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If you didn’t first see the legal expert’s video go here and then come back….
It is not a warning, but just a reality check as to what “could” happen you you as a parent if you allow your child to take the Smarter Balanced Assessment…
Moving forward now, here is what that new legislation should address.
Whereas behavioral, class attendance, class performance and traditional forms of data like grades have been collected, now there is greater interest in collecting metadata which is information about how a child is interacting with the program, interacting with the software, data which is highly marketable and a lot of companies are scrambling to obtain that data. They are looking at it to assess school products, to assess teachers’ teaching methods, and to assess a child’s future in order to open and close doors long before a child reaches the hallway those doors are on.
The question hereto unasked, unsolved and unanswered, is how are we going to structure that access to data… so it is fair to children, to parents, to teachers, to schools….
The worst-case-scenario is abuse of these to harm children.. instances where they are improperly tracked and improperly labeled and improperly sent down wrong pathways they shouldn’t be sent.
All because of bad data practices….
Before going forward, we need to have “good” data practices implemented and have teeth in the law so even bad people will want to do good…
Necessary to this is a blanket protection on ALL data acquired on a child… All data is unavailable to anyone outside those directly involved. The scope of protection…. has to be very broad….
Next step is to establish very clear use restrictions…. as in what can this data be used for?… Make it open and shut… “Can this data be used by Skippy Peanut Butter?” “Let us check the clear use restrictions.” “No, it does not allow transference of data to Skippy Peanut Butter”…. Open and shut.
Then we need to add a flexible option, so educated parents can choose to “opt in” on having other sources of information disseminated about their child… It becomes the parent’s choice whether their child’s data can be used and to whom those additional users may be.
And finally to all of these there should be added some type of repercussions, which are strong enough to make violating any of these tenants, financially risky.
Currently there is none. Nada. The only restriction is in FERPA The Federal government can withhold money from a school district if there is a violation of FERPA. In the 41 years of FERPA, that has never happened. If a school district violates your child’s privacy, if the State violates your child’s privacy, if a vendor violates your child’s privacy, as a parent, you have no private right of action.
In this environment, your child’s data once acquired, is available to all. John Carney can even acquire a list of marginal students and call their parents to get their votes. Everything is wide open.
As a society we often venture into new territory first, learning as we go. The first cars didn’t have brakes because you just previously told the horse to slow down; the thought did not cross their inventor’s minds until racing down the road. When we went into Iraq, we didn’t have a plan on how to govern once we took over. Dick Cheney didn’t think of it. We’d just take it and suck out their oil.
Today, we don’t let just anyone drive. They have to demonstrate they know how. Likewise today we don’t let anyone set up and operation room and extract live organs. They have to prove they are capable in knowledge and ability.
Therefore we really shouldn’t allow the Smarter Balanced to go forward until we fix these problems it leaves in its wake. Should we?
Here is the approach which should be taken. WE need a figurehead bill put up that WHEREAS’s all the facts listed above, to preface a bill advocating the immediate eradication of the Smarter Balanced for security reasons, as our one test in Delaware. This won’t pass nor is it intended to.. It’s purpose is to create a lightning rod for all educational wonks on both sides to focus their attention upon. Despite a probable prognosis for failure, the full-press floor fight for its passage should be passionate, since that is what drives public scrutiny and shapes public opinion.
Then invisibly, under the radar, 4 new bills need to be quietly slipped through, addressing the plugging of each of the 4 holes illuminated above… Bill 1) We need state blanket protection of all data. Bill 2) We need to determine exactly who, what, where that data will be allowed to go. Bill 3) We need to allow parents the right to “opt in” into allowing further data to be disseminated. And finally Bill 4) we need some type of gigantic bankruptcy-causing-punitive-damage and jail for anyone violating a child’s privacy without the express permission of his parents.
By then (if our crystal ball is correct) the Smarter Balanced will most likely have been replaced with another test (unless it scores a magnificent save this year) and the above protections will be in place long before any new test (if any at all), materializes…
Under No-Child-Left-Behind, large numbers of mandates were decided in Washington DC by the Department of Education…
State Boards had to wait to find out that which they would have to deal, then decide how to work with it…
Under the new ESSA that is changed. State Boards are the ones now given the ultimate power to decide education in that state… In a theoretical contest between Washington DC and the state, the state is now given top-right…
Many state school boards are not prepared for this… whether their state elects or has their governor appoint them, they are laypeople who are far removed from the daily grind which education extracts. Often having never set foot in a classroom since their high school graduation, they are now thrust into making policy that affects ever child under their control.
As an example of who can be on these boards, residents in the East Texas region will soon decide whether to elect to the state board Mary Lou Bruner, a retired kindergarten teacher who has said in widely publicized Facebook posts that she believes that a young President Barack Obama worked as a gay prostitute, that the country should ban Muslims, and that the Democratic Party killed President John F. Kennedy.
Often these board members approach education only from a philosophy and are intent only on forwarding that philosophy onward, often putting them at odds with those who have a more practical focus on how to educate children.
In the past, board members were inconspicuous stewards convening in sparsely attended, daylong meetings where they debated education policy.
The ESSA law now adds plenty more to their plate. In the coming months, boards will be tasked with revising teacher evaluations, school report cards, and ways to intervene in their lowest-performing schools…..
Which means the window of opportunity to make changes to our state’s education system exists from now till June 1st.
Delaware citizens have a tool in a General Assembly at their disposal and policy elected and signed, does set the parameters of our state boards.
