Here is David Coleman, the arbiter of what America’s children should know and be able to do.
This is quite a lofty perch. First, he oversees the writing of what are supposed to be national standards.
Now, he is in charge of testing whether students are qualified to enter college.
What an amazing career trajectory for a guy who never taught and whose primary experience was with McKinsey and later with his own testing business, which he sold to McGraw-Hill for $14 million.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The best evidence yet that “money talks; nobody walks.”
His mother was President of avant garde Bennington College which used to be a women only college. Coleman could not make it as a teacher after trying for a year, and so went whole hog into the business and high finance side coalescing with Pearson and other money makers.
Do research on test-optional colleges to avoid paying even more money for testing.
“What athlete does not know the terms of the game before the game?” Coleman said. “An athlete has something called productive practice.” That doesn’t mean players aren’t nervous before the whistle. But they “manage their anxiety” through repetition and practice, Coleman said.
But remember kids, it’s NOT “all about the test!”
Of course it is. They’re not idiots. They’ve probably picked up this incessant obsession with test scores that now begins in third grade.
Let’s just tell them the truth- “the best and brightest” in government and the private sector decided it was all about the test, and Americans went along with it. Tell that to students. They’ll be better served and we can all stop kidding ourselves.
The obsession with test scores is the curse of the ivy. When appointed to an important position, Coleman will be sure to make others jump through hoops and toe that artificial mark. Modeled after the CCSS, which several states rejected, the new SAT will hopefully cause parents to revolt en masse.
The latest “Curmudgucation” discusses the disconnect that the CCSS has spawned. The standards are the result of what a bunch of rich white guys believe are “career and college readiness,” and I suspect the new SAT represents what a rich, white, ivy league, gatekeeper believes students need to be ready for college. We should all be prepared for the fallout. http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/03/misunderstanding-core.html
Aligning the new SAT with his own CC standards was simply Coleman’s brazen attempt to monopolize math and ELA instruction K to 12. The arrogance is breathtaking. The damage will take a generation to undue if states refuse to put a stop to it this summer.
Best government money can buy.
Shows the power of McKinsey experience and connections, not expertise.
Yes. Get Gates to put up the money to write the standards. Get Duncan to tie adopting the standards to the federal purse. Get appointed head of the College Board and align the SAT to the CC which all but guarantees K-12 CC commitment. You have to give him credit—-What a business deal!
“What an amazing career trajectory for a guy who never taught and whose primary experience was with McKinsey.” Funnily enough, that is the very same trajectory that has seen American Brett Wigdortz head up Teach First (UK version of Teach For America).
Look, David, this isn’t a good job for you.
The nation’s public school kids and you simply are not a good fit. You seem to have a real difficulty listening to others, perhaps because you are too caught up in your own image of goodness and rightness? And you are very confused about sports. Learning is not a sport. Kids’ education and their lives are not a sport. I’m thinking maybe you should take some time off and engage in a few activities that expose you to different kinds of children. Have you ever worked with children? Do you have any? Maybe go hang out at Jason Zimba’s house and see how that whole common core math thing is going now. (That NPR story about it awhile back said it wasn’t going very well. ) Get a little life experience. Give us a call after you’ve grown up a little and have the humility to understand that you don’t know everything.
Apparently the phenomenon is not new.
“When I Was a Lad” – HMS Pinafore – Gilbert and Sullivan – 1878 !!
Sir Joseph.
When I was a lad I served a term
As office boy to an Attorney’s firm.
I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor,
AND I POLISHED UP THE HANDLE OF THE BIG FRONT DOOR.
Chorus.
HE POLISHED UP THE HANDLE OF THE BIG FRONT DOOR.
Sir Joseph.
I POLISHED UP THAT HANDLE SO CARFULLEE,
That now I am the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
Chorus.
HE POLISHED UP THAT HANDLE SO CARFULLEE,
That now he is the ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
Sir Joseph.
As office boy I made such a mark
That they gave me the post of a junior clerk.
I served the writs with a smile so bland,
And I copied all the letters in a big round hand.
Chorus.
He copied all the letters in a big round hand.
Sir Joseph.
I copied all the letters in a hand so free,
That now I am the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
Chorus.
He copied all the letters in a hand so free,
That now he is the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
Sir Joseph.
In serving writs I made such a name
That an articled clerk I soon became;
I wore clean collars and a brand-new suit
FOR THE PASS EXAMINATION AT THE INSTITUTE
Chorus.
