Mercedes Schneider has been keeping track of the states where there is significant opposition to Common Core standards and/or testing.
Initially, she identified 22 states where Common Core has encountered opposition.
After that post appeared, she learned that California should be added to the list, for a total of 23 states where critics are rallying against the CCSS.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If only Illinois would join the resistance! However, House Speaker Michael Madigan, Governor Pat Quinn, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel & others are dong their best to undermine the public schools. Our new state report cards will start showing the percentage of “proficient” teachers – where’s the section on “sufficient” state funding? (Illinois consistently shortchanges schools on state funding.) Where’s the section on”proficient” administrators?
We have been given previews of what PARCC assessments are going to look like, and they are a nightmare. Poorly written, with an emphasis on distractors, and arguably more than one correct answer. The twin-headed monster of Common Core and PARCC will only serve to create an obedient, education-adverse class of serfs, robbed of the ability to think critically and denied the right to enjoy being a lifelong learner- just what the corporate puppeteers and their government lackeys ordered.
Reblogged this on Roy F. McCampbell's Blog.
I would ask viewers of this blog to consider the following money quote from Dr. Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute that Dr. Mercedes Schneider provided on her blog yesterday:
“In truth, the idea that the Common Core might be a “game-changer” has little to do with the Common Core standards themselves, and everything to do with stuff attached to them, especially the adoption of common tests that make it possible to readily compare schools, programs, districts, and states (of course, the announcement that one state after another is opting out of the two testing consortia is hollowing out this promise).
But the Common Core will only make a dramatic difference if those test results are used to evaluate schools or hire, pay, or fire teachers; or if the effort serves to alter teacher preparation, revamp instructional materials, or compel teachers to change what students read and do. And, of course, advocates have made clear that this is exactly what they have in mind. When they refer to the “Common Core,” they don’t just mean the words on paper–what they really have in mind is this whole complex of changes. [Emphasis added.]”
Link: http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/the-american-enterprise-institute-common-core-and-good-cop/
Now consider the following snippets [please click on the link below to get the full context] of comments that appeared in the LATIMES of 12-26-13:
1), The article is entitled “Gov. Jerry Brown opposes government-imposed standards for schools” with the subtitle “In an on-stage interview, the California governor says some educational experiences can’t be captured in standardized tests.”
2), The following are paragraphs 2-6 of the article:
[start quote] Using “data on a national or state level I think misses the point — that learning is very individual, very personal,” Brown said during an on-stage interview Monday with the Atlantic magazine’s James Bennet at the Computer History Museum. “It comes back to the teacher and the principal. The leader of the school is by far the most important factor.”
When asked if he supported national education standards, Brown said, “No. That’s just a form of national control.”
Speaking to a half-empty auditorium of about 150 technology business leaders, Brown reprised a story he tells frequently about an exam he had in high school when a teacher asked students to write their impressions of a green leaf.
“Still, as I walk by trees, I keep saying, ‘How’s my impression coming? Can I feel anything? Am I dead inside?’ So, this was a very powerful question that has haunted me for 50 years.”
The point, Brown said, is that “you can’t put that on a standardized test. There are important educational encounters that can’t be captured by tests.” [end quote]
Link: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-brown-silicon-valley-20131217,0,7693072.story#axzz2osO1joak
Put the linked remarks I cited above together with the posting by the owner of this blog [with another link to Dr. Mercedes Schneider].
“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” [Voltaire]
😎
P.S. Please pardon the overly long comment.
YAYYYYYYYYY! I in California we love the governor! Common Core bothers him , he told Arne what to do with it. No wthat’s encouraging. When you have governor who looks at leaves to see if he is dead inside. Call him Moon Beam all you want to. He is my kinda guy.
Jerry Brown is the most intelligent governor is in the US. He is a true Renaissance man.
I teach in North Carolina. Common Core was more or less thrust upon us. Last school year, teachers were forced to score the constructed response questions. This semester the tests are being sent away to be scored. In both situations, the results won’t be available for months. In addition, many teachers are on edge because the results will be factored into their evaluations. Common Core is the new “shiny toy”. Once it’s broken legislators will move on to the next new thing without figuring out how to fix the broken one.
I also teach in NC. These are some stressful times. I’m glad to read there is an increasing amount of pushback against CCSS. I hope it will prove to be more than lip service.
I so hope Jerry Brown runs for president for 2016.
California students will be taking a CC field test this spring. The test must be taken on a computer, with the idea that this will allow districts a chance to assess their technology needs. However, districts will have several years to get up to speed on technology because they have the option of using paper and pencil tests instead of computers.
Regardless of the argument for or against CC, this seems to be a reasonable way to deal with what will represent a huge chunk of local and state budgets. Sadly, LAUSD’s Superintendent Deasy has used this field test as a way to demand devices for all students ASAP. While he states publicly that providing all students with an iPad is an equity issue and will close the “digital divide”, whatever that means, the only reason for rushing this through is for the tests. Deasy has been forced to put testing needs at the forefront because that is the one and only reason he can use to rush the purchase through. He has also demanded that the testing window be 6 weeks, when the state specifically is allowing 3 months, understanding that students in most schools will have to take turns using computer labs and carts already on campuses.
