Here is another concerned mom’s testimony before her State Board of Education in Arkansas. There have been many parents speaking out against what is happening to their children. When will the legislators and the members of the boards of education start listening??

The Washington State House of Representatives now has a bill to eliminate the Common Core!

House Bill 2165, sponsored by Representative Elizabeth Scott, calls for a revision of the Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALRs) such that they do NOT align with the Common Core, and it calls for Washington to withdraw from the Smarter Balanced Assessments Consortium.

The happy news is that bills such as this one and Senate Bill 6030 against the Common Core, will be alive for two years. Even though the bills may not become law during this session, they still have a chance next year.

They say politics make strange bedfellows, and it’s true. A coalition of very progressive grassroots progressives, very conservative grassroots conservatives, and the whole spectrum in between have joined to reject the Common Core State Standards. At the same time, Democrat Senator Marilyn Chase and Republican Senator Pam Roach have co-sponsored Senate Bill 6030 to reject the Common Core and return to what we had before–the Washington Essential Academic Learning Requirements or “EALRs.”

While we have never been fans of the the EALRs, at least they were Washington State EALRs. This bill is a first step in returning education control to the state level. When we once again have control over our own state standards, we will have the ability to improve them.

Read Washington State Senate Bill 6030 here.

Stay tuned. There will be a similar bill soon in the Washington State House of Representatives.

The GED, the General Educational Development test, is produced by the American Council on Education. In 2011, it  partnered with Pearson and the GED was aligned  with the Common Core State Standards. Pearson is heavily involved with both the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and with Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) which are the assessment consortia developing assessments for the Common Core State Standards.

Beginning in 2014, students taking the GED took the revised test aligned with the Common Core State Standards

According to the e-newsletter SCENE, about 540,000 students earned their GED in 2013. In 2014 with the changes in the GED, that number has dropped to about 55,000. Read the article.

Some states have stopped requiring the GED and have begun to require alternate testing. See the map.

The GED’s new alignment with the Common core means that even students that were homeschooled must become knowledgeable about the Common Core standards if they want to earn their GED.

The new GED test will not only flunk more students but will discourage many from even attempting the exam.

Research increasingly shows that young children are not ready for the types of questions presented in the Common Core Assessments and practice exercises. At a conference held at Notre Dame in September 2013, Dr.Megan Koschnick explained how the Common Core questions are causing stress and harm to young children.

Kindergarten used to be a place to paint pictures, play with clay, make friends, and learn a few social graces. Now it is a place to be assessed and started on the path to be molded into human capital.  What has happened to common sense?

Some teachers are beginning to speak out in defense of their students. Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post writes about a Florida teacher who refused to administer one of the Florida kindergarten assessments, the FAIR test. See the article.

Although she feared she would be fired, she just couldn’t bring herself to subject her students to the assessment. Her gutsy stand led to the principal’s decision to drop the assessment. Read the follow up story.

This trend of early assessments started before the appearance of the Common Core Standards and Assessments. Now that data collection through the Race to the Top and other mandates has become a priority, the assessment machine starts in kindergarten or earlier, giving rise to such non-governmental organizations as the Early Childhood Data Collaborative. The assessments drive the curriculum and facilitate the data collection.  It isn’t even clear whether the assessments reliably or validly measure what they’re supposed to be measuring, or whether constantly assessing students actually improves education. We appreciate people like this brave teacher who speak out against them.

While Common Core math is making kids frustrated, it’s also driving parents and grandparents crazy. If you haven’t yet seen the video about the convoluted way of adding 9 + 6, you can view it at the link below. The focus is on the the process, ostensibly to teach “higher order thinking skills”, but it causes confusion, not higher order thinking. Read the article.

This convoluted, “constructivist” way of doing math did not originate with the Common Core, however. Fuzzy math has been around for years. See the Washington State manual, “Teaching and Learning Mathematics” which shows on page 58, that believing that math is about finding the right answer is a mathematical myth. In the past, states and districts had more flexibility to use the the methodologies of their choice, but now the Common Core Standards along with the Common Core Assessments embed this constructivist method into the curriculum for all participating states.

It’s up to you, parents and grandparents. If you want your student to truly understand math, YOU must teach them!

Common Core Standards are causing much concern among parents of school-age children. Parents of young children should also know that there are Common Core Standards for younger children as well. Experts have analyzed the K-3 Common Core standards and are critical that no one on the development panel has any expertise in early childhood development! Read the article from the Washington Post.

If your children plan to enroll in the Advanced Placement History program be forewarned that it has been changed and no longer teaches the traditional history course. Jane Robbins of the American Principles Project warns us that the College Board’s Advanced Placement History Course has been transformed, now that David Coleman, reported architect of the Common Core, is head of the College Board. Watch the video clip.