Free Republic

How do you fix a failing high school? Change the grades. Under pressure to boost student achievement, the state-designated “out of time” Automotive HS in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, has resorted to rigging Regents exam scores. The failing scores of five students who took the Regents in January were switched to passing scores of 65 or higher on their transcripts, the city Department of Education has confirmed. One junior saw his scores upped to pass two exams required for graduation — Living Environment (biology) and algebra — even though he had failed both classes. The student insisted he deserved a break on...

The university's VP of Academic Affairs said the changes will no longer 'mask' students' 'demonstrated abilities'.. An Oregon university announced they will abandon failing letter grades, citing a "GPA fixation" that negatively impacts students. Western Oregon University issued a news release earlier this month that revealed the school would be replacing "D-" and "F" grades with "no credit" to discourage undergrads from dropping out. ... The difference is that the grade of NC will not negatively impact student GPAs, ... the decision came after data from the university showed that 65% of freshman students who dropped out had earned at...

Baltimore’s failing schools. Recent test scores found that there were 23 schools in the city where not even one child was doing math at grade level. These included Elementary Schools, Middle Schools and High Schools. Those were the extreme low end but the numbers also showed that city-wide just 7% of 3-8th graders were doing math at grade level. Today, Fox News highlights a similar report coming out of Illinois from a conservative group called Wirepoints. In this case, there were 53 schools where not one child could do math at grade level. Granted this is a small number of...

by Joshua Ford | 24NewsIn a major announcement, the Florida Department of Education said they have rejected 41% of proposed K-12 mathematics books intended for use during the 2022-2023 public school year. These books did not meet state academic standards due to their apparent inclusion of Critical Race Theory principles and other controversial approaches to education.The statement from Florida’s Department of Education reads: “Reasons for rejecting textbooks included references to Critical Race Theory (CRT), inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics.”“The highest number of books rejected were for grade levels K-5, where...

by Joshua Ford | 24NewsIn a major announcement, the Florida Department of Education said they have rejected 41% of proposed K-12 mathematics books intended for use during the 2022-2023 public school year. These books did not meet state academic standards due to their apparent inclusion of Critical Race Theory principles and other controversial approaches to education.The statement from Florida’s Department of Education reads: “Reasons for rejecting textbooks included references to Critical Race Theory (CRT), inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics.”“The highest number of books rejected were for grade levels K-5, where...

Pro-abortion groups are pushing a radical new sex education program on public schools that promotes abortions and shows graphic sexual images to young children while undermining parental guidance. Nick Bell, a former U.S. Department of Education official, warned parents about the new National Sex Education Standards in a recent column at The Federalist. “… the standards serve as an indoctrination camp in extremist sexual ethics designed to destroy children’s innocence and undermine their attachment to the traditional, Judeo-Christian understanding of sex and marriage,” Bell said. About 40 percent of public school districts approved a 2011 version of the standards, but...

An issue that has plagued the Republican debate for years now might actually be resolved in Florida. Common Core, which has been debated as far back as the 2015 GOP Presidential Primary, has effectively been eliminated by Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL), making Florida the first state to replace it. In Clearwater, Florida, the governor announced what could possibly be the end for Common Core education in Florida. The deal is a legislative proposal that will eliminate the common-core-based, end-of-year, high-stakes Florida Statewide Assessment and create the new Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (F.A.S.T) plan, which will monitor student progress and...

Well good, we won’t have to think for ourselves anymore. Joey and the gang will do that for us.And as every middle school student knows, the Constitution – the document of negative liberties (h/t: BHO) – does not give you the right to think for yourself. So yay! – now we can rely on the Ministry of Misinformation (MOM) to tell us who and what to believe. MOM will be working with a small cadre of unelected private officials who run all the big powerful tech platforms to decide who and what is deemed acceptable truthiness. And don’t worry, it...

Buildings keep falling down in America. What the heck’s going on? Is it bad science? Champlain Towers South, for example, was erected in 1981. These buildings may face loads and other threats that designers did not anticipate, including those linked to climate change. …what are you going to do with an area that never had high snow loads before, and suddenly, one winter, there’s a storm in the South like one you’d normally get in Boston? We design roofs based on historical records for snow, but those rare events aren’t so rare anymore. We have bigger hurricanes. We have longer...

As we have explained, per Stanley Kurtz, this legislation, coupled with the new Biden rule favoring education grants that push Critical Race Theory, is a disaster for America. It will result in the large scale indoctrination of America’s students in the teachings of BLM and others who despise America and its founding. Yesterday, the Civics Alliance convened by the National Association of Scholars issued an open letter to Sen. Cornyn and Rep. Tom Cole, the Republican House sponsor of Civics Secures Democracy. The letter appeals to them to withdraw their co-sponsorship, particularly in light of the new Biden rule. Cornyn...

