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California-school mind control: grades for “Gratitude” By Jon Rappoport January 30, 2015 http://www.nomorefakenews.com The Sacramento Bee has the story. 1/27/15, “Grit and gratitude join reading, writing and arithmetic on report cards,” by Loretta Kalb: “Across the state, report cards are undergoing a sea change in how students are measured for academic performance. Where teachers once graded students [only] on traditional math or English skills, they now judge attributes such as grit, gratitude or being sensitive to others…Districts are changing their report cards to reflect the new Common Core State Standards…” “…when it comes to attributes such as grit or being...

Condoleezza Rice has a new position in education. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tapped the former secretary of state last Thursday to take over as chair of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. “I cannot overstate Dr. Rice’s international and national accomplishments and vast intellect and bold vision she brings to our ambitious work in reform,” said Bush on Rice’s appointment. Rice, who is currently a professor at Stanford University, already has close ties with the Bush family. She served as secretary of state during the administration of Bush’s brother, George W. Bush, and has served on the board of...

Common Core-aligned report cards are now grading students based on their “sensitivity to others,” as well as “grit” and “gratitude” across California. Instead of having standard grades based on students’ proficiency in classes alone, these “detailed reports” now report whether students are sensitive and assigns them a grade. At Harry Dewey Fundamental Elementary School, for grit, gratitude, and sensitivity toward others, students will now receive one of four possible grades: “A for almost always, O for often, S for sometimes, and R for rarely.” Other districts, such as Sacramento City Unified, have a similar grading scheme, but is a scale...

WINDSOR HEIGHTS, Iowa — When former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee walked into Walnut Creek Church here on Sunday night, fresh off his gleaming navy-blue bus, he was greeted by the crowd of suburban evangelicals as a visiting celebrity rather than a 2016 presidential candidate. Waiting in line to get their copies of the Republican’s latest book signed, a handful of the attendees shared recollections of Huckabee’s spunky 2008 bid for the White House, when he won the Iowa caucuses and seven more states before bowing out. But most of the conversations focused on Fox News, where Huckabee had been perched...

Executive SummaryEarly Learning and Student Success Immediate Steps Create early learning collaboratives in every county in the state Adopt a state-wide public engagement initiative (annual summit) Long Range Steps Provide opportunity for all 0-5 to participate in full year educational experiences Adopt pre-k - 3 non-graded education model for children ages 4-8 Teaching and Learning Immediate Steps Develop challenging curricula (common core state standards may be basis for robust curricula). Culture, Climate, and Organizational Efficacy Long Range Steps Establish each school as the center or hub of the community it serves Financial Resources Immediate Steps Initiate process for evaluating local...

This is National School Choice Week, but I want to talk about parents’ school testing choice. Moms and dads, you have the inherent right and responsibility to protect your children. You can choose to refuse the top-down Common Core racket of costly standardized tests of dubious academic value, reliability and validity. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I’m reminding you of your right to choose because the spring season of testing tyranny is about to hit the fan. Do you object to the time being taken away from your kids’ classroom learning? Are you alarmed by the intrusive data-sharing and...

This is National School Choice Week, but I want to talk about parents' school testing choice. Moms and dads, you have the inherent right and responsibility to protect your children. You can choose to refuse the top-down Common Core racket of costly standardized tests of dubious academic value, reliability and validity. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I'm reminding you of your right to choose because the spring season of testing tyranny is about to hit the fan. Do you object to the time being taken away from your kids' classroom learning? Are you alarmed by the intrusive data-sharing and...

U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., announced on Monday he was a co-sponsor of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s, R-SC, “Local Control of Education Act” which would stop the Obama administration from making states “adopt a specific curriculum, and would void any previous federal requirements established for states that have already adopted Common Core.” Rooney explained why he was backing the bill on Monday. “The federal government has no constitutional business setting the curriculum for a teacher in a Florida classroom,” Rooney said. “If states, of their own volition, want to adopt a certain set of standards, then that’s their prerogative. I...

This week, events around the country will highlight the importance of parental control of education as part of National School Choice Week. This year's events should attract more attention than prior years because of the growing rebellion against centralized education sparked by the federal Common Core curriculum. The movement against Common Core has the potential to change American education. However, anti-Common Core activists must not be misled by politicians promoting "reforms" of the federal education bureaucracy, or legislation ending Common Core while leaving all other federal education programs intact. The only way to protect American children from future Common Core-like...

When the radicals start defending “standards,” that’s when you have to become suspicious—of the standards. That is the case with Obama’s federalized education plan called Common Core. Perhaps there is no clearer sign than when Mother Jones mocks alarms raised about Common Core’s national tests and student data tracking that will eliminate local control, and effectively, private and home schooling. When Linda Darling-Hammond, close pal of Bill Ayers, is in charge of developing tests, beware! As I noted in my “Dissident Prof” post, the defenders of Common Core need to look at the reality, look at the money trail, look...

