Showing posts with label testing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label testing. Show all posts
Monday, February 18, 2013
Monday, January 16, 2012
More Florida High Schools Earn A's While FCATs Fade
By: KENRIC WARD
Sunshine State News January 14, 2012
More Florida high schools are earning A's and B's while only 39 percent of 10th-graders are reading at or above proficiency levels on the state's FCAT exam, Department of Education records show. Some 78 percent of high schools scored either an A or B grade in 2011, up from 71 percent last year. A-rated schools receive financial awards from the state of up to $150,000 per campus.
Yet high school students' academic competence is flat or falling. The 39 percent of students reading at or above Level 3 "proficiency" was the same as it was in 2010. Though math scores were better -- 71 percent of 10th-graders were "proficient" -- that was down 2 points from 2010.
The 2011 high school grades were boosted by a new formula that factors in more than scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Graduation rates, as well as participation and performance in advanced-placement courses, now count toward a school's grade.
The FCAT writing battery, where 90 percent of students score at or above the "proficient" level, helps pad the scores.
"Reading and math scores may not improve. In fact, they can decline, but a school can still improve its score by achieving growth in the other benchmarks," said Jason Caros, president of the Florida Council of the Social Studies.
Amid indications of campus grade inflation, the state Board of Education last month voted to raise the "cut scores" that determine which pupils are passing and which are failing. It was the first time in a decade that the state approved tougher standards.
The state expects that many more students will be required to take remedial lessons as a result of the higher score requirement, which first applies to the class of 2014. The new system will kick in with exams taken this coming spring.
Amber Winkler, a senior researcher for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said, "Florida should be lauded for raising its cut scores. Too many states are content to rest on their laurels, but Florida keeps raising the bar.
"Raising expectations now becomes even more important since Florida plans to implement new Common Core standards in 2015 -- which will require even more of students. There has to be continued pressure on the system to improve," Winkler said.
Meantime, the state Board of Education took another step to thin the herd of A-rated schools. Currently, a school must earn 525 points or more (on an 800-point scale) to earn an A grade. A final level hasn't been determined yet, but beginning in 2012-2013, if, for example, 75 percent of Florida’s high schools earn an A, an "automatic trigger" would raise the minimum threshold to 560 points the next year.
Jaryn Emhof, spokeswoman at Jeb Bush's education-reform think tank, Foundation for Florida's Future, hailed the state's moves. "The foundation has said standards need to be raised across the board," Emhof said.
Caros, an educator in Volusia County, says poor reading skills at middle schools and high schools are "a byproduct of the failure to teach core knowledge" in early grades. "Much of the reading elementary students engage in at school is fiction. While fiction is certainly important, a 2006 Stanford University study found that Florida’s failure to emphasize 'the acquisition of appropriate knowledge at each grade level' made comprehension of nonfiction texts very difficult for middle and high school students," Caros writes in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of the James Madison Institute.
Citing one example, Caros asks: "Why would it be bad for someone to meet their Waterloo?" Without broad background knowledge, readers will find it difficult to make sense of the many historical and literary allusions that appear in readings," Caros says in his article, "Why Johnny Can't Understand What He Reads."
Still, many teachers and administrators bridle at the tougher, upcoming cut scores. Maintaining that academic deficiencies begin at the lower grade levels, high schools are particularly concerned.
Orange County School District Superintendent Ron Blocker told the Orlando Sentinel, "There will be blood on the table."
"Adding more focus to an already flawed assessment process will not result in real learning gains in reading," Caros predicted in an article written for the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
But DOE Commissioner Gerard Robinson says the new standards will put high school students "on a pathway for colleges and careers in a far better way than we've ever seen before."
State officials say the whole testing system is being reformed as Florida replaces FCAT math, reading and writing exams with new “common core” exams in 2015.
Developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, a consortium of states that won federal Race to the Top funds, the new exams will likely include two tests per subject.
It is not yet known how the "PARCC" tests will stack up against FCAT, but education observers point out that continual changes in test regimens thwart any longitudinal, apples-to-apples comparisons. Skeptics say that's exactly the intent and objective.
Whatever assessment devices and scoring systems Florida uses, Bill Mattox, resident fellow at James Madison Institute, says, "We ought to be raising the bar, not lowering it. Hold everyone -- students, teachers, parents -- to higher standards."
Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/more-florida-high-schools-earn-a-while-fcats-fade
Sunshine State News January 14, 2012
More Florida high schools are earning A's and B's while only 39 percent of 10th-graders are reading at or above proficiency levels on the state's FCAT exam, Department of Education records show. Some 78 percent of high schools scored either an A or B grade in 2011, up from 71 percent last year. A-rated schools receive financial awards from the state of up to $150,000 per campus.
Yet high school students' academic competence is flat or falling. The 39 percent of students reading at or above Level 3 "proficiency" was the same as it was in 2010. Though math scores were better -- 71 percent of 10th-graders were "proficient" -- that was down 2 points from 2010.
The 2011 high school grades were boosted by a new formula that factors in more than scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Graduation rates, as well as participation and performance in advanced-placement courses, now count toward a school's grade.
The FCAT writing battery, where 90 percent of students score at or above the "proficient" level, helps pad the scores.
"Reading and math scores may not improve. In fact, they can decline, but a school can still improve its score by achieving growth in the other benchmarks," said Jason Caros, president of the Florida Council of the Social Studies.
Amid indications of campus grade inflation, the state Board of Education last month voted to raise the "cut scores" that determine which pupils are passing and which are failing. It was the first time in a decade that the state approved tougher standards.
The state expects that many more students will be required to take remedial lessons as a result of the higher score requirement, which first applies to the class of 2014. The new system will kick in with exams taken this coming spring.
Amber Winkler, a senior researcher for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said, "Florida should be lauded for raising its cut scores. Too many states are content to rest on their laurels, but Florida keeps raising the bar.
"Raising expectations now becomes even more important since Florida plans to implement new Common Core standards in 2015 -- which will require even more of students. There has to be continued pressure on the system to improve," Winkler said.
Meantime, the state Board of Education took another step to thin the herd of A-rated schools. Currently, a school must earn 525 points or more (on an 800-point scale) to earn an A grade. A final level hasn't been determined yet, but beginning in 2012-2013, if, for example, 75 percent of Florida’s high schools earn an A, an "automatic trigger" would raise the minimum threshold to 560 points the next year.
Jaryn Emhof, spokeswoman at Jeb Bush's education-reform think tank, Foundation for Florida's Future, hailed the state's moves. "The foundation has said standards need to be raised across the board," Emhof said.
Caros, an educator in Volusia County, says poor reading skills at middle schools and high schools are "a byproduct of the failure to teach core knowledge" in early grades. "Much of the reading elementary students engage in at school is fiction. While fiction is certainly important, a 2006 Stanford University study found that Florida’s failure to emphasize 'the acquisition of appropriate knowledge at each grade level' made comprehension of nonfiction texts very difficult for middle and high school students," Caros writes in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of the James Madison Institute.
Citing one example, Caros asks: "Why would it be bad for someone to meet their Waterloo?" Without broad background knowledge, readers will find it difficult to make sense of the many historical and literary allusions that appear in readings," Caros says in his article, "Why Johnny Can't Understand What He Reads."
Still, many teachers and administrators bridle at the tougher, upcoming cut scores. Maintaining that academic deficiencies begin at the lower grade levels, high schools are particularly concerned.
Orange County School District Superintendent Ron Blocker told the Orlando Sentinel, "There will be blood on the table."
"Adding more focus to an already flawed assessment process will not result in real learning gains in reading," Caros predicted in an article written for the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
But DOE Commissioner Gerard Robinson says the new standards will put high school students "on a pathway for colleges and careers in a far better way than we've ever seen before."
State officials say the whole testing system is being reformed as Florida replaces FCAT math, reading and writing exams with new “common core” exams in 2015.
Developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, a consortium of states that won federal Race to the Top funds, the new exams will likely include two tests per subject.
It is not yet known how the "PARCC" tests will stack up against FCAT, but education observers point out that continual changes in test regimens thwart any longitudinal, apples-to-apples comparisons. Skeptics say that's exactly the intent and objective.
Whatever assessment devices and scoring systems Florida uses, Bill Mattox, resident fellow at James Madison Institute, says, "We ought to be raising the bar, not lowering it. Hold everyone -- students, teachers, parents -- to higher standards."
Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/more-florida-high-schools-earn-a-while-fcats-fade
Friday, October 28, 2011
A Third of High School Seniors Lack Basic Grasp of Civics, US Government
Amanda Paulson, Christian Science Monitor, May 4, 2011
America’s students have little knowledge about how the democratic process works—including those on the cusp of voting themselves, according to the most recent results from the Nation’s Report Card.
The civics scores released Wednesday by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) had a few bright spots—particularly for fourth-graders and for Hispanic students. But overall they indicated relatively poor civics knowledge by students at all levels, and particularly among 12th-graders.
Just 24 percent of high school seniors scored at a proficient level or above, a slight drop from the last civics test in 2006, largely driven by declining scores for 12th-grade girls. Just 4 percent of seniors scored at an advanced level, and 36 percent didn’t even reach the most basic level. {snip}
Scores for Hispanic students also increased compared with 1998 for all three grades (fourth, eighth, and 12th), and the white-Hispanic achievement gap narrowed. In eighth grade, the percentage of Hispanic students scoring at proficient has climbed over time from 44 percent in 1998 to 50 percent in 2006 and 56 percent in 2010.
But the gap is still wide for most minority groups. While 37 percent of white fourth-graders performed at or above proficient, for instance, just 12 percent of black students and 10 percent of Hispanic students scored at that level. At the lower end of achievement, the differences are just as stark: 13 percent of white fourth-graders scored below basic, compared with 38 percent of black students and 42 percent of Hispanic students. {snip}
“Studies have shown that African-American and Hispanic students and those not planning to go to college receive fewer effective civics opportunities,” Quigley says. “This is ironic in the fact of abundant evidence that when these students do receive these opportunities, they perform as well as anybody else.”
Original article (Posted on May 5, 2011)
Amanda Paulson, Christian Science Monitor, May 4, 2011
America’s students have little knowledge about how the democratic process works—including those on the cusp of voting themselves, according to the most recent results from the Nation’s Report Card.
The civics scores released Wednesday by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) had a few bright spots—particularly for fourth-graders and for Hispanic students. But overall they indicated relatively poor civics knowledge by students at all levels, and particularly among 12th-graders.
