Well to anyone still under the delusion that the feds aren’t involved with Common Core, lets put that to rest. The feds have officially announced it. By setting up a “review” process for SBAC and PARCC focusing on item design and validation, the feds will immediately gain control of everything else. Curriculum will be mapped to the assessments and teachers will teach to the test because they are graded on their students’ test performance. Standards themselves will fade in importance because the target will be test score maximization. Whatever is tested becomes the standard for what will be taught. The clear solution is to end our relationship with AIR/SAGE and get fully away from all federal testing, and restore full local control of education.