Share this:

With all the pushback across our country against Common Core standards and testing it’s almost impossible to keep up!

Here is an incomplete list with links to some important, recent news stories you may have missed.

SOUTH CAROLINA:     Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is taking on the Common Core standards in a draft resolution that he says is “an incentive-based mandate from the federal government.”

It states: “national standards lead to national assessments and national assessments lead to national curriculum.”  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/31/senate-resolution-to-tackle-common-cores-threat-of-national-curriculum/

KENTUCKY:  Kentucky drops membership in one of the federally funded Common Core testing groups as many states (including Utah) have done:  http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2014/01/kentucky_withdraws_from_parcc_.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2

KANSAS:    U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts introduced a bill Thursday targeting the U.S. Department of Education over the Common Core mathematics and English standards.  The bill would stop the federal government “from coercing states to adopt education standards like Common Core” and would “strictly forbid the federal government from intervening in a state’s education standards, curricula, and assessments through the use of incentives, mandates, grants, waivers or any other form of manipulation.”

Sen. Roberts said Kansas should pick standards “without bribes or mandates from Washington.”  http://cjonline.com/news/2014-01-30/roberts-targets-us-ed-department-bill

ARKANSAS:   Arkansas Teachers Against Common Core join Arkansas parents to rally against Common Core at state capitol.  http://www.thv11.com/news/article/296732/2/Parents-rally-against-common-core

TENNESSEE:  Tennessee hitting the brakes on Common Core after realizing what Common Core and its testing will cost.  http://www.fox17.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/calls-curb-common-core-tn-19336.shtml     and:      Test-Fixated Schools Hurt Tennessee
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20140125/OPINION03/301250012/2071
and:  Tennessee Republican Legislators Prepare Resolution Seeking Delay  of Common Core Tests and Standards  http://www.wbir.com/story/news/local/2014/01/21/tn-lawmakers-balk-at-common-core-school-standards/4709341/

NEW HAMPSHIRE:  Nashua, New Hampshire principal writes a letter to the superitendent, saying his school staff “believe that the Smarter Balance [Common Core] Test is inappropriate for our students… this test will not measure the academic achievement of our students; but will be a test of computer skills and students’ abilities to endure through a cumbersome task.”  http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/1027308-469/nashua-middle-school-principal-outlines-serious-concerns.html#

CONNECTICUT:     Connecticut Common Core Costs Up, Teaching Time Down, Opt-Out      Movement Takes Hold http://jonathanpelto.com/2014/01/27/common-core-costs-instruction-time-opt-movement-takes-hold/  and    Opting Out: Connecticut Parents Answer to a Higher Authority
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Lecker-Opting-out-parents-answer-to-a-higher-5173196.php

IDAHO:  Testing Crisis in Idaho Public Schools
http://www.argusobserver.com/independent/news/opinion-testing-crisis-in-our-public-school-system/article_c8acd928-8451-11e3-9d93-0019bb2963f4.html

NEW YORK:       Defiant Parents: Testing’s Discontents  http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/01/the-defiant-parents-testings-discontents.html#entry-more
Resources for Refusing the Test: Samples From New York
http://www.nysape.org/refusing-the-test-resources.html
Schools with High-Stakes Testing Exemption
http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2014/01/21/school-without-regents-exams-says-mayor-should-spread-its-model/    NY Governor Cuomo under attack by Stop Common Core in New York State: https://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/new-york-parents-launch-common-core-math-homework-at-governor-nygovcuomo/        NY Republican Legislators Push Bill to Cut Back Common Core  Testing  http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/01/post_690.html

MICHIGAN:  Michigan Schools Not Ready for Shift to Online Common Core Testing
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140128/SCHOOLS/301280025/Some-Michigan-schools-districts-not-ready-shift-online-tests

CALIFORNIA:  Los Angeles Classrooms Lack Technology Capacity for New Exams
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-lausd-computers-20140128,0,5974079.story#axzz2rhHCjRGK

INDIANA:  Indiana Testing Not Designed to Improve Learning
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140124/EDITORIAL/140129795/1021/LARSON

RHODE ISLAND:   Rhode Island Grad Test is Not a Good Measure of Student  Achievement
http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/commentary/20140120-ron-wolk-rhode-island-flubs-diploma-standards.ece        Providence City Council Unanimously Endorses Testing “Pause”
http://ripr.org/post/providence-city-council-calls-pause-high-stakes-testing

MASSACHUSETTS:  Mass. Teacher Licensing Tests Block Minority Access
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2014/01/27/state-needs-overhaul-test-for-licensing-teachers/zmkavJxEa4jFbbWA7KyRcP/story.html

MINNESOTA:  Task Force Wants to Scrap Minnesota Teachers Tests
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/01/24/education/teacher-tests?from=education

