Category Archives: Common Core

OK Board Of Ed To Sue To Keep The Common Core?

Posted on June 28, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

In a rather desperate move, the Oklahoma Dept. of Education asked their state Supreme Court to throw out the new law repealing Common Core.
Oklahoma Policy Institute:
Today you should know that parents, teachers and members of the Oklahoma Board of Education asked the state Supreme Court to throw out a law repealing Common Core academic standards. Their lawsuit argues that the bill repealing Common Core gives the Legislature too much power to rewrite academic standards and violates the separation of powers.

Exactly what separation of powers are they alleging the repeal violates? Also, is the OK Department of Education totally tone deaf? I mean, the hypocrisy in the line, “the bill repealing Common Core gives the Legislature too much power to rewrite academic standards” is rather hilarious. Only the Department of Ed is allowed to have too much power as made clear by the mere fact there had to be a REPEAL BILL?

Also out of Oklahoma — Oklahoma Superintendent Loses Republican Primary. The Superintendent (who was for Common Core before she was against it) was beaten by the challenger who was solidly opposed to Common Core. Continue reading →

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Another Example of Common Core Being A Right-Wing Issue (Video)

Posted on June 28, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Another day, another example by the media of how Common Core is just a Right wing Tea party thing…

Just kidding. 150 teachers in Seattle protested Bill Gates and Common Core.

Watch: Continue reading →

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Rasmussen Poll Shows large Drop In Common Core Favorability

Posted on June 27, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Rasmussen, a major national polling outfit, has a new poll out on Common Core. The poll shows support for Common Core among parents with school-aged kids is falling like a ton of bricks. Rasmussen recorded an 18% drop in favorability since their poll last Fall. The more parents find out about it, the more they are rejecting Common Core.

Rasmussen:

Common Core Support Among Those with School-Age Kids Plummets Continue reading →

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Your Kindergartener Has Become A Guinea Pig

Posted on June 27, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

ACT, the same group that does the college entrance exam and of which I wrote about their multi-grade job assessments that begin in 8th grade apparently will be developing assessments for Kindergarteners. Via Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — A new digital tool to test academic and behavioral skills will target students starting in kindergarten.

ACT, the organization that developed the ACT college-entrance exam, will start testing the tool in the fall. It will be available to schools starting in 2014.The tool tracks students’ career interests, academic performance and progress toward goals. It’s designed to follow students from kindergarten through high school.

Jon Erickson, president of ACT’s education division, said the goal is to identify and address gaps in skills needed for college and the workforce. The assessment combines traditional testing with teacher-led projects to generate an instant, digital score.

It’s a multimillion dollar project, ACT officials said, but will be affordable and easily accessible.

Schools won’t be compelled to use the new tool, but Erickson said he anticipates that entire states or groups of states will choose to utilize it. The tool can be customized to include state-specific benchmarks and other performance measures.

In the testing and educrat world, where data is God, it seems perfectly normal to start testing, poking and prodding a child of 5. Most 30-year-olds don’t know what they want to do for a career, here we are testing 5 year olds like they hold the key to cracking future job selection. Pidgeon-holing our kids. That’s what we’re ultimately doing here.

Here are a few reminders related to this turn of events with ACT. Continue reading →

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Case Study in #SelfAwareness

Posted on June 26, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

A case study in Self Awareness: Larry Nilles of the NCAE.
The NCAE’s Larry Nilles is not one to be issuing advice about condescension or lies. Run along back to Moral Monday, Mr. Nilles. Continue reading →

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Why Opposition To Common Core Is Winning

Posted on June 26, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Over at Instapundit, he has a link up to a Reason.com article:
JUNE 26, 2014

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: The Populist Uprising Against Common Core Is Libertarian and It’s Winning.

I left a comment on the Instapundit link which reads:
The fight is really not right or left, but right down the middle. I’ve been in this fight almost two years now in NC — I’ve seen every walk of life & political ideology there is fighting Common Core.
The article is right. We are winning. The indication of that is that supporters are now resorting to passive-aggressively calling Opposition to Common Core racist.
The new talking point is: If you oppose Common Core, you oppose this White House and President.

See how that works? By hinting opposition somehow is based in not liking the President instead of the myriad of actual complaints about the Common Core, the supporters get to imply we’re racists and thereby marginalize anything we have to say.

The supporters aren’t outright calling us racists – yet. They can’t because they know that opposition is coming from all sides on this and is mainly parents and teachers. How do you call parents and teachers racists? Very carefully.

The Reason article has several bits to it that emphasize why Common Core is receiving the monumental pushback that it is. Here are two sections of the article and they get to the heart of it. Emphasis is mine. Continue reading →

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