Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern MichiganMichigan Department of Education Awards Three-Year Contract To Two Companies For M-STEP
Thursday , 26, March 2015 Section 16 Leave a comment
Today Superintendent of Education Mike Flanagan announced that two companies were awarded contracts for administering the new standardized assessment for Michigan’s public schools, known as M-STEP. The companies are Data Recognition Corporation and Measurement Incorporated. The Michigan Department of Education and Department of Technology, Management and Budget awarded the contracts together. The three-year contract will cost the state $103.7 million.
The two companies are currently under contract for 2015 to administer M-STEP during testing this spring in the states’ public schools.
Mike Flanagan in a statement issued today stated that:
“This now allows Michigan schools and teachers to move forward and fully transition form the 40-year-old MEAP to M-STEP, a 21st Century assessment system.”
Data Recognition Corporation is based out of Minnesota. DRC, like other big testing corporations such as Pearson are well-known for hiring temporary employees to score high-stakes standardized tests that will determine a school district’s proficiency in reading, writing and mathematics. Often the requirements for the temporary job that pays $11 to $13 per hour is a bachelor’s degree, but not much else.
Measurement Incorporated is based out of North Carolina. They get mixed reviews from employees who are temporary hires, paid about $11 an hour and don’t get benefits or vacation time. Measurement Incorporated hires people to work remotely from home requiring them to have a high speed internet connection.
The Joint Evaluation Committee that made the decision to hire DRC and Measurement Inc. were presented with bids from five companies. The members of the JEC, made up of educators, parents, and staff from the MDE and DTMB. They spent hours looking over proposals and samples of assessments offered by each company before selecting an offer.
M-STEP, the standardized test used in Michigan this year and the next three years will be managed by two large out of state corporations who both have reputations for hiring temporary employees with no real background in education, and score the tests school districts rely on for funding and staying open. Teachers, professional educators who spend years in college to become experts in teaching practices and specialize in their subject areas are evaluated and rated on tests scored by temporary employees who’s only requirement is to have a bachelor’s degree in something and a high speed internet connection.
According to outgoing Superintendent Mike Flanagan, “This fortunate outcome will give this year’s tests greater significance and be a foundation from which to build.”
Looks like M-STEP is here to stay.
Tea Party Republican Dan Benishek Lies: Promises To Run For A Fourth Term In 2016
Thursday , 26, March 2015 Tea Party Leave a comment
Remember when Dan Benishek promised he would only run for three terms? Dan Benishek lied. He’s decided to run again in 2016. Having no integrity or honesty is something we expect from Republicans, especially tea party Republicans, so it should come as no surprise that Dan Benishek, without a bit of shame or remorse, wants a fourth term.
Since Benishek won Michigan’s first congressional district seat in the 2010 election, The former veterans hospital M.D. has used his office to vote down every bill that would benefit veterans, and use his leadership in the House Committee on Veteran’s Affairs to make sure veterans get shafted again and again. He made sure low-income veterans couldn’t hire lawyers to sue the United States government, and that veterans didn’t get any mortgage relief or help for homeless veterans needing a place to live. He happily voted against the Veterans Backlog Reduction Act; the bill that could have saved lives when veterans were waiting years for care, and then when the scandal became public, stood with other Republicans and tried to pin the blame President Obama. He voted with Republicans to shut down the government in 2013 and turned down an emergency bill during that time to keep veterans services open, while loudly complaining about veterans memorials being closed to the public.
And with only 19 out of a 24 month term left, he’s already decided he needs to screw over veterans along with other Michigan district 1 residents even more:
“Serving Northern Michigan has been – and continues to be – a privilege, and it is my sincere hope that the voters of the 1st district will allow me to continue representing them and their families. I recognize this conflicts with past statements I made when first running for office. After serving our veterans for 20-years as a doctor in our local VA hospitals, and now as the only Michigan member on the House Veterans Committee, I know that there is more work that must be done to ensure veterans are getting the benefits they have earned. But the fight to hold bureaucrats in Washington accountable won’t happen over night – it was a problem a long time in the making and will take a long time to undo. I believe I bring a unique perspective to overcoming those challenges as well as others facing families throughout the 1st District, and my hope is voters will agree.”
