Response to Jeb Bush’s Education Summit Speech
Karen R. Effrem, MD – President
KRE: I suppose that we should be happy that you have changed your tune from this same speech a year ago when you called opposition to Common Core “political” and full of “conspiracy theories.” However, everyone can see that it is you who are being political as you try to placate opposition while getting ready to run for president.
JB: And in my view, the rigor of the Common Core State Standards must be the new minimum in classrooms.
KRE: There is nothing particularly rigorous about these standards. They are untested and not internationally benchmarked. Federally mandated state standards have done nothing in this country to improve achievement and several think tanks including the Brookings Institute say that national standards, particularly Common Core, will not improve achievement either. Imposing these very problematic standards will only further denigrate our very troubled education system.
JB: For those states choosing a path other than Common Core, I say this: Aim even higher…be bolder…raise standards and ask more of our students and the system.
KRE: It is not states that should be doing this via federal mandates, but rather parents, teachers, and duly elected school boards at the local level working to improve education without federal and state micromanaging.
ELW’s Dr. Effrem Participates in Major Debate on Common Core with National Experts
The California based Faithful Christian Servants group and the Orange County, CA School Board are to be commended and thanked for working together to put on two highly successful Common Core debates. Each one invited four national opponents and four national proponents to discuss various aspects of the standards, testing and data collection system. Details for the October 20th event are available at this link. Above is a picture of the November 17th event with the opponent panel of Ze’ev Wurman, Dr. Sandra Stotsky, Dr. James Milgram, and Dr. Karen Effrem. the proponents were Debra Brown, Associate Director, Education Policy at Children Now; Dr. Doug Grove, Assistant Provost of Adult, Graduate, and Online Learning at Concordia University; Dr. William McCallum, one of the chief authors of the Common Core math standards; and Gerald R. Solomon, Executive Director of the Samueli Foundation.
Approximately 400 people attended the event where the standards, tests and data collection system were intensely debated. Dr. Effrem’s formal written comments on the developmental inappropriateness and psychological manipulation of Common Core given to the board are available HERE. Audio and video of that event will be posted when available.
Dr. Effrem was also interviewed by Roger Marsh of KRBT’s The Bottom Line show. Audio of that interview is available HERE.
ELW Responds to Jeb Bush’s Common Core Comments in Education Next
Karen R. Effrem, MD – President
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush discussed Common Core during an interview with Education Next. His comments are significant as he is likely to run for president. Below is a point by point response to his statements:
EN: You have been a steadfast supporter of the common core, even when others have become increasingly critical. Why? What do you say to critics?
JB: I support high academic standards. Period.
KRE: If you support high academic standards, then why do you support Common Core? They are untested; not rigorous; not internationally benchmarked; developed by one key architect who admitted the major authors were “unqualified;” admitted by another key architect to be inadequate for STEM majors in four year universities; admitted by the US DOE, the National Association of State Boards of Education, and other major groups to teach “social emotional learning,” “mindsets,”” behaviors;” and are declared by 500 early childhood experts, as well as many content experts and psychologists to be developmentally inappropriate.
JB: High academic standards are a basic element of reform. Yet, across the country, state standards have been abysmally low for too long, evidenced by the fact that 75 percent of high school graduates are not fully prepared for college or a good paying job. A recent study by the American Institutes for Research compared state standards with international assessments and found the difference between states with the highest and lowest standards was the equivalent of three to four grade levels.
KRE: There is no evidence that statewide or national standards improve academic performance. Since the passage of the Improving America’s Schools Act and Goals 2000, started by your father and completed by President Clinton in 1994, NAEP scores have either been stagnant or fallen.
