Common Core: Americans are opting out

[Nat Algren]

Across the United States, concerned parents and students are refusing to participate in new tests aligned with the federal government's Common Core state standards, and international journalist and educator Alex Newman could not be more excited about it.

"The explosive growth of the opt-out movement has been one extremely encouraging development in a sea of bad news when it comes to government education in the United States," Newman told WND. "As more and more parents and teachers realize what is going on with Common Core, I expect this movement to continue growing by leaps and bounds."

Newman, the co-author of "Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians are Using Government Schools to Destroy America's Children," believes Common Core and its affiliated tests are not just ineffective but dangerous.

"There is no doubt that this Obama scheme to nationalize education is designed not to educate children properly, but to shape their minds with propaganda and reduce their critical thinking abilities for nefarious purposes," Newman said. "As we show in our new book ("Crimes of the Educators"), rather than improve education, Common Core is the next phase in the education establishment's destruction of American children. One state lawmaker with an education degree told me this plot was 'state-sponsored child abuse.' He is right."

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[Nat Algren]

If math scores in this country have dropped since the Dept. of Education was founded under Carter, why not look to Singapore and emulate them? They are light years above the world. Instead, a sociologist, not an educator, develops Common Core at the behest of Bill Gates.

 

[aflachawk]

Originally posted by Nat Algren:
If math scores in this country have dropped since the Dept. of Education was founded under Carter, why not look to Singapore and emulate them? They are light years above the world. Instead, a sociologist, not an educator, develops Common Core at the behest of Bill Gates.

Most if not all Governors came together to push it also. As I understand it, the idea(standardized testing) is good but it was implemented with mandates and other things that made it unpopular. George Will predicted months ago that the eventual Republican nominee would not endorse the concept and I believe he is right.. Like man things in this country (war on drugs, war on crime, war on poverty) they are not working but we just continue to shovel more money their way The hole is getting deeper and the pols standard answer is we need a bigger shovel. Maybe we just need to re examine our current solutions.

 

[naturalmwa]

Originally posted by Nat Algren:
If math scores in this country have dropped since the Dept. of Education was founded under Carter, why not look to Singapore and emulate them? They are light years above the world. Instead, a sociologist, not an educator, develops Common Core at the behest of Bill Gates.

In what way? Education in Singapore is overseen by the centralized Ministry of Education which controls the curiculim for not only state, but many aspects of private schools too. They have common core on steroids. Maybe you mean in funding where education takes up about 20% of the national budget? Imagine what we could do if we matched what we spend on our old people for our young people.

 

[Goergs]

We opted our daughter out of the test.
Our son has to keep taking them because the district uses them for AP qualification. Otherwise, the tests are a complete waste of their time in school.

 

[stout1]

Indiana was one of the first to pull out of Common Core. They then put together a pretty well respected group to craft better standards.

They basically spent a few months recreating Common Core with a different name. Educational standards aren't witchcraft.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Goergs]

Originally posted by stout1:
Indiana was one of the first to pull out of Common Core. They then put together a pretty well respected group to craft better standards.

They basically spent a few months recreating Common Core with a different name. Educational standards aren't witchcraft.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

ISTEP (and not CC) is the test we think is nonsense. (We are in a strong district in Indiana.)
ISTEP is for funding and school reputation... Not for the student.

Educational standards should be taught in the classroom and enforced through grades. All standardized testing does is turn curriculum and student success into a numbers game for the school and its teachers.

 

[jscott78]

at one time repubs loved this. Just more cheap political attacks against our finest president.

 

[LuteHawk]

There are 2 main alternatives to public schools:

1. Homeschooling which is continuing to grow
across our nation.

2. Private religious schools operated by the
Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Baptists,
plus some non-denominational ones.

We are seeing an exodus from many school
districts in states where the federal govt. has
intruded with Common Core.

 

[stout1]

Originally posted by Goergs:

Originally posted by stout1:
Indiana was one of the first to pull out of Common Core. They then put together a pretty well respected group to craft better standards.

They basically spent a few months recreating Common Core with a different name. Educational standards aren't witchcraft.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

ISTEP (and not CC) is the test we think is nonsense.  (We are in a strong district in Indiana.)
ISTEP is for funding and school reputation... Not for the student.

Educational standards should be taught in the classroom and enforced through grades.  All standardized testing does is turn curriculum and student success into a numbers game for the school and its teachers.

And...

I don't disagree with you nor was I even addressing you.

As someone who works around education in Indiana I am no fan of ISTEP. However my children take it as opting out does little for me and my child but could potentially harm their teacher and our school district.

I choose to advocate against testing through the political avenues available through my job and professional group.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[lawsonhawk]

Originally posted by jscott78:
at one time repubs loved this. Just more cheap political attacks against our finest president.

I may be late to the ball game, but I'm beginning to think you don't even like him.

 

[stout1]

Originally posted by LuteHawk:
There are 2 main alternatives to public schools:

1. Homeschooling which is continuing to grow
across our nation.

2. Private religious schools operated by the
Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Baptists,
plus some non-denominational ones.

We are seeing an exodus from many school
districts in states where the federal govt. has
intruded with Common Core.

1 home schooling is not a viable alternative for 80% of the parents who try it.

2 in most states to be accredited private schools must align with the same standards as public schools and use the same testing regimen.

