These are the Common Core Weekend Reads for January 25th, 2015.

This is a review of the past week of news on Common Core nationwide and in North Carolina.

Articles are organized by category.

Prior Edition of Weekend Reads: 1-18-15

NC Academic Standards Review Commission (ASRC) Updates:

NC ASRC Site 
Next ASRC meeting: February 16th, 1-5 pm. Location published for February is Dept. of Administration, but January’s meeting was moved on short notice to Dept. of Public Instruction and the ASRC site has not been updated to reflect that move.

January meeting audio has been added to the meeting materials list.
Meeting Audio File 1 (mp3)
Meeting Audio File 2 (mp3)

NC UPDATES:

• The School Board Watch: School Grades, Common Core and Spending Issues
• More questions on the copyright
• Chapel Hill EWA Seminar Topic: Common Core
• Chapel Hill EWA Seminar On Common Core (Pt II)

QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

When the state adopted the new standards, Atkinson said administrators and teachers urged the state board to move to integrated math statewide.
“We did that at the request of local school districts,” Atkinson said.
​-Journal Now, Revisions for academic math standards may be unveiled by spring
My comment on Atkinson’s statements above: PROVE IT.

​”​But there is a key difference between the brothers.

A recent article in the New Yorker magazine about Jeb Bush by Alec MacGillis, a former Washington Post reporter, looks at his educational legacy and pinpoints that difference: George W. Bush tried to help improve public schools as governor of Texas and then president (even if critics say his emphasis on standardized tests was destructive and his No Child Left Behind law was a train wreck). His brother, as governor of Texas and then as an education reform advocate nationwide, has pushed the privatization of public education.​”​
-Washington Post, Jeb vs. George W.: A key difference between the Bush brothers on school reform

LEGISLATIVE/LEGAL:

• ESEA Re-Do In The Works – Public Asked For Comment
• LOCAL Level Act Returns Power To States
• Arizona Has Two Common Core Bills
• State Board OK’s Revisions To Common Core (GA)
• Democrat NM Senator Files Bill To Drop Common Core
• Mississippi State Senator Files Common Core Repeal Bill RELATED: Mississippi’s Other Common Core Bill
• TN Senator Has Conflicting Common Core Messages
• Iowa Joins The List Of States Filing Common Core Bills
• Anti-Common Core bills clear first hurdle

POLITICAL/PROTESTS:

• Day One of the Senate Hearing to “Fix” NCLB
• Poll: Nearly half of voters oppose Common Core (NY)​
• Cradle to Ivory Tower: ​College, President Obama and the Common Core
• Condi Rice Taking Reins of Jeb Bush’s Education Foundation

HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLES:

• ​Tin Foil Is Not Just For Cooking Anymore​
• ​What is the role of public schools?​
• Could this be the Most Needed 21st Century Job: Advocates for Parents in Parent/School Meetings? Would This Child Still Be Alive?

THE WEEKEND READS:

• ALL Babies Walking By Six Months Old… A Satire on the Common Core Charade.
• Pearson Is Everywhere: Silencing Edition
• Letter: Do the Common Core research for yourself
• Chamber Watch: Out – Bashing Parents, In – Bashing Experts
• I thought I did everything right, but by 6 year old is already behind in reading
• ​Beating the CCSS Machine​
• Those who Oppose, yet Support
• How To Make Common Core Look Good
• 8th Grade Science Teacher Compares Common Core To ‘Child Abuse’
• ​Career Readiness Via Adult Common Core​
• New America Ed Central, Pre K to High Pay
• CCSS, Worthy of the Folly of Shame

TESTING UPDATES:

• L.I. Teacher Refuses To Administer Common Core Tests, Urges Others To Join Her
• Florida Supers Fake Readiness for a 2015 Computerized Testing– for Which Bus Drivers Could Serve As Techies
• Teachers Refuse the Test
• What States Have Pulled Out of their Common Core Assessment Consortium?
• David Coleman’s “Redesigned” SAT: Just Another Narrow, Common-Core-centered Product
• New Data: US Schools among best in the world

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

• Testing Pearson: How Common Core created more controversy for the education giant
• Do you ever feel like everyone you ask about Common Core talks in circles?

TWEETS OF THE WEEK:

Public Letter to @SenAlexander Via @UnitedOptOut http://t.co/6A1ASBHvSH #EdBlogNet #TBATs #ESEA #ESEAHearing

— Susan DuFresne1 (@GetUpStandUp2) January 22, 2015

How testing giant Pearson buys/bullies its way to teacher silence on standardized testing. http://t.co/cO00WM5950 @LadyLiberty1885

— Michelle V. Douglas (@MichelleDouglas) January 20, 2015

Documents: Common Core cost $7.2 million more than estimated in Wisconsin http://t.co/7saJUCdvmq #StopCommonCore

— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) January 20, 2015

@DrJuneAtkinson Legal issue is “preposterous”? You’re CCSSO Prez -grant us a waiver as listed in the Public License. http://t.co/sgyvJlUKSo

— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) January 17, 2015

North Dakota citizen smacks down Peterson of ND Chamber of Commerce on Common Core Op Ed http://t.co/zwNh8txR4o #stopcommoncore

— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) January 24, 2015

Truth about Obama & student data mining: http://t.co/Ce3rRfOL3L http://t.co/wNGYo9pfBx http://t.co/a4YggZOEuD http://t.co/yUP6rusxQz #SOTU

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) January 21, 2015