FOR THE PASS EXAMINATION AT THE INSTITUTE
Sir Joseph.
THAT PASS EXAMINATION DID SO WELL FOR ME,
That now I am the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
Chorus.
THAT PASS EXAMINATION DID SO WELL FOR ME,
That now he is the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
Sir Joseph.
Of legal knowledge I acquired such a grip
That they took me into the partnership.
And that junior partnership, I ween,
Was the only ship that I ever had seen.
Chorus.
Was the only ship that he ever had seen.
Sir Joseph.
But that kind of ship so suited me,
That now I am the ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
Chorus.
But that kind of ship so suited he,
That now he is the ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
Sir Joseph.
I GREW SO RICH THAT I WAS SENT
By a pocket borough into Parliament.
I always voted at my party’s call,
AND I NEVER THOUGHT OF THINKING FOR MYSELF AT ALL.
Chorus.
HE NEVER THOUGHT OF THINKING FOR MYSELF AT ALL.
Sir Joseph.
I THOUGHT SO LITTLE, THEY REWARDED ME
By making me the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
Chorus.
HE THOUGHT SO LITTLE, THEY REWARDED ME
By making him the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
Sir Joseph.
Now landsmen all, whoever you may be,
If you want to rise to the top of the tree,
If your soul isn’t fettered to an office stool,
Be careful to be guided by this golden rule.
Chorus.
Be careful to be guided by this golden rule.
Sir Joseph.
STICK CLOSE TO YOUR DESKS AND NEVER GO TO SEA,
And you all may be rulers of the Queen’s Navee!
Chorus.
STICK CLOSE TO YOUR DESKS AND NEVER GO TO SEA,
And you all may be rulers of the Queen’s Navee!
Spot on.
I 💖 G & S!. Thank you so – it’s lovely to laugh at someone so dreadful as Coleman.
LOL! in satire lies TRUTH!
Doctor Dave’s Amazing Crystal Ball Machine
Step right up mothers and fathers across the land and take a peek at Dr. Dave’s Amazing Crystal Ball Machine. I know it doesn’t look like your typical crystal ball, it’s not round or made out of actual glass, but fear not folks, the machine you are looking at is even more amazing. It’s way more prescient than even the most magical crystal ball, and achieves a perfectly accurate prediction. Just sit your kids down, strap on their seat belt, and watch ’em go. In only 9 hours of interactivity with your son or daughter, Dr. Dave’s Amazing Crystal Ball Machine will have all it needs to predict your child’s future. Dr. Dave is still working out some bugs so you’ll have to wait just few short months before you get the not so good news. But hey, just think of all the money it will save you when you find out that your 9 year old just isn’t college material after all. And heck, if Dr. Dave’s Amazing Crystal Ball Machine tells you that even a “career” is out of reach, why you can start getting their basement bedroom ready now. Soccer Moms and T-ball Dads, don’t let those report card grades fool you, with Dr. Dave’s Amazing Crystal Ball Machine you get the whole truth and nothing but the ego popping truth. And for all the colorful parents in the audience, tell your kids to grab their boot straps, give ‘em a good yank and grit it out. Who cares if 9 out of 10 kids-of-color fall by the wayside; this here Amazing Crystal Ball Machine looks way past just the numbers. Dr. Dave’s Amazing Crystal Ball Machine sees a modern day civil rights march. Ones and twos, black and brown, marching, hand-in-hand, and singing together with one voice: Free at last, free at last, thank Dr. Dave – we are free at last! Now Moms and Dads across the land I can read your minds; there’s no such thing as a free lunch – or a free ride to college and career readiness. So get out your checkbooks, just one easy payment per year due on April 15th.
The Sorting Test
A thousand thoughts or more ago,
When I was newly known,
There lived four wizards of renown,
Whose names are still well-known:
Bold Billy Gates from Microsoft,
Fair Rhee from her DC stint,
Sweet Duncan from Down Under,
Lord Coleman from Vermint.
They shared a wish, a hope, a scheme,
They hatched a daring plan,
To test all children in the land,
Thus Common Core began.
Now each of these four founders
Stack ranked to find the best
They value just one aptitude,
In the ones they had to test.
By level 1, the lowest were
There just to detest;
For Level 2, the closest
But failed to be the best;
For Level 3, hard workers were
Barely worthy of admission;
And power-hungry Level 4s
Were those of great ambition.
While still alive they did divide
Their favorites from the throng,
Yet how to pick the worthy ones
When they were dead and gone?
