Debunking the ‘Bot-Net’ Allegation, Human Parents will Tweet to #StopCommonCore, April 17

Source: Debunking the ‘Bot-Net’ Allegation, Human Parents will Tweet to #StopCommonCore, April 17

Public Schools or Public Screwels? Part 4

I decided to make a part 4.

This article here shows more of the problems with the Common Core and fed ed:  http://www.bearslordnetwork.com/city-on-a-hill-blog/who-can-stand-idly-by-while-children-are-led-to-destruction

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Here is a post from an Ohio anti-Common Core group:

VOUCHERS AND ESSA
GOOD READ FROM KAREN BRACKEN

Vouchers, Education Savings Accounts. It is your money……right? WRONG. It is your money ONLY when it never leaves your hands in the first place. Once it leaves your hands it is no longer yours. Sorry but that is simple economics. Once you allow your money to leave your paycheck or bank account it is no longer yours. So you send the money off to the state and/or federal government and they send it back with strings. Vouchers and ESAs will come with requirements. They will tell you how you can spend that money and how you cannot spend that money. You will get a list of approved sevices, curriculum etc etc. Is that choice? Is that using YOUR money the way you want? No it is not but that is what you will get back for YOUR money. It may start out sounding great but as the years go by it will get more and more controlling and restrictive and in the end YOU will do as they say with the money and educate YOUR kids the way THEY want or you get no money. And there lies the truth about vouchers and ESAs. They are all about control and forcing you to do what they want for the money. This is how we got Common Core and this is how they will get ALL children into the same system. The choice they want is not the same choice parents think they will get. In the end the only choice you will have is choice of location but no choice in what your child is taught (or trained to do because academics in not the name of the game….it is job training)

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Here is a post from a New York anti-Common Core group:

Asked my son how school was today. Did they do anything fun or learn anything new? He said “No. We took a test most of the day. The kids who refused (including our son) were given an ELA test. The other kids took a math test. It had bubble sheets like a standardized test.”

Excuse me? WHAT?! I’m going down there and demanding answers. I also want to see the test he was given and the math test that was given to the other students. Something fishy is going on and I’m not happy about it! 😡

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And here  are some replies to said post:

This came home today as “homework”. It won’t be going back.

my child came home with this for “homework” as well…..the book was ELA……I did refuse all tests. My child said it was not a choice everybody had to do this. This is what they were doing during the day. I will be asking when I go in for a meeting. Also, my letter covers benchmarks ALL tests as well, they are give these in Sept and so on.. I will be giving my letter in Sept. 2017-2018 when we start school. .So I guess I should be getting the math one soon.

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As a teacher it hurts me when I hear parents ask if their child had fun at school. Unfortunately school is not fun, and as a teacher I have no time to make learning fun. I try, but there is no time in the curriculum to have fun. I try to add in little partner or group activities to make it a more relaxed experience. But there is only so much we can do.

As a parent, it hurts me to hear that learning can’t be fun. Not a single fun moment in a full day. Not even specials. Are you kidding me?! Common Core is destroying childhood. And forgive me if I don’t care that a grown adult feels hurt by a loving parent asking their child if they did something fun at school. Do you need a safe space? My children have been being hurt for 4 years! 😡

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As a teacher, there are many demands put on both the teacher and student but by all means you can and should make learning fun everyday. If you have lost the ability to make learning fun then I think it’s time for a new career.

Parents should know that their children didn’t have fun, so they can continue to fight common core. When it goes. school can be fun again. (It SHOULD be fun now at least some of the time.)

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I’m sending a note this morning..I kept [Student name withheld] out last week, I send in my opt out paper work . [Student name withheld] came home Monday and said he is stressed out cuz he has to take that test..I told him to write a poem all over it about how he feels at that moment.

I’m going in. Enough is enough. Who do they think they are?! How dare they violate our parental rights and expect to get away with it?!

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Our school has make-ups this week for kids who missed the ELA test. Maybe your school is trying to secretly feed them the make up test?

It was a test the teachers made up and could not opt out of I talked to Bailees teacher about it when she was on vacation

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My cowprkers son was given an iReady test. She found out after the fact. They had refused the ELA tests for their son and the school gave him an iReady test instead.

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Stupid schools. My son didn’t get the gum.but idgaf as long as he did NOT have to sit thru drivel, all meaningless. He took papers/crayons & made momma fabulous masterpieces. 😉

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Here is another post from the New York anti-Common Core group:

I received a recorded message from the middle school principal last night. To inform me that my daughter refused the NYS tests. (duh)
But then the message went on to say how standardized tests are a crucial part of the public education system, and this year, the tests aren’t timed, and aren’t being used to evaluate our teachers. Plus, they are great practice for the high school regents exams which cannot be opted out of.

Anyone else receive a call or letter like this?

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And here are some replies to said post:

I also got a letter asking me to reconsider

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I received a letter about the tests. Yet my youngest is not in 3 rd grade and my oldest doesn’t test because he’s disabled. I couldn’t believe it. I guess they start early.

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My tenth grader has refused since sixth and does great on her regents. Sounds like it’s scripted from SED…

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Here is an alarming post from an anti-Common Core testing page:

Anonymous AZ.

“Received a distressing phone call from my daughters school this morning. Any student that refuses to take the test will automatically be sent home with an out of school suspension for insubordination. This is for each day that the child refuses. If you keep them home for the day, they will have the test put in front of them on the day of their return. And the cycle will then continue, child refuses, serves OSS, test put in front of them upon return. There is no word if the 5 weeks of OSS handed out to the child will effect them being able to graduate (my child is in 8th grade), but it will go on the attendance record as suspension served for insubordination, which will then be presented to the HS the child will be enrolled in. I had a meeting with the principal (which we have a huge respect for as a person and a professional) and she laid out the entire scenario. We, as parents, instructed our child to sign in to the test and immediately submit without answering any questions. She will then sit there quietly until the end of the test. I’m sure this loophole will be closed but for now it’s the best answer we have…

Before the questions begin, the school is Legacy, but I will not go further into detail as I respect the staff and do not want the backlash to be directed at them. The concerns should be directed at the district administration that have handed this mandate out.

Bill Bressler is the head of academics and Heather Sycker (sp?) is the academic director. 480-270-5438 ext 1227
I have called and left a message but have received no call back.

Voices up, People. This is a ridiculous mandate and we need to stand up to this with a singular voice!!!!”

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Here is another alarming post from the same page:

Anonymous NY 4/2/17

“Older son is in 8th grade at IS 75. He is opted out. He came home today and reported that every teacher he has, plus the principal (!) shamed kids for opting out!! He was even harassed about it when he was on his way to the bathroom!! The principal came in to the auditorium where the opting out kids were sitting, and told them that they deserved to just “sit there and read”, since they were hurting the school by opting out!! Smh! Methinks the school is sensing an increase in parental awareness, and they are getting nervous!

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And another alarming post:

When do we actually call it what it is? Abuse
Another parent post:My daughter (3rd grade) came home from a week of sitting in an opt out room where she was only allowed to have a pencil and paper and sit silently. Not quietly, absolutely silent. She had the choice of reading, using pencil and paper (NOT colored pencils) or laying her head down on the table. Outraged, I emailed the Principal and asked to see – in writing – the policies surrounding children who opt-out. He failed to produce these written policies (I have asked twice now), and he claims they are agreed upon district-wide. Some children who DID take the tests were allowed to play a game when they were done. Not the opt-out kids. The Principal states that their goal was to make the opt-out room similar to the testing environment. I asked him why this would be necessary but have received no answer as of yet. He did, however, claim that allowing coloring materials in the room (colored pencils or crayons) made the opt-out room “chaotic”. I have contacted the Board of Education about this as well as the Superintendent. I want to know why children who opt-out appear to be punished for it. Any insight would be appreciated.

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Here is a post from a California anti-Common Core group:

For those you who opted your children out of testing, what did your kids do while the rest of the class tested? Also, isn’t it required that districts have to tell you of your right opt out?

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And here are some replies to said post:

Good luck with all that. I’m no longer in CA, but I taught at my child’s school. We were told we could NOT inform the parents, only reply to their questions. Also, when I first submitted my opt out letter, the principal stormed into my class to tell me that was not allowed. I had to politely tell her to double check her sources. When testing came, my child was shuffled between classes and the office to “help out”. There was absolutely no learning taking place.
I don’t mean to be Debbie Downer, but just really feel this system needs to be overhauled. As for now, there is no solution in place that I’m aware of.

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Thanks for the reply. I too have never seen where the parents in our district have been informed of their right to opt out. I taught for 3 years in another CA district and was told the same thing you were told. ☹

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So interesting to me is that the teacher emailed me to let me know if I opted my kids out of the test they would be required to take a book test instead of a “more fun one on the computer”…. SMH

 

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And here is another post from said group:

 

I just called my daughters school and was told they are having a pep rally for taking the state test. Wow a pep rally. Getting kids pumped up to take a test that completely drains them mentally. SMH!

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Here is another post:

 

I need some information about the CAASPP testing for high schoolers. My daughter is being told that she really needs to take this test for college placement and that when she applies for various colleges she’ll have to have the results of this test to get in. I was always told that this is just standardized testing and has nothing to do with college. Info please? Her opt out letter was turned in a while ago and testing begins tomorrow. I need info ASAP! Thanks

 

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And here are some replies to said post:

 

My sons 6th grade teacher(he’s 8th now) told him that he couldn’t be placed in high school without it
Well…… we just registered him and all was well……

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Most colleges will require you to take their own placement tests to see what level you’re at, regardless of your classes, test scores, AP level, etc. Those placement tests are what they go by, not standardized testing. My son is a senior, I panicked last year with the threatening letter the school sent out, so I confronted Asst. Principal to find out they were empty threats.

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She’s being lied to, probably by teachers who were also lied to and don’t know it. The state tests are used to evaluate the effectiveness of teachers, schools and districts, by checking the kids’ retention of classroom learning. State testing is not about individual kids. The results are for internal use. It won’t affect her college admissions in any way.

 

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What about the practice test in fifth grade??? I opt out my daughter but teacher is haveing her take practice test ???

