The website Fairtest.org has released some Myth/Reality facts related to Common Core assessments. Utah withdrew from SBAC in 2012, only to have the USOE (Utah State Office of Education) contract with AIR, SBAC’s official assessment partner, in January 2013 for $39 million. This webpage lists all the Myth/Reality facts with details below them. I’ve put a couple below, but please visit their site for the rest of the details.

http://www.fairtest.org/common-core-assessments-factsheet

Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), each state set its own learning standards and developed tests to measure them. But NCLB’s failure to spur overall test score gains or close racial gaps led “reformers” to push for national, or “common,” standards. With millions in federal Race to the Top money and NCLB “waivers” as incentives, all but a few states agreed to adopt Common Core standards. Two multi-state consortia — the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) — won federal grants to develop Common Core tests, which are due to be rolled out in 2014-15. Here are the realities behind major Common Core myths.  

Myth: Common Core tests will be much better than current exams, with many items measuring higher-order skills.
Reality: New tests will largely consist of the same old, multiple-choice questions.
Proponents initially hyped new assessments that they said would measure – and help teachers promote – critical thinking. In fact, the exams will remain predominantly multiple choice. Heavy reliance on such items continues to promote rote teaching and learning. Assessments will generally include just one session of short performance tasks per subject. Some short-answer and “essay” questions will appear, just as on many current state tests. Common Core math items are often simple computation tasks buried in complex and sometimes confusing “word problems” (PARCC, 2012; SBAC, 2012). The prominent Gordon Commission of measurement and education experts concluded Common Core tests are currently “far from what is ultimately needed for either accountability or classroom instructional improvement purposes” (Gordon Commission, 2013).

Myth: Adoption of Common Core exams will end NCLB testing overkill.
Reality: Under Common Core, there will be many more tests and the same misuses.
NCLB triggered a testing tsunami (Guisbond, et al., 2012); the Common Core will flood classrooms with even more tests. Both consortia keep mandatory annual English/language arts (ELA) and math testing in grades 3-8 and once in high school, as with NCLB. However, the tests will be longer than current state exams. PARCC will test reading and math in three high school grades instead of one; SBAC moves reading and math tests from 10th grade to 11th. In PARCC states, high schoolers will also take a speaking and listening test. PARCC also offers “formative” tests for kindergarten through second grade. Both consortia produce and encourage additional interim testing two to three times a year (PARCC, 2012; SBAC, 2012). As with NCLB, Common Core tests will be used improperly to make high-stakes decisions, including high school graduation (Gewertz, 2012), teacher evaluation, and school accountability.

Myth: New multi-state assessments will save taxpayers money.
Reality: Test costs will increase for most states. Schools will spend even more for computer infrastructure upgrades.

Myth: New assessment consortia will replace error-prone test manufacturers.
Reality: The same, incompetent, profit-driven companies will make new exams and prep materials.

Myth: More rigor means more, or better, learning.
Reality: Harder tests do not make kids smarter.
In New York, teachers witnessed students brought to tears (Hernandez & Baker, 2013), faced with confusing instructions and unfamiliar material on Common Core tests. New York tests gave fifth graders questions written at an 8th grade level (Ravitch, 2013). New York and Kentucky showed dramatic drops in proficiency and wider achievement gaps. Poor results hammer students’ self-confidence and disengage them from learning. They also bolster misperceptions about public school failure, place urban schools in the cross hairs and lend ammunition to privatization schemes. If a child struggles to clear the high bar at five feet, she will not become a “world class” jumper because someone raised the bar to six feet and yelled “jump higher,” or if her “poor” performance is used to punish her coach.

Myth: Common Core assessments are designed to meet the needs of all students.
Reality: The new tests put students with disabilities and English language learners at risk.

Myth: Common Core “proficiency” is an objective measure of college- and career-readiness.
Reality: Proficiency levels on Common Core tests are subjective, like all performance levels.

Myth: States have to implement the Common Core assessments; they have no other choice.
Reality: Yes they do. Activists should call for an indefinite moratorium on Common Core tests to allow time for implementation of truly better assessments.

Writing in the Washington Post, Valerie Strauss shares video of Bill Gates’ recent Harvard Interview, (the one where he blames IBM on Ctrl-Alt-Delete), showing that Gates’ education initiative Common Core, is a giant experiment and we won’t know if it works for perhaps another decade.

“It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won’t know for probably a decade.”

Hmmm. Teachers around the country are saddled every single year with teacher evaluation systems that his foundation has funded, based on no record of success and highly questionable “research.” And now Gates says he won’t know if the reforms he is funding will work for another decade. But teachers can lose their jobs now because of reforms he is funding.

Read the rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/27/bill-gates-it-would-be-great-if-our-education-stuff-worked-but/

This is one video not to miss. Calling the standards shallow and dehumanizing, veteran Indiana teacher Bonnie Fisher testifies to state legislators telling them that Common Core’s opponents’ arguments are all correct. Her testimony is 7 and a half minutes. Then there is about 15 minutes of questioning by the legislators.

The first legislator’s comments include a fascinating insight into historical literacy rates by stating in his research about literacy in the early days of the country, 70-100% of citizens were counted as literate as estimated by the percentage of citizens that would read newspaper articles defending the Constitution (ie. The Federalist Papers).That’s a stunning revelation when we realize that most high school graduates would have a very difficult time wading through the vocabulary presented in those arguments. I’d guess it would probably drop our comparable literacy rate to about 10% of students today. Perhaps college and career ready should be better defined as “Federalist Paper ready.” If students were prepared for such a book, there would be no question they would be college and career ready in terms of English preparation.

She continues with an explanation of who benefits from a dumbed-down population. Then a stunner at the end. A legislator asks her under what standards she went through education growing up and she announced there were none. Ms. Fisher is asked what did she experience that allowed her to become so well educated. She states 3 things: broad academic exposure to traditional academic subjects, some fine teachers, and studying Cicero through high school. She ends by saying the teaching methods may need adjusted from older ages of education but we need to return to the content that used to be taught.

Dr. Milgram, math professor at Stanford and member of the Common Core validation committee who refused to sign off on the standards

Dr. Stotsky, English professor at the University of Arkansas who also refused to sign off on Common Core

Charlotte Iserbyt, senior policy advisor at the Dept. of Education under President Reagan, who blew the whistle on the DOEd activities in her book “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America.” Available for free online (www.deliberatedumbingdown.com)

Many of you probably wonder at Dr. Milgram’s comments if you are capable of homeschooling your children or if you will somehow hurt their education. Please recognize that damage is already being done in the school system. By teachers being the authority figures in your children’s lives, they are more likely to believe their “teacher” than their parent in some areas of education. How many of us have heard, “the teacher showed me the right way to do it”? Read this parent’s recent comment on another post:

With permission from http://idahoansforlocaleducation.com/2013/09/idahos-superintendent-of-the-year/

This is one brave superintendent. He’s also a thinker. A rare commodity these days. Dr. Geoffrey Thomas from the Madison School District was the lone dissenting vote against Common Core while he served on the Governors Task Force.  Stephanie Zimmerman, an Idaho activist against Common Core, spoke with him and asked him to share his concerns in a letter she could publish. Here’s what he had to say.

At the concluding meeting of the Idaho Governor’s Education Task Force, I voted “No” when asked if we supported Common Core State Standards. I voted “No” for a host of reasons and if another vote were to be held today, I would still vote no. Here is why: (My views are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my district or Board of Trustees)

CCSS were not developed by Idaho or any other “state;” CCSS was funded by the Gates Foundation which spent $ 250 million to “encourage” states and influential organizations to embrace CCSS i.e. $ 6 million to the NEA and $ 5 million to the AFT $ 14 million to the Chief State School Officers and $ 9 Million to the National Governors Association.

CCSS were written by David Coleman of Achieve Inc. with no parental input and precious little classroom educator involvement or representation.  Mr. Coleman actually applied to become a teacher in NYC and was rejected; now he is the most powerful man in US public education. (Just another situation where a non-educator being funded by other non-educators are dictating the direction of public education)

Mr. Coleman and his co writers are also closely affiliated with testing organizations which stand to profit immensely through CCSS / SBAC implementation

There was no field testing or pilot testing of CCSS of any standard in public school classrooms. This fact is truly astonishing and alarming. Would an Idaho farmer trust his / her entire crop and livelihood to untested seed potatoes?

There was no experimental or control group used to evaluate the quality or efficacy of the standards. Again, this is truly astonishing! Without even conducting a rudimentary voluntary study, Idaho has blindly embraced what essentially amounts to an experimental set of standards.

CCSS could truly be the educational silver bullet that will solve all problems including halitosis, but we simply don’t know, because no one took the prudent measure of actually conducting the necessary research first. Could you pass any research class at college without citing your sources and by merely hoping that your assertions were correct?

There is no inclusionary language for differentiated instruction (remediation or acceleration) Remediation in Math is absolutely vital regardless of the depth or rigor of study.

As teacher/ principal evaluations will be tied to student outcomes, I have deep concerns regarding the inevitable forthcoming national assessment that will truly narrow and straight jacket the curriculum for classroom teachers

I am deeply troubled by the low passage rate of students taking the SBAC. With states like New York scoring at a 38 % passage rate for general population students and a 17 % passage rate for minority students making a test that hard is tantamount to institutionalized child cruelty.

