Category Archives: Common Core

The N&O’s education section mentioned the efforts of this blog to kill Common Core dead at the end of an article where Wake School Board member Bill Fletcher was yet again using the ‘politicizing’ strategy to attack opposition and one of the bills repealing Common Core. It also included this quote from another board member, Jim Martin:

“Much of the Common Core is what classic good teaching has been,” school board member Jim Martin said at Monday’s government relations committee meeting. “It’s very much a political overreach. It’s not clear that the folks writing this legislation know what curriculum are.

What a load of crap.
First, Mr. Martin — Common Core, as we’ve been told a million times by supporters like you, is a set of standards and not a curriculum. Are you now insinuating Common Core is a method of teaching? Do the Chamber of Commerce, CCSSO, NGA and Bill Gates know you just went off the biggest talking point?

Second, if you happened to pay attention to the findings of the NC General Assembly’s Common Core LRC, you’d know they are well aware of what a standard is and what curriculum is.

Third, good teaching comes from good teachers regardless of a set of standards. The ability for the teacher to adapt a good curriculum around any given student is what makes for classic good teaching. Common Core does not allow for that kind of personalization and customization. To say it does is a bald-faced lie. By the way, the notion of ‘standards’ is relatively new. The use of standards to adhere to, which requires then to teach to the related test, arguably correlates with the decline in scores over the last few decades.

Join The Conversation.
School board elections often come down to a few dozen votes. The Wake School Board would do well to remember that they have a less than stellar record and that the Chamber doesn’t vote for you, citizens do. I left a comment on the N&O article (below), which I think says it all at this point regarding Mr. Fletcher — and Ms. Kushner or any other Wake School Board member who seems to think it’s a smart move to insult the citizens who vote you in.
Thank you for the mention.

I’m quite appalled at Mr. Fletcher’s politicizing commentary and have called him out on this before.
Twice in fact: http://wp.me/p14vwx-2BI and http://wp.me/p14vwx-2BS

Does Mr. Fletcher think this bill came about by magic and by legislators alone? No, countless letters, phone calls and complaints from moms, dads, grandparents, students and teachers brought about the need for this bill. Apparently Mr. Fletcher has no clue that citizens testified in front of the NCGA’s Common Core Legislative Research Committee and that of the 60 who spoke, 40 spoke in opposition to Common Core. They presented fact based, valid complaints. What Mr. Fletcher has presented is that he is very easily pressured by the Chamber of Commerce and has not done an iota of homework on his own about the standards.

Mr. Fletcher and Ms. Kushner’s strategy of insulting and attacking the voting public who have valid concerns about Common Core is as curious as it is appalling. I wonder how that will work out for them come election time? Continue reading →