http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6877138

Teaching History the Pearson Way

I reviewed a copy of the teacher guide to Pearson My World Social Studies: The Growth of Our Country at the New York State Council for the Social Studies annual conference. Curiously (a word I will use throughout this post) the hard-copy teacher guide does not identify a grade level, but online it is designated for 5th grade.

Online Pearson also includes a price list. Nothing is free, although the curriculum package repeatedly tells students about the benefits of "free enterprise." The student edition of myWorld costs $25.97 each but includes a one-year digital course which you probably have to pay for again if you want it for another year. The workbook costs $24.97, a student atlas is $16.97, for a total of $67.91 per student. Each teacher guide is an additional $245.47. A school district can get a package of activity cards for $46.97, "leveled readers" for $877.47, leveled reader lesson plans for $53.47, an activity kit bundle for $429.97, a student edition DVD-ROM for $44.97, an exam DVD-ROM for $122.47, a myStory DVD-ROM for $190.97, and a Digital Courseware 1-year license for $15.97. I figure for a class of 25 fifth-graders, the entire Pearson myStory package with all the extras would cost a school district $3,725.48, but this bill is just for social studies and for one class. Pearson is also selling packages for all the other subjects.

The Pearson package begins with the statement:

This work is protected by United States copyright laws and is provided solely for the use of teachers and administrators in teaching courses and assessing student learning in their classes and schools. Dissemination or sale of any part of this work (including on the World Wide Web) will destroy the integrity of the work and is not permitted.

I guess this statement is supposed to scare everyone and Pearson appears to be serious. In New Jersey, Pearson was monitoring social media after the recent PARCC exams to see if any students were discussing the Pearson PARCC tests. Apparently Pearson complained to the New Jersey Department of Education that they had actually caught three students who discussed specific questions and they felt were violating Pearson's copyright. 

Let me make this perfectly clear from the start. My purpose in reviewing their curriculum package is not to destroy its integrity because I could not find very much integrity in the package. If Pearson does not like the review, they can sue me.

On the same page as the copyright threat and on page vi there are rejoinders explaining that although its "Program Consultant," Grant Wiggins, is associated with the Association for Supervisors of Curriculum Development (ASCD) and they are the registered owners of the trademark "Understanding By Design," which is a fundamental component of the approach used in the teacher guide, ASCD "has not authorized, approved or sponsored this work and is no way affiliated with Pearson or its products." It is a curious disclaimer because as anyone who attends an ASCD conference knows, Pearson is the major sponsor of its exhibit hall and featured presentations and delivers conference swag labeled with the Pearson brand to all the participants. ASCD has also been championing its partnership with Pearson at least since 2012.

As with all Pearson curriculum material, this one includes a list of its consulting authors and reviewers. What is curious here is the list of "Program Teacher Reviewers." There are twenty teacher reviewers, nine from Florida. It is not explained why so many reviewers were selected from one state, especially a state that has had academic performance issues. On the 2013 PISA exams, Florida high school students scored lower than their peers in the United States and internationally in math, reading and science. 

The reviewers list is also misleading. One teacher is listed as teaching in Pittsford Schools-Allen Creek in Rochester, New York. The Rochester City school district student population is 85% African American and Latino and 90% of the students are considered to be from economically disadvantaged families. As a district, it confronts all of the problems facing urban minority schools. Pittsford is an affluent suburb of Rochester with a student population that is over 90% White and Asian and a collection of award winning schools. Four percent of its students are from economically disadvantaged families. The teacher from Holmes Elementary School in Chicago may be wonderful, but the school itself has only 16% of its students meeting or exceeding state standards. I am not sure what the teacher reviewers do or what their qualifications are but it is not a list that builds confidence in the product.

The curriculum package opens with essays for teachers that cover all the latest education buzzwords and establish Pearson's alliances and priorities. They include understanding by design, the importance of big ideas, how the package aligns with National Common Core Standards, correlates with national social studies standards, supports English Language Learners, promotes digital citizenship, prepares students for the 21st century, utilizes differentiated instruction, is geared for assessment, and supports "real" student learning. District purchase agents need to know that it is a one-stop-to-shop package that includes everything and everyone.