 

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The college placement tests basically tell them which classes you can take (level of math, english, etc). AP classes really don’t mean as much these days. A lot of colleges don’t care that you’ve taken them, they want you to take those level courses at their school. Some schools will accept them if you’ve done well on the AP test. Oh, and SAT/ACT scores tell schools you’re college ready, not the dumb CAASPP (or whatever they’re called these days). My son’s school didn’t even want him on campus on days of testing. So when it was time to call him out, I said “as requested by the asst principal, my son will stay home today due to him not participating in the testing”. I wasn’t going to lie that he was ill or had an appt.

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I just saw your post… the above comments are all correct. The CSU’S are required to accept the SBAC as one way to bypass English and Math remedial placement. Other ways include GPA and SAT/ACT scores. If your child scores low on all of these but is still accepted into a CSU then all they need to do is take the college’s Math and English remedial test during the summer before classes start. IMO, taking exams created by the college after your senior year is smarter than taking the SBAC which has nothing to do with the college during 11th grade. The high schools are all lying to push the test and scare kids.

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Here is a post from an Ohio anti-Common Core group:

 

An email received today from an education historian who has studied, researched and fought education reform for 40 years. Here first sentence is referencing the School Privatization Explained Tookkit from NPE. Ann lives in AZ. You MUST call your US House Rep and ask them to vote NO for H. R. 610. It is yet another Trojan Horse made to look like a present under the Christmas tree.

This is an outstanding research report on Charter Schools. This is only the tip of the iceberg under expansion of “vouchers” in Arizona and other states in compliance with H. R. 610 CONGRESS.GOV now pending in the Committee Education and the Workforce in US Congress. I find it interesting that this proposal for expansion to all students including home schools is not out of committee, yet similar legislation is now pending in at least 20 states. Arizona passed the monstrosity, and Governor Ducey signed it. I predict this governor and many who supported this legislation will not be reelected. They will need a great amount of more “dark-money” to be reelected the next time around. At least, that is my opinion.

Whatever happened to the conflict of interest laws in Arizona? Were they waived too?

I once again skimmed through the 1059 pages of “Every Student Succeeds Act” and about the only changes made between this travesty and H. R. 610 is block grants will go to the state and the state will dole out the funds to appropriate agencies. The Secretary of USDOE still has to approve the state grant and waivers of laws, rules and regulations. It appears the local district schools boards are to be bypassed, and nothing was said about the counties.

Another purpose for H. R. 610 is to include home schools. ESSA just named virtual students, but H. R. 610 specifically includes home schools. Now, no child “will be left behind”, because every student in the USA is accountable to the federal standards. These standards, will as noted include workforce skills along with Common Core or whatever the name has been changed to fool the public.

Twenty billion more dollars has been suggested by the Trump administration to expand “choice”. I don’t know where this state intends to get the money to implement this travesty, or provide enough funds for low or even average income children to move to another school. Who is going to transport these children? This plan will only continue to benefit the parents who can already afford to send their children to a private or charter schools. Not all citizens are fools or believers of propaganda. Too many have a vested interest in “choice” schools.

I suggest we can expect to see more and more children hooked up to computers with unproven academic, physical and psychological results in the near further. Even worse, more small children will be placed in a career path and trained for low level job placement. The federal law, already in action, call for three educational tracks. Instead of at least trying to create better public schools and properly funding them for all children, this destructive plan is supported by all political persuasions. Could money be the motive, or control? Take you pick, because both have been and is being achieved.

I must by all means congratulate the neo-conservative, splinter groups of the Council for National Policy, in states and nationally. Some of the major ones are working like”moles” with “dark-money” to promote their destructive agenda by destroying the people’s tax owned schools, and other property bought and paid for by citizens. Our Capitol, Senate and House buildings come to mind. When are we going to purchase them back? Twenty years roll by quickly? It appears to take a so called conservative administration to implement a radical far left agenda. This Is not “free-market”. Now, some of these same people want to rewrite our Constitution with a phony excuse!

While supposed so called Christians, ALEC, Focus on the Family and the Heritage Foundations and every other splinters of CNP propose to give American parents and citizens a “choice” for their children there is no choice. All children will be held “accountable” to the Secretary of Education who also has a vested interest in choice. Their devious plan helps to destroy what is left of “representative government”. There is no accountability to parents or citizens with private corporations, tax free foundations or any other private entity controlling the people’s property. Our Congress, Presidents, Governors and Legislators have totally ignored the principles outlined in the USA Constitution. Our nation is now being run by unelected “councils” appointed by a few elected vested interest citizens. Hand picked vested interest are usually picked to serve on pre-planned outcome committees. I know every trick of the trade from experience!

When H. R. 610 passes, and it will, there will be no need for a state Legislature to exist. I saw nothing in the 1059 pages about a State Superintendent of “Public” Instruction, Legislature, county, and local school boards. If the state, one must assume the Governor’s office due to Achieve, gets approval for the grant, or waivers from one person named in it- the no-nothing Superintendent Betsy DeVos. Why do you think she was approved? Do you see her visiting and supporting any public schools? Really! This is a disgrace to our country!

The states appear to have no choice, either take the grants in one block or no funds, and this includes our handicapped and all other state agencies that fall under education or the workforce, but you read and make this determination for yourself. I’ve sent nearly forty years speaking and writing about education, and I’m fed up with lies, propaganda and manipulation of citizens. Every child will have to meet whatever the private/public sector standards require, and they can change.

I assume all our governors, legislators, presidents and congress have read all the education and workforce legislation as they did Obamacare! I heard from one AZ Legislator who told me to keep sending my “stuff” -she would like to read it but doesn’t have time. I guess citizens will have to wait until all is in place to know what the legislation says, then it will be too late because there is no place to complain. The current ESEA (reauthorizing of 1965) does allow for parents in private schools to file a complaint. Isn’t that big of them?

Instead of funding the alleged terrorist, Gulen, to continue to take citizens money with his for profit charter schools, not only in Arizona but across our nation, and above all on our military bases in Arizona and elsewhere, Congress and the states devise devious ways to rob parents and citizens of any control over children or their hard earned tax money. Oh, yes, let us not forget that in all probability due to our current Secretary of State’s error, Proposition 123 that also gives our land trust money to Gulen- passed without one word in the Proposition book, from the media, our politicians- including the pro and cons of this travesty. An oversight? Proposition 123 passed by a slim majority. Proposition books failed to be mailed to an estimated 500 thousand citizens. At no time none mentioned that this money would go for profit charter schools, Gulen or anything else.

It appears with H. R. 610 the infrastructure of our country will be rebuilt on the backs of our children. If you are part of the unread or those in denial, then read America 2000 (Bush plan) that became Goals 2000 (Clinton Plan), School-to-Work, No Child Left Behind (another Bush extension)…and the list and destruction are too numerous to name.

Ann Herzer, M. A. Independent Researcher, Resident since 1962 of Arizona, Graduate of ASU History/Reading/Education
2017 A fed up-citizen! And, a fed-up Republican! I wasn’t going to send anything else out, but some wanted this Charter research, and I recommend it. I recommend you obtain H. R 610 and the re authorization of 1965. That all folks! Any errors are mine because I’m in a hurry to finish this political agenda data.

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Here is a post from the Choose to Refuse Common Core group:

Well I posted a syllabus I was supposed to sign a few days back, and now have met with teacher and principal. The posters in the room were not ok….. your children are being taught to be transgender and not know their gender identity. It is a slow process and I saw first hand how it works today. In addition, she is to lose extra credit points as I will not sign syllabus in agreement.

Furthermore, said person said:

One poster was big rainbow type colors and said “love knows no gender”. Now I understand that is somewhat true as far as families (sisters love sisters, etc etc, however that is not what this poster is implying)

The 10th grade students had made it in their sex Ed class, and then the 7th graders see these as they also get introduced to all these concepts.

No celebration of “traditional” that I could see and I encouraged them to celebrate and make posters about that as well then.

I KNOW it’s wrong for the kids to have to be thinking about this stuff and it seems constant, unfortunately it is done in such small ways…. so I go in and raise a fit about the terminology, etc and then I see the posters. It such a horrible feeling as then you are made to feel like the “hater”….. it’s really become a strange world. Everything happening so small, subtle, so you look loony when you stand up against it, yet all these small, subtle things are actually messing with our kids and changing our nation, and some would argue for the better, and people like me should just learn to embrace it. Hard.

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Here is a post from a Utah anti-Common Core group:

So one of my students was hushed up his teacher in school today. My student announced that they were opted out of sage testing. The teacher told my child to shush. When my child asked why, the teacher responded that she did not want the other students to know they can opt out of testing. That it affects how they get paid. I raised free thinking children. They know when something is fishy and are vocal about it. I just wanted my fav UACC group to know what happened today at school.

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And here are some replies to said post:

I noticed this corruption happening when I had kids in school. It is human nature to protect your job. We have in place now a system that has forsaken its primary objective to tend to secondary objectives. The root cause is that a government monopoly cannot pursue the same objectives as a privately run , market responsive organization. They run by top down command and control and not by consumer demand. They are not free to do so. They are not paid to do so. They are paid to keep the monopoly in place.

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My student had a similar reaction from faculty when she was in school. So what did I do? I made up flyers for her to pass out at school the next day 🙂

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Rumors going around my son’s high school were that a) if the school’s overall scores didn’t go up from last year, the sports programs would be taken away. And 2) if the school got an F (our school has students from almost 90 countries that speak over 60 languages so the chances of good scores is not too high), the principal would be fired and the state would come in to take over the school. My first question was where are these stories coming from? Because what do the students have to gain by making them up? I went right to the principal who assured me that was not the case and my student must have misunderstood?

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Here is a post from an Arizona anti-Common Core group:

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Here is a post from a North Dakota anti-Common Core group:

North Dakota Ed Dept claims to have replaced CC with NEW standards–HAH! So far, I’ve quickly compared the K-12 Math standards. Content is similar, some verbatim, but the “Standards for Mathematical Practices” (exactly the same) are the stated FOCUS through which students have contact with MATH (i.e., content). The PRACTICES standards, woven into all math experience & derailing independent, knowledge-filled minds, are the highway for the euphemistic “21st Century Skills,” including being trained “to change our global society.” They are also mentally AGE-INAPPROPRIATE for early grades. Read & Compare both sets of standards on the websites. See descriptive paragraphs of the Practices–exactly the same.

https://www.nd.gov/dpi/uploads/87/MathematicsCS2017.pdf

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Here is a document from a Nevada anti-Common Core group stating why kids should not take the SBAC testing:  You should NOT let your child take the New SBAC this Spring

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Here is a post from the Choose to Refuse Common Core group:

Beyond pissed… This is homework that my nephew has to do. This is the crap they’re teaching them in school now & he lives in IN. Sec. of Ed.. needs to stop this!!