Just 24 percent of high school seniors scored at a proficient level or above, a slight drop from the last civics test in 2006, largely driven by declining scores for 12th-grade girls. Just 4 percent of seniors scored at an advanced level, and 36 percent didn’t even reach the most basic level. {snip}
Scores for Hispanic students also increased compared with 1998 for all three grades (fourth, eighth, and 12th), and the white-Hispanic achievement gap narrowed. In eighth grade, the percentage of Hispanic students scoring at proficient has climbed over time from 44 percent in 1998 to 50 percent in 2006 and 56 percent in 2010.
But the gap is still wide for most minority groups. While 37 percent of white fourth-graders performed at or above proficient, for instance, just 12 percent of black students and 10 percent of Hispanic students scored at that level. At the lower end of achievement, the differences are just as stark: 13 percent of white fourth-graders scored below basic, compared with 38 percent of black students and 42 percent of Hispanic students. {snip}
“Studies have shown that African-American and Hispanic students and those not planning to go to college receive fewer effective civics opportunities,” Quigley says. “This is ironic in the fact of abundant evidence that when these students do receive these opportunities, they perform as well as anybody else.”
Original article (Posted on May 5, 2011)
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Radical Mexican La Raza Studies Protest in Tuscon
For many years FASSS has lobbied Congress on the need for state accountability on how well public schools fulfill their responsibility to instill in our youth essential civic values and historical understanding. The proposal would cost the federal budget as little as $8 million, yet it has languished in the last three Congresses because national historical and social studies groups have not been vocal about the need to pass the legislation. The N.A.E.P. assessment is the most cost-effective way to ensure that these vital subjects are treated equitably because it could be accomplished by simply sampling a larger number of students during the periodic U.S. History and Civics N.A.E.P. assessments. The absence of such accountability permits Mexico to assess how well immigrant students understand Mexican history in the Los Angeles public school system, while the U.S. Dept. of Education has absolutely no understanding what these same students know about American history. Why don't we simply let the Chinese assess how well our students comprehend the benefits of Marxist ideology?
An earthquake took place recently when the Arizona legislature simply tried to make the popular 'La Raza history course' elective, rather than continuing to allow it to serve as a substitute for the more traditional American History course content that would assessed on N.A.E.P. Depriving Mexican students of what some critics have called ‘racist’ history content resulted in many Tucson high school students recently seizing the School Board Meeting Room and calling for the Board to submit to a series of student demands concerning the teaching of ethnic history. As of this writing, it's uncertain which side will win this curriculum battle.
As our nation continues to “Balkanize” in the future, teachers of traditional social studies courses must come to grips on whether or not some state accountability of traditional historical content is desired. Without such a mechanism, it is obvious certain states within our nation will continue to require “ethnic studies” and biased “multi-cultural understandings" in place of mainstream American History content. Florida social studies educators will remember some years ago that then House Education Committee chairwoman Bev Kilmer adamantly opposed a state-wide test for American History or civics using the argument that the courses are taught 'differently' depending upon location. Should current trends continue, the collapse of our nation and culture may certainly be predicted.
Jack Bovee is a retired social studies educator and former chair of the FASSS-FCSS Legislative Committee.
Tuscon District in Turmoil Over State Ban on Ethnic Studies Lourdes Medrano, Christian Science Monitor, May 4, 2011
{snip} Hundreds of people converged Tuesday on the Tucson Unified School District headquarters to hear the governing board discuss possible changes to the district’s Mexican-American history and culture program.
Following a raucous four-hour meeting punctuated by the removal of several people from the boardroom and loud protests from the crowd, the board postponed taking action until after it convenes a public forum on the matter.
The law in question, which took effect Jan. 1 and is known as HB 2281, bans ethnic studies that promote the overthrow of the United States government and resentment toward a race or class of people. Also outlawed are classes designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group and those that advocate ethnic solidarity rather than the treatment of students as individuals.
Tom Horne drafted the law when he was superintendent of Arizona schools. Just before he stepped down from that post to become the state’s attorney general, he found the Tucson district’s classes out of compliance with the law. The district could lose millions of dollars in funding.
The new Arizona schools superintendent, John Huppenthal, is expected to rule on whether the Tucson district’s Mexican American Studies program is in compliance with HB 2281.
In the meantime, the Tucson district has proposed changing the program. Currently, Mexican-American courses can help satisfy the social-studies requirement for graduation (although students don’t have to take the courses to fulfill the requirement). Under the proposal, the Mexican-American classes would not count toward the social-studies requirement and would instead be electives. Six-and-a-half elective credits are needed for graduation. {snip}
At the meeting Tuesday, Sean Arce, director of Mexican American Studies, told board members that making the courses elective would essentially kill the program. The move would eliminate student incentive to enroll in the classes, he said {snip}
Dozens of police, some in riot gear, surrounded the building where the meeting (which included an overflow crowd) took place. A police helicopter even hovered above. Before the start of another meeting last week, when the matter was originally supposed to be taken up, youths had chained themselves to board members’ chairs. That session was canceled.
{snip} Original article (Posted on May 5, 2011)
View the student takeover of the School Board at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXPkzMsKacc (3m54s)
More information follows:
Angry ‘Raza Studies’ Mob Shuts Down Tucson School Board Meeting (W/Video)
Dave Gibson, Examiner, April 28, 2011
A mob of both students and adults angry over the impending vote by the Tucson school board to make Raza studies or Mexican-American studies an elective, rather than forcing children to take the race-based curriculum rushed into the meeting room, chaining themselves to chairs.
Police simply stood by and watched as the loud mob took-over the room and refused to leave. {snip}
One of the textbooks they use is titled “Occupied America,” which was written by Rodolfo Acuña and includes a speech given by activist and university professor Jose Angel Gutierrez in which he says: “We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him,” (pg. 323).
The book also talks about the need for Mexico to re-take seven states in the Southwestern United States.
The following rather shocking quotes are taken directly from Occupied America (pg. 167):
“Supporters would execute all white males over age 16,” (also known as the Plan of San Diego).
“The Southwest would become a Chicano nation.” {snip}
See video of the protest at: YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXPkzMsKacc (3m54s)
José Ángel Gutiérrez
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The neutrality of this article's title, subject matter, and/or the title's implications, is disputed.
This is a dispute over the neutrality of viewpoints or other implications of the title, or the subject matter within its scope, rather than the actual facts stated. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (May 2010)
José Angel Gutiérrez, is an attorney and professor at the University of Texas at Arlington in the United States. He was a founding member of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) in San Antonio in 1967, and a founding member and past president of the Raza Unida Party, a Mexican-American third party movement that supported candidates for elective office in Texas, California, and other areas of the Southwestern and Midwestern United States.
Education
Gutiérrez is a 1962 graduate of Crystal City High School in Crystal City, Texas and served in the U.S. Army. He has also earned degrees from Texas A&M University–Kingsville (B.A. 1966), St. Mary's University in San Antonio), the University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D. 1976) and the University of Houston Law Center (J.D. 1988). He has done postdoctoral work at Stanford University, Colegio de México, University of Washington, and Centro de Estudios Económicos y Sociales del Tercer Mundo in Mexico City, Mexico.
Academic career
After the fall of La Raza Unida Party, Gutierrez moved to Oregon in 1980 where he taught at Colegio Cesar Chavez in Mt. Angel for a year and then at Western Oregon University in Monmouth from 1981–1985, where he also served as Director of Minority Student Services. In 1984 he unsuccessfully ran for Oregon State Representative. He was also very active in social service projects serving as Director of the Hispanic Services Project for the United Way of the Columbia, Willamette, Portland area and Executive Director of the Commission on Economic Development Subcommittee of the National Catholic Conference's Campaign for Human Development. In 1986, he left Oregon and returned to Texas to attend law school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas before transferring to the University of Houston.
He founded the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) at the University of Texas at Arlington in 1994 and served as its Director until December 1996, at which time he became the Special Advisor to the President of the university until December 1998.
Controversial Statements
In an interview with In Search of Aztlán on August 8, 1999, Gutierrez stated, in response to claims that the concept of Aztlán supports the Reconquista of the American Southwest, that:
"We’re the only ethnic group in America that has been dismembered. We didn't migrate here or immigrate here voluntarily. The United States came to us in succeeding waves of invasions. We are a captive people, in a sense, a hostage people. It is our political destiny and our right to self-determination to want to have our homeland [back]. Whether they like it or not is immaterial. If they call us radicals or subversives or separatists, that’s they're problem. This is our home, and this is our homeland, and we are entitled to it. We are the host. Everyone else is a guest."[1]
He further stated that:
"It is not our fault that whites don’t make babies, and blacks are not growing in sufficient numbers, and there’s no other groups with such a goal to put their homeland back together again. We do. Those numbers will make it possible. I believe that in the next few years, we will see an irredentists movement, beyond assimilation, beyond integration, beyond separatism, to putting Mexico back together as one. That's irridentism. One Mexico, one nation."[1]
In an interview with the Star-Telegram in October 2000, Gutierrez stated that many recent Mexican immigrants "want to recreate all of Mexico and join all of Mexico into one...even if it's just demographically... They are going to have political sovereignty over the Southwest and many parts of the Midwest." [2]
In a videotape made by the Immigration Watchdog Web site (as cited in the Washington Post), Gutierrez is quoted as saying:
"We are millions. We just have to survive. We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. It's a matter of time. The explosion is in our population."[3]
In a subsequent interview, Gutierrez said there was "no viable" reconquista movement and blamed interest in the issue on closed-border groups and "right-wing blogs."[3]
Public service
He has been elected and appointed to public office since 1970. He has served as an elected Trustee and President of the Crystal City Independent School District (1970–1973), Urban Renewal Commissioner for Crystal City, Texas (1970–1972), County Judge for Zavala County, Texas (1974–1978, re-elected 1978-1981), Commissioner for the Oregon Commission on International Trade (1983–1985), Administrative Law Judge for the City of Dallas, Texas, and member of the Dallas Ethics Commission (1999–2000).
Publications
His book publications include El Político: The Mexican American Elected Official (El Paso: Mictla Publications, 1972); A Gringo Manual on How to Handle Mexicans (Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico: Imprenta Velasco Burkhardt, 1974); A War of Words (co-authored) (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1985); The Making of a Chicano Militant: Lessons from Cristal (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998); and translator of Reies López Tijerina, They Called Me "King Tiger": My Struggle for the Land and Our Rights (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2000); a revised and expanded edition of A Gringo Manual on How to Handle Mexicans (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2001); Chicano Manual on How to Handle Gringos (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2003); We Won't Back Down: Severita Lara's Rise from Student Leader to Mayor (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2005); and Making of a Civil Rights Leader (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2005).
