About

mooregritsmooregrits
Mooresville, NC

Bio: Common Core/National Standards in education warrior since 2009.  Recognized educational researcher, writer, and speaker.  Bringing truth with a smile & a jar of applesauce.

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33 thoughts on “About

  1. I favor asking people why they support various positions. Why are you against the math standards? Are you against all of them? If not, which ones? Do you favor a different set? Are you against having standards of any kind?

    1. I am against any Common Core standard. Period. Regardless of math or other. Why? First off, illegal! Violates the Constitution and federal law. Second, CCSS has been proven to be inappropriate in developmental processes for students.

      1. Yes, parents have been left out of the schools. You don’t need a PhD to know how your child learns. Totally illegal. I am a Catholic school mom and the Bishops drank the Kool-Aid! Each school pubic or private should have parent input and that includes what books we buy, etc. It is disgusting how we just sit back and let it happen. This is the culture of passivity, blind trust, and just giving away our power. This should be intolerable.

    2. Lane, this is a common question. People think those who oppose Common Core are “against” any sort of standards in the classroom, as if we don’t care whether children learn. That is not true. We are against those who sell curriculum materials that are not developed by educators, are not properly vetted, are changed every year or two, and are designed purely with profit in mind. Teachers know how to set standards, they know how to create curriculum, and they know how to assess students. Teachers should be assessed by experts in education (ideally a competent principal) that know them PERSONALLY, and those assessments should be accompanied with an individualized improvement plan (if needed). Our children and teachers should NOT be subject to the whims of enterprising politicians and curriculum developers who have never set foot in a classroom, other than when they were children.

  2. Also, anytime you see this Chris Whittle or anyone he’s ever dealt with…same old same old with a snazzy new handle. I’m guessing. 🙂

  3. Thank you for reviewing FunCation Academy, as the owner I would like to add some clarity to your review. FunCation Academy does not use CCSS in any of our services, including i-Ready. Due the fact that we are not part of any public school system, i-Ready gives us the liberty to choose which standards we align our self-paced programs and diagnostic placement assessments too. We are aligned to Florida State Standards because our corporate office is located in Tampa, Florida. I cannot stress this enough, we are not trying to interject CCSS into any of our programs. In regards to the comment I made in 2014, the comment was designed to defuse a conversation I was having with a MA teacher, which was about the difference between the standards vs the curriculum. My personal opinions regarding the standards have evolved as I continue to work closely with the homeschooling community. I would love to extend you an invitation so we can further discuss FunCation Academy. -Amy

    1. Dear Amy,
      Thanks for taking time to comment. However, you need to know that as an avid researcher, especially on the subject of Common Core Standards and all it encompasses, I do a very complete job. What I published is based on all the evidence I could find. No matter what the evidence has shown for any company, group, or person, I’ve striven to share the truth about what’s uncovered. As a supporter of educational choice I would hope that you will appreciate my view of our current Common Core laden nation: ALL students, especially home educated ones, have a right to know IF they are receiving Common Core aligned lesson plans, resources, curriculum, or related.

      Since you’ve stated above that your business does NOT have the ‘Common Core State Standards’ BUT does align to the ‘Florida State Standards’,I asked my anti Common Core friends from Florida to provide me with even more truth about ‘Common Core State Standards’ and Florida.

      Florida State Standards are Common Core State Standards re-branded evidence #1:
      http://www.flstopcccoalition.org/news/2014-02/rep-adkins-12-subcommittee-deceives-public-puts-lipstick-pig-shirks-responsibility.htm
      Evidence #2:
      http://www.flstopcccoalition.org/news/2014-05/even-mainstream-media-question-scott-statements-about-being-out-common-core.htm (notice how it’s revealed that Florida State Standards ARE Common Core State Standards)
      Evidence #3:
      http://www.flstopcccoalition.org/news/2014/ (scroll down to June 2014 where you’ll see the Title “FL DOE Weaves a Tangled Web of Deceit About Common Core in NCLB Waiver”, you’ll be able to see a couple of screen shots showing how that deceit is laid out)
      Evidence #4:
      http://thefloridachannel.org/videos/21814/ (during the first 3 minutes or so, the renaming of Common Core State Standards to Florida State Standards is covered)
      Lastly, Amy, here’s the evidence for iReady in Florida and how it connects to Common Core State Standards: http://www.curriculumassociates.com/products/iready/diagnostic-instruction.aspx (the website plainly states how iReady is designed for Common Core)

      I truly hope that the view you currently have will be one that considers this evidence provided. I wish you well in your business.
      Sincerely,
      Lynne

  4. Thank you for your reply and I will review the information. Just curious, what standards do you endorse? I would like to do some research so if necessary to change I have some alternatives. -Amy

