"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Thursday, January 02, 2014

Social Studies National Curriculum: Pearson and Gates Ready for Next Push

Even as 22 states are rethinking, restricting, or dropping prior commitments to national Common Core corporate standards for schools, this has not stopped the CorpEd machine from quietly pushing forward with another prong of its overreaching and lucrative exercise to increase testing, standardize thinking, and undercut diversity in American schools.

On September 11, 2013, a group drunk with money from the Gates Foundation published College, Career, and Civic Life: C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards.  Short on specifics and long on intent, the new C3 cram down crew offer this advice:

The C3 Framework was purposefully designed to offer guidance for state social studies standards, not to outline specific content to be delivered. For states utilizing the C3 Framework, the ten themes of the 2010 NCSS National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies:
A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment will be useful for the process of identifying specific content to be delivered and concepts to be acquired.
Apparently, the memo that these were not national standards but, rather, state standards did not reach all parties before they went to print.  If you would like to know what is in the new National Curriculum . . ., don't expect it be easy.  The document is available for $29.95, while supplies last.  Or it may be rented at Amazon for $20.89.  

2 comments:

  1. FYI - The photo you have posted is not of the standards you're referring to. The photo is of the NCSS's 10 thematic strands, are very general, and are a decent enough guide to helping especially younger teachers develop lessons and units with the larger picture in mind. The C3 standards are the latest and much more specific prescriptions coming out of NCSS that swallows the entire pitcher of Common Core Kool-Aid. After all, what second grader shouldn't be able to "explain how scarcity necessitates decision-making"?

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  2. The photo goes with the quote, which talks about the national standards document. Thanks for your comment.

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