Jackson Jambalaya

This is as transparent as Tate's budget.

Yes. That crazy Angela Hill and Conservative Coalition have been going around delivering misinformation and muddying the debate about Feds role.

Yeah, let the dumbest governor of the dumbest state in the country tell us what we need to do to move ahead. Let me guess... pray before each class, and switch from evolution to creationism. Yeah, we'll get things turned around in no time.

Tollison sure is .. adaptable.

... have been going around delivering misinformation and muddying the debate ...

Just another anonymous opinion.

as long as mississippi is on the "sugar teat" end of federal funding, we are going to do what DC says

More pandering to the conservative base.

Let's start calling each of these executive orders an "executive bark."

Genius. It does absolutely nothing to change the current structure nor Common Core adaptation. Yet, the TEA Party is assuaged (because there was nothing to really be assuaged over). Tate owes Phil for this one.

you go Phil! Stand in that schoolhouse door and show them damn yankees how we do things down here!

Way to go Govenor! Common Core is liberal propaganda aimed at all children - public, private & parochial schools. College entrance exams will be based on the Common Core curriculum, thus causing all schools to adopt the government propaganda in order to be prepared for college.
It reminds me of the tactics Hitler used to progress (ie shove) his propaganda upon the German citizens in the early days of forming the Third Reicht.

If Chris McDaniel takes an ass whooping from Thad, do you think that might encourage someone to run against our embarassment of a governor? I think a lot of Repubs would like to see Phil and his crowd out the door ASAP.

8:42, Tate was standing right beside Phil when he signed the Executive Order.

The tea party leaders may not like Tate, but the fact is Tate and Phil both win elections by big numbers for a reason.

Two dogs with fleas 5:38. BFD.

..."we have made tremendous progress in enacting improvements..."

The State Dept. of Education adopted the Core Curriculum in 2010 according to the above article.

So, what are the " improvements" enacted that resulted in " tremendous progress" enacted by the State that is unrelated to the 2010 federal directive?

Didn't I just see something here about " adjusting" test results?

I hope the Governor is pandering and isn't just ignorant!

We certainly should add a civics requirement if he believes what he says!

"It reminds me of the tactics Hitler used to progress (ie shove) his propaganda upon the German citizens in the early days of forming the Third Reicht."

Citizen's arrest! Citizen's arrest!

You've just committed an egregious violation of Godwin's Law of NAZI Analogies.

From the common core website, "Each state independently made the decision to adopt the Common Core State Standards, beginning in 2010. The federal government was NOT involved in the development of the standards. Local teachers, principals, and superintendents lead the implementation of the Common Core." All the Gov did with this EX order is reaffirm Common Core. What they should teach is how to read "spin"

Phil is a pathetic pandering fake on this and most issues. His Executive orders carry about the same weight as John Horn's threats to "call the Chief" when stopped for DUI. Phil is trying to ride the yellow-line in the middle of the road. he is to inept to take a firm stand. remember, your either pregnant or your not pregnant, Phil. He gets primaried hard in 2015!

LOL 7:16 am

And, he/she violated the laws of grammar and spelling !

I expect he hasn't a clue why he would be in violation of Godwin's Law!

I nominated Pugnacious to be the poster child of failed education in MS!

I try not to comment to often but when you see something like being done to the state and kids of the state, well I had to stop by and say something. I have comment on here before about the Office of Research and Statistics, ORS. My name is Anthony Stevenson, the former Director of Application Development for ORS.

This Executive Order is a sad representation of the state. We are in last place in education in the U.S. the Governor, aka Tea Party, is handcuffing the education system with this laughable order. We can't afford to fall farther behind the rest of the states but that is exactly what this order is going to do. The Governor say that it is the state right to determine the best means of educating the children of the state. It was the state that dumb down the state education tests to make the scores look like the rest of the nation and doing so put our kids farther behind than what they were and now we want to remove Common Core. Something that can show where our kids stand against the other kids in the nation. What a great decision by a Governor who cannot put two sentences together. We as a state has to do better and look like it has to start with a Governor who actually care about the kids of the state and not his POLITICAL buddies. We cannot stand to fall farther behind in Education and can't afford to put in figure heads into the lead executive office of the state.

If you take them as a group, the average scores by MS students on the ACT or SAT are pretty pathetic. Unfortunately, by that time it is too late to do anything to improve their chances for a worthwhile college education (and by that I mean NO REMEDIAL COURSES in college). The ACT and SAT may be the first tests that MS students take where they are judged by the same standards as students from 49 other states. We need to have reasonable standards, and accurate measures of student performance, to see where the weaknesses lie so we can try to improve the outcomes honestly, not by lowering the standards and inflating the grades.