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Here is a post from the Choose to Refuse Common Core group:

So I got something in my son’s weekly folder saying he has a state mandated sexual abuse and awareness thing coming up. He doesn’t even know know what sex is. He is 8. Is there any way out of this?

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And here are some replies to said post:

‘state mandated’ means that the state has mandated that the school must teach it, it does NOT mandate that your son has to participate. Send in the refusal letter or a note specifically refusing this curriculum and ask that they not only respond to your request but also insist that they tell you what the lesson plan will be for your son while this is being taught. TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO REFUSE IT AS WELL! Email everyone on your address book, txt all your friends. etc.

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I would keep him home that day, that’s some bs 😒

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Tell them no way, and keep him home that day. No freakin way I’d allow this. Tell them that you will do that part of his education, thanks anyway.

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Is this something about being aware of sexual molestation or sexual abuse? I see comments from others who think “sex education.” I believe it is the parents’ responsibility to tell their children about sexual abuse. ONLY when the children are ready for this. It’s sad we have to make our children aware of these things, but they need to know when someone touches them inappropriately.

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did not allow mine to take it. I said it is my place to teach this , not some stranger. I said, DO NOT SEND HER TO THAT CLASS. That did not. This is up to parents, not stangers.

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Of course there is and you ask them to show you the law that states he is mandated. Refuse and bring a group of parents with you to the next school board meeting.

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It’s alabama and I would keep him out that day but it’s the 24th through the 28th 😦

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Matters not, you have rights!!!

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Here is a post from an anti-Common Core group:

This article is on the college level but, similarly, “SERVICE LEARNING” has been woven into K-12 school subjects & graduation requirements since early 1990s. It REPLACES individually chosen volunteerism & steers students into pre-established social justice, earth justice, climate justice (etc.) themes.

“The New Civics uses service learning—spending time in “community service” to outside groups—as its basic pedagogy. The movement starts with relatively innocuous goals, such as organizing students to pick up litter. This gets students used to being organized, and trains them to organize others. The more advanced New Civics groups use terms such as ‘service learning,’ ‘civic engagement,’ and ‘global civics’ to describe what they do. These terms may sound neutral, but in practice they amount to efforts to recruit students into one-sided political activism.”

https://www.nas.org/articles/the_new_civics_using_service_learning_to_teach_progressive_advocacy

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Apparently, “Protesting Trump” is considered a valid excuse for missing finals at Arizona State University:  http://www.mrctv.org/blog/asu-students-skip-final-exam-protest-trump?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT1RJME56Sm1PVE00WlRJeiIsInQiOiJqZDhpb0dGVCtyU2JKWlY2c1wvRUVqbzUxN2xpeTBaSXNtMVpxa3BpMitiTFk4d0p3S1Rhc1pUbU9LSlZEQ1lqaFdaUkZpVXpYajZUMm1TdFpyNEJnYmROOFg0ZFNqOVVmTjYzb2lBZWZheklPWWRcL3FaS2FJa3RLVytjbG04UFBZIn0%3D

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Here is a post from the Choose to Refuse Common Core group:

Why are they promoting such a difficult life style? My son sent me this photo from his school.
JFKennedy High School.
The Left are truly our enemy.
Along the Arabs.

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Here is a post from a Utah anti-Common Core group:

My son had an assignment show up on his grades as a zero because it was Sage testing, he followed up with his teacher concerning the zero and was told that it was switched from Sage formatting to Canvas formatting. Has anyone heard about this and what does that really mean!

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Here is another post from the Choose to Refuse Common Core group:

Nativism?
Global History.

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The Gaystapo is going after cross necklaces now:  http://www.christianpost.com/news/florida-teacher-bans-cross-necklaces-in-class-promotes-lgbt-day-of-silence-181167/

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Here is a post from the Choose to Refuse Common Core group:

Well here in TN we cannot refuse nor opt out of CC here in TN they, made it part of a child’s final grade!!! Pretty slick. When I moved here, I was on the phone literally for 6 weeks all day trying to find out about cc here. It was like this big secret . Not one parent here sadly knows what cc is!!!! I am so shocked ! I am actually furious as well. I thought NY sucked but at least you can refuse it.

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A girl has been expelled for a year for bringing a WATER gun to school:  http://politistick.com/girl-expelled-one-year-water-gun-school/

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Here is a post from an anti-Common Core group:

In the state of New Jersey, we have a new standardized test called the PARCC. Students who opt out of that test in my school are punished by having to sit in a room across the building in complete and utter silence. Punished for avoiding indoctrination. Punished for exercising their rights. Welcome to the People’s Republic of New Jersey.

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Here is a post from a Utah anti-Common Core group:

Opted my child out of SAGE last fall. Testing started this week and no one knew. Thankfully I checked her out during testing the first day but testing is happening again today and I can’t check her out. I’ve taken to school admin several times but all they’ve said is they will talk to teacher testing this week (no specifics) and no confirmation that all teachers will be told or that she is actually opted out. The amount of time I’ve had to babysit this simple matter is ridiculous. What more should I do?

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And here are some replies to said post:

At the start of the test Your daughter needs to let the teachers know she is opted out. In my experience most teachers will respect that and let it be, but if they give her a problem tell her to ask to go to the office and she can call you.

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My kids know not to take the test no matter what!

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I made a copy of the opt out form and they keep it in their backpack to show anyone who tries to force them to take the the test. It continues to be an issue, especially at the high school level. They’re never on the opt out list despite my turning it in earlier in the year. The thing that bothers me most is the harassment my children have to endure in order to do as I have asked. We have opted out of this test from the beginning and still at every opportunity it is trying to be forced by the school. My children are taught to be respectful of their teachers and administrators, it would be nice if they showed us the same.

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I agree with you. The struggle is real. But just the same I appreciate the lessons my kids are learning in process of having to stand up in the face of this opposition. One lesson of which is that when it comes to what is right and wrong the schools aren’t the ultimate source of truth and knowledge or authority to dictate reality for my child or anyone. It has become a win for them to gain that strength to question and stand up.

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Hooray – heard from teacher doing testing today and my child is opted out. Now I just need confirmation that the other teachers know

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My son had to sit there, while the teacher kept asking him to take the practice test, and he politely said, no, over and over, even while he was told it would affect his participation grade. He kept saying no, and they can’t do that to his grade. He called it his personal “sit in”.
– Children nullifying illegal actions of authority.

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Way to go for your son! And way to go teaching him to stand up. 🙂

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A trapshooting team in Minnesota is banned from their school’s yearbook because they are holding firearms:   https://www.americanexperiment.org/2017/04/trapshooting-team-banned-school-yearbook/

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Here is a post from an Arizona anti-Common Core group:

My nephew just sent me his 3rd grade sons homework, this is absolutely maddening having to explain these things to a child!!! We are in the Blue Ridge District, my son is a Junior and thankfully is almost out of this crap!

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Here is a post from an anti-Common Core testing page:

Anonymous parent.

How’s this for manipulation?
Guinea pigs anyone?

“My mom is involved in education in VA. She was telling me today that a principal in Fairfax was sending letters encouraging kids to opt-out of testing to all the “lowest performing” students in the school.

He was also sending letters on the importance of the tests and the “evils of opting-out to the best kids” in the school.”

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And another post:

Anonymous

“Tonight I was getting ready to drive my oldest grandson to a sports banquet and asked if we needed to pick up one of his friends. He called his buddy then let me know he wasn’t going. For 13-14 year olds, this is a big social event. I asked why and he told me his 8th grade public school friend had MCAS testing the next morning.

We chatted a bit. Sometimes I’m amazed at the wisdom of young teens…and sometimes that realization breaks my heart. What did I learn from my grandson? I learned that kids are told by teachers or administrators that they have to do their very best on these tests so their schools won’t get in trouble with low scores. Further, that kids see through the ridiculous rallies held by school administrators to make them somehow feel patriotic about doing their ‘duty’ and ‘performing’ well. They also learn about all the ‘rules’ surrounding these test and that this is a very serious matter. I also learned that the kids consider these tests very stressful and exhausting because they take so long to finish them.

These revelations from boys who dedicated themselves to practices and games all winter long, to miss out on the single celebratory event that officially ends their season, when awards and accolades are bestowed. To miss out on that one small measure of childhood joy…..because of a test…because it’s their responsibility to make sure their school succeeds.

The test has no value for the child. It isn’t referenced on their report card. It doesn’t elevate their status when applying to other schools later in their lives. It means nothing to the kids, except for the burden they bear.

Should this be the child’s burden? No. Kids this age are in the throes of puberty. They’re subject to moods swings, growth spurts, and everything that comes with sexual maturation. That’s more than enough stress for any kid.

Expecting children to feel rah, rah about how their school is graded based on their performance on an exam that exceeds the length of time of the average class is abusive. This entire teaching to the test and testing is abusive. Informing them that it is their responsibility to ‘perform’ or it will be their fault if their school does poorly is abusive. It’s not a KID PROBLEM. Why should they be stressed over this? Blaming the kids is a failure for those in charge to accept their own responsibility for failing to provide a quality education.

This testing culture has been around for 5 years. Parents who care about their kids are still refusing to let their kids participate in the testing. However, it goes much deeper than just the testing. There is the instructional time lost in ‘teaching to the test.’ There are the days lost in administering the tests. It’s time these kids can never get back.

If teachers, en masse, refused to administer the tests, this culture would wither and die. Failing that, if all parents refused to allow their children to participate, this ‘social experiment’ would wither and die. Our country turned out tens of thousands of brilliant minds without this testing culture. That’s a reality. We need to return to reality and educate our children properly, as we have done for decades.

