Florida School Did NOT Ditch Common Core – DID NOT Soar To Number One

Fact checked
A Florida school did not dump Common Core in favor of traditional teaching methods and therefore its high ranking had nothing to do with the controversial teaching method.

Correction: The original article inaccurately stated that Mason Classical Academy in Florida had ditched Common Core, causing it to rank highly against other schools in the district. The school did not adopt Common Core in the first place.

Additionally, four public schools that participate in Common Core ranked above Mason Classical Academy.

We have therefore updated our headline and retracted the original story upon review.

674 Comments

    • Common-Core was heavily promoted by the Bush’s, especially Jeb in Florida who was a major sponsor.

      • Heavily promoted does not mean created. Common Core was created by many educators but that fact is ignored by Anti Common Core!!! Proper research would help!!! Why does Anti Common Core focus on agreement among the clueless?

        • Doesn’t really matter who created or who promoted. What matters is what it is and what it does to our kids’ education. People should read the several books concerning problems with CC.

          • Must distinguish between Common Core standards & classroom choices. I prefer efforts to improve instead of blame. Even Common Core creators claim bad textbooks & other support. Most complaints are about what it does not control, like testing, data, indoctrination, teaching methods, Islam, etc.
            Use the concerns about Common Core to improve it, that is what engineers & inventors do.

          • Engineers and inventors do not hesitate to start with a blank slate. There is limited opportunity to innovate when standardization has become a goal. TED talks, in fact, started as compensating for student inability to utilize a curriculum that was based on the idea of pounding concepts into peoples’ heads rather than being sparked by their interests. That is why sports, music and art provide opportunity to make learning more of a game than an endurance contest.

          • U.S. education is local & teachers know what works best so standards expect locals to determine how to teach. Reading standards proves they are not limits & results depend on great teachers & local support like textbooks & policies to implement any reforms. Education consists of knowledge & learning how to apply it to real problems. Common Core goals include critical thinking, problem solving & effective communication to explain ideas to others including work groups. It promotes going outside the box to explore different approaches & solutions.

          • Mr Toso, you are so wrong, where do you get the concept that U.S Education is local? It has been controlled by the DOE since the 1908, as I explained in another response to your uneducated information.

            The local school boards must adhere to the State Department of Education, who unfortunately today because of money is controlled by the U.S Department of education which is against constitutional law plain and simple.

            Do the research, look at all sides and put 2 & 2 together, you will see that education in this country is primarily controlled by the Federal government except in those few states who told the to take a hike and threw Common core out, and several other who have redesigned their own system.
            Your comment on miss- information, is totally off base, the Constitution tells us exactly where education standards belong, and it is not at the federal level, and Common Core is pushed by and supported by the Federal government under the Obama adminstration.

            A education program in one state is not necessarily good for another states this has been true for over a 100 years, yet Common Core has this concept that the same thing should be taught in every classroom in every school district in every state.

            there are to many vairables across the 50 states to make this feasible.

            Like I states earlier, whe have built one of the most technically advanced societies in the world based on the education system we have had since to early 1700’s through the 1990’s. This system today is failing us, our students cannot read cursive writing, they know little of our history, they have a total lack of common sense, just look at the people who question these people at random on the streets of our country; the respondents are idiots, that is what we are education in our k12 and colleges across this country today. yes there is a subset of those who strive to educate themselves to a high degree thank God, but the majority who graduate from high school have a 6-7th grade education level, those from junior college a 12th grade education level. this is what you call improvement?

            It is improvement when a student graduates from High School and then has to take a minimum of year of preparatory classes in order to go on to higher education? In our day we came out of High School prepared to go directly into the leading universities in this country and compete our 4-5 years degrees, go on to our Masters and PhD’s,

            This does not happen today in the majority of cases and statistics will show you this.

            Plus the simple fact;] many students do not want to go on to college for a degrees in some field, the want to go into the trades, unfortunately they are directed in this direction by our current education philosophy which causes lots of drop outs and failures in the advanced education forum. We used to tach the trades in our schools and may students went on into those professions, these are skills taht are still required today. Yes some but very few districts are starting to bring this concept back, stepping out of the Common Core everyone must go to college concept. In Minnesota where I used to leive and thank God my kids were educated, we had a Technical college in every county.

            Face the facts, the nation as a whole is against Common Core and the indoctrination text books that are being pushed in our current terrible 35 rand education system in the world, and with these numbers you can support it? Whee did you get you education and when ?

            Facts are Facts!

          • You should read why U.S. Stinks at math!!
            https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/why-do-americans-stink-at-math.html
            You are describing Trad ed before 1990 & blaming Common Core!!! Teachers adapt to learners while using “one size fits all” classrooms & textbooks. Why would states be more flexible than Feds? That sounds like “old wives tales”!
            I found students who moved between communities often complained about new classmates being way ahead or behind previous ones, even with different teachers in the same schools!! In 1975 I was told it took 2 more years for an engineering degree in U.S. than U.K. 1983 “a Nation At Risk” found U.S. ed behind other countries!! Other nations often require trig & physics for everyone, but U.S. would complain is for math majors only.
            FEDS told states to create standards in the 1990s!! Most were terrible so RTTT asked states. share standards to cooperate in groups & compete. Common Core was NOT required but states did not want to share their standards & used CC instead.

          • A DeptEd mission: “research & inform” supports local control. People like you prefer complaining rather than looking for opportunities & cause more harm than good that ruins good intentions.

          • You do realize this school DOES Common Core. They just changed their curriculum or textbooks (paper or online).

          • This article says they dumped the Common Core for traditional teaching methods.
            There is NO such thing as Common Core method of teaching. Teaching methods are local teacher & textbook choices!! They only talk about curriculum, but Common Core is NOT curriculum!!

          • Mason Classical Academy website & this article focus is on curriculum that Common Core is not.
            Follow the Mason Classical Academy curriculum links to find Common Core alignments in Math & English language arts. This article & Mason Classical Academy Curriculum of Core Knowledge reek of Common Core goals. The complaints about Common Core in this article are about Curriculum, that Common Core leaves to local control.
            Would help to understand the issue before judging. This article seems ignorant of the subject.

          • Common core makes you do it a certain way. Only learn certain things in that grade and NOT going beyond it. Common core is if you do a problem in a way that is not taught you are wrong. Mason does not do that. The only common core there is the state testing. That’s how I know. I am active in their school all year long.

          • Standards, like Common Core, do not require testing. That ESSA state testing is for any standards. Common Core does not require a certain method. Being marked wrong for using a different way is local grading policy & is the way I learned decades ago, LONG BEFORE Common Core.
            I fear you have been misinformed.

          • You should ask more informed sources, like the state DeptEd instead of guessing.
            Common Core is a minimum & not a maximum. Local policy determines if exceeding that is allowed.
            Grading is LOCAL policy, including marking a problem wrong for the wrong method.
            ESSA State testing is for any standards even without Common Core.
            Standards are what to learn. Curriculum & teachers choose how to teach the standards.

          • why would a problem be marked wrong if the answer is right? thats just plain stupid and not fair to the kids

          • You should ask teachers! Grading is local policy & not part of standards. Standard is what to teach, not how.

          • There are various ways to get to the correct answer, and a child who shows the ability to solve problems differently should be congratulated, not punished. If I had been told to draw 78 squares and circles, instead of *doing the math*, I’d have run screaming from the room. At the tender age of 6 years, I already understood negative numbers. CC curricula have no concept of teaching according to ability and aptitude, only using rote, slowed-down, simplified methods.

            CC was designed (just like the ‘Look and Say’ Dick and Jane readers) to limit students’ achievement and initiative. Keep things at a snail’s pace, overload the day with repetitive, stultifying nonsense, and voila! you end up with the next batch of ‘learning disabled’ children! Now you can apply for all that Federal money to help your ‘at risk’ students, while still not really teaching much of value or relevance.

          • Common Core is flexible, the limitations are local choices. Grading has always been a local issue. How can you have Common Core state testing unless you have Common Core?

          • You are describing ESSA state testing & local teaching & grading policy, NOT Common Core!!! Ask superintendents, DeptEds, etc.

          • Dude, you a teacher? Big whoop? You seem to know little about the state of education in the country. You’re a fucktard in my oppinion. CA is 49th in the US and we spent the most per student than any place “IN THE FUCKING WORLD” We have a a horrible Le success rate. On avg most kids can’t get into a college based on SATs or thier transcript. They have to go to a JC to get math and English competency that was taught in HS just 30 years ago. Most can’t compete for entrance into universities head to head against foreign students.

            So what if more kids are graduating HS now? When you lower the standards of success, it really isn’t a success. It’s just covering a failure with a bow. Or in my vernacular,; “You can paint a Dog Turd gold, but still it’s just a pretty pile of Shit”

            I hire people for the Govt agencybi work for. We ha e been suffering from a lack of candidates qualified to do our work. We had to create a training program and lower tiers in several classifications because there are no longer young people being educated with the skills we need. 30 years ago a HS grad used to be able to come in and take the tests and qualify; Now we need AS degreed to meet the standard.
            Truth Education has declined because of liberals , Globalists, Republicans, govt, and Fucking Useless Teachers and thier unions.

          • Actually, Common Core is NOT the issue. You must be aware that remedial training has been a problem for decades. 1983 study found U.S. ed 2 years behind Europeans with wildly inconsistent content & results. Fact is U.S. education is not built to improve the curriculum & there exists no mechanism to discuss improvements. Textbooks have dropped in rigor for decades. 1834 Arithmetic book said “much of Arithmetic is practiced but little learned”. Prof Milgram who refused to sign off on Common Core said most states would still improve by adopting it.
            A 2010 comparison showed most states were significantly lower in quality than Common Core. THAT is the sad state of ed in the U.S. It should be a priority for a meaningful focus to address the issue. Trump statement to end Common Core is NOT a constructive approach when states who do make minor changes with their schools using Common Core materials.
            Blame & rejection are not constructive & local control makes any changes difficult & lengthy. If you care about kids then have a positive attitude with meaningful suggestions because the negative attitude has made education improvements impossible.