Pearson is so thoughtful that it provides teachers with activities, images, reading passages, and assessment questions, and just in case the teacher is an idiot and does not understand the material, they also provide the answers to student short-written questions. On page 223, students are asked to "Tell whether or not you would have approved of John Brown's raid." The Pearson provided "possible answer" is "I would not approve; slavery is wrong, but you still should not murder people."

One of the most curious Pearson statements appears at the end of every chapter in the teacher guide. Pearson recommends that in case there is "Not enough time for social studies" because of pressure to prepare students for the high-stakes Common Core English tests, teachers can use material from the package "during your reading block." I would expect the National Council for Social Studies to be howling and threatening to cut all ties with Pearson, but so far I have not even heard a quiet whimper, which may be because they depend on Pearson to exhibit at their conferences as well.

The package itself offers a curriculum laced with myth and blather. Common Core aligned lessons are in theory supposed to promote higher order thinking, but critical thinking and historical accuracy are missing in this package.

Pages SSH 6 through SSH 10 offer a unit on "Our Market Economy" that starts with the "law of supply and demand," stresses the "importance of competition," and explains scarcity, opportunity costs, and "basic concepts of banking." According to the unit, the United States has a "free market economy" where "private businesses make decisions about what they produce and sell, and what prices to charge in the marketplace. Then individuals choose what to buy in the marketplace."

Pearson may not like it, but the United States actually has a "mixed economy" where government regulates and subsidizes business. In fact, government is Pearson's largest customer. The unit also leaves out the manipulation of demand through advertising and of government policy through lobbying and contributions to political campaigns. The words capitalism, profit, and globalization do not appear in this benign and misleading unit. And in case there is not enough time to teach social studies, students can just read the Pearson propaganda on their own. The two-paragraph passage on "The Marketplace" uses the word "free" six times. Unfortunately, in the real world, nothing is free. The economic myth building continues on pages 398-403 where students learn about the creativity and risk-taking of the entrepreneurs who created really big companies "because it could help them keep costs down."

Free and freedom are also very big in the reading passage on the "Gettysburg National Battlefield, Fighting for a Cause" (218-219). "Eleven-year-old Trent" who is a "history buff" wonders about the segment's big question, "Why do you think both sides in the battle fought so fiercely?" As he reads the Gettysburg Address, Trent discovers his answer. "It was for our freedom," he decides, "All of our freedom. I'd say that is something worth fighting for!" The reality is that people fought for many things, but very few were fighting for freedom. Some soldiers fought to protect homes, some fought to defend the buddy standing next to them. Some fought for the union and others fought for slavery. Some joined the armies because they were bored on the farm and wanted adventure, others because they needed work or hoped for citizenship. While 200,000 African American soldiers did fight for freedom, their segregated units were not at Gettysburg. To add to the fiction and confusion, on page 306, students are told "both sides" in the Civil War "were fighting for freedom but disagreed about what freedom meant" and that the enslavement of Africans in the South was really about "differences in geography." I guess Pearson and I just disagree about what freedom means.

Pearson promotes Common Core and Common Core creates markets for Pearson. Teaching history the Pearson way means teaching it the Common Core way, without any meaningful content. The text, no matter how inaccurate or misleading, rules. Myth replaces history, if teachers have the time to include social studies at all while prepping students for Pearson standardized tests. That is the real "free market" at work in Pearson World.

Pearson Customer Service: If you have a Pearson complaint or are still waiting for Pearson to grade your teacher certification exam, call Pearson Customer Service and let them know how you feel. You can speak with a customer service representative directly Monday-Friday 8 AM to 6 PM Eastern Time. After all, we are all Pearson customers. 800-848-9500.

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Common Core, a common concern for parents and educators

http://www.fox21news.com/m/news/story?list=194959&id=1127579

SPECIAL REPORT: Common Core, a common concern for parents and educators : News : FOX21News.com

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Colorado's new assessment standards are the source of an explosive debate among parents, teachers and state administrators regarding our education system.

The topic is not isolated to just Colorado, but the national implications of Common Core teaching and testing affect our school districts, teachers, students and parents.

Colorado adopted Common Core in 2010, with more than 40 other states across the country. Since then, several states have dropped out. Colorado is known as a "Plus 15" state, choosing to add an additional 15 percent on top of the core practices offered. This is the first year Colorado will test Common Core standards.

