tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567956292946586014.post8664421418728688278..comments2013-09-20T19:36:07.258-07:00Comments on The Underground Parent: Where’s the Money?The Underground Parenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03751624561355911588noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567956292946586014.post-73256549829103526862011-03-05T20:16:58.626-08:002011-03-05T20:16:58.626-08:00At least you have some costs given to your legisla...At least you have some costs given to your legislature. Our Department of Education, based on letters we circulated to that agency via parents and cc'd to our legislators, said there would be no cost to Missouri! <br />I've uncovered a document stating it has at least $1.4 million unfunded over three years, and I know that is just the tip of the iceberg. We also have a high ranking Education Senator (Republican) stating that there is no cost to Missouri and districts don't have to sign onto the common core if they don't want to.<br />Sigh.stlgretchenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05148560735290088930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567956292946586014.post-4886083712712299092011-02-19T00:06:56.095-08:002011-02-19T00:06:56.095-08:00Dear Anonymous (3:50 p.m.):
Your comments are in ...Dear Anonymous (3:50 p.m.):<br /><br />Your comments are in bold. My response follows.<br /><br /><b>Of course [Steve Wilson] would rate his own standards higher.</b><br />This is the same unsupported and slanderous statement made by OSPI staff when they visited Spokane to peddle the CCSS. Where is your support for this statement?<br /><br /><b>the cost of maintaining and supporting the existing WA State standards ... will be extremely high - much higher than the costs of implementing the Common Core.</b><br />This is the same unlikely and unsupported claim made by OSPI staff when they visited Spokane to peddle the CCSS. Where is your support for this statement?<br /><br /><b>it is really all about control, isn't it?</b><br />This is a true statement. It is all about control. The people who are forcing the CCSS down the throat of Washington taxpayers are working hard to wrest all control from the people who actually have the children's best interests at heart - their parents and teachers.<br /><br /><b>If we keep everything in the state, WTM folks, who have time on their hands, can make their frequent trips down to Olympia and lobby for their agenda</b><br />Don't you mean "WTM folks who take time away from their jobs and families to travel on their own dime (as opposed to the taxpayer dime) to exercise their rights as American citizens to free speech, to freely assemble, and to address grievances"? Or is it just people who agree with you who should get to testify in Olympia? <br />There you have it, folks: The real CCSS agenda. It's much easier to force your agenda on the people when they have no say at all. <br /><br /><b>the Common Core Standards will move us much more quickly towards being internationally competitive ... there will better textbooks available, the assessment system will be far superior</b><br />Wow. And keep the world safe for democracy no doubt. You have certainly drunk the Koolaid. These are the same wild, unsupported claims made by OSPI staff when they visited Spokane to peddle the CCSS. Where is your support for these statements?<br /><br /><b>There is more to say.</b><br />I hope if you say it, you include something of substance to back it up, because you did a very weak job here. <br />You sound familiar, Anonymous. Are you sure you don't work for OSPI?Laurie H. Rogershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18367210923946752695noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567956292946586014.post-52646630470458282932011-02-18T22:18:13.937-08:002011-02-18T22:18:13.937-08:00To Anonymous
Just so you know, Steve Wilson is a ...To Anonymous<br /><br />Just so you know, Steve Wilson is a big fan of the Common Core Standards and supports their adoption. <br /><br />Considering the $182 million start up costs to change to Common Core it will take years for the state of Washington to break even by what they might save (pure speculation) on the Common Core. And that doesn't count throwing away the more than $100 million in implementing our current standards.<br /><br />Steve Wilson was extremely kind in giving the CCSS math standards an A- I would give them an F as being almost totally unusable by the majority of stakeholders. They will be a disaster.<br /><br />What the SBAC, directed by the architect of our WASL, and the PARCC, directed by Achieve, will accomplish is to give us a national WASL disaster. Hopefully when more people understand that what they are doing is a violation of federal law under sec 103b of Pubic Law 96-88 Oct 17,1979 they will be shut down and defunded.The Deanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12497565901960706033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567956292946586014.post-814641938197054942011-02-18T21:35:29.636-08:002011-02-18T21:35:29.636-08:00Anonymous - How will the cost to maintain the curr...Anonymous - How will the cost to maintain the current math standards be higher than implementing the new standards? The current standards have been reviewed with the teachers and teachers have been trained. Textbooks have been purchased. The standards are already online. Please explain your thinking in that comment. As a taxpayer, why would you want to spend any money (state or local) to change the math standards once again and this time, they are WORSE than the ones we currently have? This taxpayer doesn't want to spend another dime on new math standards.