          • I have been watching U.S. education for decades. The biggest problem is U.S. was not built to improve curriculum and had no experience until recently while people are complaining with little sympathy for those involved.
            I suggest looking into the subject BEFORE judging.

          • So much for DISQUS rules for polite discussion. What government agency to you work for? You won’t say, because you know you are spouting horse shit. I’m sure some people are impressed by your language, but it doesn’t make you point any better.

          • The DOE did not exist until 1979. However, it was designed to dumb down the population. The elites cannot have their precious children competing in life with peons. That’s why for all of their endorsement of public education, they do not put their own children in it. They all go to private schools. It’s good enough for the rest of us, but not good enough for them. The DOE is unconstitutional and needs to be abolished.

          • Since anti Common Core does not want to include locals in standards, they get what they asked for- control by others!!

          • like all common core proponents, you are blind to the truth. kids who got good grades before common core have been failing since it was forced on us

          • Looks like the author looked at classwork & failed to compare with the Common Core standards. No wonder people are confused! This article fails to mention anything about Common Core standards. It actually praises goals in Mason that are part of Common Core like more interaction, thinking & teaching methods that work.

          • NON Common Core states made minor changes & changed the name!! Should do some research!!

          • Incorrect..it is a huge failure by intent…remixing and teaching false claims, it is a production of the Soros mind set via Karl Poppers “Open Society” . Falsification…in matters of all factual claims there is “No truth, No absolutes, No moral attributed, thus ‘the claim’ Fluid gender”….teaching children to live a utopia by falsifying truths !!!! Why do you actually believe statues are coming down across America….because to try and impliment this so-called utopia one must break ALL TRUTHS OF HISTORY, APPLIED SCIENCE, AND GOD….
            CLUE UP….IT IS
            COMMIE CORE

            state ran children

          • Repeal does not work. It only makes minor changes with the same concerns that are not caused by standards. Wiser to focus on what grads need by suggesting & discussing improvements! Locals did not have enough demand to affect textbooks so standards were created in the 1990s. Change to the system to include parents & teachers should be a priority that Anti Common Core seems to ignore!

          • Sounds like you swallowed the misinformation big time. What did you put in YOUR Kool Aid??

          • Mason changed to great curriculum with great local support, that helps any school! Why do they take Common Core tests without being Common Core compatible?

          • You protest too muxh and EVERYONE KNOWS UR TRIPPIN ON IGNORANCE..get a clue toso…give it a rest..no one is listening

          • I focus on the facts like Mason curriculum & Fla standards & testing. What am I missing?

          • You seem focused on classwork & not on who makes decisions. I prefer GOOD sense, not COMMON sense. Most people focus on what is popular or COMMON instead of what independent thinking says.

          • Mason uses Core Knowledge Language Arts (English) that is Common Core aligned & also used in New York & California schools. Mason changed their curriculum, not their standards.

          • Blah blah blah ur rhetoric is annoying repititive nasal and frankly everyone has bailed on you toso.find a corner to play in with ur X box

          • Seems I am not the whiner. Common Core repeal does not fix the majority of concerns. The textbook ideology, strange methods, state testing & data are still there.

          • Anti Common Core is protesting too much with focus on rejection instead of positive improvements. Just don’t whine when your expectations aren’t met.

          • “Common Core goals include critical thinking, problem solving & effective communication to explain ideas to others including work groups. It promotes going outside the box to explore different approaches & solutions.”

            Give me a break!

            More than35 years ago, Sidney Simon’s values Clarification was being promoted as a means of teaching students critical thinking skills, problem solving, etc. It actually taught them to be critical of parental values and mores. Same song, different verse.

            In 1932 the NEA wrote that teachers of the future would be “learning clinicians”. The majority of their time would not be teaching facts.

            Textbooks are written by educators; not your everyday classroom teacher. Our college professors are perfect examples of “educators”. Watch anytime Tucker Carlson interviews a professor.

            Today, our kids don’t have textbooks. They use iPads. Parents can’t read the crap their kids are being taught.

            That brings up an interesting question. Why do we spend billions of dollars on textbooks when our kids don’t even get them? If the class has them at all, it’s classroom sets that are only used in the classroom and students don’t take them home. Easier to hide the indoctrination disguised as teaching.

            The results are very obvious. I thought things were bad when my children entered school. What is going on on college campuses, in the halls of Congress, on the city streets all over the country.

          • People should focus on what POSITIVE improvements are desired rather than complain.
            1834 “North American Arithmetic” said “much of math is practiced but little learned”. That means students were taught to compute but not how to solve real problems not in familiar forms.
            The word “textbooks” is used to include online resources that students & teachers follow. State standards started in the 1990s to influence textbook content while allowing local choices because locals lack the market demand that publishers need. Standards are limited by the choices made by textbook authors.
            Most states made bad standards so Race to the Top wanted states to form groups to cooperate & compete. Any state could have offered to share its standards but only Common Core was chosen.

