A must read article by Donna Garner! If the present generation is not at all literate about the Bible, Classic literature itself will be very difficult to understand. Fact is, the Classics allude to quite a bit of Biblical information that will be totally lost on this generation. As all Classic literature is decimated by the Common Core State Standards, education no longer serves “life long learners”, in the best sense of the term, but instead serves the corporate workforce collective.
Category Archives: No Child Left Behind
Dr. Everett Piper: Philosophical Reasons Against the Core
Dr. Everett Piper, President of the Oklahoma Wesleyan University, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, is quite the engaging speaker. At a recent Common Core event in Edmond, Oklahoma, Piper lamented that the Common Core State Standards were “common” and that a true liberal arts education has no place for “common”. Academic freedom (and religious freedom) go hand in hand in a society where liberty is cherished. Piper states, “Ideas have consequences” and that “Ideas matter.”
Dr. Piper is the author of “Why I’m a Liberal and Other Conservative Ideas”.
Indiana Decides to Withdraw from Common Core Testing Consortium
Governor Pence withdrew the state of Indiana from PARCC (Parnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) on Monday. PARCC is one of two test consortiums that would measure student success for the Common Core Standards. The other consortia is the SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia). Several states have now withdrawn from PARCC. Only two states remain in the system, New York and Florida.
“On Monday, July 29, 2013, Governor Pence sent a letter to Governing Board Chair, Mitchell Chester of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), informing him of Indiana’s choice to withdraw from the Common Core program. PARCC supports the Common Core Standards that measures student success in school. Pence stated that, “Indiana’s educational standards must be rigorous, enable college and career readiness, and align with post-secondary educational expectations to best prepare our children to compete with their national and global peers,” and that “assessments must also align with these high standards.” Hoosiers have expressed concerns about the value of Common Core Standards for months and Pence’s announcement, for many, was a welcome song.”
http://watchdogwire.com/blog/2013/07/30/hoosiers-say-no-to-common-core/
Washington Post: The Common Core’s Fundamental Trouble
This article written by Valerie Strauss, at the Washington Posts delivers a thoughtful approach to what Common Core means to parents, educators, students and school districts.
Here’s a snippet of the article posted June 18th:
“For starters, the misnamed “Common Core State Standards” are not state standards. They’re national standards, created by Gates-funded consultants for the National Governors Association (NGA). They were designed, in part, to circumvent federal restrictions on the adoption of a national curriculum, hence the insertion of the word “state” in the brand name. States were coerced into adopting the Common Core by requirements attached to the federal Race to the Top grants and, later, the No Child Left Behind waivers. (This is one reason many conservative groups opposed to any federal role in education policy oppose the Common Core.)
Written mostly by academics and assessment experts—many with ties to testing companies—the Common Core standards have never been fully implemented and tested in real schools anywhere. Of the 135 members on the official Common Core review panels convened by Achieve Inc., the consulting firm that has directed the Common Core project for the NGA, few were classroom teachers or current administrators. Parents were entirely missing. K–12 educators were mostly brought in after the fact to tweak and endorse the standards—and lend legitimacy to the results.”
Read the entire article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/18/the-common-cores-fundamental-trouble/
Minnesota Advocates and Champions for Children 