We have just the perfect solution for American kids' deep ignorance about their nation's founding principles, system of government, and history. It's making them into political activists!It’s deja vu all over again. A coalition of government- and billionaire-funded nonprofits has a “bipartisan” plan for national curriculum goals, this time concerning U.S. history and government. Today this “state-led” coalition is releasing a major report they hope will get the attention of the Biden administration and state governors to “collaboratively” enact their vision nationwide. Remember, these sorts of national plans are supported by people on the right and left, so there can...

For 11 years, Professor Duke Pesta gave quizzes to his students at the beginning of the school year to test their knowledge on basic facts about American history and Western culture. The most surprising result from his 11-year experiment? Students’ overwhelming belief that slavery began in the United States and was almost exclusively an American phenomenon, he said. “Most of my students could not tell me anything meaningful about slavery outside of America,” Pesta told The College Fix. “They are convinced that slavery was an American problem that more or less ended with the Civil War, and they are very...

If our irresponsible media would do its job, if our politicians and community leaders would be more involved in ending the great national embarrassment, if parents would understand what's going on in the classroom and become so angry they won't take it anymore, we could have better schools in no time. Here is a dirty little secret that deserves your consideration. Most of the problems in the public school are caused by deliberate human actions. Not innocent human error as when somebody pushes the wrong button. No; think of the situation where somebody cuts a plane’s fuel line.George Soros said...

Errol Flynn is probably the most famous and beloved Hollywood star of all times. He's been dead 60 years. But a gushing fan on a tumblr page recently needed all these superlatives to describe him: “Errol Flynn, the most charismatic, talented, magnetic, handsomest, compelling, captivating, charming, delightful, enigmatic and fascinating man ever alive!” He was dashing, tall, a natural athlete. A friend noted that no one ever took a bad picture of Errol Flynn. Six-foot-two,190 pounds, good boxer, excellent fencer, skilled dancer, he loved sports and especially sailing. He was Captain Blood and Robin Hood. He played many a military...

Armed with George Polya's 1945 classic "How to Solve It--A New Aspect of Mathematical Method", it should be possible to prove that the elite educationists who foisted the nuclear hot-potato of Common Core Math into the laps of the American public did it with full, willful malice, and ram it back up their ying-yang. You know its true, you knew it before the kids were at home all day on Chromebooks and you could hear the teacher, even good ones, insisting that if students had thrown off the Common-Core Math stupidity and solved their problems the straightforward way, they were...

As America braces to hear the results of the 2020 election, some experts have stepped forward to say "not so fast!" According to election officials, counting all the ballots could take weeks thanks to the brand new Common Core math standards. "Common Core has provided us a national framework for how to count things," said Florida election official Darla Dibbleton. "Unfortunately, it has required us to completely re-learn math. This is a nightmare. I don't even know what's true anymore. I can't even remember how to count to 10. Somebody help me!" Dibbleton then broke down sobbing in the middle...

In a time of social strife and ahistorical grievance narratives, a properly informed patriotism is sorely needed to restore our national sense of unity. In response to numerous schools adopting a history curriculum based on The New York Times’s 1619 Project, Sen. Tom Cotton proposed a bill that would deny them federal funding. The 1619 Project is a series of essays asserting that the United States was founded on slavery and that its institutions continue to discriminate against black Americans. The curriculum is designed to introduce these arguments and themes to the classroom.Several prominent historians have criticized the 1619 Project’s...

VIDEO: Young Americans know nothing about 4th of July Campus Reform spoke with young Americans and students ahead of the 4th of July to see what they knew about the holiday. Most said America was a racist country but couldn’t answer simple questions about the country’s Independence Day.

Lower performing students hardest hit BOSTON – As we approach the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the United States Department of Education in May, shocking trends in student performance should lead us to reconsider the federal role in education and whether the initiative for policymaking should be returned to local schools, communities, and states. Breaking with decades of slow improvement, U.S. reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other assessments have seen historic declines since most states implemented national Common Core English and math curriculum standards six years ago, according to a new...

When Common Core first crept upon us from the Gates Foundation and other coevals, and then came into being in most states for real in 2010, it was hailed as just the thing to turn the tide on America's falling educational standards. President Obama's longtime education secretary, Arne Duncan hailed it as this: "the Common Core State Standards may prove to be the single greatest thing to happen to public education in America since Brown v. Board of Education." ... Obama himself claimed it made everything so much better:  So bottom line is: higher graduation rates, higher college attendance rates, more money for...