          • Kids have textbooks. I work for one of the largest textbook companies in the country. I train the teachers in using the online software that mirrors all the hard copy textbooks and workbooks. Every kid in every school I have worked with has a textbook and online access. It’s a state law in CA and schools have to show there is a book for every student. Look up the Williams Act.
            You can go online and see the materials. Nobody is indoctrinating anybody, state textbooks need to meet certain qualifications.

          • I have problems with Common Core opponents focus on repeal instead of what grads need. The great majority of complains are fake news based on misinformation.

          • Testing & data collection are ESSA, NOT Common Core. Claiming Common Core at fault is fake news!!

          • I look beyond classwork to see who decides what & how to teach. I research legitimate sources like Common Core & other state standards, Fed NCLB, ESSA & RTTT. Why does Anti Common Core avoid & refuse to quote from them?

          • Our state mandates Common Core. As a result, just as the article states, we teach to the test all year. This limits what I can do to help specific students. While the theory is that students are free to explore different ways to solve the problem, the reality is my job can be terminated if my students do not make sufficient progress on the tests mandated by Common Core.

          • I recommend research. Those tests & data collection were & are mandated by Republican passed NCLB (2003) No Child Left Behind & now ESSA (2015) Every Student Succeeds Act for ALL states even without Common Core. States use results as proof of State ed quality & fairness for Fed funding of NCLB title 1.
            Common Core is NOT the cause of state testing or data collection!!

          • I don’t need to do research. I sat in a conference this spring as a run up to our mandated testing and asked the question of state officials regarding the status of common core in Idaho. I was told that, currently, it is the law and that the state had signed a 3 year contract with a vendor to supply and design testing so even if common core went away, we would be required to follow it for at least another 2 years. The state representative clearly linked common core to our testing requirements. She made no mention of NCLB or any other federal regulation. Is that sufficient proof for you?

          • I am saying the focus at the time was with the vendor contract, NOT the NCLB or ESSA law.

          • You seem to be a total convert. What you are, in essence, saying to me is that 1) I misunderstood this person from the department of education or 2) she didn’t know what she is talking about. That is insulting to say the least as I have a very good education and my hearing is not so impaired as to prevent me from understanding the spoken word. Second, it is insinuating that you know more than the person who is responsible and answerable to the State Superintendent. You aren’t arrogant, are you?

          • I have contacted multiple state ed officials & got the same answer each time!!! States comply with ESSA testing with or without Common Core. The conversation must have been about Common Core testing, not ESSA compliance!!

          • The entire conversation was focused on common core testing and, as the state official explained, this testing was mandated by Idaho law in compliance with federal standards driven by common core. Now, I am tired of this conversation. I know the facts. I also know that as local control has evaporated, the quality of education has declined. That is not progress. You are obviously convinced that you have superior knowledge and refuse to accept what I say I saw and heard in person. Ergo, you are an academic bigot who won’t listen to anyone else or consider any other viewpoint. Ge gone! We, the people, do not need elitists like you, telling us how to live our lives.

          • I see you focus on opinion rather than the defining laws. This is about understanding Common Core NOT supporting it. You seem unable to distinguish the difference.

          • I see you cannot read and understand. I am 61 almost 62 years old. I have taught at the elementary level, the collegiate level, and for the US military. I looked at more learning models than I care to name. I hold a masters degree. I have also traveled in Europe and the Middle East. My experience tells me that Common Core is a fraud. While it is laudable to have students succeed, when you remove parents and local educators from the equation and hand control to faceless bureaucrats you get solutions that do not work. Such a framework results in rigidity more similar to that imposed by Hitler’s Nazi Party and the Soviet Union. All will march to the dictate of someone a thousand or more miles away who, probably, hasn’t been anywhere near a classroom. We don’t need federal, or for that matter, state bureaucrats who have no experience teaching dictating to teachers what they will teach, how they will teach, and what will be the outcome. If you want to support such tyranny, you are an enemy of freedom and of the Constitution. Now, I am going to put you on ignore as you are a blind fanatic of federal control which makes you my enemy and I have much better things to do than to argue with someone who denigrates my experience, education, knowledge, etc.

          • ESSA requires testing. The Vendor contract is Common Core. Education is local & Common Core says teachers know what works decide how to teach. I am 65 and am puzzled at your attitude.

          • You were focused on testing that happened to be for Common Core that ESSA dictates for states even without Common Core.

          • I am reading the applicable definitions, ESSA & NCLB laws & Common Core standards.
            Here is a quote from ESSA “https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-114s1177enr/pdf/BILLS-114s1177enr.pdf”

            “Each State plan shall demonstrate that the State educational agency, in consultation with local educational agencies, has implemented a set of high quality student academic assessments in mathematics, reading or language arts, and science.”

