glossary

Assessments:: Methods of measuring student progress — though "assessments" is a broader and more ambiguous word than tests. It includes tests but also includes highly subjective evaluations such as rating scales, observation of behavior, and student opinion. The root meaning of "assess" is to attach a value to something. Tests, in contrast, are designed to measure knowledge. The change in language from "tests" to "assessments" is symptomatic of the shift in education from focusing on knowledge to focusing on values, attitudes and behavior. (See also: Basic Skills Tests, High-stakes test, Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, Criterion-referenced test, and Norm-referenced test.)

Baby Ed: The nickname of a government program that aims to takeover the education of all infants from birth to kindergarten. It is now being seriously promoted in Minnesota legislative committees. (More, More, and Links)

Basic Skills Tests (Basic Standards Tests):

A "high stakes test", a test that students must pass in order to graduate from a public high school. It has been described by the DCFL as a "functional literacy test." It is a 6^th grade level test. Under the new system, it is the only test a student must pass in order to graduate.

It is first given in 8^th grade for reading and math, and in 10^th grade for writing.
Reading and Math tests: administered in February for all 8^th graders and again in April and July for students who have not already passed.
Writing tests: administered in January for all 10^th graders.

Central Planning:: Making important, detailed decisions at a centralized location by a government agency that has the power to enforce the decisions. Central planning is a key ingredient of socialist economic systems, where high-level government officials make the important decisions as opposed to those decisions being made at a local and/or private level. (More)

Certificate of Mastery:: Certifies completion of the vocational and ideological components of the new system of education and is intended to eventually replace high school diplomas. Yet they differ: Diplomas emphasize knowledge and academic achievement, while Certificates emphasize behavior and job skills. Certificates are divided into two types. The Certificates of Advanced Mastery (CAMs) are for 12^th grade level achievement. The Certificates of Initial Mastery (CIMs) roughly designate a 10^th grade level. Schools will (for the first time) officially give an award for lower than twelfth-grade achievement. This is yet another way the system redefines "success" downward. Throughout the new system — from the Certificates of Mastery, to the performance packages, to the rubric scoring — there is little attempt to cultivate academic excellence in students, or to reward it when it arises.

Constructivism:: A new-fangled educational theory where "truth" is believed to be a "social construction." Thus, it believes that children should be taught to construct "truth", and they should do so in groups (that's the "social" part). This peculiar philosophy has heavily influenced the new educational system, with it's emphasis on "self-learning" and group-learning, and a heavy reduction in direct classroom instruction.

Criterion-referenced test:: A test in which scores are evaluated, not in terms of comparative rankings, but rather, in terms of the percentage of mastery of a predetermined standard. Examples include behind-the-wheel driving tests, tests of typing speed and accuracy, tests in the military for strength, and tests measuring the effects of alcohol on muscular coordination. Most manual skills tests are criterion-referenced. Criterion-referenced tests tend to focus on minimum thresholds, such as the threshold needed to pass a driving test, or to pass for secretarial or military service — or, in the new education system, to graduate from high school. The test focuses — not on the best, the median, or the average students — but on the worst students, those near the minimum threshold. The new education system mandates the use of criterion-referenced tests (and the de-emphasis or elimination of the traditional norm-referenced tests such as ACT, SAT, and Iowa Basic tests), thereby redefining "success". The new system intends to "hold schools and teachers accountable" (by various threats and punishments from the government) for failure to meet its peculiar measure of success. By this means the system compels teachers to forsake students who are average or better, and focus instead on those students near the minimum threshold, for that is how teachers and schools are to be judged. This furthers the twin goals of: (1) educating mostly just for minimum competencies in specific job skills, and (2) "equalizing" educational outcomes (not educational opportunities) — while turning a blind eye to the development and recognition of academic excellence and the broad-based knowledge needed to keep people free.

Culture:

Normally defined as "the ideas, customs, skills, arts, etc. of a people or group that are transferred, communicated or passed along to succeeding generations" (Webster's Dictionary). However, Minnesota's DCFL, says:

". . . feelings and behavior related to sexuality are part of a larger system of culture." (Minnesota School Health Guide, Published by Minnesota Departments of Health and DCFL, Ch. 12, p. 20.) By "behavior related to sexuality" is meant sexual orientation and homosexual activity. In this way the DCFL smuggles in the study of sexual orientation and homosexual activity by disarmingly presenting it as the study of "culture".