The mantle of shame for this fiasco falls on those politicians with deaf ears who have refused to stand up and outlaw this insidious culture of ‘kids for profit., when it was brought to their attention. The guilt should be generously heaped on the true culprits who approved and implemented this – our former president, our former governor, our current commissioner of education, and every individual who financed and provided texts and tests, or profits in any manner from these inferior standards.

This grandmother is furious that a 14 year old boy was so worried about his performance on a test that he skipped the biggest social engagement of the year, so he wouldn’t let his school down. It’s not his job to worry. But he’s ready to shoulder the blame. He missed the banquet and there is no do over for that.

It’s shameful…..it needs to end.”

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And yet another post:

Georgia Parent

“My daughter in 6th grade takes the milestones next week. She isn’t worried about it or stressed out at all. I want to refuse for her but she asked me not to. However all her teachers are telling the class if they fail the milestone they fail 6th grade no matter how good their grades are in their classes. Some kids with straight As are literally in tears everyday in class. My daughter is worried for her friends. This is NOT true is it?? I would like to be able to tell my daughter this so she can comfort them. This test is so ridiculous that these girls are panicking over their future in 6th grade. Some of them still play with barbies! 😡“

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And another post:

Georgia Posting for a parent:

Sending a message about something that happened at my kids’ school in Gwinnett County–

My son who is in 3rd grade told me that the teacher wrote the word “FIELD DAY” with each letter in a block. And during the test, they went around monitoring. If students were not annotating their language arts responses, teacher would punch out a letter and that meant the student would have to miss a field day event. The same thing for not showing their work on the math portion. Fortunately enough parents called and emailed to complain about it that the principal called in the 3rd grade teachers at the end of the day yesterday and told them they can’t take away field day events from students because of their work on GMAS.

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And yet another post:

Readers comment: hold on to your seat!!!

“I live in TN. Ive been refusing the tests since 2015. That April, Candice McQueen our ED Commish came to visit the day before testing was to start. My daughter, testing morning, a 5th grade IEP child, was taken by the Curriculum Supervisor and the school secretary, by herself and questioned. “Do you want to abide by your mother’s letter and refuse testing or do you want to take it anyway”… I have the conversation that I had with this once respected former principal, recorded. 7mins 45 secs where I flipped my lid as I was told ” once they walk through those doors, you have no rights”.”

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And another post:

Anonymous Tennessee:

“A mom I know opted her child out of the end of year high stakes testing. She gave the school the letter. They kept telling her to keep her child home. She smartly refused. The school actually told the child not to listen to her parents and to take the test and her parents would never know. These people truly believe THEY are the authority over YOUR children. So please be careful and talk with your children.”

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And another one:

Anonymous Parent (Georgia)

“My son is home today. I didn’t get into any details yesterday because honestly I was afraid of backlash here for sending him like he was, but he had diarrhea before school yesterday morning. He stayed in the bathroom all morning before we left yesterday. A friend’s son rides to school with us every day and I heard him ask my son if his stomach was upset because of the tests and my son told him yes. I almost kept him home yesterday because of it, but in the end he said he wanted to go so I let him. When I picked him up yesterday he said the testing was fine and he wasn’t worried so I thought he was ok. But this morning it started again. I told him that he knows how I feel so if he didn’t want to go he didn’t have to. I took my friend’s son and kept my son with me.

He is worried about getting in trouble. And I’ll go ahead and say that now that I’ve kept him home I am also scared to death. When I called my husband to tell him, he was NOT happy. So I will also have him to deal with when he gets home tonight.
There’s a lot I haven’t said here because it’s just a lot to type, but there’s a lot more to tell that may shed some light. I already said when I first joined here that we live in a very small community.

The thing is, I am surrounded by teachers and administration in my personal life. My husband’s sister lives next door to us, and she is a 3rd grade teacher. She and my husband are very, very close, I often feel like an outsider between them. He takes everything she says as gospel. I haven’t discussed with her at all the possibility of refusing. We have had many heated discussions about the [Tests] and even though she hates it she rides my son and tells him he will fail 5th grade if he fails the test. She has even gone so far as to say “How are you going to feel when all your friends go to 6th grade and you’re sitting back in 5th grade with all the 4th graders that moved up??” My husband is going to stand behind her no matter what. He thinks because she is a teacher she is the expert. When she gets wind that I have kept him home she’s going to flip.

Aside from that, in my church alone there are seven people who work at the school my son attends in some capacity, including the principal. I see these people three times a week. I actually stand beside the principal on the praise team in the choir. My son’s homeroom and ELA teacher is the children’s ministry leader. It’s not like I can walk away from the school and not worry about having to interact with these people. I have personal relationships with these people and I am dreading the strain it is going to put on myself and my family moving forward.

I have no idea what will happen in the next day or two. I have decided for now just to get through this day as a sick day (even as I’ve been typing this a notification has popped up on my phone through the school’s website app of an “unexcused absence” for my son today).

So there you have it. That’s where we stand. If any of you pray, I could sure use some. I am already feeling conflicted, scared and doubting my decision.”

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And yet another post:

Anonymous Parent

“My son was told today that he will not be able to go to the bathroom for 4 hours during testing. He’s not testing because he’s in 2nd grade. The school is concerned that flushing toilets will disrupt the other students.”

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And another post:

Anonymous NY

“Enough is enough.

I am a teacher. I had to look a child in the eye today and tell this child who was compelled to tell me that he was unable to read an entire passage on the assessment, losing all of the questions associated with it. He has worked so hard this year to bring himself up several grade levels. He was devastated. I looked at him right in the eye and said, “Do not worry. Do your best. I will never know your score. We will never use your score to make any decision about you as a student. Please just relax and try your best.” I wanted to cry. I am so thankful I am not administering any assessments this year because in good conscience, I could not do this to any child on my watch.

Having pleaded my case with NYSED, Commissioner King, the entire Board of Regents and all of my elected officials to no avail, I have one single request: if you want to fire me, please, please, please find a weapon other than my students.

I love my students, and will not be silent about this abuse.”

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A Northern Arizona University teacher tells off student for reading Bible before class (and it appears that she also has some other issues):  http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9114&utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=PushCrew_notification_1493340308&pushcrew_powered

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Here is a post from a Rhode Island anti-Common Core group:

Is RI really getting rid of PARRC? How and when?

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And here is a reply to said post:

Not exactly…apparently RIDE is going to partner with (i.e. regionalize) with MA and use the MCAS. According to Dr Sandra Stotsky, the MCAS is 100% PARCC and was simply rebranded as MCAS 2.0…she says MCAS is using ALL of PARCC questions and zero former MCAS items…LIPSTICK ON A PIG!!!!

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And another post from said group:

This letter went into the Sakonnet Times this past Wednesday. Doubt it makes a difference.

Letter to the editor
As an Educator, and former School Committee member of Little Compton, it is of no surprise that I write now about Common Core and PARCC testing. This April your children will be taking the PARCC test. You do not have to allow this test to be administered to your child. The LCSC passed a resolution that prohibits the school department from any punitive actions
Since 2010 for the state and 2012 for Little Compton, Common Core has been introduced and tested through the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers PARCC. Now go to the Rhode Island Department of Education website and look up the test scores for the state and Little Compton. One statement you will see is “…PARRC testing at the (RI) state level, “approximately 38% of students across grades 3 through 10 met or exceeded expectations; in mathematics, statewide achievement improved by 5 percentage points since 2015, with 30% of all students meeting or exceeding the learning. Is this what you want for your child? Please ask yourselves the following questions? Does your child get stressed taking the test? How are the results helpful to teachers when results don’t come back till the following year? Does your child’s next grade teacher review the results for each of their students? What it the helpfulness to your child and yourself? Does your school reach out to each child after the results are in and offer suggestions on weaknesses or strengths? As you well know the PARCC test does a lot of data mining, your child’s name, nickname, religious affiliation, birthdate, ability grouping, GPA, physical characteristics, IEP, attendance, telephone number, bus stop times, allergies, diseases, languages and dialects spoken
number of attempts at a given assignment, delinquent status, referral date, non-school activity involvement, meal type, screen name, maternal last name, voting status, marital status, – and even cause of death. You see this year the State Department of Education was hacked by a well-known hacker called Rasputin, google it! Do we really need to have our schools country wide able to read and receive each schools information on our child? Who else reads it?
Hope your child’s data is not stolen! Refuse the PARCC Test!

For editor’s information:
http://www.ride.ri.gov/…/2016%20PARCC%20Rhode%20Island%20Te…
http://www.computerworld.com/…/hacker-breached-63-universit…
http://www.rifuture.org/several-ri-government-agencies-ide…/

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And yet another post from said group:

What would you do if your child and one other refused the test…then they were told there will be a pizza party, or ice cream social etc. but ONLY for those children who TOOK the test – i.e. your child and the other would be excluded. I am hearing about this happening more this time around, so would like some suggestions… Thank you!

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And here are some replies to said post:

I take it as a badge of honor honestly. My daughter doesn’t need their pizza.

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Do they treat children the same in that district if their parents wanted them to sit out of a sensitive topic in Health class? Or if there was something being discussed in another subject that was against their religion? Oh wait…….we only have parties for kids that complete state standardized tests, no celebrations for actual learning being completed!!!!

The children are being slighted for the legitimate choices made by their parents … who fund these schools … for all children.

Just to be clear. I’m not sure if it’s the whole school. It’s my daughters cluster teacher who said it. Not that it makes it any better

The fact that she knows she is excluded from this because you are a good momma bear is disgusting. And they worry about bullying in schools. SMH

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I’d Drop off a pizza for my kid and the other kid for lunch that day

Find out the day and bring it in for him/her. Also talk to the school/teacher about their bribery and the preaching of inclusion yet exclusion is their actions. Actions speak louder than words to people, especially kids. Practice what they preach.

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Are we all missing the point here the kids will be perfectly fine. I think the bigger issue is-since when in history of education did teachers and educators feel like they had to bribe and reward kids just for taking some awful test. Is this what’s its come to? Isn’t that the bigger problem. They must know how bad it really is.

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Exactly….the bribery is out of hand. The bribery is there because they know in their heart of hearts this is not right.

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It’s so ridiculous the tactics they use. They tried to bribe my child and I had already refused. Elementary school with chewing gum, they were successful that one day because they thought he wouldn’t tell me. I sent him in the next day with enough gum for the class and told him to say no thank you I have my own.

