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Sen. Dan Patrick still does not get it! He sounds like Pro Common Core Mike Huckabee

By Alice Linahan 12.13.2013

One of the main issues I have with Sen. Dan Patrick running for Lt. Governor is that as an elected official he has done more harm to Education in Texas than he has helped. I believe he has no clue of what is happening in Education across the country and in Texas!! If he does, then that is even more of a reason not to elect him as Lt. Governor. 

Common Core is everywhere!!

That is also why I have great concern with Conservative elected officials like Sen. Ken Paxton running for AG who also pushed School Choice and HB5. They just don’t get it. In many communities “Choice” means “No Choice” because the public school’s professional development and training are using the Common Core collectivist philosophy of education of people like Linda Darling Hammond and private school curriculum directors are purchasing Common Core textbooks teaching things like fuzzy math. WE HAVE NO CHOICE unless we homeschool. Like my friend Michael Bohr wrote in a great article 

If you destroy it, they will leave.

Then our kids miss out on what makes our schools and our communities great!! The public schools are not only the heart of many Texas communities they are the largest employer. 

Elected officials like Sen. Dan Patrick and Sen. Ken Paxton say they are against Common Core; great, but do they know what Common Core really is? It is not about a set of standards.

Common Core/College and Career Readiness is the Federal Take Over of Education. #FedLedEd It is a philosophy of education and the professional development of teachers and education products completely controlling those in education today. It is marketed as “21st Century Learning”. Which is not anything new. People like Dr. Peg Lusik, Donna Garner, and others have been fighting against it for many years. 

HB5 and School Choice are clearly not the solutions! Sen. Dan Patrick and Sen. Ken Paxton, what are your solutions to getting #FeLedED out of Texas? 

It is time for parents to say… #CanISee WHAT and HOW you are teaching my child and WHO is making money off of the education products my child’s teacher is being evaluated on. 

This is affecting my children and that will not cut it!! 

Dan Patrick has written an op-ed taunting the wonderful work he did with CSCOPE, HB5, and Charter school legislation. 

Looking Beyond Algebra II

By Senator Dan Patrick and Hector Rivero

Graduation plans, curriculum, and testing in our state’s education has been the source of hotly contested debates throughout Austin and across Texas. For years, students have followed an education system to prepare them for a four-year university track. We have seen progress in this area and increased the rate of students going on to universities. The problem has been that we have neglected the hundreds of thousands of students who have no desire to attend college and drop out of school as a result. What’s more, we have neglected the hundreds of thousands of businesses that desperately need new skilled trade workers entering the workforce.
 
Jobs for Texas, a coalition of 21 industry trade organizations representing over 300,000 Texas employers was organized in response to this growing shortage of skilled laborers. Superintendents, teachers, and parents joined this effort to expand graduation options and reduce testing. Legislators in the Senate and the House heard the call loud and clear and took action to pass HB 5, which establishes a foundation graduation plan and five endorsements that students can choose. These new pathways will enable to students to work with their parents and counselors to design a graduation path that focuses on their skills and talents and better prepare them for college and careers.
 
The collaboration and unified effort behind this legislation was unprecedented. Unfortunately, much of the focus on this groundbreaking legislation has revolved around a single course: Algebra II. Since the beginning of this discussion, we have been accused of “dumbing down” education, and “reducing rigor,” largely because the legislation does not require every student to take Algebra II.
 
No one in the Legislature or in the education and business communities has ever sought to “dumb down” our education system. Instead, we have always sought expanding options for students. The Legislature directed the SBOE to adopt additional rigorous math courses as options for students to take based upon their individual goals and talents, particularly in career and technology courses. More rigorous course options will provide opportunities for all 5 million public school students and prepare students for both college and career.
 
Research backs this up. State and national data shows students who take a sequence of career and technology courses are far less likely to drop out of school and are more likely to go into college. Other national math experts show the importance of students learning Algebra I and Geometry in depth, and then building on that foundation with additional math courses. Algebra II is simply not necessary for every student to advance in their education.
 

