Common Core tests

Past Common Core Defender Chris Christie ‘Shifts’ Position on Standards

The Associated Press aptly defined Republican 2016 contender Gov. Chris Christie’s position on Common Core as “shifting,” a description that could easily be applied to many Republican governors who signed their states on to the standards only to be met by irate parents and teachers once it was discovered what Common Core was all about.

Republican presidential candidate New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gestures during the Repub

Catholic Schools Join Protest Against Common Core

The plummeting popularity of the Common Core standards has extended to Catholic schools in the United States—about half of which were signed onto the nationalized standards by their bishops despite a push back from many Catholic educators and theologians.

JOSE PELAEZ/AFP

Common Core ‘College Readiness’ Another Deception: ‘Never Validated’

Americans were told the Common Core standards initiative would allow more students – particularly low-income and minority students – to achieve “college ready” status in order to be successful in higher education. The supposedly more “rigorous” standards were sold as the way to achieve greater preparation for advanced education for American students. Recent evidence, however, demonstrates this is not the case.

Graduate

Obama: Arne Duncan Has ‘Delivered Some Incredible Results’

Obama’s comments appear to be a reference to the Common Core standards – though he does not call the reform by name, likely because the unpopular initiative is now often described as “toxic” and “poisonous.” The president nevertheless adopts the usual pro-Common Core position that the nationalized standards are higher or more rigorous than other standards – although there is no independent research that validates that claim.

President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (R) visits with sixth grade

Feds Admit U.S. Education Department ‘Forced’ States To Accept Common Core From Its Start

In a remarkable admission, the former director of the Race to the Top (RttT) competitive grant program and chief of staff to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says the federal government “forced” full support for adoption of the Common Core standards from each state by requiring its governor, chief state school officer, and head of the state board of education to sign off on the grant application.

President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (R) visits with sixth grade

Hiding Common Core’s Damage: New SAT Won’t Allow Comparison To Prior Years’ Scores

“Next year the College Board will roll out a major change in the SAT that will make comparisons with past results impossible, and allow Common Core proponents to argue ‘these are different and better tests, so don’t pay attention to past results,'” Wurman states. “We are lucky that this year’s SAT has not changed yet, so the decline is clearly visible and cannot be hidden or denied.” The College Board president is David Coleman, the so-called “architect” of the Common Core standards.

SAT preparation books are seen on a shelf in this file photo.

Conservative Victory on AP US History Framework? Not So Fast

Last week, Danniel Henninger, deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, cited recent changes the College Board made to the Advanced Placement U.S. History (APUSH) framework as a “victory” for conservatives. Experts on the framework, however, think that is quite a stretch.

james-madison-AP

Former CNN Anchor Campbell Brown Co-Founds News Education Website

Launched on Monday, a press release about Campbell Brown’s news site highlights initial stories about a search-and-rescue pilot for the Coast Guard who became a second-grade teacher at a charter school in Newark, NJ; a column about the necessity of addressing the relationship between educational inequality and income inequality; and an investigative piece that focuses on “the forces and scare tactics behind the opt-out movement” in Montclair, New Jersey.

Campbell Brown

Walker Adviser on Strategy: ‘Much Easier To Move From Being Conservative to Moderate Later On’

“You start in Iowa and lock up conservatives, because if you don’t do that, none of the rest matters,” Walker’s adviser reportedly told journalist Tim Alberta. “It’s much easier to move from being a conservative to being a middle-of-the-road moderate later on. In Iowa, you see the beginnings of that,” he added. “He’s capturing that conservative wing first and foremost, and then moving from Iowa to the other states and bringing other voters into the fold.”

<> on July 13, 2015 in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Common Core PARCC Test Consortium in ‘Death Spiral,’ Boston Globe Admits

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is one of two federally funded interstate test consortia that have been developing tests aligned with the controversial Common Core standards. But there is no official information about who selected the individuals to write the Common Core standards. None of the writers of the math and English Language Arts standards have ever taught math, English, or reading at the K-12 level.

AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

No Child Left Behind Rewrites in House and Senate Draw Intense Criticism From Grassroots

The House’s version of the redo, known as the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), was pulled from the House floor by GOP leadership in late February after it was determined the measure lacked sufficient support. Grassroots parents’ groups – many that have been fighting against the Common Core standards in their states – voiced their concerns that the Student Success Act still required excessive federal intrusion into the right of states to set their own education policies.

AP Photo/Jessie L. Bonner

Walker Defunds Smarter Balanced Test, But Replacement Exam Also Aligned With Common Core

Walker, a likely 2016 contender, has recently affirmed what has been true of Wisconsin school districts all along – that they can choose their own standards. To his credit, he has also proposed defunding the Smarter Balanced test, a product of one of the federally funded, interstate Common Core test consortia. Grassroots parents groups, however, say Walker’s proposed new state exam – called the “Badger Exam,” is also aligned with the Common Core standards.

Common Core

Bobby Jindal on Common Core: From Supporter To Aggressive Opponent

Jindal has heard the complaints of many parents in his state and has said that as a parent himself he could see the difficulties his own son was having with Common Core math. Ultimately, he unveiled an aggressive plan to eliminate Common Core in Louisiana, one that exposed how the state board of education and department of education can attempt to work around government rules and the state legislature in order to meet its own goals.

AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley

New Lawsuit Challenges Constitutionality of Common Core

The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) announced Monday that it has joined in filing a lawsuit against the governor of North Dakota and other officials that claims the state’s participation in one of the federally funded interstate Common Core test consortia and the implementation of the Common Core standards is unconstitutional and violates federal laws that ban federal control of public schools and curriculum.

AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis