These are the Common Core Weekend Reads for March 29, 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: 3-22-15

Note:  Common Core Weekend Reads will not be posted on Easter Sunday and will return the following weekend.

NC Academic Standards Review Commission (ASRC) Updates:

NC ASRC Site 
Next ASRC meeting: April 20, 2015. 

NC UPDATES:

• News and Observer Shills For BEST NC
• Guest Post: NC education’s March Madness: A 3-Ring Hypocrisy Circus
• Will Local Media Finally Report On Who The CCSSO President Is?
• “Great Leaders” Bill Is Just BEST NC’s “Vision”.
• Carolina Journal reports on student data mining

QUOTES OF THE WEEK:
What’s Wrong With Common Core? Let Teachers Tell You

Nancy Atwell, Maine:
Public-school teachers are so constrained right now by the Common Core standards, and the tests that are developed to monitor what teachers are doing with them. It’s a movement that’s turned teachers into technicians, not reflective practitioners.

Stacie Starr, Ohio:
Starr said the new testing culture is killing education.

‘I can’t do it anymore, not in this ‘drill ‘em and kill ‘em’ atmosphere,’ she said. ‘I don’t think anyone understands that in this environment if your child cannot quickly grasp material, study like a robot and pass all of these tests, they will not survive.’…

‘Each and every day, I have to look in my students’ eyes and tell them I can’t help them because the state has decided they have to prove what they know…It’s just hard because, as teachers, we are playing a game where the rules keep changing,’ she said.

Chasidy White, Alabama:
The very freedoms we celebrate and hold dear are in question when I think of what Common Core means for the United States. 

One of my favorite writings about education from Dr. King is a paper entitled ‘The Purpose of Education.’ In it, he wrote ‘To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.’

Why are we only given information from sources paid to say Common Core is a good thing? Isn’t that the exact same type of propaganda Dr. King discussed in his writings about education?

LEGISLATIVE/LEGAL:

• CO Senate Ed Committee Passes Testing Opt Out Bill
• Common Core Opt-Out Included in US Senate Budget
• Jindal Releases Plan to Repeal and Replace Common Core in Louisiana
• Arkansas Senate Votes To Delay PARCC
• Common Core consortia illegal, attorney says
• More on the HEA (Higher Ed Act)
• ESEA Trying To Be The Tail Wagging The Dog

POLITICAL/PROTESTS:

• Jeb Bush Wasn’t Against Federal Involvement in Common Core in 2011
• Parents protests against Common Core
• As testing opt-out movement grows, so does pushback from schools
• Opt Out Movement Against Common Core Tests Grows As School Officials Threaten Parents

HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLES:

• Military Leaders, Mission Readiness Is Back Pushing Common Core 
  Related: More Military families choosing Homeschooling over Common Core
• How Does Rep. Craig Horn Define Proficiency and Rigor?
  Related: 5 years In, It’s Unclear if Common Core Is Helping Students
  Related: Time for the Gloves to Come Off

THE WEEKEND READS:

• Word of the Day: “de facto”. As in Common Core “de facto” Curriculum
• Is the Invasive “Claim It” Personal Student Survey Questioning/Activity Aligned to Common Core Standards or Not?
• ​Homeschool Freedom and the Common Core: Good News, Bad News​
• The CCSSO’s Hungry Eyes
• Teacher: The ‘Disturbing’ Things I Learned About Common Core
• ​Lending CCSS Warriors Aid​
• Common Core does not work because it was never designed to work.
• AACTE and Common Core
• Job Development Grants and CCSS?

TESTING UPDATES:

• If you Oppose Common Core Testing, You are a “Noise Machine”
• Pearson Is Everywhere: Who Writes These Tests, Anyhow?
• Missouri Dad Refuses the Test for His Daughter. What Happened Next?
• PARCC exams: Following the money behind N.J.’s costliest test
• Ohio School Superintendent “Profoundly Concerned” About PARCC
• The Common Core Test ‘Refuseniks’
• Dr. Gary Thompson’s $100,000 Reward For SAGE Common Core Test Validity Reports
• ​For Pearson, Common Core is private profit​
• Elite private schools do not take Common Core state tests and neither should you

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

• Fourth grade student sounds off on state testing
• Denna Slade explains how her grandchildren’s math homework alerted her to problems with Common Core
• Arizona 5th Grader Speaks Out Against Common Core (Video)

TWEETS OF THE WEEK:

Thank you @NCPlottHound for highlighting the creepy data collection in #nced! Related: http://t.co/gj5L393yPM pic.twitter.com/3fjRlr3FE7

— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) March 27, 2015

Victory for local control of Ed. Passed my amendment to allow states to opt out of #CommonCore without penalty, prohibit federal mandates.

— David Vitter (@DavidVitter) March 26, 2015

The View from Japan: Common Core is a Disaster http://t.co/lKEx7fqLyi #StopCommonCore @snowlaw @gilesmssenate #msleg pic.twitter.com/Tt6XbZ8kRc

— @RNRMississippi (@RNRMississippi) March 26, 2015

@LadyLiberty1885 For you. Wahwahwahwahwah. That’s the extent of their research/data. It’s nonsensical. pic.twitter.com/cfR2PNXwHt

— Logue (@manateespirit) March 24, 2015

WOW…just wow. #stopcommoncore @manateespirit “Common Core serves white folks a sliver of the black experience” http://t.co/c3gqKrDmWC

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