We all have the same goals, to provide rigor and relevance for all 5 million students in our public schools. If we provide all students the opportunity for rigor and relevance in school, and give them multiple graduation pathways, we will lower the dropout rate, have the workers needed for the future, and give more students an opportunity to live the American Dream.

They even use the language of the 21st Century Learning/ College and Career Ready… RIGOR, RIGOR, RIGOR!!
Oh Cry me a Rigor!! If only they would take the time to understand and stop with the I am a Conservative and I have a great voting record. I really don’t care about your so-called Conservative voting record. I want to see what you have accomplished. From Sen. Dan Patrick I see a trail of more harm than good. 
Here is a question…

Why are we lowering our Texas standards to (CCSS)  Common Core State Standards?

Isn’t that a coincidence.  Tactics and Strategies! 

One of the ways we have uncovered what the challenges with CSCOPE are is to look at the tactics and strategies used nationally with Common Core. It is interesting to connect the dots with what Sen. Dan Patrick is pushing and what is being pushed in the 45 states who have signed onto the Common Core Standards. It is all about College and Career Readiness!! 

12.2.13 – Atlanta Journal Constitution 

 Excerpt from this article:

When states adopted Common Core’s mathematics standards, they were told (among other things) that these standards would make all high school students “college- and career-ready” and strengthen the critical pipeline for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).  

However, with the exception of a few standards in trigonometry, the math standards END after Algebra II, as James Milgram, professor of mathematics emeritus at Stanford University… 

As Dr. Peg Lusik says… What is the effect of this- “It is, in fact, a dumbing down. High School is not supposed to be on the floor, it is about the ceiling. Your past does not determine your future.

High School used to be about “Opportunity Standards” that were at the highest level not “Achievement Standards” at the lowest level. We are fundamentally transforming education as we know it without even having the conversation.” 

Please listen to this short explanation.  

Huckabee EndorsementMaybe instead of working to dumb down Texas Education Standards Sen. Dan Patrick  and others should have spent more time exposing the corruption within the Education Service Centers and not cutting deals to take out just the CSCOPE lessons which now everyone can get for free online thanks to SBOE/Microsoft Lobbyist Thomas Ratliff leaving the CSCOPE now renamed TEKS Resource Services system of control of my children’s teachers in place.

If you sense a tone of frustration you are right. I am frustrated as a parent because my children who are in Texas schools today do not have time to waste while Austin legislators keep screwing up education. Oh, but they have a great pro-life conservative record. Well so does Mike Huckabee- Dan Patrick’s first major endorsement. Mike Huckabee is also out pushing the Common Core nationally and school choice school reform as he makes millions off of his homeschool common core aligned curriculum products. 

 

So the question becomes what are parents in Texas going to do about it? 

Join the movement Give the Gift of American Exceptionalism to your child or grandchild. 
 
Understand the Challenge and take Action! 

Go into your child or grandchild’s classroom and say….. #CanISee WHAT and HOW you are teaching my child and WHO is financially benefiting from the Curriculum products my child’s teachers are being trained and evaluated on.

Hold those accountable like Sen. Dan Patrick for allowing this to happen in Texas and for cutting deals with the 20 Region Service Centers who own the non-profit CSCOPE/TEKS Resource Services copyright. Wow isn’t that interesting just like the non-profit Governors association that owns the Common Core State Standards copyright. WAKE UP PARENTS we are funding our own children the next generation being dumbed down.

Truly sad! 

 

Dewhurst

Now is the time to go into your child’s classroom and say……..

#CanISee Backpack and Boots on the Ground 

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Smitherman post

 

ratliff reality

Ratliff_and_Hammomd_post

Ethics Complaint against Thomas Ratliff

Texas Teachers Understand and Parents will STAND

Stand with me a Texas Mom who is fighting against the Federal Take Over of Education across our country.

Please sign the petition linked below and then pass it onto your friends and neighbors.
Ask them to Join the Movement! 
Impeach Thomas Ratliff
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