Olivia
Online
Cathy Wilson
@CathyTweetsToo
Happy homeschooling homemaker, creative cross stitcher.
Cary, NC
Joined June 2022
123 Following
164 Followers
3.2K Posts
Happy 250th birthday USA! Here are patriotic items some members of my local EGA chapter in Cary, NC made to celebrate your big day.
🇺🇸 INCREDIBLE! DC will have over SEVEN HOURS STRAIGHT of flyovers on America’s 250th birthday, featuring COUNTLESS military aircraft, including the new Air Force One
… and possibly even even the new STEALTH bomber, the B-21 👀
America is about to have an INCREDIBLE birthday! 🔥
(h/t @PenguinSix for the schedule!)
If this sort of thing doesn’t stop you in your tracks and make even the slightest twinge of pride rise in your soul… well… I feel sorry for you.
@nckhui He is a role model, and this kind of behavior is outside the bounds expected from a public employee. North Carolinians are providing his salary. He has upset many with his hateful beliefs about a man who was just murdered. Short-term suspension should be considered.
Who to follow
@nckhui How about surveying parents about what's working and failing? For instance: new math is VERY confusing. Remedy: Bring back traditional reading, writing, and 'rithmetic! You must work alongside parents to achieve that #1 ranking.
@dhh It's been a while since I read The Four Loves by Lewis. Yes, friendship is built on a foundation of looking at the world, side by side, both being improved by sharing what you see. Your best friends never grow dull, in part because they pull you into new directions.
Reading Scores Plummet In Rich Blue States And Rise In Poor Red Ones | Helen Raleigh, The Federalist
The reading and math scores of students in Mississippi and Louisiana have surpassed those in deeply Democratic states such as California.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has released the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for the 2024 school year. Known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” NAEP assesses the reading and math skills of America’s fourth and eighth graders. The latest report reveals something surprising: after adjusting for demographics, the reading and math scores of students in Mississippi and Louisiana, two heavily Republican states and among the poorest in the nation, have surpassed those in deeply Democratic states such as California and New York.
The secret of Mississippi and Louisiana’s educational success is not secret at all; it is about returning to the fundamentals and following the evidence. Mississippi’s Republican-led legislature has implemented effective education reforms in 2012 that prioritize phonics — teaching students to sound out words — and enforce a retention policy for third graders who do not meet essential reading benchmarks. Furthermore, the state invests $15 million each year, or approximately $32 per student, into training teachers on literacy and providing dedicated reading coaches in schools.
The reform has produced remarkable results, with Mississippi’s fourth graders’ reading scores rising from 49th in the nation in 2013 to the top of the rankings (after adjusting for demographics) in 2024. The progress among black students is particularly impressive. According to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, the reading scores of the state’s black fourth graders have improved from 45th to third place during the same period. This reflects the effectiveness of Mississippi’s literacy program, which has provided a learning gain equivalent to a full year of schooling. Moreover, the state’s graduation rate has seen a significant rise from 72 percent in 2013 to 89.9 percent in 2024.
This drastic improvement has been dubbed as the “Mississippi Miracle,” and even caught the attention of Vice President J.D. Vance, who praised Mississippi’s education success on https://t.co/VOrQ8uibOQ: “This is pretty incredible. Smart education reform drastically improved Mississippi’s schools.”
Gov. Reeves declared in an interview that the education outcome in his state “is really not a miracle at all. It’s really a result of conservative reforms implemented in public education — they’re making a huge difference for kids.”
Louisiana’s Gains
Inspired by Mississippi’s success, Louisiana implemented similar education reforms in 2019. The state focused on phonics instruction and providing “content-rich” literacy curriculums. Additionally, Louisiana has invested in extensive training programs for principals, teachers, and reading coaches on how students learn to read.
Chad Aldeman, who tracks education-related news, noted, “While Mississippi might win the prize for ten-year gains, Louisiana might win for the most significant recent improvements. It was the closest state to recovering from COVID-related declines in eighth-grade reading and math, and it was the only state where fourth-grade reading scores were higher in 2024 than in 2019.”
Blue States Fall Behind
In stark contrast to the education gains in Mississippi and Louisiana, blue states such as California have seen troubling declines in educational outcomes. The latest NAEP report reveals that California’s reading scores for both fourth and eighth graders have plummeted again in 2024, remaining lower than those of 2017. While there was a slight improvement in fourth-grade math scores last year, they still lag behind the scores from 2019.
