Okay, let's start with Part 1 of the Stop Common Core video. I will list the facts about the origins of CCSS and whatever else comes up in the first video. Then I'll post it, you can comment on it, dispute the facts with your own links and research and we'll go on to the next video. Yes, this video was created by people AGAINST Common Core (hence, the name) so in the video there are references to personal opinions as to why it's been started and what the end result will be. We're not going to discuss opinions, but the hard facts about CCSS. As I said, please feel free to dispute any fact that you believe is false. We're all here to learn, yes?
1. Parents have no recourse to influence content standards. If parents, teachers, administrators, school boards, taxpayers feel as though a standard is too easy or too hard for students in K-12, they cannot change it. If their state has adopted Common Core, that standard must be taught and must be met by their students.
2. CCSS is a set of educational standards for English Language Arts and Math (and Science just came out as well) to ideally be adopted by all 50 states so that education will be standardized in America.
3. The writers of CCSS believe they have created rigorous standards which will produce students who are more prepared for college. It also allows for students to be compared state-to-state.
4. CCSS has currently been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia (that might have changed by now....not sure...)
5. The individual states did not help create the standards. They were written by Achieve, Inc, & The National Governors Association and the CCSSO - Washington D.C. trade organizations who were given no legislative grant of authority from the States to write standards.
6. The Gates Foundations has given the above groups $27 million to advance Common Core. The Gates Foundation plans to spend $150 million on CCSS.
7. Because the PARCC assessment must be given at the same time with every student on a computer, school districts will have to purchase and maintain PCs for every student.
8. The Race to the Top competition came out of the 2009 Stimulus Bill. In order to have a realistic shot at Race to the Top money, states had to agree to accept and implement the CCSS sight unseen.
9. Race to the Top applications went out in November of 2009 and had to be turned in by January 2010 -- a time when our country's economy sucked with little money to go around. Most state legislators weren't even in session when the states decided to apply for Race to the Top money.
10. The CCSS were released in 2010 and had to be accepted by state school boards by August 2010 - no involvement with state legislature.
11. The Department of Education was also offering an NCLB waiver to those states who accepted Race to the Top money and CCSS.
12. The national tests created for Common Core will be all computer-based. School districts will have to purchase and maintain computers for every student who has to take the national tests. This will be a substantial amount of money (especially for districts who barely have one computer per 30 kids.)
13. The Department of Education is paying for the national tests, but when the money runs out the states will have to pick up the costs. We don't know exactly what the cost to taxpayers will be in the end.
14. The PARCC assessment was created by progressive reformers ---- they aren't listed ---- we need to look those up.
15. The Smarter Balanced assessment was created by Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford Professor who opposes standardized testing. <<< ?? need to find out more about her