 

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Remember the testing pep rallies? We never had $$$ for regular ones but testing comes along and money is falling from the sky. Pathetic

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How about the fact that there’s free breakfast this week of testing?? We don’t care if you eat the rest of the year but THIS WEEK we somehow find the money to feed the students and care about how it affects the outcome of their day??! Maddening!!

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News media eats stuff like this up! I’d also throw my own pizza party for the kids who stood up to the system and didn’t take the test.

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So last year they had raffles in the classrooms. When I had an issue with the exclusion of my children. I was told by school staff, if my children didn’t participate then they didnt get a raffle ticket, its their choice not to participate so it’s not discriminating against the children. . . 😠 I was also told my children needed to be picked up and dropped of during testing last year and I lost it when I found out that was A. TOTAL LIE.

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One year, my daughter’s algebra teacher told her that I was lying to her and that there was no such thing as refusing to test. I went to the office with 12 copies of my refusal letter in hand and demanded that each and every one of my daughter’s teachers receive one. I VERY LOUDLY made sure that any student, parent or teacher could hear me when I told them that it is my right as her parent to refuse the testing and that none of these kids HAVE to take these ridiculous tests. I also let them know that the algebra teacher will forever be on my SHIT LIST and if my child is ever reprimanded, chastised, or influenced to go against my wishes regarding testing, there will be one heck of a lawsuit!

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😂😂😂 Perfect. My son is in 8th grade. Part wasn’t supposed to start until this week. But two weeks ago they rolled out the practice testing in his class. He politely told the teacher that he doesn’t participate in Parrc and she asked if he had a refusal letter to give her. When he said no she told him he would have to participate in a shotty way. So he said in his best teenager with an-attitude way. “Well I will then, that’s fine, but you’re gonna have to deal with my mom after this and she’s like crazy about this stuff so good luck” 😂😂😂😂😂 She immediately backtracked apologized and told him to just read a book.

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Wow, so the lesson here is that if you don’t go along with what they say you are excluded from the fun??? WTH is wrong with these alleged professionals? Well I guess it will be a lesson is how life is not fair and could be a teachable moment on why it is important to stand up for what you believe in. Not sure how well this will fly with a 9 y old who’s missing out on pizza. There should be no reward for state testing and who is paying for it??? I would call the news, channel 12 loves this stuff. Maybe you should call channel 10 and see if any of these teachers are their “teacher of the week” lol Bet the teacher would change her tune when she is singled out for this practice.

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It probably comes from the district and not the teachers. I don’t beat up the teachers… they’re doing their jobs best they can… I blame those above them who make these decisions.

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And another post:

Burrillville middle school is saying that per RIDE and the school dept that opt outs and refusals cannot be accepted for PARCC. I have not had an issue in past years. There is nothing that has changed with being able to opt out/refuse, correct???

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And here are some replies to said post:

No nothing. Stand by your decision .

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Hasn’t changed, just being pushier. I refused at the same school this year.

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I just had to send a second email saying I refused. She said they would be scheduled but could read a book instead.

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Careful with that response from them. If the child is refused, they should not be scheduled. That could get tricky if the student is put in a confusing situation at the time of testing. My kids were never “scheduled.” If they insist, be sure your child knows ahead of time to not press a single key on the keyboard or write an ID on a paper, even if the proctor says it’s just to let the system know you are here, or something like that. It won’t get recorded as parental refusal if the child does that.

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I already told my kids what to do. Thanks! It could be that they are just scheduled to be with a certain teacher or room.

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I’m in Warwick and opted my son out again. Being un a new school, the principal tried to push back, but i stood my ground.

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In North Kingstown the school committee passed some “rule” that everyone has to take PARCC. I don’t think it is a town law. Ken Wagner has already said that no one should be forced to take the test. Also reind that Arne Duncan is not in charge anymore.

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I AM ON THE BURRILLVILLE SCHOOL COMMITTEE AND MY CHILD IS NOT TAKING THE PARCC TEST.

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Our committee adopted a resolution that supports the administration and agrees with standardized testing. That in no way changes your ability to decide what is best for your child.

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YOU ARE REFUSING! PERIOD.

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RI is getting rid of PARCC anyway. So the usefulness (not there was much anyway) is completely disintegrated with that decision.

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It is a waste of our time in my opinion.

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This sounds like last year when some classes got refusal forms handed out and I was told my kids needed to removed from the school during testing by the principal. Which I later found out was completely bs. Absolutely crazy how it has been handled.

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And yet another post:

 

Just moved from Rhode Island to New Jersey. PARCC is a graduation requirement here 😣 I have refused each year for my two kids to this point. So disappointing.

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Here is a post from an anti-Common Core group:

 

From a parent in Arizona.

 

My 6th grade son went on a field trip yesterday to Innovation Station at the Chula Vista Library. Before they left their classroom for the bus they were put on the Acer computers (the ones used for Achieve3000 and SBAC testing) and they answered a questionnaire about themselves to discover what career they fit into. The school did not send home a notice about this survey but I suspected that they would do something like this so I was the only parent who turned in a note to opt out in case of data collection (see in pic #6 that they managed to send home a permission slip for media release). My son saw questions that were asking the kids about their sex, race, likes, and their dislikes. They may have used Thrively for these questions because it’s listed on the back of their booklet. Once they arrived at Innovation Station, they were given a print out that had their career match. Since my son did not do the questionnaire he was able to choose his career. He asked to be a surgeon but it wasn’t one of the choices. In fact, they didn’t even have doctor as a choice except for “sports medicine physician.” So, he was made a “Medical Assistant.” At the Innovation station, they taught the students how to use Adruino which is an open-source electronic prototyping platform. They were suppose to design and program something to show an application for their career. The parts my son and his partner were given were broken and nothing worked. That was the entire field trip. The field trip was offered free to the schools.

Pics 1-6 are from the Innovation Station. Pics 7-13 are screenshots related to how your child will be sorted for the workforce. #7 is about California Career Sectors (the entire country is divided up); #8 is the infamous Grit & Tenacity Report; #9 is a screenshot of the report; #10 is from the Future Agendas report (seriously, read this); #11 more from the Future Agendas; #12 is from the 5th grade California Healthy Kids Survey (remember that Grit & Tenacity report? You can opt your child out of these surveys- they get more invasive through high school and they come from WestEd, project manager for the SBAC); and #13 shows Gates money going to AIR for College and Career (Dr. Escobedo, superintendent of CVESD, as well as Libby Gil, former superintendent of CVESD, worked for AIR which does the psychometrics for the SBAC. Fun fact: AIR is one of the world’s largest behavioral and social science research and evaluation organizations). Did you know that the district logged every student onto Edmodo without their parent’s permission at the beginning of the school year? At the back of the Innovation Station it says, “Go to cvesd.edmodo.com and use your Edmodo account to join our career groups…” Now we know why they did that.

People called parents crazy when we were saying how Common Core will track and stack our children. People just dismissed it without bothering to read any reports or even the California State Legislation that adopted Common Core which mandated student data collection and tied it to the workforce. At what point in their schooling does our child’s autonomy end and they lose their free will and they give in to throwing away their dreams? How many Achieve3000 tests do they take that tell them they are not “College and Career Ready” before they start to believe it? How many messages do they get from field trips that tell them they can’t be a doctor before they internalize it? How many SBAC tests do they take before they become convinced that they’ll never be “meets standards”? Does your child have the Grit and Tenacity to rise above the managed economy that’s planned for their future?

I saw a trailer for The Circle today and I’ve been meaning to read this book ever since Alison Hawver McDowell recommended it to me. If you want to understand more about some of what I’ve posted, read Alison’s blog at wrenchinthegears.com. I hope this makes you think about opting out of the Innovation Station survey for your child as well as Achieve3000, Edmodo, SBAC, CA Healthy Kids Survey, and all other sources of data collection within our schools. Remember, when something is for free, you are the product. That’s enough for now…I need to go check out The Circle from the library, you know, that public place that loans you books and determines the future careers of 11 yr olds. #Technocracy #OptOut #Refuse

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Here is a post from a Maryland anti-Common Core group:

Has anyone ran into the problem of not being able to see your high school child’s math test/and where they worked out the problem. My child is a student in HA County public school. And her math teacher told me that the test is on County test paper and that I would have to come into school to see it. That seems absurd to me when it is my child’s test. She is having trouble in this class and I would like to have it so I can maybe pinpoint the problem. This seems to smell like CC to me. I would appreciate any thoughts.

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And here are some replies to said post:

Baltimore County is the same way.

I hear your frustration but in some cases the tests are “propitiatory,” you can come into the school to take a look but a teacher/admin/guidance will likely sit with you and the test questions might not be able to be copied or photographed. While your rationale is valid there are some who would come in and copy the test knowing that they have a younger child who will take the same test. Sounds silly, right? But I we had a TEACHER who brought home the running record books (which also stay in the school) to read to her 2nd grader so he could pass the test. He told the reading specialist he’d be practicing the books and questions with his mom…I kid you not! That said, asking for some time with the test can be very helpful to help pinpoint concerns, better yet sitting with the teacher and going over it together could help give the teacher insight into your child too…so maybe it can be a win-win!

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And this is why I am frustrated with the system. When I was a teen, I regularly brought home tests because they were not put through some kind of scantron. We have already tried working with her current teacher and thought it would be helpful for her tutor to see why she is regularly failing the test while the class work she seems to do ok with. And her tutor is not available to look at her work at school. I so angry. I am not asking for the test – I just want her scratch work! Which they say was on the county paper!

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MoCo schools have this policy as well and had it years before common core. Tests never came home. The only thing retained at the school was the scantron…no “work” papers. Are quizzes given on the material? If she is successful at classwork and quizzes, perhaps she is a poor test taker. (I had one).

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AA county is the same way. I can’t see the test itself either.

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Now they are telling my high schoolers they have to pass PARCC in order to graduate. I loathe common core and their stupid tests

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Yes. My daughter struggles enough with math and throw this Parcc into the mix. She is only a freshman and I am feeling dread and frustration already!

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Mine are also both freshman. I’ve always told my kids to never stress standardized tests because they don’t effect you. Well now they do.

