Category: Pearson

WHAT. THE. CHUCK.

3/30/2015

Cagle that is...

Photo from Rocky Top Politics

Charles W. (Chuck) Cagle is listed as a shareholder and chair of the Education Law and Government Relations Practice Group for Lewis, Thomason, King, Krieg, and Waldrop on the firm's website.

According to the website: Cagle graduated from Tennessee Tech in 1978, receiving his law degree from the Nashville YMCA Night Law School in 1989. Now known as Nashville School of Law, this school has not been accredited by the American Bar Association and its graduates may not be allowed to sit for the bar examinations in other states.

It also goes on to say that he "oversees the firm’s representation of over 70 public boards of education, two private schools, two private universities, and a private medical school in a variety of legal matters... Mr. Cagle also is a registered lobbyist with the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance. His list of lobbying clients has included school superintendents, school employee professional organizations, school boards, private schools, private universities,"

Friends might call him "Chuck" but Momma Bears like to call him, Chucky Sleeze.

Friends might call him "Chuck" but Momma Bears like to call him, Chucky Sleeze.

Why? Well, let's start with all the conflicts of interest pointed out in The Knoxville Focus:

In addition to representing over half the school districts in the state, here is a quick list of some of Chuck’s lobbying clients:

(1) Tennessee State Collaborative on Reform of Education (SCORE)
(2) Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents (TOSS)
(3) The Association of Independent and Municipal Schools (AIMS)
(4) Mr. Cagle is also a registered lobbyist for Pearson Education.

Yes THAT Pearson

Pearson is the biggest book publisher in the world, who stands to make millions selling books and materials to the state and to school systems that were forced to buy new books because of Common Core. SCORE played a huge role in bringing Common Core to Tennessee.

And who plays a major role at the local level in deciding what textbooks get bought with taxpayer money? The School Superintendents. Cagle represents the School Superintendents (TOSS) in Nashville as their personal lobbyist.

Mr. Cagle’s client Pearson Education also landed the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) testing contract without having to contend with any competing bids.

Oh, but that's not all...

Photo from Teachers' Letters to Bill Gates

Photo from LinkedIn

Chucky Sleeze's wife, Sandra G. worked for Pearson as a Senior Account Executive. Yes, that same Pearson!!! And when Sandy was unavailable, ol' Chucky would pinch hit for her, like at this important meeting for the Association of Independent and Municipal Schools, where "Chuck Cagle represented PEARSON in the absence of Sandra Cagle and indicated that PEARSON was happy to sponsor the AIMS luncheon." After doing Sandy's part, then Chuck gave his "Legislative Update" as the AIMS Lobbyist/Attorney.

According to LinkedIn, Sandy was employed by Pearson for thirteen years. She left in 2013, just after Chucky got into trouble with Tennessee Ethics Commission for an incident involving Pearson. Uh oh.

Details are in Commission's November 13, 2012 minutes. A Pearson employee gave a case of wine to an employee at the Tennessee Department of Education (tsk-tsk), but Chucky got the wine back and reported the incident, so no action was taken against him. This wasn't his first time before the Ethics Commission. Earlier that year, Cagle was fined by the commission for forgetting to register on time. Well, those things happen when you are as busy as Chucky representing all those schools systems and education organizations.

Maybe Chuck forgot to file his registration because he was busy working on the Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools merger? Sometimes, things get lost in the shuffle when you ping pong back and forth between being a lawyer and a lobbyist.

Anyway, back to the merger... Only, it really wasn't a merger.

It was a contentious legal battle. Unfortunately for Shelby County Schools, they hired Chuck Cagle to be their lawyer. So, all those promises of the school merger litigation dragging out until kindergarteners went to college never happened. Instead, Chucky urged the Shelby County School Board to "start planning for the inevitable.” And forget about a special school district or municipal schools because "the idea of some or all of the suburban municipalities forming their own school systems probably wouldn't get far in the legislature which has not only a 1982 ban on special school districts but a similar ban on municipal school districts."

