Happy “HollowEd” Weekend

No, my Warrior friends, I’ve not flipped my lid (sorry, couldn’t resist a pumpkin pun). I realize it’s Thursday and the weekend is still hours away. However, I’m starting the weekend (at least here on the blog) a day early. I’ll pack enough in this article, you should be good until Tuesday, 11/1, when I return.

Hollowing Out My “Pumpkin”:

As a definite split between a visual and hands-on learner, I have a somewhat unusual way of reminding myself what I wish to investigate when I research. The following ‘seeds’ are the tabs in my background on the computer I’ve had the longest and still haven’t gotten around to investigating as much as I’d like to.

That said, I will not leave you empty handed. We’ll delve in just enough to see HOW each of these CCSS Machine seeds connect to what we already know.

The Seeds For Helping Others:

Among the tabs I have open are several connected to AdvoServ. This group has been featured many times on my fellow Warrior’s blog, “Exceptional Delaware”. Kevin, as you may know, is a dedicated anti CCSS Warrior. He’s written a lot about all that is happening in DE. From what I found on Kevin’s blog, his research has shown AdvoServ to not be quite as transparent and suitable for children as they are presented to be. See all of Kevin’s findings: https://exceptionaldelaware.wordpress.com/tag/advoserv/

Not taking away from Kevin’s work, I was able to find that AdvoServ is also located in FL, CT, and NJ. DE and FL serve young children to adults. NJ serves only adults. Those citizens they do serve are usually Special Needs. State agencies and/or school districts usually foot the bill for services. Curriculum used by AdvoServ is stated to be academic and will fit into the State you are using the services in. Including working with Special Needs, AdvoServ also deal in behavior management. See: http://www.advoserv.com/locations/

By working with Special Needs citizens, we can know IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) will be involved. Behavior management is included in almost all cases, according to the website.

The CCSS Machine connection?! Those IEPs will be made to align with the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) and its mandates. As having read and shared with you how Special Needs students will need to be educated in the post-secondary readiness fashion (meaning ready for career and/or college). This is a HUGE concern. ESSA also includes all kinds of behavior management requirements. Most are called RTIs (Responses to Intervention). IDEA funding as well as Title One funds, per ESSA get a makeover for alignment as well. Don’t forget, Warriors, this will also lead to massive amounts of SEL (Social Emotional Learning), which is also seeing a CCSS makeover in ESSA. (To see the education information from AdvoServ: http://www.advoserv.com/services/education-programs/)

For those adults with Special Needs? Lots of community training. Knowing how much alignment our communities will be transformed through, thanks to ESSA, we should be watching these programs, too. http://www.advoserv.com/services/adult-programs/

 

Seeds For A Charity:

When I was looking for more information, I found that one of the PhDs from AdvoServ is a Board member for a well known charitable community called Boys Town, USA. See: http://www.boystown.org/about/leadership/Pages/board-of-trustees.aspx 

Now, Warriors, I do not know about you, but I remember hearing and seeing lots of ads for Boys Town years ago. It wasn’t until I saw the internet link that I even remembered this organization/community was still around. According to their website, the Town is celebrating 100 years of service to our nation. So, was I able to find a CCSS Machine connection here, too?! Indeed I did.

To see the entire article: http://www.omaha.com/livewellnebraska/health/boys-town-hospital-receives-m-grant-to-conduct-transformational-hearing/article_3199ff03-b0e5-5c2e-9218-e65bd30e00e0.html
On Page 17 of the 2015 Boys Town Annual Report, you’ll see how the Hospital is being featured as one of those on the cutting edge of diagnosing behavioral disorders. On a related note, ESSA’s language says quite a bit about those who get to evaluate and categorize behavior disorders.

Warriors, if you recall, just a few days ago, I shared with you how the NIH is top dog in the FY 2017 Federal Appropriations. I also shared the the Brain Initiative is among the highest priorities. How does all this tie back to Boys Town, USA? That COBRE grant is a big clue.