He also has written several articles and chapters over the years, the most recent being "Chicano Music: The Politics and Evolution to 1950", for an anthology edited by Lawrence Clayton for Texas A & M University Press, forthcoming; "Binacionalismo en el siglo XXI: Chicanos y mexicanos en los Estados Unidos", Fondo Editorial Huaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico, forthcoming; "Experiences of Chicana County Judges in Texas Politics: In Their Own Words", Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies, 20:1, Spring 1999; and, "Los dos Mexicos", Extensiones: Revista Interdisciplinaria de la Universidad Intercontinental, Mexico D.F., Mexico 4:1 y 2. 1997. Gutierrez organized and conducted most of the interviews for the oral history project Tejano Voices at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Honors
Gutiérrez has received many honors including being named as one of the "100 Outstanding Latino Texans of the 20th Century" by Latino Monthly, January 2000, and "Distinguished Texas Hispanic by Texas Hispanic Magazine, October 1996. He received the Distinguished Faculty Award from the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education in June 1995, and the National Council of La Raza's Chicano Hero Award in 1994.
An earthquake took place recently when the Arizona legislature simply tried to make the popular 'La Raza history course' elective, rather than continuing to allow it to serve as a substitute for the more traditional American History course content that would assessed on N.A.E.P. Depriving Mexican students of what some critics have called ‘racist’ history content resulted in many Tucson high school students recently seizing the School Board Meeting Room and calling for the Board to submit to a series of student demands concerning the teaching of ethnic history. As of this writing, it's uncertain which side will win this curriculum battle.
As our nation continues to “Balkanize” in the future, teachers of traditional social studies courses must come to grips on whether or not some state accountability of traditional historical content is desired. Without such a mechanism, it is obvious certain states within our nation will continue to require “ethnic studies” and biased “multi-cultural understandings" in place of mainstream American History content. Florida social studies educators will remember some years ago that then House Education Committee chairwoman Bev Kilmer adamantly opposed a state-wide test for American History or civics using the argument that the courses are taught 'differently' depending upon location. Should current trends continue, the collapse of our nation and culture may certainly be predicted.
Jack Bovee is a retired social studies educator and former chair of the FASSS-FCSS Legislative Committee.
Tuscon District in Turmoil Over State Ban on Ethnic Studies Lourdes Medrano, Christian Science Monitor, May 4, 2011
{snip} Hundreds of people converged Tuesday on the Tucson Unified School District headquarters to hear the governing board discuss possible changes to the district’s Mexican-American history and culture program.
Following a raucous four-hour meeting punctuated by the removal of several people from the boardroom and loud protests from the crowd, the board postponed taking action until after it convenes a public forum on the matter.
The law in question, which took effect Jan. 1 and is known as HB 2281, bans ethnic studies that promote the overthrow of the United States government and resentment toward a race or class of people. Also outlawed are classes designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group and those that advocate ethnic solidarity rather than the treatment of students as individuals.
Tom Horne drafted the law when he was superintendent of Arizona schools. Just before he stepped down from that post to become the state’s attorney general, he found the Tucson district’s classes out of compliance with the law. The district could lose millions of dollars in funding.
The new Arizona schools superintendent, John Huppenthal, is expected to rule on whether the Tucson district’s Mexican American Studies program is in compliance with HB 2281.
In the meantime, the Tucson district has proposed changing the program. Currently, Mexican-American courses can help satisfy the social-studies requirement for graduation (although students don’t have to take the courses to fulfill the requirement). Under the proposal, the Mexican-American classes would not count toward the social-studies requirement and would instead be electives. Six-and-a-half elective credits are needed for graduation. {snip}
At the meeting Tuesday, Sean Arce, director of Mexican American Studies, told board members that making the courses elective would essentially kill the program. The move would eliminate student incentive to enroll in the classes, he said {snip}
Dozens of police, some in riot gear, surrounded the building where the meeting (which included an overflow crowd) took place. A police helicopter even hovered above. Before the start of another meeting last week, when the matter was originally supposed to be taken up, youths had chained themselves to board members’ chairs. That session was canceled.
{snip} Original article (Posted on May 5, 2011)
View the student takeover of the School Board at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXPkzMsKacc (3m54s)
More information follows:
Angry ‘Raza Studies’ Mob Shuts Down Tucson School Board Meeting (W/Video)
Dave Gibson, Examiner, April 28, 2011
A mob of both students and adults angry over the impending vote by the Tucson school board to make Raza studies or Mexican-American studies an elective, rather than forcing children to take the race-based curriculum rushed into the meeting room, chaining themselves to chairs.
Police simply stood by and watched as the loud mob took-over the room and refused to leave. {snip}
One of the textbooks they use is titled “Occupied America,” which was written by Rodolfo Acuña and includes a speech given by activist and university professor Jose Angel Gutierrez in which he says: “We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him,” (pg. 323).
The book also talks about the need for Mexico to re-take seven states in the Southwestern United States.
The following rather shocking quotes are taken directly from Occupied America (pg. 167):
“Supporters would execute all white males over age 16,” (also known as the Plan of San Diego).
“The Southwest would become a Chicano nation.” {snip}
See video of the protest at: YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXPkzMsKacc (3m54s)
José Ángel Gutiérrez
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The neutrality of this article's title, subject matter, and/or the title's implications, is disputed.
This is a dispute over the neutrality of viewpoints or other implications of the title, or the subject matter within its scope, rather than the actual facts stated. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (May 2010)
José Angel Gutiérrez, is an attorney and professor at the University of Texas at Arlington in the United States. He was a founding member of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) in San Antonio in 1967, and a founding member and past president of the Raza Unida Party, a Mexican-American third party movement that supported candidates for elective office in Texas, California, and other areas of the Southwestern and Midwestern United States.
Education
Gutiérrez is a 1962 graduate of Crystal City High School in Crystal City, Texas and served in the U.S. Army. He has also earned degrees from Texas A&M University–Kingsville (B.A. 1966), St. Mary's University in San Antonio), the University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D. 1976) and the University of Houston Law Center (J.D. 1988). He has done postdoctoral work at Stanford University, Colegio de México, University of Washington, and Centro de Estudios Económicos y Sociales del Tercer Mundo in Mexico City, Mexico.
Academic career
After the fall of La Raza Unida Party, Gutierrez moved to Oregon in 1980 where he taught at Colegio Cesar Chavez in Mt. Angel for a year and then at Western Oregon University in Monmouth from 1981–1985, where he also served as Director of Minority Student Services. In 1984 he unsuccessfully ran for Oregon State Representative. He was also very active in social service projects serving as Director of the Hispanic Services Project for the United Way of the Columbia, Willamette, Portland area and Executive Director of the Commission on Economic Development Subcommittee of the National Catholic Conference's Campaign for Human Development. In 1986, he left Oregon and returned to Texas to attend law school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas before transferring to the University of Houston.
He founded the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) at the University of Texas at Arlington in 1994 and served as its Director until December 1996, at which time he became the Special Advisor to the President of the university until December 1998.
Controversial Statements
In an interview with In Search of Aztlán on August 8, 1999, Gutierrez stated, in response to claims that the concept of Aztlán supports the Reconquista of the American Southwest, that:
"We’re the only ethnic group in America that has been dismembered. We didn't migrate here or immigrate here voluntarily. The United States came to us in succeeding waves of invasions. We are a captive people, in a sense, a hostage people. It is our political destiny and our right to self-determination to want to have our homeland [back]. Whether they like it or not is immaterial. If they call us radicals or subversives or separatists, that’s they're problem. This is our home, and this is our homeland, and we are entitled to it. We are the host. Everyone else is a guest."[1]
He further stated that:
"It is not our fault that whites don’t make babies, and blacks are not growing in sufficient numbers, and there’s no other groups with such a goal to put their homeland back together again. We do. Those numbers will make it possible. I believe that in the next few years, we will see an irredentists movement, beyond assimilation, beyond integration, beyond separatism, to putting Mexico back together as one. That's irridentism. One Mexico, one nation."[1]
In an interview with the Star-Telegram in October 2000, Gutierrez stated that many recent Mexican immigrants "want to recreate all of Mexico and join all of Mexico into one...even if it's just demographically... They are going to have political sovereignty over the Southwest and many parts of the Midwest." [2]
In a videotape made by the Immigration Watchdog Web site (as cited in the Washington Post), Gutierrez is quoted as saying:
"We are millions. We just have to survive. We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. It's a matter of time. The explosion is in our population."[3]
In a subsequent interview, Gutierrez said there was "no viable" reconquista movement and blamed interest in the issue on closed-border groups and "right-wing blogs."[3]
Public service
He has been elected and appointed to public office since 1970. He has served as an elected Trustee and President of the Crystal City Independent School District (1970–1973), Urban Renewal Commissioner for Crystal City, Texas (1970–1972), County Judge for Zavala County, Texas (1974–1978, re-elected 1978-1981), Commissioner for the Oregon Commission on International Trade (1983–1985), Administrative Law Judge for the City of Dallas, Texas, and member of the Dallas Ethics Commission (1999–2000).
Publications
His book publications include El Político: The Mexican American Elected Official (El Paso: Mictla Publications, 1972); A Gringo Manual on How to Handle Mexicans (Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico: Imprenta Velasco Burkhardt, 1974); A War of Words (co-authored) (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1985); The Making of a Chicano Militant: Lessons from Cristal (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998); and translator of Reies López Tijerina, They Called Me "King Tiger": My Struggle for the Land and Our Rights (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2000); a revised and expanded edition of A Gringo Manual on How to Handle Mexicans (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2001); Chicano Manual on How to Handle Gringos (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2003); We Won't Back Down: Severita Lara's Rise from Student Leader to Mayor (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2005); and Making of a Civil Rights Leader (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2005).
