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[quote=Anonymous][quote]A report by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, gave Kentucky’s old math and English standards a D. Only 11 other states were rated as poorly or worse in both subjects.[/quote]

What basis did Fordham use for evaluation in their [b]The State of State Standards—and the Common Core—in 2010[/b] paper? They used the Common Core for comparison [b]because they are PAID to promote Common Core.[/b]

Follow the money trail...  obtained from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mercedes-schneider/gates-money-and-common-co_3_b_3986424.html?utm_hp_ref=@education123

[b]Gates Buys Select Major Ed Organizations and Think Tanks
[/b]
Let us now consider major education organizations and think tanks that have accepted Gates money for the express purpose of advancing CCSS:

American Enterprise Institute:[b] $1,068,788.[/b]

American Federation of Teachers: [b]$5,400,000.[/b]

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development: [b]$3,269,428.[/b]

Council of Great City Schools: [b]$5,010,988[/b].

Education Trust:[b] $2,039,526.[/b]

National Congress of Parents and Teachers:[b] $499,962.[/b]

National Education Association:[b] $3,982,597.[/b]

Thomas B. Fordham Institute:[b] $1,961,116.[/b]

From the list of organizations above, I would like to highlight a few particular Gates purchases. First is this one, paid to the Fordham Institute:

Date: January 2011 
[b]Purpose: to track state progress towards implementation of standards and to understand how what students read changes in response to the standards 
[/b]Amount: $1,002,000 [Purpose emphasis added.]

Even though CCSS was never piloted, [b]Gates and Fordham want to watch state “progress” in implementing CCSS, and they even want to know how the untested CCSS shifts the curriculum– even though reformers are quick to parrot that CCSS is “not a curriculum.” This “tracking” tacitly acknowledges CCSS is meant to drive curriculum.[/b]

Next is this Gates purchase of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI):

Date: June 2012 
Purpose: to support their education policy work in four distinct areas:
[b]Exploring the Challenges of Common Core, Future of American Education Working Groups, Innovations in Financial Aid, and Bridging K-12 and Higher Ed with Technology 
[/b]Amount: $1,068,788 [Purpose emphasis added.]

Gates is paying AEI to promote educational policy that bolsters CCSS. And Gates is getting his money’s worth from AEI “scholar” Frederick Hess, who offers these two articles advising “Common Core’ites.”

Third is the Gates purchase of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT):

Date: June 2012 
[b]Purpose: to support the AFT Innovation Fund and work on teacher development and Common Core State Standards 
[/b]Amount: $4,400,000

Even though AFT was not invited to the CCSS table until the “standards” had already been drafted by the CCSS Inner Circle noted above, and even though CCSS has not been piloted, AFT only called for a testing moratorium and not for a cease-and-desist of CCSS altogether. It appears that accepting $4.4 million in order to “work on teacher development and Common Core Standards” precludes “just saying no” to what amounts to the CCSS Colossal Education Experiment.

Fourth is the Gates purchase of the National Education Association (NEA). In July 2013, NEA officially endorsed CCSS, and in July 2013, Gates paid NEA for its support in the form of two grants totaling $6.3 million:

Date: July 2013
[b]Purpose: to support the capacity of state NEA affiliates to advance teaching and learning issues and student success in collaboration with local affiliates
[/b]Amount: $2,426,500

Date: July 2013
[b]Purpose: to support a cohort of National Education Association Master Teachers in the development of Common Core-aligned lessons in K-5 mathematics and K-12 English Language Arts
[/b]Amount: $3,882,600

NEA was not at the CCSS birthing table with NGA, CCSSO, Achieve, and David Coleman’s Student Achievement Partners. However, after the establishment of CCSS without teachers, now Gates is willing to pay a teachers union to create curricula that in the end do not really matter since the [b]CCSS power is in the assessments that are completely out of NEA’s control.[/b]

I have saved my favorite CCSS-Gates purchase for last, this one to the Council of Great City Schools (CGCS):

Date: June 2011 
[b]Purpose: to promote and coordinate successful implementation of the new common core standards in major urban public school systems nationwide 
[/b]Amount: $4,910,988

Date: March 2010 
[b]Purpose: to support the development of a cross-sector proposal to pilot test the new common core standards in a set of selected cities 
[/b]Amount: $100,000  [Purpose emphasis added.]

It seems that Gates paid CGCS $100,000 to propose a pilot study of CCSS in 2010 (not to conduct a pilot study– just to draft the idea for a pilot). Fifteen months later, there is no mention of a “proposal” much less a pilot study materializing; instead, Gates pays CGCS to “just go ahead” and “coordinate successful implementation” of the untested CCSS.[/quote]

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