Look at the underlined or boxed areas. Warriors, do you see areas we should be watchful of? I do! *Important note: the IDeA you see above is NOT the same as the IDEA funding used for Special Needs. The IDeA stands for “Institutional Development Award”
To see the entire webpage from above:
https://www.nigms.nih.gov/research/crcb/IDeA/pages/COBRE.aspx

If you’re interested, below is another graphic I found about COBRE grants to connect them to the CCSS Machine:

To see the rest of the document this came from: https://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/programs/epscor/presentations/PDPA_May_2015/NIH.pdf
(*Note: about 2 pages past this image you’ll see the agenda in bold print. Each State’s Workforce needs to be ‘enhanced’ both technically and scientifically. The roots for this began in 2001, renewed in 2004, and got a HUGE federal boost about the time CCSS was rolled out!)

There’s also the fact that Boys Town, USA has a “Career Readiness Center”.

To see a more recent Boys Town blog article about career readiness, http://blog.boystown.org/preparing-real-world-future/

To see the entire 2015 Annual Report for Boys Town:
http://www.boystown.org/about/Documents/2015AnnualReport.pdf

 

The Brain Seeds:

Connected to the NIH, behavior, and the CCSS Machine, are quite literally, our students’ brains. There’s been no shortage of research pointing to how all students, regardless of age, are being used as ‘lab rats’ by the U.S. Dept. of Education. ESSA certainly is not about to miss out on the ‘opportunity’ for MORE research in education…no matter what the cost to our citizens.

If you’ll remember, Warriors, above, and in the past few days, I’ve shared with you what I’ve uncovered about the Brain Initiative. This is something we MUST put on our anti Fed Ed radars!

Why this should be a concern: This Initiative covers the entire mental health spectrum as well as the disease spectrum. Many of these impact our students. See: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/science-news-about-the-brain-initiative.shtml

How did the Brain Initiative get started? “In 2013, President Obama launched the BRAIN Initiative as a large-scale effort to equip researchers with insights necessary for treating a wide variety of brain disorders like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury. The World Health Organization estimates that devastating brain disorders affect more than one billion people worldwide.

Warriors, note that the WHO is in bed with the UN and UNESCO. Remember, also that the USA is a member of the UN. Why is the Brain Initiative deemed a success so far? Human data collection. See: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2016/nih-nearly-doubles-investment-in-brain-initiative-research.shtml

 

The Federal Seeds:

For one of the last seeds to reveal from my tabs, would you believe a federal investment agenda?! In fact, they are called “Federal Evidence-Based Innovation Programs”. It’s here we will be able to connect more dots to the CCSS Machine than you can imagine.

First, the website: http://results4america.org/policy-hub/invest-works-fact-sheet-federal-evidence-based-innovation-programs/

Of the ones I’ve highlighted, I already have shared in previous articles how each has impacted education OR is about to. But, Warriors, do you see? Our leaders are setting us up AND have been for quite a while!

The dangers of these ‘evidence-based’ innovations, is that most of the time the evidence is SUBJECTIVE and not OBJECTIVE. Most of the time these innovations involve many P3s (Public Private Partnerships) and as we’ve seen, many of THOSE P3s are tied back to the CCSS Machine!!

The even bigger warning is the ‘new’ approach in government when it comes to P3s. The Social Innovation Fund (one I’ve not dug into as much as I’d like) touts the PFS system. What’s PFS?
“Pay For Success”. That very system, my Warrior friends in embedded in ESSA in regards to education! PFS systems work when you have a public problem and use private funds to solve it. However, those ‘unintended consequences’? Where there is private money, there’s also a private agenda. Apply that to a public problem and it spells disaster!

Buried in the pages of the federal initiatives is a guide for the “Common Good”. Education is among the topics. See: http://www.nationalservice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/11_0524_ofbci_partner_toolkit.pdf

Closing:

Well, Warriors, that’s it for the next few days. Please, consider with the elections upon us that our leaders are NOT hiding the changes in our American education OR in how we are as a nation. You’ve seen the evidence here how for the past 7 years (really, much longer), we’ve been lied to, aligned, and sold down the river. Personally, I’d love to pumpkin chunk some of these people for assuming, we the people are so gullible. Professionally, however, exposing them, will do just fine.