Even though, Chucky turned out being wrong wrong wrong about municipal schools, he can still be rather pushy about things. Back in 2007, he pled "no-contest" to assault after pushing and calling someone an idiot at a school board meeting. "No-Contest" means Chuck didn't want to admit to assault because he might get sued. But he can't plead "not guilty" because he did it. And you can see his lame little push in this video.

So, how does Chucky get away with all those conflicts of interest? Why do school boards keep hiring him to be their lawyer? Why do reputable education organizations pick him to be their lobbyist? We want to know!!!

WHAT. THE. CHUCK...???

Poppa Bear: Why the dumb tests???

3/27/2014

What would you do if you found out your high achieving honors student was spending time in English class learning how to remove grass stains from dirty laundry rather than reading classic literature? This Poppa Bear was disgusted, so he contacted Momma Bears and told us all about it...

Dear Momma Bears:

I recently learned that my busy high schooler was forced to use class time to take an on-line test called Discovery Education Assessment (DEA). I had to hear this news from my child because the school did not send home any notice or information about the assessment. While driving home, I got an earful of frustration and complaints about a test already administered twice this year. Now for the third time, an entire class period was wasted on a meaningless assessment that apparently does nothing for the student. It does not affect their grades or prepare them for the ACT or SAT.

It was particularly disconcerting to hear my child complain about questions on how to clean laundry stains and Beyonce. After we got home and I took my blood pressure medicine, we had a long talk about what was going on in school.

My child has a full load of honors level classes, stays up late studying, and gets up early to be at school by 7:00am. In education, the time is short but the road is long--lots to learn and not enough time. Every minute spent on meaningless assessments is cheating our children out of the education they need to make it in this world. And it every minute spent on homework to make up for that class time cheats my wife and I out of time we could spend with our child. High school flies by, blink your eyes and it's gone.

So, what kind of test is so important to poach on precious high school class time? According to my irritated child, it's a bunch of stupid questions about some stupid articles on stupid things like how to remove grass stains, hybrid cars, water conservation tips as well as a smattering of literary excerpts. As an English major, it pains me to see such little regard given to literature where only excerpts are used and not the entire text. I am concerned as to who actually selected the passages contained therein and whether or not the author of the test was qualified to draft the questions. And given that my child is enrolled in an honors level English class, it leaves me bewildered as to why passages such as removing grass stains and Beyonce were used to assess my child's reading comprehension skills. There was certainly little, if any, time spent testing the use of literary devices or probing the student's ability to think in the abstract.

To bring this full circle, I am disgusted by this waste of my child's instructional time. This test has nothing to do with furthering my child's education and only functions as an impediment to my child's education. It leads me to suspect ulterior motives behind this test. Is someone conducting marketing research? Why else would they want to know if laundry instructions were easily understood by the reader? Let the marketing teams do their own testing on their own time and stop leaning on my children's teachers to proctor such non-productive tests.

Sincerely,

An Upset Poppa Bear

Momma Bears would like to thank Poppa Bear for bringing this assessment to our attention. After investigating Discovery Education, we found out he has good reason to be upset. DEA is yet another Pear$on product paid for by our tax dollars. Based on DEA results, students are pulled from class and placed in front of a computer screen for "remediation" of their weak areas. This on-line remediation is called RTI (Response To Intervention) which means more money for Pear$on and less time students spend with classroom teachers.

Poppa Bear is also right about DEA being of little value to students. According to one review, "High school course-specific assessments are also available, as well as a large bank of test items for creating customized district assessments. These are not diagnostic assessments. Reports show students performance in benchmark categories which are very general only covers the grade level of the student so it does not provide any out-of-grade testing. If schools want to use this to guide differentiated instruction, it would not be sufficient. Nor would it be sufficient to really help a classroom teacher. Teachers would/should already know their students' general strengths or weaknesses so the reports' summative information wouldn't be that helpful."

The Discovery Education Assessment that this Poppa Bear was talking about:

We sure wish that our leaders would TRUST TEACHERS to teach and evaluate students instead of mandating boring assessments and computerized interventions.