Dan Benishek doesn’t care about veterans, and won’t keep his promises. The quintessential Republican, he represents everything we expect from the GOP.
That Moment In The Story When The Hero Finds Proof of The Villain’s Evil Plan: Richard D. McLellan’s 1990 Notes On School Choice
Monday , 23, March 2015 Section 16 7 Comments
In Michigan, one of the first instances of school choice happened in the 1970s when Jack Hoekstra, president of the Kalamazoo School Board, tried to stop desegregation of Kalamazoo Public Schools by allowing parents to choose the school they wanted their kids to attend with the condition they were responsible for transportation. School choice has been championed by others in the state over the years, but there is one name that has become synonymous with the Michigan education reform movement – Richard D. McLellan.
When Michigan drafted their charter school law, Richard D. McLellan was there. When Michigan tried to set up a voucher system in 2002 that failed, Richard D. McLellan was there. When EMU chancellors were approached about getting behind the EAA in 2011, Richard D. McLellan was there. Skunkworks? You bet, he was there too. Richard D. McLellan was part of the school choice movement in Michigan before it actually became a movement. How do we know? He took notes.
In 1990 before “school choice,” “education reform movement,” or “the civil rights movement of our time” uttered by conservatives like Rand Paul were common phrases, Richard D. McLellan jotted down a plan to fundamentally change Michigan’s schools. In this page of scribbled notes leaked recently is the proof McLellan already planned the demise of Michigan’s public schools 25 years ago.
The RDM in the upper right-hand corner is his initials. The list of names seems to be associated with “Michigan Citizens for Choice.”
McLellan knew that the majority of Michigan citizens wouldn’t want public schools to be taken over by churches, so here he jots down a note that it’s important to mainstream the “school choice” message, and separate it from the nonpublic schools that most people were familiar with at the time – parochial schools.
Every school reformer from GLEP director/DeVos yes man Gary Naeyaert to presidential hopeful Rand Paul have been quoted saying that school choice is the “civil rights issue of our time.” 25 years ago you can see one of the goals of McLellan’s was to use the phrase “civil rights issue of the 90’s” to get blacks and Hispanics on board supporting it. School choice is a dog whistle for segregation.
Here’s another goal of McLellan’s to make sure minorities not only get on board but take leadership roles in supporting school choice. He also lists businesses and taxpayers as people who need to help with the cause.
It’s really hard to convince people they need to stop sending their kids to public schools if they think their public schools are doing a good job. 25 years ago Richard D. McLellan wrote down as part of his plan for promoting school choice was the need to discredit public schools. He also linked this goal to making sure fewer revenues went to Detroit. Now, why would McLellan see that as a necessary goal for school choice?
“What’s In It For Me” is another way of getting people to support something by making them think what they have isn’t good enough. This “matrix” as McLellan calls it is a very common method used by politicians to push an agenda onto people.
And finally, the last goal of McLellan’s listed on this page is the importance of selling the idea that this is not a plan to switch public school for parochial schools, but an “education reform movement” that will appear on the outside as something to make public schools better, while you’re actually starving them of funds and dismantling them at the same time.
Here in Richard McLellan’s own chicken scratching is a plan that most of us today recognize as reality. 25 years ago Richard D. McLellan wrote down a list of goals to change Michigan’s public schools, not to better educate our kids, but to eradicate public education. This is what our new superintendent is up against, will he fight for our public schools? Or go along with the plan McLelland penned a quarter of a century ago.
An Open Letter To Our New State Superintendent of Education Brian Whiston
Sunday , 22, March 2015 Section 16 5 Comments
Congratulations on being selected for the important position of State Superintendent of Education. You have entered into a position where there are many old and new challenges to face. Public education in Michigan faces constant attacks from both the state and corporate education reformers, often working together to take our schools out of the hands of elected school boards, the professional educators who work in the schools, and parents. These are problems our public schools have faced for years, which leads to important questions in which your office must work to find solutions.
- How do you intend to protect and maintain the constitutional integrity of the Department of Education against a hostile governor’s office undermining public education for corporate interests in any way possible?