OHIO:  Ohio House Passes Bill to Let Schools Delay New Test Requirements
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/01/23/house-bill-would-delay-new-testing.html

D.C.     DC Scales Back Test-Based Evaluations of Principals
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-schools-changes-impact-evaluations-for-principals/2014/01/17/7f17e90a-7df9-11e3-93c1-0e888170b723_story.html
D.C. Schools Forms Parent Task Force to Examine Testing
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-schools-forms-task-force-to-study-student-testing/2014/01/23/3f9764ca-8472-11e3-9dd4-e7278db80d86_story.html

AND MORE:

The Coming Common Core Meltdown:
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/28_02/28_02_karp.shtml
Bipartisan Opposition to Common Core Tests-and-Standards Grows
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/28/267488648/backlash-grows-against-common-core-education-standards?ft=1&f=1013
States Examine Cost, Quality of Common Core Assessments
http://www.pewstates.org/projects/stateline/headlines/states-reconsider-common-core-tests-85899535255
Why a Common Core Testing Moratorium is Necessary
http://www.fairtest.org/common-core-assessments-factsheet

Resist Federal Pressure to Use Test Scores in Teacher Evaluation
http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2022749780_robertcruickshankopedteacherevaluations25xml.html

Time to Hold Arne Duncan Accountable to a Higher Standard
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-stanford/arne-duncan-pearson-testing_b_4648554.html

Education historian Diane Ravitch speaks at MLA Conference about Common Core: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/18/everything-you-need-to-know-about-common-core-ravitch/

Mike Huckabee speaks to CCSSO officers (Common Core creators) telling them to just “rebrand” rather than to drop Common Core because the term has become “toxic”.   http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/02/01/Huckabee-To-Common-Core-Creators-Rebrand-Refocus-But-Don-t-Retreat

Share this:

Junior class president Adam Hasan of Knox County, Tennessee, adds his voice to other remarkable teens (Ethan Young and Pat Richardson) as he articulately defends teachers’ and students’ rights in this testimony against Common Core.

Share this:

Recently America met the remakable Patrick Richardson, a teenager from Arkansas, who blasted through Common Core in power point presentations and speeches to his legislators.

Now, meet the eloquent Ethan Young of Tennessee, another brilliant teenager whose five minute, out-of-the-ballpark speech, utterly flattens the many false claims of the Common Core.

In this video speech you can hear these highlights:

On teacher evaluations: “These subjective anxiety producers do more to damage a teacher’s self esteem than you realize.”

“Erroneous evaluation coupled with strategic compensation presents a punitive model that as a student is like watching your teacher jump through flaming hoops to earn a score.”

“A teacher cannot be evaluated without his students, because as a craft, teaching is an interaction. Thus, how can you gauge a teacher’s success with no control of a student’s participation or interest? I stand before you because I care about education but also because I want to support my teachers… This relationship is at the heart of instruction and there will never be a system by which it is accurately measured.”

On bureaucratic convenience: “We can argue the details ad infinitum. Yet I observe a much broader issue with education today. Standards based education is ruining the way we teach and learn. Yes, I’ve already been told by legislators and administrators: “Ethan, that’s just the way things work.” But why? I’m going to answer that question. It’s bureaucratic convenience.”

“…It works with nuclear reactor and business models…. I mean, how convenient: calculating exactly who knows what and who needs what? I mean, why don’t we just manufacture robots instead of students? They last longer and they always do what they’re told.”

“Education is unlike every other bureaucratic institute in our government. The task of teaching is never quantifiable. If everything I learned in high school is a measurable objective, I haven’t learned anything.”

On the way Common Core sprung up:

“The initiative seemed to spring from states when in reality it was contrived by an insular group of testing executives with only two academic content specialists. Neither specialist approved the final standards and the English consultant, Dr. Sandra Stotsky, publicly stated she felt the standards left students with “an empty skill set, lacking literary knowledge.”

“While educators and administrators were later included in the validation committee and feedback groups, they did not play a role in the actual drafting of the standards…. the standards aren’t rigorous, just different, designed for industrial-model schools.”

“If nothing else, these standards are a glowing conflict of interest. And they lack the research they allegedly received. And most importantly, the standards illustrate a mistrust of teachers.”

On the purpose of teaching:

“Creativity, appreciation, inquisitiveness, these are impossible to scale. But they are are the purpose of education, why our teachers teachers, why I choose to learn.”

“And today we find ourselves in a nation that produces workers. Everything is career and college preparation. Somewhere our Founding Fathers are turning in their graves pleading, screaming, and trying to say to us that we teach to free minds, we teach to inspire, we teach to equip, and the careers will come naturally.”

