Common Core tests

An author of a study that examined the effects of the Common Core State Standards on school choice says the Obama-era K-12 school reform is the “worst large-scale educational failure in 40 years.”

In an undercover investigation video about the education reform known as Common Core, a senior Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt sales executive laughs that she “hates kids,” and that textbook manufacturers are concerned about their profits, not the educational needs of children.

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.

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.

New York State school psychologists say the Common Core standards are associated with increased student anxiety, according to a new report released Friday.

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump says that, if elected, he would close the loopholes in the federal privacy law to ensure that students’ personal information remained private.

Hundreds of the Common Core test questions that have already been given to students have finally been released by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.

Tennessee state Rep. Andy Holt’s (R) attempt to take a state-mandated test along with eighth grade students is over for now, being blocked by both the state department of education and the Obion County school district’s administration.

The results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments–known as the Nation’s Report Card–show that only a third of the nation’s eighth graders are at or above the proficiency level in math and only 34 percent are at or above the same level in reading.

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.

Politico has issued a notice to GOP 2016 contenders: “Common Core has won the war.”

Bill Gates renewed his foundation’s commitment to the Common Core standards initiative, saying that while there is still much more to do, he believes “we are on the right track.

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.

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.

“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.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Thursday that the Common Core “is not working” and announced a plan to form his own “education commission” to review the standards initiative and report back to him on how to “fix” it.

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.

Six Republican presidential contenders met Wednesday in early-voting state New Hampshire to discuss education issues, including the hotly debated Common Core standards initiative.

School is in session for the Republican 2016 primary candidates, and their report card grades on how they live up to the principles of the Constitution when it comes to their views on education policy and the Common Core initiative

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded nonprofit Achieve Inc. — one of the developers of the Common Core standards— has announced that New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) has joined its board of directors. “By joining the board, Governor Hassan will

In a recent interview at an Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition event, GOP presidential contender and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said he “effectively repealed” the Common Core standards in his state.

Common Core publishing giant Pearson PLC will sell its Financial Times newspaper to focus more sharply on its education businesses.

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.

“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.”

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.

At issue is the fact that while Walker proposed defunding the Common Core-aligned Smarter Balanced exam in his budget, the new “Badger Exam” that replaces it will also be aligned with the controversial standards, making it unlikely that many local school districts would opt for non-Common Core standards.

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.

Following a year of technology problems and complaints from angry parents, Ohio has become the latest state to dump the federally-funded PARCC Common Core test consortium.

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.

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.

The vice president of content and scoring management at Pearson North America agreed to a comparison of the training for scorers of the Common Core tests to how a restaurant chain monitors its employees’ work.

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.

It’s been a rough first week on the trail for Jeb Bush. First, protesters — from the left and the right — greeted Bush in New Hampshire. Then, opponents of the Common Core standards protested their state’s former governor in Tampa Friday at the Hillsborough County Republican Lincoln Day dinner.

“[I]f graders around the country complain publicly that the new tests are not being handled fairly or competently,” Education Columnist Jay Mathews warns, “the debate will become more serious, and one of America’s most ambitious school reforms will be in jeopardy.”

Republican leaders seem poised to resume attempts to convince the conservative base of their party that the bill will reduce federal involvement in education and return it to the states and localities.

The authors observe that regardless of the decision in Jindal’s case, state and local school boards are facing significant challenges in “the collapsing morale and educational achievement of their students,” and need to consider their own legal path to rid themselves of the Common Core boondoggle.