The standardized testing nuttiness reaches a new low

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Only in Floriduh...

The standardized testing nuttiness reaches a new low

WEST PALM BEACH — Standardized testing in Florida will turn your kid gay?

Seriously? Did somebody actually say this?

Just when you think that the stupidity landfill can't get any deeper in Florida when it comes to standardized testing, somebody drops a big load of "gay agenda" on the steaming pile.

And we're not talking about some lunatic ranting on a street corner into a cloud of bus fumes. No it's a Florida House member, Rep. Charles Van Zant, a Republican from North Florida's Clay County.

Van Zant told a group of standardized testing critics that he was very troubled that American Institutes for Research, the company that Florida hired to come up with the replacement for the FCAT, has a secret agenda to make kids gay. "They are promoting as hard as they can to any youth that is interested in the LGBT agenda," Van Zant said. "These people that will now receive $220 million from the state of Florida unless this is stopped, will now promote double-mindedness in state education and attract every one of your children to become as homosexual as they possibly can be."

Oh, my. We're going to need a bigger dump truck for this load.

But before addressing the buffoonery of Van Zant, it would be instructive to explain why Florida needs American Institutes for Research to develop its test in the first place.

You see, it wasn't long ago that Florida was one of the governing states in something called the PARCC, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. Florida had a leadership role in a consortium of states developing a national test for the Common Core standards.

The idea for Common Core, a uniform expectation of achievement for grade-level learning, was championed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education and the bipartisan National Governors Association.

The Obama administration belatedly endorsed it and earmarked some federal funding to support it. That's when the trouble started.

Obama's endorsement created an incurable outbreak of nuttiness and paranoid fantasies from the usual suspects, who dubbed the national standards "Obama Core" and imagined all sorts of secret plots at work.

"Obama Core is a comprehensive plan to dumb down schoolchildren so they will be obedient servants of the government and probably to indoctrinate them to accept the left-wing view of America and its history," wrote Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly. What started out as a GOP idea had been magically transformed into a fiendish implementation of leftist ideology. (See Obamacare for another example.)

Naturally, Florida's Gov. Rick Scott joined the chorus by removing Florida from the PARCC, claiming that he couldn't abide by the "federal government's overreach" in a "state-level decision on academic standards."

So Florida created its own version of the Common Core, called the Florida Standards, which did little to placate the critics, who saw it as an adoption of the national standards wrapped in a new name.

This exercise in pandering to Obama haters caused Florida to hire American Institutes for Research for a $220 million, six-year contract to develop a new standardized test just for Florida students.

And that's not all. Florida's move out of the consortium put it in desperate need for test questions in the short run, so the state is paying Utah up to $5.4 million to borrow Utah test questions for Florida students.

That's right, to prove just how important it is for Florida students to be tested with a special test just for Florida, we're using test questions developed for Utah's schoolchildren.

Obamaphobia is a costly mental illness.

So by the time Van Zant weighed in with his testing-will-make-kids-gay charge, the saturation point for bad behavior on the standardized testing issue may have already been reached.

Van Zant is worked up about American Institutes for Research's unrelated work in developing services for schools that request guidance in handling bullying situations involving kids over their sexual orientation. The company offers schools guidance, if requested, on creating a "welcoming environment" for all children, regardless of their sexual orientation.

For an elected leader to create a sinister fantasy over protecting children — theoretically the children of his own constituents — from being ostracized and bullied at school is appalling.

But then again, Van Zant's got plenty of cover. Appalling has already become the norm on this subject.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

What did I just read?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

What did I just read?

A piece that discusses the disgust that Floriduh Republicans apparently have for not only their Common Core product but now also for the company they themselves hired to come up with new tests for Floriduh. That is something they felt they had to do to placate the Obamaphobia crowd that need to remain in office. It's amusing just how confused they are. And it's shocking what this Obamaphobia costs the people of Floriduh. I wonder if Jeb will have to run from his baby - that baby being Common Core - if he decides to run for President much in the same way in which Mittens felt he had to run from Romneycare.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

A piece that discusses the disgust that Floriduh Republicans apparently have for not only their Common Core product but now also for the company they themselves hired to come up with new tests for Floriduh. That is something they felt they had to do to placate the Obamaphobia crowd that need to remain in office. It's amusing just how confused they are. And it's shocking what this Obamaphobia costs the people of Floriduh. I wonder if Jeb will have to run from his baby - that baby being Common Core - if he decides to run for President much in the same way in which Mittens felt he had to run from Romneycare.

That article is efing insane. There are people out here really this paranoid? Geez

Edited May 23, 2014 by Janelle2002

[Jacque67 7,328]

Educated men are all ghey!

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

That article is efing insane. There are people out here really this paranoid? Geez

The article is spot on. It's Floriduh that's insane.

[Pooky 3,784]

Only in Florida.

Everywhere else wants to get out from under Common Core because it's an awful education system, that wasn't thought through well enough and didn't involve the educators on the ground anywhere near enough.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Only in Florida.

Everywhere else wants to get out from under Common Core because it's an awful education system, that wasn't thought through well enough and didn't involve the educators on the ground anywhere near enough.

Thank Jeb Bush for it. It's basically his baby.

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

A standardized system brought in by the Mike Harris government in Ontario led to my brother being 15 and unable to read... Standardized education does not work.

And Florida is INSANE. But I knew that from when I used to be a telemarketer for Earthlink Internet. The things i heard out of Florida...

Edited May 24, 2014 by Not a Tailor

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

A standardized system brought in by the Mike Harris government in Ontario led to my brother being 15 and unable to read... Standardized education does not work.

And Florida is INSANE. But I knew that from when I used to be a telemarketer for Earthlink Internet. The things i heard out of Florida...

'tis a special place

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

'tis a special place

Very. My favourite was this:

I was on a program where you were trying to get people who had recently (past six months) had the net through Earthlink to sign up again. So these are all people who have PREVIOUSLY HAD THE INTERNET, just to be clear, for context.

I get a gentleman from Florida on the line. I start into my spiel about the wonder that is our new, upgraded services and the discounts he'd get if he signed up again!

His response? "Now let me stop you right there, miss. The in'ernet is a devil machine designed to turn our children into homoseckshuls." And then he hung up.

[Pooky 3,784]

Thank Jeb Bush for it. It's basically his baby.

He may support it, for which he is an idiot, but he didn't start the ball rolling.

Although they only recently captured national attention, the Common Core standards which lay out what students should know and be able to do by each grade have been in the works since at least 2008. It all started with former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, who was the 2006-07 chair of the National Governors Association and now leads the University of California system, says Dane Linn, a vice president of the Business Roundtable who oversees its Education and Workforce Committee.

Read more here: http://www.usnews.com/news/special-reports/articles/2014/02/27/the-history-of-common-core-state-standards

When teachers have trouble explaining the subjects, as many do, then something is very wrong. More and more states are pulling back from Common Core, as it's flaws become progressively more apparent.

But Common Core turning kids gay? Only in Florida.

Edited May 24, 2014 by Pooky

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Let's look at Florida's bright side, okay?

[Pooky 3,784]

Let's look at Florida's bright side, okay?

More like ...

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

More like ...

You've been to the wrong beaches, buddy.