So whereas some may think OPT OUT is a dead issue, suddenly it becomes live again. Whereas some may think we are solidly committed to the smarter balanced future, suddenly getting rid of it becomes a real possibility again.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says more than 500 bills regarding state standards and assessments have been proposed across the country so far this year. Resentful that a massive wave of common-standards adoptions four years ago bypassed their chambers and subjected them to intense political heat, state lawmakers are taking steps to claim some of the authority that state boards of education have traditionally held over academic standards.
So now is an important time.. It is the equivalent of maneuvers done during the advent of the No-Child-Left-Behind which set policy for 15 years hence.
As a state we need to steer to these future goals which are open yet structured enough to insure that every child gets a first class education worthy of the First State…..
- Let teachers teach. They know your children best.
- Work toward an 11:1 student/teacher ratio in all classes k-5 and 9th grade where the school lunch level is over 50%.
- Divorce teacher accountability and school accountability from tests. Use tests only to benefit the child.
- Replace the Smarter Balanced test with one that is beneficial in giving us information on how well our child is doing….
- Begin phasing out charter schools by making their authorizer the district board in which their school resides…
Parents who step up can now make great changes in education for years to come.
Big items in the ESSA:
States will no longer have to do teacher evaluation through student outcomes, as they did under NCLB waivers. The NCLB law’s “highly qualified teacher” requirement is officially a thing of the past….
States are required to adopt “challenging” academic standards. That could be the Common Core State Standards, but doesn’t have to be. The U.S. Secretary of Education is expressly prohibited from forcing or even encouraging states to pick a particular set of standards (including the common core)…
States can create their own testing opt-out laws, and states decide what should happen in schools that miss targets….
Up to seven states can apply to try out local tests for a limited time, with the permission of the U.S. Department of Education….
Districts will work with teachers and school staff to come up with an evidence-based turnaround plan.States will monitor the turnaround effort.If schools continue to founder, after no more than four years the state will be required to step in with its own plan. A state could take over the school if it wanted, or fire the principal, or turn the school into a charter.
Only 1 percent of students overall can be given alternative tests. (That’s about 10 percent of students in special education.)
Districts that get more than $30,000 have to spend at least 20 percent of their funding on at least one activity that helps students become well-rounded, and another 20 percent on at least one activity that helps students be safe and healthy.
The current Title I funding formula remains intact, but there are some changes to the Title II formula (which funds teacher quality) that will be a boon to rural states.
A pilot program will let 50 districts try out a weighted student-funding formula, combining state, local, and federal funds to better serve low-income students and those with special needs.
States have to figure in participation rates on state tests. (Schools with less than 95 percent participation are supposed to have that included, somehow.) But participation rate is a stand-alone factor, not a separate indicator on its own.
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Recommended new State Actions to deal with the new law.
A. General Assembly: create bill prohibiting linking teacher accountability with test scores in the state of Delaware.
B. General Assembly: remove Delaware from the Smarter Balanced Assessment and come up with State test designed by real educators.
C. General Assembly: pass bill that says all those applying for OPT OUT before March 1st, will not be counted in the participation rate of test takers. They will be a separate class removed from the formula in figuring participation rates. Participation rates will be figured based on those students who did not opt out before the deadline.
D.
Fortunately it was an early Easter this year… Spring Break is done and now we roll straight through Memorial Day into June and summer….
Wait you say: “Isn’t that 8 weeks to Memorial day and two more in June?”
“Didn’t you just make an error?”
My reply is this… Look at the title, I said 4 more weeks to teach… not 4 more weeks of school… After May begins, testing becomes the sole focus of every teacher, every school in the state. What your children will know,… stops growing as of April 29th… Testing runs all May… and it is intense. There is no teaching between May the Fourth (be with you) and Memorial Day….
So out of roughly a 180 day school year, we are culling off the final 6 weeks to undergo testing. WE defacto have a 150 day school year… This calls “bull” on all those against Hocker’s Bill to limit the school year to Labor Day and Memorial Day.
I think he should add an amendment to his bill that gets rid of all Smarter Balanced testing, then we have good possibility of support and passage. Because when truth is told, a child has a better chance of learning while NOT in school over a longer summer break, than they do sitting in a room either taking the test, or waiting for his classmates to finish.
This is pure tragedy… With the Smarter Balanced, WE are teaching our children 30 days less this and last year, than before when we had the DCAS which had a much more positive impact than the current one now taken.
Everyone in General Assembly still supporting the taking of the Smarter Balanced Assessment, needs to be forcefully thrown into some cold tar and rolled around in chicken feathers; then made to drink tea…… it is the only patriotic thing left for Americans to do….
Image courtesy of the Smithsonian.
The entire nation was set on the course of Common Core … Delaware raced to be first… Filling out applications to “Race To The Top” it was accepted first and there Common Core had an extra year of implementation. Therefore seeing how Delaware is functioning is good for showing how the rest of the nation shall fare when it too reaches that level Delaware now is …
Fact is, in very many areas, solely because of Common Core, Delaware is less better than it was before “Race To The Top” became a priority. We as the first state, are now fighting for survival in a race to the bottom because of our state’s enthusiasm to embrace an untried, untested, and unproven strategy to implement better learning processes….
This can be seen no better than our failure to improve ELL in Hispanics here in Delaware…
Again charts show this better than do words…..
One can see from the above grade 4 score-chart, gains have been made nationally on the NAEP since 2005 to 2015, a rather impressive achievement, and something which would be celebrated if it were not completely overshadowed by the current focus on achievement gaps.
