Showing posts with label AP US History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AP US History. Show all posts

ALEC wants our Schools


I discovered a copy of ALEC's Report Card book v18

The general academic feeling is the report card fails.  I think they missed the point of the publication. That happens when you are an academic and still believe order and reason are viable goals.

It is fitting that ALEC begins the v17 version with this paragraph:
In World War II, Great Britain suffered a series of crushing defeats. From the conquest of her continental allies and an ignominious evacuation at Dunkirk to the loss of Singapore in the east, Great Britain was under attack. Germany stood as a colossus with its boot on the throat of Europe. Under the assumption there was no way to win, “realistic” members of the British aristocracy advised reaching an accommodation with Germany. Winston Churchill refused to surrender while the Royal Air Force successfully fought off the German Luftwaffe over the skies of England, deterring a German invasion.
Yeah, WWII, the days of Hitler and the Big Lie. Perfect.
"All this was inspired by the principle—which is quite true within itself—that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying."
—Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X[1]
All too true. It never occurs to us regular folk that someone would actually -- and on purpose -- tell moutain size lies which fabricate whole political systems. Not only tell them. but then go to the trouble of making several web sites and then writing a full book on the subject. It boggles the mind.

And then we see what Larry Krieger did last year with AP History. The whole thing was a swindle -- so he could get his book business back. Not a single thing he said had an ounce of truth to it, except when he would admit that there was nothing wrong with the AP History course.

As I went through the pages of this ALEC "report card", I found myself making little notes in the margins about the Aggressive Persuasion tactics that were both being described, and being used by the manual. It is a marvelous example of how to acquire people to spread your propaganda, and train them at the same time. It is poetry in motion to be honest.

ALEC has an Education Task Force. They have nine of these "task forces" that are staffed with Think Tanks, such as the American Principles Project, and the Heartland Institute (both highly recommended propaganda outfits by the way. The cigarette companies give them great reviews) who hire people like James Milgram, Sandra Stotsky and Jane Robbins. You'll recall the three of them from the Math Wars days and also how the created the turmoil around Larry Krieger's  AP History swindle last year. They didn't really care about Larry, or the AP. They were after David Coleman, the main guy with Common Core. ALEC doesn't like Common Core. It stands in the way of taking apart the Education System and then making a profit off the parents.

The Review of 2013's Version had this to say:
The 18th edition of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Report Card on American Education: Ranking State K-12 Performance, Progress, and Reform draws on ratings from market-oriented advocacy groups to grade states in areas such as support for charter schools, availability of vouchers, and permissiveness for homeschooling. The authors contend that these grades are based on “high quality” research demonstrating that the policies for which they award high grades will improve education for all students. This review finds that, contrary to these claims, ALEC’s grades draw selectively from these advocacy groups to make claims that are not supported in the wider, peer-reviewed literature. In fact, the research ALEC highlights is quite shoddy and is unsuitable for supporting its recommendations. The authors’ claims of “a growing body of research” lacks citations; their grading system contradicts the testing data that they report; and their data on alternative teacher research is simply wrong. Overall, ALEC’s Report Card is grounded less in research than in ideological tenets, as reflected in the high grades it assigns to states with unproven and even disproven market-based policies. The report’s purpose appears to be more about shifting control of education to private interests than in improving education.
Sigh. Of course it is moving control over to the private interests. There is money to be made there, and we got to get rid of Common Core as well. A system that will give any lame, poor, backwater school system better educational materials than private schools can afford has to go.

Also, the teachers have to actually be teachers if the CCSS is in place and ALEC wants anyone "who feels the calling" to be able to be a teacher -- at minimum wage -- with no union of course.

I've been looking for versions 19 and 20. The propaganda resources alone are worth any purchase price. This is a whole National level disinformation and confusion campaign -- all planned and explained for you. I have some good tactics myself but ... I guess when you have a team of "think tanks" and a million to put into the effort, you can get more done.




School Board HiJacks AP - Forces Student to Christian CCU

UPDATE: Nov 05 2014 -- This is a dead issue and nothing reported to me about it seems to be true. All letters back to me have verified that this simply is not happening.  I'm leaving the post up, but be advised that this was not, is not and never was a true issue. 


UPDATE: OCT 21 2014 -- Wrote an email to Jame Flanigan the  AP U.S. History/ U.S. Government/Ancient Civilizations/U.S. History at Mountain Vista High School - who says that this is not true at his high school, but he can't speak for others. I rechecked the postings I found and they are still active. - hunt continues, still no verification.




