poison

Lby Donna Garner

10.27.13

Parents and taxpayers need to watch carefully to see what is happening in Los Angeles Unified School District and in other school districts around the country as the Common Core Standards Initiative (CCSI) combined with 21st Century Learning begins to infect our nation’s schools.     

John Deasy has been the Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent only since 2011.  Soon, he may be forced to resign because of the miserable roll-out of the Obama/Common Core Standards/Microsoft/Pearson/Apple/iPad project in LAUSD.

Not to worry…

Deasy will undoubtedly go to work at an exorbitant salary for any or all of the above. In fact, Deasy used to work for the Bill Gates Foundation which has spent billions to “force feed” the Common Core Standards Initiative (CCSI) upon our nation’s schools  (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mercedes-schneider/a-brief-audit-of-bill-gat_b_3837421.html.  

 

The implementation of the CCSI is built largely upon Microsoft platforms, databases, and infrastructure that work in conjunction with Pearson digitized products delivered on Apple iPads.

 

CCSI’s main goal is to indoctrinate students into Obama’s social justice agenda. Undoubtedly Deasy and his fellow “partner in crime” (James R. Aquino) surreptitiously managed to convince the LAUSD board members to adopt the CCSI.  Now that the roll-out of the iPads in the LAUSD has been such a disaster and the bad press is mounting, the LAUSD board members are beginning to take a second look at the reports and binding contracts they approved while being blinded by Deasy/Aquino’s big CCSI sales pitch.

 

Jaime R. Aquino is LAUSD’s Deputy Superintendent for Instruction. He is stepping down at the end of this year, probably to take a high-paying job working with fellow left-leaning liberal Judy Codding.  Codding is themanaging director of Pearson’s Common Core courses in English and Math, was vice president of the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), and was the president and CEO of America’s Choice.

 

Aquino used to work for America’s Choice which was bought by Pearson in 2010.  Aquino heavily influenced LAUSD to select Pearson.  Pearson is to be the primary source of Common Core English/Language Arts and Math instruction for LAUSD students in K – 12; the curriculum is delivered digitally.  Pearson has subcontracted with a single vendor — Apple with its iPad tablets.

The roll-out of the Common Core/Pearson/iPads in LAUSD and in other school districts has been a disaster as reported by the Los Angeles Times et al. (I have posted URL’s to a few of these articles further on down the page.)

LAUSD School Board members cannot seem to find out how much the entire implementation of the CCSI is going to cost taxpayers, and it looks as if the LAUSD is going to be left taking the blame while Deasy and Aquino walk away.  Of course, it is actually the LAUSD taxpayers who will be left to pay for the expensive blunder; and ultimately, it will be the LAUSD students and teachers who will harmed.

As someone has wisely stated, “The Americans who first went to the Moon and led us to become the most exceptional nation in the world were taught to read, write, and compute on a Big Chief tablet that probably cost fifteen cents.  Today we are spending billions of dollars on fancy techie devices; but show me the quantitative, independent, peer-reviewed, replicated research to prove that digitized learning (i.e., 21stCentury Learning) has produced the same type of well-educated Americans who forged a path for us to follow.”

ARTICLES ON iPAD-21ST CENTURY LEARNING DEALS GONE BAD

10.25.13 — “Curriculum Prompts New Concerns in L.A. iPad Plan” – by Benjamin Herold, Education Week —http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/10/25/10pearson_ep.h33.html?tkn=WOOF%2FaEqRQwAta%2BbUN0CEwa8V0kGaDeRHVL0&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1

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10.9.13 – “Oops! Glitch disables Lewisville security filters on student iPads” – by Wendy Hundley — Dallas Morning News —http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/lewisville-flower-mound/headlines/20131009-oops-glitch-disables-lewisville-security-filters-on-student-ipads.ece

 

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10.7.13 – “Big 1-to1 Tablet Initiatives Halted in North Carolina, Texas – by Benjamin Herold – Education Week —http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2013/10/big_one-to-one_tablet_initiati.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW

 

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10.4.13 — “L.A. Unified students need iPad keyboards to take state tests” – by Howard Blume – Los Angeles Times —  http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-ipads-lausd-20131005,0,3991707.story

 

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9.30.13 – “L. A. Unified takes back iPads as $1-billion plan hits hurdles” – by Howard Blume – Los Angeles Times —http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-1001-lausd-ipads-20131001,0,270074.story

 

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 9.28.13 – “New problems surface in L. A. Unified’s iPad program” – by Steve Lopez – Los Angeles Times — http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0929-lopez-ipad-20130929,0,6616782,full.column

 

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9.27.13 – “Education’s Tiny Toy Syndrome” – by Michelle Malkin – Creators Syndicate —

http://michellemalkin.com/2013/09/27/educations-shiny-toy-syndrome/

 

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9.25.13 – “Who pays if L. A. Unified students lose or break iPads?” – by Howard Blume – Los Angeles Times — http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-ipads-lausd-20130926,0,5826726.story

 

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com