Common Core Now Sabotaging the GED

After wreaking havoc with the futures of possibly thousands of New York high school students, Common Core is now destroying the futures of thousands of students who need to pass the GED in order to get a high school diploma. According to this story on Diane Ravitch's blog, it looks like the number of GED diplomas awarded this year will be down by almost 90%. That's because Great Briton based testing giant Pearson has unilaterally changed the test content of the GED to align it with the Common Core standards.

How does Pearson, a foreign corporation which stands to reap millions if not billions from students and school systems that are now being forced to purchase all their Common Core test prep materials and software, get to decide a passing grade for our U.S. students? 

This is a scandal and an attack on our democratic system. How would our patriots of the Revolutionary War feel about King George's decendents taking over our education system? And to add insult to injury, they are making us pay with our tax dollars for this attack on our students!
Maybe someone needs to research how much Pearson is contributing to our congressional candidates and even our presidential candidates. These folks in both parties are routinely bought and sold like cattle.

Happy New Year, Louisiana Parents! Wake up! The real threat to American democracy is not the terrorists or the North Koreans but our own so called allies in the British Empire!

Happy New Year!

My wish for the new year is that Louisiana education will begin an era of true reform. This would include restoring the trust of our policy makers in real professional educators, reducing he abuses of standardized testing, and a recognition that poverty, not ineffective teachers, is the primary factor adversely affecting the performance of students. Our policy makers need to stop trying to apply one-size-fits all standards that cannot do anything but hurt many students. It is time to stop blaming educators for factors over which they have no control and to instead utilize our energy and resources truly addressing the needs of our at-risk students with the goal of educating each student to her/his greatest potential.