Kilroy already has a blistering retort to today’s op ed piece by John Sell extolling the virtues of Common Core.  Those of us familiar with Common Core know there are no virtues to Common Core. In fact Common Core makes students stupider, instead of smarter.  This has readily been documented across the internet; so much so it caused Tony Bennett to lose his seat last fall as head of Indiana’s schools, even though he outspent his opponent 11 to 1. He still lost because parents of children in Common Core, hate Common Core.

But, because Common Core gives so much tax payer money away to private corporations to make multiple tests,  just like those who were paid by Big Oil to deny the existence of climate change, Common Core also has its supporters.

John Sell, is apparently one; in return for being  chosen Teacher of the Year 2013.

Here is how they sell Common Core:   “Oh. all the teachers love it.”

Ummm. Not true.

Oh yes. We have surveys that prove it.  

You do?  How can you have a survey that proves the opposite of what teachers, administrators, and parents say otherwise?

Oh, we have our ways.  (Quoting directly from the News Journal op ed piece) “in an October 2012 survey by EPE Research Center, 76 percent of the teachers agreed Common Core State Standards will help them improve their own instruction and classroom practice. And 87 percent reported they already either fully or partially integrated the new standards into their classroom instruction.”

We’ve already dissected this survey before.  What should jump out at you is that if this is really so good, why are 11 % saying they use Common Core, and it doesn’t help teach?

But since that survey defies normal life experience, one should perhaps look to see how the survey was conducted….

“… The Editorial Projects in the Education Research Center with support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, conducted a survey of registered users of edweek.org’s Education Week’s flagship website.  Nearly 600 teachers and instructional specialists responded to the survey which was fielded October 2012. “

So, you are telling me you are basing this on a think tank survey, where only those “registered” in the think tank’s data base participated, and it wasn’t teachers only who responded, but corporate test makers (“instructional specialists”) chipped in too? And even out of that filtered group heavily weighed in your favor, only 67% said they thought Common Core was advantageous to teaching?  That’s your sole source?

Yep. That’s it. That’s what it is all based on.

So lets see who funds this think tank.  Usually think tanks go along the lines of those paying their bills.  Let us see, oh, here it is..   Let’s see…. there is The  Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, to name the more notorious.

So let’s get this straight,…. When you say over 67% of Teachers  support Common Core, you are really saying that of the 600 people who actually registered at a website of a non-profit funded heavily by 3 big Common Core supporters, were supportive of Common Core?

What about the other 455,000 teachers who from what we’ve heard, feel the exact opposite?  Why didn’t you ask them?

Anyone can fabricate a survey. But truth is:  if Common Core is so great, why are states dropping out?