Category Archives: Parents

URGENT MEETING: Parental Rights on Surveys

If you recall, there was an effort to help pass important legislation last session that would have required PARENTAL WRITTEN PERMISSION before the school could SURVEY your children.

Rep. Terry Wolf worked hard to remove “written permission” from the original bill. She along with the survey company representative succeed and the original bill was watered down.

In the new bill that was passed, they are now going to set up a “Study Committee”. It’s important to again, attend the meeting where select legislators will meet to discuss whether this is important or not.

AS it stands, parents do have the right to “opt out” their children on these invasive surveys, however we know that often times, parents are not aware that they are being given and they have no idea the kinds of questions being asked of their children.

There was OVERWHELMING support for the original bill but Rep.Wolf who said this was a “local” decision in her testimony (what’s MORE local than parental permission?) and the survey representative said if parents were required to give written permission, they would not get the large number of completed surveys.

We heard testimony from one school board member who said a teacher in NH made the students stand up in her class to answer questions. This meant all of the students and teacher saw exactly how the students answered these personal and invasive questions.

Some surveys we’ve seen include questions on whether there is a gun in the home, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, drug abuse, alcohol abuse and so on. (see link below)

It’s important to keep the pressure on our legislators to require an OPT in provision on these surveys. This is a parental rights issue.

DATE: September 2
Time: 11:00 am
WHERE: Legislative office building behind the State House room 102

If you CANNOT make it to the meeting, it’s important to make sure these legislators know that we expect them to support parental rights.

If you know these legislators or live in their district, give them a call or e-mail them
Thank you

Rep. John Balcom: john.balcom@leg.state.nh.us
Rep. Terry Wolf: terry.wolf@leg.state.nh.us
Senator Kevin Avard: Kevin.Avard@leg.state.nh.us
Rep. Barbara Shaw: beshaw3@comcast.net
Rep. Rick Ladd: ladd.nhhouse@charter.net
Rep. Ken Weyler: kweyler@aol.com
Rep. Mary Gile: Mary.Gile@leg.state.nh.us

For more info:
Rep. Terry Wolf Working To Deny Parental Rights in NH
What Are They Asking My Children
NH Gun Owners Beware

Which Republican Campaigns are off to a BAD start in New Hampshire?

Did some of the Republican presidential candidates just make a colossal error? Possibly, although this could actually be a calculated move.

A summit on education was announced this week with a few of the Republican presidential candidates participating. The summit will be moderated by Campbell Brown and include discussions on America’s education system. Unfortunately they skipped right over the grassroots activists IN NEW HAMPSHIRE who’ve been working on this issue for the past five years.

There is now a huge network of activists, parents and teachers across New Hampshire who are actively engaged in issues like Common Core, school choice, charter schools, etc. It would be easy for a national organization to collaborate with local leaders and activists. Unfortunately none of our local activists were contacted.

Some of the more prominent conservative and liberty organizations working on issues in education are well known throughout New Hampshire. Organizations like New Hampshire Families for Education, School Choice for New Hampshire, and Cornerstone Action have active leaders and were not contacted nor invited to help organize this event.

These organizations have worked with national organizations in the past in order to bring New Hampshire voters information on issues in education. Their goal has been to make sure the discussion is focused on engaging parents who have been negatively impacted by the federal reforms in education.

They’ve gained the trust and respect from parents across New Hampshire and have fought for parental rights, supporting local control in education, better academic standards, school choice, etc.

Can you imagine if these candidates were to come and discuss the importance of supporting the 2nd amendment and ignore all of the New Hampshire pro-second amendment organizations? One would have to wonder, why the snub?

Could it be that the moderator of this event, Campbell Brown, is an avid supporter of Common Core?

Campbell Brown is featured in this article by one of the nationally known activists, Mercedes Schneider. Schneider explains how Brown wants to explain to all of us what Common Core is all about. As if those of us who’ve actually had to deal with it in our schools remain uninformed. But isn’t that how our own Commissioner of Education and Chairman of the Board of Education have treated parents in the past?

