Two Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools administrators have been included on the final 11-person team that will review what North Carolina will do with Common Core standards, the state said Tuesday.
The state legislature set up the Academic Standards Review Commission as a sort of compromise on what to do with the controversial standards. Plenty of legislators wanted to do away with the Common Core, and the N.C. House passed a bill that would not let any of the current standards be considered. The final outcome is a group that will study the standards and come up with a recommendation for a rewrite.
The final list of who's to serve was just released this week. From CMS: Deputy superintendent Ann Clark and Project LIFT zone supervisor Denise Watts.
Their appointments at least indicates that the outcome of the commission might not be predetermined. Superintendent Heath Morrison and other administrators in CMS have been on the record about supporting the Common Core standards.
A few other members have been upfront with their opposition to the standards. Retired math professor John Scheik, for example, told N.C. Policy Watch that he thinks they include "ludicrous" methods of teaching.
The group will meet for the first time Monday up in Raleigh. Here's the full list of appointments, courtesy of the N.C. Department of Administration. I've added in parentheses a brief description of how they ended up on the list.
House Appointments
Tammy Covil, New Hanover (New Hanover County school board member)
Dr. Jeffrey Isenhour, Catawba (principal of Bunker Hill High School in Claremont)
Katie Lemons, Stokes (South Stokes High School teacher)
Denise Watts, Mecklenburg
Senate Appointments
Ann B. Clark, Iredell
Dr. Laurie McCollum, Rockingham (assistant principal, Western Rockingham Middle)
Jeannie A. Metcalf, Forsyth (Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board member)
Dr. John T. Scheik, Wake (retired UNC math professor)
State Board of Education Members
Chairman William “Bill” Cobey, Durham
Dr. Olivia Oxendine, Robeson
Gubernatorial Appointment
Andre Peek, Wake (IBM executive and leader of the N.C. Business Committee for Education)
Posts
27 comments:
Same merry go round.
Watts and Clark
Nothing New Here.
Keep Moving Down not Up
One teacher and a group of appointees to oversee CC.
Such qualifications! At least CMS is providing micromanagement and a model of teacher turnover for others to simulate.
Same inept leadership that has taken the students in our state and nation out of the top 25 in the WORLD.
Great Progressive Leadership
Keep throwing another TRILLION dollars into these programs and we may even fall out of the Top 50
I wonder why I hear about school incidents from other school parents and not ever from our school administration AK. This happened all last year also.
Didn't Watts and Clark discover the route West to the Pacific?...
Oh snap. What was I thinking?
They discovered the route to West Charlotte...
You can't make this stuff up.
ONLY current teachers should be on the State commission on Common core.
Andrew,
Does Ann Clark represent the good folks of Iredell County now as superintendent, homeowner, or part-time consultant?
I believe she lives in Mooresville and that's why she's listed that way.
How do you create a committee to develop teaching and content standards with one classroom teacher and one additional content expert. It is bad enough that they included so many administrators but what exactly are school board members expected to contribute.
The make up of this group sums up the problem with contemporary education. Decisions are being made by education careerist instead of classroom teachers. The true experts are the ones who interact with students and parents on a daily basis.
Clark must be working from home, telecommuting. Because she is darn sure not driving down 77 and getting there before the bell rings, even the last bell.i
This is very disappointing to see only one teacher in this group, the others on this board don't even know what the inside of a classroom looks like. No common sense used in analyzing common core, go figure.
it's a real shame only one teacher was included on this board, kind of says it all, doesn't it.
So teachers, are you finally going to voice your opinions about this issue? You continually let school administration make nonsensical decisions in your schools and on your behalf. You are the experts, not the administrators. Just more crazy in the "state" of education in this State.
Anon 7:45AM
Are you going to confront your bosss and their boss about the poor decisions they make. Most teachers are not willing to take that bold stand due to a culture of retribution.
If you are deemed to "opinionated" by your Principal the following steps will most likely take place.
1. Next year you lose your clasroom and become a floater.
2. Your observations suffer
3. Next year you will end up teaching all remedial classes.
Ann Clark is probably using her CMS provided iPad to telecommute.
Why expect any different???