A Creepy test --- PARCC

2/26/2014

Someone sent this video to Momma Bears and it freaked us out. We transcribed the video for you below.

Feb. 5, 2014 - Dr. Peg Luksik explains how Common Core testing can embed questions that result in behavior change without protest from the children. Poughkeepsie, New York

Question from a Mom in the audience:
"I'm trying to understand because I thought that PARCC and the Smarter Balance, with both, it sounds like as the student is taking it, the test will actually modify itself to how the student is doing? And when the test results comes back, that would be to the benefit of the student? So why is it then that the teachers don't like it if it is self-paced? Wouldn't you think that would be wonderful?"

Dr. Peg Luksik's response (as transcribed by a fast-typing Momma Bear):

"The problem isn't that it is self-paced, the problem is that the test is open to manipulation."

So if I wanted to look like the students are doing poorly, I can adapt it to make the test harder. If I wanted to make it look like the students are doing well, it can be adapted to make the test easier. And you, as parents, or taxpayers, or policy-setters, will never know which way the test was adapted because it is an internal mechanism so it is not a valid assessment, and that is the fundamental problem with it. The test is being manipulated as the test is being taken. In other cases, when you're not in math but some of the other areas, history or where it is more philosophy-driven, you have to comply before you can move on. So the child is put in the position of: "you must agree."

"I don't agree with the global warming." (giving an example) But you have to because the test won't let you move on unless you comply.

So the test-makers can make the test adaptive: we can make it easier... we can make it harder... or we can make it so that we force compliance. You can't take the next step unless you comply with whatever is being taught or presented in the test. So even if you don't agree with it, you are gonna have to write it, you're gonna have to say so.

Perhaps an example that is older will help you... I have a long history in this movement. This is not the first time that the federal government has attempted to take over education. So in the 1990s, it was called "Outcome based education" and then called "School to Work." I was one of the leading national opponents then, too. I got involved because a woman showed me a test. It was given in Pennsylvania and was called the Educational Quality Assessment (EQA). It was originally given back in the 70's and early 80's. The test said "Citizenship" so parents thought they were testing things like George Washington and the Declaration of Independence... but when you looked at the internal documents of the test, which I did, it said "we're not testing objective knowledge," it said "we are testing and SCORING for the child's threshold for behavior change without protest" and that was in the test!

A sample question said: "There's a group called Midnight Marauders and they went out at midnight and did vandalism. I, the child, would join the group IF..."
... "my best friend was in the group."
... "my mother wouldn't find out."
There was no place to say they would NOT join the group. They had to say they would join the group.

Another sample question was, "Your parents just found out that they are moving to outer Mongolia, how much time would you spend on each of the following:"
..."being upset"
..."crying"
..."arguing"
So, how adaptable are you to change?

Based on the results of the EQA, districts were given curriculum packets to modify their curriculum so that the children would do better on the EQA the next time. So they were using the test to get a threshold for behavior and then adapting.

Now that was a paper and pencil test, so to say that it was easy to track is a gross overstatement of the level of difficulty that it was to get the information, but compared to a computer adaptive test... much easier.

And when we were fighting Outcome Based Education, I was in every state but Hawaii. And in one state I was reading the Assessments, it was a Reading Assessment, and it was a story about a child who found a wallet and there was money in the wallet, and what do you do with the money. I'm sitting in the Department of Education, reading it in front of the other Secretary, because they didn't want me to make a copy and take it anywhere, which was fine, and the question was to the child:

"If you found a wallet with money in it, would you take it?"

(pause) Do you read better if you say "yes"? or do you read better if you say "no"?

Or were they testing a child's honesty on a State assessment with their name on it that was computerized? Because, with paper and pencil, I could find it.

What if they put that in a computer test? and if they don't give the right answer, I can change the computer to move them in the next direction.

So, the computer adaptive testing is REALLY dangerous for our children. Because the State can manipulate achievement data by making the test harder if they want, or easier if they want, but you won't know... you'll just get "proficient" results.