A variety of factors have contributed to this decline in blue states, including the extended school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic. Democrats also rely on questionable research for education reform and stubbornly maintain flawed strategies to align with their political interests, even in the face of catastrophic results.
California’s experiments with alternatives to teaching phonics, despite extensive research that phonics works best, have failed. According to California Policy Center, “less than half (47.1 percent) of all public school students in California met state grade-level English Language Arts (ELA) standards during the 2021-22 school year … The reading scores of Black and Hispanic students are even worse. Only 30.3 percent of Black students and 36.4 percent of Hispanic students in California met grade-level ELA standards.”
Yet legislation requiring schools to implement more phonics-based reading curricula failed to pass in California’s legislature last year. This was primarily due to opposition from Democratic Party leadership, teachers unions, and advocacy groups. California Together, an advocacy group for English-learners, insists that “reading programs focused heavily on phonics are too narrow and confusing for students who struggle with English.” I find such an argument nonsensical. As a non-native speaker, I successfully learned English through a phonics-based approach. Additionally, a few school districts in California that have adopted a phonics-based approach, such as Bonita Unified School District in Los Angeles County, found that “English learners scored nearly three times higher than their peers statewide.”
Even Progressives Question Such Education Policy
The latest national scorecard on reading has prompted even loyal supporters of Democrats and teachers unions to question progressive education policies. The San Francisco Chronicle editorial board laments “that California childhood literacy rates have fallen significantly beneath those of the poorest states in the nation should be considered a stain on progressive values this state claims to stand for…[but] ensuring Californian kids receive the most effective reading lessons didn’t even merit a discussion among Democrats in the face of union opposition.”
Read more:
https://t.co/d5pspQglHd
![OwenGregorian's tweet photo. Reading Scores Plummet In Rich Blue States And Rise In Poor Red Ones | Helen Raleigh, The Federalist
The reading and math scores of students in Mississippi and Louisiana have surpassed those in deeply Democratic states such as California.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has released the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for the 2024 school year. Known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” NAEP assesses the reading and math skills of America’s fourth and eighth graders. The latest report reveals something surprising: after adjusting for demographics, the reading and math scores of students in Mississippi and Louisiana, two heavily Republican states and among the poorest in the nation, have surpassed those in deeply Democratic states such as California and New York.
The secret of Mississippi and Louisiana’s educational success is not secret at all; it is about returning to the fundamentals and following the evidence. Mississippi’s Republican-led legislature has implemented effective education reforms in 2012 that prioritize phonics — teaching students to sound out words — and enforce a retention policy for third graders who do not meet essential reading benchmarks. Furthermore, the state invests $15 million each year, or approximately $32 per student, into training teachers on literacy and providing dedicated reading coaches in schools.
The reform has produced remarkable results, with Mississippi’s fourth graders’ reading scores rising from 49th in the nation in 2013 to the top of the rankings (after adjusting for demographics) in 2024. The progress among black students is particularly impressive. According to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, the reading scores of the state’s black fourth graders have improved from 45th to third place during the same period. This reflects the effectiveness of Mississippi’s literacy program, which has provided a learning gain equivalent to a full year of schooling. Moreover, the state’s graduation rate has seen a significant rise from 72 percent in 2013 to 89.9 percent in 2024.
This drastic improvement has been dubbed as the “Mississippi Miracle,” and even caught the attention of Vice President J.D. Vance, who praised Mississippi’s education success on https://t.co/VOrQ8uibOQ: “This is pretty incredible. Smart education reform drastically improved Mississippi’s schools.”
Gov. Reeves declared in an interview that the education outcome in his state “is really not a miracle at all. It’s really a result of conservative reforms implemented in public education — they’re making a huge difference for kids.”
Louisiana’s Gains
Inspired by Mississippi’s success, Louisiana implemented similar education reforms in 2019. The state focused on phonics instruction and providing “content-rich” literacy curriculums. Additionally, Louisiana has invested in extensive training programs for principals, teachers, and reading coaches on how students learn to read.
Chad Aldeman, who tracks education-related news, noted, “While Mississippi might win the prize for ten-year gains, Louisiana might win for the most significant recent improvements. It was the closest state to recovering from COVID-related declines in eighth-grade reading and math, and it was the only state where fourth-grade reading scores were higher in 2024 than in 2019.”
