“Shame on Them”
1.26.12 – U.S. Department of Education Announces 61 Applications as Finalists for $400 Million Race to the Top - District Competition – 7 Texas School Districts/Entities on the List
Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced that 61 applications [out of 372] have been selected as finalists for the Race to the Top-District (RTTT-D) competition..
The Department expects to select 15-25 winning applications from the Race to the Top-District competition for four-year awards that will range from $5 million to $40 million, depending on the population of students served through the plan. Awards will be announced no later than Dec. 31, 2012.
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11.23.12
Did you know that as of Nov. 14, 2012, Texas has the largest number of educational entities that have applied for the direct-to-locals Common Core Standards/Race to the Top grants? These include a total of 113 Texas ISD’s, charter schools, and
By Donna Garner
regional education service centers – separately or through joint applications. The USDOE plans to award 15 to 25 applicants ranging from $5 M to $40 M by Dec. 31, 2012.
If you have not already read this, please take the time to do so: 11.23.12 – “Texas Public Schools Must Resist Federal Tentacles” – by Donna Garner -- http://educationviews.org/texas-public-schools-must-resist-federal-tentacles/
Texas administrators and the education establishment are so het-up in their lust for more money that they are chomping at the bit to take federal money even if the Common Core Standards strings are attached. The Common Core Standards/Race to the Top are the Obama administration’s federal takeover of the public schools.
Excerpt from “A New Kind of Problem: The Common Core Math Standards” – by Barry Garelick, 11.20.12, The Atlantic -- http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/11/a-new-kind-of-problem-the-common-core-math-standards/265444/ ---
This approach not only complicates the simplest of math problems; it also leads to delays. Under the Common Core Standards, students will not learn traditional methods of adding and subtracting double and triple digit numbers until fourth grade. (Currently, most schools teach these skills two years earlier.) The standard method for two and three digit multiplication is delayed until fifth grade; the standard method for long division until sixth. In the meantime, the students learn alternative strategies that are far less efficient, but that presumably help them "understand" the conceptual underpinnings.
If you are a parent and/or a taxpayer, you need to contact your school district and/or regional education service centers if they are on the following list. Please tell them how outraged you are with them for applying for the direct-to-locals RTTT grants which would require the teaching of the Common Core Standards. Explain that if they should be selected by the USDOE to receive the RTTT grants that you will make it a public crusade to warn the parents that their children are at risk because the Common Core Standards/RTTT will not get Texas school children prepared for the new STAAR/End-of-Course tests.
Donna Garner
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*Donna Garner’s terminology and definitions --
(1) Type #1 Philosophy of Education: Knowledge-based, academic, clearly worded, grade-level-specific content that is tested largely through objectively scored tests -- These standards are built from K through Grade 12 and are taught mostly through direct, systematic instruction.
Type #1 standards could be referred to as the traditional method – the method of teaching that people perhaps 50 years old and older experienced when they were in school. This included the teaching of phonics, grammar, correct usage/spelling, cursive handwriting, classical literature, expository/persuasive/research writing, the four math functions taught to automaticity, fact-based and discreet courses in Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Calculus, U. S. History, World History, Botany, Biology, Physics, and Chemistry.
(2) Type #2 Philosophy of Education (adopted in July 1997 and reflected in the TEKS and TAKS) -- Project-based, subjective (emphasize cognitive domain – beliefs, opinions, emotions), subjectively assessed based upon the value system of the evaluator -- emphasize multiculturalism, political correctness, environmental extremism, diversity, social justice agenda -- These standards are built backwards from Grade 12 down to K (similar to trying to build a house from the roof down) and are taught mostly using the constructivist (project-based) approach.