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My son has an IEP and they won’t let him have his scribe because he doesn’t have a physical special need. I asked what the hell that meant and basically unless my kid had deformed hands he couldn’t have his scribe. They assured me he would be taking it on the computer, he did not.

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i know I was stunned to learn that by high school for some reason it affects graduation. I am sorry that you are having problems too.

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This is why we need local control with classroom teacher created tests and a portfolio approach to meeting requirements…not one very flawed test.

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Yes. It kills me that each teacher cannot create their own unique test. I am not in a position to homeschool or go the private route, so we are stuck with common core. I was hoping with a new election, things might change. And who knows what the next three years might bring.

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And another post from said group:

Due to a medical issue, our son is out of school all this week causing him to miss the math PARCC exam. (He is in third grade). I wanted to opt him out, but he wanted to try. But since he will be absent, I advised the school that I didn’t want him to do a make up. They did everything they could to convince me to let him make it up. They told me that these scores determine if he will be eligible for Gifted & Talented program or Magnet program and other things. Grrrrr
He’s still not doing it!!

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And yet another post from said group:

Oh my heavens! Now I had to be questioned by the principal as to why I don’t want our son to make up the PARCC exam!!!
She tried, “I’d hate to see him miss out or be held back from anything because thwy don’t have a score for him for this”. My response was that they give this test every year from 3rd grade on and that I am certain my middle school that no one will care that he was missing one test grade from 3rd grade.

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And another post:

I need help!! I am in Wicomico Co on the Eastern Shore. This is the 2nd year I have attempted to refuse PARCC testing for my children to no avail. I have been on the R.E F.U.S.E. site but again found nothing but old posts from a couple of years ago.
They keep telling me that my kids are required to take the test per Maryland Education Madi tory Guidelines.
I have a great form letter I’m sending in but it did nothing last year. Help!! I’m desperate!!
My kids are in 3rd grade Fruitland Intermediate, 7th grade Bennett Middle and my 10th grader at Parkside High says she is just going to take it because it is required for graduation. I know there are other testing options for her so my concern is really with the 2 younger ones.
ANYTHING you can offer will help. Ty!

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And here is a reply to said post:

They are not required to take it in Maryland! My son missed it because he had emergency surgery. I stated that I did not want him rescheduled to take a makeup. They tried everything, including telling me lies, to get me to consent. When I confronted them with the truth to their lies, each time they backed down and agreed that I was correct. The child will be marked as a non participant for that school. This is not something the school wants, but it is perfectly acceptable. Stick to your guns if that’s what you want.
Originally, I was going to let our son sit for them, but I told him that this specific test had nothing to do with his grade or placement so I didn’t care how he spent his time during the test. I told him he could put absolutely any answer he wanted to and I would be fine with it.

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And yet another post from said group:

There’s a fat supply of bravado out there. Bunches off bluff. Lots of bluster.

But a skimpy load of gospel-truth.

We do know the single tactic that waits for us all. And that’s to empty our schools. To remove our children … to disturb this disturbing reform. And not for a day, but for several days.

The opt-out movement has now become just a very okay tool. But it’s not frightening anyone anymore. Soon … every child will face on-going, daily assessments. And this reform madness will be a permanent reality.

And this reform is an issue larger than the tests.

A Patchogue-Medford, NY, mom asks the question that matters most … “Why do we protest one meaningless test and ignore the real harm being done day after day for years now?… Opting out changed nothing for the children.”

And she’s right. Very right.

We’d better learn the power of action … and empty the schools.

But that’s a challenge that invites bogus excuses and phony alibis … each more dramatic than the other. If that’s the extent of parental toughness, then our kids extra-screwed.

If adults found the courage to march off the job for women’s issues, they have to have some left over courage to empty the schools … FOR THEIR OWN KIDS.

Successful tacticians are not reactive. They’re provocative. Disturbing. And they supply unanticipated shocks.

This reform can continue with script-reading teachers, acquiescing principals, and complying superintendents. It can live on because of head-nodding boards of education and easily influenced legislators.

BUT …

It cannot continue without our children.

It cannot continue if school desks are empty.

It cannot continue if parents withhold the single, most important constituent necessary for this nonsense to continue … and that’s their children.

This is no time to kid ourselves. Or our kids.

Stop deluding yourselves. Stop laureling yourselves.

It’s been years. The kids are still suffering.

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Here is another post from the anti-Common Core testing page:

Parent Syracuse, NY.

“If you have a child that goes to H.W Smith you need to be aware there is a systemic disfunction. Please contact the principal and superintendent to question them. Starting on monday 4/23..they put our children in the 7th grade on a “lock down” for poor test grades and bad behavior. The measures they are using to punish our children would never be allowed in a suburban school.

Bathroom privilege only at lunch time with an escort. Parading around a barrier in the hallway for 15mins. In a train formation until they learn to conduct themselves in the hallway.

Gym, art and music teachers go to the homeroom classes for these activities so the children don’t leave the room.. They have taken away the “building men” program, dream team activities, and peaceful schools punishing all students during this “lock down” until test scores go up! Children are being punished if they decide to opt out of state test by being given a THICK booklet of homework to complete or sent to I.S.S.

Two children have even been forced to take the test who had opted out of the test. Our children are being treated as if they are in the penal system. Unacceptable in our community!
Jaime Alicea315-435-4161 superintendent. Theresa Haley 315-435-4490 principal. Not my child! THERE IS A SCHOOL BOARD MEETING TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY APRIL 26TH AT 725 HARRISON AT. AT 4:30. In this political climate it is time for us to band together and protect our children. GOD BLESS YOU!”

***UPDATE: The parent “was only able to met with the chief of staff and assistant superintendent. Basically they were unaware that the “reboot” was longer than 2class periods. They informed me children are not suppose to stay in class all day. My son came and told them all the information about.

-withholding bathroom privileges
-taking away the lunch passes to go to his extracurricular activities
-walking around that barrier for 15mins
-having gym and music in homeroom
-and that the principal wanted them to feel bad about low test scores and this would go on until scores went up.

The conclusion of the meeting was they are not sure what they are going to do about this yet but they said the kids will go back to normal routine today. Then they will have a meeting. And a meeting with me and more parents.”

I am glad that she has met and I am sure that all will be rectified now that higher ups have been made aware and have definitely met with the parent. This is always a plus.

I just hate the pressure of this tests that truly have no bearing on the student for the entire year. The scores come out after the end of the school year…the teacher is the beat (sic) evaluator, as they have been with the student all year.”

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And another post:

Anonymous Nevada

“Here’s what a WCSD teacher posted under a post below regarding the SBAC test; I just want to make sure everyone sees it:
“My 3rd grade class has spent 10 hrs already and we have another 2 to go today before we are finished. I finally relayed the info to opt out to one of the parents of a student who had a grand-mal-seizure the night after she tried to take the first part of the test. I came home Friday and just cried…”

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And another comment:

Parent, in NY comment Opt Out Group:

“Phoenix Middle School withheld snacks from my daughter because I chose as a parent opt my child out! Crappy system and crappy teachers!!”

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And yet another one:

Anyone outraged yet?

Anonymous post
“My school did 3rd grade on the computer. Kids tested all day. Stopped for lunch and went back to continue. At 3pm there were still a couple not done yet.”

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From the looks of this Choose to Refuse Common Core post, kids are losing participation points for having to go to the bathroom:

Anyone know if it’s illegal to take points of your kid’s grade for having to go to the bathroom in MA? I thought it was.

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And here are some replies to said post:

My daughter just got a severe UTI last week and told the Dr they don’t get bathroom breaks bc there is always something going on. I told her from now on, just walk out and go and I will handle it from there!

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Our elementary has “2 allotted bathroom breaks per day.” It’s ridiculously cruel.

I asked my son’s dr. to write a note that he should not lose points and made copies for the nurse & all his teachers. I’m sick of this between 2 kids. It’s not right!

My son has a tough enough time keeping his grades up nm losing points for class participation because he has to go the bathroom! It infuriates me & I want to know if it’s legal. My daughter wouldn’t let me get involved because she said her teachers would hate her for causing problems.

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I’m in AZ and we obviously encourage lots of water drinking, my 6th grader daughter also gets a -1 point for bathroom breaks!? Wth!?

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These teachers have too much power. This is ridiculous.

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Another gender-bending high school:  https://heatst.com/culture-wars/high-school-opens-locker-rooms-to-transgender-students/

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A student was suspended for 10 days for liking a picture of a gun on Instagram:  http://www.youngcons.com/liking-an-instagram-gun-picture-earns-middle-school-student-a-10-day-suspension/

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Here is a post from an Ohio anti-Common Core group:

From Karen Bracken

Remember whatever Charters are today they will not be the same in the future. The real agenda is to train workers for the planned global economy and Charters is how they will accomplish this (vouchers and ESAs is how they will get ALL children into the system). Charters will be the training centers of the future and with no elected school boards parents will have no say in what happens. Believe me the big boys (Bush, Gates, Broad, Walton) are heavily invested in Charters for a reason ($$$$$$) and it has nothing to do with education. And we continue to line up like sheeple trusting the very people that have destroyed education in this country. They DO NOT want thinkers. They DO NOT want educated individuals. The thinkers and the truly educated will be THEIR kids. None of these people sent their kids to Common Core schools….including Obama and our very own TN Commissioner of Education. Their kids will be educated. Their kids will sign the front of the checks. Our kids will be trained to be workers assigned their career and training path as early as 2nd grade. That is the real reason for all the data collection.

https://thenationalpulse.com/commentary/common-core-charter-schools-jeb-bush-latest-scheme/

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Here is a post from the Choose to the Refuse Common Core group:

My 13 yr old son is reading “13 Reasons Why” in health class. Not allowed to bring home the book and I was never informed. The content of this book sickens me, as it is based on a teenage girl who has committed suicide and basically blames 12 other teens & 1 adult. Now they have to live with the guilt of knowing they helped contribute to the girl’s death. I am appalled–there is sex/homosexuality, under-age drinking, “naked” photos circulating, and bullying. What do ya’ll think and what should I do? I’m madder than a hornet that they would allow such “literature” in 8th grade w/o my knowledge!