He also has written several articles and chapters over the years, the most recent being "Chicano Music: The Politics and Evolution to 1950", for an anthology edited by Lawrence Clayton for Texas A & M University Press, forthcoming; "Binacionalismo en el siglo XXI: Chicanos y mexicanos en los Estados Unidos", Fondo Editorial Huaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico, forthcoming; "Experiences of Chicana County Judges in Texas Politics: In Their Own Words", Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies, 20:1, Spring 1999; and, "Los dos Mexicos", Extensiones: Revista Interdisciplinaria de la Universidad Intercontinental, Mexico D.F., Mexico 4:1 y 2. 1997. Gutierrez organized and conducted most of the interviews for the oral history project Tejano Voices at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Honors
Gutiérrez has received many honors including being named as one of the "100 Outstanding Latino Texans of the 20th Century" by Latino Monthly, January 2000, and "Distinguished Texas Hispanic by Texas Hispanic Magazine, October 1996. He received the Distinguished Faculty Award from the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education in June 1995, and the National Council of La Raza's Chicano Hero Award in 1994.
A Third off High School Seniors Lack Basic Grasp off Civics, US Government
Amanda Paulson, Christian Science Monitor, May 4, 2011
America’s students have little knowledge about how the democratic process works—including those on the cusp of voting themselves, according to the most recent results from the Nation’s Report Card.
The civics scores released Wednesday by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) had a few bright spots—particularly for fourth-graders and for Hispanic students. But overall they indicated relatively poor civics knowledge by students at all levels, and particularly among 12th-graders.
Just 24 percent of high school seniors scored at a proficient level or above, a slight drop from the last civics test in 2006, largely driven by declining scores for 12th-grade girls. Just 4 percent of seniors scored at an advanced level, and 36 percent didn’t even reach the most basic level. {snip}
Scores for Hispanic students also increased compared with 1998 for all three grades (fourth, eighth, and 12th), and the white-Hispanic achievement gap narrowed. In eighth grade, the percentage of Hispanic students scoring at proficient has climbed over time from 44 percent in 1998 to 50 percent in 2006 and 56 percent in 2010.
But the gap is still wide for most minority groups. While 37 percent of white fourth-graders performed at or above proficient, for instance, just 12 percent of black students and 10 percent of Hispanic students scored at that level. At the lower end of achievement, the differences are just as stark: 13 percent of white fourth-graders scored below basic, compared with 38 percent of black students and 42 percent of Hispanic students. {snip}
“Studies have shown that African-American and Hispanic students and those not planning to go to college receive fewer effective civics opportunities,” Quigley says. “This is ironic in the fact of abundant evidence that when these students do receive these opportunities, they perform as well as anybody else.”
Original article (Posted on May 5, 2011)
America’s students have little knowledge about how the democratic process works—including those on the cusp of voting themselves, according to the most recent results from the Nation’s Report Card.
The civics scores released Wednesday by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) had a few bright spots—particularly for fourth-graders and for Hispanic students. But overall they indicated relatively poor civics knowledge by students at all levels, and particularly among 12th-graders.
Just 24 percent of high school seniors scored at a proficient level or above, a slight drop from the last civics test in 2006, largely driven by declining scores for 12th-grade girls. Just 4 percent of seniors scored at an advanced level, and 36 percent didn’t even reach the most basic level. {snip}
Scores for Hispanic students also increased compared with 1998 for all three grades (fourth, eighth, and 12th), and the white-Hispanic achievement gap narrowed. In eighth grade, the percentage of Hispanic students scoring at proficient has climbed over time from 44 percent in 1998 to 50 percent in 2006 and 56 percent in 2010.
But the gap is still wide for most minority groups. While 37 percent of white fourth-graders performed at or above proficient, for instance, just 12 percent of black students and 10 percent of Hispanic students scored at that level. At the lower end of achievement, the differences are just as stark: 13 percent of white fourth-graders scored below basic, compared with 38 percent of black students and 42 percent of Hispanic students. {snip}
“Studies have shown that African-American and Hispanic students and those not planning to go to college receive fewer effective civics opportunities,” Quigley says. “This is ironic in the fact of abundant evidence that when these students do receive these opportunities, they perform as well as anybody else.”
Original article (Posted on May 5, 2011)
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Florida's Civics Bill Makes National Headlines
From: ncss-legis-bounces@lists.ncss.org [mailto:ncss-legis-bounces@lists.ncss.org] On Behalf Of Kristen Pekarek
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 3:49 PM
To: ncss-legis legis; NCSS Affiliates
Subject: [Ncss-legis] Bill would require civics in Florida Schools
Dear Leaders,
I wanted to pass along some good news that was just sent from Florida concerning a Bill that would require civics in Florida Schools. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments at legis@ncss.org
The Associated Press
Published: April 21, 2010
A bill requiring middle school students to take a civics class and pass an end-of-course test is on its way to Gov. Charlie Crist.
The Senate voted unanimously for the (HB 105) today. It previously passed in the House.
Students would have to pass the final exam to go on to high school.
Lawmakers said the requirement is needed because many citizens don't know the difference between a state legislator and member of Congress or even who is president.
The bill is called the Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Civics Education Act after the retired U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and ex-U.S. Rep. Lou Frey joined forces four years ago to push for such a requirement.
http://flhouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=42220
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/apr/21/bill-would-require-civics-florida-schools/
Thanks,
Kristen
--
Kristen Pekarek
Program Assistant, External Relations
& Council Communications
National Council for the Social Studies
8555 Sixteenth St., Suite 500
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-588-1800 ext. 107
(fax) 301-588-2049
www.socialstudies.org
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 3:49 PM
To: ncss-legis legis; NCSS Affiliates
Subject: [Ncss-legis] Bill would require civics in Florida Schools
Dear Leaders,
I wanted to pass along some good news that was just sent from Florida concerning a Bill that would require civics in Florida Schools. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments at legis@ncss.org
The Associated Press
Published: April 21, 2010
A bill requiring middle school students to take a civics class and pass an end-of-course test is on its way to Gov. Charlie Crist.
The Senate voted unanimously for the (HB 105) today. It previously passed in the House.
Students would have to pass the final exam to go on to high school.
Lawmakers said the requirement is needed because many citizens don't know the difference between a state legislator and member of Congress or even who is president.
The bill is called the Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Civics Education Act after the retired U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and ex-U.S. Rep. Lou Frey joined forces four years ago to push for such a requirement.
http://flhouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=42220
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/apr/21/bill-would-require-civics-florida-schools/
Thanks,
Kristen
--
Kristen Pekarek
Program Assistant, External Relations
& Council Communications
National Council for the Social Studies
8555 Sixteenth St., Suite 500
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-588-1800 ext. 107
(fax) 301-588-2049
www.socialstudies.org
Monday, October 5, 2009
Reading Is Not a Skill--And Why This Is a Problem for the Draft National Standards
Today's guest is Psychology Professor Daniel Willingham of the University of Virginia, who researches learning and the brain.
A draft of the voluntary national standards for reading was just released, and at first glance the 18 standards sound quite sensible: students should be able to determine what a text says, make inferences from it, discern the most important ideas, and so forth.
Many of the standards boil down to this notion: "The student will be able to comprehend the text.” For the others, comprehension is a prerequisite. The problem is that teachers and administrators are likely to read those 18 standards and to try to teach to them. But reading comprehension is not a “skill” that can be taught directly.
We tend to teach comprehension as a series of “reading strategies” that can be practiced and mastered. Unfortunately it really doesn’t work that way. The mainspring of comprehension is prior knowledge—the stuff readers already know that enables them to create understanding as they read.
Prior knowledge is vital to comprehension because writers omit information. For example, suppose you read “He just got a new puppy. His landlord is angry.” You easily understand the logical connection between those sentences because you know things about puppies (they aren’t housebroken), carpets (urine stains them) and landlords (they are protective of their property.)
The writer could have included all that information. The writer gambled that the reader would know about puppies, carpets and landlords. A writer who doesn’t assume some prior knowledge on the part of her readers will write very boring prose. What happens if the reader doesn’t have the prior knowledge the writer assumed she had? The reader will be confused and comprehension breaks down.
This is exactly what happens for millions of poor readers. They can “read” (they can sound out the words on the page) but they can’t consistently comprehend. They read it, but they don’t “get it.”
Remarkably, if you take kids who score poorly on a reading test and ask them to read on a topic they know something about (baseball, say, or dinosaurs) all of a sudden their comprehension is terrific—better than kids who score well on reading tests but who don’t know a lot about baseball or dinosaurs.
In other words, kids who score well on reading tests are not really kids with good “reading skills.”
The kids who score well on reading tests are ones who know a lot about the world—they have a lot of prior knowledge about a wide range of things--and so that whatever they are asked to read about on the test, they likely know something about it. (This is only true once kids have cracked the code of letters and sounds and can apply that translation fluently-- say, 5th grade and after.)
Can’t you teach kids how to reason about texts, and thereby wring the meaning out of it even if they don’t have the right prior knowledge?
To some extent, but it doesn’t seem to help as much as you might expect. For one thing, this sort of reasoning is difficult mental work. For another, it’s slow, and so it breaks up the flow of the story you’re reading, and the fun of the story is lost. Hoping that students without relevant prior knowledge will reason their way through a story is a recipe for creating a student who doesn’t like reading.
Oftentimes, knowledge gaps can’t be filled by a strategy. For example, suppose you read this: “The Obama administration will announce a new policy Wednesday making it much more difficult for the government to claim that it is protecting state secrets when it hides details of sensitive national security strategies such as rendition and warrantless eavesdropping, according to two senior Justice Department officials.”
In this instance, the writer assumed that the reader knew the definitions of “rendition,” “warrantless wiretaps,” what a state secret might be, and the significance of the announcement coming from the executive branch of the government, at the least.
If you know those things, comprehension is effortless. What strategy is going to lead you to correct guesses?
I didn’t pick that sentence randomly. It was the first sentence of the lead story of The Washington Post on the day I’m writing this post. If we want students to be able to read a serious newspaper, they need prior knowledge.
How do students get prior knowledge? It accumulates through years of exposure to newspapers, serious magazines, books, conversations with knowledgeable people. It should also come from a content-rich curriculum in school.
Oddly enough, the new national standards actually say that. The standards documents lists “have a strong content base” as one of the things that college-ready readers tend to have.
But the standards themselves don’t recommend that we ensure that students “have a strong content base” as a way to ensure that they are good readers! (A few months ago, I created a video called “Teaching Content Is Teaching Reading” that explains this. You can see it here on YouTube.
Instead, the standards document lists things that students ought to be able to do (summarize, find the main idea, etc.) that invite states, districts, and teachers to design curricula emphasizing practice in those skills.
