Some of my fondest memories are from my school days involving teachers who were not only great leaders, but who were free to teach as they saw fit. In today’s education landscape, however, we are seeing more and more freedom being taken away, and worst of all, we are seeing our teachers not being able to lead as they should. Why? I believe it’s due to the controlling factors of Common Core (CC.) We already know Common Core unfairly treats our students, but now we are finding out more and more about how unfairly our teachers are being treated. Join me in today’s article as we uncover how leaders in the classroom are being misguided right into the grasp of Common Core.
EdLeader21 is led by Ken Kay. Mr. Kay is the former CEO of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and he also serves on the Board for the Buck Foundation. EdLeader21 is a group which leads those in the positions of educational leadership such as teachers, principals, superintendents, etc. See their article about project based learning (PBL,) CCSS, and Next Gen Standards. If you’d like more information, please consider my article from October 2014 about PBL and the Buck Foundation. The programs offered by EdLeader21 will guide your school district in how to use Common Core in the classrooms and how to help join the entire community to the Common Core way. Most of those fighting Common Core know that by involving so many outside of education into education, we are really harming education, not improving it. There are 4 Cs that EdLeader21 implemented into the classrooms: critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. Look at their website and you’ll find that not only are the 4 Cs rubrics available for purchase, but they include the following:
- Common Core adoption/alignment
- Capacity Building
- Instructional Planning
- Student Assessment
- Teacher Evaluation
Go here for more about these CC friendly rubrics.
There’s another service offered by EdLeader21 called Step 21. According to the description of this program, your district can be better equipped to CONFORM to the CCSS, to become RIGOROUSLY enhanced by the CCSS, and how it’s all for the collective good of your community. Go here to see the rest of the layout.
PISA and OCED:
Those supportive of the CC have used Programme for International Assessment (PISA) as one of the key pillars to justify international comparison. To research how PISA’s been used unfairly against our students in regards to CCSS, go here or here. PISA is part of Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD.) If you’ve never heard of OCED before, you’ll want to look at their history. Go here to get the pdf OCED offers that supports PISA/CCSS. To understand better the continued “global good” that accompanies CC, watch this short clip OECD has on their website:
Downloads You Can Get:
Pearson Publishing – they have a free video you can access in the downloads that will show the work the EdLeader21 and Pearson have formed (see the ‘four free videos’ link below.) Make Magazine/Maker Faire Publisher – they have a tool kit that will show how best to get your entire community involved as an education stakeholder. Information about the 4 Cs (as mentioned above) are also available for downloading (registration is required.) To be able to access the Pearson video and 3 others which describe EdLeader21’s work, go here: four free videos
Special Advisors to EdLearn21:
KB & Associates
Chairman of the Board, Nobel Learning Communities
Chairman, North Carolina State Board of Education
Executive Vice President, Education Alliance, Pearson Foundation
Professor of Clinical Education, University of Southern California
Co-Founder, Schoolhouse Partners
Innovation Education Fellow, Technology & Entrepreneurship Center, Harvard University
P21 (Parentship for 21st Century Skills):
If you’ve not looked into Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21,) you should. Here’s their website.
Here’s the lists of the individuals/organizations responsible for the P21:
- U.S. Department of Education
- AOL Time Warner Foundation
- Apple Computer, Inc.
- Cable in the Classroom
- Cisco Systems, Inc.
- Dell Computer Corporation
- Microsoft Corporation
- National Education Association
- Ken Kay, President and Co-Founder
- Diny Golder-Dardis, Special Advisor and Co-Founder
Be sure to look at the P21 Caucus to see their advocacy for this type of legislation on a federal level go here. You can see which United States Congressional members are supporters of not only CCSS but also “workforce skilled 21st century minions.”
See the video the P21 has supported for the re-authorization of ESEA:
We CAN prevent CCSS when we know how it is being pushed upon us. We CAN help take back our local school board authority, especially if we stay informed on how Common Core is being implemented. Are any of these education leadership groups coming to my state, my community, my school? Do my current leaders in education know about these groups and the ulterior CCSS agenda they bring with them? How can I help my school district fight alignment now that I know how they are being led?
Keep checking back with Prevent Common Core for more information!
NOTE: This article was first published on the Prevent Common Core website [ https://web.archive.org/web/20160618221156/http://preventcommoncore.com/?p=1263 ]