Emergency Alert(as one mother has said-Our Kids Are Not For Sale Not Even In This Drastic Economy. ) Many states signed on in hopes of getting education dollars. It is time to see the truth--this common standards or national standards--will take away parental input at the local shool boards!!!
There is a need for better schools--without a question--but getting our governors to go along with the common core standards is not the way to go as Waiting For Superman closes with that suggestion.
The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) with Achieve, ACT and the College Board partnered (with a jump start from Bill Gates) for the Common Core Standards States Initiative or CCSSI.
It is supposed to get our kids college and career ready which is a wonderful goal but there are strings attached which should not be there--one very glaring is the fact that many parents will lost their voice through their local school boards as to what will be taught their children--as the common core standards will be set nationally.
Here are some info and links from the other side with valid concerns (most specially the right of parents).
Most prominent are the perspective from Professor Jim Milgram and Professor Sandra Stotsky who were in the national validation committee of the common core standards. Most states agreed to these standards as part of their application for "race to the top" grants--even before the standards were published in June.
"How can the State Boards of Education make decisions when they haven't even read the standards? Many state's Board Member had never been initiated into what was in these documents. What were the policy issues coming out of these documents and whether these analyses were truly were in a sense legitimate academic analysis-- a really serious issue of uninformed Boards of Education in this country which they would never do on most other issues. These are very serious issues about what self- government means at the state and local government level."--Sandra Stotsky, professor in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, and holds the 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality.
"There are two separate automacity requirements for all of the algorithms--one is their own construction and then the other is the standard algorithm. Standard Algorithm always come a year or two later and so these students are going to learn their own way of doing things many of which are incorrect and then they're going to learn the standard algorithm and they're going to get totally confused. The net effect in terms of learning is that they know neither approach verywell. The second set of things-- the requirement to automaticity on their own self- invented algorithms was one of the political issues that came in at the last moment and it's absolutely crazy. And then there was an entire list of similar ones, that equally made no sense whatsoever in terms of the long term development of children's mathematical capacity." -- Dr. R. James Milgram, professor of mathematics at Stanford University.
Since they were on the inside and have such impeccable outstanding background--their knowledge is truly worth listening to and these are their interviews for you to hear them yourself.
Part I-- with Betty Peters
Part II--with Betty Peters, Penny Wolcott, Donna Garner and Beth Schultz
Part III --with Dawn Wildman of the California Tea Party and Wayne Wood, retired teacher
More Interviews to give you more perspectives:
Part IV--with Betty Peters, Beth Schultz, Audrey Buffington, and Anne Marie Banfield
Part V--with Donna Garner, Sue Neuwein, Margaret Dobbs, Wanda McDonald and Pastor Mary Shellnut
More links worth reading (we will keep posting more daily):