Why Gloomy Pundits and Politicians Are Wrong About America's Education System

I see your not inclined to research a subject.

I was talking about the link you provided. First words were "Common Core" Standards. Call it BS if you want to, but apparently there are 45 states that have signed onto it including DC. It is a federal dictate as to the curriculum that states must teach to. States cannot change it, nor add more than 15% to it. As a teacher and parent, I wouldn't think this plan would make you very happy.

Also, Indiana is trying to get out of it.

Truth in American Education

Now that is funny. Your assuming that they can revise the goals.

The man who was one of the writers of the Common Core Math Standards said that; "the standards were written because of the social justice agenda". Now what does teaching math have to do with social justice exactly? Maybe it's something like "sharing the wealth". Or like being taught to be average. Or like what union labor is...mediocraty.

Ran across this site from Utah, who signed on to Common Core.

http://www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com/reigniting-the-math-wars-over-the-death-of-calculus/

A letter one parent wrote;

I remember starting algebra in the second half of 7th grade. Of course that was a hundred years ago.

That's because it's a Federal program, started last year. Only 5 states didn't sign up for it and Indiana is now trying to back out of it.

Hope you will take a minute to read this;

http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/tag/michelle-rhee/


There are some ideas that some parents and teachers might like, and some we definitely don’t, but the fact remains that we never get a chance to weigh in on them via a vote. That’s what nationalized education means: the elite at the top determine what is good and true for all. Oh, for the days of local control over education to be back in my state again!
Wearing the shield of “education reform,” guess what the education reformists on the left have wielded?
- a war on student data privacy (your kid's school career is now in a government database)
- a war on classic literature
- a war on traditional, time-tested math
-a national set of educational standards that is without an amendment process, so nobody can change anything.
-a national set of standards that are under copyright by an unelected group called CCSSO/NGA
-a national set of standards that the Dept. of Education has put a cap on; you can’t teach more than 15% above the Common Core
-a war against transparency;

Yes, I understand that, but if you dig into it, you will find that it has Obama's blessing, and several groups were given stimulus money to develop it. This is a Washington DC controlled program. They did another run-around-congress this way. Under the radar, where very few people even knew about it.

What does Obama really mean when he says that he created education reforms in 46 states during his presidency? 45 states plus the District of Columbia have signed on to it, and Obama's taking credit for it.

Somewhere I read that if they opted in for it they couldn't get out of it. Will try to find that part.

First of all, I believe this was just implemented a year ago. So I don't know how long it's going to take to get feedback. As far as finding contradicting information, who would report on it? The MSM?

A conspiracy? No. But I am always suspicious of what this Administration does. I instictively react to red flags. I also tend to approach things from a), who's idea was it, and 2) what do they hope to achieve. Only time will tell and I for one won't be surprised by the outcome.

But when one of the developers of the math portion said that the reason for the common core standards was because of their social justice agenda, let's just say that got my red flags waving. I don't understand liberal speak and I'm still vague on how you turn math into social justice.

Cruella..here's something ,my sister sent me...I am appalled at this entire process from inception to implementation. In our district, parents were invited to attend an evening session in September, during which the BOE officials took about 30 minutes to tout the program. They then sent us into breakout sessions, 30 minutes for Language Arts, and 30 for Math. More propoganda, little specifics. Parents with questions and concerns were told to write their comments on an index card and hand it in, because there “wasn’t enough time” to address us publicly. I did ask where CCS had already been tested, thinking surely there is a model where empirical results had been studied. Nope, no data available. Then I asked if other countries’ education systems had been studied, particularly those where student performance is superior to ours. No again. In fact, said the BOE, the implementation of CCS throughout CT is being done so quickly that there aren’t even textbooks ready yet. So a new guideline for teaching is being rolled out in our state, without any prior experience, no results to indicate whether or not they have any chance of “working”, and it’s being done so fast that the accompanying teaching materials don’t even exist yet. Parents are being told about it after-the-fact, and objections are suppressed with short, over-crowded information sessions and the “write your question down” tactic which is so effective at silencing opposition. Something smells, and it’s coming from D.C. through Hartford.

And what if you were never told about it? I remember reading about this a long time ago, but didn't know it had even been implemented until PLC posted that link.

From my reading about it, it came out of Washington and it was the state legislatures that put it into place. I don't think they have anymore expertise than local school boards. Probably less.