PearsonAccess is the group organizing testing practices known as PARCC, or Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, and students will test twice a year.

There is a major campaign to reverse Common Core within our schools. Parents speak out with concerns of unhealthy secrecy, intrusive data collection, pressure on students and schools with big money behind molding our children's learning potentials. Many educators are too afraid to comment, fearing corporate backlash.

Common Core is a new set of standards. New ways of teaching, learning and now, testing. It was developed by a consortium of states in a response to a request from the government, that we provide some sort of systematic way of educating kids across state lines. It creates the same educational path for assessment.

Now, Common Core is becoming more of a common concern.

"We do have a say in how and what and why you teach our kids," said Larry Marcus, a parent of three students at James Irwin Charter Schools."I have a lot of problems with the standards. I think that it's going to in effect dumb them down."

"I understand that fear, that we're taking the standards and bringing them down to the lowest common denominator. I would just argue, that is not the case. We're challenged by these new standards," said Eric Mason, Director of Assessment for District 11. "There will be a lot of focus on critical thinking and problem solving. Asking students to look at not just can you calculate this in your head or on paper, but can you figure this out in real life?"

Marcus believes they make it sound great, and they make it sound so rigorous with the students learning so much. But he added, "They're more concerned with the process than they are the right answer."

Many parents from town hall style meetings throughout the school districts are worried about their child's educational needs. Will educators focus solely on teaching to the test, or fulfill more learning objectives?

"That's the balance. That's the biggest concern absolutely. And that's the thing that both our principals and teachers have to be increasingly aware of. Not teaching to the test. Teaching to the standards," said Mason.

Parents and students can choose to opt out of testing, but schools will have a negative reflection.

"Schools do feel that opt out because the state does judge our performance based on participation. How many students took the test? Because the law says test all children. And so we have to reach a 95 percent testing rate. If we don't, it can hurt our school performance framework. If a school falls below a certain rating, it starts a clock. And when that clocks ticks year after year, if you can't get your performance rating up, there are some pretty significant penalties that can be put in place by the state, such as taking over that school, and we don't want that clock to start on any of our schools because of participation. We just have to be very cognizant of the fact the state is watching because of the federal law," said Mason.

The District 11 Director of Assessment believes we are in a massive transition time. Everybody's going to have to take a look at what happens this year with this first big PARCC test. Then take a step back, and recalculate how we teach, educate and asses students.

District 11 did request a testing waiver for its students. They're concerned with the amount of testing driving decisions locally, and pressure on its teachers. They were declined by the state.

If you would like to voice your concerns both for and against Common Core, comments are welcomed by the following agencies below:

Colorado Standards and Assessments Task Force 

Colorado State Legislators 

Denver Alliance (Survey on testing within schools)

Jeb Bush offers nuanced defense of Common Core education standards

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/jeb-bush-offers-nuanced-defense-of-common-core-education-standards/2014/11/20/b77330f4-70cc-11e4-8808-afaa1e3a33ef_story.html

Jeb Bush offers nuanced defense of Common Core education standards

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) offered a nuanced defense of the Common Core State Standards during a speech Thursday in Washington, trying to mend the divide within the GOP over the standards as he weighs a 2016 presidential bid.

“I respect those who have weighed in,” said Bush, who is in the minority among the GOP’s top-tier potential presidential candidates when it comes to support for the Common Core, a set of K-12 standards in reading and math that has been adopted by 43 states and the District of Columbia. “Nobody in this debate has a bad motive.”

Bush, 61, spoke at the annual summit of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, which he founded after leaving office in 2007 to promote his education agenda around the country.

Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) both back the Common Core standards, but opponents include Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R- Tex.) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R). Jindal was once a strong supporter of the Common Core standards but now is fighting with his own state education leaders in an effort to drop them.

Jindal is also suing the Obama administration, claiming that the federal government coerced states to adopt the standards by making adoption of higher standards a requirement for states that wanted to compete for federal grants.

Among the general population, support for the Common Core standards has been mixed, according to several public opinion polls. Democrats tend to support them more than Republicans. Political strategists say if Bush can survive the GOP primary process, he could emerge a stronger candidate in the general election candidate if he stands by his education agenda.