    1. Amy, I have some more evidence about the Florida Standards & the Common Core Standards being the same thing.
      As far as educational standards I endorse, I will say that the ones most sought after (at least from my experience) by the community you are targeting are lesson plans, framework, and resources which support a learning style of academic-based. I’d ditch anything outcome based or performance based. These lend themselves to the educational mess we see now. Rather, I access all the Dr. Ruth Beechick, Mary Pride, Cathy Duffy resources I could find and based my business off of those. Why? These ladies were in home education (or supportive of it) well before it was modern. Thousands of ‘old school’ homeschool parents have not only relied on resources such as these, but have been blessed to have students/children who graduated high school and gone on to be very successful in life. Look for ‘curriculum’ like “Pets in a Jar”. Access the Homeschool Road Map’s Common Core Project. Tina Hollenbeck has put together an extensive data base of homeschool curriculum, assessments, etc. which are either aligned to the Common Core, somewhat aligned, or are remaining independent of the Standards.

    1. Title One funding will be the way the ESSA puts the screws to each state. The misleading notion of portability (money following child) is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Many of the pro CCSS groups assisting states in setting up education savings accounts have not been exposed.
      Here is my article about Title One’s hidden strings. I would also suggest you contact Anita Hoge and Charlotte Iserbyt, as they have been correct thus far about everything we are seeing happen in education.
      https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/11/21/weekend-news-the-state-of-ccsss-sel/

  5. I would like to include my own evaluation that I think may better explain the problem teachers, students and parents have been having with Common Core. The method elementary teachers are required to teach their elementary students are perfectly valid. I saw through these methods as a student when these same methods were presented under the failed methods named “New Math”. There is no significant difference between the failed “New Math” and “Common Core Math”. Therefore, this methodology has already failed and must fail again as the reasons for its failure was not addressed.
    I saw these methods being taught in a formal way in Number Theory College math. The problem is that most elementary teachers have not taken college level number theory. Therefore, they are not qualified to teach college number theory at any level. But, they are trying to teach 2nd to 5th grade students college number theory. But 2nd to 5th grade students are not ready to learn college number theory. Parents have a problem helping their children with college number theory math as many or even most have not had number theory at the college level. The failure of Common Core Math at the elementary level is unavoidable.

    1. Agree with you whole-heartedly, Joe. My daughter is 10 and would not talk about school when she came home each day. When we went to online learning, I was able to see how much of the “college level” verbiage the teacher was using just to teach math and language arts. Some of the videos sent to the kids to watch were college videos, super boring and did not hold my daughter’s attention. https://youtu.be/v-FxExv–jg I was floored. The teacher was also introducing geometry to 3rd graders when my daughter still didn’t have a firm grasp on addition and subtraction-and when I said it was ridiculous, the teacher had the vice principal call me who ultimately said “I guess we agree to disagree”. BS. I pulled my daughter out of school to homeschool her.

  6. We are ramping up a replacement of top-down education in America to be replaced with a bottom-up approach so that when Common Core and the associated standardized testing fails, we will be ready to roll as a country to finally be rid of the US Department of Education (created by Jimmy Carter) along with the Common Core tentacles left in ESSA. We are fellow warriors….check out our white paper at http://www.bottomupeducation.com John Lyscars – Founder

  7. http://1105insight.com/portal/wts/uemcmQedkf%7CbaOe-aQo7q%7CqTFk8a

    Are you familiar with block chain software for permanent student data management? See page 8 in the Jan/Feb issue of The Journal :Transforming education through technology. This is really amazing because the information monopolies google, amazon, facebook are very real and a much bigger hurdle than a patent. Whoever controls the information and how it’s searched for marketing purposes, will control which education services survive financially. Watching information controls and money controls show who is in charge. I’m also wondering if there are similarities in block chains for student data and cryptocurrency. In cryptos a block chain registers every transaction permanently.

    I found your blog on FB Texans for Homeschool Freedom.

    1. I do not give out my phone number. If you need a education research question answered, just leave it in the comments. Thanks

  8. Lynne,

    This is Erin Greene and I want to know how someone can book you to come and give a speech?

    Thank you,
    Erin Greene

    1. Erin, it’s quite simple, get your groups together and plan on a date and time. Email me with what topic(s) you wish me to dive into.
      Then, I will check my calendar. We can work out the logistics from there. I usually need the cost of the trip covered. Food, I will cover due to all
      my allergies.
      Thanks SO much for asking! I’ve been wanting to come to TX for years! We could get all the TX Warriors together for a conference.
      I believe you have my email.

  9. This would be through the John Birch Society. The leader said he wanted a link. I think what I’ll do is tell about you and suggest some topics such as SEL, CRT (We recently had someone come and talk; however, in my opinion you understand better. Perhaps I’m biased.) Anyway, I think how education is linked to the UN would be an excellent topic. Any thoughts?
    Erin

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