            This means the FEDS ESSA requires state assessments!! It goes on to say Common Core is NOT required & cannot even be promoted by Feds or DOE.

          • I suggest asking the state department official directly instead of guessing!!! Read the ESSA & NCLB laws!! Testing is required even without Common Core. Ask non Common Core states like Texas, Nebraska, Virginia etc.
            ESSA requires testing. Specific standards like Common Core limits which tests can be used!

          • I suggest asking the state department official directly about which requires testing, Common Core or ESSA(NCLB). The Fed ESSA/NCLB laws are much stronger proof than news articles.
            ESSA requires testing. Standards like Common Core just define which tests can be used.

          • Actual Fed ESSA/NCLB laws are much stronger evidence than news articles! ESSA requires testing, actual standards, like Common Core define which tests can be taken.

          • You didn’t listen to the embedded video did you. The man stated the purpose of Common Core. That is the point of disagreement. Common Core is a fraud. It’s public face is to claim it will improve education, when in reality, its purpose is to subvert and to destroy. Common Core is nothing more than further attempts by elitists to create a two tier society. That is a society of them at the top and the rest of us kneeling in submission. Tear it up! Throw it out! The education i received many years ago from the public school system is vastly superior to what I see teachers to day struggling to implement as they are forced to comply with an increasing burden of legislative and regulatory demands.

          • The success of any reform, like Common Core, depends on great teachers, training textbooks & support as seen by the difference between New York & California.
            https://edsource.org/2016/new-york-stumbles-california-advances-on-common-core-implementation/92986
            1834 “North American Arithmetic” said “much of math is practiced but little is learned”. I found many adults quickly confused by simple real life problems because they learned tables & procedures but not how & why math worked.
            I understood the embedded video DID YOU? Many adults did not experience the Brown Vs Education board or they would have agreed.
            Many adults can’t think critically or solve problems unless in standard form.
            Standards teach the same skills to everyone but is not a limitation. CC is the minimum or what everyone should learn but not a limitation.

          • Standards focus on substance. Form or how to teach is local choice. Anyone who reads Common Core knows that.

          • I suppose if what you say is true, then this school’s performance was an oddity. We measure from results as anyone who has managed an organization will tell you.

          • People tend to forget that U.S. education is LOCAL. Any reform depends on great LOCAL teachers, training & support like textbooks.

          • The word “academy” is a clue that it is not a local public school. Public schools are at the throne of the DOE for their financing.

          • Mason Classical Academy curriculum of Core Knowledge Language Arts & Singapore math are used as Common Core curriculum. CKLA is used in EngageNY. Amazing people try to blame Common Core for local curriculum choices then celebrate when they think they succeeded without Common Core

          • US education is NOT local, it IS federal, do some research, oh, you cant you support common core and that is against common core

          • What if anything do you support? Complaints without positive ideas never improves anything. Before 1990s teachers chose from existing textbooks without being able to influence textbook content or quality.
            “A Nation At Risk” in 1983 found quality & results were inconsistent & falling. Feds told LOCALS & STATES to take charge & shape of content proof that ed was improving.
            The lackluster ed was exposed with more rigorous testing & states cheating to raise scores.

          • the teachers cant influence common core either, so what has changed,besides frustrating our kids so much that they hate school? how much are you paid to promote this dismal failure?

          • Why are you wasting your efforts by whining instead of discussing what grads need? I have suggested including high states standards like Mass as a competitor to Common Core for years. All I find are people like you who want to complain instead of looking for solutions!!
            I have been encouraging parents & teachers to create a way to discuss & influence textbook content & results. All you can see is support for ONE option. PLEASE understand the system & focus on how to be included in reforms!!

          • Individual teachers can make corrections to textbooks but lack the market demand to make major changes. That is why Feds told STATES to take charge. I was part of Oklahoma’s effort to improve their standards. The effort lacked the discussion required to include more than insignificant comments & improvements I recommended decades ago.
            Focus on positive actions needed by future generations.
            Here is Stotsky’s ELA proposal.
            http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2000/01/Stotsky-Optional_ELA_standards.pdf

          • to answer your question of what i support, i support going back to the education we had before all these beaurocrats started interfering

          • I expect people to do proper research & not to trust me or mine.
            Mason Classical Academy Curriculum page. Need to look under Departments to find math.
            http://www.masonclassicalacademy.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=256171&type=d
            CKLA(Core Knowledge Language Arts)
            https://3o83ip44005z3mk17t31679f-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/CKLA-Research-Overview-2016.pdf
            Mason Classical Academy “Singapore Math” page.
            http://www.masonclassicalacademy.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=223995&type=d

          • I notice you don’t include any supporting facts, only opinions. I researched the Florida standards to see minor changes to Common Core while using the same tests. Mason curriculum of CKLA & Singapore math are used by Common Core schools.
            Where is your proof?