- How do you feel about our governor sharing state school business with Jeb Bush via his personal email account? It seems odd that a person who doesn’t live in Michigan, or serve any official capacity for the state would have access to state business.
- Corporate takeover of public schools mislabeled as “school choice” was a question that all of the candidates struggled with. Do you feel it necessary to placate the people who want to eliminate public education in the state by claiming they offer “school choice?”
- How will you hold the authorizers of for-profit charter schools accountable when poor-performing schools are allowed to stay open?
- How will you hold authorizers of for-profit charter schools accountable when they allow convicted criminals to use the schools they manage as money laundering schemes with the taxpayers’ money?
- Will you consider reinstating the cap on for-profit charter schools until the mess they are creating of our education system is properly addressed? Allowing more wasting of tax dollars by for-profit charter schools when so many are failing our school children is incredibly irresponsible of the state.
- How will you stop the raiding of the school aid fund by state government to pay for projects such as the new Wings Stadium/recreation complex in downtown Detroit? Do you think state school funds should be used to turn Detroit into a rich people’s playground, or moved into the general fund to pay for things other than educating Michigan’s children?
- Are you aware that corporations such as Pearson may be spying on school children even when they are not in school just in case they talk about a question that was on a standardized test? Michigan doesn’t use PARCC, but will you be able to ensure that students taking standardized tests in Michigan schools will not have their privacy infringed upon by the company that publishes Michigan’s standardized test?
- What is your opinion of high-stakes standardized testing? Do you believe it accurately assesses student achievement?
- Do you believe that high-stakes standardized testing is a fair and honest way to evaluate a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom, even when based on a previous year’s test when the students weren’t in their classroom?
- Do you support the parents’ rights to opt their children out of high-stakes standardized testing?
- Do you view public school teachers as professional educators?
I hope this short list of questions will help you see the issues that public education in Michigan faces. Teachers and schools face hostile politicians and corporate education reformers working together to eliminate public education as much as they possibly can. Some of these reformers see public schools as institutions undermining their narrow idea of patriotism; others see the money public education receives and want to cash in, as in the case of for-profit charter schools. Michigan’s school children need effective leadership in the Department of Education to ensure that public schools – the schools that have always offered the best value for Michigan taxpayers – have the support and funding to provide the best education possible.
Regards,
Up North Progressive
BREAKING: DNR Director Keith Creagh Approves Graymont Upper Peninsula Land Purchase
Thursday , 19, March 2015 Community, DNR, Environment 82 Comments
Keith Creagh announced a few minutes ago at the DNR Natural Resources Commission meeting in Roscommon that he would approve the land purchase proposal offered by Graymont. The Canadian mining company now has the green light to turn over 10,000 acres of state-owned forest land into open pit and underground limestone quarries.
The DNR Natural Resources Commission rejected the January proposal in that it was too vague and there was no business plan. Graymont raised the price per ton it will pay the state to 30 cents, and offered the town of Rexton half a million dollars over 5 years to go into a fund to be used by the community and local schools. The new proposal provided more detail including:
- The direct sale of 1,781 acres of state-owned land and 7,026 acres of mineral rights to Graymont.
- Land exchange whereby Graymont will acquire 830 acres of state-owned land.
- A ten year option to acquire an easement of 55 acres of state-owned land with an identified area of 535 acres.
Graymont received mineral rights and ownership of land that totals $4.5 million. The DNR will use money received from this land deal to purchase other public land. The largest portion of land that will be an underground mine will still be managed by the state and the public will still have access to large portion of it.
The questions that are not addressed in this deal is the impact such a large mining operation will have on air and water quality in the area. The total land now being turned into open pit and underground mines spans three counties. More people living in the UP will be affected than just the people of Rexton. There’s promises from Graymont that they will protect important wetlands in the area, and public easements will be moved at company expense.
Michigan land and precious natural resources continue to be sold off to low bidders, and the landscape of Michigan will be changed forever – and not for the better.
