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California embraces Common Core testing

March 13, 2015

grade schoolThe state of California is abandoning its school ranking system in favor of a scoring method that will align with Common Core standards. [OC Register]

California has been implementing the Common Core State Standards Initiative since the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year. Common Core is supposed to increase the use of technology in the classroom and align California’s math, science, history and language arts K-12 curricula with those of 44 other states.

On Wednesday, the California Board of Education voted unanimously to suspend the state’s Academic Performance Index (API), which gives schools a composite score that factors in results from several standardized tests. The vote marked the second consecutive year that the board of education suspended the release of API scores.

California is not doing away with the API entirely. Rather, the education department is determining how to incorporate scores from the new Common Core testing system into the API, state superintendent Tom Torlakson said.

Students in California have already begun taking the Common Core-aligned standardized tests. The new testing system in conducted on electronic devices.

Critics say the new system will make it more difficult for parents, teachers and real estate agents to determine how well a school is performing. In the past, the API has boiled school evaluations down to a single score.

Additionally, many people nationwide have opposed the implementation of Common Core, arguing that the federal government is dictating school policy.


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I say, Show parents how to opt out if you really can. And if we can, what rights do we have? Where do we make our voices heard in volumes? Any resources are welcome. I will take any suggestions that may make a difference for my son and grandchildren.


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inmyopinion,


Here’s a link.


http://www.pacificjustice.org/california-common-core-data-opt-out-form.html


Really!, Parents with children in school should be very very very CONCERNED about Common Core.


The government is already too intrenched in OUR PERSONAL LIVES when it comes to raising OUR OWN CHILDREN. It DOES NOT TAKE A VILLAGE!


Parents!, do some research on the net about this dastardly takeover of your children’s minds.


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Home school. They’ll be way better off for it.


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That all depends. If the home-schooling parent(s) are knowledgeable and can communicate the material well, it can be as you say. If they are ignorant, misinformed and/or poor at teaching, the kids will have a big handicap to overcome in the world as they grow up.


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My sister home-schooled her three kids in another state and they are all doing just fine as young adults now. However, she was a trained teacher before she quit to do this. And her state education dept. works with home-schoolers to fill in the gaps where they lack knowledge and skills. Her kids were able to take classes at the local high school without being regular enrolled students there.


I don’t know what the home-schooling situation is in California but it does exist and I am sure there are organized groups that cooperate with each other to make the process better. See if you can find one if you are looking into it.


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No surprise here.


Commom Core is very bad from its inception. It is nothing more than progressive indoctrination of our children. And that is a very very bad thing.


I’m happy that my children are now well adjusted adults. Had I children in school at this time, I would either pull them out and home school, or work as many jobs as possible to put them in private school.


Pure darkness is Common Core.


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While I don’t like progressives much, Common Core (CC) is not strictly a “progressive” indoctrination per se. Yes, the test questions (especially language) are very indoctrinating, but they were before CC.


Common Core is basically a selling out to the testing lobby that grabbed other interested parties (read: microsoft and other tech companies) to give them a massive increase in profits. All schools have really been for the past decade or so are income streams for the “big four” (Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB McGraw-Hill, Riverside Publishing (a Houghton Mifflin company), and NCS Pearson).


These testing companies have heavily lobbied the four key states (NY, CA, FL and TX) along with Bill Gates to push massive testing schemes onto local school districts. Like everything else, the money starts at the top (thank Barack Obama’s $500 million competitive grant program Race to the Top, enacted in 2009, chiefly inspired school districts to give more tests) and trickles down (democrats have been trained to hate trickle down, but that’s exactly how things work, even big government).


So there has been a ton of “carrots” dangling in front of States since 2008 (believe it or not, it started with TARP bailout and Bush), but has been seriously ramping up every year since. There’s so much bribes… er, lobbying money and “grants” out there that it is a done deal. School boards are so easy to control, just pay them. Like cops, county airports, cities, etc. Just dangle “free monies” or “grants” in front of them, and they do exactly as you want. Screw the people and the results.


I am so tired of warning people about Common Core, it’s not funny; but here it is, and like Obamacare and every other stupid idea, it gets implemented anyway because people are intellectually lazy. Why else have we been voting the same incumbents into office all these years? (hint: they bring home the bacon! Yeah, that’s a great phrase. Think about what it really means, then think of Common Core, Obamacare, etc.)


ConversationED.com is a good blog, by a fairly left-leaning former Teacher / Public School Admin. Honest conversations by those on the front lines of this losing battle.


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It is very encouraging to me to see comments about opting out & common core opposition. I find it difficult to connect with other opponents nearby & am happy this article was published on the topic.


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Wow, you think the young adults at Cal Poly are stupid, just wait til the Common Core kids show up there in 15 years or so!


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Two words for parents: OPT OUT.


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No matter what the government attempts to do to make everyone the same and the playing field “level” in their words, the cream will always rise to the top.


Why is it that government promotes mediocrity in all endeavors?


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So their likely employee pool will stay full?


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I would love it if government strove for mediocrity, that would be one hell of a long step UP, in my opinion.


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Another attempt for school administrators to put the blame for our crumbling school system onto someone else instead of where it belongs, on the shoulders of all those $###,### overly paid administrators


Sometimes the top of the tree needs to be chopped off for the rest of the tree to survive.


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Anyway you look at it 1 + 1 = 2

Maybe someday these educators will figure this out and quit trying to make changes to justifying their existence. They probably should spend more time with addressing the lack of preventative maintenance to their facilities.


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Here you are Mr. Holly:


http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/18981-scandal-engulfs-common-core-architect-for-rewrite-of-us-history


http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/common-core-history-deeply-biased-against-u-s/#!


Just 2 examples. There are many many more..


The progressive movement wants TOTAL control of “We The People”.


And the “media” in this, the 21st Century has been most accomodating.


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Just 2 examples of some of the worst of the internet.


On the thenewamerican.com website “Affiliates and Friends The John Birch Society”


As for wnd.com thats who is controlling your people with the worse than fox news grip of the conservative evangelical Christian “media”.


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No reply necessary kettle. Albeit, Now we who are a moral people, know what camp you belong to.


Isaiah 5:20, 21 “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;

Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;

Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”


21 “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes

And clever in their own sight!”


Fox does not control me. The Holy Spirit inside me controls me.


Woe unto you, and those who think like you.


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Of course Big Education doesn’t want easy to follow standards, they way they can graduate kids barely able to read and know American History, but blow you off as just an old timer who doesn’t understand the new system.

It’s a game folks, and a game our kids will suffer for big time!


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Will the testing be in Spanish for those that no “puede hablar Inglés”


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