Same with the national Grade 8 scores on the NAEP. All segments trend upward over ten years, an amazing feat worthy of celebration. Meaning we are doing a much better job in taking children who have never heard English and do not have it reinforced at home, and giving them the ability to survive in our English speaking country.
But instead of celebrating this good thing, we beat up ourselves over a self-imposed restriction called “the achievement gap”…
So we are complaining and trying to develop a process which makes children who don’t know English and don’t have it reinforced at home, catch up and surpass those who grew up learning English and always have it reinforced everywhere they go…
It is pretty silly really, isn’t it? Shouldn’t we concentrate on the big picture and improve the reading rates for all Hispanics and ignore the fact that the achievement gap will always be there and possibly grow larger due to natural selection? The only way to REALLY improve the Hispanic achievement gap is to pull them out of their families and put them in English speaking ones of higher incomes… Something that will never happen.
It should also be acknowledged here, that before we were worried about testing, Hispanic scores rose much higher than after we began to worry about them. This should be no surprised to anyone who’s followed what goes on in education lately because of the testing requirements placed on teachers and students.
Because WE are focusing only on closing achievement gaps, we are teaching only the test to our Hispanic students. All they learn is how to take the tests. This readily explains the slumps from 2013 to 2015 in the charts above. This slump comes about because of pressure top-downward. Teachers are told they have to get scores up on their Hispanic children. And the only way to do that is to teach them how to fill in the bubbles of the test, how to accurately guess the right answers, and when and when not just skip a question. Strategy outranks knowledge of language….
And make no mistake! All children are suffering from this strategy that Common Core forces on every single school required to be evaluated by these tests. It is just that with students who learn one language at school and another at home, the differences are wider and more pronounced. One can immediately see the impact without other issues clouding the picture.
And so if you are astute, (I’m very lucky, most of MY readers are) you are probably putting two and two together and saying to yourself that 1) if the national average score has risen for all Hispanics over the past ten years, that 2) if Common Core and its tests negatively impact the learning process for all students, that if 3) Delaware has a year more of Common Core under its belt than other states, then probably Delaware is near the NAEP’s bottom rank of all states when one compares the gains or losses Hispanics have faced during the Markell administration’s second term. If you are astute, that is what you should be thinking right now…..
Delaware, 2nd to last of all 50 states in gains made by Hispanic 8th graders ….. Thanks, Jack Markell and Mark Murphy.
WE went the wrong direction in Race To The Top and corporate reform… Today it is very obvious that the test has got to go. We already have great overall accountability in the NAEP… These calls from lobby shills saying we need to keep the Smarter Balanced to make schools accountable, are exactly who and what is ruining education for all of 130,000 + of Delaware’s children in public schools.
Nothing wrong with accountability.. it worked very well until we started focusing on the Smarter Balanced Assessments. Again, don’t take my word. Just look at the charts.
Kevin reports that Sokola and Jacques put up a bill that postpones the Education Funding Improvement till effectively legislature is over. (Senate CCR 56)
Why?
Here is what the old bill said…
This was one of the major sticking points last year if you will remember, because several people would not originally vote for the original bill’s date of June 30th 2016 because that was “bad” government… So it was changed to get passage votes… and now it has been changed back.
This original bill was forced on an runaway Educational lobby that really did not want it. It’s purpose was to propose legislation to change how schools were to be funded. it was also a foil being used to blunt the passage of Opt Out and opponents to the charter takeover of city schools.
The charter proponents are very scared that exposing the reality of how the funding of charters does immense detriment to the rest of public education, might wake up some legislators and the Delawarean public. They want this hidden.
Hence, the two legislators who are completely owned by corporate educational big money, Earl Jacques and Dave Sokola, wind up being the only sponsors of these two bills:
The first bill requiring the report by the end of March, and the second pushing it to June 30th.
Legislature ends on 6/30/2016. This report is due on 6/30/2016. There will be no time to debate or even look at what was proposed.
That is the bill’s intent.
Whenever anything comes up due on the last day of legislature, we can be assured that someone is trying to sneak something in, the majority of Delawareans don’t want…
What the original bill was intended to accomplish was a way to shift more funding to poorer state school districts. it sounds good in principle.
But if one takes the actual record of deals stuck in the middle of the night by this administration, deals such as Fisker, Bloom Energy, TDC, Kinder Morgan, and Race To The Top, with 5 straight losses it does not look good for the sixth.
Anything other than a late night end-run-sneak, was no reason to pass this bill…
It is past time to hold accountable, those who are accountable for Delaware’s Educational fiasco.
Our legislators at least for now, seem to be failing miserably at doing so.
Why do we not have a bill put forward right now that excises the Smarter Balanced Assessment out from our state education policy?
The following states do have bills working in their state legislatures which would return parts of their educational curriculums back to before Common Core…
Courtesy of Huffington Post: 50 State Look at Common Core ___
ALABAMA
The state school board folded Common Core into the state’s College and Career Ready Standards for public schools and has been defending the decision ever since.
Legislators introduced bills in 2013 and 2014 to repeal the standards. The repeal movement drew support from tea party groups, but Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, a Republican, blocked the bills with the support of one of the state’s most powerful business groups, the Business Council of Alabama.
By Phillip Rawls.
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ALASKA
The state did not adopt Common Core, although several Alaska school districts did. Deputy Education Commissioner Les Morse said those districts will be held accountable for ensuring that student learning is in line with the state standards in English, language arts and reading that were adopted in 2012. The state standards have some similarities with Common Core.
By Becky Bohrer.
