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Common Core-aligned report cards are now grading students based on their “sensitivity to others,” as well as “grit” and “gratitude” across California. Instead of having standard grades based on students’ proficiency in classes alone, these “detailed reports” now report whether students are sensitive and assigns them a grade. At Harry Dewey Fundamental Elementary School, for grit, gratitude, and sensitivity toward others, students will now receive one of four possible grades: “A for almost always, O for often, S for sometimes, and R for rarely.” Other districts, such as Sacramento City Unified, have a similar grading scheme, but is a scale...

During a Friday conference call sponsored by Texas-based Women on the Wall, Stanford mathematician and former member of the Common Core Validation Committee Dr. James Milgram, told listeners that if the controversial standards are not repealed, America’s place as a competitor in the technology industry will ultimately be severely undermined. “In the future, if we want to work with the top level people, we’re going to have to go to China or Japan or Korea… and that’s the future we’re looking at,” Milgram said during the call that was part of a day-long Twitter campaign to target Indiana Gov. Mike...

A little-known aspect of Common Core should have students worried about what goes on the dreaded "permanent record," say critics of the national education standard. Parents in Pennsylvania have written outgoing Gov. Tom Corbett to demand a moratorium on the collection of what they describe as sensitive and personal information on students, which they say is part of a federal database to track the development of every child. And education activists around the nation say it is part and parcel of the controversial campaign to impose a uniform, national standard for math and English. “This follows them from the cradle...

A little while back I spent several months researching the Common Core curriculum, and what I discovered absolutely shocked me. At times, it left me utterly incredulous. I wrote a two-part article on the subject. I still have part three (final installment) in progress. And I will be wrapping up that series of articles here in the near future. But the deeper I dig into Common Core, the more it has led me on numerous research paths, some of which interlock with what I thought were unrelated research paths. I still haven’t absorbed or synthesized it all. One of the...

Our children are our world as parents. They are the future of our nation. Most of us would gladly sacrifice all we have and our lives for our little ones. So, why do we so readily hand their learning and their care over to those that would abuse them and trick them into being part of the greatest evil the world has ever known? It figures that the young, innocent ones would be a prime target for Islam and are what they term, ‘fertile ground’ for their broken philosophy. Between such programs as Common Core, Connect All Schools and CSCOPE,...

Schools found ‘indoctrinating pupils about gay people’ will face being closed down under new rules designed to promote ‘British values’, the Government confirmed today. The Department for Education insisted it was ‘nonsense’ to suggest teachers would have to give lessons on gay rights. But a spokesman insisted Ofsted, which has introduced the new rules the wake of the Islamist Trojan Horse plot to radicalise pupils in Birmingham, was right to ensure schools were not breeding grounds for homophobia. A spokesman said: ‘Ofsted are rightly ensuring that schools do not indoctrinate pupils about gay people - or any other people -...

A panel discussion at Center for American Progress called for brain research in the classroom and shared their remarks on mandating scientific research in the classroom. Giving a final exam-type test on the first day of class, Benedict Carey, science reporter for The New York Times and author of How We Learn, said, “[It] prepares the brain to receive the information subsequently” because “you see the topics that are coming” later in the semester. He admitted, “Pre-testing is very counterintuitive,” but claimed these pre-tests, which a majority of students fail, “help” students get higher grades on final exams. Glenn Whitman,...

[T]he current "Common Core" mandate, by which the federal government has enlisted the states to federalize the U.S. school curriculum, cut[s] off traditional local control. Once you control what is taught, you needn’t care where, by whom, or how that is done, you have eliminated all competitors... Common Core represents a fair start toward total federal control of U.S. education... [T]he Progressives so enamored of "diversity" are... dead set against any diversity in educating citizens... [I]f one recalls the works of John Dewey, the patron saint of the progressive education movement, the avowed goal is... to turn out useful and...

Until recently the mainstream media has portrayed the opponents of Common Core to be just a bunch of conservative yahoos incapable of understanding what a wonderful education program it is. However that might now be changing. Last night, NBC Nightly News surprisingly broadcast a segment highly critical of Common Core. The segment showed just how confusing and lacking in common sense common core is. Although it portrayed teachers as mostly satisfied with the program while parents were distressed, it is hard to imagine any how any sane person can see the utility of Common Core which as you will see...

Attention, parents: Have your little ones been subjected to "TS Gold" in school yet? If you care about student privacy, data mining and classroom intrusions, you might want to start asking questions and protecting your children now before it's too late. What's happening here in Colorado with this onerous testing regime is happening everywhere. Informed families and teachers from all parts of the political spectrum agree: It's a Big Government/Big Business "gold" rush you don't want to join.... Last spring, parent Lauren Coker discovered that TS Gold assessors in her son's Aurora, Colo., public preschool had recorded information about his...

