Brian Ford, teacher and author, writes:
Repeat after me:
THE GREAT MISTAKE AND OVERRIDING DANGER TO PUBLIC EDUCATION IS THAT
THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS WILL BE LINKD TO HIGH STAKES STANDARDIZED TESTS, TEACHER EVALUATIONS AND SCHOOL CLOSINGS
I know it is not catchy, but say it twice more:
THE GREAT MISTAKE AND OVERRIDING DANGER TO PUBLIC EDUCATION IS THAT
THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS WILL BE LINKD TO HIGH STAKES STANDARDIZED TESTS, TEACHER EVALUATIONS AND SCHOOL CLOSINGS
THE GREAT MISTAKE AND OVERRIDING DANGER TO PUBLIC EDUCATION IS THAT
THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS WILL BE LINKD TO HIGH STAKES STANDARDIZED TESTS, TEACHER EVALUATIONS AND SCHOOL CLOSINGS
Diane Ravitch's blog 
All this is already happening before CC rears its ugly head.
RE: NYC school closings….http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/education/panel-rejects-proposal-to-stop-new-york-city-school-closings.html?ref=education&_r=0
NYC’s mayoral panel votes to close down 20 more schools. Where was Randi??? Mulgrew, the president of the UFT, did not bother to show up either and the NYTimes made sure to report that bit of information too. Maybe if they knew the NYTimes was covering this???? But school closings in NYC, even with a photo op, are not important to the UFT or AFT. So much for school closings becoming a “national issue”.
Wish the reporter knew the correct name…It’s Patrick Sullivan not Thomas Sullivan.
The UFT has been a major disappointment for most NYC school teachers by essentially bowing to many of the demands and impositions from the “Dark Lord”, Mayor Bloomberg and chancellor “Darth Walcott” .
A new party that is building to challenge the UFT’s Unity party, is M.O.R.E.; the Movement of Rank and File Educators. M.O.R.E. is modeled closely after the CTU in that it is willing to play “hardball” against the NYCDOE including teaching to the contract or having teachers walk out en mass if needed.
Teacher unions need to be combatants, not collaborators.
The catch is not the canon —
The catch is the transfer of control from the profession of teaching to the profits of corporations.
Based on states like Kentucky:
The percentage of students scoring proficient will drop by 1/3 and probably so will teacher effectiveness scores:
http://www.nwea.org/blog/2012/will-common-core-state-standards-deliver-lower-test-scores/
don’t forget all the data that will be collected on the children from preK-3 through college/career. i think this data is to be used for some purposes that the parents and concerned citizens would not be in agreement with.
Yes. That’s exactly the fear I have too. There are aspects of common core that I’m cautiously optimistic about, but only insofar as they’re part of the curriculum. Unfortunately, I’m very concerned that all reasonable approaches to it will be shouted down as the “reformers” link it to high stakes testing, teacher evaluations and “failing” schools.
And as a parent, I find it very difficult to understand how there can be people out there who supposedly champion academic excellence–but who are waiting for my public-school child’s performance on one high-stakes test to drop in order to reinforce their claims about failing schools and children who don’t have “basic” reading and math knowledge. I think my child will do just fine no matter what the test, but knowing that there are those who are expecting test scores to drop–and planning to use that fact to further their plans–is frustrating to say the least.
I love your blog, but I am receiving too many emails in my inbox, would you please remove my email from your list, and I’ll sign up with another email when you do. For some reason when I try to do this under “Manage Subscriptions” it won’t accept the email address that I signed up with. It may be because my school email has an apostrophe–not sure. Please remove o’flaherty@latinacademy.org
How about “ANY policy formulated by non-educators looking to make a buck off our kids is corrupt and should not be implemented EVER.”
THE GREAT MISTAKE AND OVERRIDING DANGER TO PUBLIC EDUCATION IS THAT THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS WILL BE LINKED TO HIGH STAKES STANDARDIZED TESTS, TEACHER EVALUATIONS AND SCHOOL CLOSINGS.
THERE IS SAID IT.
Who knows is just a game and the pawnss are the children
So sad, so sad