(LFC Comments: Thanks to Auburntownship.org for passing along this article on Common Core.)
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//www.auburntownship.org/COMMENTARY2/2020_Jan_June_default.html#COMMON_CORE_IS_A_DESIGNED_ABJECT_FAILURE,_BUT_IS_VERY_SUCCESSFUL_IN_CREATING_FAILURE!

COMMON CORE IS A DESIGNED ABJECT FAILURE, BUT IS VERY SUCCESSFUL IN CREATING FAILURE!

Published Wednesday, January 8, 2020
By Joseph V. Mestnik | Liberty News & Views

Common core was sold on the idea that if all the schools taught the same information at exactly the same time, a transient student could go from one school to another and not be impacted adversely by his families’ mobility. This was a “great idea” to sell to two groups: socialistic federal governmental elected officials and the gullible general public. “No Child Left Behind” fit directly as a precursor to this vulgar idea. Why? Because children are not homogenized! They are all different coming from all different backgrounds, economic conditions, family economic and educational backgrounds and most important literacy. You can’t design as system of “One size fits all!”

David Coleman was the architect of the Common Core standards. It was developed by a leftist-Washington-based think tank, achieved and funded with millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for American Progress, and others, allies of the left and George Soros groups. Coleman’s vision was profoundly flawed, and parents were not consulted. Secretary of Education Betsy deVos admitted, “The results are, frankly, devastating.”

The results are more than devastating to the children and the communities. Housing values have declined as student test scores declined. When I was first elected to the school board, I was sent off to school board school. I will never forget the first time I was lectured on Ohio Standard Test Scores by Frank Gerbaldi. I raised my hand and asked, “How do you take into consideration that students have different learning styles and abilities?” Mr. Gerbaldi said, “That’s just a fallacy of the test!” Yes, that’s right. You read that correctly. The test does not take into consideration the reality of education and educating children with a spectrum of learning abilities.

During the first few years on the Bedford School board, we had real problems in the elementary educational system (1990-91 school year). We didn’t know what a teacher had done until the end of the school year and the beginning of the next grade when the next teacher asked, “What did you teach these children, because they are so far behind?” This got my thinking going and I went back to our Superintendent Dr. George Bowdouris and said I came up with a solution. I call it “Team teaching and looping.”

The concept is to take two teachers teaching two classes teaming together to gain synergy and create a check and balance measurable between the two of them. If one teacher was not performing we would know very early in the process that we had a problem and had time to make adjustments. The two teachers team teach and would stay with the students from kindergarten until the second grade then two new teachers would continue team teaching from third grade to the fifth. The first set of teachers would loop back to kindergarten and the process would repeat itself as did the second set of teachers. We tried this and the system worked perfectly. There were many benefits, because the students knew the teachers and the teacher really got to know the students and the best of all got to know the parents. There was a gain of about 30 days per year, because the teachers already knew the students.

I am the creator of “Team Teaching and Looping” and the first one to ever come up with this educational process. The feedback we got from the teachers was also positive, because each had someone who they could share experiences and ideas. The process would assign an experienced teacher with newly hired or less experienced teacher.

Common Core is a failure and causes failing in schools around the nation.

The solution for Bedford is to reduce class sizes to 10-15 in a classroom. I came up with Center Academy for those 8th graders that never had above a “D.” You must have an educational system that fits the children. Children need the individual time to keep from falling behind. You can’t have a one size fits all Common Core and ever think this will work.

Only Progressive Democrats have this goal to destroy and keep ignorant a large segment of the population to make them totally dependent on the government and have their Utopian dream of socialism for all and free education, free health care, free housing, free . . . free, etc. Tax the rich out of existence.

(LFC Comment: If the Common Core system is not working then why is it still in existence?  We will reach out to our friends that are, or were school board members for some answers.)

Categories: Contributors, Uncategorized

Tags: Education, FT