Teachers of the Year and their Common Core secret

By Brad McQueen

The Common Core machine has been using its secret cadre of Common Core propagandists from the Teacher of the Year program, to fan out across Arizona and the country in an attempt to counter the growing voices of opposition to the Common Core.

I saw one such Teacher of the Year testify recently against Arizona’s repeal/replace Common Core bill HB2190 barking all of the predictable Common Core talking points to the House Education Committee during the bill’s hearing.

But the Teachers of the Year have a dirty little Common Core secret. They are not exactly the non-partisan, objective teachers advocating for their profession to the public at large that they profess to be.

The National Teacher of the Year program is actually a project of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO ), which authored the Common Core Standards and holds its copyright.

Yep, that’s right. The Common Core chooses the Teacher of the Year.

The National Teacher of the Year program bills itself as nonpartisan and was created in 1952 to highlight exemplary teachers in the profession of teaching at both the state and national levels.

In the interest of full disclosure shouldn’t Teachers of the Year disclose this connection to the Common Core each time they star in pro-Common Core commercials, write pro-Common Core opinion pieces, and lobby legislatures across the country in support of the Common Core? They never do.

Last year the AZ Educational Foundation (AEF), the group tasked to choose Arizona’s Teacher of the Year, thanked all of their current and previous teachers of the year on their Facebook page for helping to defeat anti-Common Core legislation here in Arizona. So much for non-partisanship.

The AEF pulled all of the posts when I confronted them online about their partisanship and their connection to Common Core. They also immediately added wording about the CCSSO running the Teacher of the Year program on their website.

The Chamber of Commerce had all of their lobbyists at the AZ House Education Committee Hearing too. The education industrial complex of big business, big government and and their multitude of front groups have been propping up the Common Core machine since its inception in exchange for big money and big control.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce used part of the $1.38 million it received from Common Core advocate Bill Gates in 2013 to propagandize on behalf of the Common Core.

They created a national, pro-Common Core commercial using Iowa Teacher of the Year Sarah Brown Wessling. Arizona’s Lisa Graham Keegan, one of Gov Doug Ducey’s top education advisors, even makes an appearance to push Common Core.

The Common Core group, Achieve, is using the Teachers of the Year Program to sell Common Core to the rest of us nonbelievers and cite examples of the teachers’ support on their website.

“Many current and former Teachers of the Year support the Common Core State Standards and are stepping forward to highlight that support,” they proclaim.

They also use the Teachers of the Year to support their erroneous claims that a majority of teachers support the Common Core.

Erin Sponaugle, West Virginia Teacher of the Year warns, “fear is driving much of the opposition to the Common Core.”

Yeah, Erin, we are fearful. We’re fearful of an intrusive, one-size-fits-all, homogenized education delivery system and the detrimental impact it will have on our children’s minds and our country’s exceptionalism.

“The new standards are more rigorous than the past ones, according to Amanda McAdams, the 2011 Arizona Teacher of the Year.”

Based on what Amanda? The disastrous Common Core test to measure the effectiveness of the standards (AZMerit) is still being created here in Arizona. You’re not exactly using “critical thinking” or “citing evidence” from the experts.

Common Core loves to suction data about our kids from schools in Arizona, but they can’t seem to provide any real data to support their erroneous claims about their never before tested standards.

I always assumed that the chosen Teacher of the Year was the best teacher in a state, identified by parents, students, and coworkers. I used to believe that the whole community of educators, parents, and students voted this identified teacher as “above the rest” and worthy of a tiara of distinction, complete with a bouquet of roses, a sash, and tears running down their cheeks as they accepted the title “Teacher of the Year” – air kiss, pageant wave.

That was until I got an email forwarded to me at school inviting me to “apply” to become a Teacher of the Year, here in Arizona.

Teachers must apply to become Teachers of the Year after either nominating themselves or having someone else do the honors.

Teachers of the Year applicants must then complete an extensive application, write multiple essays, and jump through political hoops in front of interview committees in order to be considered for their shiny titles and thousands of dollars in cash and prizes, just like the governors did, in 2010, when they sold out their states’ control over education in exchange for cash and prizes when adopting the Common Core.

So perhaps this is why the Common Core chose the Teachers of the Year to shill for and lobby on behalf of the Common Core. Like peanut butter and jelly they just go together.

Each of the fifty states has appointed affiliate groups to choose their state-level Teacher of the Year. Each state then sends their Teacher of the Year to Washington, D.C., to meet the President of the United States and to compete for the National Teacher of the Year title.

After another round of applications, writing multiple additional essays, and doing yet another political fan dance in front of a National Selection Committee stacked with fifteen Common Core acolyte groups, including the National Education Association (NEA), which have received a combined $21 million to push the Common Core’s implementation and success, a new Cult of Common Core propagandist is crowned.

The Teachers of the Year are supposed to be non-partisan because they supposedly advocate for all teachers and the entire teaching profession, both within their states and nationally.

Many everyday teachers do not support the Common Core, yet the Teachers of the Year, nor their parent organization the CCSSO, offer a voice to those who oppose the Common Core machine.

I’m sure there are some very good educators that receive the title Teacher of the Year, but their opinion should not be given any more or less weight than all of those teachers who are Teachers of the Year every day in the classroom.

Do you think that the Teacher of the Year organization and the Common Core group that controls it would intentionally choose a teacher who may advocate against the Common Core around their state and country? That’s Common Core’s dirty little secret no longer.

Brad McQueen is a former Common Core insider and current public school teacher in Tucson, Arizona and is the author of the anti-Common Core book “The Cult of Common Core”. Connect with Brad at cultofcommoncore@gmail.com