UPDATE: I have been unable to verify  this alteration to the Douglas County HS offerings. Until I can I'm not going to be moving forward on this: The AP History classes at the HS locations are still showing on the web sites, with teachers assigned to them There is nothing in the Board minutes about the AP US History being dropped .Nothing regarding the course at all as a matter of fact. I hae emails out to teachers and students to see if I can get some type of verification.


Why Is This So Hard To Understand? AP US History

From The AP US History Webpage 

-- READ ME -- 

First Lines of Content


The AP® Program unequivocally supports the principle that each individual school must develop its own curriculum for courses labeled “AP.” Rather than mandating any one curriculum for AP courses, the AP Course Audit instead provides each AP teacher with a set of expectations that college and secondary school faculty nationwide have established for college-level courses.

AP teachers are encouraged to develop or maintain their own curriculum that either includes or exceeds each of these expectations; such courses will be authorized to use the “AP” designation. Credit for the success of AP courses belongs to the individual schools and teachers that create powerful, locally designed AP curricula.

The AP U.S. History course should be designed by your school to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of an introductory college course sequence in United States history. Your course should provide students with the analytic skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the topics and materials in U.S. history.

There are no specific curricular prerequisites for students taking AP U.S. History.

All students who are willing and academically prepared to accept the challenge of a rigorous academic curriculum should be considered for admission to AP courses. The College Board encourages the elimination of barriers that restrict access to AP courses for students from ethnic, racial and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the AP Program. Schools should make every effort to ensure that their AP classes reflect the diversity of their student population.

High schools offering this exam must provide the exam administration resources described in the AP Coordinator’s Manual.

http://www.collegeboard.com/html/apcourseaudit/courses/us_history.html


So I have to ask -- exactly what is the District Board and Williams going to Investigate?  THERE ARE NO LESSONS TO APPROVE OF!  Schools/Teachers using the Manual, following the EXAMPLES create their own lessons, and tests for their students. 

Julie Williams started this mess with the Kids, solely on the baisis of what she read about the AP USHistory posted by extremists on the Internet. She didn't check her facts. She didn't care about the Kids, her Schools, she only cared about her agenda. So, she incited a walk-out over nothing.  Please... Do something about this. 

The New York Times -- The New History


Board Violations -- Of the Repeated Type






Trevor Packer -- Very Effective, Completely Ignored by Krieger

Tevor Paker VP College Board
The following is a document sent to an official at the Georgia Department of Education forwarded, as written by Trevor Packer, a vice president at College Board. 
Trevor Packer – April 9, 2014
This document is in answer to a piece written by Larry Krieger and Jane Robbins and published on the propaganda machine Heartland.org. New Advanced Placement Framework Distorts America’s History but this document pops up all over the web at different Ultra-Right propaganda/hate-pages across the internet. These websites should not be confused with actual Republican party websites, or even Republican News websites. They are all twisted distant sisters which propagate false controversies and erroneous information. Most of these can be traced in funding to the Koch network.

So.. lets begin the rebuttal from Trevor Packer.


Nebraska -- Close but Safe

Yesterday the President and Vice President of the Nebraska Department of Education announced that the Policy Committee had suggested Boycotting the AP program from the College Board, based on doubts about the AP US History curriculum. 

Last night I read this, did some research, and composed a letter to them regarding the mistake this would be. You can read that letter here: Letter to Nebraska Department of Education

Today, a meeting was called of the NDE and after some discussion a vote of 7-0 sent the matter back to the Policy Committee for further research.

You can read the story here:Nebraska Board of Ed to further study AP U.S. history framework  It doesn't mention me or the email, which is fine, in fact great. It doesn't matter why they chose not to go that route, only that they did. The AP program is much too important to students to be lost like this.

I will say that Rachel Wise, President - District 3,  is a really cool customer. Nebraska is lucky to have her in that position. In one of the articles I read, which gave quite a bit of Hype and Rage toward dropping the AP program, Wise wasn't losing her cool...

The Republican wants a complete rewrite of the course, which is taken by nearly 450,000 U.S. students each year. 
Board President Rachel Wise of Oakland declined to say whether she would support the resolution. 
Wise said weighing in would be “a little premature” because the resolution could be amended before reaching the full board.
Like I said, cool customer. I believe that if Larry Krieger's smoke and mirrors got past her, it wouldn't have taken long for her to catch back up.

Anyway, that made my day and I'm seriously happy that Nebraska has backed down and no one is going to pay for this fraud that Larry Krieger has been perpetuating... now... about Larry & friends...




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