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Jeb Bush Talks 2016 Run With Donors By Peter Hamby,October 23, 2014 Jeb Bush wrestles with 2016 decision Jeb Bush met with South Carolina donors and business leaders Thursday Bush said he was seriously considering a presidential run in 2016 Washington (CNN) -- Jeb Bush was blitzed with questions Thursday about his presidential ambitions in a private session with top South Carolina donors and business leaders, multiple sources at the meeting told CNN. Bush was politely non-committal, as he is in public, but said he was seriously considering the possibility and would make a decision after the holiday season. Bush,...

A concerned parent posted a picture of their third grader's common core math homework yesterday. Frustrated, they called the homework "ridiculous." Just how ridiculous? Third graders are now being taught how to multply single digit numbers using six steps. Common Core is the over-complication of simple problems. So, how do you solve 7 times 5? You don't just solve it quickly in your head. You don't count by seven five times. Instead, you are supposed to break five into two smaller numbers. It doesn't explain why you don't break seven down, but students are supposed to instantly know that five...

When is the wrong answer the right answer? Now. Today. Reality alert: we have entered an alternative universe, thanks to Common Core. As people once scorned wrong answers, we will now learn to scorn right answers. Answer-getting (that’s the new jargon) will be held up for contempt, and slowly eliminated. That’s the plan. This is not marginal nonsense. No, it is already mainstream nonsense. Phil Daro is one of the three principal writers of the Common Core Mathematics Standards. A 17-minute video about his ideas is promoted this way: “Phil Daro goes into detail on the problems of ‘Answer-getting,’ one...

In an intentional attempt to study and potentially confuse children, children were asked "There are 25 sheep and 5 dogs in a flock. How old is the shepherd?" Why might you ask this supposedly common-core aligned question? According to the teachers who created this problem, it is to teach students that they must: 1. Explain the meaning of a problem. 2. Plan a solution pathway rather than simply jumping into a solution attempt. 3. Continually ask themselves, "Does this make sense?" This question has actually been researched for years, and is still being asked to children. Today, however, it is...

Brazoria County is home to Alvin ISD where ABC-13 was among the local TV news outlets that reported on parents outraged by a sixth grade assignment on the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). At the time that these students were given the homework to write a one-page paper, only American journalist James Foley had been butchered by ISIS barbarians. It should also be disconcerting to parents that in the non-Common Core state of Texas, the assignment links back to the Common Core website Teaching the Core. Alvin ISD sixth-graders were asked to read the two-page document,...

There has been a lot of consternation that Common Core and new Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH) standards eviscerate the understanding of our exceptional history. Most concerning is the anti-historical emphasis on social justice, globalism, environmentalism, race, class, and gender victimhood that undermines Western ideals, the Constitution, capitalism, and American culture. Up to this point, definitive proof the new “standards” were deleterious was anecdotal. But facts now show not only intent, but a vision and mission that bring schools face to face with forces bent on instilling a false shame Americas past for the purpose of establishing a global...

Local newspapers in the US don't cover education in any depth. Maybe they’ll tell you superficial and trivial stuff (for example, that a superintendent was hired or fired, that there will be a meeting next month of the school board). But you won’t find anything about the nuts and bolts that determine whether you child learns to read, or learns anything at all. At first glance, this non-coverage can seem to be a mystery. Everybody's interested in education, especially parents and grandparents with kids in K-12. Probably one of the most valuable things that you could tell these people is...

Imagine you are a student doing math work. You've gone through a number of questions, and you feel you've really got the hang of everything. Then, all of a sudden you get this question: "Tell how to make 10 when adding 8 + 5." What do you respond? That was the problem facing a young student learning how to add using Common Core. The student responded with confusion, answering the same way most of us would: "You cannot make 10 withe [sic] 8 + 5." The student was told he was wrong. Underneath, his teacher wrote, "Yes you can. Take...

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...

Imagine a teacher asks you to solve this question: 568-293. Depending on your age you might do one of three things... ...Third, you might use the new common core was to subtract, which is much simpler, with only... 10 steps. First, you would take the 200 out of the 293, and save the 93 for later. Then you would take 568 and subtract 200 from it. Then you'd take the remaining 368 and you would subtract 60 from it, because you are taught that, for some reason, you cannot simply subtract 90 from 368. 368-60 equals 308. Then you subtract...

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...

The other night I could hear my wife and third-grade daughter talking heatedly about something. I assumed they were having an argument. But eavesdropping on the raised voices, I realized that was not it. They were both loudly, angrily complaining about my daughter's math homework. Her assignment involved one of several methods of subtraction she must learn. The way most people learn to subtract -- carrying numbers and borrowing -- is derisively called the "Granny Method" and is discouraged. The task at hand the other night involved subtracting using the "Counting-Up Subtraction Method." This method of subtracting actually uses addition....

As we’ve noted before, when proponents of the Obama Administration’s Common Core education reforms try to make the case for the program, they often end up giving material to its opponents. Case in point: the Center for American Progress (CAP), in a recently released report on The Cognitive Science Behind the Common Core, attempted to show how much easier Common Core math is than traditional means of mathematical problem-solving: “Elizabeth is at the grocery store buying fruit for the week. She wants to purchase $7.60 worth of apples with a $20.00 bill. How much change should the cashier return to...

Our Middle School principal sent guidance on the topic of town safety: students are discouraged from walking into town after school. He shares the numbers and concludes: "Anyway you “do the math”, you can calculate that a large number of unsupervised middle school aged students in town is not an emotionally or physically safe situation." (See full excerpt below) Here’s the principal’s argument. Assume 3 out of 10 of the 625 upper division students walk to town: 180-190 students in town Assume 2 out of 10 of the 625 lower division students walk to town: 150 students in town Estimate:...

There’s a big battle brewing in the Jefferson County, Colorado, school system. The manufactured controversy over a proposed curriculum review is generating national New York Times headlines. But the fight is not about what misguided students and biased reporters say it’s about. “Censorship” is a red herring. The real issue is union control. Here’s the deal: Public school teachers in this Denver-area district walked out of their classrooms this week to protest the implementation of performance-based pay. The JeffCo school board approved the new compensation system last week, which rewards the most highly effective teachers with 4.2 percent raises, effective...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s speech to hundreds of conservative activists on Friday amounted to a dare to other potential Republican candidates in 2016: Just try to get to the right of me. Just try it.Mr. Cruz called for abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, getting rid of the Common Core educational standards and repealing the Affordable Care Act. He defined himself as staunchly anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage and pro-Israel.“There are people in Washington who say Republicans to win have to abandon our values,” he said, as members of the audience shouted “No way!” and “It’s a lie!”While polls last year showed that last...

There's a big battle brewing in the Jefferson County, Colorado, school system. The manufactured controversy over a proposed curriculum review is generating national headlines. But the fight is not about what misguided students and biased reporters say it's about. "Censorship" is a red herring. The real issue is union control. Here's the deal: Public school teachers in this Denver-area district walked out of their classrooms this week to protest the implementation of performance-based pay. The JeffCo school board approved the new compensation system last week, which rewards the most highly effective teachers with 4.2 percent raises, effective teachers with 2.4...

We, the authors below, served on the Advanced Placement United States History Curriculum Development and Assessment Committee from 2008 through 2012. In that capacity, guided by continued dialogue with and input from the teachers who work each day with our nation’s most talented and dedicated students, we authored the Curriculum Framework that was published in October 2012 and that is at the heart of the College Board’s current Course and Exam Description for AP U.S. History.

SARASOTA, Fla. – The uproar over Common Core has created misinformation and serious concerns as to its efficacy. To clear up the confusion, once and for all, we must look at the birth of Common Core to see the vision guiding its mission. However noble Common Core may sound, it is but a host carrier for a radical disease that must be exposed. commoncoreappleCommon Core’s roots date to 2007 when David Coleman and Jason Zimba wrote: Math and Science Standards That Are Fewer, Clearer, Higher to Raise Achievement at All Levels. The paper outlined a proposal to solve the math...