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Here is another post from the Choose to Refuse Common Core group:

Posting a question just ‘in case I missed a law that was passed in CT’ My son’s has a sbac math test coming up, he said the teacher told everyone it is for a test grade, everyone has to take it. I have had him refuse the sbac’s in the past – Anyone else dealing with this?

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The Communist governor of Minnesota looks like he is planning to make bathrooms genderless in Minnesota schools:  http://mailchi.mp/96011ffb448c/xupg8jp4tl-1868457?e=144fc4ac90

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The University of Arizona is paying students to be “Social Justice Advocates”: http://www.wnd.com/2017/05/university-pays-students-to-be-social-justice-advocates/#yKtQ83Lz7xwXvOvE.99

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Here is a post from a Utah anti-Common Core group:

Oklahoma – Requirement for graduation from high school: Submit your plans for your future for government approval.

OK – HB2155 | BillTrack50
Signed May 2, 2017

Beginning with students entering the ninth grade (students may start the process in 6th grade, see additional link) in the 2019-2020 school year, each student shall be required to complete the process of an ICAP in order to graduate from a public high school with a standard diploma. Each year thereafter, students shall annually update their ICAP.

The ICAP shall include, but not be limited to:
career- and college-interest surveys,
written postsecondary and workforce goals and information of progress toward these goals, intentional sequence of courses that reflect progress toward the postsecondary goal, the student’s academic progress, including courses taken, assessment scores, any remediation or credit recovery and any Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, concurrent or dual enrollment credits earned and/or career certificate(s), certification(s), or endorsements, and experience in-service learning and/or work environment activities.

REQUIRED IN ORDER TO GRADUATE.

https://www.billtrack50.com/BillDetail/787126

Who owns your child’s education? Who owns your child’s future? Who owns your child? Who owns you?

http://sde.ok.gov/…/si…/ok.gov.sde/files/ICAP%20Overview.pdf

Cradle to grave …..

https://www.billtrack50.com/BillDetail/787126

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Here is another post from the Utah anti-Common Core group:

Does anyone know of a good attorney who knows how to fight the schools on SAGE testing. Teachers are giving participation points for taking the test and if student doesn’t take SAGE or the alternative test created by the school they will not get these points. The Nebo district attorney has advised the schools that this is acceptable to the law to force students to take SAGE.

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Here is a post from a Texas anti-Common Core group:

No education bureaucrats should profit from student loans. A four-year degree today can be expensive enough to create six-figure debt.
The big problem is the federal government, especially when they got involved in student loans. There is no reason the education bureaucrats should profit from student loans. This only makes an already difficult problem worse. In 2013 more than 41 billion was student loan debt. Think about it, 41 billion going to the where politicians, Department of Education, College Chancellor’s, administrators, lobbyist, special interest groups etc? These student loans are something education bureaucrats shouldn’t make money from, and yet it does. And do you think this has anything to do with why schools continue to raise their tuition every year and increasing salaries of administrative positions.

Our public schools have grown up in a competition-free zone, surrounded by a very high union wall. Why aren’t we shocked at the results? With more than 85% of their soft-money donations going to polticans with their own agendas, teachers’ unions know they can count on the politician they back to take a strong stand for Common Core and other major issues. After all, diplomas that have been devalued into “certificates of attendance” by a dumbed-down curriculum that asks little of teachers and less of students.

Our public schools are capable of providing a more competition than they do today. Look we have become a top-down system of indoctrination and teaching to the tests. And we’ve got to bring on the competition, open the doors and let parents choose the best school for their children.

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Richmond Early College High School has recalled their yearbooks after some student quotes such as “build that wall” were deemed too “controversial”:  http://freedomoutpost.com/high-school-seizes-yearbooks-because-of-build-that-wall-student-quotes-and-other-controversial-comments/

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Here is a post from an Ohio anti-Common Core group:

From Karen Bracken

Anyone that has followed me for the past 5 years know I have warned of a day when, as Arne Duncan stated so clearly, “there will come a day when we can look at a 2nd grader and know if that child will go to college.” That statement should have sent off alarms in parents but it did not.

So many parents today believe that education is all about getting a job. It is not!! The article attached tells of a trend that is happening all over America not just in TX. As a matter of fact TX is a bit behind the trend. You see they start out at age 14 (it will drop to 2nd grade in the future) now and they offer an array of areas of study (that will go away eventually as well). The end game is to use the data they collect (starting at conception) in order to pre-select your child’s place in the planned economy as early as 2nd grade. And they will do the selecting not the child or the parents because after all the data tells the story. Right?

So now Texas schools will ask students to choose a field of study at 14. And those kids will now be TRAINED toward that career. Well what happens if by the time that child is 18 they change their mind and don’t want to pursue the path they have now been trained to do. What happens if that child at the age of 30 decides they want to go to college but never was given the courses needed in the training program that would enable him/her to go to college? Or if the chosen career path no longer holds the same employment opportunity? In the old world of education children were educated not trained. They were educated so that no matter what or when they chose a life career they would be prepared to change direction at the drop of a hat. With this new trend if a child decides they do not like the career path they were trained to do they will have to be re-trained. This is what THEY mean by life long learning. These students will not have the ability to just change their mind and take a new direction. This is an erosion of individual choice, individual freedom. What this policy does it drive the human capital (our children) to fulfill the needs of the planned economy that has been in the works for decades. This is why Bill Gates, the Chamber of Commerce and many large industries have pushed Common Core. National one size fits all training standards to insure the system spits out the trained workers they need. This is COMMUNISM. And we better start calling it what it is. The US has had agreements with Russia to share education policies since Eisdenhower and renewed as recently as 2012 under Obama. PARENTS must stand up now and say NO. The school should educate and allow the child to decide their career path when they are ready. Don’t you see what they are doing with this program??? If you don’t then we are truly going to see our Constitutional Republic be replaced with a Communist system.

http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2014/08/26/52774/texas-students-choose-career-paths-as-early-as-middle-school/

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Here is a post from a Rhode Island anti-Common Core group:

Isn’t this interesting…Chan Zuckerberg funding a program they Will DIRECTLY benefit from on the back end…And your RIDOE Commissioner Wagner is all for it, why, ofcourse! Follow the money folks!

Via EdWeek-In case you can’t access it:

“Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Gives More for Personalized Learning at State Level
By Benjamin Herold on May 11, 2017 9:20 AM

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is funding the education-reform group Chiefs for Change, as both groups seek to grow state- and district-level support for personalized learning.

Neither group would confirm the amount of the grant award.

CZI is the investment and philanthropy arm of pediatrician Priscilla Chan and her husband Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of social media giant Facebook. Chiefs for Change is a nonprofit network of state and district education leaders that focuses on school choice, diversifying the ranks of education leadership, and digital learning, among other issues.

In statements provided to Education Week, both groups touted the Every Student Succeeds Act as an impetus for the grant.

“There’s a unique opportunity to take advantage of innovation in the education sector,” wrote a spokeswoman for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. “In hopes of providing districts with additional flexibility to innovate, CZI is supporting a number of states in their planning and implementation efforts.”

The money will be used to support a new “Transforming Schools and Systems Workgroup,” according to Chiefs for Change CEO Mike Magee.

“This workgroup will provide an opportunity for our members, with support from their peers, to develop a vision and strategy to redesign schools to better align schools with their ambitious goals for all kids,” Magee wrote in a statement.

Chiefs for Change originally grew out of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The group initially consisted of just state education chiefs. Its early focus on issues such as test-based teacher evaluation and A-F grading systems for schools made it an occasional lightning rod for criticism.

More recently, Chiefs for Change has moved to add well over a dozen district leaders and shifted its policy focus to ESSA implementation.

The grant marks CZI’s second significant effort in recent months to support personalized learning at the state level. In February, Education Week reported that the group is supporting related work in Rhode Island.”

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2017/05/chan_zuckerberg_initiative_chiefs_for_change_personalized_learning.html

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And another post from the Rhode Island anti-Common Core group:

Does this sound like a positive development to you?

“The Center for Collaborative Education and Center for Teaching Quality, in collaboration with the Rhode Island Department of Education, are creating a stack of micro-credentials to develop and assess the leadership skills of teachers who can effectively lead new student performance reforms. Funded by a start-up grant from the Center for Innovation in Education (CIE), in partnership with Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC), we have convened a team of teachers from ten Rhode Island schools to develop three micro-credential “stacks” that address:

Designing valid and reliable performance assessment tasks;
Embedding, instructing, and assessing habits and dispositions; and
Building and leading a performance assessment learning community.

“Teachers who pursue these micro-credentials will develop portfolios of evidence indicating their performance assessment expertise.”

http://cce.org/thought-leadership/blog/post/micro-credentials-ushering-in-teacher-driven-performance-assessments-in-the-age-of-essa

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And another post:

http://thefederalist.com/2017/05/04/competency-based-education-will-deepen-americas-education-crisis/

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And here are some replies to said post:

“According to the CEO of mind-mapper Knewton, the ed-tech companies will have so much data on each student that they can predict what he will do and tell him what he should do. Few parents want the government (through the schools) to have this much information on their children, but of course, parents won’t be told how all this works.

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Plugging Kids Into a Planned Hole In a Planned Economy
Another benefit to corporations benefits the government as well. Remember that the entire CBE/Common Core scheme is designed for workforce development. When the government has such intensely personal algorithms on all citizens, it’s easier to slot those people into the workforce needs of politically connected corporations.”

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AND: More and more the Haves who buy/pay the bills to keep computers and technology up and running in their homes are going to be the customers in our schools — leaving the Have Nots who have much less stable access to technology out of the educational equation.

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Here is a post from a Utah anti-Common Core group:

My daughter told me that her teachers said she has to take Finals that will count on her grade instead of Sage since she opted out. I feel like i might as well have her do Sage if its going to possible cause her grades to go down! But Sage is weird..my daughters friend said the Sage test asked what her opinion on gay marriage was. Why are they asking kids their personal opinions on things like that?

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Here is a post from a New York anti-Common Core group:

This Bill will lift the ban on developing a National Student Data base!
https://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1603
Via Politco:

NEW CONGRESSIONAL PUSH FOR STUDENT OUTCOMES DATA: A bipartisan group of senators will begin a push today to overturn a federal prohibition on tracking the educational and employment outcomes of college students. Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), all members of the Senate education committee, are unveiling legislation that would allow the federal government, as well as families and prospective students, to obtain more accurate and complete data about whether students at a particular college, or in a certain major, graduate on time and find well-paying jobs, among other things.

