Put The Brakes on Common Core by Terry Martin

[Tim Lintz]

The experts who support it describe Common Core (CC) as “A tighter set of smarter standards focused on developing critical learning skills instead of mastering fragmented bits of knowledge.” “It equalizes the playing field by raising expectations for all children, especially those suffering the worst effects of the “drill and kill” test prep norms of the recent past.”

As positive as these claims sound it’s hard to hide the political agenda behind the CC project. For starters, the misnamed “CC State Standards” are not state standards, they’re national standards created by the Bill & Melissa Gates Foundation funded non-profit Achieve Inc. in Washington D.C.

Michigan is one of 45 states that have signed on to CC and the standards are already in use in several states where annual assessment results are causing panic. Carol Burns, the New York “2013 Principle of the Year,” has written extensively about what she calls “a flawed Core implementation.” She writes that originally CC stressed the principles of equality among students which she and others within her profession embraced. Now five years later she writes about the growing discontent among students, parents, unions and legislators complaining about a number of issues including the lack of equality and the fact that academic standards are not being raised.

Please contact Representative Kevin Daley and Senator Phil Pavlov asking them for a bill that will stop the implementation of Common Core, one that includes the following requirements to insure a quality education for Michigan’s children: 1.) Statewide assessments owned, developed and controlled by Michigan; 2.) Statewide assessments that can be administered simply without requiring districts to invest millions in additional computer technology; 3.) Statewide assessments that test developmentally appropriate knowledge, not assessments that drive specific teaching techniques, encourage political bias or interpret student values or behaviors and 4.) Statewide assessments that gather student level data for use by teachers and parents and share only aggregate data beyond the school level … not assessments that share individual student data with outside entities.

Terry Martin