David Coleman, architect of Common Core and president of the College Board which oversees AP tests, SAT, ACT, and CLEP tests, has produced a new AP U.S. History framework that guts the Founding Father’s role in our country. George Washington gets one mention. Benjamin Franklin and James Madison, NONE. Declaration of Independence, one mention in a clause of one sentence. Instead of a 5-page outline for teachers about the topics the test will cover, it’s now a 98-page document that dictates how teachers should teach.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/28/The-College-Boards-Attack-on-American-History
“At a conference recently held in Atlanta, Lawrence Charap, head of the College Board’s History and Social Sciences Content Development Group, told high school teachers that the new AP U.S. History course and exam will eliminate the unnecessary memorization of irrelevant facts and replace actual knowledge with ‘historical thinking skills.’”
Everything done under Common Core is done under the banner of improving thinking skills. Every day we see more of this garbage coming out. I think it’s time Utah moved for greater separation from not only Common Core, but perhaps the College Board as well.
Utah already has a concurrent enrollment system where students can get credit in high school through their classes. This needs to be greatly expanded in order to preserve some state control over the content of coursework. It’s completely apparent that David Coleman and the College Board (and his creation Common Core) are not interested in teaching truth, but pushing an agenda. Please write your state school board member and legislators and ask them to read this article, and consider what Utah can do to step away from AP History in favor of a rich history curriculum founded in truth and providing college credit to high schoolers. Utah needs its own solution to this problem.
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Addendum:
Here is further analysis of the new AP History curriculum by the Heritage Foundation, pointing out how “unbalanced and biased” it is, unit by unit.
http://heartland.org/policy-documents/analysis-college-board-ap-us-history-framework
This is really scary. Here comes the brain washing, or Hitler’s youth camp’s educational system. No, I’m not being a conspiracy theorist, I’m merely stating history and how it can be repeated. We need to stand up NOW and not be like the Germans and wonder how it all happened right under our noses.
Just the past couple of months I’ve felt the need to teach my kids about early American history and the Constitution. Some of my kids go to public school part-time, so this was part of our homeschool time. We were doing something else for history, but I made the switch. I’m ramping it up now, realizing that in a few years very few of their peers may know any of it. All of this is stunning, absolutely stunning.
This is very sad and unacceptable. I love US History, the very essence of who we are as a country and how we came into being is derived from learning abut the founding fathers and the constitution. I want my kids to know why we are unique and what makes America great, and they can’t learn that, if it’s not even being taught in US History class. I hope we stand up as a nation and fight against this nonsense and teach our kids to stand for truth!
My progenitors were part of the beginning of this great country. They were not the famous ones, but they were the farmers, workers, and the “boots-on-the-ground” people who also gave their lives and fortunes to see that this country would live. To leave out our greatest Leaders, Washington and others, is a real travesty. UTAH get OUT of Common Core.
Loris, to be completely accurate, this is not Common Core, but the AP course for US History under the direction of the architect of Common Core. Small technicality but I wanted to be fully accurate.
Nice try, Mr. Norton, but I am not buying it since there is a powerful connection.
Gene, what are you saying you’re not buying? That this isn’t Common Core? At the moment, no state has adopted Common Core history standards, so there is no basis to say that. However, I have no doubt that this will eventually become the direction and content of Common Core history standards.
My AP US History teacher, Keith Wood, at Murray High, must be dying inside, as am I. It’s so shameful and disgusting. I read both articles and I can’t believe all that is being left out I worry for the nation if this is what is going to be taught to the smarter kids. Glad we decided to homeschool, but what about the rest.
This is so sad and scary to me. I requested to have my daughter dropped from the AP History class in our school, and am being called into school for a conference.
I want my kids to be proud of the country they come from, not be misguided by liberals.
George Washington is one of our founding fathers! And they only mention it once. So is Benjamin Franklin and they aren’t even mentioning him. This is one of the 1000 things that are bad about Obama. I am a fifth grader and I want to learn about our founding fathers.
First question; how does a 5th grader know what is on an AP Test, since US History is usually taught in the 5th and 8th grades, he will learn about the Founding Fathers. The same company that produces the Standardized Tests, the AP Exams.
Second question; Can anyone connect revisions in AP Exams and Common Core.
Third question; Can anyone define liberal in it’s historic context.
Can anyone define in it’s current context, except as a slur.