A bipartisan group of governors and state education chiefs created the Common Core State Standards in math and reading in 2010 as a way to inject consistency into K-12 academic standards, which have varied wildly from state to state. The standards spell out the skills and knowledge students should possess by the end of each grade. They are not curriculum — states and schools decide how to teach to the standards and the kinds of materials to use.

Two GOP-controlled states, Oklahoma and South Carolina, have opted to drop the standards, while others are considering revisions.

In his speech Thursday, Bush didn’t address the specific criticisms of the Common Core but instead stressed that the nation needs to raise academic expectations for K-12 students.

“This morning, over 213 million Chinese students went to school and nobody debated over whether academic standards should be lowered to protect their self-esteem,” he said. “Yet in Orange County, Florida, that exact debate did occur. And so the school board voted to make it impossible for a student to receive a grade below a 50. You get 50 out of 100 just for showing up and signing your name. This was done, and I quote here from a local official, so the students ‘do not lose all hope.’ ”

“But in an international report card on education performance, students from Shanghai ranked number one,” he said. “Students from the U.S. ranked 21st in reading and 31st in math. The point is this: An overriding concern for self-esteem instead of high expectations doesn’t help you get to number one. It gets you to 21. So let’s get real.”

States that want to dump the Common Core standards should replace them with even more rigorous benchmarks, Bush said.

“There is no question we need higher academic standards and — at the local level — diverse, high-quality content and curricula,” he said. “And in my view, the rigor of the Common Core State Standards must be the new minimum in classrooms. For those states choosing a path other than Common Core, I say this: Aim even higher . . . be bolder . . . raise standards and ask more of our students and the system.”

As governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, Bush remade the state’s education system, pushing through a law that assigned schools letter grades based on test scores and a requirement that third graders pass a reading test in order to advance to fourth grade. He also promoted a plan for taxpayer-funded private-school vouchers for low-income students, which was struck down by state courts. And he pushed to expand public charter schools and online learning.

After leaving government, Bush used his foundation as a lever to influence education policy and laws in scores of GOP-controlled states. The foundation receives heavy financial support from major education corporations including K12 Inc., the Reston-based for-profit online learning company and Pearson, the world’s largest standardized testing company.

“We have built a nationwide reform movement based on a set of proven principles,” Bush told the gathering of several hundred state policy leaders, charter school managers and executives from education companies. “Of course, choice is at the center of our reform efforts. But there are others:

“High standards. Rigorous, high-quality assessments. Accountability for school leaders.

“Early childhood literacy and ending social promotion. Digital and distance learning. Transparency for parents to see whether their schools are getting better or getting worse.”

He lambasted teachers unions, casting them as obstacles to progress that try to lock students in struggling schools:

“If we were designing our school system from scratch, what would it look like? I know one thing: We wouldn’t start with more than 13,000 government-run, unionized and politicized monopolies who trap good teachers, administrators and struggling students in a system nobody can escape. We would be insane if we recreated what we have today.”

Bush was introduced by Denisha Merriweather, who grew up in poverty in Jacksonville, Fla., and got a taxpayer-funded voucher to attend a private parochial school where she flourished. Merriweather, whose story was shown in a video before she appeared, recently graduated from the University of West Florida. About 70,000 students are attending private schools in Florida with vouchers from the program.

The program is under a legal challenge by a coalition including the teachers unions, the association of school administrators, clergy associated with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the PTA, the Florida NAACP and League of Women Voters. They argue the program funnels public money into unregulated private schools, diverting tax dollars that otherwise would support the system of free public schools required by the state constitution.

Bush took broad swipes Thursday at both the Obama administration and the expanded federal role in education that began under his brother, George W. Bush, who as president signed into law No Child Left Behind, the 2002 legislation designed to hold states accountable for educating children.

“So if the federal government wants to play a role in reform, it should stop tying every education dollar to a rule written in Washington, D.C.,” Bush said. “They should make more programs — IDEA, Title I, early childhood programs — into block grants that the states can deploy as they see fit, including vouchers to enhance state programs.”

“In my view, every education dollar should depend on what the child needs, not what the federal bureaucrat wants,” he said. “Where the child goes, the dollars should go as well. When that happens, we’ll see major reforms and major gains for America’s children and the federal government will go back to playing the supportive and completely secondary role it should be playing.”