Common Core is putting “teaching to the test” on steroids
As the details of Common Core become known, more parents and teachers are opposing it. Bob Kellogg from One New Now reports, ”
More and more parents are concerned about Common Core standards. Many want to opt their youngsters out of the standardized testing. Jane Robbins, a senior fellow with the American Principles Project, believes school officials are being caught off guard.
“I think it’s caught them by surprise and they’re not quite sure what to do with it,” she observes, “but it’s a real indication of the depth of concern about this whole scheme.”
She says the best strategy for parents concerned about centralized, federal education standards “is to make legislators in the states and governors and other officials more afraid of the people than they are of the power brokers – the ones who have a lot of money invested in this and the ones who have decided that [they] are the experts and [are] going to do this.” Read more.
Even teachers unions are beginning to realize the potential downside of Common Core standardized testing on their members.
Kellogg reports, “Earlier this year, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten called for a delay in the implementation of the national standards, fearing teachers will be penalized if students fare poorly under the new guidelines. If those standards are wrongly implemented, she said, “they will end up in the overflowing dustbin of abandoned reforms, with people throwing up their hands,” believing that public schools are too broken to save.
Brittany Corona, a research assistant with The Heritage Foundation, says Weingarten is absolutely correct.
“We’re going to see a lot of issues – not only for the teachers though,” Corona tells OneNewsNow. “We’re going to see it for the parents, we’re going to see it for the school districts. And not just the Common Core; it’s the whole principle of national standards. That’s the problem with implementation.”
She says even though the left-leaning Weingarten is calling for a moratorium on implementation, that doesn’t mean she’s opposed to national standards.
VIDEO: Floridians Against Common Core posted the below video series on kindergarten mathematics. The group states, “Pavlovian obedience training method on kindergarteners. Notice their lackluster expressions.”