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Coon Rapids  Academic Standards Hearing
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Coon Rapids Standards Hearing

Tonight I attended the Coon Rapids hearing; about 150 people were in attendance. Senator Kelley was present and seemed to be pals with Mr. Spiess from MAPSSS who was handing out a one page document to attendees. Former Rep. Luanne Koskinen and Rep. Jim Abeler were also there, one board member.

Lots of teachers represented, outnumbered parents 2-1.  Mounds View, Eden Prairie, Anoka, Champlin, Coon Rapids. Atheists for human rights attended.  I was a little peeved because I had one paragraph left and I was cut off by the commissioner because my time was up (as happened to others). I was allowed one more sentence.  Spiess from MAPSSS used his 3 minutes up, but was allowed to speak again after everyone else was done at about 9:15, I left as he started nitpicking through the Eurocentric colonist benchmarks one by one. (See an analysis of Dr. Spiess) (Spiess was later quoted urging the commissioner to "reject the standards in any form". (Does he not want social studies standards at all? Or does he want to be the one to write them?)

Comments:

  • Spiess wanted a clarification on the groups who reviewed and liked the standards (EdWeek, Fordham Foundation, McCrel and one other, were rated exceptional.  Spiess said a false statement was made that all members agreed with the final draft.  (Yecke said a minority report had not been submitted. The process was a democratic one, the majority ruled).  

  • 9 & 10 year olds can’t understand the 3 branches of government.  

  • Too many, trim back. 

  • Time line on a fast track.  

  • There are no federal requirements for social standards, allow districts to come up with their own. 

  • Why are we messing with science standards when the NAEP shows MN doing well in science?  We are at the top of the nation.  In 8th grade, 2nd in nation. Don’t mess up a good thing.  

  • We are trying the close the achievement gap. Standards process takes time away.  

  • Shouldn’t focus on facts, need active learning.  Need more time to develop S.S. standards. 

  • Need the "Fertile Crescent" covered in 3-6.  

  • Wants more teachers included in refinement process.  

  • How are we going to pay for these? 

  • No uniformity, need assessments for uniformity.  

  • What happens when a new administration comes in, do we have to go through this again and again? (Commissioner Yecke stated a review process was already in place for improvements/changes.) 

  • Leave ID to local districts.  

  • Profile was good; don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Need a better process, take more time.  

  • Is a better a citizen one that regurgitates facts? Concerned direction testing is taking.  Too many benchmarks at the primary level, wants to see hands-on-learning.  Needs to be integrated, students learn better that way too.  

  • Not in sequence, make developmentally appropriate, heavy use of district professionals, need flexibility in 7-12 science.  

  • Cluster grade levels to allow flexibility, delay implementation, this years 8th graders will be signing up for high school U.S. history, history is taught right now only two years in high school, provide balance, looks at history through the lens of an American, currently teacher the Renaissance to current. 

  • Mixes government & history-colonial no time to go deeper, divide history in half, reinstate full credit in government, abandon integrated S.S., too hard for students to keep up, not diverse enough.  

  • Not age appropriate, licensure concerns with layout, Earth Science takes away from Chemistry & Physics. 9-12 government & citizenship judicial branch not covered in civics, term “judicial supremacy” is never used should be “judicial review”, doesn’t like the verbs “analyze”, “define” and “describe” the U.S. Constitution, “analyze is level 4 in Bloom’s Taxonomy.  

  • Need local control, need national standards. One teacher mentioned EdWatch people being there (not enough of them if there were), "Russia" was good at teaching what to know, they used words like “know, identify understand and describe”, said committee members were stifled from commenting in public after an editorial was published. (Yecke replied as a history teacher you need to go to the original source, I am telling you I am the original source and what you just described never happened).  

  • Wants environmental education. Is the goal uniform MN standards? concerns on cost and emphasis on testing. Timeline overly aggressive, too focused on white European males, impact on teacher licensure.

  • Against ID, theory vs. law.  

  • Cherry picks God and country. 

  • Proposal to science standards, theories stands or falls on their own evidence, teach evolution with ID.  Santorum Amendment brought up, wants children to hear opposing views.  

  • Too high a level, how many of these facts will be retained, who pays for new textbooks?  

  • Teach concepts in critical thinking facts are retained better that way, 

  • If ID is taught I’m all for it, but then you must include other religions beliefs like Buddhism, Ojibwa, etc.  Don’t treat opinion as fact saw this in the social studies benchmarks a lot, patriotism is earned.  

  • Concerned about timeframe, seems agenda driven, not enough in sr. high on Vietnam, doesn’t care if son knows presidents names, wants more open ended questions on tests.  

  • A student from "Champlin Park" read back 8th grade benchmarks in social studies asking the panel if they knew the answers. (I didn’t, but I went to public school), you are setting us up for failure.  

  • Introduce macro vs. micro evolution, period.  

  • Why teach evolution at all, it isn’t necessary to learn science.  

  • "Vietnam" was a fact, whether it was a good or bad idea is opinion…stick with the facts.  

  • Critical thinking is good, but is not being used correctly and it is apparent by how my son has been taught in school to think critically.  The foundation of facts is not being laid to think critically.
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