There is video of a speech that David Coleman gave at 2011 Institute for Learning Senior Leadership Meeting that is now making the rounds on Facebook. First we see a *ringing* endorsement of Coleman given by Lauren Resnick (who is the co-director of the Institute of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh) as she introduced him. She said:
Okay, so this is the kind of person we are going to be privileged to hear tonight. He has been involved in virtually every step of setting the national standards, and he doesn’t have a single credential for it. He’s never taught in an elementary school – I think. You know, I actually don‟t know. He’s never edited a scholarly journal, but I think he has written scholarly papers. And a variety of other things that have – you know, everybody here has done some of, he hasn’t done.
Then a stunning admission from David Coleman himself discussing his organization Student Achievement Partners whose founders (Coleman, Susan Pimentel and Jason Zimba) were leader writers of the Common Core State Standards.
One is we’re composed of that collection of unqualified people who were involved in developing the common standards. And our only qualification was our attention to and command of the evidence behind them. That is, it was our insistence in the standards process that it was not enough to say you wanted to or thought that kids should know these things, that you had to have evidence to support it, frankly because it was our conviction that the only way to get an eraser into the standards writing room was with evidence behind it, cause otherwise the way standards are written you get all the adults into the room about what kids should know, and the only way to end the meeting is to include everything. That’s how we’ve gotten to the typical state standards we have today….
…I probably spend a little more time on literacy because as weak as my qualifications are there, in math they’re even more desperate in their lacking.
First thing to note is this is the chief architect of the Common Core English-Language Arts speaking. That is mind-boggling. The second thing to remember is that the Common Core State Standards represents data-less reform. So what evidence is he talking about?
You can read the transcript of this rather disjointed speech here and watch the video below.
HT: Suzette Lopez
Google+
Tags: Common Core State Standards, David Coleman, Institute for Learning, Jason Zimba, Lauren Resnick, Susan Pimentel
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Shane Vander Hart is the Editor-in-Chief of Caffeinated Thoughts, a popular Christian conservative blog in Iowa. He is also the President of 4:15 Communications, a social media & communications consulting/management firm, along with serving as the communications director for American Principles Project’s Preserve Innocence Initiative. Prior to this Shane spent 20 years in youth ministry serving in church, parachurch, and school settings. He has taught Jr. High History along with being the Dean of Students for Christian school in Indiana. Shane and his wife home school their three teenage children and have done so since the beginning. He has recently been recognized by Campaigns & Elections Magazine as one of the top political influencers in Iowa. Shane and his family reside near Des Moines, IA. You can connect with Shane on Facebook, follow him on Twitter or connect with him on Google +.
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