Common Core was spearheaded at the state level primarily by republican education reform rock stars like Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels and Tony Bennett.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Goergs]

Originally posted by stout1:
And...

I don't disagree with you nor was I even addressing you.

As someone who works around education in Indiana I am no fan of ISTEP. However my children take it as opting out does little for me and my child but could potentially harm their teacher and our school district.

I choose to advocate against testing through the political avenues available through my job and professional group.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

Good luck! I think you have a large backing in your efforts.

Call me a cynic, though I think the only way it will go away is if enough parents pull their kids out of the test.

 

[stout1]

The way it really changes is to remove from office the politicians that want to politicize education and pay teachers using testing.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[hawkitd]

Originally posted by naturalmwa:

Originally posted by Nat Algren:
If math scores in this country have dropped since the Dept. of Education was founded under Carter, why not look to Singapore and emulate them? They are light years above the world. Instead, a sociologist, not an educator, develops Common Core at the behest of Bill Gates.

In what way? Education in Singapore is overseen by the centralized Ministry of Education which controls the curiculim for not only state, but many aspects of private schools too. They have common core on steroids. Maybe you mean in funding where education takes up about 20% of the national budget? Imagine what we could do if we matched what we spend on our old people for our young people.

Money is not the problem. Numerous studies over the years (you can find them if you look honestly) have shown this. As a former high school teacher, I laugh at this suggestion. Money was not the issue. The issue was almost always the home environment and no amount of money going to the schools will change that.

Randi Weingarten cannot be trusted.

 

[Hawk Fan-Bud Man]

zero students opted out in our district.

 

[RNHawk]

has anyone googled a common core math question. It is absolutely bat sh&* crazy. Who would have thought that adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division would be so difficult.

 

[slieb85]

Originally posted by RNHawk:
has anyone googled a common core math question. It is absolutely bat sh&* crazy. Who would have thought that adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division would be so difficult.

The debate has been had about 100 times on here. Pretty much every time you lodge the same complaint, and every time you have your ass handed to you.

We've slipped enormously in our math studies, but by all means, keep teaching it in exactly the same way we have been.

 

[naturalmwa]

Originally posted by hawkitd:

Money is not the problem. Numerous studies over the years (you can find them if you look honestly) have shown this. As a former high school teacher, I laugh at this suggestion. Money was not the issue. The issue was almost always the home environment and no amount of money going to the schools will change that.

Randi Weingarten cannot be trusted.

Just to play Devils advocate, if we were spending 20% of the budget on education we could open public boarding schools to deal with bad home environments. My real point however was to draw out from NA what part of the Singapore system he liked since he offered them as a contrast to CC when they already do CC like things.

 

[slieb85]

Originally posted by hawkitd:

Originally posted by naturalmwa:

Originally posted by Nat Algren:
If math scores in this country have dropped since the Dept. of Education was founded under Carter, why not look to Singapore and emulate them? They are light years above the world. Instead, a sociologist, not an educator, develops Common Core at the behest of Bill Gates.

In what way? Education in Singapore is overseen by the centralized Ministry of Education which controls the curiculim for not only state, but many aspects of private schools too. They have common core on steroids. Maybe you mean in funding where education takes up about 20% of the national budget? Imagine what we could do if we matched what we spend on our old people for our young people.

Money is not the problem. Numerous studies over the years (you can find them if you look honestly) have shown this. As a former high school teacher, I laugh at this suggestion. Money was not the issue. The issue was almost always the home environment and no amount of money going to the schools will change that.

Randi Weingarten cannot be trusted.

So if schools had the ability to provide 3 real meals to those with poor home environments, after-school programs that kept the kids engaged until 6 or 7pm, and summer schools that help address the real problem (lower economic children falling behind during the summer), we would not see improvements in the education of our youth?

You can say that the amount of monetary increase that has historically been discussed would not improve education, but you can't say that "no amount of money" is going to make a difference. At some point, we'd have it funded well enough to completely alter our future. It's just a question if we're willing to truly invest. You're absolutely correct that just "throwing money" isn't the key. It's about "throwing obscene amounts of money" which is something most Americans are unwilling to support.

 

[dgordo]

I have no idea why people think common core standards are federal standards.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[stout1]

Originally posted by dgordo:
I have no idea why people think common core standards are federal standards.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

Because they are gullible and unwilling to educate themselves?
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[jscott78]

Americans have always been susceptible to the dumbest mass social movements. These common core idiots are just the heirs to the war of the worlds idiots.

 

[stout1]

Originally posted by RNHawk:
has anyone googled a common core math question.  It is absolutely bat sh&* crazy.  Who would have thought that adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division would be so difficult.

Here's a guy that doesn't understand the difference between education standards and curriculum.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[joelbc1]

Originally posted by LuteHawk:
There are 2 main alternatives to public schools:

1. Homeschooling which is continuing to grow
across our nation.

2. Private religious schools operated by the
Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Baptists,
plus some non-denominational ones.

We are seeing an exodus from many school
districts in states where the federal govt. has
intruded with Common Core.

well spoken Lute...Heaven forbid that we as a society have expectations for and measuring devises to ensure our kids are learning what they NEED to learn in school.
I believe homeschoolers and moms can teach everything that our kids need to know.

 

[KirbyHawk75]

I am really afraid of a Republican president again getting his hand in education reform. Bush's No Child Left Behind regressed American education.