Matthews too, has not been mentioning Common Core and here demonstrates he has no idea what it is as Ted Cruz referred to it just two weeks ago.
JOY REID, PRESENT: In uncommon reporting on Common Core for the network, Reid highlighted 30,000 cases of parents opting their kids out of standardized tests in protest, complaints about botched implementation of Common Core, wide dissatisfaction and a primer on the difference between No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top. Kudos for a fair treatment presenting the issue.
NBC, THE OFFICIAL NETWORK OF COMMON CORE: It's ugly. MSNBC's parent company NBC is all up in the Common Core. Their "Common Core Teacher Institute" is a web page hosting a slew of Common Core video testimonials and speeches. Many don't know NBC had special access to NYC public school teachers this school year after the DOE allowed them to offer up their "NBC Learn" content through the city's official email system.
COMCAST, CORPORATE SHILL: Yeesh. Comcast also produces and distributes original pro-Common Core content, this video for example proclaiming Common Core a success in Birmingham, or this video questioning a critical Republican official in PA.
We see how MSNBC hosts differ on air, but we will never see the back-room wrangling over what will get covered, how guests are chosen, or learn whether layers of bosses direct the dialogue. MSNBC is slow to cover a diverse national pushback happening now, passing on stories that haven't yet been told widely.
For example, no major media has reported how Common Core was accepted before being written or seen, when states needed budget "bailouts" during the worst of the 2008-2009 Wall Street implosion. Obama's stimulus money was the "carrot", coercing states to commit without consent of legislatures, school boards, parents, or education experts. The "stick" was the threat of withheld NCLB waivers, which every state needs because nobody could possibly meet the mandate of 100% of students making annual yearly progress towards proficiency.
Wholly whitewashed in media as well is how "accountability" now applies to tests scores, including those taken outside of a teacher's subject area. Even if you believed test scores accurately reflect teacher proficiency in the first place, most teachers are now beholden to student scores on Math and English tests, even if they teach Music, Art, Technology, Dance, a foreign language, gym or anything else. This is an obvious waste of money and resources, diverted out of schools to Pearson, but sadly is now an integral part of the Common Core implementation in NY and elsewhere.
State Legislators Copy ALEC's Homework
The idea of linking test scores to teacher measurement is prominent in model legislation offered by ALEC, such as their "Great Teachers and Leaders Act". But ALEC's hopes to corporatize education dollars also resulted in draft bills pushing vouchers, merit pay, virtual learning, parent triggers, home schooling, anti-tenure and most famously seen in Wisconsin, anti-collective bargaining policies.
New Jersey adopted tenure, evaluation and charter school policies that mirrored ALEC bills during Chris Christie's reform crusade. Other states who have already used ALEC bills in whole or part include TN, AZ, IN, LA, OK, GA with pending education legislation in almost every state, a total of 139 bills just for 2013.
Concerned parents and taxpayers should be wary of corporate news, even if they have a few good journalists. For the sharpest advocacy, look to Diane Ravitch's blog, and for informative reporting, read Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post. Her column The Answer Sheet regularly features Carol Burris, a high school principal from Long Island who has done more for taxpayer transparency and understanding standardized testing in her spare time than Arne Duncan and the entire US Department of Education with it's $54 million annual budget.
Update: Chris Hayes snuck in not one but two segments about Common Core late last week. First, he hosted AFT President Randi Weingarten who approves of the standards but wants them divorced from testing and "high stakes". Hayes seemingly agreed that the Common Core cannot improve things unless in-classroom supports become part of it (they are not). Hayes also said that corporate contracting has mushroomed out of control.
But the following night, Hayes hosted two pro-Common Core state senators in Georgia, sold on the idea that new standards are going to be the fix. Hayes asked a question about growing protest and exploding privatization -- which was immediately ignored. The guests refused to acknowledge grassroots criticism from the left.
Georgians panned the choice of guests on Twitter, outing them as notorious "Conservadems", one of whom was running for schools superintendent on a privatization platform, but Hayes answered back, tweeting:
"Christopher Hayes: I actually did know all that. We had 5 min total for that segment."
Which begs the question, if the guests were only going to support the Common Core yet avoid tough questions, who wanted them on the air? Hayes recently tweeted about Common Core:
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