Teaching

[xoxoxoBruce]

This struck me as a clever gadget for teaching what large numbers represent.

[DanaC]

That's fucking genius.

[Gravdigr]

Yep.

[Clodfobble]

Very nice!

[Griff]

I'm confused, how does Pearson make any money on that?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Who is Pearson?

[Griff]

Pearson Publishing sells the textbooks, the other curriculum materials, and the assessments used for the Common Core. They own a fair number of lawmakers as well.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Ah so, the evil empire sucking the life blood from primary education. Dat splain it.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by Griff

Pearson Publishing sells the textbooks, the other curriculum materials,
and the assessments used for the Common Core.
They own a fair number of lawmakers as well.

I'm going only on the links provided, but the first one ends with:

Pearson, it turns out, was the only bidder for the PARCC job.

Likewise, $30 k spent for "lobbying" at the national level seems a pittance,
and the $ amounts given over a 14-year period to political campaigns is spread over
several people and geographic regions... and political parties,
both Dem and GOP, between 1989 and 2014.

That all seems hardly enough to have someone stop other companies from bidding,
or to claim ownership of lawmakers, doesn't it ?

[xoxoxoBruce]

WTF? Your link shows $138k donations and $5.1 million lobbying.

[Lamplighter]

Ooops, you are right, but...

I was looking at the contributions to campaign finance, and Griff's link re "owning" lawmakers.

But given the range of lobbying issues listed down lower on my link's page,
I think I still stand by my comment/question with respect to the topic of "education, and the Common Core Standards.
That is, the company's lobbying was widely distributed over many areas, not just education.

In any case, I would actually like to know what the career-teacher Dwellars say about CC Standards.
On the surface, it seems to me that teachers would welcome a set
of standards across the country, and not see them as a threat of some sort.

But then what do I know ?

[Griff]

The thing about CC is that at the level I taught it was not developmentally appropriate. In the state that I taught in, NYS, the assessments are tied in to teacher pay and retention. At the state level, the assessments are used to punish poorly performing schools, which I read as low income schools, by reducing state funding. There are many threads here but in a corrupt state like NY it ties into huge contracts for curriculum and testing along with privatization of poorly performing public schools. This in a state which had a good curriculum and was about to adopt its own higher standard curriculum but got swept up in the Federal plan. I'm not married to the Unions on this a lot of the funding difficulty comes from the gold plated retirements of current retirees and those who are about to retire. The teachers behind them are largely screwed though, which is leading to a reduction of satisfaction and more retention problems. The "modules" which teachers are encouraged to use do not allow for flexible teaching styles where you pursue the interests of the students to enable learning. The teachers are expected to become automatons, which may be fine considering the quality of teacher they'll be left with.

My current position is outside the education system looking in. I work to improve the behaviors of a caseload of kids mostly on the spectrum by teaching parents how to support their children's needs. Some of these kids are very intelligent. What I see is that these children's needs are not being met in schools. Children who tend to carry a lot of anxiety don't generally fair well with long hours of testing. I had a girl on my caseload flee and hide during the ELA testing. I see increased anxiety and parents trying to decide if opting out will prevent their child from graduating and going to college. 7% of students with IEPs passed the CC math for 3-5 grades. Too many threads to write about right now, but there are a ton of issues. The main one for me is this, "Are the civil rights of children with special needs being violated?"

[Lamplighter]

Griff, I really appreciate your response about Common Core standards and testing.
I hope this can be a beginning to a more in depth discussion...

...the assessments are tied in to teacher pay and retention. At the state level,
the assessments are used to punish poorly performing schools,
which I read as low income schools, by reducing state funding. ...

First, let me say I think I understand these thoughts and
agree that both ideas above are inappropriate on their face.
Teacher pay and retention are management issues, not education issues;
and reducing state funding for poor performance smacks of
"...beatings will continue until morale improves..."

In my own career, I have worked with staffs of educated and professional people,
and have seen first hand how threatening even a discussion of testing can,
and does, lead to issues of job security, etc.
But I'd like to set those issues aside for now as labor/management issues.

I have to go out of town today, but will come back to this thread tomorrow...

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Griff

I'm confused, how does Pearson make any money on that?

FTmotherfuckingW!

[xoxoxoBruce]

The Australian tests.


See, now that's all wrong. Any kid that doesn't measure up by third grade should be pruned to keep them from slowing the good children. Send them to the outback to herd sheep, or to the mines providing China with the minerals to satiate walmart.