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ARIZONA
Republican Gov. Jan Brewer has tried to defuse criticism about the Common Core standards by issuing an executive order renaming them as “Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards,” and reaffirming that Arizona is acting independently from the federal government.
A legislative effort to kill the standards failed this spring.
By Bob Christie.
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ARKANSAS
The Arkansas Board of Education adopted the Common Core standards in 2010, with an effective date of this fall. The Legislature endorsed the board’s decision during its 2011 regular session.
A few teachers, parents and national groups asked legislators last year to repeal the standards, and a state lawmaker this year attempted to bring up a bill to delay their imposition for three years. Neither effort gained traction.
By Kelly P. Kissel.
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CALIFORNIA
Most California schools are expected to begin basing instruction on the Common Core standards during the coming school year. Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democrat-controlled Legislature have allocated more than $1.2 billion, about $200 per student, for school districts to spend on teacher training, materials and technology over two years.
California is part of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium that is developing online tests in math and language based on the Common Core. The state has resisted the department’s call for teacher evaluations to be based in part on standardized test results.
By Lisa Leff.
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COLORADO
As in many states, the Common Core standards have prompted opposition in Colorado from some conservatives.
The Democratic-controlled Legislature rejected a proposal that would have ordered a yearlong delay for new statewide tests while the standards were reviewed. Colorado is part of a multistate testing consortium, Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, and students are set to take the PARCC test this school year.
By Kristen Wyatt.
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CONNECTICUT
In June, Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy committed spending an additional $15 million to continue launching Common Core in the state’s public schools. That includes $10 million in borrowing for new school technology, one of the recommendations of a task force created by Malloy in March after teachers and education professionals raised concerns about whether schools were prepared for incorporating the new standards.
While some of Connecticut’s public school districts have begun using the new Common Core standards, others have lagged behind. The issue has become a political one for Malloy, who faces re-election. Both his Republican challenger and a potential petitioning candidate have criticized the rollout of Common Core.
By Susan Haigh.
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DELAWARE
The state is moving forward as Democratic Gov. Jack Markell, a former co-chairman of the Common Core standards initiative, works to dispel notions that they are a federal initiative aimed at the states.
In the spring, students in grades three to eight, and 11th grade will take the new Smarter Balanced assessments in English and mathematics that are tied to Common Core. State education officials have agreed to a one-year delay, subject to federal approval, in using the test results in teacher evaluations. The delay takes into account concerns of the Delaware State Education Association, the teachers’ union.
By Randall Chase.
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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
District of Columbia public schools began implementing the standards voluntarily in 2010. School leaders are making one major concession: Teachers won’t be evaluated based on their students’ performance on new, Common Core-aligned standardized tests this school year.
That decision made news because the district has moved aggressively to align teacher evaluations with student test scores. The Education Department was initially critical of the policy change, saying it represented a slowdown of the District’s school-reform efforts. Hundreds of District teachers have been fired after receiving poor evaluations, while the top performers have received bonuses.
By Ben Nuckols.
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FLORIDA
Florida officials tweaked the standards among a growing backlash. Beginning the fall, the “Florida standards” will be used in state classrooms.
While some have asked GOP Gov. Rick Scott and legislators to jettison the standards, high-ranking Republicans have tried to tamp down the controversy in other ways.
For example, legislators passed a measure that repealed more than 30 mentions of Common Core that were placed into state law just a year ago. Scott initially backed Common Core standards. But after complaints from grassroots conservative groups and activists, he called for public hearings and set the groundwork for the state to pull out of a consortium developing a national test to see if school children are meeting the new standards.
By Gary Fineout
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GEORGIA
Some Republican lawmakers have pushed bills for two years opting out of Common Core, which are supported by Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, backed by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and former Gov. Sonny Perdue who co-chaired the governors group that created the standards.
Republicans who control the Legislature compromised by forming a study committee to review the standards’ origins. Georgia dropped out of a national consortium developing tests in line with Common Core in July 2013, saying it was too expensive. The state signed a contract this summer with CTB/McGraw-Hill to develop its own exam that students are scheduled to take during the coming school year.
By Kathleen Foody.
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HAWAII
Hawaii’s Department of Education is asking the public to review test questions aligned to Hawaii Common Core standards and help recommend achievement levels for grade-level proficiency.
Beginning next spring, students will take new Common Core-aligned assessments that will replace the Hawaii State Assessment.
By Jennifer Kelleher.
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IDAHO
There’s been growing opposition to Common Core in Idaho, with calls for reconsideration, even repeal, in the three years since the standards were adopted. But schools are slowly moving forward to put them in place, including the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium exams.
So far, efforts to repeal the standards have failed. As the November election approaches, both the Republican and Democratic candidates for state superintendent have said they will work to improve implementing the standards but have not said they must be repealed.
By Kimberlee Kruesi.
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ILLINOIS
Illinois started to adopt the Common Core standards in 2010, and fully implemented them last school year. Next spring, the PARCC tests linked to Common Core standards will be used in school districts across the state.
The tests will be given to students in grades three to eight, but only partially rolled out in high school because the state board of education had its budget request for assessments cut by $10 million. The ACT exam has been a state mandated assessment for high school juniors in recent years and doubles as a college entrance exam.
By Kerry Lester
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INDIANA
Indiana formally ended its participation in Common Core this past spring, when Republican Gov. Mike Pence signed a measure pushed by conservative Republicans. But a key change in the legislation, mandating that any Indiana standards qualify for federal funding, spurred the bill’s original author, state Sen. Scott Schneider, a Republican, to withdraw his support.
