Last week a concerned parent private messaged the South Carolina Parents Involved In Education Facebook group. As a board member of USPIE this was of interest, and newsworthy.

The United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) website says that USPIE is a “nonprofit, nationwide coalition of state leaders focused on returning control of education to parents and local communities by eradicating federal intrusion.” USPIE has a SC chapter which can be viewed here.

The parent (who wishes to remain anonymous due to fears of retaliation) was concerned about a lesson her 9th grader was exposed to at River Bluff High School in Lexington County District One. The lesson Involved “Newsela.”

According to an article in PJ Media by Ashley Thorne, “ Many public schools are now assigning their students children’s versions of newspaper articles through a new company called Newsela. Newsela takes articles from outlets such as Washington Post and Associated Press, rewrites each one to fit five reading levels, and publishes them online.” See more here:

This particular lesson her child was given was from the news source Al Jazeera.

The parent wrote to us saying,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the photos of the lesson her son’s English teacher used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After doing some research of my own, it seems that the founder and CEO of Newsela is Matthew Gross. His company now serves 20 million users and almost all, sources are showing 90%, public schools are engaged. Please see their latest update here:

When I researched further, there was controversy over this company and many who think Newsela are using too many left leaning news sources with no apparent balancing of right leaning news sources. This blog had enlightening users’ comments here:

One of my good friends from New York told me that CEO Matthew Gross was Executive Director of the Regents Research Fund, a privately funded affiliate of the New York State Board of Regents and Education Department that helped lead the implementation of Race to the Top–driven education reforms. He reported to Education Commissioner John King, Jr. Matthew oversaw the organization’s growth strategy, public–private partnerships, talent acquisition, and day-to-day operations. While at the Regents Research Fund, Matthew led the development of EngageNY.org, a web application providing teachers and administrators with resources for implementation of Common Core state standards and teacher and principal evaluations. Since its August 2011 launch, the site has been viewed over fourteen million times by educators in all fifty states.

Newsela’s CEO Matthew Gross being a proponent of Common Core Standards raises serious questions about history, facts and “news” reporting being accurate, fair and balanced.

Parents are voicing concerns about what exactly is the true goal of this type of “news” information being used in our public schools? Are teacher’s being used as tools to indoctrinate students with them only hearing left leaning news reports? Is this Newsela Company phishing for student data? Is Newsela  presenting biased news or as President Donald Trump would say, “fake news”? Is Newsela introducing adult topics to children including perversion?

I found a conversation about Newsela from another concerned mom who wrote:

“I talked to our 6th grade teachers (Catholic school) in depth about Newsela at the beginning of the school year. I am not a fan. You can get on and just look at the story (news 😂) titles. When I did that, there was a story about a transgender child (who was still physically the birth gender but identified the other) who had started hormones and was going to prom never having told his/her parents. Concerning on so many levels. Advocating “do what feels good”, “ok to disrespect parents by going behind their backs”, not to mention if families feel that content is appropriate for their child to read.”

So it looks like even private schools are using Newsela.

Is your child’s school using Newsela? You should ask if you have concerns.

You can check out what your child is reading on Newsela’s web page when they go online and don’t bring home the lesson here.

If you are concerned like this parent was you should contact your local school district board members (Lexington County School District One School Board members can be reached here) with your concerns as well as contacting State Superintendent Molly Spearman.

And as an added bonus… try contacting your STATE school board member. Or maybe the Education Oversight Committee, they can be contacted here.

Concerned parents should speak up.

 

Johnnelle Raines is a retired public school teacher of 29 years in the classroom. She is also a Board Member of the United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE).