no child left behind

Wednesday, May 14th, author “Mary” of the Substack V1SUT Vantage joined Michael Grande and me on our ROPE Report LIVE podcast – which broadcasts live on YouTube, Rumble, X, LinkdIn and Facebook every Wednesday and Friday at 9am – to talk about test scores vs academic achievement in Oklahoma public education. Just the week before, “Mary” had written an article, “OK School Performance & Deceptive Data: Parents & School Board Members Untrained to Assess Student Outcomes“, and we wanted the chance to discuss the data she had uncovered on the state’s School Report Card website.

Many years ago – 2016 to be exact – the OSDE under the leadership of then-Superintendent Janet Barresi, created the “A-F school report card”. ROPE was so against it, we wrote a blog about it (Oklahoma’s A-F Grading System Get’s An “F”), we wrote letters to the Governor and Superintendent and Jenni spoke before the State School Board warning them about the adoption of the grade card.

Our primary objections were 2: 1) the only REAL reason to create the grade card was to get President Obama’s end-around No Child Left Behind. As a Conservative organization, we objected to President Obama’s notion that he could ignore the Constitution and go around Congress to make his own law (waiver) simply because he believed Congress would not act to reauthorize the NCLB and 2) because the measurements used meant nothing and could disguise poor student test results.

Sadly/oddly/not shockingly, the school grade card today is essentially the same as the one from 2016. Here were the categories and their percentages: Student Achievement (33%), Individual Student Growth (17%), Growth of Bottom Quartile (17%) and Whole School Performance (33%). If you don’t believe me, check out the categories and POINTS (now) of the updated grade card. Not much difference there, just a whole lot of words to describe how it is that the State isn’t really being transparent with taxpayers and parents – I’d imagine so they can continue to get money from the feds as when the whole grade card thing started.

Here’s a short clip of Mary talking about what she found when she wondered why Achievement Scores are so high in schools housing primarily failing kids.

This is, of course, nonsense, but I pointed out in this other clip from the podcast, that since at least the mid-70’s, public education has been dumbing down education and then trying to cover their tracks. In the clip below, I show how the ‘recentered’ ACT scores made it look like students were doing very well, when in reality, they were doing MUCH WORSE on the test than 2 decades before.

If you’d like to see the whole video, you can find it on our YouTube or Rumble channels.

Just for grins and giggles, as I close out this piece, I thought I would include a section from a blog post in 2014 called, “Is Common Core MEANT to Blow Up the American Educational System?” It describes the way I see the PLANNED DESTRUCTION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION by the Marxists who began stepping up the whole program under President Obama. You can also find more information in these two blogs from the same time frame (2012-2014), “Governor Fallin says, “Stop whining or you’ll get no more education funds.” and “ROPE Approves Democrat Disapproval“.

If you got anything out of the podcast or the research – PLEASE SHARE!

…there are those who believe “ObamaCare” was made to be so difficult to navigate in an effort to crash America’s current health care system. The thought here is that if it becomes too hard to get health insurance, the public will clamor for SINGLE PAYER and just let the government handle the whole ball of wax – none of these silly exchanges – no, we’ll just move America over to the same side of the abacus as England and Canada and nationalize health care. After all, we’re of socialist stock (eye roll).

I believe this is exactly what is happening to public education in America today when I look at the recent history of education ‘reform’.

First; you claim America education is failing.
Second; from the start, you act as the hand of benevolence by reaching out to states in their time of monetary need with ‘free’ money to keep education programs running (State Fiscal Stabilization Funds) where you hook states into a four pillared education reform system that includes national standards and state longitudinal databases.
Third; you play on America’s competitive spirit by offering states a grant where you can Race to the Top of education accountability and results, providing money through a program that continues to perpetuate the four pillars of education reform.
Fourth; you do NOT re-authorize the existing ESEA, but instead, go around Congress completely to create waivers for the worst parts of the law (such as the part where ALL children must be ‘proficient’ in English/LA and Math by 2014). This, in essences creates your own ala cart law menu that keeps states hooked into the all-important four pillars, but also adds something called “accountability measures” for schools such as Third Grade Reading Retention programs, A-F grading scales and teacher accountability measures.
Fifth; you spend 6 years selling the plan to legislators while managing the whole scheme from behind the curtain of private, non-profit organizations within which taxpayers have no representation, propping up the system with huge infusions of cash from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and big business such as Exxon/Mobile and ‘happy to help’ players such as the US Chamber of Commerce.
Sixth; after you have states on their nationalized educational track through your promoted “pillars”, you scare states into keeping all their ‘accountability’ measures by threatening their Title 1 funding. Though states/districts have no idea what will really happen to them if they don’t go along, states take the waivers and in exacting the instructions, districts self-destruct trying to figure out how to keep pressing the bar for their money like a lab rat for its pellet. *Teachers are afraid of having test scores held against them to the point of losing their jobs so they turn on administration. *Administrators turn on parents who are told they must implement ‘reform’ measures and that they can’t opt out of state tests the A-F grading system utilizes scores to create school grades (page 9) without forcing complete ruination of their school;
- Schools are expected to test 100 percent of eligible students enrolled in that school during the testing window for every OSTP exam for which they are eligible, regardless of FAY status.
- Schools that do not test a sufficient percentage of eligible students will be penalized as follows (all percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number):
- The school’s Overall Letter Grade will be reduced by one whole letter grade if fewer than 95 percent of all eligible test records have valid scores.
- The school’s Overall Letter Grade will automatically be reduced to an “F” if fewer than 90 percent of all eligible test records have valid scores.
Seventh; you collect lots and lots of data by digitizing the Common Core State Standards states had to take to get an RTT or Waiver, then, you pay two testing “consortia” to create digital online test questions that will align so perfectly that everyone who looks at the scores will be able to tell which standard the students got right and wrong on their exam. Since we so admire the European system of everything including schooling, can’t you believe this will imagine an end result that sounds like, “Sorry Johnny, you can’t be an engineer because you missed several math-related test questions indicating you are not engineer material.” You also collect all kinds of miscellaneous data for federal programming such as the “Safe and Drug Free Schools” that includes very detailed information on discipline incidents (that, by the way, don’t just fall off the internet when your child needs a clean record for college and career applications!). You then use this information against schools when they decide they are dumb enough to come crawling back for more money and or ‘waivers’ from existing unconstitutional federal education laws to further put the screws on them to get what you want.

(Sadly, a whole lot of the links in the original piece above from 2014, are no longer working)

As a pre-Halloween trick, this article was released in the Tulsa World – Teacher shortage milestone: New record set for nonaccredited teachers given emergency certification in Oklahoma.

I urge you to read the article – it’s short – but even if you only have time to scan it, read the section that says;

A decade ago, applications for emergency certifications used to be a rarity, with just 32 emergency teaching certificates approved in 2011-12. But as Oklahoma plunged into a statewide teacher shortage, school districts became increasingly reliant on underqualified new hires who had not yet completed the state’s requirements for either traditional or alternative certification. The numbers have increased annually since 2012, save for a one-year dip last year to 2,801.

Okay. This clearly says that until the 2011/2012 school year, there were only about 35 emergency certifications provided by the OSDE. So what happened in 2010 in Oklahoma?

Well, if you don’t know, I can certainly tell you because I wrote about it and studied it furtively and constantly for five years.

In 2010, House and Senate Republicans along with Governor Mary Fallin ushered into Oklahoma law, The FOUR PILLARS OF THE OBAMA EDUCATION AGENDA – Common Core, State Longitudinal Database, Teacher Accountability Measures and Turning Around Underperforming Schools – through an ENORMOUS omnibus bill – SB2033 – made possible by former Democrat Governor Brad Henry’s acceptance of State Stabilization Funds (SSF).

Why in the world would Oklahoma Republicans sign on to law created by a Democratic President with Marxist tendencies?

Because it would result in an ability to receive federal funds to implement something called “Race To The Top“, President Obama’s education initiative. And later, because Congress refused to re-authorize the billion page law called the ESSA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) which President George Bush renamed the “No Child Left Behind Act” (NCLB), President Obama came up with a scheme to provide states with even more money – I mean “flexibility” – not to have to have students meet the NCLB requirement of 100% proficiency in math and reading by 2014. And guess what? Then State Superintendent Janet Barresi applied for and got those funds as well.

Unfortunately, those ALSO required the state to develop all four pillars of Obama’s education reforms.

In 2011, former colleague Lynn Habluetzel and I sat down for 2 days to come up with a map that would show as many of the players in the Obama money scheme that our Republican elected officials had bought into. Here’s what we came up with.

It went viral. You can actually internet search this thing because people were so disgusted by it. Why? Because every group on this ‘map’ exerts some kind of control over YOUR DISTRICT SCHOOL in some way. That’s what federal funds do. They tie states to FEDERAL programs whether they’re good for the state or not.

Now, let’s mosey on up to 2014 and add on to all you see above with the “Dear Colleague Letter” penned by Obama which basically told schools that they could be brought up on Civil Rights charges for disciplining black students.

The consequences of the aforementioned 4 pillars is HUGE, but the latter is the worst of all. Ask ANY teacher why they’re quitting and DISCIPLINE ISSUES are in the top two.
Schools do what they’re told by the federal government so they can get federal government money (this is why they DON’T respond to parents – parents don’t have the money carrot there to make it worth it for them in their world view of ‘kids deserve schools with more money’ whatever that means).

Look at mask mandates if you simply can’t believe me. Ask teachers the next reason they’re leaving and they’ll tell you PAPERWORK.

There’s all this data to collect on each student, there’s SEL which is used to conduct Climate Surveys and grading teachers all for the School Grade card that allows schools to get their ESSA money. (More info on school grade cards)

JUST STOP IT.

If you really want to know what’s causing the teacher shortage, it’s the results of the OBAMA-DIRECTED EDUCATIONAL GARBAGE INFLICTED UPON THIS STATE BY REPUBLICAN ELECTED OFFICIALS. Look no further. Schools got what they wanted – their Obama grants and ESSA money – so stop your griping already. You’re just reaping what you’ve sown!

Here’s the thing: I’m convinced that school officials are one of two things – ignorant of everything I’ve just outlined and documented (like the Board member at the teacher termination hearing last night who didn’t know what her job was) – or they know exactly what goes on and know it’s in their best interest to keep parents as far away from making them accountable for it as possible.

Parents, let’s quit letting the latter category think we’re simpletons who can only do Common Core math (2+2=5). TAKE BACK YOUR SCHOOL BOARDS. It’s the only way to make the madness stop and for schools to once again be accountable to student learning and the will and wishes of parents.

Jenni White – Education Director

ROPE Report

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Oklahoma Hiding Failing Test Scores Behind “Academic Achievement” Indicator, V1SUT Blogger Tells ROPE

Oklahoma Republican Legislators Enacted President Obama’s Education Agenda During 2010 Creating Many Of The Problems We’re Seeing In Public Education TODAY