Scott Walker takes Credit for Common Core ACT test results.

Thank you Scott Walker...or should we be grateful State Superintendent Tony Evers stuck with Common Core, defended the teaching profession, and fought for public education?

Scott Walker's Top 10 Reelection Campaign: This was Walker's tweet today, with no link or no proof this is current (PolitiFact anyone?):

Scott Walker can take credit for this due to major cuts to education, teacher vilification and high teacher turnover...:

While school teachers tough it out under Walker, the toll after defunding toll started to surface: 2015 Avg Score: 22.2 / 2016 Avg Score: 20.5

Wisconsin’s average 20.5 score is below the national average of 20.8. The state score is down 1.7 points from last year when 73 percent of seniors took the exam (now all students participate). The state’s 2016 score is fourth highest among the 18 states where all graduates were tested and 11th highest among states where more than half of students took it. Among all states, Wisconsin ranked 29th.

Hey, I wonder if Walker's reelection campaign will include this bragging point...

The ACT exam that Wisconsin uses to assess high school students for accountability purposes is not fully compliant with federal law, the U.S. Department of Education has told the state.

Based on a peer review of Wisconsin's assessment system, the ACT only partially meets the federal government's requirements for reading, language arts and mathematics assessments, and the state will have to provide "substantial additional information" to become compliant, according to a letter from the DOE to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction this month.

If Wisconsin doesn't address the matter, the DOE could place a condition on the state's federal grant dollars, the letter says. The news comes as Wisconsin has recently shifted to using the ACT High School Assessments.

Walker hates Common Core...again. Sells incomparable test standards to low information voters.

While Scott Walker is still thinking about running for president, he's blocked off a little time in Iowa for some reason. He'll speak at the oddly named Freedom Summit (sponsored by who else Citizens United), because we've lost so much of it lately. Walker is now emphasizing his disdain for Common Core, after appearing squishy on it in his state-of-the-state speech.

Green Bay's Fox 11 reported that Walker wants different standards, incomparable ones, giving schools a choice over what test to use. Like No Child Left Behind, district's will simply lowered their test standards to get higher scores. It's accountability in name only, but isn't everything Republicans do just for show anyway? It's working, and getting them elected:

Walker: “I’m all for high standards. Wisconsin has some of the highest standards on its own. I just believe the standards should be set by people within the state and not outside the state. They should ultimately be set at the local level ... I also want them to make it perfectly clear in the statutes that school districts do not have to use common core, and that we take it a step further and we work with the legislature to make sure there aren't things like the Smarter Balanced test going forward that require the schools to use the Common Core.”

According to Fox 11, at least one parent is seeing the same results I'm seeing with my two boys:

Lori Cathey, the Green Bay Education Association President says while the way common core has been implemented isn't perfect, she’s seen positive results. “My son is seven. He’s in the second grade. He’s had common core math since he was in kindergarten and the stuff he is able to truly understand about math and the concepts and about why things happen. It’s just amazing,” said Cathey.

The Real Story Behind the Facebook Common Core Math Problem...surprise ending!!!

The viral Facebook Common Core math problem posted by an angry father is no more. The background story is much deeper, and that dad? He now supports Common Core.

How could anything turn around like this? I've fine-tuned the story to the essentials. So much for the phony outrage. Edweek.

How it all started:

After a long and frustrating homework session with his 2nd grade son one day last school year, Jeff Severt dashed off a letter to the teacher. "I have a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. ... Even I cannot explain the common-core mathematics approach, nor get the answer correct."

A word problem about a fictional student named Jack had put Mr. Severt, of Cary, N.C., over the edge. Mr. Severt's wife snapped a picture of the "common core" math problem and the note to the teacher, and put them on Facebook. The post went viral.

Here’s interesting point #1:

The response from the lead writers of the common standards for math was perhaps the most interesting: The problem wasn't part of the common core, said mathematicians William G. McCallum and Jason Zimba. It was simply the product of a badly written curriculum.  The common standards for math differ from most previous state standards in significant ways. They are fewer in number, connect more broadly across grade levels, and emphasize conceptual understanding along with the procedural skills that schools have traditionally taught.
  ...what some see as critical misunderstandings about the common core—perhaps the most fundamental and widespread of which is that the standards are a "curriculum." The standards are intended to be benchmarks for what students should know and be able to do. Curriculum, on the other hand, "is the 'stuff' of learning, the content of what is taught in school—especially as embodied in the materials used in instruction."

Here’s the most interesting point #2 about the whole controversy:

Mr. Severt, of Facebook renown, eventually replied to the barrage of comments on his son's math problem. He explained that his son, who has autism spectrum disorder, "knew the math answer immediately in his head. But this problem required a narrative answer utilizing a number line. While he knew the math, he balked at the answer being a writing assignment—his greatest anxiety." Mr. Severt decried the focus on "next-level critical thinking" over basic operations with such young students. At the same time, he defended the assignment to a point, calling it "creatively valid." 

Walker was for Common Core, before he was Against It!!!

Scott Walker may regret he ever brought it up: Repealing Common Core.

First off, if you want to know what's happening in our public schools, check out WisSoapBox. It was there I found out Walker didn't just supported Common Core, he put it in writing (in red below).

Think about it: When Scott Walker announced he wanted to repeal the Common Core standards, he was essentially turning our educational system over to those low information, conspiracy laden tea party voters who have a penchant for misspelling the simplest protest signs. That's Scott Walker:

Whoopsie-doodle... Governor Walker stepped in it.

jsonline: Walker's statement calling for dumping Common Core comes after he has worked with the state DPI for the past several years on education reform issues that all hinge on successful implementation of the standards.

But, but what?! Oh, so Gov. Walker was for it before he was against it? (Oh 2004 Kerry campaign.) Seriously, if anyone wanted to know why he wasn't saying much about Common Core before now, this is why - He actually worked with them and utilized them in a lot of what he did with respect to school accountability.

In his 2011-'13 budget veto message to the Assembly, Walker wrote that his budget supported greater accountability and performance in K-12 education by "investing $15 million in the development of a statewide student information system and requiring the Department of Public Instruction to implement new pupil assessment based on mastery of Common Core Standards by 2014-15."

Will Mary Burke or the media run with this?