Common Core 101 by Arkansas Against Common Core

2. What is Common Core?
• MORE than standards
• A comprehensive reform package
• Industrial Model based on Workforce
skills and placement
• Led by Social Elitist Reformers,
financed by tax dollars and promoted
by private corporations & the USDOE
• Adopted by 45 states in 2010
• Rejected by Alaska, Virginia, Nebraska
and Texas
• Minnesota adopted ELA only
Federal
Government
Common
Standards
SLDS Data
System
“State Led”
Assessments
Workforce
Development
Aligned
Curriculum

3. Who is really behind Common Core?
National Governors Association Council of Chief State School Officers
author and developer of the standards

4. Common Core Reform Agenda
 “Traditionally, the federal
government in the U.S. has
had a limited role in
education policy the current
administration has sought to
fundamentally shift the
federal role…”
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan 2010 UNESCO Conference
https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/vision-education-reform-united-states-secretary-arne-duncans-remarks-united-nations-ed

5. Arne Duncan Continues:
• “Our goal for the coming year will be to work closely with global
partners, including UNESCO, to promote qualitative improvements
and system-strengthening.”
• “That goal can only be achieved by creating a strong cradle-to-career
continuum that starts with early childhood learning and
extends all the way to college and careers”
2010 UNESCO Conference
https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/vision-education-reform-united-states-secretary-arne-duncans-remarks-united-nations-ed

8. • “We’ve been in an economic crisis for
a year or so. But we’ve been in an
education crisis for decades.”
• “U.S. [graduation] rates have not
improved for 40 years.”
• “Yet college completion rates in the
U.S. have been flat since the 1970s.”
- Bill Gates
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/media-center/speeches/2009/07/bill-gates-
national-conference-of-state-legislatures-ncsl

9. Federal Government Involvement?
 State Fiscal Stabilization Fund
 2009 Stimulus Bill (ARRA)
 Race to the Top
 $4.35 BILLION
 Waivers from No Child Left Behind
 Threatened Title I $
 Funded NGA/CCSSO

10. Race to the Top!
• Race to the Top Contest
• $4.35 billion federal money
• NCLB Waiver
• Title I threatened
• Complete Application
• Submit Reform Proposal
• 4 assurances

12. Common Core Violates 3 Laws
1- General Education Provisions Act
“…to exercise any direction, supervision, or control
over the curriculum…”
2- Dept. of Education Organization Act
3- Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965

13. The 10th Amendment
“The powers not delegated
to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the States, are
reserved to the States
respectively, or to the
people.”

14. It’s NOT just standards.
Federal
Government
Common
Standards
“State Led”

15. “State Led?”
•Standards have a copyright to NGA and
CCSSO
•States wouldn’t have to be baited and
coerced
•No need for millions to be spent
•Education administrators and teachers
would feel free to voice concerns

16. Republican National Committee
“The Republican National Committee
recognizes the CCSS for what it is- an
inappropriate overreach to standardize
and control the education of our
children…..”

17. Letter to Arne Duncan
Arne Duncan Letter-April 2013
No congressional input
Changes to federal data and disbursement policies
One size fits all policy

20. Standards

21. Concerns with

22. “…the reason I didn’t sign off on
them was that they did not match
up to international expectations.
They were at least 2 years behind
the practices in the high achieving
countries by the 7th grade,
and…only require a partial
understanding of what would be the
content of a normal, solid, course in
Algebra I or Geometry.”
R. James Milgram, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor
Department of Mathematics
Stanford University

23. “Moreover, they cover very little
of the content of Algebra 2, and
none of any higher level
course… They will not help
our children match up to the
students in the top foreign
countries when it comes to
being hired to top level jobs.”
R. James Milgram, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor
Department of Mathematics
Stanford University

24. Math Standards
• No prime factorization, least common denominators or greatest common factors; conversions among fractions, decimals,
and percent.
• de-emphasizes algebraic manipulation, a prerequisite for advanced mathematics, and instead effectively redefines
algebra as “functional algebra”, which does not prepare students for STEM careers
1-2 Grades Behind International Peers:
• does not require proficiency with addition and subtraction until grade 4
• does not require proficiency with multiplication using the standard algorithm until grade 5, a grade behind the
expectations our international competitors.
• does not require proficiency with division using the standard algorithm until gr. 6
• Starts teaching decimals only in grade 4, about two years behind the more rigorous state standards, and fails to use
money as a natural introduction to this concept.
• Fails to teach in K-8 about key geometrical concepts such as the area of a triangle, sum of angles in a triangle, isosceles
and equilateral triangles, or constructions with a straightedge and compass.