‘Twas Coleman then who found the way,
He whipped me out of his head
The founders wrote the standards
So I could choose instead!
Now slip me snug around your brain,
I’ve never yet been wrong,
I’ll have a look inside your mind
And tell where you belong!”
Reposted at http://thecriticalreader.com/the-sorting-test/
Thank you. That was priceless.
One would be astonished at all the people who never taught, and imagine they grasp what it is like to ENGAGE the minds of children of any age.
It always strikes me as odd, that so many people who have never had to prepare and execute a ten month curricula with KIDS… are so sure about WLLL–What LEARNING LOOKS LIKE and WITTT my acronym of What It Takes To ‘Teach’ (i.e get children to listen and, then to get them to practice — enough to master a skill.Our human brains need practice in thinking— to THINK WELL kids need thinking curricula which the CC is not.
I watched a PBS piece on the new SAT.
What struck me was a statement from a man in the George Washington University administration; without ever using the word – ‘PERFORMANCE – he described how the applicants’ studies in high school, and the grades from teachers, were better indicators than test scores for success. Teacher grades. The standards Principle on authentic assessment was for and by the teacher… wombats correctly evaluate what a kid can or cannot do… and plan lessons for him, and all the other learners.
He made it clear that they need to fill the seats, but also to attract youngsters who CAN learn– and will stay for 4 years. Some of the best candidates do poorly on the old SAT, but find the new one more accessible, down to 4 hours from 10… just sayin’
Yeah. It would be nice to see the people who write the curricula for the entire nation to have been teachers first, or for any of the legistlaive committees who are running the schools in states where they rescued kids from FAILING schools and now…send the to Charter Schools.
Maybe, someone wants ME to explain what performance resembles and WLLL!
I have a little experience in that area — from 4 decades of watching kids…and then as the Pew cohort, a data-based researcher in the REAL (LOL) standard research on PERFORMANCE.!
When are ‘they’ going to put a teacher at the head of the table (when discussing education) and listen to what the PRACTITIONER says and knows!
Don’t ya love the autocorrect… it liked the word WOMBATS, and THUS, replaced the word TEACHER in this sentence above: ” TEACHERS correctly evaluate what a kid can or cannot do… and plan lessons for him, and all the other learners.
The man is the epitome of a highly-educated ignoramus.
HEY THERE MIKE, wanna know how such ignorance can rise to the top?
In this post is a MUST SEE video by a teacher which takes us back to square one, when such charlatans were just beginning their ascent!
I give you a video, which should go VIRAL!
Lawless America “Cold Interview: BY LORNA STREMCHA*
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGMBKF2UMq4&feature=em-share_video_user
THE rise of the COLEMANS and the Duncans, and the Kings, begins when the incompetence is small— then, with no accountability for mistruth or outright lies they get promoted!
And NOW. (in the absence of any evidence) their magic elixirs are put into practice.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.html
At 7:07 14:40 in the video , Lorna gives the reason that VAM was the natural NEXT step!
The lies against teachers can proliferate Lorna says because “TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE GETTING AWAY WITH THIS — AT HIGH LEVELS … “we have leaders in our schools that are violating laws and don’t have morals and ethics, and we are allowing them to keep their jobs… the cover-up ( you get caught once, and then do it again!) THE KIDS KNOW.”
They rise (for two decades) on their lies and promises, because they have FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES in the oligarchy– billionaires like the Koch brothers,who want the schools to fail, so they can BAIL them out with CHARTERS! When a bureaucracy, which is RIFE with liars, and where mendacity replaces research and facts, AND when ALSO there is not a shred of accountability — then the real criminals move forward. Voila Coleman!
The EIC https://dianeravitch.net/2015/10/24/the-educational-industrial-complex/
want charlatans to write important things like that sham curricula, and so as this video shows, they rise to ‘HIGH LEVELS” and have friends like Hillary!
IF YOU TRUST MY VOICE… make time to listen to Lawless!
I cried when Lorna described the effect on her life, because I have heard this story over and over, and know how it wrecks our lives.
It explains so much, because when you actually REALIZE THAT what happened to her, to me, also IS the story of a hundred thousand veteran teachers, albeit not at the extreme. Lorna’s school’s principal — who went to this length to ‘get her,’ is the same type of sociopath who is running for President. THE PSYCHOPATHS who ran NYC district 2 and tried to destroy my stellar reputation were as Lorna describes: sans ethics, sans morals! Now, such critters thrive on VAM! They rule! They run for president!