The state Board of Education approved new education standards in April, a rare moment of agreement between Pence and Democratic Schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz. But the new standards drew criticism from conservatives and tea partyers who said they were too similar to the Common Core requirements.
By Tom Lobianco.
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IOWA
Many of the Common Core components have been blended into Iowa’s statewide standards, known as the Iowa Core.
Conservatives in Iowa have attacked the Common Core, but efforts to change the state program have not been successful. But GOP Gov. Terry Branstad last year signed an executive order clarifying that the state would continue to maintain control over education standards and testing, not the federal government.
By Catherine Lucey.
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KANSAS
The state Board of Education adopted the Common Core reading and math standards in 2010, but in recent years they have been attacked by conservative Republicans, who say they’re too expensive. Earlier this year, the state Senate attached a provision to an education funding bill that would have blocked their implementation, but it was dropped in the final version of the bill.
The board is moving ahead with developing student tests tied to the standards.
By John Hanna.
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KENTUCKY
In Kentucky, state lawmakers passed a bill in 2009 that set more rigorous academic standards, new assessments and a new accountability system. Kentucky followed up a year later by adopting Common Core and then in 2013 next-generation science standards. The new standards are known as the Kentucky Core Academic Standards.
Teachers first taught the new English/language arts and math standards in the 2011-12 school year. Students began testing on those new standards that same year.
By Bruce Shreiner.
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LOUISIANA
GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal, a one-time Common Core supporter and a potential presidential candidate in 2016, has sued the Obama administration, accusing Washington of illegally manipulating federal grant money and regulations to force states to adopt the Common Core education standards.
Lawmakers this year rejected several attempts to strip Common Core from classrooms and a majority of the education board voted to continue using the standards.
Jindal suspended contracts that the state Department of Education planned to use to buy testing material aligned with the standards. The education superintendent, John White, and education board leaders say the governor overstepped his legal authority, and they sued.
A state district judge has since said the governor’s actions were harmful to parents, teachers and students and he lifted Jindal’s suspension of the contracts. The decision allows White to move ahead with Common Core-tied testing plans until a full trial is held later over the legality of Jindal’s executive orders against the standards.
At the same time, 17 state lawmakers who oppose the standards have lodged their own legal challenge, but lost their first round in court.
By Melinda Deslatte.
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MAINE
Two groups opposed to the reading, writing and math benchmarks are trying to collect enough signatures to trigger a statewide vote in 2015 to repeal them.
Maine Education Commissioner James Rier says he spends much of his time fielding calls from people with a misunderstanding of the standards, adopted in 2011 in Maine. The state is now assembling a team of educators and businesspeople to look at updating the standards for math and English language arts, he said. Any changes would have to be approved by the Legislature.
By David Sharp.
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MARYLAND
Maryland schools began implementing the standards in reading and math two school years ago, and will begin using the PARCC test during the upcoming school year.
In this year’s legislative session, Maryland lawmakers voted by large margins to address some issues that have arisen with Common Core in the state. For example, test scores won’t be used in teacher and principal evaluations for at least the next two years. In addition, a workgroup including teachers and parents will be formed to improve implementation.
By Brian Witte.
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MASSACHUSETTS
The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted the standards in July 2010, and they became part of the state curriculum the following year. The state is also in the middle of a two-year trial of the PARCC.
The new standards are being challenged by a grassroots group, known as the Common Core Forum, which argues the state’s standards should not be dropped and replaced. The group of parents, teachers and local elected officials has called for repeal of the new standards and more transparency from the state.
By Michael Melia.
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MICHIGAN
In Michigan, the 2014-15 school year was supposed to be the first in which students would take exams developed by the Smarter Balanced consortium. But lawmakers balked, despite last year ultimately letting the state continue spending dollars implementing the standards after vigorous debate.
Legislators later directed the state not to administer the Smarter Balanced test this coming academic year. Instead, it must develop Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests that align with Common Core. The new assessment is to be given starting in the spring of 2016.
By David Eggert.
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MINNESOTA
Minnesota has adopted only the English and language arts standards portions of Common Core but augmented them with more rigorous content developed close to home. The state had already redrawn its math standards.
Rather than joining the national testing groups related to Common Core, Minnesota went with its own assessments.
By Brian Bakst.
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MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi schools are supposed to be fully teaching based on the standards this year, and Mississippi plans to use the PARCC tests for most of its state standardized testing beginning this spring.
Attempts were made earlier this year by some lawmakers to roll back the state’s implementation of Common Core, but those proposals failed by wide margins.
But Republican Gov. Phil Bryant has called Common Core a “failed program” and said he expected lawmakers to address the standards in the 2015 legislative session. State Superintendent Carey Wright has pushed back against Bryant, saying his description of Common Core is a “gross mischaracterization” and saying students “deserve the opportunity to perform to higher expectations.”
By Jeff Amy.
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MISSOURI
Public schools in Missouri have transitioned to the standards, but a new state law backed by opponents could get rid of them.
In July, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon signed a measure passed by the Republican-led Legislature that creates task forces of parents and educators to develop new state standards for English, math, science and history to be implemented during the 2016-2017 school year.
By David Lieb.
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MONTANA
Montana students for the first time will take a test linked to the standards. There was a trial of the test last spring.
Office of Public Instruction Superintendent Denise Juneau said some schools are behind in curriculum development, teacher training and acquiring textbooks or other equipment to teach to the new standards. The 2013 Legislature rejected proposals to allocate money for training and equipment, and state Sen. Roger Webb has submitted a bill request for the 2015 session to bar any funding for the standards.
