I’ve spoken with one of the highest-ranking education leaders in Utah about Common Core. His primary reason for wanting Utah to remain tied to Common Core was to make Utah’s children ready for the altered college testing; ACT and SAT are now aligning to Common Core. I pointed out to this man that lemming-like adherence to Common Core, regardless of the fact that these standards are LOWERING high school graduation requirements for most states, and are ending local control of education, might be unwise. But he wanted to be a lemming. (Not his exact words.) If ACT/SAT was aligning, Utah would align. Hmmm.
Do you think it’s never going to become household knowledge that these standards are unpiloted, untested, and that they dumb down high school graduates? Do you really think that the ACT, SAT, and other tests will maintain their former levels of respect and authority once people realize that they’ve lowered themselves into the academic murk of Common Core math and its diminishment of classical English standards that used to lead out with classic literature?
Already, the truth is seeping into the general consciousness. The ACT and SAT are going to lose credibility with thousands if not millions, of Americans.
Proponents of Common Core are running scared. We are onto their racket. So, evidence that damns Common Core and its appendages is disappearing, lately. Did you notice that the video where the current College Board President David Coleman, (lead architect on Common Core English standards) curses and demeans student narrative writing– is gone? The video where MSNBC spokesperson Melissa Harris-Perry promotes collectivism/socialism, saying that “we have to break away from the notion that children belong to their parents–” is gone! Even our local Utah State Office of Education broke the link to the portion of their “Utah Core Standards” that said that Utah only modified our local standards after getting permission from the unelected D.C. group called CCSSO. Gone!
But proponents can’t cover up everything. The evidence trail is so wide and so damning. Dozens and dozens of links to documents, videos and government reports are still online and openly available. Please read them. Share them.
What I really think about the whole now-college-consuming monopoly of Common Core, via David Coleman making sure that every formerly respected college-related test in America now aligns with his Frankenstein (Common Core): it’s just a puffed up bully tactic, an intimidation technique. Without long-term muscle.
When I see articles describing how the ACT/SAT/GED/AP/textbooks/K-12 testing are ALL ALIGNING to this new monopoly on thought: Common Core? I think it’s no scarier than any other schoolyard bully intimidation game.
Why? Because we can choose not to fall for it, no matter how many big name companies and institutions Bill Gates’ dollar bills have persuaded to “endorse” Common Core alignment.
We can choose to opt out of the now experimentally-aligned tests, and we can still get our kids into good colleges. We can stand strong and have higher expectations for colleges and schools, and work to make sure alternatives materialize.
Liberty– and legitimate, time-tested education: That’s where I’m placing my bets.
Because what do the proponents of Common Core really have? Nothing real, just marketing and money. They don’t own our children’s futures.
They just want us to think they do.
COMMON CORE 
Wow. I didn’t know about the David Coleman video? Did anyone archive it? I would LOVE to have that!
Never mind. Found it. Archived it. That is not going away.
Does anyone have information regarding Utah’s Prosperity 2020 and whether or not it aligns with Common Core? Please forward that info to my e-mail address…….kcbountyboyz452@gmail.com . Thank you.
Prosperity 2020 sent out a letter to all Utah legislators last year with the single purpose of asking them to endorse Common Core. They are absolutely aligned. Businesses need to wake up and stop this circumvention of the voter via the collusion of business and educational governance. See this: https://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/ask-utah-businesses-to-stop-pushing-common-core-and-prosperity-2020/
Thank you, Christel. I will pass this along to other interested parties. Does it not seem that the battle is long and hard, with little or no awareness? I spent nearly three hours visiting with Tiffany Hall, from USOE, when she was in our town conducting a Core Academy and implementing SAGE. The conversation was pleasant and engaging but I left even more confused about the standards and curriculum. She seemed sincere and our visions of what education should look like in Utah differed. I found that her former position in CA was writing grants and thats what she does here. When I asked her if it wasn’t possible for our state to refuse federal monies and fund our own educational system, she replied with a vehement NO. As a parent and taxpayer, I wonder why. She agreed there is no supporting data to the theory that more money equates with increased student performance. From my perspective, education has become Big Business and I would like to see it simplified.
I am providing the anchor reading standards from the Common Core below. Please explain any issues that you may have with these standards. As an English teacher, I am interested to hear about any specific claims that parents and educators feel these standards may cause to students.
1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific
textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting
details and ideas.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and
figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as
well as in words.
8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well
as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the
approaches the authors take.
10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
Thank you in advance for any clarifying information that you may provide.
Fortunately, it is not gone. Here is the infamous video of David Coleman using a profanity when speaking about student narratives:
Here is another “bone to pick” with David Coleman…Literally.
I read the Frizzleblog on the Scholastic website ten “takeaways” from a presentation given by David Coleman, an architect of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the current College Board president, to a group of New York City teachers. The blog entry was titled 10 Things Worth Doing in Your Classroom by Suzanne McCabe, Editor in Chief at Scholastic, and she listed ten summaries from Coleman’s presentation on how to enrich classroom instruction.
Her summary statement #4 stopped me cold…literally.
4. Only draw conclusions that can be substantiated by the words on the page. Scrape away terms like “metaphorical,” and talk as simply as possible. Once you bring up metaphor and meaning, kids are out of the game.
McCabe may be misrepresenting Coleman in this statement, however, the Common Core State Standards promoted by Coleman centers on textual evidence, so the “conclusions substantiated by the words on the page” summarizes his preferred reading strategy. In addition, his lack of classroom experience at any grade level explains why he may have said something akin to “kids are out of the game” when metaphors are discussed.
Full post:
http://usedbooksinclass.com/2013/08/24/literally-david-coleman/