The mistaken idea that reading is a skill—learn to crack the code, practice comprehension strategies and you can read anything—may be the single biggest factor holding back reading achievement in the country.
Students will not meet standards that way. The knowledge base problem must be solved.
By Valerie Strauss | September 28, 2009; 7:30 AM ET
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/daniel-willingham/willingham-reading-is-not-a-sk.html
A draft of the voluntary national standards for reading was just released, and at first glance the 18 standards sound quite sensible: students should be able to determine what a text says, make inferences from it, discern the most important ideas, and so forth.
Many of the standards boil down to this notion: "The student will be able to comprehend the text.” For the others, comprehension is a prerequisite. The problem is that teachers and administrators are likely to read those 18 standards and to try to teach to them. But reading comprehension is not a “skill” that can be taught directly.
We tend to teach comprehension as a series of “reading strategies” that can be practiced and mastered. Unfortunately it really doesn’t work that way. The mainspring of comprehension is prior knowledge—the stuff readers already know that enables them to create understanding as they read.
Prior knowledge is vital to comprehension because writers omit information. For example, suppose you read “He just got a new puppy. His landlord is angry.” You easily understand the logical connection between those sentences because you know things about puppies (they aren’t housebroken), carpets (urine stains them) and landlords (they are protective of their property.)
The writer could have included all that information. The writer gambled that the reader would know about puppies, carpets and landlords. A writer who doesn’t assume some prior knowledge on the part of her readers will write very boring prose. What happens if the reader doesn’t have the prior knowledge the writer assumed she had? The reader will be confused and comprehension breaks down.
This is exactly what happens for millions of poor readers. They can “read” (they can sound out the words on the page) but they can’t consistently comprehend. They read it, but they don’t “get it.”
Remarkably, if you take kids who score poorly on a reading test and ask them to read on a topic they know something about (baseball, say, or dinosaurs) all of a sudden their comprehension is terrific—better than kids who score well on reading tests but who don’t know a lot about baseball or dinosaurs.
In other words, kids who score well on reading tests are not really kids with good “reading skills.”
The kids who score well on reading tests are ones who know a lot about the world—they have a lot of prior knowledge about a wide range of things--and so that whatever they are asked to read about on the test, they likely know something about it. (This is only true once kids have cracked the code of letters and sounds and can apply that translation fluently-- say, 5th grade and after.)
Can’t you teach kids how to reason about texts, and thereby wring the meaning out of it even if they don’t have the right prior knowledge?
To some extent, but it doesn’t seem to help as much as you might expect. For one thing, this sort of reasoning is difficult mental work. For another, it’s slow, and so it breaks up the flow of the story you’re reading, and the fun of the story is lost. Hoping that students without relevant prior knowledge will reason their way through a story is a recipe for creating a student who doesn’t like reading.
Oftentimes, knowledge gaps can’t be filled by a strategy. For example, suppose you read this: “The Obama administration will announce a new policy Wednesday making it much more difficult for the government to claim that it is protecting state secrets when it hides details of sensitive national security strategies such as rendition and warrantless eavesdropping, according to two senior Justice Department officials.”
In this instance, the writer assumed that the reader knew the definitions of “rendition,” “warrantless wiretaps,” what a state secret might be, and the significance of the announcement coming from the executive branch of the government, at the least.
If you know those things, comprehension is effortless. What strategy is going to lead you to correct guesses?
I didn’t pick that sentence randomly. It was the first sentence of the lead story of The Washington Post on the day I’m writing this post. If we want students to be able to read a serious newspaper, they need prior knowledge.
How do students get prior knowledge? It accumulates through years of exposure to newspapers, serious magazines, books, conversations with knowledgeable people. It should also come from a content-rich curriculum in school.
Oddly enough, the new national standards actually say that. The standards documents lists “have a strong content base” as one of the things that college-ready readers tend to have.
But the standards themselves don’t recommend that we ensure that students “have a strong content base” as a way to ensure that they are good readers! (A few months ago, I created a video called “Teaching Content Is Teaching Reading” that explains this. You can see it here on YouTube.
Instead, the standards document lists things that students ought to be able to do (summarize, find the main idea, etc.) that invite states, districts, and teachers to design curricula emphasizing practice in those skills.
The mistaken idea that reading is a skill—learn to crack the code, practice comprehension strategies and you can read anything—may be the single biggest factor holding back reading achievement in the country.
Students will not meet standards that way. The knowledge base problem must be solved.
By Valerie Strauss | September 28, 2009; 7:30 AM ET
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/daniel-willingham/willingham-reading-is-not-a-sk.html
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Constitution and Citizenship Day Act of 2009
See below for another new measure in Congress to allow local districts to apply for federal funds for the teaching of civics each September. As commendable as this measure may be, one wonders if the money could better be used to hold the states accountable for how well they are actually doing this. For the want of a mere $8 million when the government is spending trillions, Congress has failed to enact such legislation for the last three Congresses! The NAEP assessment scheduled for this coming January will represent yet another failed opportunity to give 'equity' to our important discipline with respect to comparing states to one another in student achievement in Civics and United States History. Without state accountability Governors will likely continue to ignore the crisis the nation currently faces with regard to all the disciplines in the social studies area. Helping individual school districts through grants such as that being proposed below -- while ignoring the states as a whole -- is NOT the solution. (Editorial comment, JB)
* * *
Constitution and Citizenship Day Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)
HR 3591 IH
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3591
To establish a grant program to enhance existing secondary education programs for the purpose of teaching high school students about the Constitution of the United States and the constitutions of the individual States.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 17, 2009
Mr. CUMMINGS (for himself, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CONYERS, Ms. WATSON, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. MEEK of Florida, Ms. WATERS, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, and Mr. WATT) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor
________________________________________
A BILL
To establish a grant program to enhance existing secondary education programs for the purpose of teaching high school students about the Constitution of the United States and the constitutions of the individual States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Constitution and Citizenship Day Act of 2009'.
SEC. 2. CONSTITUTION DAY AND CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY SYSTEM FOR STUDENTS.
Part C of title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6601 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new subpart:
`Subpart 6--Teaching of the Constitution
`SEC. 2371. ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF CONSTITUTION DAY GRANT PROGRAM.
`(a) Grant Program Authorized- The Secretary shall establish and implement a grant program, to be known as the `Constitution Day Grant Program', under which the Secretary shall award grants on a competitive basis to local educational agencies and charter schools for the purposes of enhancing educational programs to teach students about the United States Constitution and the constitution of the State in which the grant recipient is located.
`(b) Grantee Eligibility Requirements- Grants under this section may only be awarded to a local educational agency or charter school with established secondary educational programs to teach students about the United States Constitution and the constitution of the State in which the grant recipient is located.
`(c) Operation of Educational Programs- An educational program funded by a grant under this section shall--
`(1) occur on Constitution Day, September 17, of each calender year (or on the Monday immediately following Constitution Day, if Constitution Day falls on a Saturday or a Sunday);
`(2) include assemblies, discussions, presentations, or events commemorating the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State in which the grant recipient is located;
`(3) include efforts to reinforce existing Constitutional curricula conducted by the grant recipient; and
`(4) make available to eligible students participating in such program the ability to register to vote.
`(d) Voter Registration Laws- A grant recipient under this section shall abide by all applicable State and Federal voter registration laws.
`SEC. 2372. GRANT APPLICATION PROCESS.
`(a) Secretary Created Process- The Secretary shall develop an application process for the grant program under this subpart, consistent with the requirements of this section.
`(b) Grant Application Requirements- An application for a grant under this subpart shall--
`(1) describe the educational activities to be funded by the grant; and
`(2) provide assurances that the requirements of section 2371(c) will be met, and any additional assurances that the Secretary determines to be necessary to ensure compliance with the requirements of this subpart.
`SEC. 2373. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
`There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary $4,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2014 to carry out this subpart.'.
________________________________________
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* * *
Constitution and Citizenship Day Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)
HR 3591 IH
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3591
To establish a grant program to enhance existing secondary education programs for the purpose of teaching high school students about the Constitution of the United States and the constitutions of the individual States.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 17, 2009
Mr. CUMMINGS (for himself, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CONYERS, Ms. WATSON, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. MEEK of Florida, Ms. WATERS, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, and Mr. WATT) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor
________________________________________
A BILL
To establish a grant program to enhance existing secondary education programs for the purpose of teaching high school students about the Constitution of the United States and the constitutions of the individual States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Constitution and Citizenship Day Act of 2009'.
SEC. 2. CONSTITUTION DAY AND CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY SYSTEM FOR STUDENTS.
Part C of title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6601 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new subpart:
`Subpart 6--Teaching of the Constitution
`SEC. 2371. ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF CONSTITUTION DAY GRANT PROGRAM.
`(a) Grant Program Authorized- The Secretary shall establish and implement a grant program, to be known as the `Constitution Day Grant Program', under which the Secretary shall award grants on a competitive basis to local educational agencies and charter schools for the purposes of enhancing educational programs to teach students about the United States Constitution and the constitution of the State in which the grant recipient is located.
`(b) Grantee Eligibility Requirements- Grants under this section may only be awarded to a local educational agency or charter school with established secondary educational programs to teach students about the United States Constitution and the constitution of the State in which the grant recipient is located.
`(c) Operation of Educational Programs- An educational program funded by a grant under this section shall--
`(1) occur on Constitution Day, September 17, of each calender year (or on the Monday immediately following Constitution Day, if Constitution Day falls on a Saturday or a Sunday);
`(2) include assemblies, discussions, presentations, or events commemorating the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State in which the grant recipient is located;
`(3) include efforts to reinforce existing Constitutional curricula conducted by the grant recipient; and
`(4) make available to eligible students participating in such program the ability to register to vote.
`(d) Voter Registration Laws- A grant recipient under this section shall abide by all applicable State and Federal voter registration laws.
`SEC. 2372. GRANT APPLICATION PROCESS.
`(a) Secretary Created Process- The Secretary shall develop an application process for the grant program under this subpart, consistent with the requirements of this section.
`(b) Grant Application Requirements- An application for a grant under this subpart shall--
`(1) describe the educational activities to be funded by the grant; and
`(2) provide assurances that the requirements of section 2371(c) will be met, and any additional assurances that the Secretary determines to be necessary to ensure compliance with the requirements of this subpart.
`SEC. 2373. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
`There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary $4,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2014 to carry out this subpart.'.
