The National Pulse: Are Trump and the GOP Finally Listening to Parents on Common Core?

Dr. Karen Effrem offers a list of viable candidates for the open position under Mrs. DeVos.  These candidates are genuine opponents of both the standards and the ever-metastasizing role of the federal government in education.

While it is too bad that Republican senators did not take more notice of Betsy DeVos’ support of Common Core and other problems of grave concern to parents, it is heartening that they and the White House are finally beginning to respond to all of the concerns that arose during her contentious nomination fight when she was opposed by activists, parents, and teachers from all points on the political spectrum.

Are Trump and the GOP Finally Listening to Parents on Common Core?

The National Pulse: New Utah Bill Shows Common Core Still Alive and Dangerous

Please pay attention to this bill and ones like it in your own states. The freedom and futures of our children and the nation depend on our vigilance and willingness to take a stand.

Although a state-level bill, the psychological manipulation, and tracking via Common Core and CBE are nationwide and dangerous. Parents across the nation were originally told by Bill Gates, Jeb Bush, and their minions that Common Core was nothing but a set of “high” academic standards in English and math. Moms and dads are furious when they learn that schools and the corporate/big government establishment are using their children as guinea pigs and see them merely as chattel for the global labor force.

New Utah Bill Shows Common Core Still Alive and Dangerous

The National Pulse: The Government’s Latest Education Experiments Are Truly Scary

Dr. Karen Effrem denounces sponsors of the global workforce development movement that sees children as widgets instead of individuals with their own dreams and aspirations.

OECD sponsors the PISA test and is a major player in the global workforce development movement that sees children as widgets instead of individuals with their own dreams and aspirations. Education Liberty Watch’s comments on this terrible idea can be summarized as follows:

There are already dozens of studies showing that preschool is minimally effective, that beneficial effects fade with time or is academically and emotionally harmful. Social emotional assessment, especially for young children, is extraordinarily subjective and unreliable, violates parental autonomy, and the private right of conscience of free American citizens. This is especially true when data security within the U.S. Department of Education is so poor.

https://thenationalpulse.com/politics/governments-education-experiments-truly-scary/

ELW Written Testimony for the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking

The Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking (CEP) held its third public hearing on February 9th. This is the organization put into place after President Obama signed a bill authored by Speaker Paul Ryan. CEP is hearing testimony and being urged to recommend lifting the prohibition on a student-unit record system and other issues in order to make longitudinal data on individual American citizens more accessible to government agencies and researchers. Emmett McGroarty of the American Principles Project previously testified about the dangers of this idea.

All of the written and audio information from that hearing is available HERE. Dr. Effrem’s written testimony is available on that page at this link.

After covering the lack of constitutionality, the dangers inherent in the strong likelihood that subjective social emotional data will be added, the already  large amount of evidence that government education programs are very ineffective, and that data security in the US Department of Education is very weak, these were her recommendations:

1. Retain the prohibition of a student unit-record system.

2. Strongly consider a moratorium on further federal research until programs already shown to be ineffective and harmful are transformed or eliminated and until effective measures are actually implemented.

3. Prohibit social emotional data-gathering and the use of data for predictive testing in the FERPA and Strengthening Education Through Research Act (SETRA) reauthorizations.

4. Put in strict data-transparency language and update the data-security language per the recommendations of technical experts like Dr. Joel Reidenberg or Barmak Nassirian in any FERPA reauthorization.

5. Require third-party software and testing vendors to notify parents of what data is collected on students and how it is used.

6. Find a way for students whose identity and privacy is compromised to be compensated, in addition to penalizing researchers or private vendors that breach data-security.

7. Close the curriculum and assessment loophole for invasive surveys in the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment.

8. Demand that the US Department of Education immediately repair the federal data-security failures found in the Inspector General’s recent report and uncovered by the House Oversight Committee.

It will be important to monitor the recommendations of this commission to Congress and to speak out against any suggestions harmful to citizen, and especially student, data and psychological privacy. Stay tuned.