So pleased that Common Core is the crux of current educational policy and that we're spending tons of tax dollars on this enlightened system.

No doubt there's a chapter about the extra bone in Kenyans' feet that helps them run faster.

THIS is the garbage being taught and tested over!?

UGH JESUS WEEPS!

Kenya's most famous runner, Kip Keino, started out as a barefoot runner. And as the Guardian has written, lots of Kenyan runners even today train barefoot.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/22/running-fitness-iten-kenya-school

I'm sure a lot of people run around barefooted, however as a test question it lacks a lot in the way it is worded.

The kids were in a competitive cross-country race. The ones who ran barefoot performed better than the ones who were wearing shoes.

Back during the '68 and '72 Olympics, Kenyan runner Kip Keino became practically a household name among Olympic watchers as he set several records. During the games, there was a promotional video about him which showed him training by running up a sandy hill-- barefoot. Keino went on to become a sports trainer in his native Kenya and in all likelihood, barefoot running was/is part of the training.

She is not from Kenya.

“So scripted even a janitor could teach it”

cashing in on being racist, sexist, classist all in the name of Faith

stick together peoples and watch what your kids are reading and listening to

I'll add that to the subject line because you'e 100% right.

Common Core does not dictate materials to be used, only learning goals. If the district bought materials to satisfy the learning goals that are offensive, that is an issue for MPS. Districts have been purchasing curriculum materials for many many decades. I'm surprised that MPS would have purchased this

My kids went to school in MPS (where some of their best and favorite teachers were African American). That was back in the 1980s and 90s. My problem with curriculum materials back then was that, at least at our elementary school, the science curriculum in the early elementary grades was provided by the electric utility (can't remember what it was called back then). I recall complaining about it, and getting nowhere.

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards/national-curriculum/Partnership Formed to Develop Digital Curriculum

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has partnered with the Pearson Foundation, the world’s largest publishing company, to create a curriculum for the nation aligned to the CCSS. According to the Gates Foundation’s press release, it will spend $20 million to develop resources aligned to the Common Core State Standards including:

Game-based learning applications
Math, English language arts and science curricula built into digital formats
Learning through social networking platforms
Embedded assessments.
Other participants is the effort are: Educurious Partners, Florida Virtual School, Institute of Play, Reasoning Mind, Quest Atlantis, Digital Youth Network and EDUCAUSE.

The Gates Foundation expressly admits that its intention is to align learning tools with the Common Core State Standards and “to fundamentally change the way students and teachers interact in the classroom, and ultimately, how education works in America.”

Seriously,

what could possibly go wrong? Text books written by clergy (may as well be) opining that of course the dinosaurs lived happily in the "garden of eden" with all the other creatures. Onward Christian Soldiers!

for-profit publishing companies that feed at the public money trough. All of them claim to be aligned with whatever framework or standards are currently adopted. Common Core State Standards do not require racism, at least, not those that I've had to adopt. Whether or not the standards are worthy of spending our time, energy, and other resources on is a different topic.

Prior to the Common Core, when each state had it's own set of standards (and a few still do,) the publishers generally pandered to California and Texas (!), since they have the highest populations.

It's a perpetual cycle. The adoption of the CCSS by most states has led to scrambling to find aligned materials, with many publishers rushing in to get a place at the trough. My district is adopting out-of-cycle to try to make the shift; some of the adoptions are called "temporary bridges," knowing that more will be available as time goes on.

Some of what my district is using is problematic. Nothing like this, though. I wish Roxanne Berger had the support she deserves.

I do. I'm not teaching that "bridge" this year. I fought it, my admin backed me, and I was allowed to choose a better "bridge" to pilot.