There is no FERGUSON FOR US, as they mow us down and the media talks endlessly about ‘bad teachers.” http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/have-reporters-become-poli-ticks–the-media-parasites-of-the-body-politic.html
It was NOT ONE, single person who did this to Lorna, nor was it one person who ended my illustrious career. or that of David Pakter! http://protectportelos.org/the-david-pakter-saga-an-all-too-familiar-of-a-story/
Chris Hedges
YOU see — the CORRUPTION WAS ENDEMIC —JUST LIKE IT WAS IN THE BANKS AND HDEGE FUNDS!
IT IS STILL ENDEMIC in NYC and LA !
ASK FRANCESCO PORTELOS, OR LENNY ISENBERG and testimony abounds…except in the media!
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/LAUSD-OR-TARGETED-TEACHERS-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Deception_Evidence_Fired_Innocence-150720-360.html#comment555646
Coleman, Duncan, King, Rhee, that NYC criminal Klein, dear Eva, get to “big places’ because GOOD MEN LET EVIL THRIVE!
So, nothing is too radical or drastic to do to a teacher, because AFTER they DEMOLISHED THE LIVES of veteran practitioners AND GOT A WAY WITH IT… to the point that there stories do not appear anywhere… well, that is not true
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
http://endteacherabuse.org
http://www.whitechalkcrime.com
What happened to Lorna, to me, and to ten of thousands of teachers, was the work of people at HIGH LEVELS who feel entitled to BULLY TEACHERS.
HOW HARD IS THIS TO COMPREHEND after watching DONALD TRUMP!
He is the MODEL in the macrocosm for the bully administrator in a school who must WIN at all costs, and the COST is the teacher’s careers, BECAUSE NOTHING IS THERE TO STOP HIM.
How hard is it to grasp what Lorna reveals in her story, AFTER witnessing how the CEOs of corporations not only were NOT adjudicated for their civil rights abuse, they WERE PROMOTED and like John King and COLEMAN, THEY get to tell an ignorant citizenry BIG lies about HOW LEARNING TAKES PLACE !!
THE EDUCTION DEPARTMENT HAS BECOME LIARS INC!
*Lorna has testified in Congress about workplace bullying, as well as going to court to seek justice for the principal who set her up to be assaulted. “The Sins of our Schools,” was re-titled “Bravery, Bullies, and Blowhards: Lessons Learned in a Montana Classroom as In her book’s introduction LORNA STRETCHA, describes the moment in the 1980s when top-down discovered they could end the grunt on the line, at the bottom, the lowly classroom practitioner… and the institution would tumble after that!!!!
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/background-information-bravery-bullies-blowhards-lorna-stremcha
MAKE “Lawless” GO VIRAL , FRIENDS.
HEY THERE MIKE, wanna know how such ignorance can rise to the top?
In this post is a MUST SEE video by a teacher which takes us back to square one, when such charlatans were just beginning their ascent!
I give you a video, which should go VIRAL!
Lawless America “Cold Interview: BY LORNA STREMCHA*
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGMBKF2UMq4&feature=em-share_video_user
THE rise of the COLEMANS and the Duncans, and the Kings, begins when the incompetence is small— then, with no accountability for mistruth or outright lies they get promoted!
And NOW. (in the absence of any evidence) their magic elixirs are put into practice.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.html
At 7:07 14:40 in the video , Lorna gives the reason that VAM was the natural NEXT step!
The lies against teachers can proliferate Lorna says because “TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE GETTING AWAY WITH THIS — AT HIGH LEVELS … “we have leaders in our schools that are violating laws and don’t have morals and ethics, and we are allowing them to keep their jobs… the cover-up ( you get caught once, and then do it again!) THE KIDS KNOW.”
They rise (for two decades) on their lies and promises, because they have FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES in the oligarchy– billionaires like the Koch brothers,who want the schools to fail, so they can BAIL them out with CHARTERS! When a bureaucracy, which is RIFE with liars, and where mendacity replaces research and facts, AND when ALSO there is not a shred of accountability — then the real criminals move forward. Voila Coleman!
The EIC https://dianeravitch.net/2015/10/24/the-educational-industrial-complex/
want charlatans to write important things like that sham curricula, and so as this video shows, they rise to ‘HIGH LEVELS” and have friends like Hillary!
IF YOU TRUST MY VOICE… make time to listen to Lawless!
I cried when Lorna described the effect on her life, because I have heard this story over and over, and know how it wrecks our lives.