          • Common Core standards are NOT more “rigorous” as its proponents claim. Since you (Michael) want to focus ONLY on math and English/Language Arts, let’s go there. Sandra Stotsky, the ONLY ELA expert and a member of the Massachusetts state board of education, hired to validate CC ELA standards, refused to sign off on the standards because they were inferior to the previous standards in many states and “cannot prepare students for authentic college course work.” Likewise, math professor James Milgram, the ONLY mathematician on the CC validation committee, refused to sign off on the math standards saying they would put students two years behind other countries by the time they reach 8th grade and the “get even worse in high school.” He has also publicly stated that only 5% of AP students intending to enter STEM professions, ever graduate with a STEM degree. Even Jason Zimba, one of three creators of Common Core math, admits that the term “college ready” is a “minimal definition of college readiness” and that it is “not only NOT for STEM but NOT for ‘selective’ colleges.” These statements are available on video and in print. http://www.educationviews.org/common-core-college-career-standards-big-fraud/. For the record, I haven’t read every single comment in this thread, but from my observation, Michael, you are the only one using the term “racism.” Anti-American, anti-Christian and pro-islam bias have been cited hundreds of times by concerned parents nationwide in Pearson (Common Core) textbooks, but their voices are being drowned out by the educrats, many of whom who treat parents with contempt. One of my own local school board members confirmed very recently that our public school teachers are required to teach the five pillars of islam. Why then, are we not teaching them the Protestant apostles creed, the catechism, or the tenets of the Jewish faith? Bill Gates, who dumped billions of his own money into the development of Common Core, signed an agreement with UNESCO in 2004 to train teachers worldwide to teach Common Core. States like Florida and most other states – many with GOP governors have changed 1 to 3% of the curriculum and simply renamed it – like “Florida Standards” Our college entrance exams are Common Core aligned. The lucrative business of Common Core “edcuation” (indoctrination) pays big dividends to the (partially) Saudi shareholder owned multi-billion dollar Pearson conglomerate, which has bought out most of the major publishing companies worldwide (like Houghton-Mifflin and many others), testing corporations and data tracking organizations. It’s proponents and supportive politicians have everything to gain and nothing to lose by supporting Common Core. it will take an act of God to remove the curse of Common Core and to restore true local control of education.

          • Common Core like any standards is an outline for skills or knowledge required. Textbooks fill in the details. PLEASE compare them before judging!! I do not doubt I am alone in my observations. People look at homework, not standards.
            Even Common Core creators are frustrated at the poor quality curriculum (books).
            Local control requires CHOICES!! Textbook publishers need market demand to change textbooks & locals lack such demand. That is why Feds told states to take charge & create standards in the 1990s. When most states failed, Race to the Top encouraged states to form groups to cooperate & compete with multiple standards. Any state could share its standards to compete with Common Core. They focused on Common Core instead with some states going alone.
            Why are you concerned about Common Core teaching Islam etc when it is ENGLISH & MATH, NOT history? The people saying Islam is taught but not Christianity or other religions seem to forget History is not ONE book or grade!

          • Michael is apparently being paid to advocate for Common Core. The facts don’t matter. Common Core is inferior! The ONLY TWO EXPERTS ON THE “VALIDATION COMMITTEE” AND EVEN THE CREATORS OF COMMON CORE MATH AND ELA ADMIT THAT IT WILL NOT PREPARE KIDS FOR COLLEGE! Why do you continue to defend the indefensible?

          • Common Core is about vendors & kick-backs to those pushing & promoting @ the federal level. That’s why countless states/local school districts are being held hostage for federal funding if they don’t implement. You may be correct in saying that it is not a requirement of said state or local school to participate…but, it will clearly come at a cost by not complying to the mandated federal requirement to the contrary!!! Nice try slick, but you aren’t fooling anybody…

          • Fed funding is about high standards proven by the states own colleges, NOT any specific standards. Read NCLB or RTTT or ask state Depteds. You obviously haven’t checked!! Sharing the same standards is cheaper. But ask Oklahoma. They say no need to buy new books!!!!

          • Fed requirement is HIGH quality & effective results without requiring specific content, standards or testing. If you had read the defining dox you would know. I focus on solutions while you are too busy arguing against Common Core to focus on anything positive to help grads.

          • You really are confused. Common Core is about standards. The textbook industry is where your vendors & kick-backs are a problem that exists with or without Common Core.

          • Most Common Core complaints are textbooks issue, confusion with other subjects & ESSA testing & data. The math methods are chosen by teachers & textbooks, NOT Common Core.

          • No, it’s not a snarky “No” matter. Of course, interested persons should read everything they can on the subject, including what Common Core says about itself, as well as the various articles and books on how it has or has not worked well for students.

        • Sorry Mr. Tosco, it was crated by a political think tank in Washington D.C. check out it’s actual history, those educators that were involved many dropped out and even refused to endorse it because of the simple fat it was dumbing down our students and putting them years behind other countries especially in Math.