“Ask any of these teachers, ask any of my peers… Haven’t we gone too far with data?”

“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.. but… the problems I cite are very real… Do not dismiss them as another fool’s criticisms…”

“You can not ignore me, my teachers or the truth. We need change, but not Common Core, high stakes evaluations, or more robots.”

Watch the video here.

Thanks to Jamie Gass for this compilation of news outlets that are covering the national Common Core controversy.

“The Common Core is in trouble,” said Randi Weingarten, the AFT union president,  “There is a serious backlash in lots of different ways, on the right and on the left.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/turmoil-swirling-around-common-core-education-standards/2013/04/29/7e2b0ec4-b0fd-11e2-bbf2-a6f9e9d79e19_story.html

The Wall Street Journal: New School Standards Spur a Backlash

http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-223674/

The Hill: GOP — White House taking over state education policy

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/297219-gop-says-obama-administration-taking-over-education-policy-with-no-input-from-congress

Washington Post: Turmoil swirling around Common Core education standards

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/turmoil-swirling-around-common-core-education-standards/2013/04/29/7e2b0ec4-b0fd-11e2-bbf2-a6f9e9d79e19_story.html

Washington Times: Common Core school standards hit another roadblock, this time in Indiana

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2013/apr/29/common-core-school-standards-hit-another-roadblock/

Washington Times: Indiana legislature latest to halt application of Common Core school standards

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/29/resistance-to-the-nationwide-k-12-school-standards/

Michigan: Michigan House Blocks Common Core Implementation

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2013/04/25/michigan-house-blocks-common-core-implementation

Michigan: Michigan Pulling Away from Common Core

http://blog.heritage.org/2013/04/26/michigan-pulling-away-from-common-core/

Atlanta: Are we rushing Common Core without field testing it?

http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/apr/30/are-we-rushing-common-core-without-field-testing-i/

New York Daily News: Teachers union chief Randi Weingarten has it correct on Common Core

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/randi-wrong-article-1.1331669

Washington Post: AFT’s Weingarten urges moratorium on high stakes linked to Common Core tests

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/30/afts-weingarten-urges-moratorium-on-high-stakes-linked-to-new-standardized-tests/

Washington Examiner: AFT’s Randi Weingarten calls for time out on Common Core testing

http://washingtonexaminer.com/afts-randi-weingarten-calls-for-time-out-on-common-core-testing/article/2528627

Fox News/NY: Common Core standards facing criticism

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/22124434/common-core-standards-facing-criticism

NJ: Concern Expressed Over Common Core System and Privacy Issues

http://thealternativepress.com/articles/concern-expressed-over-common-core-system-and-pri

Indy Star: Hoosiers are right to be wary about Common Core

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130430/OPINION03/304300036/Hoosiers-right-wary-about-Common-Core

Mississippi: Beware of the Common Core State Standards

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130501/OPINION/305010158/Beware-Common-Core-State-Standards

OH: Teachers Union Worried About Common Core Tests

http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2013/05/01/ohio-teachers-union-worried-about-common-core-tests/

OH: Growing criticism of Common Core

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130429/NEWS/304290016/Growing-criticism-Common-Core

NH: Common core education talk draws opponents in Manchester

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130501/NEWS04/130509962/0/FRONTPAGE

TN: Common Core pushback in TN

http://www.examiner.com/article/current-common-core-standards-to-change

TN: New common core standards raise questions in Tenn.

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/viewart/20130501/NEWS01/305010030/New-common-core-standards-raise-questions-Tenn-

TN: New Common Core Standards Raise Questions

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/22131452/new-common-core-standards-raise-questions

TN: Critics speak out about new Common Core standards

http://www.wkrn.com/story/22124884/critics-speak-out-about-new-common-core-standards

Huff Post: Common Core Stakes Moratorium Proposed By Unions As National Standards Face Backlash

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/30/common-core-moratorium-teacher-evaluations_n_3187419.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

AZ: Common Core draws praise, pejoratives

http://www.azjournal.com/2013/05/01/common-core-standards-draw-praise-pejoratives/

PA: Opponents say Common Core oversimplifies education, lessens local control

http://articles.dailyamerican.com/2013-04-30/news/38938363_1_common-core-state-standards-early-childhood-education-school-board-member

FL: Who Supports, Opposes The Common Core?

http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2013/05/01/who-supports-opposes-the-common-core/

Christian Post: Eight US Senators Join Fight Against Common Core

http://www.christianpost.com/news/eight-senators-join-fight-against-common-core-94876/

WY: The dangers of ‘Common Core’

http://trib.com/opinion/letters/the-dangers-of-common-core/article_0a192301-8dc4-5b70-8177-206c5bc8f020.html