We don’t know how great Common Core really is even though we are the ones directly impacted by the confusing math, flawed testing and data collection.

Don’t you just love how the elites who want to tell us how great Common Core is while their precious angels never have to deal with it in their private elite schools? Schneider provides a long list of elitists who force Common Core on our schools but wouldn’t touch it for their own kids. Campbell Brown is included in that list along with President Obama.

It looks like the BIGGEST Common Core supporters running for president will be at this summit, Governors Jeb Bush and John Kasich. Governors Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie and Scott Walker have Common Core baggage that cause many of us to question their capacity to make good decisions in education if they were to become president. Carly Fiorina would be wise to skip this summit,contact local grassroots organizations and start talking to the parents who want to be heard instead of TOLD that the garbage they are seeing is really good for their children.

Senator Rand Paul came to New Hampshire several months ago and met with the parents and teachers fighting Common Core in New Hampshire. Senator Rick Santorum has an education summit scheduled tomorrow in Manchester to do the same thing. Candidates like Senators Cruz and Rubio have said they’d be willing to work with New Hampshire activists and parents to engage in the same kind of discussion. In other words, they want to meet directly with the people who’ve been impacted by the federal reforms coming from D.C. into their child’s classroom.

Did the campaigns involved in this upcoming summit make a mistake by leaving out the grassroots organizations? We wondered about that, however it seems that if you want to control the message and make sure the tough questions are kept out of the discussion, what better way than to keep those closest to the problem away from the discussion.

We are a network of parents and teachers across New Hampshire fighting for a quality education for our children and local control in education. We expect parents who have to deal with these federal reforms to be the focus of any discussion on education. That’s been the priority from our New Hampshire activists. To exclude them from any discussion on education gives us a negative impression before it even begins.

Has the Government Lost Its Mind?

[Click picture for a larger view... ]

adoctorsnote1

“Why should the parents be required to bear the expense of a doctor’s visit to get the required note to be allowed to send healthful, homemade lunches for their children?”

The answer is, the government has NO RIGHT to keep children from eating lunches brought from home.

Read more…

BIA (Business Industry Assoc.) Lobbying Against Parental Rights In NH

It looks like the BIA (Business Industry Assoc.) stands in OPPOSITION of parental rights in New Hampshire too.
BIA HB 603 Letter

We now have our Governor and a business lobbying group working against parents in New Hampshire.

We continue to encourage business to withdraw from the BIA. The BIA lobbies in favor of the dumbed down Common Core standards for our children and now they are lobbying against parents too.

Common Core Forum in Northwood

A Common Core Forum will be held on Thursday, June 25, 2015, at the Northwood School, 511 First NH Turnpike, Northwood, NH, at 6:30 PM.
Dr. Sandra Stotsky will be there to talk about the problems with Common Core. We are being told that other people will be there to speak in support Common Core.
It’s important that if you live in the area or if you simply want to attend to listen to all viewpoints, mark this on your calendar.

Why The Common Core Is Psychologically and Cognitively Unsound

Perfectly Incorrect: Why The Common Core Is Psychologically And Cognitively Unsound

We just stumbled upon a book that caught our attention. It looks like this might be a good book to send to your local Superintendent after you’ve read it.

In fact, it might be a good idea to take it to the School Board and present the book to the Superintendent and then ask them all to read it. Then follow up later with some questions and ask for evidence, data, facts to back up the claim that Common Core is good for your kids.

For instance in the summary on Amazon it says this:
Then, in Chapter 4, the author again demonstrates his research skills when he lays bare much of the deeply flawed pedagogy of the Common Core. For example, one of the trendiest of trends in contemporary education is “collaborative learning.” The problem, however, is that all available research strongly suggests that collaborative learning only works if everyone at the table is an expert to begin with. Otherwise, students end up exchanging ignorance and/or a disproportionate percentage of students end up doing the heavy lifting for the task at hand.

