Stephanie Zimmerman
Stephanie Zimmerman's Latest Posts
Legislative Update
First, there is Goedde’s data-privacy protection bill S1296. It is not a good bill and we won’t be supporting it at all. It does very little because it defers to FERPA. We hope to have a better Data Privacy Bill done quickly. Second, Janet Trujillo’s Parental Rights Bill H0499. It needs our full support, DeMordaunt […]
Christopher Tienken Explains Assessments
In less that 14 minutes Christopher Tienken can explain so much. I love the way he breaks down Common Core and our new culture of assessments. Are our incubators of democracy, our locally controlled public schools, really a thing of the past? Lets hope our political leaders start to listen to experts like Mr. Tienken who speak to […]
Connecting Dots, Money to Adopt
We received no money to adopt Common Core. We hear it all the time. What if I told you we did? Would you be surprised? Early in 2009 the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was passed. In this $831 billion stimulus package was a tiny little $53.6 billion in aid aimed toward helping local school districts. This portion of […]
Will the Real Kentucky Please Stand Up?
State education superintendents across the country, including our own Supt. Luna, love to place Kentucky high on the Common Core pedestal. After all, it’s so easy to manipulate data to say what you want it say. Having won actual hard federal cash in the original Race To The Top grant competition, Kentucky implemented Common Core’s […]
caveat emptor
I’ve always wondered just how far I can trust even the local media to report accurately and fairly. That question was partially answered for me over the past two weeks. On January 22nd, I participated in a six-person panel in front of a joint committee meeting of the House and Senate education committees at the […]
Parental Bill of Rights
Did you know that Idaho doesn’t have a Parental Bill of Rights? Representative Janet Trujillo wants to change that, particularly in regards to parental rights and education. She has written a wonderful bill that you should read and support. (It’s only one page long and it makes sense.) Here’s just a little of what it says […]
Common Core’s Revisionist History
Common Core was a state-led effort. Right? The problem with the internet is nothing truly disappears. EAGnews.org used the Wayback machine (an internet archive site) to capture this quote off of Corestandards.org from March 5, 2010: “The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA […]
Just What Are 21st-Century Skills
We keep hearing that phrase, “21-Century skills.” Just what are those skills that we keep hearing our students need? Are they really any different from any other century’s? As discovered by Anne Gassel of Missouri Education Watchdog, here is the list from a poll done by Gallup: Collaboration Knowledge construction Skilled communication Global awareness Self-regulation […]
Formal Response to CCSSO Student Data Privacy
National Anti-Common Core Statement on the State School Chiefs’ Letter Regarding Data Privacy We the undersigned organizations, representing millions of families and teachers across the nation, issue the following statement in response to the January 23rd, 2014 letter by thirty-four chief state school officers to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan regarding student data privacy: […]
Standardized
Part of the amazing thing about the opposition to Common Core is how truly grassroots it is. There are people all over this great country and state who have taken a lot of time and effort to help inform people about the many frightening issues that began with No Child Left Behind and now continue with the Common Core Education […]
