The final speaker for the evening was Williamson M. Evers of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University where he specialized in research on education policy especially as it pertains to curriculum, teaching, testing, accountability, and school finance from kindergarten through high school.  Evers was the US assistant secretary of education for policy from 2007 to 2009.  he was a senior advisor to US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings during 2007.  From July to December 2003, Evers served in Iraq as a senior advisor for education to Administrator L. Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority.  In 1996 Gov. Pete Wilson appointed Evers to the earlier CA State Commission for the Establishment of Academic Content and Performance Standards.  he is the only individual to have served on both standards commissions, both of which proposed the subject matter that students should learn in each grade.

Evers was elected in November 2004 to the Santa Clara County Board of Education, on which he served until February 2007.  He is the immediate past president of the board of directors of the East Palo Alto Charter School on which he served from 1997 to 2004.

Part 1:

Part 2 and previous videos after the jump

Read more

It went right up to and a bit after 9pm – I have chopped up the session into five parts – not for content or “editing down” but simply because few people want to sit and watch long videos.

Part 1:

Part 2 et al after the jump

Read more

The second speaker of the evening was Dr. Stotsky who was a professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas and held the 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality.  She retired in December 2012.  She served as Sr. Associate Commissioner at the MA Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education from 1999-2003 where she was in charge of developing or revising all the state’s K-12 standards, teacher licensure tests, and teacher and administrator licensure regulations.  She serve on the MA Board of Elementary and Secondary Ed from 2006-2010, appointed by Gov. Mitt Romney.  She served on the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, from 2006-2008, appointed by Secretary of Ed Margaret Spellings.  Most recently she server 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 validated.  She was also editor of NCTE’s premier research journal, Research in the Teaching of English, from 1991 – 1997.  She has published extensively in professional journals and has written several books.

Part 1:

Part 2 after the jump along with previous videos from the evening:

Read more

This past Tuesday, the ‘Grok was invited to cover Conerstone Policy Research’s Common Core Forum.  Four nationally known educators and education consultants gathered to speak to an overflow crowd at St. Anselm College’s Institute of Politics.  Topics ranged from standards to privacy to its purpose (er, not what you think it is) and data mining – all part of the Federalization of what used to be local control education process and curriculum.

While I am going to go back and review each speaker’s video again to pull out the high points, here are some points that I did write down while manning three cameras:

#1 – Race to the Top – Federal Secretary Arne Duncan’s scheme to have states to compete adopt federal protocols by “coercive Federalism” by offering grant money.  Translated by the speaker: ..“they all had to compete to get their money back“.  A subdued laughter from the crowd ensued at the visualization but realizing that it turns State and local elected and appointed officials into beggars.  So much for the real sense of Federalism.

Introductory Remarks by Ashley Pratte (Exec. Dir) and Ann Marie Banfield (Educational Liason)

#2 – Contrary to what is being said,

Read more

Jamie Gass (Director of the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute) spoke first.  Provided by Cornerstone:

At Pioneer, he as framed and commissioned over 60 research papers on education reform topics.  Jamie has more than two decades of experience in public administration and education reform at the state and municipal levels.  Previously, he worked at the MA Office of Educational Quality and Accountability as Senior Policy Analyst – technical Writer and in the state budget office under two MA governors.  In the 1990s, Jamie worked for the Dean of Boston University School of Education / Boston University Management Team in its historic partnership with the Chelsea Public Schools.  He has appeared on Boston media outlets.

Part 1:

Part 2 after the jump:

Read more

On the juxtaposition that some people will sign for almost anything, the Liberal Chick got a whole bunch of college kids to sign a petition that advocated to send care packages to the “Freedom Fighters” in Syria. (Video on the jump)

You know, the ones that belong to “affiliates of Al-Qaeda”?  The same Al-Qaeda groups that Obama and “Lurch” Kerry want to ally themselves with in that civil war?  I’m sorry (sorta) – sometimes, you just can’t make this stuff up – this was done on 9/10: the day before we honor those 3,000 innocents killed on our soil by……Al-Qaeda.

Read more

And yes, we have video – consider it both an addition to the audio podcasts that Steve slaves over and a backup in case we don’t have the audio.  All of the topics he mentioned, just that you can see us (plus the “extras” as we don’t don’t stop talking through the breaks!).

Segment 1
Steve and Skip

Read more

As posted here, tonight the New Hampshire chapter of Americans for Prosperity had the second stop in their “Wrong for NH” tour in which the topic was Obamacare – indeed, wrong for NH (and, pretty much everywhere else as well).  Given that this was a Monday night on a beautiful August summer day, the Pittman Freight Room was full of folks that wanted to hear and ask questions.  Given that it was in Laconia, how could I NOT show up (er, finally an event where the car needed filling upon returning home!).

Yes, folks were there – and I will point out that we were even joined by Our Most Favorite Progressive in NH – Zandra Rice-Hawkins of Granite State Progress!!  Along with her camera to help her be a “tracker”, I’m betting that I won’t make even her cutting room floor.  After all, I am only her most favoritist “hateful, cold-hearted, selfish,  TEA Party (er, she’d use another word there), homophobic, misogynist, blogger”.  Sigh…I’m just sure she just doesn’t know me well enough; she keeps forgetting “Neanderthal”.  Yeah, she doesn’t much like us much here at GraniteGrok – because we stand for absolutely everything she doesn’t – enhanced personal Liberty, Freedom and Choice, Free Markets, Limited Government (in size, cost, and intrusion), and a moral code (after all, socialism IS immoral).  Remember, all of that is part and parcel of both US & NH Constitutions and the Declaration of Independence, and no Progressive can agree with that!  At least tonight, she didn’t rush the stage like she did at a Frank Guinta townhall like a wild woman waving her cell phone over her head “I have the answer!!”  (and everyone else thinking “who IS this nutcase??”).  But I digress.

Sidenote: it will be interesting to see what she or the NH Democrat Party Tracker will use from tonite.  Originally, I was simply going to be a simple attendee (for once) and left the regular equipment at home.  Given what trackers do, I whipped out ye olde Flipcam – just to make sure that full context is up in case they do try to make somebody look silly by quoting someone out of context.

Here is Greg Moore, AFP / NH‘s Executive Director, with introductory remarks:

HonoraryAFP/NH Chair and NH Conservative Activist Tom Thomson also spoke with his famous and rebranded Ax:

Read more

Of course, doing the interview with Col. Allen West not was not the only reason why we went to the Nashua GOP “Steak Out” – he was, after all, the featured speaker and that speech will be posted later on.  However, this event is also about local races – State wide and local as the Federal positions are up for grabs (both Congressional seats and one of the Senatorial ones).  We’ll start off with the Congressional ones in CD-2 (No one for CD-1, I guess):

Karen Testerman                                                                  Jim Rubens

       Conservative activist                                                    former NH State Senator

After the jump is the video of the Intro Ceremonies

Read more