________________________________________
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Monday, June 1, 2009
Va. Ponders Eliminating Third-Grade History Exam
(FASSS members are currently analyzing state testing programs around the country and are unfortunately discovering many proposals to scale back social studies assessments. The reason most often cited for these cutbacks is the need to bring needed resources to Reading, Mathematics, Science and Writing. Despite this trend, Florida appears ready to move forward with proposals for end of course testing in all areas required for high school graduation except Economics.
Thanks to Jason for the article below, which once again serves as a reminder for the importance of passing the NAEP reform legislation currently filed for the FOURTH Congress. These proposals, quickly endorsed by FASSS and FCSS would begin to hold at least a 'few' states accountable for the civic mission of their schools. The lack of strong support for these measures over the last few years ought to be an embarassment to NCCE, NCSS, AHA, etc. Should anyone have documented position papers from these national groups in favor of these proposals, we would welcome receiving a copy.
Thanks to Jason for the article below, which once again serves as a reminder for the importance of passing the NAEP reform legislation currently filed for the FOURTH Congress. These proposals, quickly endorsed by FASSS and FCSS would begin to hold at least a 'few' states accountable for the civic mission of their schools. The lack of strong support for these measures over the last few years ought to be an embarassment to NCCE, NCSS, AHA, etc. Should anyone have documented position papers from these national groups in favor of these proposals, we would welcome receiving a copy.
Ed. comment -- JB)
By Michael Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 28, 2009
In the seven years since enactment of the federal No Child Left Behind law, students have spent ever more time filling in bubbles on high-stakes tests. But Virginia could soon join a movement to roll back testing programs, as it considers abandoning an exam that spans such matters as bartering, the ancient empire of Mali and pie charts.
Florida and Georgia have cut testing budgets, citing financial pressures. North Carolina might soon follow. And today, the Virginia Board of Education will take up eliminating the third-grade history test, a move state officials say would open up time for core subjects such as math and reading. But critics say they worry that ditching the test would hurt history education in the primary grades.
For 11 years, Virginia has given third-graders a Standards of Learning history test. Forty multiple-choice questions cover material from kindergarten through third grade, which state officials say puts an unfair burden on the memories of young children.
Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright predicted that teachers and administrators would welcome the change.
"It's not just about money, and it's certainly not about diminishing social studies," she said. "This is about freeing up elementary teachers' time to be more creative. . . . I am the last person that will go out on a limb and start unraveling our accountability system."
But some educators say that without test pressure forcing history standards to be taught, class time devoted to the subject could dwindle.
"I view this as a frontal assault on the value of social science education at the early grades," said Ken Bassett, president of the Virginia Consortium of Social Studies Specialists and College Educators and director of social studies education in Prince William County schools. "What we've seen from all across the country is that in places where they don't have these tests, the amount of time devoted to social studies instruction diminishes significantly."
Wright said the $380,000 a year saved through elimination of the exam could be used to construct new kinds of questions for math tests, put fifth- and eighth-grade writing tests online and bolster elementary reading exams.
Last year, 93 percent of Virginia's third-graders passed the history exam, and 84 percent passed reading, which Wright said pointed to a need for more lesson time on that skill. She said that reading classes could incorporate history lessons and noted that the state would still test students in history four times before they reached high school. Wright also said the underlying teaching standards wouldn't be changed.
Under the 2002 federal law, states are required to test students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school. The law also calls for more science testing. Virginia is one of a few states with a history testing program, and education groups praise its curriculum routinely. In a 2006 study of world history standards in the 50 states and the District, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a District-based education think tank, ranked Virginia second in the country, tied with Massachusetts and behind California. The District ranked 27th and Maryland 29th. But neither the District nor Maryland tests history.
Many Virginia history education proponents confess to a love-hate relationship with the tests. They often complain that the multiple-choice format emphasizes rote memorization over analytical skills. But they say they would rather have something than nothing. "In an environment where some subjects are tested and some are not, guess which lose out," said Bill Brazier, social science supervisor for Loudoun County schools.
Third-grade teacher Christina Hepner of Ball's Bluff Elementary School in Leesburg questioned whether it was fair to hold students accountable for material learned in kindergarten. She said that she teaches history with skits, writing exercises and games, and that her kids would not learn as much if the subject was taught with an emphasis on reading skills.
"Students can't just read it and connect to it," Hepner said. "A good lesson has to have more than one leg to stand on."
The state Board of Education could vote on the matter as early as today. Wright said a decision must be made within the next month or two if the exam is to be eliminated for the next school year.
By Michael Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 28, 2009
In the seven years since enactment of the federal No Child Left Behind law, students have spent ever more time filling in bubbles on high-stakes tests. But Virginia could soon join a movement to roll back testing programs, as it considers abandoning an exam that spans such matters as bartering, the ancient empire of Mali and pie charts.
Florida and Georgia have cut testing budgets, citing financial pressures. North Carolina might soon follow. And today, the Virginia Board of Education will take up eliminating the third-grade history test, a move state officials say would open up time for core subjects such as math and reading. But critics say they worry that ditching the test would hurt history education in the primary grades.
For 11 years, Virginia has given third-graders a Standards of Learning history test. Forty multiple-choice questions cover material from kindergarten through third grade, which state officials say puts an unfair burden on the memories of young children.
Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright predicted that teachers and administrators would welcome the change.
"It's not just about money, and it's certainly not about diminishing social studies," she said. "This is about freeing up elementary teachers' time to be more creative. . . . I am the last person that will go out on a limb and start unraveling our accountability system."
But some educators say that without test pressure forcing history standards to be taught, class time devoted to the subject could dwindle.
"I view this as a frontal assault on the value of social science education at the early grades," said Ken Bassett, president of the Virginia Consortium of Social Studies Specialists and College Educators and director of social studies education in Prince William County schools. "What we've seen from all across the country is that in places where they don't have these tests, the amount of time devoted to social studies instruction diminishes significantly."
Wright said the $380,000 a year saved through elimination of the exam could be used to construct new kinds of questions for math tests, put fifth- and eighth-grade writing tests online and bolster elementary reading exams.
Last year, 93 percent of Virginia's third-graders passed the history exam, and 84 percent passed reading, which Wright said pointed to a need for more lesson time on that skill. She said that reading classes could incorporate history lessons and noted that the state would still test students in history four times before they reached high school. Wright also said the underlying teaching standards wouldn't be changed.
Under the 2002 federal law, states are required to test students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school. The law also calls for more science testing. Virginia is one of a few states with a history testing program, and education groups praise its curriculum routinely. In a 2006 study of world history standards in the 50 states and the District, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a District-based education think tank, ranked Virginia second in the country, tied with Massachusetts and behind California. The District ranked 27th and Maryland 29th. But neither the District nor Maryland tests history.
Many Virginia history education proponents confess to a love-hate relationship with the tests. They often complain that the multiple-choice format emphasizes rote memorization over analytical skills. But they say they would rather have something than nothing. "In an environment where some subjects are tested and some are not, guess which lose out," said Bill Brazier, social science supervisor for Loudoun County schools.
Third-grade teacher Christina Hepner of Ball's Bluff Elementary School in Leesburg questioned whether it was fair to hold students accountable for material learned in kindergarten. She said that she teaches history with skits, writing exercises and games, and that her kids would not learn as much if the subject was taught with an emphasis on reading skills.
"Students can't just read it and connect to it," Hepner said. "A good lesson has to have more than one leg to stand on."
The state Board of Education could vote on the matter as early as today. Wright said a decision must be made within the next month or two if the exam is to be eliminated for the next school year.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Gerald Celente Predicts Revolution, Food Riots, Tax Rellions by 2012
A favorite reading of world history is the story of Nero fiddling while Rome burned. If history has seen fit to condemn Nero, what might it eventually say of our elected officials today?
Another dire prediction of the collapse of the U.S. bodes ill will for the future of the Republic. Without a common culture or sense of our past, experts continue to predict the U.S. will cease to be a unified national state in the very near future. To what extent does the lack of holding any state responsible for how well they imbue their students with civic and historical knowledge play a role in accelerating these predictions? FCSS has sponsored a bill in Congress for the last FOUR sessions—where it has languished without much national support—which would address the above possible national catastrophe. Clink here for more information on S659 and here , here or here for other predictions of our nation’s supposedly imminent collapse.
Former key legislators once before killed plans to have Florida students held accountable for understanding a common, unifying history of America's past by noting it is general practice to teach American history differently in various communities around the state. Rather than see a common state assessment as a means to provide a shared understanding of our national heritage, these adherents apparently believe it is more important to allow individual schools to celebrate unique views of America’s past. This is indeed a recipe for national disaster. Florida remains virtually the only southern state that refuses to hold its students accountable for historical and civic understanding. Noted historian David McCullough once commented that he more feared the consequence of the lack of understanding about America's past more than he feared Al Qaeda.
Is it any wonder that noted experts around the world are predicting our demise?
___________________________
By 2012 Trend forecaster, renowned for being accurate in the past, says that America will cease to be a developed nation within 4 years, crisis will be "worse than the great depression"
The man who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union is now forecasting revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellions - all within four years, while cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012.
Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is renowned for his accuracy in predicting future world and economic events, which will send a chill down your spine considering what he told Fox News this week. Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.
"We're going to see the end of the retail Christmas....we're going to see a fundamental shift take place....putting food on the table is going to be more important that putting gifts under the Christmas tree," said Celente, adding that the situation would be "worse than the great depression".
"America's going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for," said Celente, noting that people's refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.
Celente, who successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar, told UPI in November last year that the following year would be known as "The Panic of 2008," adding that "giants (would) tumble to their deaths," which is exactly what we have witnessed with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and others. He also said that the dollar would eventually be devalued by as much as 90 per cent.
The consequence of what we have seen unfold this year would lead to a lowering in living standards, Celente predicted a year ago, which is also being borne out by plummeting retail sales figures. The prospect of revolution was a concept echoed by a British Ministry of Defence report last year, which predicted that within 30 years, the growing gap between the super rich and the middle class, along with an urban underclass threatening social order would mean, "The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest," and that, "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class."
In a separate recent interview, Celente went further on the subject of revolution in America.
"There will be a revolution in this country," he said. "It’s not going to come yet, but it’s going to come down the line and we’re going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen."
"The first thing to do is organize with tax revolts. That’s going to be the big one because people can’t afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You’re going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop." "It’s going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we’re going to see many more."