It explains so much, because when you actually REALIZE THAT what happened to her, to me, also IS the story of a hundred thousand veteran teachers, albeit not at the extreme. Lorna’s school’s principal — who went to this length to ‘get her,’ is the same type of sociopath who is running for President. THE PSYCHOPATHS who ran NYC district 2 and tried to destroy my stellar reputation were as Lorna describes: sans ethics, sans morals! Now, such critters thrive on VAM! They rule! They run for president!
There is no FERGUSON FOR US, as they mow us down and the media talks endlessly about ‘bad teachers.” http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/have-reporters-become-poli-ticks–the-media-parasites-of-the-body-politic.html
It was NOT ONE, single person who did this to Lorna, nor was it one person who ended my illustrious career. or that of David Pakter! http://protectportelos.org/the-david-pakter-saga-an-all-too-familiar-of-a-story/
Chris Hedges
YOU see — the CORRUPTION WAS ENDEMIC —JUST LIKE IT WAS IN THE BANKS AND HDEGE FUNDS!
IT IS STILL ENDEMIC in NYC and LA !
ASK FRANCESCO PORTELOS, OR LENNY ISENBERG and testimony abounds…except in the media!
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/LAUSD-OR-TARGETED-TEACHERS-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Deception_Evidence_Fired_Innocence-150720-360.html#comment555646
Coleman, Duncan, King, Rhee, that NYC criminal Klein, dear Eva, get to “big places’ because GOOD MEN LET EVIL THRIVE!
So, nothing is too radical or drastic to do to a teacher, because AFTER they DEMOLISHED THE LIVES of veteran practitioners AND GOT A WAY WITH IT… to the point that there stories do not appear anywhere… well, that is not true
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
http://endteacherabuse.org
http://www.whitechalkcrime.com
What happened to Lorna, to me, and to ten of thousands of teachers, was the work of people at HIGH LEVELS who feel entitled to BULLY TEACHERS.
HOW HARD IS THIS TO COMPREHEND after watching DONALD TRUMP!
He is the MODEL in the macrocosm for the bully administrator in a school who must WIN at all costs, and the COST is the teacher’s careers, BECAUSE NOTHING IS THERE TO STOP HIM.
How hard is it to grasp what Lorna reveals in her story, AFTER witnessing how the CEOs of corporations not only were NOT adjudicated for their civil rights abuse, they WERE PROMOTED and like John King and COLEMAN, THEY get to tell an ignorant citizenry BIG lies about HOW LEARNING TAKES PLACE !!
THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT HAS BECOME LIARS INC!
* Lorna has testified in Congress about workplace bullying, as well as going to court to seek justice for the principal who set her up to be assaulted. “The Sins of our Schools,” was re-titled “Bravery, Bullies, and Blowhards: Lessons Learned in a Montana Classroom as In her book’s introduction LORNA STRETCHA, describes the moment in the 1980s when top-down discovered they could end the grunt on the line, at the bottom, the lowly classroom practitioner… and the institution would tumble after that!!!!
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/background-information-bravery-bullies-blowhards-lorna-stremcha
MAKE “Lawless” GO VIRAL , FRIENDS.
I am not sure why the Lawless link, in my comment to mike was not active. her it is again
Nothing nails the reason that they can say and do anything they wish, these high level liars, that that story, which is the tale of lawlessness that took out ALL the veteran teachers do the schools would crash!
David Coleman has no peer-reviewed publications. He has no scholarly capital.
Coleman does not deserve to head the College Board. He got there because of who he knows.
I disagree. That is not the issue. The issue lies here: Wanting your kids to go to an accredited school or accredited college. Bad idea. The “accredited” schools are full of socialist indoctrination. Socialism is communism.
What I am saying is this, that he does deserve ti be the head of something crappy like the college board. What he does NOT deserve is to be revered by having people send themselves and their kids to “accredited” anything.
He has always been in charge of college testing. He has been the President of the College Board for years. Recently he has changed the history of the U.S. that kids will learn, not including the founding fathers.
LDS, David Coleman has been in charge of the College Board for a few years, since he completed his work on Common Core. Google him.
I am saying he was on the college boeard long befor common core.
No, David Coleman worked for McKinsey, then started a business called the GROW network, which he sold to McGraw-Hill for about $14 million, then he started a company called Student Achievement Partners, which managed the writing of the Common Core. After CC was finished, Coleman was hired by the College Board.
Really? I did not know that. Thanks for telling me.