<br /><br />I am not a WTM member but I do agree with their views on math education in Washington. I attend legislative hearings when I can and I take time off from work to attend the hearings. I assume the WTM folks do the same.<br /><br />Please explain your logic in "the Common Core Standards will move us much more quickly towards being internationally competitive than the current state standards."<br /><br />In reality, it will take another 11 years for the state to realize the positive impact the current math standards have on Washington's students. All the students who were above 4th grade when the new standards were implemented were mathematically handicapped by the old standards. I know because my 18 year old is one of them. The reform math (old standards) was put in place when she entered kindergarten and she grew up without having instant recall of math facts and I didn't know until she was in 9th grade that she never learned long-division (not required under the old standards). She asked me a question while I was at the computer and I told her to figure out the answer by dividing it. She started to run to get her calculator and I told her that she could either do it in her head or scratch it out on the paper she had with her. She said she never learned long-division (which I knew wasn't required but figured she had a teacher who taught it to her like my younger daughter's teacher did). She will be the first to tell you that she was let down by the education system. Luckily, once she got into middle school, her district still had traditional math and she was able to make it through high school math and took her one required college math clas last quarter and passed with a 3.7. She was only able to do that because of the traditional math education she received after elementary school (which is no longer offered in middle school despite the fact that the math standards changed in 2008).<br /><br />The downward spiral of math education took over a decade to crash and it is going to take over a decade to recover.<br /><br />Anonymous - have actually compared the current Washington math standards to the CCSS math standards? If not, you need to. The Washington standards provide examples so teachers, parents, and students can get an idea of what each standard actually wants students to learn. The CCSS does not. The CCSS does not (at least not that I can find) require students to have instant recall of their basic math facts but it does require instant recall of two-digit numbers and they are, in my opinion, a year later than they should be.<br /><br />Until you've actually compared the two, you should not be commenting on them. If you have compared them, I don't understand how you can think the CCSS are better than the current Washington math standards. <br /><br />My last question. Do you have kids currently in the K-12 public education system? I do have kids in the public education system and I'm tired of the math problem that the 2008 math standards finally corrected. I'm sorry, but I just don't trust the education establishment with math anymore--I've seen, firsthand, the damage they can do when they try to "fix" math education. They create a mess and blame it on everyone except themselves.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-567956292946586014.post-61819399200625049832011-02-18T15:50:17.446-08:002011-02-18T15:50:17.446-08:00There is so much to say in response.
But for star...There is so much to say in response.<br /><br />But for starters, the A and A- ratings from the Fordham Report were assigned by Steve Wilson (is that his name?). Wasn't he the same person who had the final say on the current WA State standards? Of course he would rate his own standards higher. <br /><br />And, in addition, the cost of maintaining and supporting the existing WA State standards at the same level the Common Core Standards will be supported will be extremely high - much higher than the costs of implementing the Common Core. <br /><br />And, from my perspective, as I watch the politics of all this - it is really all about control, isn't it? If we keep everything in the state, WTM folks, who have time on their hands, can make their frequent trips down to Olympia and lobby for their agenda, will continue to exercise, and try to impose, a very narrow definition of high quality math education on the students of the State of WA. <br /><br />A little reflection the "truth" about this issue is that the Common Core Standards will move us much more quickly towards being internationally competitive than the current state standards. And again, that is because there will be much more support for implementation, there will better textbooks available, the assessment system will be far superior, etc. than what we can do within the state. OSPI simply does not have the capacity to support the current standards in a way the supports students and teachers well. (Perhaps some of your organization are the same folks who are saying "no more taxes" constantly.<br /><br />There is more to say. /. . . .Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com