Or they can use the test to test for, and then influence, what your child thinks and how your child thinks about a variety of topics. And, again, parents thought that was a Reading test. They didn't know that "honesty" was being tested on a paper and pencil State Assessment with their child's name on it that is now part of their record.

And no child would think to say (raising hand), "Is that a Reading question?" Children just answer the questions in front of them because they're KIDS. They just take the test. THAT is what they are using the test for. Computer Adaptive makes that so much easier, and, therefore, so much more dangerous.
(end transcription, emphasis added by Momma Bears)

The PARCC test will be a State mandated test for Tennessee students in 2014-15. Some unlucky students will get to take the "pilot" PARCC this spring. No, they aren't flying an airplane... it means those students gets to be unpaid guinea pigs for the testing company (Pearson). Parents probably won't be asked permission for their children to take the trial test, so unless they ask, parents won't even know their child is being given this pilot PARCC test. Their children will miss precious class time to take a test that doesn't count for anything (except to help Pearson profit).

Will the PARCC have questions about honesty or character?
We don't know. We will never know. Parents and teachers are never allowed to see the questions. Test security is tougher than Fort Knox. In fact, a teacher in Memphis was fired last year because a high school student snapped a picture of a test question and put it on facebook. So, unless children mention the strange test questions to their parents, we have no clue. That's how Momma Bears found out about the awful Climate Surveys in TN (which, thanks to parents raising heck, have been stopped this year until parents give written consent. Go, Momma Bears!!!) And that's how parents in New York found out that the PARCC included questions with name brand products embedded in them.

Why does the government want to know this stuff about my child?
Admit it, you think Momma Bears are a little cuckoo for thinking that the government is spying on your children's brains and wanting to know their character traits. It does sound like something you'd see in a sci-fi movie. But you cannot argue with official government documents. We didn't write it, the government did. So, we give you facts. This document published by the U.S. Department of Education says:

"What will it take to shift educational priorities to promote not only content knowledge, but also grit, tenacity, and perseverance? This is an important and exciting time to stop, take stock, and prepare to move forward. New and emerging trends in research, policy, programs, and technology are providing unprecedented opportunities... new research programs are exploring ways to promote these factors. Several private foundations have recently initiated programs to push the frontiers of theory, measurement, and practice around these and related factors, particularly for at-risk and vulnerable students. In national policy, there is increasing attention on 21st-century competencies (which encompass a range of noncognitive factors, including grit), and persistence is now part of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.(page V)

Take the time to read that government document from the U.S. Department of Education. It is super-creepy!
p.39 has a Character Report Card
p.44 has pictures of the student sensors (facial cameras, pressure monitors, wrist straps, etc.)

And also take time to read the TN Race to the Top Application, Appendix C
(It is also an official government document, but it was written by consultants paid for by Bill Gates). It, too, will freak you out majorly to learn that they are compiling a 360 degree view on every child in public schools in TN, and they will share that information with the Federal Government and 3rd parties.

What if I don't want my child to take the PARCC, SBAC, State Mandated tests, or District tests?
Currently, there is no "Opt-out" law in TN. There is a proposed bill sponsored by the very awesome Knoxville Representative Gloria Johnson (she is also a teacher). If that bill passes the Legislature and becomes Law, parents would have the right to make the decision for their child (Ummm... so the government owns our kids, and parents have to get legal permission to prevent them from taking a test that could be harmful??? Momma Bears disagree with that!). The Pearson testing company sure doesn't want Rep. Johnson's Opt-Out bill to pass, and their 8 well-paid lobbyists are pushing hard to prevent it from passing. Now a half-a-billion dollar fiscal note has been added to the bill, because if students don't take the test, the federal government won't be happy and will want the $500 million back from the Race to the Top grant (which is really our tax dollars in the first place!) Crazy. Our kids in TN have a half-a-billion-dollar testing bounty over their heads. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Use the magic word:
If you want to "opt-out" of testing for your child, be sure to use the word "REFUSE" instead. It seems to work for parents who have used it in TN. If you use the word, "opt-out," you'll be told the Attorney General says you cannot legally opt-out (which is true because TN does not have an Opt-out law. Yet.). Crazy, huh? Refuse is the magic word.