"We’re going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It’s going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It’s going to come as a shock and with it, there’s going to be a lot of crime. And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people’s minds weren’t wrecked on all these modern drugs – over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be. So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody’s comprehension."
The George Washington blog has compiled a list of quotes attesting to Celente's accuracy as a trend forecaster.
"When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente."— CNN Headline News
"A network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties."— The Economist
"Gerald Celente has a knack for getting the zeitgeist right." — USA Today
"There’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about."- CNBC
"Those who take their predictions seriously ... consider the Trends Research Institute."— The Wall Street Journal
"Gerald Celente is always ahead of the curve on trends and uncannily on the mark ... he's one of the most accurate forecasters around." — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Mr. Celente tracks the world’s social, economic and business trends for corporate clients."— The New York Times
"Mr. Celente is a very intelligent guy. We are able to learn about trends from an authority."— 48 Hours, CBS News
"Gerald Celente has a solid track record. He has predicted everything from the 1987 stock market crash and the demise of the Soviet Union to green marketing and corporate downsizing."— The Detroit News
"Gerald Celente forecast the 1987 stock market crash, ‘green marketing,’ and the boom in gourmet coffees."— Chicago Tribune
"The Trends Research Institute is the Standard and Poors of Popular Culture." — The Los Angeles Times
"If Nostradamus were alive today, he'd have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente."— New York Post
So there you have it - hardly a nutjob conspiracy theorist blowhard now is he? The price of not heeding his warnings will be far greater than the cost of preparing for the future now. Storable food and gold are two good places to make a start.
Another dire prediction of the collapse of the U.S. bodes ill will for the future of the Republic. Without a common culture or sense of our past, experts continue to predict the U.S. will cease to be a unified national state in the very near future. To what extent does the lack of holding any state responsible for how well they imbue their students with civic and historical knowledge play a role in accelerating these predictions? FCSS has sponsored a bill in Congress for the last FOUR sessions—where it has languished without much national support—which would address the above possible national catastrophe. Clink here for more information on S659 and here , here or here for other predictions of our nation’s supposedly imminent collapse.
Former key legislators once before killed plans to have Florida students held accountable for understanding a common, unifying history of America's past by noting it is general practice to teach American history differently in various communities around the state. Rather than see a common state assessment as a means to provide a shared understanding of our national heritage, these adherents apparently believe it is more important to allow individual schools to celebrate unique views of America’s past. This is indeed a recipe for national disaster. Florida remains virtually the only southern state that refuses to hold its students accountable for historical and civic understanding. Noted historian David McCullough once commented that he more feared the consequence of the lack of understanding about America's past more than he feared Al Qaeda.
Is it any wonder that noted experts around the world are predicting our demise?
___________________________
By 2012 Trend forecaster, renowned for being accurate in the past, says that America will cease to be a developed nation within 4 years, crisis will be "worse than the great depression"
The man who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union is now forecasting revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellions - all within four years, while cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012.
Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is renowned for his accuracy in predicting future world and economic events, which will send a chill down your spine considering what he told Fox News this week. Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.
"We're going to see the end of the retail Christmas....we're going to see a fundamental shift take place....putting food on the table is going to be more important that putting gifts under the Christmas tree," said Celente, adding that the situation would be "worse than the great depression".
"America's going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for," said Celente, noting that people's refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.
Celente, who successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar, told UPI in November last year that the following year would be known as "The Panic of 2008," adding that "giants (would) tumble to their deaths," which is exactly what we have witnessed with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and others. He also said that the dollar would eventually be devalued by as much as 90 per cent.
The consequence of what we have seen unfold this year would lead to a lowering in living standards, Celente predicted a year ago, which is also being borne out by plummeting retail sales figures. The prospect of revolution was a concept echoed by a British Ministry of Defence report last year, which predicted that within 30 years, the growing gap between the super rich and the middle class, along with an urban underclass threatening social order would mean, "The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest," and that, "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class."
In a separate recent interview, Celente went further on the subject of revolution in America.
"There will be a revolution in this country," he said. "It’s not going to come yet, but it’s going to come down the line and we’re going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen."
"The first thing to do is organize with tax revolts. That’s going to be the big one because people can’t afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You’re going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop." "It’s going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we’re going to see many more."
"We’re going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It’s going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It’s going to come as a shock and with it, there’s going to be a lot of crime. And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people’s minds weren’t wrecked on all these modern drugs – over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be. So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody’s comprehension."
The George Washington blog has compiled a list of quotes attesting to Celente's accuracy as a trend forecaster.
"When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente."— CNN Headline News
"A network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties."— The Economist
"Gerald Celente has a knack for getting the zeitgeist right." — USA Today
"There’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about."- CNBC
"Those who take their predictions seriously ... consider the Trends Research Institute."— The Wall Street Journal
"Gerald Celente is always ahead of the curve on trends and uncannily on the mark ... he's one of the most accurate forecasters around." — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Mr. Celente tracks the world’s social, economic and business trends for corporate clients."— The New York Times
"Mr. Celente is a very intelligent guy. We are able to learn about trends from an authority."— 48 Hours, CBS News
"Gerald Celente has a solid track record. He has predicted everything from the 1987 stock market crash and the demise of the Soviet Union to green marketing and corporate downsizing."— The Detroit News
"Gerald Celente forecast the 1987 stock market crash, ‘green marketing,’ and the boom in gourmet coffees."— Chicago Tribune
"The Trends Research Institute is the Standard and Poors of Popular Culture." — The Los Angeles Times
"If Nostradamus were alive today, he'd have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente."— New York Post
So there you have it - hardly a nutjob conspiracy theorist blowhard now is he? The price of not heeding his warnings will be far greater than the cost of preparing for the future now. Storable food and gold are two good places to make a start.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Legislative Committee Meets with Commissioner Smith!
October 13, 2008
Dr. Eric Smith
Commissioner, Florida D.O.E.
Turlington Building, Suite 1514 325 West Gaines Street Tallahassee, Florida 32399
Dear Dr. Smith,
Please allow me to express personal thanks to you on behalf of Florida’s social studies teachers for taking the time to recently meet and discuss with us ways to ensure the best education possible for our students. We are encouraged to hear that the Department plans to send an appropriate person to our upcoming state conference later this month and that you will move to fill the now vacant position of Social Studies Specialist within the Department. We also applaud your desire for the Department to move forward with plans for several end-of-course social studies assessments at the high school level. With regard to this, we additionally encourage you to formally submit to the consortium of states that are working to develop such assessments Florida’s desire that these become an urgent priority. They are especially needed in light of the fact that Florida and many other states have never been able to determine to what extent school districts fulfill their vitally important civic mission. Additionally, we welcome your desire to see increased use of non-fiction readings in the social sciences be developed and used by the Department for Reading purposes or for FCAT preparation and assessment. We agree that it is vital that children be equipped with the necessary background knowledge that comes from their exposure to the social studies curriculum and which so often leads to increased reading achievement.
The subject of the Next Generation social studies standards will soon be taken up by our Board at our upcoming annual meeting. We look forward to discussing this with our members and promise to continue to work with you on the implementation of quality standards for Florida’s children.
Sincerely,
Jason Caros
President, Florida Association of Social Studies Supervisors
Vice-President Elect, Florida Council for the Social Studies
Dr. Eric Smith
Commissioner, Florida D.O.E.
Turlington Building, Suite 1514 325 West Gaines Street Tallahassee, Florida 32399
Dear Dr. Smith,
Please allow me to express personal thanks to you on behalf of Florida’s social studies teachers for taking the time to recently meet and discuss with us ways to ensure the best education possible for our students. We are encouraged to hear that the Department plans to send an appropriate person to our upcoming state conference later this month and that you will move to fill the now vacant position of Social Studies Specialist within the Department. We also applaud your desire for the Department to move forward with plans for several end-of-course social studies assessments at the high school level. With regard to this, we additionally encourage you to formally submit to the consortium of states that are working to develop such assessments Florida’s desire that these become an urgent priority. They are especially needed in light of the fact that Florida and many other states have never been able to determine to what extent school districts fulfill their vitally important civic mission. Additionally, we welcome your desire to see increased use of non-fiction readings in the social sciences be developed and used by the Department for Reading purposes or for FCAT preparation and assessment. We agree that it is vital that children be equipped with the necessary background knowledge that comes from their exposure to the social studies curriculum and which so often leads to increased reading achievement.
The subject of the Next Generation social studies standards will soon be taken up by our Board at our upcoming annual meeting. We look forward to discussing this with our members and promise to continue to work with you on the implementation of quality standards for Florida’s children.
Sincerely,
Jason Caros
President, Florida Association of Social Studies Supervisors
Vice-President Elect, Florida Council for the Social Studies
Legislative Committee Meets with Chancellor Haithcock!
October 3, 2008
Dr. Frances Haithcock
Chancellor, Florida D.O.E.
Turlington Building, Suite 514 325 West Gaines Street Tallahassee, Florida 32399
Dear Dr. Haithcock,
Please allow me to express personal thanks to you on behalf of Florida’s social studies teachers for taking the time to recently meet and discuss with us ways to ensure the best education possible for our students. We are encouraged to hear that the Department plans to send an appropriate person to our upcoming state conference later this month and that you will move to fill the now vacant position of Social Studies Specialist within the Department. We also applaud your desire for the Department to move forward with plans for several end-of-course social studies assessments at the high school level. With regard to this, we additionally encourage you to formally submit to the consortium of states that are working to develop such assessments Florida’s desire that these become an urgent priority. They are especially needed in light of the fact that Florida and many other states have never been able to determine to what extent school districts fulfill their vitally important civic mission. Additionally, we welcome your desire to see increased use of non-fiction readings in the social sciences be developed and used by the Department for Reading purposes or for FCAT preparation and assessment. We agree that it is vital that children be equipped with the necessary background knowledge that comes from their exposure to the social studies curriculum and which so often leads to increased reading achievement.
The subject of the Next Generation social studies standards will soon be taken up by our Board at our upcoming annual meeting. We look forward to discussing this with our members and promise to continue to work with you on the implementation of quality standards for Florida’s children.
Sincerely,
Jason Caros
President, Florida Association of Social Studies Supervisors
Vice President Elect, Florida Council for the Social Studies
Dr. Frances Haithcock
Chancellor, Florida D.O.E.