Collaboration is a big fad in the schools right now and much of that comes from the Competency Based ed element in the Obama Redesign. As you can see, we’ve been trying to raise awareness and problems with pushing this kind of pedagogy (teaching method) in the public schools.

Some of this comes from the what was addressed above but some can also come into your school from grant foundations like Nellie Mae.

Nellie Mae and the other progressive education reformers continue to push pedagogical fads that have been around for years. When’s the last time they ever produced independent studies that show any of this improves academic achievement? Good luck finding that.

Complaints we’ve heard from parents:
1) My child ends up teaching their peers, can’t they collect the teacher’s salary?
2) Group learning or group think?
3) So much for rugged individualism in this class
4) Collaboration or collectivism?
5) My child says he’s learning nothing
6) There’s a lot of socialization but little learning going on

Teachers should be free to use the methods they believe work best for their students. Parents should have input if the methods are not working for their children. However when Nellie Mae or an education reform like “Common Core” pushes a pedagogy on teachers, then they are not free to change up their methods as parents and teachers might like.

If federal or grant money is tied to reforming your school, it will make it almost impossible for parents to have their concerns addressed.

Who’s Working Against Parents In NH? We Are Naming Names

This year is proving to be quite the battle for parents who want control over their local schools versus allowing the Feds to run their schools with the help from the New Hampshire Dept. of Education.

We’ve highlighted pro-parent legislation like HB206 and how Rep. Terry Wolf (R-Bedford) removed written consent from parents, in an amendment, when their children are subjected to invasive surveys on controversial issues like sexual activity, gun ownership, drugs, alcohol, etc.

We’ve highlighted how SB101 was vetoed by Governor Hassan that simply clarified that schools do not have to adopt the Common Core standards. Chairman Raffio of the New Hampshire Board of Education also ignored the voices of parents and objected to SB 101. By placing SB101 in to statute, it would have helped parents who want to direct their local schools to use superior academic standards. Here is a list of State Reps who voted against parents (voted nay)

Democrats and a few Republicans have actively worked against parents and we hope we’ve managed to point out who those legislators are.

We’d like to keep pointing out a trend among the Democrats and a few Republicans who consistently oppose parental rights in New Hampshire. We’d also like to point out that you may actually be paying the salaries of lobbyists who also actively lobby against parental rights legislation too.

Let us remind you that just a few short years ago when Governor Lynch VETOED HB542 which gave parents the right to replace objectionable material (at their expense) that was assigned to their child.

Since then a few parents have exercised their right to replace materials that were assigned to their children that they found objectionable.

The law has worked great to help parents but it has also helped the schools too. How? Often times parents have to fight to remove objectionable material from the class and/or school. Now if one parent objects, they can simply replace the material for their children and not disrupt the class if the rest of the parents are fine with the assignment.

Who stood against parents?
1) Governor Lynch
2) Bill Duncan (who was appointed to the NH Board Of Education By Gov. Maggie Hassan
3 The Nashua Telegraph
4) UNH professors
5) NH School Administrators Association (check your school budget, chances are your taxes are paying this lobbyist)
6) The NH School Boards Association (Check your school budget, chances are your taxes are paying this lobbyist)
7) Lobbyists from the NEA-NH
8) NH Dept. of Education.

It’s important to take note of the same faces/lobbyists who continue to actively work against parents in New Hampshire.

Sources:
http://nhfamiliesforeducation.org/content/hb-542-proposes-end-discrimination-public-schools

https://unh-education-department.wikispaces.com/file/view/Policy_Brief_12-01_on_+HB-542.pdf

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinioneditorials/947655-263/parental-rights-law-goes-too-far.html

NH PARENTS: A Call To Action. What are they doing?