Department of Children, Families and Learning (DCFL or CFL):: The former state department in Minnesota created to replace (and vastly expand) its Department of Education. The new department includes functions that had been part of other departments, especially in the areas of health care and welfare. The combined department is a major step toward centralized control, which they call "one-stop shopping," also called "full-service schools," and is required by Goals 2000. One-stop shopping is an integral part of the new system of education. Fifty-six percent of the funding for Minnesota's DCFL comes from the federal government, which gives another indication of who the boss is. In our view, the published DCFL documents often use misleading double-speak, and the DCFL officials have been evasive about explaining the new system it is imposing by stealth on Minnesota. Use caution when interpreting what the DCFL has to say.

Diversity training:: Teaching that values, beliefs and actions are all equal (as opposed to "equality" which holds that all people are equal). The key value not tolerated is the idea that there is an objective right and wrong, that there is objective truth. Diversity also goes by the names of multi-culturalism, tolerance, inclusion, and inclusive education.; Diversity training divides people into opposing groups, amplifies their differences and grievances, and instills that a resolution needs the continual intervention by big government, rather than encouraging reconciliation, harmony, unity and assimilation of various groups. Diversity is a core curriculum of the new system of education, where it is pressed into all subjects, including such unlikely subjects as math. The new system values diversity highly. Ironically it views diversity of outcome as bad and goes great lengths to minimize it (see outcome-based education). Big government wins at both sides of this game. That is, big government is employed to maintain (and amplify) the differences between sub-cultures, but it is also employed to equalize their outcomes.

Graduation Standards:: Formerly called the "Graduation Rule," they consist of the new state requirements which specify that to be eligible to graduate from a Minnesota public high school, students must: (1) pass the Basic Standards test (which is a 6^th grade functional literacy test), and (2) complete 24 high school level Content Standards which must be done by means of completing performance packages. Within the performance packages is a requirement to use its specific (and oftentimes bad) teaching method. (More)

Goals 2000:: Refers to the Goals 2000: Educate America Act passed by Congress in 1994, the last year the Democratic Party controlled both Houses of Congress and the White House. Goals 2000 created a system of federal education guidelines and federal grants which states can apply for and receive if they agree to implement the federal guidelines. Minnesota's Goals 2000 grant application states that the Graduation Standards are the "centerpiece" of Minnesota's compliance with the federal Goals 2000 regulations.

High Stakes Test:: Two definitions: (1) A test a student must pass in order to progress from one level to the next, say, in order to graduate from high school. (2) Any student test used by centralized government control for its decision-making.

Learning Areas:

Replace academic disciplines as the preferred education categories under the new system. Learning areas are broader and less clearly defined than the traditional disciplines thereby giving education central planners wide latitude for including subjects oriented toward behavior, attitudes, beliefs and values. The Profile of Learning is currently divided into 10 learning areas:

	1.	Read, View, Listen
	2.	Write & Speak
	3.	Literature & the Arts
	4.	Math Applications
	5.	Inquiry
	6.	Scientific Application
	7.	People & Cultures
	8.	Decision Making
	9.	Resource Management
	10.	World Languages (optional)

Lifework Plan (also known as IEP or Individual Education Plan):

DCFL defines it as follows:

"A lifework plan is a personal information system that will benefit decision-making. It is a living document, frequently revised. The lifework plan should [include] . . . individualized learning plans and/or career development plans. It should provide a format such as a portfolio for collecting relevant materials. Most educators foresee a computer record-keeping system that supplement paper files."

The Lifework Plan is kept by, and required by, the new government-run education system. It contains very personal information about the student's goals and values, and provides a key source for the government to make decisions about that student's further education. The Lifework Plan is begun when the student is in kindergarten, and to be fully fleshed-in typically by the eighth grade. The Lifework Plan is the first "performance indicator" of a state's progress in implementing the federal School-to-Work program.

Local Performance Package:

A performance package not written by the state. According to the new rules, a local performance package must:

	(1) have a difficulty level which equals or exceeds the state package,
	(2) have essentially the same content as the state package,
	(3) use essentially the same methodologies as the state package, and
	(4) be approved by a method determined by the state DCFL.

The DCFL has the authority to audit and review local performance packages. DCFL determines how the all packages must be evaluated. In other words, "local" performance packages build the illusion that local school districts have "options" to make serious decisions about what is taught, how it is taught, and how success is to be measured.

Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA's):

An assessment that measures whether a school is complying with the government mandates. This is not a high stakes test. There is no pass or fail for the student and there is no remediation follow-up. Schools are required to give the test to students and the school is measured by its results. However, there is no requirement that your child take the test, and no benefit to the student if he/she takes the test — therefore, to protest the new system and use the time more wisely, many parents legitimately withhold their children from the MCA's. (More) (Also, see their invasion of your family's privacy and your options.)

