My head is swimming in disbelief. Alpine School District is the first district in the state to publish a Common Core test opt-out form and make it available to all parents in the school district. It’s a simple one page form. Unfortunately I can’t locate it on their website, but I was sent a copy from a parent in the district. It’s official and I’ve confirmed it with Board member Wendy Hart. Congratulations Alpine School District. Thank you for listening.
Download a pdf:ASD Sage Opt Out Form
Everyone knows how the proponents of Common Core keep touting how it was a “state led” effort. Though that is easily debunked by anyone who takes the time to research the process of how Common Core came about, we now have direct evidence right off the official Common Core website, through the internet archive machine. Breitbart News exposes it as follows:
The current-day website of the group [Common Core’s official website] states the following in its “Frequently Asked Questions” section:
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and mathematics that states voluntarily adopt…
The nation’s governors and education commissioners, through their representative organizations the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) led the development of the Common Core State Standards and continue to lead the initiative. Teachers, parents, school administrators and experts from across the country together with state leaders provided input into the development of the standards.
As Kyle Olson, founder of Education Action Group, observes, use of the Wayback Machine, an internet website archivist, to explore prior versions of the Common Core group’s website shows that the quote captured on March 5, 2010 is, in fact, the standard talking point heard today about Common Core’s beginnings:
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).
The description of how the standards began is somewhat different, however, on the very same website on October 19, 2009, just six months earlier:
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a joint effort by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in partnership with Achieve, ACT and the College Board.
Similarly, a 2009 news release at the website of NGA Center states:
Forty-nine states and territories have joined the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The initiative is being jointly led by the NGA Center and CCSSO in partnership with Achieve, Inc., ACT and the College Board.
Achieve, Inc., which bills itself as a nonprofit “education reform organization,” states up front on its website that it “partnered with NGA and CCSSO on the initiative and a number of Achieve staff and consultants served on the writing and review teams” for the Common Core standards.
ACT refers to the nonprofit responsible for the popular college admissions and placement test taken by many high school graduates. The ACT website states that this nonprofit is an “active partner with the Common Core Standards initiative.”
The College Board is currently led by its president, David Coleman, who partnered with Jason Zimba and Susan Pimentel to form Student Achievement Partners, another nonprofit education organization devoted to the success of the Common Core standards.
In the early stages of a movement, you always identify who is leading it. The fact that Common Core identified who was leading it in the early stages as the NGA, CCSSO, Achieve, ACT and the College Board, tells us that private organizations got together and created this and then strong-armed the states via federal monetary bribes. Only when they had to sell it to the public did they change their language and spin it as “state led.”
No one can ever claim Common Core was state-led again, unless they are a liar or completely ignorant of all facts. Please make sure your legislators and local education officials aren’t ignorant of the facts.
For the full Breitbart article, go here:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/01/25/Common-Core-Where-Nonprofits-Reaped-Millions
There is a great article by George Will in the Washington Post slamming Common Core. Here’s a clip and link.
By George F. Will, Published: January 15
Viewed from Washington, which often is the last to learn about important developments, opposition to the Common Core State Standards Initiative still seems as small as the biblical cloud that ariseth out of the sea, no larger than a man’s hand. Soon, however, this education policy will fill a significant portion of the political sky.
The Common Core represents the ideas of several national organizations (of governors and school officials) about what and how children should learn. It is the thin end of an enormous wedge. It is designed to advance in primary and secondary education the general progressive agenda of centralization and uniformity.
Understandably, proponents of the Common Core want its nature and purpose to remain as cloudy as possible for as long as possible. Hence they say it is a “state-led,” “voluntary” initiative to merely guide education with “standards” that are neither written nor approved nor mandated by Washington, which would never, ever “prescribe” a national curriculum. Proponents talk warily when describing it because a candid characterization would reveal yet another Obama administration indifference to legality.
Read the rest here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-doubts-over-common-core-wont-be-easily-dismissed/2014/01/15/68cecb88-7df3-11e3-93c1-0e888170b723_story.html
World Net Daily has posted an excellent article on the data collection issues under Common Core.
The spying on Americans by the National Security Agency and the Internal Revenue Service’s attacks on conservative groups are “like a walk in the park” compared to government plans to track school children, says a prominent national education researcher, analyst and Johns Hopkins-trained pediatrician.
Dr. Karen Effrem, president of the national watchdog group, Education Liberty Watch, is sounding an alarm about Common Core, the federal education standards that almost all states are adopting by accepting federal “Race to the Top” funding.
Under Common Core, Effrem said, students’ personal information increasingly is being collected, measured and assessed while the standards shift the focus away from academics and toward psychological training and testing of personal attitudes and behaviors.
Read more at: http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/nsa-ops-walk-in-park-next-to-plans-to-track-kids/
Browsing the web there are more and more teachers speaking out against Common Core. Here’s one by teacher Elizabeth Natale that is a sad commentary on the plight of teachers.
“Teaching is the most difficult — but most rewarding — work I have ever done. It is, however, art, not science. A student’s learning will never be measured by any test, and I do not believe the current trend in education will lead to adults better prepared for the workforce, or to better citizens. For the sake of students, our legislators must reach this same conclusion before good teachers give up the profession — and the children — they love.”
Read the full article here:
Amazing news. Blue state New York looks to be the first on its way to fully dropping Common Core, and it’s a push from teachers who saw first hand the damage done to children with Common Core’s high stakes adaptive testing. I never would have thought the NY teachers union was taking its marching orders from the extreme right wing… :) Looks like that argument will have to be replaced.
“The Board of Directors of the New York State United Teachers, a union with more than 600,000 members, has approved a resolution that withdraws its earlier support for the Common Core State Standards ”as implemented and interpreted” by the New York Education Department. It also declares ”no confidence” in the policies of State Education Commissioner John King and calls for a three-year moratorium on high-stakes consequences from standardized testing.”
