Over at Breitbart, Merrill Hope gives a good summary of Common Core, and exactly why parents should be wary of it.
So, just what is Common Core?
“Common Core is like the convoluted plotline of a daytime drama, impossible to explain in 25 words or less. That’s why so many bloggers, news organizations, and talk radio personalities cover it in manageable bites. Ultimately, it lives up to the unfortunate axiom coined by Nancy Pelosi when speaking about Obamacare in 2010: “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it.” We have, one worksheet at a time.
“In school work that comes home, we see how foundational math, taught in a spiral fashion to build on concepts from grade to grade, is gone. This is replaced by math lattices, ladders, and linguistics-based long-winded division and distributive property word problems loaded up with social issues, like the “heroin habit” high school math homework that made the rounds. This is only the tip of the iceberg and one reason that critics like Michelle Malkin call it “Rotten to the Core.”
“When Common Core was originally introduced, the National Governor’s Association (NGA) was its “front man,” only these governors weren’t governors of any states. NGA is a private non-profit with the Center for Best Practices that co-owns the Common Core State Standards copyright with another non-profit, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).
“Yes, CCSS is copyrighted; its content cannot be changed. Teachers cannot write their own content. Proponents say there is no content, but there are assessments. These must be testing something, and it stands to reason that whoever controls the tests controls the curricula, and whoever controls the curricula, one fine day, controls the country.
“For now, many deem Fed-led ed a failure – not good for the kids, not good for the teachers. States like New York and South Carolina lead the pack in efforts to shut down the test; they join Wisconsin and Indiana parents and teachers who stand against centralized education, preferring individual state standards.
“Big business and big bucks abound in Big Ed, though. CCSSO boasts a wow-list of corporate partners on its website topped off by Microsoft, Prometrean, Scantron, K12, Metametrics a.k.a. Lexile, Scholastic, Pearson Education, Apple, and Amplify. Also on the list are the familiar philanthropic and educratic faces: Bill & Melissa Gates (Foundation), Eli Broad, Jeb Bush, Linda Darling-Hammond, Bill Ayers, Achieve, Microsoft, SmarterBalanced Assessment Consortium, PARCC (Partnership for Assessment Readiness for College and Careers), Pearson, InBloom, and the Annenberg Foundation. There was Mike Huckabee. He was for the Core, but now no more, he says.”
The article is worth reading in full.
Be vigilant.
