By in Rhode Island’s Future
 |
| by Wendy Holmes |
“I’m a mom,” it begins.
“And the happiness of my children, now and in the future as they go on to start
careers and families of their own, is on my mind all the time.”
The post was
written by a mother from Florida who is in support of the Common Core State
Standards and the accompanying testing. She is also an attorney and president
& CEO of the Multicultural Education Alliance.
The blog on which it appeared is
put out by the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a Jeb Bush creation,
which states on its website: “The 21st century economy is the most competitive
in world history. It is an economy that requires a growing number of educated
and skilled workers.
Yet, on international assessments, American students rank
21st in science and 26th in math, behind their peers in countries like
Singapore, Japan and Canada. We need to reverse this trend if America is to
continue its dominant role.”
The website for the EdFly
blog has as its web address ExcelinEd.org.
According to the 2014 donor page for ExcelinEd, those at the top of the donor
list include (no surprises here):
Greater than $1,000,000:
- Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
- Walton Family Foundation
- Between $500,001 and $1,000,000:
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- GE Foundation
- News Corporation
- Charles & Helen Schwab Foundation
- Between $250,0001 and $500,000:
- Laura and John Arnold Foundation
- Bloomberg Philanthropies
- Between $100,001 and $250,000:
- Eli & Edythe Broad Foundatio
- Jeb Bush & Associates
It is no coincidence that
Commissioner Gist herself as a Chief for Change, a group also created by Jeb
Bush, would choose this particular blog post to send to all RI superintendents.
That she has used her position of authority to single out this one blog post,
which can reasonably be assumed to be propaganda for the position she has
espoused since assuming the role of commissioner, is very unfortunate and does
a disservice to the hundreds of RI parents and other concerned citizens who
have researched the Common Core and PARCC testing in depth and decided they are
not in the best interests of our children.
While it is true that many
prominent civil rights groups, including the National Council of La Raza, do
support the allegedly “rigorous” Common Core Standards and testing for
accountability of students, teachers, and schools, one can only wonder whether
the members of these groups have confronted the reality of the harm this agenda
is actually having on traditionally under-served children and youth.
It is
understandable that those concerned about children of color, children from
diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, children with special learning
needs, and children living in poverty, should be alarmed by the very real lack
of advancement of many of these children in the public schools.
This is a complex issue
and needs to be addressed comprehensively. The starving of financial resources
to the schools that serve these children is one culprit. The steady diet of
reading and math test prep for the past dozen years of NCLB is another.
For an
excellent and thorough explanation of why civil rights advocates should reject
market-based (i.e. corporate pushed) reforms, please read “Why People of Color Must Reject Market- oriented Education Reforms: A
Compilation of the Evidence” by United Opt Out National.
Commissioner Gist
continues to defend her stance on the Common Core Standards and PARCC testing,
and chooses not to truly listen to the voluminous concerns that have been
raised by parents, teachers, and administrators both here in RI and across the
country.
Even so, the Opt Out
movement is growing. Parents who have become aware of the big picture of the
ramifications of the full corporate agenda for public education in America will
continue to stand up for their children and their children’s future by
rejecting the scripted learning of the Common Core and the meaningless
accountability of the PARCC testing that drain public funds and jeopardize
children’s full flowering as unique members of a diverse society.
America does not need
cohorts of test-takers to march into corporate slots for the sake of global
competitiveness. America needs self-actualized adults with civic-mindedness and
the knowledge and ingenuity to tackle the very real challenges we all face.
The
Common Core rhetoric of fostering critical thinking and problem-solving is
Orwellian double-speak, not reality.
Hopefully the general
public will wake up to this before it is too late. Will the Commissioner take
the time from her double duties in RI and in Tulsa to respond?
Sheila Resseger is a retired
teacher, RI School for the Deaf