By Matt Volz.
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NEBRASKA
Nebraska has not adopted the standards, and uses state standards developed by teachers, said Betty VanDeventer, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education. By law, they’re reviewed once every five years.
A study commissioned by the department last year found that Nebraska’s language arts standards are as tough as those of Common Core and more demanding in some areas. The study said Nebraska’s math standards cover most of the national Common Core content. Some material is introduced in later grades, but the study said it’s often presented in greater depth.
By Grant Schulte.
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NEVADA
Opponents have spoken out against the standards at state school board and interim legislative meetings, and coalesced into a group called Stop Common Core Nevada. Some are working with lawmakers in hopes of introducing a bill next year to repeal the measures.
Meanwhile the Nevada Board of Education now refers to the Common Core name as the Nevada Academic Content Standards, and the state superintendent has launched a communications initiative called Nevada Ready to inform parents and the public about the new standards. The Wynn Family Foundation, funded by casino mogul and state school board president Elaine Wynn, has provided $200,000 to the public relations campaign.
By Michelle Rindels.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Local school boards are not required to adopt the Common Core standards, even though they have been endorsed by the state Board of Education. But state assessment tests, which students will begin taking next spring, must be aligned to the standards.
The Legislature defeated several bills this spring aimed at ending or scaling back the state’s involvement in the standards.
By Holly Ramer.
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NEW JERSEY
New Jersey is moving ahead. Beginning with the coming school year, schools will be required to use PARCC tests to measure how well students are learning the curriculum.
The Democrat-dominated Legislature wanted to delay consequences of those tests for at least two years until a review of the standards could be completed. That would have meant that the tests could not have been used as part of teacher evaluations.
In a compromise, Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, took executive action that said the exams will count for teachers’ grades, but they’ll be given lower weight over the first two years. He also established a commission to review the effectiveness of student testing.
By Geoff Mulvihill
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NEW MEXICO
Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration has been a strong advocate of the Common Core standards, and students in grade three to 11 will take online tests aligned to the standards for the first time this spring.
The standards have been phased in, and teachers in all grades during the last school year, 2013-2014, were to have integrated Common Core into their classroom curriculum. There has been no push in the Democratic-controlled Legislature to back away from the standards.
By Barry Massey.
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NEW YORK
Dissatisfaction with Common Core and the tests based on them led thousands of New York parents to “opt out” of the 2014 exams, and state lawmakers approved a measure last month that delays the use of the test results in some teacher evaluations.
The Common Core has become an issue in the New York governor’s race. Rob Astorino, the Republican who aims to unseat incumbent Democrat Andrew Cuomo, is seeking to capitalize on opposition to the standards by putting a “Stop Common Core” party on the November ballot. If enough people sign petitions for the party, Democrats and independents who oppose the Common Core could use the ballot line to vote for Astorino without voting Republican.
By Karen Matthews.
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NORTH CAROLINA
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed legislation in July to rewrite Common Core, creating a commission to come up with new reading and math standards.
Common Core will be in place in the state until the new standards are created and implemented. The commission can choose to integrate parts of the current Common Core into the new standards.
By Katelyn Ferral.
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NORTH DAKOTA
North Dakota adopted Common Core standards in 2011, and began to fully implement them during the 2013-14 school year. Assessments based on the new standards will start for all students next spring.
North Dakota lawmakers have remained mostly silent on the new standards.
By James MacPherson
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OHIO
Republican lawmakers in the Ohio House are beginning a push to repeal Common Core learning standards by year’s end, citing widespread discontent they say they’re hearing from parents, teachers and communities.
It’s unclear whether the bill could pass. Districts already are well on their way to implementing the standards, which have the backing of a diverse coalition of Ohio groups including teachers’ unions, superintendents, the Urban League and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
By Julie Carr Smyth.
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OKLAHOMA
Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican who strongly supported Common Core as head of the National Governors Association, reversed course this year and signed into law a repeal of the standards.
In response, the federal government on Thursday did not renew the state’s waiver involving stringent requirements in the No Child Left Behind law. The move stripped Oklahoma’s power to decide how to spend $29 million in education dollars. The Obama administration said the state no longer could demonstrate that its school standards were preparing students for college and careers.
Education officials estimate that about 70 percent of Oklahoma’s more than 500 school districts already had integrated the Common Core standards into their textbooks, teaching methods or curriculum. Now, districts are being directed to return to the Priority Academic Student Skills, or PASS standards, that were in place in 2010, until the state develops its own new standards. That process is expected to take up to two years.
By Sean Murphy.
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OREGON
Eighty percent of Oregon teachers who responded to a statewide survey this spring said what’s being taught in their school aligns with the skilled required by Common Core.
But there has been grumbling.
Dennis Richardson, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, said he opposes Common Core. Meanwhile, Portland Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, asked the state to delay using Common Core-aligned testing to evaluate teachers, students, school districts and individual schools. State education officials have asked the Education Department to grant a one-year delay in using results from the new, Common Core-aligned assessments as part of a teacher’s evaluation.
By Steven DuBois.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Pennsylvania’s version, known as Pennsylvania Core Standards, took effect in March.
They were developed in part by examining the national Common Core but are not identical. At least one state lawmaker is attempting to get them repealed, and others have spoken out against them.
By Mark Scolforo.
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RHODE ISLAND
The Common Core standards have been in place since the start of the 2013-2014 school year, and students will take the first assessments aligned with them next spring. The state is using the PARCC.