What if I keep my child home on testing days?
Some parents do that and it works. However, the testing windows to administer state mandated tests last a few weeks because there aren't enough computers to test every child at once. Testing must be done in shifts and this takes a long time. Plus, there are make-up test days following the test window weeks. That's a LOT of unexcused absences for a student.
Note: We're not saying you should lie and say your child is sick those days, because lying is dishonest, but your child could possibly be reported for truancy for having that unexcused absences. Crazy, huh?
Another negative: the State mandates that the test count as 15%-25% of the child's grade on his/her final report card. So, depending on your district, your child will be given a zero averaged in with his other grades. In most districts, this means 10% of their English grade will be counted as a zero, and 10% of their math grade will be a zero, averaged in with their semester grades.

Some parents in other states have had success with this method of "opting out":
Withdraw your child from school the day of testing. After the testing window is complete, re-enroll them in school. This method is a big hassle both for the parent and for the school personnel. And you'll need to figure out childcare arrangements since they won't be at school. But it prevents the test from being given to your child, prevents the zero being a part of his/her final grade, and means you won't be reported to DHS for truancy or unexcused absences.

Time to use your Superhero power:
Call and/or email legislators as soon as possible and let them know that you support these bills:

Testing Opt-Out (HB1841/SB2221): “This bill permits parents to opt their children out of participation in high-stakes testing.”
Repeal Common Core (HB 2332/SB 2405) This bill would Repeal Common Core Standards in TN!!!
Postpone Common Core (HB 1825 /SB 1985) requires the state board of education and the department of education to postpone any further implementation of Common Core State Standards beyond those standards implemented as of June 30, 2013, until further implementation is approved by the general assembly.

Is this the best we can do?

12/23/2013

Momma Bears asked teachers:
What do you like and dislike about common core?
Their answers were surprising:

"I like that students must think critically, but I've been doing that all along as any good teacher does."
"I don't like the never-ending testing. It leaves less time to teach!"
"I like teaching math concepts in depth, but it frustrates and confuses some students and their parents."
"I was happy to hear that standards would be deeper and fewer, but that isn't really the truth. There are more standards and they're just all packaged together."
"The writing assessments are way over my students' heads. I've taught many grade levels and I know that these writing prompts would be appropriate for older students, but not the younger ones I'm teaching now."
"I'm having to ignore bad grammar, misspellings, and penmanship to prepare them for the common core writing assessments. That bothers me as an English teacher."
"I like the idea of every child being on the same level, but that's impossible in real life. Students are not all the same and they will never be."
"My students will be tested on the computer for writing assessments, but they don't know how to type. We don't have enough computers for students either."
"I am worried about my SPED students. I heard the new Common Core tests will be brutal for them, and they won't get any accommodations."
"I wish I could teach more literature instead of non-fiction. I've had to cut great literature that my students used to love and give them non-fiction text that they should be learning in Science or Social Studies classes."
"The common core training was confusing. The 2 Common Core leaders contradicted themselves and argued in front of us about what was correct under Common Core."
"I hate that my evaluation is tied to test scores. We haven't transitioned to the Common Core tests yet, so my students are still tested on the old standards. Which should I teach them: the standards they'll be tested on (and will make my evaluation score higher)? or the standards they will need for the future (but will net lower evaluation scores for me)?"
"I'm grateful that we are given freedom to develop our own lessons, but I've heard teachers in other districts are required to follow scripted lessons. They can't go back and review if students aren't solid because they have to move on to the next lesson on the schedule. I sure hope that doesn't happen in my district!"
"Every time I hear the word 'rigor' I feel sick. Rigor is just another word for test, test, test."