…
The resolution declares “no confidence” in King, calling for his removal, and, according to a union release, is asking for the following:
* completion of all modules, or lessons, aligned with the Common Core and time for educators to review them to ensure they are grade-level appropriate and aligned with classroom practice;
* better engagement with parents, including listening to their concerns about their children’s needs;
* additional tools, professional development and resources for teachers to address the needs of diverse learners, including students with disabilities and English language learners;
* full transparency in state testing, including the release of all test questions, so teachers can use them in improving instruction;
* postponement of Common Core Regents exams as a graduation requirement;
* the funding necessary to ensure all students have an equal opportunity to achieve the Common Core standards. The proposed Executive Budget would leave nearly 70 percent of the state’s school districts with less state aid in 2014-15 than they had in 2009-10; and
* a moratorium, or delay, in the high-stakes consequences for students and teachers from standardized testing to give the State Education Department – and school districts – more time to correctly implement the Common Core.
Governor Herbert made it abundantly clear this week that he loves Common Core by selecting Tami Pyfer to be his new education advisor. Tami recently participated in the debate in Logan as one of the state representatives along with Dave Thomas.
The best way to express your disappointment is to help your legislators understand that we want out of Common Core and it’s agenda and strings. We already know that the state signed onto Common Core knowing it would have high federal involvement, a full year before the standards were released (read here). Statements from the Governor or State Board members denying these facts and failing to provide documents to the contrary, just illustrate how much trouble we are in.
The Legislative session starts next week and over 100 education bills have already been submitted with another 100 likely lying in wait.
We need your help!
If a few people from each legislative district step forward and read some of the bills authored by their Representative and Senator, then each volunteer would have only a handful of bills to evaluate.
We’ve come up with a simple process to make evaluations as easy as possible. To begin, simply contact us for your assignment, download and open the UACC Bill Evaluation Form and Instructions: How to Evaluate a Bill in 5 Steps . Then follow the Instructions contained therein. We encourage you to begin now!
Let us reassure you that evaluations don’t need to be perfect, we know you are not a lawyer and don’t expect you to know everything. Multiple people will be evaluating each bill, so if you miss something someone else will likely pick up on it. If you have any questions we will be supporting each-other in UACC’s Facebook Group!
To Begin:
1)Use our Contact Us page to volunteer. Tell us how many bills you will do and we’ll email you back an assignment .
1)Download the Instructions: How to Evaluate a Bill in 5 Steps
2)Download the UACC Bill Evaluation Form
3)Please complete and submit your evaluations by Monday, February 3rd.
Gotta love this exchange. Alison Moore Smith, homeschooling mom and blogger, just posted an enlightening conversation she had over email with Dixie Allen who serves on the State School Board. You don’t want to miss this one. Alison hits Common Core over the head and raises a lot of valid concerns.
http://homeschool-open-source.com/dixie-allen-common-core-why-we-homeschool/
Utah signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in May 2009 which was included as Appendix 8 of our Race to the Top grant application. To be clear, this is an agreement between the sovereign state of Utah, and two private, non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and the National Governor’s Association (NGA).
Here are some quotes from the document, and the entire document is embedded below if you want to read it. Thanks to Morgan Olsen for providing these quotes, comments, and the document.
“CCSSO and the NGA Center will convene, Achieve, ACT, and the College Board in an open, inclusive, and efficient process to develop K-12 standards that are grounded in empirical research and draw on best practices in standards development.”
Where’s that research again?
“The parties support a state-led effort and not a federal effort to develop a common core of state standards; there is, however, an appropriate federal role in supporting this state-led effort…”
Not constitutionally there isn’t. Do they only not support the federal effort during the development stage of the CCSS?
“…In particular, the federal government can provide key financial support for this effort in developing a common core of state standards and in moving toward common assessments such as through the Race to the Top Fund authorized in the American Recovery and Reinvestment act of 2009….”
Evidence they’ve been working with the department of education from the beginning. Those who claim the Federal Government came in and hijacked the innocent standards no longer have a leg to stand on.
“Further the federal government can incentivize this effort through a range of tiered incentives, such as providing states with greater flexibility in the use of existing federal funds, supporting a revised state accountability structure, and offering financial support for states to effectively implement the standards.”
Flexibility – NCLB Flexibility waiver comes to mind. It’s all part of the plan.
“Additionally the federal government can provide additional long-term financial support for the development, other related common core standards supports, and a research agenda that can help continually improve the common core standards over time.”
Did you ever hear of the golden rule? Whoever has the gold makes the rules. Long-term federal involvement has been the plan from the beginning.
“Finally the federal government can revise and align existing federal education laws with the lessons learned from states’ international benchmarking efforts and from federal research.”
How will this federal research be accomplished without data?
The last paragraph in its entirety is below:
“Federal Role. The parties support a state-led effort and not a federal effort to develop a common core of state standards; there is, however, an appropriate federal role in supporting this state-led effort. In particular, the federal government can provide key financial 
support for this effort in developing a common core of state standards and in moving toward common assessments such as through the Race to the Top Fund authorized in the American Recovery and Reinvestment act of 2009. Further the federal government can incentivize this effort through a range of tiered incentives, such as providing states with greater flexibility in the use of existing federal funds, supporting a revised state accountability structure, and offering financial support for states to effectively implement the standards. Additionally the federal government can provide additional long-term financial support for the development, other related common core standards supports, and a research agenda that can help continually improve the common core standards over time. Finally the federal government can revise and align existing federal education laws with the lessons learned from stats’ international benchmarking efforts and from federal research.”