The state’s largest teachers union, National Education Association Rhode Island, has criticized the Common Core standards — including the pace of implementation — and what it considers an overemphasis on standardized tests. During debate over use of another test as a high school graduation requirement, state lawmakers generally expressed support for the standards and the alignment of the curriculum with the PARCC test.
By Erika Niedowski.
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SOUTH CAROLINA
A South Carolina law signed May 30 requires new standards to replace Common Core by the time students walk into classrooms in August 2015. Meanwhile, full implementation of Common Core, to include aligned testing, continues as planned this school year.
Many legislators saw the new law as a way to satisfy the opposition by essentially stepping up a review that would have occurred anyway, expecting little to change. Leaders of the state Board of Education and Education Oversight Committee — the two groups that must approve any changes — said there’s no time to start from scratch.
But Superintendent Mick Zais, a Republican who didn’t seek a second term, insists there is and that there will be no simple editing of Common Core. An agreed-to timeline calls for the new standards to receive final approval in March.
By Seanna Adcox.
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SOUTH DAKOTA
South Dakota began to fully implement the standards during the 2013-2014 school year.
A number of bills seeking to scrap the Common Core standards failed during the 2014 Legislature. Lawmakers, however, approved a bill that would delay the adoption of multistate standards in any other subjects until after July 2016. GOP Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed the bill in March.
By Regina Garcia Cano.
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TENNESSEE
During the last Tennessee General Assembly, lawmakers proposed several measures to do away with the state’s Common Core standards. All of them failed.
But lawmakers voted to delay the testing associated with Common Core for one year. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam reluctantly signed the measure. He said the standards are needed to better prepare students for college and the workforce and play a role in attempt to raise the state’s high school graduation rates from the current 32 percent to 55 percent by the year 2025.
By Lucas L. Johnson II.
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TEXAS
Texas refused to adopt Common Core, instead mandating curriculum standards known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, though as much as two-thirds of the state’s math standards are thought to overlap with Common Core requirements.
Conservatives continue to worry about Common Core seeping into Texas classrooms, so much so that the Legislature in 2013 passed a law expressly forbidding school districts from using it as part of lesson plans. Then, in June, Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the front-runner in November’s governor’s race, issued an opinion reiterating that schools using Common Core standards “in any way” would violate that law.
By Will Weissert.
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UTAH
Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, has defended the state’s Common Core standards, which are generally referred to as Utah Core or Utah Core Standards.
But after protests and swelling complaints from conservative activists, Herbert has asked the state attorney general’s office to review the adoption of the standards and to report the level of control Utah and local districts and schools have over curriculum. He also asked education experts to review how well the standards will prepare students for success and established a website where parents and others can leave comments about the standards.
Utah passed a law two years ago that requires the state to abandon any agreements or contracts if Utah’s control of standards or curriculum is ceded to the federal government. Earlier this year, the Legislature passed and Herbert signed a measure creating a standards review committee.
By Michelle Price.
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VERMONT
Common Core was introduced to Vermont educators in 2010 and this year schools are expected to have their curriculum fully aligned with the standards.
The agency has heard about pockets of parents who are upset. But Pat Fitzsimmons, the Common Core implementation coordinator for the state’s Agency of Education, says there’s been misinformation. She said some opponents are upset about the Smarter Balanced Assessment, to be given in 2015, and have concerns about technology involved and protecting student data.
By Lisa Rathke.
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VIRGINIA
Virginia refused to participate in the national Common Core system, instead deciding in 2010 to strengthen its own Standards of Learning.
The state introduced new standardized math tests in 2012 and more rigorous reading, writing and science assessments in 2013. The state is reducing the number of standardized exams that middle and elementary school students have to take from 22 to 17.
In addition, state Secretary of Education Anne Holton has appointed a 20-member committee to study the Standards of Learning and make recommendations to the Virginia Board of Education and the General Assembly on ways to improve SOL tests and student growth measures, and encourage innovative teaching.
By John Raby.
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WASHINGTON
Washington state adopted the new Common Core standards for math and English in 2011 and began using them in its public schools the following school year. During the coming school year, tests aligned to the standards will be used instead of the previous state-developed system.
Washington teachers and their union have expressed concern about both the new education standards and the new tests, saying they need more time to get used to the new program before they are judged on how well their students are doing. The Legislature decided not to require test scores to be part of the teachers’ evaluations, resulting in the state’s loss of its waiver from the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Law.
By Donna Blankinship
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WEST VIRGINIA
In 2010, the West Virginia Board of Education approved Common Core state standards for math and English, customizing the content specifically for the state’s students. More than 100 teachers developed the content standards aimed at giving teachers more focus and flexibility while preparing students to be college and career ready.
The transition must be complete in all grades by this fall, but the state is allowing counties to determine how to adopt the changes.
By John Raby.
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WISCONSIN
Republican Gov. Scott Walker, a potential 2016 presidential candidate facing re-election this year, has called for repeal of the standards, a move opposed by his Democratic opponent in the governor’s race, Mary Burke.
Repeal also is opposed by the nonpartisan state superintendent of schools, who argues changing course now after spending millions of dollars to implement the Common Core the past four years would send Wisconsin schools into chaos. Testing tied to the standards will begin this spring.
By Scott Bauer.
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WYOMING
Some Wyoming school districts have implemented the standards, which were adopted in 2012, but critics have been persistent in speaking out against them.
A bill to repeal the standards in Wyoming failed to get enough votes for consideration in last winter’s legislative session. Under state law, the standards will be up for review again in 2017.
By Bob Moen.