Our school's administrator wanders the halls fixated on their iPad...while paying too little attention to what is happening in his school's classrooms..
9:38am Agree 100%! What are we doing to our kids? Students do not benefit from the use of computer devices before the age of 13.
Elementary aged children are too young to be using powerful tech devices. Do you let your child use a steak knife? Probably not, but you hand them an Ipad for hours at a time? Our schools are not helping the situation by requiring young children to buy/bring ipads and iphones to school to "learn". It not only physically alters their brain and learning, it alters their social behavior, physical activity and exposes them to age-inappropriate content. And it certainly does not give them a "competitive" advantage for a future job, if anything it turns them into lazy learners.
Most parents know this, these tech devices become the activity of choice for kids. Kids are no longer able to be kids, and don't have the self regulation or self control tools to handle an I-phone or the like. Do you know that most children nowadays have viewed graphic porn by the time they are in the 4th grade?
Use these devices in high school for learning when the teenage student is better equipped to handle such devices, and they are actually preparing for the workforce and college.
Just look at the increase in childhood obesity, ADHD, behavioral issues and social anxiety. These are all exacerbated by the overuse of technology in young children.
There are so many benefits to your children (and adults) by cutting down on the use of technology.
9:18am Not necessarily, according to this Week's Washington Post, a Florida kindergarten teacher challenged her school district publicly (on Facebook) telling her parents she refused to administer the state required reading test (FAIR) and she was willing to risk her job on behalf of standing up for what is right for the students. She did not lose her job, and the school district has changed their testing policy. Wish we had a little more of that within CMS.
High Tech Refugee says:
All of you who are against technology in the elementary classroom are missing the point here!!!
CMS has way too many children in the South Charlotte classrooms and too few experienced teachers to teach them.
CMS is stealing a page out of the high tech buzzword book and leveraging technology" in an effort to manage the over-sized class sizes....as best they can.
CMS is really left without any choice, since the inner city schools consume so much of the CMS budget, and there just isn't enough left over for the rest of the children CMS must "manage"... I mean teach.
High Tech Refugee - I don't think the comments are anti-technology but more when is it appropriate to have our kids use so much technology? The schools keep pushing it more and more. Like you said, maybe to manage the larger class sizes. It takes a lot of the teaching "burden" or time away from the teacher. That is where education is heading, your kids being taught by computers and not humans.
$2.3 MILLION to CPCC for remedial classes is a HUGE statement to the lack of preparation of former CMS students.
The entire $55 MILLION for Project Lift should go into the CPCC remedial program. Charlotte would achieve better MEASURABLE results that are accurate and not the skewed dribble coming from Watts and the rest all these years.
If Levine Foundation would provide a fund for current employees called
"CMS WHISTLEBLOWER"
With $500,000 you would have the roof blown off the Ivory Tower and the best money ever spent on education in this city. The $150 per teacher over at Olympic will never provide change.
CMS teachers using online lessons and assessments don't even have to grade papers anymore.
Teacher raises? What am I missing?
technology can often overshadow more important pursuits, like learning.
I am a retired school teacher. I struggle with the fact that teachers today rely too much on technology in the classroom. Our students are becoming "lopsided" in their education.
There is no replacement for a book. I would say from my experience that comprehension is greater with a book, because a book stimulates more senses than a screen can ever do, building deeper memory banks and retention and comprehension in the brain.
Anon 8:35,
CMS teachers using online lessons and assessments don't even have to grade papers anymore.
It gets even better than that. They are no longer expected to assign grades either - mastery of the subject material, or not ONLY!!
And Dr. Morrison has a vision of all CMS schools moving to the "Personalized Learning" model....
You can't make this stuff up!!
I'm a CMS teacher and I'm thrilled that Ann is part of this team. She is a champion for students and a gifted leader, and certainly qualified. Although many administrators in CMS are inept, she is certainly not one of them.
Looks like Heath Morrison is already implementing Soros' pet Common Core. Suspensions for blacks and hispanics (many illegals) are being eliminated while turning failures into passes has become the norm. In the meantime, these same 'students' are being indoctrinated with the 'White Man Owes You' garbage.
Post a Comment