"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." - Thomas Jefferson 1820

"There is a growing technology of testing that permits us now to do in nanoseconds things that we shouldn't be doing at all." - Dr. Gerald Bracey author of Rotten Apples in Education

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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Message to DESE: Please Allow Comments and Questions on Your Common Core Videos

The latest from DESE and another Common Core video:






Do we have to wait until Chris Nicastro comes to town hall meetings (if Senate Bill 210 passes) to discuss Common Core and ask questions?  Two main points in this video: Common Core standards will ensure students are successful and this principal talks about the time that would be wasted if the standards were not implemented.  What she doesn't tell you is that these standards that she thinks will make students successful are untested and non-researched.  How can she make these claims?

With all due respect, I would like to ask this teacher what she thinks about these articles about Common Core in kindergarten and the resulting disaster on children:


  •  http://www.edweek.org/media/joint_statement_on_core_standards.pdf....Statement signed by over 500 early childhood educators in opposition to the standards:  We have grave concerns  about the core standards for young children nowbeing written by the National GovernorsAssociation and the Council of Chief StateSchool Officers. The draft standards madepublic in January conflict with compellingnew research in cognitive science, neuroscience, child development, and early childhoodeducation about how young children learn, what they need to learn,and how best to teach them in kindergarten and the early grades
  • http://ilraiseyourhand.org/content/testing-testing
  • http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/11/kind-a11.html (This is from a socialist website)
  • http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/playtime_over_kindergartners_ItkfEkiosY3UOa8KpXwj8K
  • http://dianeravitch.net/2013/02/26/why-the-common-core-will-fail/  (Note comment from the reader:  liberalteacher
    The major problem of Common Core is that it suspends all understanding of child development. I just got a list today of math vocabulary words Kindergarten students are supposed to understand under Common Core. I am sorry but I do not think I ever thought of the word “decompose” when I was in Kindergarten in 1960. And yet, I managed to get to college without a curriculum that would make me college ready.

I could ask those questions which are reasonable questions if comments were allowed on the video.  But once again, DESE doesn't seem to want to answer questions regarding research and authentic classroom experiences by teachers who have actually used the standards in their classroom to childrens' detriment.

Where is the transparency?  Where is the dialogue?  It's our money funding Common Core (and the funding for these videos) and it's our kids.  We deserve a seat at the table and our questions to be heard and answered.

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