Blue States Fall Behind
In stark contrast to the education gains in Mississippi and Louisiana, blue states such as California have seen troubling declines in educational outcomes. The latest NAEP report reveals that California’s reading scores for both fourth and eighth graders have plummeted again in 2024, remaining lower than those of 2017. While there was a slight improvement in fourth-grade math scores last year, they still lag behind the scores from 2019.
A variety of factors have contributed to this decline in blue states, including the extended school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic. Democrats also rely on questionable research for education reform and stubbornly maintain flawed strategies to align with their political interests, even in the face of catastrophic results.
California’s experiments with alternatives to teaching phonics, despite extensive research that phonics works best, have failed. According to California Policy Center, “less than half (47.1 percent) of all public school students in California met state grade-level English Language Arts (ELA) standards during the 2021-22 school year … The reading scores of Black and Hispanic students are even worse. Only 30.3 percent of Black students and 36.4 percent of Hispanic students in California met grade-level ELA standards.”
Yet legislation requiring schools to implement more phonics-based reading curricula failed to pass in California’s legislature last year. This was primarily due to opposition from Democratic Party leadership, teachers unions, and advocacy groups. California Together, an advocacy group for English-learners, insists that “reading programs focused heavily on phonics are too narrow and confusing for students who struggle with English.” I find such an argument nonsensical. As a non-native speaker, I successfully learned English through a phonics-based approach. Additionally, a few school districts in California that have adopted a phonics-based approach, such as Bonita Unified School District in Los Angeles County, found that “English learners scored nearly three times higher than their peers statewide.”
Even Progressives Question Such Education Policy
The latest national scorecard on reading has prompted even loyal supporters of Democrats and teachers unions to question progressive education policies. The San Francisco Chronicle editorial board laments “that California childhood literacy rates have fallen significantly beneath those of the poorest states in the nation should be considered a stain on progressive values this state claims to stand for…[but] ensuring Californian kids receive the most effective reading lessons didn’t even merit a discussion among Democrats in the face of union opposition.”
Read more:
https://t.co/d5pspQglHd](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpyCeoaW4AA-V3w.jpg)
@chipgaines All Christians wrestle in obedience to God's way. When many people show concern at your misdirection, usually their words are meant in love, not in antagonism. Checking your reaction to their criticism can reveal whether you're grieving in a godly or a worldly way.
@PastorMark Thank you! The first shot of that house is the bedroom? 😬 (Horrible promotion of that sin.) Yes, the Gaines are 100% tone deaf to the recent election, foolishly losing their conservative base, and reaping what they've shown. God can't be mocked.
Mark Driscoll rebukes Chip Gaines over new show "Back to the Frontier"
@chipgaines Wow, my first thought was whether the Hollywood-like fame and fortune have gone to your heads. Bible-believing Christians, globally, not only American, see this promotes an anti-Christian worldview. Look at Genesis. It's Adam & Eve, not Adam & Steve. 🤭
@Catholicizm1 Hmm, picking and choosing a little bit of the Bible that aligns with a message? I believe God chooses, not the reverse.
Catholicism so confusing and complicated to me (a Bible-loving Protestant.) Limits on scripture, but embellishments in practices? Why so?
@Truth_matters20 @Catholicizm1 And what's worse (when they only show Eph 2:8) is the verse ends in a comma. Context matters! I think "the Church" is extremely guilty of picking and choosing what they like most. But serious Christians will study the Bible - seeking truth in the primary source document.
@TuckerCarlson A beautiful tribute to your father - thank you for sharing!
@dragodimitrov @RyanLeatherbury I guess you've never read through a systematic theology textbook like the 1,000+ page one by Wayne Grudem... 😄 I am giving a Catholic friend this study guide of that book in a couple of days. Good luck on apologetics! It works better face to face. 😉
😄 It's mind-boggling how many know the relevance of that random number.
Faith Chapel on Jekyll Island is finished.
Mount Vernon piece is finished.
@multiplayer_cod @pearlythingz 🤭 If you don't know Jesus, you don't know Jack, my friend. Sorry, but that's the truth!
How do I know this for certain? God the Father speaks through the Holy Spirit to those who believe in His one and only Son. And if you don't get it - the Holy Spirit - you don't get it.
@pearlythingz Oh, jealousy... Isn't that one of the 10 commandments, Pearl?
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