Posted on 04/14/2016 6:45:49 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
The Heritage Foundation published a special report with essays from several education experts, detailing the background and the effects of Common Core. Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and William Estrada, director of federal relations at the Home School Legal Defense Association, highlighted the problems with Common Core.
Estrada wrote, "Common Core is good for homeschooling.” He pointed out in 2009, there were 850,000 homeschooled students in the U.S. By 2012, the Department of Education found that there were 1.8 million homeschooled students. As you can see, the growth in homeschooling tracks nicely with the growth in Common Core. In North Carolina, there was a 14% increase in one school year in the number of children being homeschooled, to the tune of 60,950 students. Today, there are almost 100,000 homeschooled students in the Tarheel State.
He added:
"Moms and dads…are frustrated. Parents are losing local control over the education of their children. They are losing the ability to do something as simple as homework with their kids. And now, they are voting with their feet."
However, Estrada warned that Common Core "threatens the foundation of homeschooling." Standardized tests, such as the SAT and ACT, are beginning to be aligned to Common Core standards, and this sets a worrisome precedent for homeschooling. School districts are also becoming more emboldened to coerce homeschoolers to follow their education standards. Westfield, New Jersey saw a school district push homeschoolers to follow Common Core. Estrada's organization, HSLDA, stepped in and Westfield backed off its outrageous demand. Additionally, there are student privacy concerns with Common Core, when student information is logged into a database.
Kurtz, in his essay on how Common Core and Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum were structured, pointed out that the College Board, "the nonprofit entity that creates and administers the SAT and Advanced Placement (AP) tests, released a detailed, controversial and highly directive 'framework' for the teaching of U.S. history." He added that the new curriculum ended up "highlighting America's foibles and failing at the expense of our strengths, and for downplaying America's distinctive characteristics."
Also, the College Board will be evasive and will not say that their curriculum adjustments are a part of Common Core: "The College Board has begun to radically redesign all of its Advanced Placement exams, not just AP U.S. History." Other subjects that will be affected: Physics, World History, Art History, and others such as European History and U.S. Government and Politics. Kurtz believed that the College Board is insulated from public accountability, and this should change. He continued, "state and federal governments channel tens of millions of dollars to the College Board, making it in effect a government-supported monopoly." He concluded, "The College Board's recent power grab must be a central component of the debate over Common Core."
Don’t ask my wife about CC — you’ll get an earful. She is a para at a local elementary school and has been testing for two weeks and testing will continue through the end of the month. Our wonderful state of Colorado has adopted CC.
I applaud these intelligent people opting out of absurd bullshit.
America was founded on people leaving big government oppression in europe....
Just ask a pilgrim...
but they made the mistake of doing so after Michelle Malkin moved there so they gave her loads of material.
I personally believe the only way this country will endure is to get future generations out of the public “indoctrination” which passes for ‘education’ these days. Home schooling is the way to do it.
It is important that we immediately eliminate all funding from the Feds (and, ideally, from the states as well) which goes to colleges; this way, AP exams/ACT/SAT/etc. exams which choose to be influenced by Communist Core would find themselves failing in the free market of ideas.
Our wonderful state of Colorado has adopted CC.
Of course it has. Despite the fact the consortium doing the testing has been ruled unconstitutional in the state of Missouri. The multi-state compact was never approved by the US Congress, as State compacts must be to be legally constitutional. The state is probably not in compliance with numerous state statutes as well regarding public education, not to mention the Federal dept of Ed dealing deceitfully with the American people in overstepping their charter making demands, mandates and being engaged in curriculum at the state level.
1. Outrageous leniency about discipline
2. School closing which transferred students from a local school to schools miles away.
3. Common Core
If you have had a kid in the public education system, you will know that the bureaucrats look at the kids as little guinea pigs to test to their abstract sociological and psychological theories on.
We have watched as two programs (very expensive, I might add), created chaos in the classroom and were dropped after a couple of years of experimentation and failure. This meant that the guinea pig kids lost at least a year of educational growth. Was there an admission of failure or apologies — absolutely not!