Type #2 can be seen in Obama’s social justice agenda (i.e., Common Core Standards) that includes an emphasis on subjectivity, feelings, emotions, beliefs, multiculturalism, political correctness, social engineering, globalism, evolution, sexual freedom/contraceptives instead of abstinence, environmental extremism, global warming, victimization, diversity, an acceptance of the normalcy of the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender lifestyle, redistribution of wealth, a de-emphasis on -- factual knowledge, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Founding Fathers, and American exceptionalism.
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TEXAS FINALISTS
Here are the 7 Texas finalists for the RTTT direct-to-locals grants. The Harmony Public Schools include the 10 Harmony Schools listed. It is not surprising to me that the Turkish-Gulen-Harmony Charter Schools are on this list because they are already very open to the Obama administration’s social justice agenda (Type #2 Philosophy of Education).
The inclusion of the Region 5 Education Service Center in Beaumont, Texas, means that all of the ISD’s in that region will be “infected” with the Common Core Standards if ESC 5 wins the grant.
TEXAS
- Aubrey Independent School District
- Dallas Independent School District
- Galveston ISD
- Harmony Science Academy (Harmony Public Schools)
Harmony School of Excellence 1
Harmony School of Science-Houston 1
Harmony Science Academy-Austin 1
Harmony Science Academy-Brownsville 1
Harmony Science Academy-El Paso 1
Harmony Science Academy-Fort Worth
Harmony Science Academy-Lubbock 1
Harmony Science Academy-San Antonio 1
Harmony Science Academy-Waco 1
Harmony Science Academy (Harmony Public Schools)
- Idea Public Schools
- Peak Preparatory - Uplift Education
- Region 5 Education Service Center
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RACE TO THE TOP DISTRICT FINALISTS – BY STATE
ARIZONA
- Cartwright Elementary School District
- Peoria Unified School District
ARKANSAS
- Springdale School District
CALIFORNIA
- Animo Leadership Charter High School
- Galt Joint Union School District
- Lindsay Unified School District
- New Haven Unified School District
CONNECTICUT
- Bridgeport Public Schools
- Hartford Public Schools
COLORADO
- Mapleton Public Schools
- St. Vrain Valley Schools
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
- KIPP DC
FLORIDA
- Broward County School Board
- Charlotte County School Board
- Manatee County School Board
- Miami-Dade County School Board
- Seminole County Public Schools
GEORGIA
Fulton County Board of Education
Haralson County School System
Morgan County Charter School System
Rockdale County Public Schools
INDIANA
- Metropolitan School District of Warren Township
KENTUCKY
- Bourbon County Schools
- Green River Regional Educational Cooperative
- Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative
LOUISIANA
- Ascension Parish School System
MARYLAND
- Baltimore City Public Schools
- Baltimore County Board of Education
MASSCHUSETTS
Boston Public Schools
MICHIGAN
- Education Achievement Authority of Michigan
MISSOURI
- Jefferson City Public Schools
- Maryville R-11 School District
- St. Louis Board of Education
NEVADA
- Carson City School District
NEW HAMPSHIRE
- Nashua School District
NEW JERSEY
- Neptune Township School District
- The Newark Public Schools
NEW YORK
- New York City Public Schools
- Middletown City School District
NORTH CAROLINA
- Guilford County Schools
- Iredell-Statesville Schools
OHIO
- Cleveland Municipal School District
- Maysville Local School District
- Reynoldsburg City School District
OREGON
- McMinnville School District #40
PENNSYLVANIA
- The School District of Philadelphia
SOUTH CAROLINA
- Charleston County School District
TENNESSEE
- Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools
TEXAS
- Aubrey Independent School District
- Dallas Independent School District
- Galveston ISD
- Harmony Science Academy (Harmony Public Schools)
- Idea Public Schools
- Peak Preparatory - Uplift Education
- Region 5 Education Service Center
UTAH
- Ogden City School District
- Salt Lake City School District
WASHINGTON
- North Central Educational Service District 171
- Puget Sound Educational Service District
- Vancouver Public Schools
WISCONSIN
- Cooperative Education Service Agency 10
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Donna Garner
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