          You are listening to the left propaganda and believing every bit of it. do the research I have for the past 6 years, what they DOE and Obama adminstration told you about a governors board etc was hogwash pure and simple.
          It basically stated in 2008 and maybe a couple years before but full practice of implementation was in 2008, lead by Janet Napalitano, the governor of Arizona, later .the effort was spearheaded by the NGA, CCSSO and Achieve think tanks, 90% to the left of center.

          It has been a disaster nationwide and local school board performance data shows it is a failure. Thanks in part to financial incentives dangled by the Obama administration, more than 40 states had adopted them, the states would not have accepted this standard had i not been their geed for federal money. 2013 in states like New York, and Indiana new Common Core-aligned tests had sent scores plummeting, ,”I have a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electronics Engineering which included extensive study in differential equations and other high-math applications, Even I cannot explain the Common Core mathematics approach, nor get the answer correct.”

          The CCSS adds nothing to what we know about how to teach reading. It adds nothing to how we teach arithmetic and mathematics. It adds nothing to how we teach history, geography, and the “social studies.” In short, it is a fraud to get the American taxpayer to shell out big bucks for something that we already know how to do. Yes, science has greatly expanded, but it also expanded from 1850 to 1950 and didn’t require a different methodology from the scientific method developed by the great scientists of the past. We may have better equipment which students of science must learn to operate, but the scientific method has not changed.

          And of course, the CCSS were made to be as complicated as possible so that no parent or normal human being could understand them. For example, there is something called “Common Core State Standards Official Identifiers and XML Representation.” It states:

          People of my generation built this world to what it is today, we went to the Moon and back, have sent satellites off into deep space, built fantastic airplanes that fly, all of this happening over the past 80 plus years-NO Common Core. today I would hate to fly in a plane built by an individual who throughout their education was allowed to get acceptable on his math problems even of the end answer was wrong, but he followed the Common Core procedure to arrive at that solution!

          Every single education p[program that the Federal govt has tried to push on the people has been a total failure, No Child Left Behind cost $7 Billion dollars, Race To TheTop anther catastrophic failure,

          Education is primarily a State and local responsibility in the United States. It is States and communities, as well as public and private organizations of all kinds, that establish schools and colleges, develop curricula, and determine requirements for enrollment and graduation, NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! 92 percent of the funds for public schooling comes from non-Federal sources.

          In 1965 the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA Pub.I.89-1- Stat 27, 20 U.S.C. ch 70) launched a comprehensive set of programs.. The Act funds primary and secondary education, while explicitly forbidding the establishment of a national curriculum.

          The Department of Education made a Government department in the 1980 by Jimmy Carter is illegal under the Constitution of this country,
          The Federal government is not given authority under our Constitution to establish or control education, it is a states right under the 10th amendment.

          Common C ore has to go, and the Federal Government needs to get out of their forced indoctrination upon our nation by eliminating the Department of Education.

          The only states that have continued to go with Common Core are thoise being given money by the Federal government to do so,

        • Nope. Common Core was NOT “created by many educators”. And the few who were involved were mostly from higher education, almost none from K-12. K-12 teachers WERE invited to “comment” on the CC in groups, but very little was changed based on these groups’ input. Those in charge of CC creation were David Coleman, mainly, with major input/funding from textbook publishers. They took some of the good ideas from the major subject specific research organizations…NCTM, NCTE, etc and totally effed up their ideas. As well as backmapping content introduction so that by kindergarten and 1st grade the material was totally inappropriate.

    • Actually, it does not have a lot to do with Obama, or GW Bush ( No Child Left Behind ) or any U.S. President. Acceptable curriculum is affected by pressures from UNESCO defining what is to be taught in education. That is how the idea that man controls nature superseded the one that natural forces are in play to create conditions on our world came about – and climate change consensus is only one example of absolute tommyrot promoted by a mindwash brigade. Search YouTube for articles by Charlotte Iserbyt outlining the Dumbing Down of children. To do that it was necessary to wrest control from school boards and parents and put corporations and governments in charge of ‘standards’….the better to homogenize bullshit.

      • Jeb Bush and Bill Gates put $200M to start Common Core to which it was researched and implemented in the school system. I read this and knew who started it from the get go! The Gates and Bushes are part of the elite that to control population you start with the young as well as Gates idea of vaccines to control the young to have issues having kids. Its all about population control.

        • Bill Gates usually has the magic touch and whatever JEB touches turns to shit…. I guess this is what happens when the immovable object meets the unstoppable force.

          • Jeb is to retarded to take blame for that. His mom told him to do it and every buddy knows it.

          • Except for when Gates gets involved with education. Children are not electrical plugs, widgets (Gates did a whole speech on this topic). And he has tried and tossed numerous innovations in education (small high schools, for example), which doesn’t affect him much, but to the schools it can be devestating, and he just goes “my bad”.

        • Wrong! The state-led effort to develop the Common Core State Standards was launched in 2009 by state leaders, including governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, two territories and the District of Columbia, through their membership in the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA). This is what Mel posted above. Came from Governors.

      • Actually Obama had a LOT to do with it.

