are the contractors? Are these businesses just vendors out to make a profit?

Experts in tax law say that non-profit organizations like ACT, a testing contractor, the Pearson Foundation, as well as, their partnership with the Gates Foundation who are creating “a full series of digital instruction resources," appear to be using their tax exempt foundations to push its business interests. Is this a violation of the federal tax code? How many other non-profit organizations are using this data for profit?

Once data was unlocked by Obama, FERPA was relaxed, the issue of longitudinal data collection that follows an individual from birth to career has a huge new privacy concern. The "unlocked" data on an individual is now allowed to be accessed by "others" deemed school officials other than the Strict guidelines that were proposed under the Hanson Memorandum which required that under the ‘‘audit or evaluation exception,’’ only an authorized representative of a State educational authority must be a party under the direct control of that authority, e.g., an employee or a contractor to access the data. FERPA rescinds the Hanson Memorandum which open the flood gates of data flowing to outside contractors now called school officials. The issue becomes, who has direct access?

The new direction in education is that the money funded through Title I will, " follow the child." This, in effect, will have curriculum and software that would directly "affect" the individual child in a customized, or personalized education plan to meet government standards. In other words, particular organizations will have direct access to each students' profile to test and prepare instructional programs toward government goals on the computer. Nothing will come between the child and the computer.

Is the datum on individuals, which will assuredly be used for the personalized education modules in the new ESEA Title I regulations and new IDEA regulations being proposed, paid for as Intellectual Property to that individual, since a profit will be made on their information that is collected without their consent or the consent of the parent? Is your child a commodity for their personal data to be sold without your permission and without reasonable compensation? These proposed regulations will have federal dollars " follow the child." Are there not federal protections?

Data trafficking between the Department of Education and other outside contractors may contribute to violations of Cyber Security Laws when re-disclosure of personally identifiable data is shared and does NOT request informed written parental permission of uses. Is the DOE taking chances that security will not be breached on data that is so personal and private? Is it legal to allow outside contractors access to children's records? Is this safe? Where are the federal protections for children?

It's NOT about academics. What type of data is being collected by the testing contractors? ACT, a testing contractor, states that it is testing the "whole child". Is psychological information being collected to produce curriculum for " behavior change?" This is a quote directly from the testing contractor, "The assessment would look beyond academics to get a complete picture of the whole student," stated Jon Erickson of ACT. "There would be interest inventories for students, as well as assessment of behavioral skills for students and teachers to evaluate." Are these tests legally allowed to use psychological tests without informed parental consent? Is this a revisiting from the old External Quality Assessment/National Assessment of Educational Progress (EQA/NAEP) from Pennsylvania?

Demand an investigation into the illegal dissemination of personally identifiable information from the Department of Education regarding these possible violations of privacy. Carbon copy everyone. Newspapers, privacy organizations, everyone.

Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts!

These questions MUST be answered by your Congressman and Senator once they understand the violations of privacy, freedom, and other violations of law. Investigate FERPA. Stop Choice and the ESEA Title I stipends for individual students with federal strings attached. Stop psychological testing without informed written consent. Stop unconstitutional Charter Schools. Dismantle the Department of Education.

Note: Historical documentation from, 'The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America' by Charlotte Iserbyt, mentor and friend.

For information about testing attitudes and values, see "Getting Inside the EQA Inventory," Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Stupski workshop presentation:

1- Directorate for Education and Skills.

2- College and Career Prep to Start in the Third Grade.

3- http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2012/07
act_plans_to_roll_out_career_and_college_readiness_tests_for_3rd-10th_grades.html

4- Experts, Parents, Lawmakers Blast Database Providing Personal Student Information to Vendors.