Category Archives: Common Core High Stakes Testing

Common Core Tests: Educational Malpractice for Students with Special Needs

Posted on May 4, 2014 by Highlighting Members' Needs

Dear Mr. and Mrs Gates: This is what is gong on in every county across the country as students with disabilities are forced to take tests they are not yet ready for and have not learned the content: In about … Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core High Stakes Testing, Educational Malpractice, Special Education, Special needs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

NYC teacher: “THIS is what the Common Core is doing to our children; it’s heartbreaking and wrong”

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Highlighting Members' Needs

Bill, You yourself said the authoritative voice is that of the teachers. Read what this Brooklyn, NY teacher – whom I hold in high regard – has to say about your Common Core package. – Katie Lapham “Today after school … Continue reading →

Posted in Bill Gates, Common Core, Common Core High Stakes Testing, Corporate Education Reform, End High Stakes Testing, High Stakes Testing, Standardized Testing, Testing, Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Corporate America Might Need Common Core, But Our “Outputs” Don’t

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Highlighting Members' Needs

“Kill poverty not human beings.  Stop putting the value of money over the value of lives.” – Mahatma Gandhi December 8, 2013 Dear Allan Golston, This is in response to your editorial America’s Businesses Need the Common Core, which was posted … Continue reading →

Posted in Bill Gates, Capitalism, Common Core High Stakes Testing, Common Core Implementation, Common Core State Standards, Edreform, Gates Foundation, Impatient Optimists, Measuring Effective Teaching, New York, Obstacle to Learning, Privatization, Profit, School has become testing facility, Standardized Testing, Uncategorized, Unique Talents, Value Added Measures, VAM, War on Public Education, War on Teachers | Comments Off on Corporate America Might Need Common Core, But Our “Outputs” Don’t

Reign of Error: Diane Ravitch vs. Bill Gates

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Highlighting Members' Needs

image courtesy of http://www.good.is. Dear Bill and Melinda, Our hopes were dashed when you ignored our invitation to attend Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error Book Tour in Seattle tonight.  Your silence and your continued lack of response to any one … Continue reading →

Posted in Bill Gates, Capitalism, Charter Schools, Civil Rights, College and Career Ready, Common Core, Common Core High Stakes Testing, Dialogue with Teachers, Diane Ravitch, Edreform, Failing Schools, inBloom Data Mining, Invitation to Bill and Melinda Gates to dialogue with Teachers' Letters to Bill Gates, Invitation to Interview, Melinda Gates, Poverty, Privatization, Profit, Race to the Top, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools, War on Public Education | 1 Comment

Freedom to Teach, Freedom to Learn: A Year at Mission Hill

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Highlighting Members' Needs

Chapter 7 – Behind the Scenes http://www.ayearatmissionhill.com/index.php/chapter7  Bill, Yesterday I met a dyslexic man who told me he didn’t learn how to read until he was 37 years old. To avoid having to read out loud in grammar school, he’d hit … Continue reading →

Posted in Bill Gates, Collaboration, Common Core High Stakes Testing, Corporate Education Reform, Democracy, Freedom to Learn: A Year At Mission Hill, Freedom to Teach, Inclusion, Mission Hill school, Social and Emotional Learning, Special needs | 1 Comment

Freedom to Teach, Freedom to Learn: A Year at Mission Hill chapter 6

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Highlighting Members' Needs

Chapter 6: Like a Family Dear Mr. Gates, Microsoft’s “stack ranking” management practice has been in the news lately, most recently on Valerie Strauss’ blog The Answer Sheet (Microsoft’s lesson on what not to do with teachers, Washington Post, 8/26/13). … Continue reading →

Posted in Bill Gates, Collaboration, Common Core High Stakes Testing, Diane Ravitch, Anthony Cody, Valerie Strauss, Washington Post, Freedom to Learn: A Year At Mission Hill, Freedom to Teach, High Stakes Testing, Junk Science of High Stakes Standardized Testing, Measuring Effective Teaching, Microsoft, Mission Hill school, Stack Ranking, Teacher Evaluations, Testing | 2 Comments

Freedom to Teach, Freedom to Learn: A Year at Mission Hill

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Highlighting Members' Needs

Chapter 5: The Eye of the Dragon As we saw in chapter three of A Year At Mission Hill, knowledge and skills are taught – in part – through school wide themes, which involve the community.  At the beginning of … Continue reading →

Posted in Art instruction, Bill Gates, Common Core, Common Core High Stakes Testing, Democracy, Freedom to Learn: A Year At Mission Hill, Freedom to Teach, Our Schools Are NOT Broken, Real World Education, Schools are not broken, Social and Emotional Learning, Unique Talents | 3 Comments

Live from New York: Is Participating in Common Core Asking Children and Teachers to Commit Educational Suicide?

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Highlighting Members' Needs

Dear Bill and Melinda, Let’s stare the cold hard results of the first round of ELA and math Common Core state tests from New York right in the eye.  Fewer than one third of all students who took the exams … Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core as Educational Suicide, Common Core High Stakes Testing, Common Core State Standards, High Stakes Testing, New York ELA CCSS Test Results | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Freedom to Teach, Freedom to Learn: A Year At Mission Hill

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Highlighting Members' Needs

Chapter 3: Making it Real Dear readers, I watched chapter three of A Year At Mission Hill with a heavy heart, almost tearful.  The way in which educators teach and students learn at Mission Hill is exactly what I’ve viscerally yearned … Continue reading →

Posted in Bill Gates, Common Core High Stakes Testing, Democracy, Freedom to Learn: A Year At Mission Hill, Freedom to Teach, Measuring Effective Teaching, Measuring Student Engagement, Our Schools Are NOT Broken, Real World Education, Respect for Teachers, Standardized Testing, Trust | 1 Comment

Freedom to Teach, Freedom to Learn: A Year at Mission Hill

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Highlighting Members' Needs

Dear readers, A Year at Mission Hill is an exciting 10-part video series that captures the stories of a single K-8 school community in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, MA (Note: since filming, the school has moved to Jamaica Plain). … Continue reading →

Posted in Bill Gates, Class Size, Common Core, Common Core High Stakes Testing, Corporate Education Reform, Democracy, Freedom to Learn: A Year At Mission Hill, Freedom to Teach, Our Schools Are NOT Broken, Respect for Teachers, Schools are not broken, Teaching Profession, Trust, Uncategorized | 5 Comments