The Jews in Germany who didn’t opt out of their German citizenry and escape to the US, regretted it.. Did you ever wonder why they chose not to go along?
Look at yourself if you haven’t opted out yet. You are just like them. What was the difference between those who escaped and those who stayed in the early days? They all read the same paper. All saw the same happenings. All experienced the darkening of their homeland skies. Some opted out of Germany. But most stayed…
Those who opted out became wealthy in the American land of opportunity. Those who stayed had all their wealth taken, ….then, their lives.
As today we see with Donald Trump, everyone knew how bad Hitler was… Have we ever had any other presidential contender running his campaign as a WWF pre-press conference?
So you see, we know. We know. Just like they did back in Germany 1935.
So just as we know that the Smarter Balanced Assessment is pointless, bizarre, damaging to children and has zero redeeming social value what-so-ever. today,…. cooperating with the Smarter Balanced Assessment by NOT opting out, is the equivalent of being Jewish and cooperating with the Gestapo thinking that you are somehow helping all Jews by getting rid of the Jewish troublemakers and then the Nazi’s will leave you alone….
Till YOU get told to take a shower….
You can see it with Trump. You see how irrational, defiant, and single minded his supporters have become…
So it is with those in power forcing the Smarter Balanced Assessment on your child. They are irrational. Defiant. And single minded when it comes to forcing children to take this test by destroying the option to opt out.
Here is what the test does:
It makes children who can’t jump a 3 foot bar, now be forced to jump a 5 foot one. Why?
It makes children who have no arms to bench press 100 pounds, now bench press 300 pounds…
It makes children whose legs were amputated after an accident, now forced to climb Mt. Everest.
And yet most Jews as they saw certain people pulled out of their houses and taken off in trucks.. did nothing…
Most parents as they see more and more of the damage this test is doing to their children, do nothing….
There is a eerie similarity…. The question in both these cases is: Why? Why when something that is so easy to do, so readily put in our grasp, so necessary to save our future as we now see it, ignored?
Opting out is your weapon against having what you love about your children sucked out, against having their shells sent of to a concentration camp. One giant protest early on in Hitler’s career that was so big it looked like a revolution, (think Arab Spring) could have changed history forever…
It didn’t happen. Why?
Same reason why haven’t you opted your child out?
Ask any holocaust survivor if they now wished they’d opted out of Germany before things got really bad?
Then opt your child out… because it only gets worse after this year… At some future point (like Hitler one day being toppled) it is inevitable that all children’s scores on the Smarter Balanced will be dismissed as being unreliable. There will be a big blank across the record of all children in this state as those scores get erased.. This test is that bad and calmer heads always prevail.
So why would you give your child up as a sacrificial lamb, as a experimental vessel for a mad scientist to perform a wacky scheme? Would you just as easily allow your children to be sexually exploited by an authoritarian adult? Why then are you letting them be psychologically exploited by these same people? How did you let yourself be lulled into letting thieves enter with your permission through the front door of your house, when everywhere warnings were broadcast on your televisions, phones and radios, telling you to beware of them?
The answer is simply this.. You are the Jews in Hitler’s Germany. You are the parents taking your alter boys to be alone with the priest at church.. You are the selected chosen designated to put your son or daughter on the alter to have their life ended and blood drained, so a shaman can continue justifying his role of power over his people…
All those are you. You could, as easily as flipping a coin, change your child’s future to the better… Like Germans appalled at where their homeland was going, you choose to stay silent and try not to rock the boat so they don’t throw you out as the next troublemaker OR… you can scream at the top of your lungs to stop everyone from getting in the boat in the first place, convincing everyone to just go home…
Your choice… as it should be… IT IS YOUR CHILD… And one other thing. Would Hitler have signed legislation overwhelmingly approved by the Reichstag to allow Jews to opt out of going into Concentration Camps….
Now perhaps, you are beginning to see the parallel….
You can too…
Go here, find your child’s grade, choose ELA or math, and plan on spending the next 4 and half hours in hell….
Then if you haven’t already… opt your child out… You only understand the opt-out movement once you take the test…
Why would anyone do that to a kid???
They are evil. You will see it.
===
One cannot be an informed Christian, informed Muslim, informed Jew, and not opt-out ones child… Your religions do not allow you to do this to children. Being one of the three Abrahamic religions and letting your child take this test does not compute. It’s a 401 Error . It is a non-sequitur.
If you hold your religion dear yet still allow your child to take the test, it has to be because YOU are ignorant; YOU never took the test… What kind of parent does that to their child?
On the other hand, if you are a Satanist… I can see you allowing your child to take this test. That’s what you guys are all about….
Your Name
Your address
Date:
c/o Your Child’s School
Your Child’s School District
Your School Districts Letterhead Address
ATTN: NOTICE TO OPT OUT
Dear School Official:
Please do not give my (child’s name, child’s number) a Smarter Balanced Assessment this year. His parents have decided to opt him/her out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment.
This opt out ONLY applies to the Smarter Balanced Assessments for ELA and Math (plus DCAS Science in 5/8/10th Grade and Social Studies if in 4/7th Grade).
It does not apply to other national tests the school may choose to administer.
Thank you.
Signed:
Parent’s Name.
======================
And that is all you need…. Then slip it into a plain blank envelope and tell your child to give it to his homeroom or class teacher, depending on your child’s age…
And you are done….
(If…. the child is forced to still take the test, please be forthcoming and many of those cases could be the underlying basis for a lawsuit this summer if enough parents do not have their requests honored. )
But hurry now. Time’s winged chariot is almost here…
kavips 