We know parents in New Hampshire want the best education for their children. We also know that the Obama Redesign (with Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards) do not provide that for our children. That is why many parents across the state have started to fight for better standards and testing in our local schools.

We’d like to thank parents and teachers who’ve spoken out and are demanding better in New Hampshire.

We now ask you to send a message to all of the State Reps and Senators in New Hampshire and ask them what they did this legislative session to STOP Common Core in New Hampshire.

E-MAILS including the NH Board of Ed members:(copy and paste)
john.reagan111@gmail.com, nancy.stiles@leg.state.nh.us, Kevin.Avard@leg.state.nh.us, molly.kelly@leg.state.nh.us, david.watters@leg.state.nh.us, HReps@leg.state.nh.us, TomRaffio@nedelta.com, hhonorow@barrylawoffice.com, chags@comcast.net, gobuild@together.net rousemma@gmail.com, waduncan@gmail.com, ggroleau@nhbb.com

You will be pleasantly surprised to know that some of them DID try to support parents by supporting legislation like SB101. Here are the State Reps that supported parents and SB101. Here are the State Reps. who ignored your voice and chose to side with the dumbed down standards.

We ask you to copy the Common Core Math and English flaws listed below and send them to the NH legislators with this message:
Thank the legislators who supported SB101 and remind them that the Common Core Math and English standards have serious flaws that put our children at a disadvantage. Why would those who did not support SB101 continue to support flawed academic standards for our children?

It might also be a good idea to take this list to your next school board meeting and ask your board members what the administrators have done to correct these flaws? Ask for proof.

Whether this is addressed at the state or local level, has anyone attempted to make any of these improvements to the state or local Common Core standards used in your district?

Missing or Delayed in Common Core’s Mathematics Standards

R. James Milgram (Stanford University)

I. Kindergarten through Grade 7

1. CC does not require proficiency with addition and subtraction until Grade 4 (a grade

behind our international competitors).

2. CC does not require proficiency with multiplication using the standard algorithm

(step-by-step procedure for calculations) until Grade 5 (a grade behind standard

expectations).

3. CC does not require proficiency with division using the standard algorithm until Grade 6

(two grades behind our international competitors).

4. CC starts teaching decimals in Grade 4 (about two years behind the more rigorous

states).

5. CC fails to teach in K-7 key geometrical concepts (e.g., sum of angles in a triangle,

isosceles and equilateral triangles, etc.).

6. Excludes fluent conversion between different forms of fractions: regular fractions,

decimals, and percents.

7. CC fails to teach prime factorization. Consequently, it does not include teaching about

least common denominators or greatest common factors.

8. CC fails to teach compound interest and the associated formula, (x

A(n+l) – l)/(x-l) =
1 + x + x

A2 + … + xAn.
II. Algebra 1: Missing components needed for Algebra II and Calculus

1. Division of monomials, polynomials (only addition, subtraction & multiplication are

covered)

2. Derivation and understanding of slopes of parallel and perpendicular lines

3. Manipulation and simplification of rational expressions

4. Multi-step problems with linear equations and inequalities

5. Multi-step problems with four operations between polynomials

6. Multi-step problems involving manipulation of rational expressions

7. Solving two linear inequalities in two variables and sketching the solution sets

8. Solve problems with quadratic expressions (added to CA’s CC standards)

9. Solve problems with equations and inequalities with absolute value (same)

III.

