The New York Times Buries the Real Story on Common Core

The New York Times posed this question in a recent story about the effects of Common Core in the 10 years since it was introduced: Did it fail, or does it just need more time to succeed? The easy answer is that Common Core was, is, and will remain a cancer on the American education system. But it’s an answer that has a lot of moving parts — mostly money changing hands. The Times article immediately gets it wrong in stating Common Core was rolled out by a bipartisan group of governors, education experts, and philanthropists. There may be a kernel of

Is Technology Setting Up Our Students for Failure?

One of the most obvious changes in education in the last decade has been the proliferation of technology in the classroom. The digital revolution started contemporaneously with the nationwide release of the Common Core Standards, after which paper textbooks were quickly ushered out, replaced by computers and digital texts. With that came promises of improved academic performance and a narrowing of the achievement gap.   It came as no surprise to grassroots education advocates that the promises were hollow. Academic performance has stagnated or declined in the majority of districts, and the lowest performing students are doing worse based on the most recent NAEP

Education-Industrial Complex Continues Assault on Student Privacy

Government and education technology entities are moving ahead with efforts to collect more and more sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) on America’s children and their families. Here is an update on some of those efforts: Weakening of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) According to excellent reporting by Cheri Kiesicker at Missouri Education Watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is considering removing the parental consent requirement for school technology use. She explains why this is a terrible idea: The FTC is considering several changes, including removing parent consent for edtech. See here (Section E. Question 23 covers the edtech

Senate GOP’s “School Safety” Bill Would Imperil Student Privacy, Expand Police State

In the midst of the impeachment charade, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and a number of his GOP colleagues introduced a bill to address mass shootings. However, privacy groups, particularly those who advocate for student privacy, question the larger effect of the bill. Is it really about mass shootings? Or is it just building a bigger, more invasive police state?    Cornyn’s bill, the RESPONSE Act, is co-sponsored by Republican Sens. McSally (Ariz.), Ernst (Iowa), Tillis (N.C.), Capito (W. Va.), and Scott (S.C.). It has three major components: addressing unlicensed gun dealers and enhanced criminal penalties, developing crisis intervention and mental health services to include

U.S. Student Test Scores Plummet Again in Year 4 of Common Core

If there was any doubt that the Common Core standards have been harmful to American academic achievement, that doubt should be erased by the 2019 results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Nation’s Report Card. NAEP results have been stagnant or declining since the full implementation of the standards was mandated in 2015. As stated by Joy Pullman at The Federalist: For the third time in a row since Common Core was fully phased in nationwide, U.S. student test scores on the nation’s broadest and most respected test have dropped, a reversal of an upward trend between 1990 and

“Ethno-mathematics”? Seattle Schools Weigh Adding Social Justice to Math Classes

Still reeling from a holiday celebrating that genocidal maniac, Christopher Columbus, schools in Seattle are about to dole out another heaping spoonful of how white men, colonization, and all things related to Western Civilization are bad. Very, very bad. Not only did white men and the growth of Western Civilization result in disease, pestilence, slavery, and all manner of human suffering, it also ruined math. Yes, math. But fear not: the Seattle school district is on top of it and intends to rectify past wrongdoings by “re-humanizing” K-12 math classes, mixing in an ethnic studies approach to multiplication tables. According to an

Congress to Reconsider Massive College Student Data Grab

As Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the powerful chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, approaches retirement in 2020, he and Congress are making one last push to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). This legislation has been in a stalemate for the last five years. This means that the odious College Transparency Act (CTA – S800/HR1766) that we at The National Pulse, Joy Pullman at The Federalist, The Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, and many others have warned about over the last few years is making a comeback. Alexander said as much in his Senate floor

Parent Fights Back After Common Core Math Publisher Sues to Silence Him

Blain Dillard, the Carey, N.C., parent in the Wake County School District that we wrote about several weeks ago who is being sued by a Common Core math curriculum company for speaking out against the Mathematics Vision Project (MVP), is now countersuing: A Cary parent who is being sued for libel and slander for criticizing a controversial math curriculum that’s being used in the Wake County Public School System has filed a countersuit against the Utah-based company, Mathematics Vision Project, also known as MVP.  Blain Dillard, a father of three, is asking that MVP pay his attorney’s fees and damages, anywhere from

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