Common Core - A Stab at the Heart of American Education
They say 45 states have adopted the Common Core “State” Standards for grades K-12. If you have not heard about them yet, that’s because they rammed it through with the same “you have to pass it to find out what’s in it” arrogance that gave us obamacare. The two of them are pillars of the “fundamental transformation” that candidate Obama promised in 2008.
https://peter5427.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/ominous-parallels-obamacare-a...
Common Core, The Promise
To learn what the fuss is all about, look in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core_State_Standards_Initiative.
Oh, yes, there is also corestandards.org/. They will tell you in impenetrable academic bureaucratic language all about their lofty goals to prepare kids for real jobs, as if they could predict the jobs and skills that will be needed to fill them in 5-10-20 years.
Common Core, The Delivery
Everybody from respectable think tanks to moms are furious about what is happening or is about to happen to their children in school. There is every reason to oppose Common Core. Here are some of them:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/1Ik09d4v3kvBsHVJnId5dT1WsSBaHAZyT5AEIkFS5...
http://myinclinevillage.com/2013/04/18/why-i-am-against-the-common-core-...
Let’s just look at the top six reasons.
1. A video shows Bill Gates, the man who instigates and finances CCSS, admitting that “It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won't know for probably a decade.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/27/bill-gate...
Why did all the state governors and legislators fall for a scheme that even its SPONSOR has no faith in? Does MONEY have the power to BLIND people to the FACTS?
2. Two of the original authors, of the five who actually wrote the CCSS, plus five members of validation committees, have released statements and have testified to state legislatures expressing their REFUSAL TO ENDORSE the English and math standards. Likewise for the science standards.
Dr. Sandra Stotsky Testifies Against Common Core
http://vimeo.com/77216361
Dr. Sandra Stotsky on mediocrity of Common Core
http://parentsacrossamerica.org/sandra-stotsky-on-the-mediocrity-of-the-...
Dr. Duke Pesta Testifies Against Common Core
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QJ3I_xF4MY&feature=youtu.be
Why did all the state governors and legislators fall for a scheme that even its AUTHORS have no faith in? Does MONEY have the power to BLIND people to the FACTS?
(At this point, the Nevada state officials should already have been asking, why did Arkansas have enough sense to hear opposing views on Common Core, but a californicated state like ours managed to hear only the pro side on SB14 in 2011. Why did the state senators in New York give the pro side a real grilling, but ours just fawned over them and approved the proposal with only one dissenting vote?)
Dr. Milgram Testimony;
http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2013/Meeting%20Attachments/810/I1...
NY State Senate Public Hearing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIoIrJFkp3c
Nevada SB14
http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Session/76th2011/Reports/history.cfm?ID=38
3. The devil is in the curriculum. The proponents love to say that the STANDARD does not determine the CURRICULUM. Yet examples from state after states show a remarkable uniformity in their implementations of CCSS. Countless videos on TeachingChannel.org show precisely how CCSS works in the classroom.
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/multiplying-fractions-by-whole-nu...
They all illustrate all too clearly the absolute worst of the "innovations" in the CCSS:
(a) The shift from "teacher-centric" to "student-centric" instruction. The teacher is not allowed to use judgement based on experience to decide whether a lecture, a demonstration, a discussion or a project is the appropriate method in any specific case. The teacher is reduced to fluttering over kids bunched in blind-leading-the-blind discussion groups to fumble for a consensus on the solution and the answer.
Resources for Student-Centered Instruction
http://www.ncte.org/standards/common-core
(b) The frightening nuts-and-bolts details. See how they teach math:
http://betrayed-whyeducationisfailing.blogspot.com/2012/10/in-defense-of...
Not only do they waste precious time drawing incomprehensible diagrams to do arithmetic operations, but the diagrams that they teach cannot handle decimals or fractions... As to the English “language arts,” they expect our children to read for comprehension, without teaching grammar, spelling or sentence structure...
http://betrayed-whyeducationisfailing.blogspot.com/2010/08/grammar-probl...
http://www.engageny.org/resource/text-list-for-p-12-ela
(c) The denial of facts and absolute truths, even in math and science. CCSS asserts that there are no facts, just opinions, and anybody's opinion is just as valid as everyone else's. Scientific "fact" is whatever the CONSENSUS happens to be. (Well, NO; objective truth is available to anyone.)
Serious Concerns About Next Generation Science
http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/nsta-has-serious-extensive-concerns-about-...
(d) The deliberate indoctrination with a rabidly anti-American, anti-Western, anti-Judeo-Christian screed in English, history and civics. This is the one time the teacher must take an active role and guide the kids to the ANGRY conclusion that there is no American exceptionalism, no melting pot, no American culture, no American identity. We are all just hyphenated Americans.
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-cultural-identity?fd=1
http://noisyroom.net/blog/2013/05/24/communist-indoctrination-in-common-...
http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/08/common-core-assignment-makes-sixth-gra...
Why did all the state governors and legislators fall for a scheme that so viciously undermines the very foundation of their own country, so blatantly denies the reasons for its greatness? Does MONEY have the power to BLIND people to the FACTS?
4. The national educational database will totally destroy privacy. A software user interface specification document calls for the collection of 400 or 500 "data points" about each student and his family that will be collected as part of testing under CCSS. They will track students from pre-K through college and employment, and use their test results to evaluate teachers, schools and districts...
Education Data Model
http://nces.ed.gov/forum/datamodel/eiebrowser/techview.aspx?instance=stu...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/03/13/lawsuit-c...
Why did all the state governors and legislators fall for a scheme that so blatantly destroys the very concept of privacy; nay, any HINT, any last SHRED of constitutional rights? Does MONEY have the power to BLIND people to the FACTS?
5. It’s always about the money... What really sells CCSS now is Uncle Barack's "Race To The Top" program and his juicy incentives. But REMEMBER THIS: the federal funds from the "stimulus package" of 2009 and from Race To The Top grants is just SEED MONEY to start implementing Common Core. When that money runs out, the STATE will have to INCREASE its education budget to pay for the REST of the START-UP and CONTINUING costs. One thing for sure, though. There is a monopoly on what gets to be claimed or certified as Common Core compatible. Yupp, that will sure bring costs down...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/27/bill-gate...
Common Core Services by Pearson
http://commoncore.pearsoned.com/
http://www.achieve.org/achieving-common-core
http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/common-core-state-standards-costs...
http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards/state-co...
6. Teachers hate it!!! In spite of all the official propaganda (such as NEA Today), the concern and opposition is mounting from actual classroom teachers who are required to teach to these standards. Note the comments under the NEA article; note the comments in
http://conservativeteachersofamerica.com/82-teachers-talk-back-to-nea-de...
Why did all the state governors and legislators fall for a scheme that evokes opposition from PROFESSIONALS? Does MONEY have the power to BLIND people to the FACTS?
Tell your state and local officials:
GET RID OF Common Core.
Go back to basics, the Three R's.
Let teachers teach. Let students learn.
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