Posted May 15, 2013, by Mary Grabar: Georgia Senator Fran Millar is hitting the Georgia blogs--Get Schooled and Peach Pundit--promoting Common Core. No surprise. Sounds like boilerplate sales rhetoric with references to a global marketplace, workforce preparation, standards.
Well-connected vendors are standing by to profit from the new curricula, tests, hardware, and software that Georgia taxpayers will have to pay to be "Common Core compliant."
Will Senator Millar read today's Townhall column, "Bill Ayers: Bringing Down America, Destroying Education?" Doubtful.
Dissident Prof wonders if all this has anything with the fact that the Georgia Department of Education received a grant of almost $2 million from the Gates Foundation in 2010? Or that its headquarters, inBloom, a nonprofit educational technology company backed by the Gates Foundation, will be locating in Atlanta? The company will provide "technology services to schools as they race to meet new academic requirements." As in Race to the Top? What comes first? The standards or the technology to keep up with the standards? She wonders if it has anything to do with how much Microsoft might stand to profit from the hardware and software upgrades that will have to be bought to administer the crazy tests that according to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will measure the "non-cognitive abilities" he referenced at the conference with Linda Darling-Hammond and Bill Ayers? (See last post.)
Does Senator Millar not wonder about why the feds need to measure "non-cognitive abilities"? Does he know?
Does it enable students to "compete in the global marketplace" as Senator Millar claims? How?
No one is asked to define terms, like "soft skills" and "deeper learning" that were tossed out by Secretary Duncan as he tried to sell Common Core at the AERA conference. They sound good, but what they really point to is a narrowing of "achievement gaps" by replacing "cognitive skills" with "non-cognitive skills." In other words, Johnny, your 
grade does not deprend on getting the right answers on the test, but demonstrating how you get along with the group, think collectively, listen, and respond emotionally. That's non-cognitive testing and it's part of Common Core.
Please read also my review of David Horowitz's new book, Radicals, Portraits of a Destructive Passion. It's at the Selous Foundation for Public Policy Research.
Perhaps some government officials require testing. Consider this letter that arrived in Dissident Prof's email inbox:
Hello,
I am writing to share important information regarding key parts of the health care law that will effect schools and the communities we serve next year. With enrollment beginning this fall, I encourage you to share the information below with your staff, parents and external partners.
It was signed by John White, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Rural Outreach, U.S. Department of Education
No wonder our Secretary of Education is pushing "non-cognitive skills."
Don't forget: Larry, Tina, and I will be in Apollo Beach, Florida, tonight, and Deland tomorrow. Details here at Bringing Down America.