Geometry: Key topics missing include properties of triangles, circles
IV. Algebra

II: Key topics missing include composite functions,
combinations and permutations, structure of logarithms and
conversion between bases

Flaws
in Common Core’s English Language Arts and Literacy Standards
Presented at National Principals Leadership Institute (NPLI)
Sandra Stotsky*
July 13,2014
I. Missing Standards
1. No standard on the history of the English language
2. No standard on British literature aside from Shakespeare
3. No standard on authors from the ancient world
4. No standard on selected pieces from the Bible as literature so that students can learn
about its influence on English and American literature
n. Overall Deficits
1. Stress on writing, not reading
2. Stress on reading informational texts, not complex literary texts
3. Reduction in opportunities to develop critical thinking
4. Reduction hi literary study in the K-12 English class to 9 of 19 reading standards
5. No list of recommended authors, literary movements, literary periods
6. Poorly written standards
lH. Murky, badly written standards, not fewer, clearer, deeper
For example, a literature standard for grades 9/10 asks students to: “determine a theme or
central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it
emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.”
This poorly constructed and self-contradictory sentence is a jumble of at least three different
activities: determining a theme, analyzing its development, and summarizing a complete text.
IV. Literacy standards for history
1. Inappropriate exemplars for informational reading in high school history classes.
2. Inappropriate literacy strategies for the study of history: a non-historical approach to
the study of historical texts. The study of history requires, among other things, the use
of skills like contextualization, sourcing, and corroboration. These skills differ from
those used in literary analysis.
* Sandra Stotsky is professor of education emerita at the University of Arkansas, where she
held the 21st Century Chair hi Teacher Quality. She served as Senior Associate
Commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
from 1999-2003, where she was hi charge of developing or revising all the state’s K-12
standards, teacher licensure tests, and teacher and administrator licensure regulations. She
served on the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from 2006-2010,
on the National Mathematics Advisory Panel from 2006-2008, and on the Common Core
Validation Committee from 2009-2010. She was one of the five members of the Validation
Committee who would not sign off on the standards as being internationally benchmarked,
rigorous, or research-based.

Is the Nashua Superintendent Purposely Misleading Parents?

We’ve posted information on REFUSING the Smarter Balanced Assessment for your children. There’s even a petition to stop the abusive practices by the NH Dept. of Education. Unfortunately we continue to see administrators not providing parents with ALL of the information on their rights to refuse the Smarter Balanced for their children.

This latest letter comes from a parent in Nashua who was upset that the Superintendent didn’t provide all of the information for parents on their right to “Refuse”.

This is why HB603 is needed. HB603 declares that a student exempted from taking the statewide assessment by the student’s parent or legal guardian shall not be penalized. The bill also requires a school district to provide an appropriate alternative educational activity for the time period during which the assessment is administered..

Please call Governor Hassan and ask her to sign HB603 and support parents.

Parents also need to hold their school administrators accountable for the lack of information they are providing to parents. Manchester chose to fully inform parents on their refusal rights. Why are other schools choosing to keep parents in the dark?

It’s time to march into the next school board meeting and let them know this is unacceptable.

May 15, 2015

Dear Parents:

The State of New Hampshire requires an annual statewide assessment for English Language Arts and Math for students in grades 3-8 and 11. RSA 193-C:6 states, “Each year, a statewide assessment shall be administered in all school districts in the state in grades 3-8 and one grade in high school. All public school students in the designated grades shall participate in the assessment…”

To meet this requirement in English Language Arts and Math the State has chosen the Smarter Balanced assessment. To meet a similar requirement in science, for many years the State has participated in the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP), which is administered to students in grades 4, 8 and 11.

All public school students in the designated grade levels are required to participate in the Smarter Balanced and Science NECAP assessments, with only limited exemptions approved by the NH Department of Education for such circumstances as a serious illness or a death in the family. There is no opt-out provision in state statute based on parental choice. However, based on a recent Board of Education motion, if you keep your child out of school on the day of the assessment, the school will consider this an excused absence.

These assessments provide valuable information about your child’s progress, and the school’s progress, to parents, teachers and students. Should you have any further concerns I would invite you to contact Jennifer Seusing, our Assistant Superintendent for Accountability and Assessment, at 966-1069, or at SeusingJ@nashua.edu. She will be happy to meet with you to discuss your concerns.

Sincerely,

Mark Conrad
Superintendent of Schools

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: What to do when your school administrators mislead you