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The new academic standards known as the Common Core emphasize critical thinking, complex problem-solving and writing skills, and put less stock in rote learning and memorization. So the standardized tests given in most states this year required fewer multiple choice questions and far more writing on topics like this one posed to elementary school students: Read a passage from a novel written in the first person, and a poem written in the third person, and describe how the poem might change if it were written in the first person.

A Common Core-approved workshop on the Middle East conflict titled “Whose Jerusalem?” has sparked controversy among critics who charge that the program portrays Israel and America in a negative light while cultivating sympathy for terrorist group Hamas. The “Whose Jerusalem?” curriculum was created by Boston University professor Carl Hobert, who describes the goal of his program as “educational civil disobedience, where students are learning about the Middle East and they’re putting pressure on our government to create a Palestinian state.” It has already been used in numerous high schools and has now been approved as part of the Common...

Parents in South Carolina who are part of a nationwide revolt against Common Core say they are being threatened with “criminal accountability” if they prevent their children from taking the tests required by the controversial educational-standards program. Tamra Hood, a member of South Carolina Parents Involved in Education, said the state Education Department’s chief Operating officer, Elizabeth Carpentier, warned parents could spend 30 days in jail if even a single day of testing is missed, Breitbart News reported. In addition, Hood said Carpentier warned that groups that encourage parents to refuse the Common Core-aligned tests could be charged with aiding...

The entire junior class of a Seattle high school sent an unmistakable message to President Obama and other supporters of the Common Core curriculum last week: Thanks, but no thanks. Not a single junior at Nathan Hale High showed up Tuesday to take new state exams in reading and math, a Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman told The Seattle Times. That’s 280 students who skipped the tests in a show of force. **SNIP** “They didn’t skip school all day,” district spokeswoman Stacy Howard told the newspaper. “They just didn’t show up during the testing period.”

Education Secretary Arnie Duncan is reminding parents in America “that all your children belong to them”. In a not-so-very veiled threat Secretary Duncan states the Federal Government will step in if parents continue to opt their children out of Common Core testing. (Via Doug Ross Journal) Secretary of Education Arne Duncan issued a veiled threat to the parents and students who choose to opt out of Common Core testing – The Feds “have an obligation to step in.” Federal law, under No Child Left Behind, requires 95 percent of students in a state to take the annual standardized tests in...

The financial issues plaguing Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign have become too much even for liberal groups, and now Common Cause is calling for an independent audit of donations to the Clinton Foundation. Amid suggestions that foreign governments donated to the foundation in hopes of getting special treatment from President Obama's State Department when Clinton was his top diplomat, the group on Friday said a "thorough review" is needed. "Six years ago, at Mrs. Clinton's confirmation hearing for her appointment as secretary of state, then-Sen. Dick Lugar observed that 'that foreign governments and entities may perceive the Clinton Foundation as a...

Supporters of Common Core have encountered a public relations nightmare recently thanks to technical glitches, student boycotts and a slew of irate parents who are refusing to allow their children to sit for standardized tests. However, last week marked the first time officials at a taxpayer-funded school have allegedly attempted to confine a student for a Common Core standardized test after her parent arrived on campus to remove the child from class. The incident occurred at Brookshire Elementary School in Winter Park, Fla., reports the Orlando Sentinel. The unidentified mother showed up at Brookshire Elementary to pick up her daughter...

Many education leaders continue to insist the process for creating national education standards was “state-led,” referring to its incubation within two Washington DC-based nonprofits, the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers. That seems to depend on how one defines “state-led.” Former Virginia Gov. George Allen told School Reform News NGA is less a policy forum and more a networking opportunity, because any resolutions governors vote on are “not binding” and governors often disagree. He attended NGA meetings particularly so he could recruit IBM into Virginia. “I find regional governors associations were much more practical,” he said....

ESSEX COUNTY — Facing a contingent of concerned parents, a growing number of school districts across the state are moving to create official opt-out policies for students who will not be taking the PARCC exam, a new state test that will be administered for the first time next month. The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers test, which is based on the Common Core education standards and is administered entirely on computers, has sparked harsh criticisms from some skeptical parents and teachers. The complaints have led to an "opt-out" movement across the state, in which parents are...