With these valid concerns that teachers raise, plus the issues that Momma Bears has already written about regarding the testing and violation of student privacy that are inseparable with common core, Momma Bears wants to know:

Are common core standards really the BEST standards we can give our children?

Sincere thanks to Paul Söderholm for granting us permission to use his artwork. (gnurf.net ~ paul@gnurf.net) Though he is from Finland, he perfectly captured the corporate influence on our American Education system.

Why are we required to keep these imperfect, unchangeable standards? Why are our children required to take expensive, time-consuming, confusing tests on them? Why aren't leaders listening to teachers???

How to get stinking rich in the education industry

12/3/2013

Times are tough, but that doesn't mean you can't make a buck in education right now. No qualifications or experience? No problem! In fact, it is actually works better if you have zero classroom experience (so you won't have any compassion for the hardworking teachers and innocent students you'll be profiting from).

You could pay $1,395 to attend a workshop (like this one) to learn how to get rich in the education industry, but Momma Bears already did the homework and figured it all out. And Momma Bears is all about sharing knowledge with other concerned folks. So, save your money and read about the easy 10-step program to getting rich with other people's money through America's public school system...

10 steps to hitting the jackpot in education:

Step #1: Start a consulting business or organization. It doesn't really matter if it is profit or non-profit. Non-profit organizations will seem more trustworthy and innocent to the public (but don't worry, that doesn't mean you won't get a nice paycheck.)

Step #2: Create a catchy name for your organization. Acronyms work especially well. Don't forget a logo. You cannot go wrong with an apple logo, they are very much in style right now.

Step #3: Make a website with pretty pie charts and lots of catchy buzz-words like these:

achievement gap
data driven benchmarks
human capital
Common Core aligned
education strategies
global citizen
rigorous, relevant, and robust

Step #4: Convince a school district that they are failing. You'll need to cherry-pick and manipulate test score data, make some glitzy charts, and use lots of buzz words. It helps if you can WOW the school board members and Superintendent with free trips or fancy meals, too.

Step #5: Find a Gullible Billionaire. (Bill Gates, Eli Broad, or any of the Walton family love education entrepreneurs, especially if you have a great logo.)

Step #6: Convince that failing school district to apply for a grant from the Gullible Billionaire. Note: the Gullible Billionaire may require a "matching grant" to get his money. Don't fret your pretty little entrepreneurial heart over that little detail! There's money to be squeezed from within that school district (those students don't need money for library, art, or music, do they?) Don't forget to tell the school district to ask for matching grants from that town's Chamber of Commerce and other gullible rich people. Businesses love to donate if you publicize their names; it is well-known that customers especially love businesses that help children. Be sure to check all those potential sources of grant money.

***Disclaimer: the Billionaire will require private student data in exchange for his grant. Don't worry, you won't go to jail. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) law was quietly changed to make it all legal. Parents would be upset if they knew, though, so don't let them find out.

Step #7: Name your price (which is conveniently the same amount as their grant funds plus the money they squeezed from their tight budget). Set a time limit to your involvement with the district, and include in the contract that you get paid no matter what.

Step #8: Pretend to study the data from the district. Visit some of their schools to seem legitimate. Then, convince the elected school board and superintendent to do any or all of the following (it really doesn't matter to you what they do, of course, because you still get paid regardless):

Fire teachers.
Hire unqualified temporary teachers that cost less and don't stay around long enough to get pricey retirement benefits.
Tell teachers they can earn bonuses and/or merit pay for reaching impossible goals.
Spend more money on testing students (but call them "benchmark assessments" to compile even more data, which Gullible Billionaires love).
Suggest they give biased surveys to teachers, parents, & students to convince them that you know what you are doing (these surveys are a great way to gather even more data. In fact, some Gullible Billionaires will often pay 100% for the surveys in addition to the grant!)
Squeeze even more students into classrooms to save their school district money (but don't ever mention how much they are wasting on outside consultants like yourself!)
Close neighborhood schools and give them to charter school investors.