Of course, we would not be having this discussion if not for the push to incorporate CC. The hope is that this rush in LAUSD to spend upwards of one billion dollars to start, will eventually spark the public’s interest in finding out what CC is and where it came from.
And why iPads? There are other, less expensive tablets available. Before jumping in with both feet, LA should have dipped a toe and distributed iPads and/or other tablets to sample groups.
Foolishness.
Utah keeps getting missed in this for some reason. Perhaps it’s because Utah pulled out of the SBAC over a year ago and people keep forgetting that. Now, some of the reasoning was because of fear of a “federal takeover” (some Utahns are quite paranoid), but the fact remains that Utah is out of the consortia. Now, if Utah would just pull out of CCSS altogether. There’s some discussion in that realm at the moment. P
Please see these links: “Utah Drops out of Consortium Developing Common Core Tests:” http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=22416975&itype=storyID
And this: “Wendy Hart Bites Into Common Core:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJlB9gFn9vE
Utah is an unusual case in that it pulled out of testing early but seems fine with CC. My post focuses on current unrest (Originally Oct Nov 2013 but extended to Aug Dec 2013 in my update). The importance is that the current unrest could lead to a toppling of CC this legislative session. CC is a charged issue now, and CC is in an uncertain position in states in which even removal from testing appears to be the only legislative issue precisely because of the timing– that it is happening now, when the atmosphere in general is less friendly toward CC.
As you have stated, Utah appears to be fine with CC now. So, no current “unrest.” Of course, this could change, but I haven’t read anything that indicates it will.
When I find such evidence, I will include Utah.
Okay, makes sense when I see the parameters that you were using. There are a bunch of us working like gangbusters to try to bring down the CC here in Utah. There’s a debate next week in the extreme northern part of the state that I hope begins to tip things away from the core. The other thing that may kill it is the huge amount of testing that’s coming up–I’ve heard anywhere from 180 to 250 minutes just for the ELA testing alone.
On my blog I have had commentary about Rhode Island recently evidencing unrest. I will investigate and possibly include in my next update.
I will read the comments on this posting and the posting on my blog prior to updating, so feel free to leave info on any states here for me to look into. Thanks.
Arizona has dissension about the CCSS so the governor tried to cover it up with a name change:
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/education/common-core-name-changes-standards-remain/article_7a97e40c-bdbf-579f-960c-cbad2db9e9c4.html
What is being overlooked in this belated scrutiny of testing and standards is the scripted state mandated curriculum now being imposed on our schools, destroying the English curricula and methods of even our best schools with units and lesson plans that are highly ideological and inferior to the most rudimentary Developmental Lesson Plan. The “modules” of high school curricula are absurd, reading, for example, only parts of Romeo and Juliet. The Known World by Ernest Jones, acknowledged in Yale University online course on the novel for its extreme difficulty, is required reading for all eleventh graders. The “test only” principle of reading instruction fails to address student sense of importance, frame of reference, and personal ideas and feelings. Creativity is dead.
It’s all good news. Education is an issue which effects us all. I’m happy that there is a push back.
I live in an upscale district in Western New York who is opting out of inBloom. And the informed parents are opting out if the high stakes testing – a lot of them. They are calling on the schools to provide a separate location to house their children during the testing. The District is confused – they answer to both the parents and the state. Yet, they are trying to accommodate the parents. (What else can they do when so many will be there NOT taking the test?)
I predict other NYS schools and parents will start pushing back.
This battle is only getting started.
Common Core? The biggest experimental failure in all of educational history. The self-esteem project left us with teenage egos bolstered by nothing, “No child gets ahead” made certain that the brightest were brought down to the level of the slowest; now, CCSS will assure that students know nothing at all beyond the 5th grade level. It has literally brought pre-K into the high-school, introduced obscene, racist literature, banter based only on governmental issues which are repulsive to the majority of Americans and solve nothing. We are preparing a nation of children to live in a country with no industry to push buttons for robots that do the work. We are at the threshold of the UN’s UNESCO desire for one-world education and we are doomed to fail at it. All this while degrading and demeaning the most knowledgeable of teachers who are judged by people who were never taught by CCSS standards, nor have ever taught CCSS methods in classrooms. Down with CCSS….it is the bane of education…and further proof of the lack of vision and wisdom of the countries leadership. Leave education to the states and quit trying to launder the true UN motivations behind the skirt of ‘gubernatorial” committees. The people own this country not Sneider, not Obama, Pelosi, or any other self-absorbed and short-lived politician. Home schooling will increase drastically, charter schools will fail, and the public education system will become the playground of the handicapped.