The tests are given to 3^rd, 5^th and 10^th graders.
Third and Fifth graders are tested in reading and math. Fifth graders take a written composition test. The 10^th grade writing test is serving as an MCA in addition to its role as a high stakes Basic Skills Test.
Reading and math: administered to all 3^rd and 5^th graders in March.
Writing: administered to 5^th graders in March and to 10^th graders in January.

Norm-referenced test:: This is the traditional academic achievement test you are familiar with. It is a test in which the scores are evaluated in terms of their comparative ranking among the other scores on the test. Most academic achievement tests are norm-referenced. The ACT, SAT, Iowa Basics and most, if not all, intelligence tests are norm-referenced tests. Scores on norm-referenced tests take the form of a normal curve and are interpreted in terms of percentiles, that is, the position of a given score on the normal curve. In other words, they focus on knowledge, academic achievement, and the detection of individual differences in these — and none of that is especially important to the new education system! In fact, the new system radically de-emphasizes (and in many cases has already eliminated) norm-referenced testing, in favor of criterion-referenced testing. This is a key way the new system redefines "success", and de-emphasizes academic achievement in favor of mere job skills. This shift is coordinated and driven from the federal level. (Unfortunately, in the past few years even the traditional norm-referenced tests – such as the Iowa Basics – are being substantially re-aligned and contaminated by the federal mandates. So, you cannot necessarily count on these old-reliable tests to measure real knowledge and academics anymore.)

Outcome-based education (or OBE):: An education method driven by the peculiar political goal of achieving equal outcome. It pursues that goal in two basic ways: (1) by focusing on the worst students and the minimum threshold needed to pass, and (2) by largely abandoning students who are above the minimum threshold. OBE was tried (and rejected) in many school districts over the past twenty years, and produced falling test scores on ACT, SAT, and Iowa Basics (which are all norm-referenced tests). When concerned parented became aware of OBE or the falling test scores, they strongly tended to vote it out of their district. Nonetheless, the new education system overrides parents and compels all school districts to use the OBE method (but without calling it "OBE"), combined with a mandated shift to criterion-referenced tests (which will blind voters to the failure of the new system).

Performance-based:: Also called "show what you know", this is often passed off as a "test" or "standard". But since each performance takes several weeks or months, it is far too time-consuming to be a mere test. In practice it is a teaching-method that displaces better teaching methods (such as traditional classroom instruction), especially since the new system mandates the performance-based method. It is better described as project-based or task-based. The teacher assigns state-prescribed projects and tasks called "performance packages", which require the student to self-learn in small groups or leave the classroom for lengthy forays to libraries, various local authorities, or job sites. The projects tend to be low in academics and high in menial job skills, such as making phone calls, counting the number of cars through an intersection, or using a calculator. The minimization of classroom instruction frees up the teacher: (1) to focus on getting the worst students up to the minimum thresholds needed to pass, and (2) to do the abundant paperwork and subjective assessments mandated by the new system.

Performance Package:: Defined by the new rules as, "a group of assignments and application activities [exercises] that a student must perform to demonstrate completion of the specifications of a content standard." DCFL claims that the performance packages are assessments. This is not true. As the rules say, they are assignments and exercises. They are also lesson plans. They are, in effect, a specific, extremely time-consuming, (and oftentimes bad) teaching method, which push aside other (frequently better) teaching methods. Performance packages are written by the state, in compliance with specific requirements from the federal level. Teachers are required to score them by the rubric system. (See also local performance package)

Predetermined consensus (and the Delphi Technique):: The manipulation of various committees, task forces or other groups to give the appearance of group decision-making when the outcome of the group process has been previously established by those who are setting up the group and orchestrating its activities. Predetermined consensus is one of the common strategies of central planners and is used to give the appearance of local decision-making when none exists. We have seen these techniques used here in Saint Paul for the new education system. (More)

Portfolios:: Data files of student accomplishments, including numerous examples of work on performance packages and the students' IEPs or lifework plans. Portfolios additionally include a variety of other highly personal student records. The information on the portfolios will be entered into a centralized computer system connected with DCFL and other school districts. Numerous federal agencies, as well as potential employers, will have access to this data. The information will be listed by social security number or by a number assigned to the student by the school district. There are many privacy issues involved.

Profile of Learning (also called the "Profile"):: The new Minnesota state mandate that all public schools must teach 78 Content Standards from grades K-12. The Content Standards can only be met by completing performance packages. At the 9-12 grade levels, the Profile of Learning requires the completion of 24 content standards by means of performance packages. It de-emphasizes knowledge and academic achievement, and emphasizes subjectivity and skills. The Profile of Learning is not merely a test or "standard", it is a lengthy, time-consuming, (and oftentimes bad) teaching-method together with a dubious way of measuring success. Its many mandates effectively press the better teaching methods out of the classroom. The Profile of Learning for grades 9 - 12 is the same as the Graduation Standards, part 2. A highly similar system is being implemented in all 50 states, though under various names.

