We’ve exposed the fraud being perpetrated on parents across New Hampshire as the NH DoE continues to sell Competency Based Ed (CBE) as “new and innovative.” Everyone should know by now that CBE is the old rehashed Outcome Based fad from the 1990‘s renamed and being forced upon New Hampshire schools.
The “Competency Based Ed” fad has been called; School-to-Work, 21st Century Skills, Mastery Learning, Standards Based Ed, but we all know it’s Outcome Based Ed. CBE is based on a dumbed down workforce training model that categorizes children as human capital and teachers as facilitators.
The NH Dept.of Ed is doubling down on this model by not only forcing schools to use CBE, but force them to use CBE assessments too. The new PACE assessments are performance based assessments that has the potential of becoming a real problem in some of the core classes.
Let’s look at how CBE works in a math class and highlight the numerous problems we hear from math teachers and parents across NH.
A math teacher would like to teach the children about multiplying fractions. The teacher prefers to use the direct instruction method of teaching because they know the students need to be taught the algorithm. The teacher begins to teach students how to multiply fractions and may then decide to engage the students to use their memory to work through the problems.
That sounds like a logical approach to teaching math and yet under the CBE model, the teacher becomes the facilitator, kids work in groups and a lot of time is spent investigating and collaborating.
This approach to learning math might not be the most efficient way to cover an Algebra I class. However with CBE, the teacher is now forced through the competencies to make sure their students are collaborating while learning math.
1) Parents become frustrated knowing a great deal of time is wasted in group learning.
2) The student who may know math relatively well is often times the one who teaches the other kids in the group. This leaves some parents to question why their child is not receiving the teacher’s salary.
3) Kids often times report a lot of socializing is going on and not much learning.
4) After numerous group activities, parents begin to realize the learning process has been severely slowed down causing their children to begin falling behind their peers in schools that use a more logical approach to teaching.
5) Students often times admit they’re not learning much but hey, the teacher did manage to meet a competency by getting the students to collaborate.
In other words, there isn’t a lot of learning going on under this method because the reformers believe that the “collaboration” workforce skill is more important than learning the academic content.
This is what happens in some of classes that use the CBE model. How do we know this? We’ve been through this for the past 20 years with no real data to prove this model improves academic achievement. The NH DoE has certainly provided no independent data that CBE will improve academic achievement.
That’s one of many examples of how the Obama/Hassan administration is redesigning public education in NH. Not only are they forcing the dumbed down Common Core curriculum on our schools through the Common Core Assessment, they have also forced CBE on our schools too.
Did any NH parents ask for this? NO
Did the teachers in NH ask for this? NO
Did the legislators in NH ask for this? NO
This is all part of the Obama redesign in public education and being facilitated through the Hassan DoE.
NH Families for Education has been a vocal opposition to this entire redesign and has pushed back in an effort to support parents and teachers in NH. They are one of a few organizations that have been in this battle to stop the top-down approach to education and has been supportive of local communities driving the education in their own public schools.
Today NH Families for Education posted an article that included a letter from the U.S. Dept. of Education to NH Commissioner of Ed, Virginia Barry. In the letter it spells out how the Commissioner again, is working to fully implement CBE in our schools. This falls in line with the U.S. Dept. of Ed’s agenda to redesign public education in NH.
You are reminded that the parents, teachers and legislators in NH never asked for this.
You are reminded that this agenda comes from the FEDS.
You are reminded that our own NH DoE is almost fully funded by the Federal Govt.
You are reminded that the NH DoE is facilitating the Obama agenda, NOT the New Hampshire agenda.
We strongly encourage you to read the article and information provided by NH Families for Education.
We also strongly encourage you to read our prior posts on the PACE assessment program being pushed on our local schools.
The parents who refused to let their children take the Smarter Balanced Assessment are at a real risk if HB323 goes through as it’s been presented. There is NO provision to opt your children out of these experimental assessments based on the Outcome Based Education Model.
Knowing the OBE model is all about social engineering and not academics, we can only imagine how bad these assessments will be.
It’s critical that parents have the right to OPT out of those psychometric assessments if parents find the problems in the PACE assessments that they are seeing in the Smarter Balanced Assessments.
It’s unfortunate that the NH DoE lost the trust of many in New Hampshire by signing on to the SBAC with no input from the legislators, parents or teachers in NH.
Everyone is encourage to write to the NH Senators and tell them NO on the PACE assessments. NO on Competency Based Ed and NO to the Obama to redesign our schools. Senators@leg.state.nh.us
It is up to the local communities to decide what standards, curriculum and tests should be used for their students. The NH DoE has proven they are ill-equipped to make these important decisions for our children. We trust the local communities to begin the process of setting standards, choosing quality curriculum and testing students in a way they see fit.