Curious About Common Core?

"Common Core – Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has been in the national and local news lately. Sometimes we hear negative comments, and sometimes positive. It’s important to re‐ member the state standards are there to help ensure teachers are teaching and students are learning. The new common core state standards will help lead all of our children to a successful future. The standards help to ensure students learn what they need to go on to pursue a technical, associates or bachelor’s degree after they complete high school."

                                                          Holmes Elementary School Newsletter, January 2015, Spokane

This is the propaganda going out to parents from schools regarding CCSS....otherwise known as Common Core State Standards,  but are they "state" standards?

This may come as a surprise..based upon the name of the program, but. the answer is "No."

Valerie Strauss, who studies this stuff reports that they are not state standards at all.  She says, in her article,  Common Core's, Fundamental Trouble, published in the Washington Post, June, 2013,  "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."

The history and implementation of the "Common Core" as well as all the controversy is an interesting subject, but it's hard to know everything about it, could even take you years.  Fact is, it is being used in a school near you and for this reason, people need to inform themselves about it, even if they are not subject to the Common Core Curriculum directly.

Homeschoolers, being independent of the direct oversight of public school, (and equal in competency to educate their own children from home in this manner legally) have never been required to participate in testing mandated for public schools. They have yearly testing requirements, but at this time are unaffected by "Common Core."  Just the same, as citizens who pay taxes in support of public education, who's students will be attending colleges in the future, they are often concerned about the issues of public education.  There is even a group in Spokane, parents with kids in the public schools, who are trying to stop Common Core in Spokane and they have created a Facebook page that can be accessed here.

What is wrong with Common Core... (you may wonder.)  It depends on who you talk to.A group like, " Stop Common Core" finds it detrimental.... while  the  National Education Association, (NEA)  for example, thinks it's great. 

The NEA also spends a lot of money promoting it and financially rewarding teachers who get on board with it.  Teachers who promote the Common Core concepts are no longer just "teachers," but are labeled "Master Teachers."  In some states, like Massachusetts, those teachers chosen via application to join the program, who then work to promote the project receive a stipend of $15,000.00.  But not all teachers think it's such a great thing, however, many find they have no choice.  They believe their job is on the line when it comes to support of Common Core.

If you are curious about why some criticize Common Core, you might want to check out the video at Stop Common Core of Washington State of a little girl, Sophia, doing a math problem both the common core strategy of place value, and again using the standard algorithm for addition. It will have you wondering what is the out is in training teachers to train kids to do math this new way and have you considering how your tax dollars are working in the local schools. If you are a homeschooler, your home based educated students are automatically exempt from  meeting common core standards, but you might want to know what all the hoopla about Common Core is about.

Teach Common Core methodology to your kids if you like it, don't teach it if you don't like it;  because as a homeschooler, you can implement your own philosophy on the matter,,,, but  you can bet that local school administers and teachers are being told to meet these standards.  They have already been trained to teach to the tests.... and this is often to the tune of a lot of dollars and cents.  If you are not a homeschooling family, just remember, your kids, even though they are in public school... are YOUR  kids.  You have parental rights and you have a right to know what they are learning and doing in school.

If you are curious about Common Core in our schools, here are some websites you might want to check out:

Learn about the Common Core "in 3 Minutes," (Watch the informative video promoting Common Core to and check out more information from a perspective in support of Common Core at www, corestandards.org

Have a look at National Public Radio's F.A.Q. and answers about Common Core.

Read from Joy Pullman, writing for The Federalist... as she discloses salaries of Common Core's co-authors.  And if you want to know more about who they are and the company they created to make the Common Core, read a concerned Arizona's report about it here.

Test yourself! Try this Math Test Common Core Sampler for First Graders... Here.  Check out a corrected first grade test, here.  REad about the first grader's parent's complaint, in a 2013 Washington Post Article about Common Core in New York public schools by Valerie Strauss.

Watch the Sophia Abelita Video on Vimeo, (if you missed watching it in the link earlier.)

Read a Spokane librarian's report on being "trained." (Important note: she was not being "educated" about, but being"trained" in "Common Core." and there is a difference between educating a person and training a person.  In "training," the outcome of the experience is already determined, and often rewarded.  Education involved critical thinking of the student to determine what to do with what is learned.)

Note the foriegn political slant found being taught to students across
the nation, vis Common Core (masquerading as "English" lessons.)
(Fox News exposed this example while examining
Common Core material.) 

And finally, here's some articles  by Laurie Rogers about (against) Common Core in Spokane Schools.... (particularly in the area of Math:)

Common Core Leading Districts to Adopt Unproved Math Programs

A Battle for Our Freedom

Be informed, learn more about Common Core!