It’s Only A Crime When Someone I’m Afraid Of Does It: Tea Party Charter School Justice
Wednesday , 18, March 2015 Section 16, Tea Party, Tea Party Charter School, Tealiban Leave a comment
On March 15, 2015 Jay McNally issued a statement that the prosecutor in Livingston County would go forward with pressing misdemeanor charges against Glen Ikens after his arrest on February 28th from Lindbom Elementary School, where an open house was being held for people interested in the proposed Hillsdale College classical charter school. The Livingston Daily Press & Argus wrote an editorial on March 16th stating Glenn Ikens had no point to going to the open house except to cause problems. The Press & Argus hasn’t been paying very close attention to what has been going on in Brighton for the past couple of years with this for-profit charter school, and the racist Islamophobe trying to open it. The editorial also missed the mark in suggesting Pasquale Battaglia has a solution to failing public schools, when his for-profit charter school is part of the problem. The editorial finishes with:
We don’t think he would appreciate someone disrupting an open house for a public school; a charter school is simply another type of public school.
Whoever wrote this editorial is completely wrong, because charter schools are operated by for-profit corporations using taxpayer money. The other interesting point however comes from the assumption that Glenn Ikens wouldn’t appreciate someone disrupting public school meetings he attended. Does Pasquale Battaglia always feel threatened when someone vocalizes criticism of what’s happening at a local school? 
Pasquale Battaglia not only approved of this individual disrupting a public meeting, but admonished the rest of the people at the meeting for not standing up and supporting the disrupter. Of course, the person arrested at the public school meeting being discussed on twitter spoke out against Common Core. Battaglia tweets often about the evils of Common Core, which is why he’s opening for-profit charter schools to rescue children from its clutches. Interesting that Battaglia only objects to public disruption when it’s someone objecting to him. What exactly is Pasquale Battaglia afraid of? Perhaps that people might figure out he’s lying about his for-profit charter school being a taxpayer-funded tea party religious school, just as Glenn Ikens claims. Pasquale Battaglia for all of his bluster on social media about protecting our precious freedoms from the progressive usurpers only cares about freedom when he has something to say. When someone else has something to say he doesn’t like, he’s all too willing to deprive them of their freedom.
Good For The Goose, Good For The Gander: Snyder, Jeb Used Private Emails To Discuss State Business
Tuesday , 17, March 2015 Nerd Problems, Presidential Primary 2016 Leave a comment
As the Republicans continue their futile quest to manufacture some scandal that makes Hillary Clinton less of a shoe-in for 2016 (not gonna happen), Progress Michigan found that Governor Nerd used private email to discuss state business with former governor of Florida and 2016 GOP hopeful Jeb Bush. So far, the email scandal has about as much traction as President Obama’s tan suit (which he looked damn good in). Unless you watch Fox News, then you think there’s actually an email scandal.
No one will ever forget Project Skunkworks, the secret meetings being held by tech companies and secret right hand man Richard Baird to come up with a school voucher system in a state where school vouchers are unconstitutional. And let’s not forget the NERD fund which once we found out about and the Nerd shuffled it to who knows where was being used to pay state employee salaries nine times higher than what the state paid them.
If there is one thing Rick Snyder has always been good at during his time as Michigan’s chief nerd, it’s his secrecy from the people who pay his salary – the taxpayers. In Snyder terms, he calls himself CEO of Michigan, and that makes us his stockholders. He’s supposed to be serving the citizens of Michigan while he’s governor, but like all CEOs he prefers to cater to the whims of big business instead.
Progress Michigan now urges Governor Snyder to release all personal emails where he discussed state business, as well as former Governor Jeb Bush to release all state business emails discussed using the personal email address jeb@jeb.org
Good for the goose, good for the gander. If elected public servants using private emails to conduct official state business is an issue because Secretary of State Clinton did it, then it will be good for all of our elected officials to come clean about the practice.
Why You Need To Opt Out Your Children From Standardized Testing NOW: @Pearson Is Spying On Your Kids
Saturday , 14, March 2015 Section 16 5 Comments
In the Hell on Earth that has come to be corporate education reform in the United States, the reality of Common Core came to a head in New Jersey yesterday when it was revealed by the Superintendent of The Wachtung Hills Regional High School District that Pearson Education had triggered an alert that there was a breach on social media when a student tweeted about a test question. Pearson monitors all student social media accounts during the testing period searching for any discussion about the tests students are forced to take.