Oh, but the draw of the money is too powerful. That is the real reason why we are stuck with it.
note this part of the article:
However, Estrada warned that Common Core “threatens the foundation of homeschooling.” Standardized tests, such as the SAT and ACT, are beginning to be aligned to Common Core standards, and this sets a worrisome precedent for homeschooling. School districts are also becoming more emboldened to coerce homeschoolers to follow their education standards. Westfield, New Jersey saw a school district push homeschoolers to follow Common Core. Estrada’s organization, HSLDA, stepped in and Westfield backed off its outrageous demand. Additionally, there are student privacy concerns with Common Core, when student information is logged into a database.
I am a big fan of optional standardized tests. As a homeschooling parent I use standardized tests as much as possible.
My wife tried to help our grandson with the CC curriculum and gave up. My daughter withdrew him from public school and is homeschooling him with the old tried and true methods, and he is flourishing!
send CC back to the pit it came from...
Even with those problems affecting what a parent can do at home (UNBELIEVABLE!!) the parent has the opportunity to choose better materials as a supplement on their own. Besides that, by being at home, they're spared of the out-of-control discipline issues and the constant indoctrination.
It will take only another generation or two before there's no cultural memory of what it takes to preserve a real education which produces independent thinking, moral, academically excellent students.
You can probably add co-ed bathrooms and locker rooms in the near future.
True. However, the world has run out of underpopulated continents. What became the United States was an escape valve for Europeans fleeing tyranny, poverty, and persecution for the first three centuries after the first successful English settlement at Jamestown. Where would Americans flee in the 2010s? Certainly not the other English speaking nations or Western Europe, which are generally worse than even the most liberal U.S. state. Latin America isn't much better, although some countries like Costa Rica or Chile are relatively prosperous and free. The Middle East is out, except for Israel if you are Jewish. Maybe Eastern Europe, where traditional values are still relevant. East Asian societies are orderly and modern; however, the cultural differences are profound for white Americans.
All told. the best bet may be to stay here and persevere.
[ America was founded on people leaving big government oppression in Europe
True. However, the world has run out of underpopulated continents. What became the United States was an escape valve for Europeans fleeing tyranny, poverty, and persecution for the first three centuries after the first successful English settlement at Jamestown. Where would Americans flee in the 2010s? Certainly not the other English speaking nations or Western Europe, which are generally worse than even the most liberal U.S. state. Latin America isn’t much better, although some countries like Costa Rica or Chile are relatively prosperous and free. The Middle East is out, except for Israel if you are Jewish. Maybe Eastern Europe, where traditional values are still relevant. East Asian societies are orderly and modern; however, the cultural differences are profound for white Americans.
All told. the best bet may be to stay here and persevere. ]
Actually there is an unsettled continent / domain and I don’t mean anything as radical as space colonization.
Underground settlements - an idea whose time has come.
We have the technology to build a self sufficient colony underground in a remote area like say, Antarctica, using the rock and dirt to mine thorium to power a molten salt reactor, using 3-D printing to make new habitats and vertical farming to feed the population. Even in a cold wasteland like Antarctica, the ground is warm if you go deep enough. We can expand the colony by mining out more habitats which gives more fuel for the reactors. You can mine the ice above for additional water as well. With enough energy you can recycle the water throughout vertical farming and aquaponics.
Far far easier than trying to build a moon colony, plus the lessons learned from it can lead to building a moon colony or mars colony later.
The next (easiest) frontier is underground....
All of that is true. Public homeschooling does provide which on-line school choices are available......the parent has the opportunity to choose better materials....
It will take only another generation or two before there’s no cultural memory of what it takes to preserve a real education which produces independent thinking, moral, academically excellent students.
****
Agreed that homeschooling is still available and a much better alternative. The point of the post was that the powers that be would like to eliminate homeschooling, so ALL parents need to fight for the type of education our students deserve.
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