I've been campaigning against Common Core for six years -– this VIDEO is one of the best things I've seen. A bit long at 22 minutes but please watch it all. Yes, you'll be depressed and may even cry. This video confirms my sense that we should cancel Common Core entirely. Don't discuss or negotiate. The people behind Common Core are far-leftists. They will keep lying and manipulating. I don't imagine they will negotiate in good faith. ----- (My own most recent article is called "Common Core fulfills an ugly dream." It gives an historical perspective. On Examiner.com. Just Google...

Editor's note: This column was originally published at SFPPR News & Analysis. Right around this time of the fall semester, after I’d returned the first batch of papers, I’d hear the complaint from my college freshmen: “But I got all A’s in high school English!” My colleagues heard it too, but our response was, “But you’re in college now.” Because of the latest developments under Common Core, we can now expect the student to challenge the professor and say, “But that’s not what I learned in high school!” And he will have the full weight of the college administration, the...

DALLAS, Texas -- It is like a Texas sampler platter of the 2014-15 Common Core offerings served up around the state -- Sadlier "Common Core Enriched Edition" Vocabulary, Springboard and Carnegie Math. There is even a kindergarten handout that defines the importance of the term "Common Core." Parents are up in arms. More so, they are worried. They have heard endlessly that there is no Common Core in Texas. It is the law. Yet, this is what is coming home in the backpacks. To her surprise, a Boerne Independent School District (ISD) parent pulled out the "6 Math Terms to Know...

Surveys: Americans, Teachers Souring on Common Core The New American 20 August 2014 Support for the Common Core national educational standards has plummeted in the past year among Americans who are familiar with the standards, according to two polls released this week.Among the general public, 53 percent of Americans support Common Core, according to an EducationNext poll, compared with 65 percent in 2013. The drop was even more precipitous among teachers. In just that one year, support for Common Core among teachers has sunk from 76 percent to 46 percent.A Phi Delta Kappa International poll, conducted by Gallup, noted that...

Support for Common Core educational standards has dropped as awareness of the program has spread over the past year, new polling finds. Among Americans who have heard a great deal about the standards, just 33 percent support the standards while 59 percent oppose them, the annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools reveals.

North Carolina officials say there has been a huge increase over the past two years in the number of Tar Heel families who have pulled their kids out of public schools and begun educating them at home. The number of homeschools has jumped 27 percent since the 2011-12 school year, NewsObserver.com reports.As of last year, 98,172 North Carolinian children were homeschooled; that’s 2,400 students more than the number who attended a private school.While the sputtering economy is the reason families are choosing homeschooling over private schooling, the nationalized learning experiment (Common Core) is the main reason families are leaving the...

Despite strong support from the likes of national figures such as Jeb Bush, the rejection by the states of the federal overreach into education known as the Common Core standards continues to gain momentum. Most recently, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana vetoed a bill that would have aligned Louisiana’s public school system with “Obamacore.” The governor went on to withdraw the state more fully from the Common Core using executive orders, ensuring that control of educational standards would remain in state and local hands–at least for now, pending possible legal action from Obamacore supporters. Louisiana joins Oklahoma, Indiana, South Carolina,...

MADISON, Mississippi — Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant came out in ardent opposition to Common Core education standards on Thursday, a signal of the immense grassroots pressure in the state, as State Sen. Chris McDaniel and incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) battle to win the GOP primary runoff on Tuesday. “I think Common Core is a failed program, and the United States is beginning to realize that,” Bryant said, according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. "Governors all across America are realizing states can do it better.” In late 2013, Bryant issued an executive order that called for state-level, not national, educational standards,...

[summary: Socialists have the same answer for every problem: a huge new government program.] Medical insurance and public education might seem to be two different worlds with different problems. But the proposed solutions were essentially the same. Here are ten descriptions that apply equally to ObamaCare and Common Core: 1) HUGE FEDERAL POWER GRAB: The obvious result from both ObamaCare and Common Core is that Obama and his Czars get a bigger government to administer, more money to play with, more jobs for their loyal troops, and more control over people’s lives. 2) NOT RESPONSES TO POPULAR DEMAND. ObamaCare and...

The most controversial issue in education today is clearly Common Core. It's being more hotly debated than bullying, zero tolerance, sex ed, abortion or even school lunches. Common Core is the title of a new set of standards the Obama administration has been trying to force the states to use. Even before the standards were written, 45 states and the District of Columbia signed on, encouraged by inducements of federal funds. The principal outliers are Texas, Alaska, Nebraska and Virginia. Now that parents and teachers are finding out what is commanded by Common Core State Standards and what is being...