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Progressive educators have an obsession for results, especially test scores. Higher scores supposedly prove children will be more “career and college ready” after graduation. Uphold Marriage and the Family; Uphold Society: Sign the Return to Order Petition For this reason, these educators are forever coming up with all sorts of one-size-fits-all programs like Common Core that they believe will solve the problem of flagging test scores. Since new schemes are always appearing, it would seem that they are not working. Educators should look at those things that work. If scores are the ultimate indicators of success, then it would stand...

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Thus, no matter how full-throated the endorsements of Common Core by such worthies as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the parents go marching on. “Colorado Springs School District 11 struck a blow against the Common Core by voting to remove the majority of its students from the new, mandatory standardized tests,” Chris Neal wrote in School Reform News this month. “District 11, which has nearly 30, 000 students, announced it plans to randomly test the minimum number of students needed to meet the federal requirement, allowing the rest to opt...

A new survey shows that support for the federal education standards known as the Common Core is slipping. Education Next, an education journal from Stanford University's Hoover Institution, surveyed 5,000 respondents (including a number of educators) and found that just 40 percent of teachers back the Common Core compared to 76 percent just a year ago. At the same time, teacher opposition has tripled from 12 to 40 percent. The survey finds that support among the public is also slipping. In 2013, 65 percent of the general public favored the standards compared to 53 percent today. Across the states, momentum...

Awareness of new Common Core education standards remains low in Louisiana, a statewide poll shows, almost a full school year into the standards rollout and three weeks into a legislative session in which Common Core is a central issue. Half of the respondents to the 2014 Louisiana Survey said they didn't know much about Common Core, with 29 percent saying they were not familiar with the standards at all. "While controversies over the adoption and implementation of the Common Core standards have been heated, they haven't penetrated deeply into public consciousness," write researchers at LSU's Manship School of Mass Communication.

Nevada education officials are making it easier for students to pass a math proficiency test that's required for graduation but has proved tough for high schoolers. State board of education officials announced Wednesday that they would implement a pass score of 242 on the 500-point math portion of the high school proficiency exam.

Parents of high school students in Montgomery County School District in Maryland were outraged recently by a survey given to sophomores under the new Common Core education standards. The survey asked numerous intrusive questions that a school has no business asking students. Among them were questions like "what is your sexual orientation," "what's your religion," "what's your parents' political affiliation" and "should assault rifles be banned?" Angry parents notified the news website The Blaze about the survey, and shortly after a Blaze reporter began to ask about it, the survey disappeared from the Poolesville High School website. According to The...

The Arizona Business & Education Coalition brought together business and education leaders from across the nation for its annual conference today to delve into common core standards. ABEC Executive Director Susan Carlson hosted a private reception for out-of-state business leaders at The Buttes in Tempe last night, where I got a chance to catch up with them to talk about their secrets

Sadly, but not surprisingly, instead of improving education by repealing No Child Left Behind’s testing and other mandates, the Obama administration is increasing national control over schools via the “Common Core” initiative. Common Core is a new curriculum developed by a panel of so-called education experts. The administration is trying to turn Common Core into a national curriculum by offering states increased federal education funding if they impose Common Core’s curriculum on their public schools. This is yet another example of the government using money stolen from the people to bribe states into obeying federal dictates