Public school teachers and concerned parents have been spreading the word that standardized testing under the new Common Core curriculum standards ever since the new standards were being adopted by state boards of education all over the country. Corporate education reform puts too much power into the hands of large multinational corporations (Pearson headquarters is in the UK) and out of the jurisdiction of local school districts and the parents of children taking these tests.
Pearson’s website describes their monitoring of student social media during the testing period.
Sharing ideas with others online can be really beneficial when you’re studying or revising. However, there are limits to the amount of information you can share, and you need to be careful not to break the rules. If you’re in doubt about what you can and can’t discuss, it’s always best to check with your teacher.
Sharing too much information with others is an example of ‘malpractice’.
We have an obligation to investigate any case where there is the suggestion that you’ve acted improperly.
We understand that sometimes you are going to talk about us and our assessments with your friends. During stressful periods, some comments may not be very flattering. However, we’d like to ask you to act responsibly when discussing us or your exams and coursework online.
The software Pearson uses to track student social media is produced by Tracx. The link to the case study currently redirects to a 404 page. The image displayed shows how their software shows tweets discussing Pearson.
Currently, Michigan students are not participating in the PARCC test, but taking the M STEP assessment this year only. In December of 2013, The Michigan Board of Education selected the Smarter Balanced assessment, another test that is aligned with Common Core. The issue the state is having comes from the state legislature passing bills to make it illegal to use Common Core in schools in the state. Pearson curriculum materials are still being used in Michigan schools however, and the new GED test Michigan uses since January of 2014 is also a Pearson product. The gradebook program many schools in Michigan use, PowerSchool, is again, a Pearson education product.
Pearson spying on students’ social media activity is more than “a bit disturbing.” This smacks of 1984 levels of privacy violation, especially on the nation’s school children. Welcome to the world of corporate education reform, endorsed enthusiastically by Rick Snyder, GLEP, Dick and Betsy DeVos and everyone else you can think of in the US working to destroy public education and turn it into a privatized corporate behemoth. If you haven’t done it yet, you need to opt your children out of the standardized test.
Pasquale Battaglia: Still Pushing For Tea Party Charter School
Friday , 13, March 2015 Section 16, Tea Party 1 CommentAnd still demonstrating why he has no business ever opening a school at all.
Scientists warning about climate change, which is very real and very much due to human activity, is just a ploy to get more money from the government.
Not unlike a certain racist tea party member who wants the government to fund his for-profit Christian charter schools.
DNR Natural Resources Commission Meeting Set For March 19 In Roscommon
Tuesday , 17, March 2015 Up North Progressive Community, DNR, Environment Leave a commentOn Thursday, March 19, 2015, The DNR Natural Resources Commission will hold it’s monthly meeting in Roscommon at the Ralph A. Macmullan Conference Center. The agenda for the meeting begins at 10:00 and continues through the day until Keith Creagh will announce his final decision on the Graymont purchase of 10,000 acres in the Upper Peninsula.
Before the Graymont decision, there will be reports from the policy committee on wildlife and fisheries at 1:00 pm. Keith Creagh’s legislative report begins at 3:00 pm. There will be an awards ceremony at 4:00 pm. After these reports and presentations, the public will have their chance to speak to the commission.
Several public speakers are listed on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting including Kathy English of Tout Lake. After public speakers are finished with their comments, Director Creagh will announce his decision on land sales in the state, including the Graymont proposal.
Anyone wishing to be added to the list to make public comments to the commission on Thursday needs to contact Cheryl Nelson by phone at (517) 284-6327, or email at nelsonc@michigan.gov. The Ralph A. MacMullan Conference Center is located at 104 Conservation Drive in Roscommon, Michigan. Anyone wishing to send their concerns in writing to the DNR Natural Resources Commission and Director Creagh still have two days to do so. You can write to Keith Creagh by email at DNRGraymontProposalComments@michigan.gov or mail a comment to Customer Service Center, ATTN: Kerry Wieber, 8717 N. Roscommon Road, Roscommon, MI 48653. Director Creagh is accepting written comments until his final decision on Thursday.