27. Concerns with

28. English Language Arts Standards
• ELA
• 50%-70% Informational Text
• Controversial Exemplar Reading list
• The Bluest Eye
• Dreaming in Cuban
• Google Hacks

29. English Language Arts Standards
 Of poor quality
 Empty skills set
 De-emphasis on Literature
 50% Informational text
 Low reading levels, such
as 7th grade for 12th
graders Dr. Sandra Stotsky
University of Arkansas
Common Core Validation Committee

32. “College and Career”
 Two-year
non-selective
community
college

34. Moving State to State
 Less than 2% of students
move from state to state
each year

35. It’s NOT just standards.
Federal
Government
Common
Standards
“State Led”
Assessments

36.  GED
Assessments
Already aligned to CCSS & bought by Pearson
Cost tripled
 IOWA
The latest version is aligned; PARCC will replace in 2015 grades 3-8
 ACT aligning to CCSS
 Questions are being added to reflect the Common Core’s emphasis on tracing
ideas through multiple texts and increased focus on statistics
The ACT will also contain optional open-ended questions to assess students’
ability to explain and support their claims
 SAT
David Coleman now head of College Board
PSAT aligns in 2015, SAT will align in 2016
Advanced Placement also owned by College Board

37. Assessments
• Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College & Careers
(PARCC)
• Smarter Balanced (SBAC)
• American Institutes for Research (AIR)
• AIR and SBAC recently partnered
• Arkansas is a member of PARCC
• Both consortiums got $360 million from the federal government

38. PARCC Assessments
• $186 million from the Federal Government
• Computer-based
• 4-6 times per year
• $32.80 per student, subject to change
• $250,000 membership fee annually
• Mandated by the state
• Undisclosed to parents
• Replaces IOWA and end of course assessments in 2015
• Pearson contracted

39. PARCC Cooperative Agreement with US Dept. of Ed

40. PARCC
Cooperative
Agreement with
US Dept. of Ed
Is this what
local control
looks like?

42. TESS
• Evaluations tied to PARCC tests
• Teacher Excellence and Support System
• (Ark. Code Ann. § 6-17-2801 et seq.)
http://www.arkansased.org/public/userfiles/rules/Current/ade_247_ACTAAP_-_Jan_2013.pdf

43. It’s NOT just standards.
Federal
Government
Common
Standards
SLDS Data
System
“State Led”
Assessments

44. FERPA
Family Education Rights and Privacy Act
•Government can
share information
•No longer need
parental consent

46. Cradle to Career
• SLDS in lieu of national database
• P20 – Preschool to age 20
• PII includes biometrics and behavioral profile
• NEDM or CEDS – Open Data Standards
• Over 400 data elements
• Gathered with surveys, testing and school records
• Accessible by federal agencies and corporations
• Career path, test scores, medical, behavioral, family, etc.

48. What is the problem with Data mining?
• Leads to National Data Collection which is Unconstitutional
• Loss of privacy
• Opens the door for discrimination
• Jobs and opportunities may be based on someone’s interpretation of the
data
The constitution defines the God-given right to privacy: “The right of the
people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated”

49. It’s NOT just standards.
Federal
Government
Common
Standards
SLDS Data
System
“State Led”
Assessments
Aligned
Curriculum

51. Standards Assessments Curriculum
“Any set of test questions that the federal
government prescribed should surely be
suspect as a first step toward a national
curriculum…[Carried to its full extent,] national
control of curriculum is a form of national control
of ideas.”
Joseph Califano Former
Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary

52. “I'd like to say something about the curriculum itself, rather than
the assessment system. When we got started, we were calling
what we did the development of content standards. I found
out from talking to an American journalist that we borrowed
that term from you. I also learned that in the United States
you couldn't talk about national or state curriculum, so you
used these words. What we are doing now is saying that we are
developing curriculum or the learning entitlements. We say to
schools that by whatever means you teach, this is the knowledge,
understanding and skills that your kids are entitled to have the
opportunity to acquire. You've got to get around the
constitutional arrangements in order to do the right thing.
Australia has strong constitutional arrangements that say that
education is the responsibility of the states, not the
commonwealth, not the federal government. So how did we get
there? We got there by making it a collaborative arrangement.
All of this is decided not by the federal minister; all of this is
decided by the six states, two territories and the one federal
minister sitting at the table together.”
“How Australia
Implemented
National Curriculum”
Barry McGaw
Validation Committee Member
Chair of the Australian Curriculum,
Assessment and Reporting Authority
http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?DISPATCHED=true&cid=25983841&item=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.edweek.org%2Fedweek%2Ftop_pe
rformers%2F2012%2F04%2Fhow_australia_developed_a_national_curriculum_and_assessment_system.html