According to research by Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute, the U.S. does both better and worse on international achievement comparisons than nations that have national standards Additionally, according to research by Dr. Chris Tienken at Seton Hall University, the US far exceeds the nations that outperform American students on international comparisons with regard to entrepreneurship and innovation. Continue reading »
From CPL Action: Public Alerted by Newspaper Ad – MSHSL Tables Transgender Policy
Thank you to those of you who emailed and called and went to testify in order to protect children’s innocence. Your willingness to serve had a great effect! Here is the report on the outcome of the Minnesota State High School League meetings after this ad was placed in newspapers around the state by CPL Action:
A week ago, most Minnesota parents of school age children were entirely unaware that the Minnesota State High School League was on the verge of passing a dangerous and controversial new policy that would affect the extracurricular activities of over 500 schools—public, private, religious and home schools. The policy provided special accommodations for transgender students to participate on the team of their choice – the team matching their biological gender or cross over to the team that matched their gender choice.
The implications of boys and girls co-mingled in games and locker rooms were profound.
Last Sunday, Child Protection League Action (CPLAction) took out a full page, color ad in the sports section of the Star Tribune newspaper to alert the public that the policy that was moving rapidly under the radar and coming up for a vote this week.
The secret was out.
The public reacted swiftly. Within a matter of days, the MSHSL received over 10,000 emails. TV and radio outlets all over the state, and many nationally, ran a story. Talk radio took it up, social media lit up, and emails fanned out across the state. Suddenly, it was on everyone’s radar.
Organizations, schools, school board members, and individuals lined up to testify at Tuesday’s first public hearing. TV cameras elbowed for room with the standing-room-only crowd of elderly to students, moms to grandparents, and attorneys to former athletes. This is what public awareness looks like.
In his opening statement, MSHSL Executive Director David Stead made the most unfortunate and inaccurate claim that federal law required the Board to pass this draft policy. He was corrected by at least one attorney in the crowd who clarified that guidance from the U.S Office of Civil Rights does not constitute federal law.
CPLAction State Director Michele Lentz said, in response to the Director’s complaint about the newspaper ad, “If the MSHSL had taken out a full page ad in the Sunday paper to inform the public that an important and controversial policy that would affect all schools was up for consideration, we would not have had to.”
What became painfully obvious through testimony is that only one state organization seems to have been given a seat at the MSHSL policy-drafting table – OutFront Minnesota, an LGBT special interest group. That’s no way to make public policy or to build a consensus. And, unfortunately, it undermines the entire credibility of the MSHSL, which has a very important role to play.
In the end, after being inundated since Sunday with public reaction, the MSHSL Board prudently did not take up its original draft proposal. One Board Member pulled out and introduced a new and hastily constructed substitute that may have had some merit. But expecting to submit something, on which the public has had no opportunity to either review or comment, is completely irresponsible.
The Board chose to table the newest draft until its December 4th meeting. CPLAction will make that draft available to you, study it carefully, and make our analysis public.
The MSHSL has indicated it will appoint a committee to allow input from a wider group of the public. That’s good news. Any future policy draft should not reflect the interests of one particular group of students to the exclusion of all others. We hope they will include CPLAction in the discussion. We have demonstrated our willingness to represent the interests of the general public and the broad base of student interests in this conversation.
As with many other testifiers at the public hearings, CPLAction firmly believes all students should be allowed to participate in extracurricular athletic programs. They should be able to do so in a way that does not jeopardize anyone’s personal privacy rights, safety, or well-being, or in a way that jeopardizes the values and institutional integrity of MSHSL member schools.
This issue is far from resolved. All of us – parents, schools, organizations, churches, and interested individuals—must stay completely engaged until a fair, reasonable, and safe policy is in place in Minnesota. Please make contact with your local principals, administrators, school board members, neighbors, and your area MSHSL representative soon. December 4th will be here too quickly. Tell them what you think, ask them to be engaged and informed, and request that they get back to you on their involvement.
Working together has temporarily prevented something very unsafe from happening. But our voices must continue to be heard. Thank you.
Issues
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Education Liberty Watch Projects
ELW Allies
- American Principles Project
- Cato Institute
- Conservative Teachers of America
- Constitutional Coalition
- Eagle Forum
- Minnesota Advocates and Champions for Children
- Missouri Education Watchdog
- Restore Oklahoma Parent Empowerment
- Stop Common Core
- The Pioneer Institute
- Truth in American Education
- What is Common Core – Education Without Representation