– The bill is one of the most sweeping and bipartisan efforts to repeal a federal prohibition on a “student-unit record system” since Congress enacted it in 2008 during the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. It calls for a new “secure, privacy-protected postsecondary student data system” that would be housed at the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics. It would be far more comprehensive than the department’s existing data system, which tracks only full-time students who start and finish college at the same institution. That means that part-time and transfer students are excluded from the data.

– The legislation restricts how the government could use the data – and includes provisions designed to protect student privacy. The bill prohibits, for instance, “a federal college ratings or rankings scheme,” which was an ill-fated proposal of the Obama administration. It also includes “disclosure limitations, prohibitions on the sale of data, penalties for illegally obtaining information, protections for vulnerable students, prohibition on law enforcement access, and strong limitations [for] personally identifiable information,” according to a fact sheet.

– Higher education data issues have long divided members of Congress, particularly Republicans. Some Republicans view a more expansive federal data system as a way to provide prospective students with better information – and to hold colleges more accountable for the billions of federal dollars they collectively receive each year. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) previously co-sponsored a bill to repeal the federal ban on a “student-unit record” system, as did Paul Ryan before he became House Speaker. The lawmakers unveiling today’s bill also emphasize the system could help reduce the regulatory burden on institutions because it would streamline the data they must report to the feds.

– But other Republicans are concerned about the government tracking students as they move through higher education and into the workforce. They say they’re worried both about expanding federal power and student privacy. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the House education committee, helped write the federal ban on a “student-unit record” system in 2008 and she remains vehemently opposed to lifting it. And Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chair of the Senate education committee, has also expressed concerns about such a data system, although he’s floated ways to streamline and enhance the quality of data using existing sources of government information.

– Many private colleges and universities have supported the ban, saying it’s needed to protect student privacy. The American Civil Liberties Union gave a boost to that reasoning when it came out against a “student-unit record” system last year.

– But groups representing community colleges and public universities have cheered a repeal of the ban. Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, praised the new legislation, saying it “would finally lift the federally-imposed curtain on comprehensive higher education outcomes data and enable students to make better informed decisions.” Read a fact sheet about the bill here.

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Here is a post from a Nevada anti-Common Core group:

My 10 year old daughter came home yesterday to tell me that they’re on day 3 of testing and that her brain feels like it’s going to explode. I forgot to opt her out this year like I did last year. So it’s my own fault. But how can the government think this is okay to do to a child?! This isn’t college! It’s making her hate school when she loves it!

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And here are some replies to said post:

Same thing happened to my son this year. I opted him out last year, but this year I didn’t at Depoali and it was a disaster. He was taking tests for 3 weeks, was unable to have library access so some work in his other classes suffered. He’s always loved school and gotten really good grades, this was ruining it for him. He came home each day stressed about the test and that he couldn’t get to the library because apparently they closed it the whole time during SBAC. Starting to hate that school.

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Omg that’s terrible! And this just doesn’t benefit them at all. It doesn’t determine if they pass or fail or affect their grades. It’s ridiculous!

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My understanding is all grades in the school will use the psychological assessments; we just aren’t sure if it’s all children or just kids on an IEP. Unfortunately the district won’t answer our simple questions on this.

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Here is a post from the Choose to Refuse  Common Core group that explains EXACTLY what Common Core will do to kids and their faith if allowed to stand:

To most here it clear that Common Core is Communism. This coring out of the soul has other names thru the years. Back in Hungary .a Common Core example in class of small hungry children. The teacher told the Class to close their eyes and Pray to God for FOOD. Then told to open their eyes and the teacher said DID GOD bring food? And the children replied NO. Now close your eyes again and pray to Stalin for food, And so they all did, Again the teacher said in a while, now open your eyes. And there before their eyes! Baskets and baskets of FOOD. Children , you prayed to God and He did NOT hear you, you prayed to Stalin and immediately he brought you FOOD!!! This BRAINWASHING OF CHILDREN is OLD STUFF, now modernized.Today is another day in school, our american children across this great nation that many died for are classrooms working negatively on America’s most valuable – children, our future.

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Looks like Michigan is going along with the evil ESSA with SB 343/344.    http://stopcommoncoreinmichigan.com/2017/05/education-no-longer-meeting-needs-children-needs-workforce/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

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A teacher in Augusta, Maine who offered to pray for a colleague is facing disciplinary action:  http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/05/16/school-offering-to-pray-for-colleague-is-unacceptable.html

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Here is a post from the Choose to Refuse Common Core group:

My children go to an NYC charter school. Today my oldest, who is in the 5th grade tells me that in HISTORY they are learning about the Syrian refugees. She said in the other class, they have started a fund raiser for them. In her class they have to write about how to help them.
Well first of all I said to her, that is NOT history. That is current affairs! Second of all, I want to see exactly what your project is. Then depending on what it says, I will email the school. I will not have them shoving their liberal political views down my childs throat!
I told her to say we can help them by sending them to UAE, Egypt or Saudi Arabia where they share the same culture and views. And we can help by securing their country so they can continue their way of life.
Any suggestions on how to handle this with the school?
#notorefugees

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A high school allows a gay club but bans a pro-life club.  Typical liberal “tolerance”: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/high-school-allows-gay-club-bans-pro-life-club

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Here is a post from the Choose to Refuse Common Core group.  It’s an update from an earlier post:

So here is the in class assignment. Looks bias to me. I will be contacting the principle

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Looks like University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Minnesota-Twin Cities have joined Brown University in having tampons in men’s rooms:  http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/colleges-putting-tampons-mens-bathrooms-men-can-vaginas/

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Here is someone’s remark in an anti-Competency Based Education forum in regards to the so-called teacher shortage:

I have a strong suspicion that it’s the test. Across the country, they keep changing the recertification guidelines, making it more difficult for experienced teachers to keep their jobs. Yet at the same time, in the name of “teacher shortage”, states are decreasing the educational requirements for someone to become a teacher in the first place. It literally sets up a situation that turns teaching into a short time job.

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Collier County School District in Florida has been caught pushing an anti-American agenda:  http://freedomproject.com/the-newman-report/210-anti-american-agenda-pushed-in-florida-schools

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Here is a post from the Utah anti-Common Core group:

ATTN: Parents of Skyview students (Smithfield, UT). Last year teachers were allowed to substitute the SAGE tests for the end of year final grades. If the students received a 3 or 4, they were automatically given a 100% on their class final. Apparently, a fair number of teachers were doing it. So be aware. This is a direct violation of the law. I do not know if the policy has been changed for this year.

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Here is another post from the Utah anti-Common Core group:

So the Kearns High School Principal promised a pizza party for doing good on biology SAGE. I just received an email stating my daughter had won the party……she is opted out. Also where are they getting the funds for that???

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And here are some replies to said post:

The school probably has discretionary funds and the principal can decide to use the funds in this way. As long as all the opted out students are invited to the party, it MIGHT pass legal muster.

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The law says students who take SAGE can’t be rewarded. That’s why it’s gray. If it’s just the SAGE- taking students, it’s obviously illegal. If the reward is for the whole class, then maybe. The safer thing would just be to reward based on something else.

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Here is a post from the Texas anti-Common Core group:

Texas is moving to anytime, anywhere online data assessments that will eventually replace the STAAR, However, unlike STAAR, these type of assessments are NonCognitive and your child will have no idea that they are being psychologically profiled.

What if your child is having a bad day at school or is going through a traumatic life experience? What if they are horsing around, as so many kids do and put down silly answers to survey questions–as their data is being recorded to their permanent student profile?

How many times do meteorologists predict the weather incorrectly based on computer modeling programs?

http://missourieducationwatchdog.com/meet-the-new-equity-assessments-the-tests-to-measure-student-emotional-learning-sel/

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Here is a  post from an Ohio anti-Common Core group:

There has been a lot of talk lately about Charter schools and school choice. I have some experience with Charters. When my oldest son Michael was in Kindergarten, he attended a Charter school. We choose it because we knew his teacher. She was wonderful. However, she warned us not to come back to the school again. This school had uniforms and free food for all, not just those who qualified.
We took him out for 1st grade. We lost our sitter. The only after school program that would bus him from school, only did so from the Charter school he went to in Kindergarten. So for the 2nd grade he went back. It was a nightmare!
Because Charters are owned by corporations or a group of individuals, there was NO PTA. There had been when he went before. The school had changed hands, much like a company. It seemed parental input wasn’t wanted or welcome. There were little school events. No more book fairs. The new Principal was ok, but Vice Principal was more like boot camp instructor! A lot of the kids who went there were mostly low income, who had a tendency to get into trouble a lot. My son learned things he shouldn’t. He acted like them to be part of the crowd. I got calls at work constantly about his behavior. Worst of all, it was my fault. I put him in the school again. He is still having some issues today. We pulled him out the next year. I am not saying the Charter school was entirely to blame. There are certainly other issues involved. Sure there are bad influences everywhere. But the way the school was run was WORSE THAN A PUBLIC SCHOOL. So, when I say Charters are not the answer, I know a little of what I speak about. Consider on it.

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Here is a post from an anti-Common Core group:

From my kids’ high school last spring. One more step to eliminate History. When I inquired about the reason for the change, I was told it was so that students would do better on their “Accuplacer” (the college placement test.) I invite you to contact this administrator with your comments.

 

 

 

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Can’t set aside a classroom for Christian prayer but apparently a Saratoga County high school will let you do it for Muslim prayer:  http://cbs6albany.com/news/local/school-opens-special-room-to-allow-students-to-pray

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So apparently the University of California supports illegal immigration and hires H1Bs and fires Americans and opposes freedom of speech and they raise tuition rates and Napolitano and the regents go to a big fancy banquet.    We need to stand up to this college:  http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Regents-throw-parties-at-UC-s-expense-11178628.php

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Here is a post from a Utah anti-Common Core group:

 

Isn’t it against the law to reward for SAGE? My kids don’t attend this school but if it’s against the law, I kind of want to say something.

 

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