How was it that 48 governors entered Race-to-the-Top without knowing outcomes? It was one of the many “crises” exploited by the Obama administration. While the public was focused on a series of radical moves coming in rapid-fire succession, like the health care bill and proposed trials and imprisonment of 9/11 terrorists on domestic soil, governors, worried about keeping school doors open, signed on. Many politicians and pundits praised Obama on this singular issue, repeating the official rhetoric about raising standards. It stands to reason, though, that education policies would be consistent with Obama’s agenda. After all, one of his most...

Imagine if, as you chat with your child’s first-grade teacher and ask about how he decided to embark on a career in education, he told you, “I walked out of jail and into my first teaching job.” Imagine him telling you that his days in jail and violent protesting were formative to his teaching philosophy. But the teacher who brags about such beginnings is now a “Distinguished Professor of Education.” Despite his specialty as “Professor of Curriculum and Instruction,” he trains future teachers to dispense with curricula and discipline, as well as tests and grades. His many books appear on...

Former Gov. Jeb Bush, considering a run for president in 2016, looks to be returning to his political roots -- and a place of political influence -- by helping to host an education conference next month in Tallahassee. The conference is to focus on education policies he pushed while in the Governor's mansion. Gov. Rick Scott, Florida Senate President Andy Gardiner and Florida House Speaker Steve Crisfulli will take part, too, one of Bush's education foundations announced today. That suggests that conference aims to impact legislation that will be debated in the upcoming session of the Florida Legislature. Bush's Foundation...

(Dec 5, 2013) In an article published on Monday that advocates for Common Core standards, the Associated Press presents what amounts to the typical talking points for supporters when faced with criticism that Common Core is a federal takeover of education. The standards were created by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to improve academic achievement and increase accountability. President Barack Obama and his administration embraced them. Actually, Barack Obama did not simply “embrace” a concept that others developed; instead, the very roots of Common Core are in the early ideas generated by him...

The federal mandate to test U.S. school kids annually was at the center of a Senate panel’s work on Wednesday to fix the long outdated No Child Left Behind education law. […] Many educators and parents have complained that the law led to teaching to the test and too much test preparation, but supporters of the mandate such as civil rights and business groups said it’s a critical way to ensure that historically underserved groups of students are learning before it’s too late to help them. […] Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee,...

Last year, government scientists tell us, was the hottest year on record. This news is terribly — what's the word? — inconvenient. No, not for polar bears or drought victims or coastal dwellers. It's inconvenient for politicians across the country who, despite whatever data or overwhelming scientific consensus might be proffered, insist on denying global warming. In recent weeks, West Virginia has snatched national headlines for its attempts to doctor school science standards to discredit climate change. The sixth-grade science curriculum, for example, was amended so that, rather than having students "clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the...

Four in 10 U.S. college students graduate without the complex reasoning skills to manage white-collar work, according to the results of a test of nearly 32,000 students. The test, which was administered at 169 colleges and universities in 2013 and 2014 and released Thursday, reveals broad variation in the intellectual development of the nation’s students depending on the type and even location of the school they attend. ... many still graduate without the ability to read a scatterplot, construct a cohesive argument or identify a logical fallacy. The exam, known as the Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus, measures the intellectual gains...

More than a third of public school students in Connecticut are in poverty, according to a new bulletin. As for the rest of the country, the Southern Education Foundation said low-income students are now a majority. Mississippi led the nation with 71 percent. It was followed by New Mexico at 68 percent. “No longer can we consider the problems and needs of low-income students simply a matter of fairness,” wrote Steve Suitts, SEF's vice president. “Their success or failure in the public schools will determine the entire body of human capital and educational potential that the nation will possess in...

Government curricula can thus make children believe whatever they want them to believe through subtle and subliminal brainwashing The Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, wants to have “equity” in education and to replace the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) with a new law that would include government-funded preschool. The sooner the collectivist indoctrination starts, the better. NCLB already cost taxpayers $25 billion in 2014. Government failed miserably with Head Start but the taxpayers’ memories are short. Sec. Duncan wants to throw $1 billion more to the Title I program to low-income school districts with no guarantee that it will make...

Democrats will appoint Muslim to the House Intelligence Committee who said US schools should be like Islamic madrassas and warned law enforcement that 'Allah will not allow you to stop us' House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is set to appoint a Muslim lawmaker to the Intelligence Committee, congressional aides said Tuesday, giving him access to some of America's most closely held secrets in the war on terror. The move will come as the world is still grappling with an al-Qaeda death squad's massacre last week of journalists at the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, executed because they had published a...