53. Who is behind common core?
What are their objectives?
• ALL ONE NEEDS TO DO IS FOLLOW THE MONEY
AND PHILOSOPHY TRAIL TO DETERMINE WHO
THE DEVELOPERS ARE, WHO WILL PROFIT, AND
WHERE ARE THEY TAKING US?

55. Bill Gates-Funded over $250 million
“CAN ANYONE TAKE SERIOUSLY THOSE WHO PRAISE
COMMON CORE WHILE BEING PAID TO DO SO?” –Christel
Swasey
• Partnered with Pearson Foundation
• Microsoft signed a cooperative agreement with UNESCO in
2004 to fund/create a Global Education System
• Gates states “Microsoft supports the objectives of
UNESCO”

56. UNESCO
• UNESCO mandates to its Education-based NGO’s (including IB):
 1. Downplay nationality in teaching, lest the kids identify too strongly with their
country.
 2. Teach “peace” - defined by the UN as more than the absence of war, requiring
social equity (redistribution of resources)
 3. Teach “sustainable development” (putting resources out of reach and redistributing
others under the guise of social and environmental justice).
 4. Teach local-to-global activism; and
 5. Execute UNESCO’s educational objectives and report back to UNESCO on
activities and results.
• UNESCO handbook, “Is There a Way of Teaching for Peace?

57. UNESCO
• “As long as the child breathes the poisoned air of
nationalism, education in world-mindedness can produce
only rather precarious results. As we have pointed out, it
is frequently the family that infects the child with extreme
nationalism. The school should therefore use the means
described earlier to combat family attitudes that favor
jingoism.”(UNESCO Publication 356, “In The Classroom
With Children Under Thirteen Years of Age, Towards
World Understanding – V

58. The text book mogul.
• Sir Michael Barber of England, Chief Education Advisor at Pearson
and Common Core promoter extraordinaire, is also a global education
standards promoter.
• Barber talks about “sustainable reform” as “irreversible reform” and he
directs education policy makers to “make it so it can never go back to
how it was before.”
• If you want irreversible reforms, work on the culture and the minds of
teachers and parents.” Otherwise, he says, people might repeal what’s
been done because of their “wish for the past.” “make it so it can never
go back to how it was before.”

59. It’s NOT just standards.
Federal
Government
Common
Standards
SLDS Data
System
“State Led”
Assessments
Workforce
Development
Aligned
Curriculum

60. …lays out a plan “to remold the entire
American system” into “a seamless web that
literally extends from cradle to grave and is the
same system for everyone,” coordinated by “a
system of labor market boards at the local,
state and federal levels “where curriculum and
‘job matching’ will be handled by counselors
“accessing the integrated computer-based
program.”

62. CC Reform Agenda is a Puzzle
“They were as parts in a puzzle—analyzed by themselves, each of
these projects appeared to be either harmless or an expression of
someone’s “dream.” When linked together with other “harmless”
programs, they were no longer formless but could be seen as an entire
package of plans outlining methods of implementation, organization
structures (including flow-charts), computerization, use of behavioral
profile catalogs, and goals and objectives determination.”
-Robert H. Burke
Addressing the California Legislature in 1971

63. What is at stake
What are we losing?
• Ability to Direct our
Children’s Education
• Loss of privacy
• Losing our constitutional
rights to make these
decisions for ourselves!
• Loss of Tax money ($16
billion)
Where are they taking us?
• National Control
without accountability
• Workforce/Career
planning through data
mining
• Managed Economy
• Globalism

64. Call to Action
1.Educate yourself and others, visit Arkansas Against Common Core
or Truth in American Education websites
2. Call your local legislator and senator, tell them you are against
Common Core, we want out of PARCC and the Data Mining.
3. Talk to people-post articles on Facebook and twitter
4. Write letters to the editor.
5. Attend and speak to local/state school boards and superintendents.

66. ArkansasAgainstCommonCore.com