Honored as the “Top Teacher” by ABC’s “Live with Kelly and Michael” show, Stacie Starr was speaking at an education forum earlier this week when she dropped a bombshell. The veteran teacher at Elyria High School in Elyria, Ohio, told a stunned audience Monday she will resign at the end of the school year because of the new federal Common Core system of standards and assessments adopted by her state, reported the local Chronicle-Telegram newspaper. image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2015/02/stacie-starr.jpg Stacie Starr Stacie Starr At the forum, which sought to help parents navigate the complex standardized testing system, Starr was talking about how...

Former governor and likely 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush hosted an Education Summit in Tallahassee, FL Tuesday, where he struggled desperately to avoid uttering the word “common” and “core”. (SNIP) Bush: As long as they’re state-driven, and they’re high, and they’re assessed faithfully, is what is the cor– the hallmark– [chokes] excuse me, hallmark of a reform agenda.

AN FRANCISCO — Jeb Bush previewed the ideas at the heart of his likely presidential campaign, delivering a sweeping address here Friday about the economy, foreign affairs and energy exploration, and challenging the country to question “every aspect of how government works.”

The conservative support that brought Diane Douglas to the Nov. 6, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction victory was based on her steadfast opposition to the Common Core curriculum. (SNIP) In a statement released following her meeting with Sanchez, Douglas hit a low note with this conclusion, “It is important to correct the misunderstanding that the Arizona Department of Education is opposed to ethnic studies. If any child educated in Arizona is not exposed to the suffering, trials and triumphs of all ethnic groups who have contributed to our state’s rich cultural mix, then we are failing to teach accurate history.”...

Mike Huckabee’s once-loyal conservative base may not be there for him in 2016 if he chooses to run again, and his complicated history with Common Core could prove to be the biggest reason why. A lot has changed since the former Arkansas governor last ran for president in 2008. Considered the conservative alternative to John McCain and Mitt Romney at the time, Huckabee enjoyed early success in the Republican primaries that year, winning the Iowa caucuses and a handful of primaries in his native South. He parlayed those victories into a popular weekly Fox News show, ensuring his continued public...

**SNIP** Starting from scratch, on the other hand, pulls the rug out from under educators who have spent almost five years implementing Common Core in their classrooms. “You just get frustrated and tired with trying to appease people who really have no idea what’s going on with you day to day,” one kindergarten teacher told Mississippi’s Clarion-Ledger. “It’s just really mind-blowing that this is something they’re considering doing at this point.” Teachers are all too familiar with the fad du jour. Policymakers promised them that Common Core would be different, that it would have staying power. Teachers are right to...

If real estate mogul and deep-pocketed White House donor Terry Bean were a Republican, he'd be a household name by now. Bean's face would be splashed all over the covers of grocery-stand newsweeklies. The garrulous hostesses of ABC's "The View" would be haranguing the GOP to return his campaign contributions. Child-welfare advocates would be demanding his resignation from top political advocacy and civic groups. Media satellite trucks from NBC's "Today" show would be parked outside the Lane County, Ore., Circuit Court on Dec. 3 for his first appearance. And The New York Times archives would be teeming with thousand-word editorials...

If your 11-year-old daughter is regularly raped by organized gangs of Pakistani Muslim men should you be concerned? Well, if you live in Rotherham, England, yes, you should be very concerned about being a racist. Not only that, if you find the house where your daughter is being raped and you go there and try to remove her the police will be called and you will be arrested. This is how we roll in multicultural England, a green and pleasant land of tolerance, diversity and Pakistani Muslim child-rape gangs. Haven't we done well? The stubborn refusal of the authorities in...

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...

The U.S. Department of Education (USED) has punished the state of Oklahoma for repealing the Common Core standards and reverting to its previous academic standards by rescinding the state’s waiver from No Child Left Behind (NCLB), making it the second state ever to lose its waiver from the law. As Caitlin Emma of Politico reports, Indiana, on the contrary, was granted a one-year extension of its waiver from NCLB because, though Gov. Mike Pence (R) declared he was the first governor to repeal the Common Core standards, his state’s replacement standards are remarkably similar to the Common Core and, as...

RALEIGH, N.C. – 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…Read More