Remediation:: Focusing on educating students in areas in which they have done poorly. Remediation offers a remedy for lack of sufficient progress. It may consist of special classes, summer school, tutoring and the like.

Rubrics:: The scoring system which DCFL dictates that teachers must use for the performance packages. Scores range from 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. DCFL emphasizes that the 1 to 4 system is not the same as a letter grading system. Some teachers report that DCFL expects them to give no more than 5% of packages a score of "4." A "1" score requires little more than a student's participation. The rubric system compresses (into 4 levels) the traditional grading system (with 13 levels, such as B+, B, and B-). This has the tendency of blinding the scoring system to individual excellence, that is, it tends to bunch all students together more as equals. This furthers a central goal of the new system — to "equalize" educational outcomes (if only by blinding us to individual differences). The 1 to 4 rubric system is part of the federal SCANS Report. [In Minnesota and elsewhere, the system also requires a strong emphasis on scoring subjective matters, such as behaviors and values, rather than testing for academic knowledge. For example, blended into the student's math rubric score is an assessment of how the student shares his/her work-product with others in a group. This behavioral assessment is blended into each learning area (not just math), which compounds this de-emphasis of real academic achievement, in favor of particular behaviors.]

SCANS:: Acronym for Secretary's Commission for Achieving Necessary Skills. SCANS is the 1992 report of the U. S. Secretary of Labor which outlines most of the new system of education. It also describes the supposed "necessary skills" required for most lines of employment. Minnesota's School-to-Work grant application states that the Profile of Learning and School-to-Work are largely based on SCANS. SCANS is an attempt to standardize job requirements across the country, so that the new system can educate (more narrowly) toward those job requirements.

School-to-Work (STW):: Refers to the federal School-to-Work Opportunities Act also passed in 1994, the last year the Democratic Party controlled both Houses of Congress and the White House. Like Goals 2000, STW created a system of federal regulations and grants. States can receive these grants only if they agree to follow the federal regulations. Minnesota's STW grant application states that the Graduation Standards are the "cornerstone" of Minnesota's compliance with the STW guidelines. STW dramatically changes the nature and purpose of education so that all education becomes vocational in orientation. Here are some examples. Traditional education emphasizes knowledge and academic ability, while the new system emphasizes skills, such as the "skill" of calling an appropriate authority or going to the library for the answer. Another example is the knowledge of how to do arithmetic, versus the new emphasis on the "skill" of using a calculator. STW also emphasizes that far more students should spend significant parts of their schooling at job-sites, doing job-related work. (This is a major reason behind "block scheduling", so students can have longer blocks of time away from school at work-sites.) STW also sets up a system of appointed boards (largely immune to voters) which bypass legislators and local school boards in allocating money and in setting education policy. These boards will "plan" the types of job needed, and corral students into a narrow education for those jobs. STW aims to apply to all education, including graduate, post-graduate, and professional education. In preparation for this new system, Minnesota colleges have been united under one (centrally controlled) Minnesota University system. Also see How the government sells STW. Also see the Government glossary of STW terms, we have merely highlighted key portions to help you see the immense size and reach intended by the new system.

State-approved belief-system:: Governmental favoring (and in some cases requiring) that citizens subscribe to a particular world-view consisting of identifiable political, ideological and/or religious positions. Goals 2000, the Profile of Learning and Minnesota’s new Teacher Certification Rules contain a clear state-approved belief-system. The state-approved ideology includes: big centralized government, diversity training, radical feminism, radical environmentalism, abortion rights, gay rights, and group consciousness — along with a de-emphasis of national sovereignty, the Constitution, privacy, property rights, and the individual. The underlying theme of all these is to indoctrinate the philosophy and need for big socialist-style government — and score students by how well they receive it.

Social Engineering:: Controlling and shaping people's attitudes and behavior by techniques of behaviorist psychology as developed by its founder, B. F. Skinner. Skinner believed that freedom is an illusion and that all living organisms, including people, are totally controlled by their environment. Skinner said that the ideal society would be one that is under complete dictation by a small group of psychologists who would condition people into believing they were free when they were actually being controlled by elitist central planners.

Tenth Amendment (to the U.S. Constitution):: The 10^th Amendment says "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." The 10^th Amendment is brazenly violated by the new education system and STW. The federal control of education / employment / economy is unconstitutional.

Glossary Definitions

Glossary
Definitions