Step #9: Now that you have stirred up a hornet's nest in that school district, it is time to get out of Dodge, cowboy! The citizens are starting to see they've been duped. It is time to go on a nice vacation or buy yourself a yacht with those millions of education dollars filling up your bank account.

Step #10: If you really want to rake in consistent long-term tax-payer money, consider starting charter schools. Charter operators set their own salaries and you don't have to deal with pesky financial audits and laws that apply to public schools. Charter investors get ridiculous tax breaks up to 38%, which will double your money in just 7 years! Yes, sir-ee, just sit back and let some commoners run your charter school empire while you watch your bank account grow.

So there you have it. Ten easy steps to hitting the jackpot in the education industry. What is your next goal in life? Perhaps children of your own? If you decide to brave the parenthood frontier, just make sure you put your own children in nice private schools with small class sizes, rich art programs, qualified teachers, huge endowments, and none of that common core stuff that some other education entrepreneurs came up with to sell textbooks & testing and gather data for Gullible Billionaires. Hey, maybe you'll see their yacht when you're on vacation so you can ask them for private school recommendations???

Don't believe Momma Bears? This kind of profiteering really has happened... maybe even in your school district!
Click these links to see for yourself:

Click HERE to read about grants & consultants in Knox County, TN
Click HERE to read about the enormous profit in Memphis, TN
Click HERE and HERE to see how TN's Governor profits
Click HERE to read how charters & testing companies make millions in TN
Click HERE to read about the scandals in FL, OK, ME, NJ, TN, NM, & LA
Click HERE to read the waste in Denver, CO
Click HERE and HERE to read how this firm profited from chaos in Colorado, New Orleans, New York, & St. Louis
Click HERE to read how a smart teacher does the math on Charter Schools
Click HERE and HERE to heed other's warnings about the Boston Consulting Group
Click HERE to see how Texas is being swindled big-time
Click HERE to see Louisana being taken advantage of
Click HERE for No Consultant Left Behind
Click HERE to see how a billionaire advertised for paid consultants in 15 states through Race to the Top
Click HERE to see how a consultant gets paid $625 an hour in Florida with public tax dollars (even though teachers haven't received raises in 7 years and the school board cut sports and student activities).

Pear$on in the U$A

11/21/2013

Parents, go check your child's textbooks. Do you see it there on the publisher's page? No? Well, don't just assume it isn't published by Pearson even if it says another publishing company's name because Pearson bought up lots & lots of publishing companies, but still retained the former names. (Click HERE to see all the companies Pearson now owns. We bet you'll recognize quite a few!). Pearson has a monopoly on common core. And testing. And pre-testing. And textbooks. And workbooks. And technology. And remedial help for students who fail the tests created by Pearson. And Pearson just recently acquired a major ADHD testing company (can you say, "conflict of interest"???) THEY are the ones publishing most of the common core hoops our children are forced to jump through. And they are making a boatload of our tax money off of it.

Pearson isn't even a U.S. company. Yes, you read that correctly. They have offices on U.S. soil for business purposes, but they an international corporation from the United Kingdom. Pearson spends millions on lobbyists and all-expenses-paid lavish trips for our elected and appointed officials in the USA to influence them. It is obviou$LY working for them.

This may seem far-fetched to think about, but we can't help but wonder: The British aren't still mad at the USA over that whole Boston Tea Party & Revolutionary War thing, are they? I mean, the U.S. hasn't paid taxes to them in centuries, but now our tax dollars are flowing into British pockets. Kinda weird to think about. Wouldn't making the other countries dumber make sense? Is THAT what is going on? It sounds crazy, but what other reason can explain: why is our children's curriculum is being dumbed down?

Even more suspicious, the second-largest stockholder in the Pearson corporation is "The Soverign Fund of Libya." Hmmm... That could explain why parents & teachers across the country are noticing a strange Islamic emphasis in their children's textbooks. Florida parents and leaders were outraged and required Pearson to re-print World History textbooks because of the obvious inaccuracies and bias toward Islam.