Phil is, sadly, not the man to take on this challenge. He doesn't even understand the problem, so he's not going to come up with a solution. Meanwhile, the rest of the country looks down on graduates of Mississippi schools, with good reason.

Anthony Stevenson needs to brush up on his grammar and punctuation before representing the ORS or anyone else. Is that the result of his education?

This is a sad commentary. MS "tests" poorly against other states who tests poorly against other countries.

Testing is a "test", not an answer. It is a sampling. The problem with relying on "testing" is that you are RELYING on testing. Testing should be part of an overall evaluation, not THE evaluation. Individuals are promoting the notion of overhauling education in every corner, not based on the needs of those who do not respond well to the testing, but overall.

Application of problem solving is what's important, not simply the image or appearance of it. Looking like you are doing something is become the mainstay of modern generations. Obfuscating reality is our now. It doesn't matter if the kids are intelligent, can think for themselves, are not simply regurgitating something memorized vs using critical thought.... it just matters what they score on a test. It doesn't matter if someone is working hard, digging a ditch the best, fastest, most economical way... it just matters that they look like they are. It doesn't matter if a President-elect cares about the Constitution, the principals the country was founded upon, the ideas of what makes this Republic work, telling the truth... it just matters if he pretends so the voters can vote for him and move on to their reality TV shows.

So, to those who would see "testing" against other states as some panacea for education, how about simply educating to the best you can at every level and let the chips fall where they may. Those that will not or do not succeed, are not going to just because of national standards. What will happen though, is that those who might or are most likely will succeed, will suffer as you continue to flounder and bring them down to the least common denominator.

A race to the center is a race to the bottom.

According to Blake Wilson at MEC - the State Chamber of Commerce - the governor was supporting clean implementation of Common Core with his Executive Order. I don't get that, but that's what he told a group of 150 this morning.

Not sure about Mr. Stevenson's education, just that he was "bumped up" into ORS so MIS didn't have to deal with him anymore.

Good evening everyone. I notice that a couple of comments from "Anonymous" individuals had questions about myself instead of addressing the topic of this discussion. There was a question about my, Anthony Stevenson, education level. The answer to that question is that I have Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and Master of Science in Software Engineer from the University of Maryland. The same "Anonymous" individual stated that I was bumped up into ORS so MIS didn't have to deal with me anymore. The truth is that I applied for that position against several other candidates, including a couple from MIS. Because of my skill set and over 30 years of experience, I was selected over the other candidates for the position. MIS asked me not to leave and offer me additional money and a promotion to stay. While at ORS I was recognized twice by the USDE for two major applications that I build. In the process of building those applications I saved the state several million dollars by not having to hire contractors to come in and build the web applications. The applications are MAARS and the Mississippi Not Highly Qualified Teacher Program. Both used widely throughout the internet. Readers of this discussion and all the state newspapers surely know the MAARS web site. It was recognized by USDE as one the most intuition student assessment programs in the country. The Mississippi Not Highly Qualified Teacher Program put the state of Mississippi first in the nation. All states were mandated to a Highly Qualified application in use for the school year of 2007-08. We, the state of Mississippi, had ours in use a year early in the 2006-07 school year and was recognized by USDE again. I don't mind someone having something to say about the work I performed at MDE but by putting misleading and untrue information out there doesn't address the state of education here in Mississippi. The problem at hand is an old one. What are we going to do to better the youth of Mississippi chance to obtain a quality K-12 education and to prepare them to face this ever changing world that we all live in. mbrookes I will not question your comment on brushing up on my grammar and punctuation. I will take the time to reread my comments from now on and thank you for pointing this out to me. Have a goodnight all.

Recently retired Mississippi Department of Education's Andrew Mullins spent his early years growing up in Noxubee county, home of one of the largest Mennonite Communties in Mississippi and home of Superior Catfish Processing, a homegrown Mennoite industry.I have wondered what part, if any, Mullins had in the ACLU's 1960s threatened lawsuit against the Noxubee County Board of Education's decision to donate used textbooks to the growing Mennonite community schools. The education board capitulated and withdrew the offer. I suspect the ACLU wanted, in particular, the destruction of the Mississippi History textbooks. These early era Mississippi History books still bring high prices at antique auctions. Maybe Winter will have reprints of some of these books available at the Civil Rights Museum Gift Shop? In George Orwell's 1984,antique shops and bookstores were the targets of Big Brother's thought police.


Why can't the State of Mississippi adopt The Lancaster(Penn.) Mennonite Core Curriculum?