Until this year, there was no funding provided by Idaho to implement the curriculum or provide in depth training for teachers. Therefore Idaho either did not care enough to pay for CCSS or we simply did not have the money. Either way, this raises an enormous red flag to me.

There is no current curriculum aligned to CCSS anywhere in the USA. Anyone who says differently is either lying or trying to sell you something. One week after CCSS was unveiled, curriculum vendors were touting their wares were CCSS aligned.

To date, I have not been provided satisfactory answers to any of these above mentioned concerns.

I hope this has helped. I love public education. I love public education the way it once was where great trust and decision making was placed in the local classroom. Public school should be a safe emotional and intellectual environment where parents and teachers work hand in hand to assist young people to become life long learners and productive citizens.

Thank you again Mrs. Zimmerman for the opportunity to discuss CCSS.

Sincerely,

Dr. Geoffrey M. Thomas

Superintendent
Madison School District 321

Since the mid-1800’s when compulsory education began to become the law in America, central planners have desired control over the lives of children in order to ensure they were properly taught the things that were important for them. The end result of what has taken place is the loss of freedom, loss of parental authority, loss of educational opportunities, loss of economic control, and loss of educational interest. Around 1990, Senator Ted Kennedy’s office produced a document which stated prior to compulsory education in Massachusetts, the literacy rate was 98%. After compulsory education was implemented, (and it was by gunpoint in some areas of MA), the literacy rate dropped to 91% and never rose above it. Most of us have probably seen the level of education that was taking place over 100 years ago. It’s pretty stunning the questions that were asked of children on the exams they took. What happened? Why has education declined? I believe the root cause of these problems is compulsory education. Stripping people of the freedom to learn and the freedom to fail (“you will advance at this pace and with this subject matter and with these peers”), strips them of desire and creates an environment where the government takes upon themselves the responsibility to ensure your child is educated. Some say this isn’t a bad thing, but who is setting the standards, assessments, and curriculum? Why does this form of education have to be enforced by law?

What we have is near total government control of what is taught and tested, data tracking from birth to death, government reaching into our lives to control our behaviors…this has all been around for decades and is reaching it’s culminating effect through Common Core. In 2004, Bill Gates signed a contract with UNESCO to create a global education system. You can’t have independent thinkers in a global society now can you? It’s been said that America is the last bastion of freedom and if it falls, the rest of the world falls too. Reading this article on World Net Daily drives that point home.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/09/frightening-new-assault-on-homeschooling/

Parents around the globe are being stripped of the ability to homeschool, landing themselves in jail and having their children taken away from them, permanently in some cases. In Scotland, they are now trying to assign a nanny at birth to EVERY CHILD, to ensure children are properly educated. Even here in the United States, the Obama administration recently stripped a family of their asylum status and is seeking to deport them back to Germany after they fled because they would be arrested for homeschooling their children. Why is homeschooling such a threat to those in power? It certainly isn’t altruistic motives that cause people to seek the destruction of homeschooling.

What Can We Do?

I get a lot of email asking “what can we do?” type questions. The challenges facing parents probably aren’t going to end soon, but we can take action to protect our freedoms. We can become better educated ourselves in what our rights are. We can look into the available options for our children and take their education upon ourselves in a bigger way. We can set an example for our children by modeling the behavior we want them to latch onto. Here’s a short formula for success.

1) Get educated on issues and develop your principles. You’re reading this site so you’re on your way. :) Another excellent way to do this is to attend the upcoming Agency-Based Education conference in November. This is an organization I founded a couple years ago dedicated to 5 principles of freedom in education. Conference registration is taking place right now. It’s perhaps the cheapest conference you’ll ever attend, and you will leave inspired and educated, growing more confident in your child’s educational options. One of my personal favorite presentations from last year’s conference was Tammy Hulse speaking on a program called Liberty’s Hope. This presentation alone gave me a lot to think about. Please make plans to come to this conference. You won’t be disappointed. Register today.

2) Develop the courage to stand. As you get educated, start to attend gatherings where you can see what’s going on such as school board meetings, campaign events where you can talk with legislators, etc… Get outside your comfort zone and be involved. Make a public comment in a meeting. If you’re nervous about it, write your comment down and keep it short. As you do this, you’ll develop greater courage to do more and you will be a great example to your children.

3) Share what you learn with friends and family to help you refine your thinking and educate others in their thinking.

4) Develop a relationship with your legislators so they know your name and that you are an involved parent. I remember the first time I called my senator years ago, and I was quite nervous. It took a little time to realize they’re just people like us. Utah has the opportunity this next legislative session to make some meaningful changes in the law to restore local control and move toward ending compulsory education. Senator Aaron Osmond is working on legislation right now that will make positive moves in protecting families from grasp of compulsory education. Developing your relationship right now with legislators will enable you to be a powerful voice with your legislator.