Category Archives: Common Core

MI Charter School Prez Resigns Over Common Core

Posted on June 2, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

A Charter school president in Michigan has resigned and he cites Common Core as the reason in a rather harsh letter. It truly holds no punches. BRAVO! Brian Polet calls out the Common Core AND the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) as his reason for leaving.

North Carolina is still tied to the SBAC and we need to withdraw post-haste. While the funding for the big tests were put on hold by the General Assembly, Pilot tests for the SBAC went on in NC this Spring in a lot of schools anyway.

Related Reads:

North Carolina Must Withdraw from SBAC Part 1
North Carolina Must Withdraw from SBAC Part 2

Hat tip to a reader for this link over at RedState: Continue reading →

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NC Common Core Action Alert: Support HB 1061

Posted on June 1, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Common Core Fighters –

On Tuesday June 3rd, the NC General Assembly’s House Education Committee will be considering HB 1061 – Replace Common Core To Meet NC’s Needs. The meeting will be at 10 am, room 643 of the Legislative Office Building.

ACTION ITEM:

Email each Representative BEFORE JUNE 3rd and ask them to support HB 1061 – Replace Common Core To Meet NC’s Needs. Below the sample letter is a list of the email contacts for the House Education Committee.

Sample Suggestion Letter: Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core, NCGA | Tagged | 2 Comments

Wake Cty Schools “Strategic Plan”? More Common Core.

Posted on June 1, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

The Wake county public school system (WCPSS) is revising their strategic plan yet again. Work began on this new plan sometime back in February of this year and now WCPSS is having a kick-off of sorts. On Friday, WCPSS held a forum about the “Community Vision For Wake Children”.

The news report from WRAL says a whole lot of nothing about what this new strategic plan entails. Parents who are just finding out about it on their site will have to fire up Google to figure out what this event was about – or read my article. The WRAL video segment has an interview in it of Superintendent Merrill, where he seems to be choosing his words very carefully.

Only the N&O seemed to have a story (behind their pay wall) on this “Community Vision” event prior to the event itself. No big advertising of this event, much like the Wake Superintendent’s Direct Line forum, was done. That Superintendent Direct Line forum had maybe a dozen people show up at any of the given locations. The one I attended was similar, but that didn’t stop nearly every speaker from speaking out against the Common Core. You can read about that Direct Line forum and watch the videos here. At any rate, WCPSS might want to re-think the ‘less-is-more’ strategy of attracting parents to their event. Continue reading →

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NC Common Core Action Alert – SB 812

Posted on May 30, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Common Core Fighters,

On Wednesday, June 4th, the NC General Assembly’s Senate Education/Higher Education Committee will be considering SB 812 – Replace Common Core To Meet NC’s Needs. The meeting will be at 10 am, room 544 of the Legislative Office Building.
Also being heard that morning by the same committee is SB 815 – Ensuring privacy of student records. This is one of a couple bills those of us working behind the scenes knew was coming and will address data collection concerns not covered in SB 812 / HB 1061.
ACTION ITEM:
Email each Senator BEFORE JUNE 4th and ask them to support SB 812 – Replace Common Core To Meet NC’s Needs. I’ve provided a sample letter and the contact information for the Senate Education/Higher Education committee below.
For your reference or to see individual Senator contact information visit the Senate Education / Higher Education Committee Website LINK

Sample Letter: Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core, NCGA | Tagged | 3 Comments

The ‘Common Core Is Just Standards’ Lie

Posted on May 29, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Anyone who has dug into Common Core and complained it has its tentacles into everything and is dictating how teachers teach has been hit with the proponent’s main line “the Common Core is just a set of standards”.

That line is a lie. Any parent paying attention to the proliferation of the eerily similar examples of overly convoluted Common Core math assignments coming from every state who has adopted the Core can tell you that. I’ve had the lovely experience of watching my own child struggle with such an assignment. When attempting to show him the quick, accurate way of writing the algorithm instead of a diagram of some kind accompanied with a paragraph on ‘how they know this answer’, my child melted down and told me, “No mom, I can’t do it that way! It’s not the way we’re supposed to do it. I have to do it the way the teacher did it or it’s wrong.”

Even now my body tenses and my teeth set on edge recalling that exchange.

By the way, I told him he can do it the way that he finds is best for him. That way was the algorithm. He now does it his way first to get the right answer and then puts what Common Core wants on the paper in order to get marked correct. This isn’t customization or personalization of education, this is training kids to jump through specific hoops. It’s not teaching critical thinking, it’s teaching obedience. This isn’t rigorous, this is developmentally inappropriate and serves as a mental beat down for our youngest learners.

Returning to the talking point that the Core is just standards, consider this article in the Statesville Record & Landmark: Continue reading →

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NC Chamber Promotes 2014 Conference On Education

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

On the NC Chamber of Commerce website, there is an announcement about the 2014 Conference on Education being held this August. The big sponsor? Biogen Idec. The same Biogen Idec who was one of the companies who sponsored the Greater Raleigh Chamber’s Common Core propaganda forum last week.

The same Biogen Idec who is part of the NC Chamber’s “Hire Standards” campaign which seeks push Common Core at any cost and to mute parent opposition voices with their money and influence.

Biogen Idec is also tied to the NC Public Schools Forum. The same NC Public Schools Forum of which Board member Gene Arnold sit on.
Reminder:
According to Gene Arnold, “Big Biz” is blackmailing legislators over HB1061.

Biogen Idec also dropped $250k into Massachusetts and Durham, NC area schools to boost STEM learning. Punchline: Common Core utterly fails STEM students. In fact, the math portion of Common Core sets kids back 2 years.

Biogen Idec also dropped $25k to the Common Core pushing NC New Schools. NC News Schools, Inc. has received millions from the Gates Foundation to push Common Core.
If this was happening in any area other than education, the Left leaning media would be screaming about big business money corrupting the system. Their silence now is deafening.

By the way, the Greater Raleigh Chamber event was $30 bucks to attend and in the middle of the morning smack in the middle of a school week. That meant parents couldn’t get to it. This event by the NC Chamber? Well, if you’re a non-member then you need to have $175 bucks lying around in order to attend.
Details from the NC Chamber site are as follows: Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core, NCGA | Tagged | 2 Comments