Tennessee parents, too, are upset about Pearson's latest textbooks. After dedicated parents read and researched new Pearson textbooks all summer, they attended the TN Textbook Commission meeting armed with proof. "On October 7, 2013 the state textbook commission came forward in a packed house to announce they agree, none of these textbooks should be accepted. This was unprecedented! The commission was praised by every activist, parent, community member and any one else that knew the courage and honor it took to stand up and make the right decision." Hooray! But HERE is where it mysteriously gets fi$hy: "On October 23, 2013 the commission met for an emergency session. What was about to happen was disappointing, but more than that it was shady and dishonorable. The decision was overturned. 3 of the members of the commission that had originally had the courage to do the right thing, by voting against these textbooks, suddenly decided to change their vote. What happened between Oct 7 and Oct 13 remains to be seen, but with the disgraceful decision made, disappointed parents and community members were told by state officials to go back to their local school boards to demand change there."

Really?!? Go to our local boards? It is not the responsibility of locally elected boards to review and approve every single textbook in their district. That would take them 4EVR (said like a teenager with much drama) to read and compare every textbook option for every grade. Most school board members have full-time jobs during the day. There is no way they could do that. No, the job of researching and approving textbooks is clearly the job entrusted to the State Textbook Commission, and they are obviously just passing the heat to the local boards. Even worse, the Textbook Commission canceled their November meeting and won't meet until January 2014. Cowards. Or maybe they will all be out of town on one of those luxurious "training" trips to Australia, Singapore, London, or Rio de Janeiro paid for by Pearson? Momma Bears aren't saying they are, of course, but Pearson has been under investigation in New York State for illegally influencing leaders with some sweeeeeeeeet trips around the globe.

It is not just Pearson's textbooks that are upsetting parents... Last year on the PARCC corporate core test in New York, Pearson Publishing included at least half-a-dozen test questions with NAME BRAND PRODUCTS embedded in the question. Yep, they plugged name-brand products to thousands and thousands of consumers, oops, I mean, "children," who were forced to quietly concentrate on the test question. Hmmm... we wonder how much the sale of Mug Root Beer increased after that day of testing? or if the stock in LEGO increased that month? Are the Pearson test-makers so dumb that they can't substitute a brand name beverage for "lemonade" or even something healthy like "water"? No, they are brilliant marketing geniuses! Imagine the profit possibilities! And because teachers and parents are not allowed to ever see the test, nobody will ever know... Tho$e $neaky, $ly devil$!

The USA needs to wake up! We're smart enough to educate our own children. We need to kick those with profit motives out of our public schools before it is too late.

This quote by Valerie Strass in her Washington Post column is terrifying, but says it best:

"Future historians (if there are any) are going to shake their heads in disbelief. They’ll wonder how, in a single generation, the world’s oldest democracy dismantled its engine — free, public, locally controlled, democratic education. If they dig into the secretive process that produced the Common Core State Standards, most of their questions will be answered."

It is just a shame that OUR kids are in the middle of this. Not Bill Gates' children. Not British children. Our brilliant, funny, loving American children. This is too close to home for Momma Bears to ignore. It is gonna take American Mommas & Daddies from all races, neighborhoods, and political parties working together to make things right.

WHAT. THE. CHUCK.

Cagle that is...

Oh, but that's not all...

Poppa Bear: Why the dumb tests???

A Creepy test --- PARCC

Is this the best we can do?

How to get stinking rich in the education industry

10 steps to hitting the jackpot in education:

Has your school district been duped, too???
Send the info to Momma Bears and we'll post it!

Pear$on in the U$A

Archives

Momma Bears

Categories

WHAT. THE. CHUCK.

Cagle that is...

Oh, but that's not all...

Poppa Bear: Why the dumb tests???

A Creepy test --- PARCC

Is this the best we can do?

How to get stinking rich in the education industry

10 steps to hitting the jackpot in education:

Has your school district been duped, too??? Send the info to Momma Bears and we'll post it!

Pear$on in the U$A

Archives

Momma Bears

Categories

Has your school district been duped, too???
Send the info to Momma Bears and we'll post it!