Turlington Building, Suite 514 325 West Gaines Street Tallahassee, Florida 32399
Dear Dr. Haithcock,
Please allow me to express personal thanks to you on behalf of Florida’s social studies teachers for taking the time to recently meet and discuss with us ways to ensure the best education possible for our students. We are encouraged to hear that the Department plans to send an appropriate person to our upcoming state conference later this month and that you will move to fill the now vacant position of Social Studies Specialist within the Department. We also applaud your desire for the Department to move forward with plans for several end-of-course social studies assessments at the high school level. With regard to this, we additionally encourage you to formally submit to the consortium of states that are working to develop such assessments Florida’s desire that these become an urgent priority. They are especially needed in light of the fact that Florida and many other states have never been able to determine to what extent school districts fulfill their vitally important civic mission. Additionally, we welcome your desire to see increased use of non-fiction readings in the social sciences be developed and used by the Department for Reading purposes or for FCAT preparation and assessment. We agree that it is vital that children be equipped with the necessary background knowledge that comes from their exposure to the social studies curriculum and which so often leads to increased reading achievement.
The subject of the Next Generation social studies standards will soon be taken up by our Board at our upcoming annual meeting. We look forward to discussing this with our members and promise to continue to work with you on the implementation of quality standards for Florida’s children.
Sincerely,
Jason Caros
President, Florida Association of Social Studies Supervisors
Vice President Elect, Florida Council for the Social Studies
Friday, May 2, 2008
The Campaign that Wasn't Put Into Play - Part II
Legislative Committee members should often send short 'guest' editorials to local newspapers in the area for the purpose of educating citizens about the need to strengthen our social studies curriculum. Here's a typical one that could also provide readers with links to documents on the FASSS-FCSS Advocacy Website.
Florida’s Sad State of Civic Education – part II
Florida is meticulous about collecting data. We know with scientific accuracy the number of students in each school who understand the desired algebraic concepts for their grade. Thanks to a very intrusive survey amongst 70,000 teens each year, we know the percent of 14 year olds who have been offered illegal drugs, what number of them smoke and how many took a swig of beer in the last month and even week. We could pave our highways with the math and reading statistics we keep on our children. We will soon know with scientific accuracy the percent that correctly can differentiate between a comma and a semi-colon and those who can correctly use a plural possessive apostrophe. We have no idea how many can identify basic tenets of our form of government or understand the underlying principles of our economic system. What little we DO know isn’t very pretty. Some years ago the James Madison Institute in Tallahassee commissioned a study amongst seniors at the University of Florida and Florida State to compare their knowledge of U.S. History and Government with that of their peers across the nation. Students at 50 other prestigious colleges across America failed a simple test designed for assessing high school students’ knowledge on these subjects. Not surprisingly, students at our two state flagship universities did even worse. Amazingly, elite bureaucrats in the Florida Department of Education and legislature have been sabotaging efforts by civic educators to correct the problem. What’s at stake here? Only the future of the state and nation! Franklin cautioned that Americans could maintain the Republic only through an informed citizenry. There is a ton of evidence that Florida’s leaders have failed their civic responsibilities. It’s time to change this travesty. if you'd like more information, go to http://fasss-fcss-legislative-news.blogspot.com/ . If you wish to help, call Jack Bovee at 369-1397.
Word Count 299
Florida’s Sad State of Civic Education – part II
Florida is meticulous about collecting data. We know with scientific accuracy the number of students in each school who understand the desired algebraic concepts for their grade. Thanks to a very intrusive survey amongst 70,000 teens each year, we know the percent of 14 year olds who have been offered illegal drugs, what number of them smoke and how many took a swig of beer in the last month and even week. We could pave our highways with the math and reading statistics we keep on our children. We will soon know with scientific accuracy the percent that correctly can differentiate between a comma and a semi-colon and those who can correctly use a plural possessive apostrophe. We have no idea how many can identify basic tenets of our form of government or understand the underlying principles of our economic system. What little we DO know isn’t very pretty. Some years ago the James Madison Institute in Tallahassee commissioned a study amongst seniors at the University of Florida and Florida State to compare their knowledge of U.S. History and Government with that of their peers across the nation. Students at 50 other prestigious colleges across America failed a simple test designed for assessing high school students’ knowledge on these subjects. Not surprisingly, students at our two state flagship universities did even worse. Amazingly, elite bureaucrats in the Florida Department of Education and legislature have been sabotaging efforts by civic educators to correct the problem. What’s at stake here? Only the future of the state and nation! Franklin cautioned that Americans could maintain the Republic only through an informed citizenry. There is a ton of evidence that Florida’s leaders have failed their civic responsibilities. It’s time to change this travesty. if you'd like more information, go to http://fasss-fcss-legislative-news.blogspot.com/ . If you wish to help, call Jack Bovee at 369-1397.
Word Count 299
Monday, November 20, 2006
FASSS STUDENT 'Celebrate Freedom Week'
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - November 2006
In September 2006, the Florida Association of Social Studies Supervisors piloted a student poll to obtain information about students' knowledge and attitudes toward civic and historical understanding within the state of Florida. Despite intense lobbying for almost 30 years to be added to statewide assessment programs, Florida citizens still have no idea how well school districts are fulfilling their civic mission. The results of the draft survey of high school students included responses from 749 high school students. Teachers were to explain to students the need to be honest in light of the total darkness in which the state operates regarding civic knowledge among our youth. Some attitudinal questions were deliberately included because it was thought this might be revealing as opposed to the typical headline getting "Kids Can Identify the Long Dead 3 Stooges Better than Our 3 Branches of Government" material that other national surveys have resorted to. For this reason and to help eliminate 'guessing', the survey also included "I Don't Know" as an option for many of the questions. Moreover, in order to gauge the extent to which students might have been making light of the survey, two open-ended questions were utilized to which students could respond with any comment. These techniques helped to ensure that almost all students took the poll seriously.
The demographics of the Sample are not too far out of line with Florida's demographics at the high school level. Several indicators among the data give the impression that these were above average students. A summary of the results revealed that
• Whereas approximately 45% of the high school respondents said they themselves were knowledgeable and interested in history and politics only about 12% felt their peers were. (This may lead us to assume mostly academically rigorous or 'Honors' classes took the survey.)
• Less than half the students knew Condoleeza Rice was Secretary of State, despite her almost daily being in the news last fall before the national election.
• Only 16% of the students knew the U.S. House has 435 members.
• Only one-fifth knew the term of office for U.S. Senators.
• Only one-fourth could identify 'Roe vs Wade'.
• Less than one-fourth could identify the purpose of the Electoral College.
• Only about one in ten could identify the source of the phrase, "Government of the People, by the People, for the People".
• Almost one half thought Lincoln is best remembered for "promising as a Presidential Candidate to eliminate slavery." ( Less than 14% selected that he had "preserved the union" - the only true statement among those given.)
• Only about one-fourth knew FDR was President during WWII - about the same who thought T.R. was the correct response.
• Almost four fifths thought the philosophy "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" came from a sacred American document such as the Bill of Rights, the Mayflower Compact or the Declaration of Independence.
• Less than one-fourth could correctly identify the Emancipation Proclamation.
• Only one-fourth knew the correct quarter-century when the Civil War took place.
• Only 17 of 747 (2%) students could name BOTH of Florida's two U.S. Senators. (This was only days before Senator Bill Nelson stood for reelection.)
• Only 9 of 749 (1%) students could name, in any way, two U.S. Supreme Court Justices.
FASSS urges accountability for the civic mission of Florida's Public Schools!
(For more information contact Jack Bovee at boveeja@collier.k12.fl.us )
In September 2006, the Florida Association of Social Studies Supervisors piloted a student poll to obtain information about students' knowledge and attitudes toward civic and historical understanding within the state of Florida. Despite intense lobbying for almost 30 years to be added to statewide assessment programs, Florida citizens still have no idea how well school districts are fulfilling their civic mission. The results of the draft survey of high school students included responses from 749 high school students. Teachers were to explain to students the need to be honest in light of the total darkness in which the state operates regarding civic knowledge among our youth. Some attitudinal questions were deliberately included because it was thought this might be revealing as opposed to the typical headline getting "Kids Can Identify the Long Dead 3 Stooges Better than Our 3 Branches of Government" material that other national surveys have resorted to. For this reason and to help eliminate 'guessing', the survey also included "I Don't Know" as an option for many of the questions. Moreover, in order to gauge the extent to which students might have been making light of the survey, two open-ended questions were utilized to which students could respond with any comment. These techniques helped to ensure that almost all students took the poll seriously.
The demographics of the Sample are not too far out of line with Florida's demographics at the high school level. Several indicators among the data give the impression that these were above average students. A summary of the results revealed that
• Whereas approximately 45% of the high school respondents said they themselves were knowledgeable and interested in history and politics only about 12% felt their peers were. (This may lead us to assume mostly academically rigorous or 'Honors' classes took the survey.)
• Less than half the students knew Condoleeza Rice was Secretary of State, despite her almost daily being in the news last fall before the national election.
• Only 16% of the students knew the U.S. House has 435 members.
• Only one-fifth knew the term of office for U.S. Senators.
• Only one-fourth could identify 'Roe vs Wade'.
• Less than one-fourth could identify the purpose of the Electoral College.
• Only about one in ten could identify the source of the phrase, "Government of the People, by the People, for the People".
• Almost one half thought Lincoln is best remembered for "promising as a Presidential Candidate to eliminate slavery." ( Less than 14% selected that he had "preserved the union" - the only true statement among those given.)
• Only about one-fourth knew FDR was President during WWII - about the same who thought T.R. was the correct response.
• Almost four fifths thought the philosophy "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" came from a sacred American document such as the Bill of Rights, the Mayflower Compact or the Declaration of Independence.
• Less than one-fourth could correctly identify the Emancipation Proclamation.
• Only one-fourth knew the correct quarter-century when the Civil War took place.
• Only 17 of 747 (2%) students could name BOTH of Florida's two U.S. Senators. (This was only days before Senator Bill Nelson stood for reelection.)
• Only 9 of 749 (1%) students could name, in any way, two U.S. Supreme Court Justices.
FASSS urges accountability for the civic mission of Florida's Public Schools!
(For more information contact Jack Bovee at boveeja@collier.k12.fl.us )
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
FCSS Members Support Testing!
FCSS members at the 2001 State Conference in Tampa were asked whether they supported testing in our area. Overwhelmingly the survey results showed that they did. A copy of the survey, conducted by the FCSS Legislative Committee is shown below.
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