In a nutshell this publication is a directive on how to manipulate Teachers, parents, administrators and even legislators to buy into the CCSS!
On pg. 48 in the publication Implementing Common Core State Standards and Assessments: A Workbook for State and District Leaders it states: In essence communications efforts help widen the circles of leadership beyond your department so that the transition to the CCSS has the support it needs. Build a Base of support by establishing the “guiding coalition”Flagging public support can push implementation off the rails. Pressure to water down student expectations may build, for example, once new assessment results show that students are not as prepared as once believed. Inevitably, state and district leaders need help in keeping rigorous expectations for students at the heart of their agenda. Though the strategic implementation team plays a key role in supporting this agenda, a small group of highly visible and credible leaders are needed to sustain effort in the face of pushback. The role of this “guiding coalition” is to remove bureaucratic barriers to change, exert influence at key moments to support implementation and offer counsel to the strategic implementation team. The guiding coalition might include a head of a university, key businessperson, state legislator, leader of a professional content association, teachers union leader or vocal parent.
This publication was put out by Achieve and The Education Delivery Institute (EDI) Which was founded by Pearson's Sir Michael Barber and funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation http://www.deliveryinstitute.org/our-history
Well, I can't say this sort of thing comes as a surprise. And were what they are shilling actually worthwhile, I might empathize with the effort, even though the likely manipulative tactics employed always strike me as creepy to the nth degree.
ReplyDeleteOf course, any sort of major (or, often, minor) change in a school or district may draw a lot of questions, objections, resistance, or even rebellion from teachers, students, parents, or other stakeholders. If you insist upon top-down reform (or deform), whether it comes from just the local administration, from outside consultants hired by that administration, or, as with CCSSI, a multi-billion dollar conspiracy (yes, I use that word advisedly) of Gates, Pearson, and the other profiteers and privatizers, what else should the 'reformers" expect? What they hope for, of course, is passivity, inertia, acceptance, rolling over, fear, and going along to get along (teachers prefer not to get fired, or so I hear). With union leadership obviously bought off by the $$, teachers are terrified and isolated. Parents are outraged, but only in the last few months has there seemed to be real traction for anti-Common Core efforts.
I do want to say that it would have been possible, though difficult, to do this whole thing another way: from the bottom up. That the brain trust never seriously considers doing that is very, very telling.