        In order to get states to get their hands on the 400 billion stimulus dollars set aside for Education under Obama (remember that?) they had to AGREE to use the gov’t CommonCore as spelled out in Obama’s Education plan, Race To The Top. His lefty buddies FUNDED and created it (Bill Gates and Co.) and Obama soft-pushed it blackmailing with money to the states that agreed. Most did.

        • That is incorrect. We agreed to use the Common Core Standards developed by the states. Obama’s plan did not spell out any curricular standards. The standards were created to level the playing field and correct the deficiencies in reading Comprehension and conceptual math that arose from NCLB. Why don’t you do some more research and quit parroting rightwingnut talking points?

          • You are incorrect. Obama’s education plan STATES that in order for the States to get their money for “education” they MUST adhere to Common Core, which was developed by Bill Gates and his band of lefties.

            Do cry harder for the Obama’s lefty policies are getting decimated in rapid fire succession by our American President. And it’s not over yet, not by a long shot. Obama’s digital library, the one he thought that would be sealed for 5 years to hide his corruption, just got RAIDED. LOL. Obama will be tried for sedition and treason. Mark my word.

            Glory days ahead for America, a great time to be alive!

            The Storm Is Coming……

          • You can taunt me if you want. I was a school principal and teacher for 26 years. I was a Common core trainer. Your President has changed nothing. What do you do, anyway? And I noticed a few of Trump’s people have been indicted or have pleaded guilty! LOL Mueller needs a bigger boat for his witch hunt cause he has bagged so many! You #MAGAmutts need to listen to a different dog whistle!

          • “I was a common core trainer” That statement says it all. Si which educational system failed you?

          • I have a master’s degree in education administration. What do you do for a living?

          • And what do you do? All you EXPERTS in education refuse to say what profession you’re in, if any. Just cause you went to school, you think that qualifies you. And keep on imitating Trump with his “sad” word. Your kids are going to suffer because of your close minds and ignorance.

          • Yeah, ok Trump Parrot. How about “Mexicans will build it, Awk, they will give us pieces of eight, AWK! Mexicans will build the wall!

          • What do you do? Anybody can give opinions. I get paid $500 a day to train teachers in tech and Common Core. What do you get paid to do?

          • I am a lawyer with an LLM in Taxation with an undergraduate degree in accounting with a CPA certificate. I make a lot more than $500 per day when I choose to work and have supervised literally hundreds in a heavy manufacturing scenario. I watched my grandchildren struggle with the common core shit cluster. But, like everything else associated with public education, you have the rank and file who were the least intelligent of their college classes doing a job no one else wanted, got underpaid, and eventually were sitting in a classroom on the ROAD program, ‘retired on active duty’. Fact of the matter is Jackthehack, I can take a month and do what you do and you could take five years to my job and still could not grasp my duties. Over the years I get so amused when I see and hear how educational administrators believe they are so unique and valuable. Baloney, pure baloney.

          • Hope you feel better. I don’t think you realize your opinions about who teachers are matches things people say about lawyers. Especially people on the right. And I had five people come to my school from the business community to shadow me when I was Principal for ten years. All of them said they had ‘no idea” how difficult educating kids can be. You couldn’t last in one of our classrooms for a full day. Glad you make a lot of money as a lawyer. Have a few in my family. My dad, stepdad, daughter, and sister are all lawyers. I ran a school with yearly $500K budgets, but I would not presume to think I could learn all the ins and outs of accounting in five days. I think I could go to law school and pass the bar in 3 years, though. Don’t think it would take me five.

          • Jack, you must be a real dumba** , i get paid $1,000 a day, and that makes me better than you

          • Yeah, well added to my retirement pension, I actually make more than that on the days I work. Hopefully you are wealthy and have that also when you retire.
            And since you insulted me for no reason, knock yourself out commenting again. I won’t waste any time with a reply. Typical behavior for those who can’t debate. C U, dumbass.

          • Seems most Common Core opponents have little awareness of what it is. I would like to see the ed system more able to improve smoothly & regularly. Most complaints seem to be from those willing to give opinions but only want repeal, not improve.

          • And when they learned you were a Common Core fan they fired you and you have been unemployed ever since.

          • No I retired from the school district and get paid very well as a tech consultant. I also supervise student teachers for a local state university.
            What do you do?

          • “Obama will be tried for sedition and treason. Mark my word.”
            That was what was said to me, so I replied to it.

          • That is an ignorant statement, but that’s ok. I didn’t start talking about Trump.

          • Like I said, do some research.
            “Until the Every Student Succeeds Act was passed in December 2015, the US Department of Education had encouraged states to adopt the Common Core Standards by tying the grant of waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act to adoption of the Standards. However, the Every Student Succeeds Act not only replaced the No Child Left Behind Act, it also expressly prohibits the Department of Education from attempting to “influence, incentivize, or coerce State adoption of the Common Core State Standards … or any other academic standards common to a significant number of States.”[20]” 2015, MEL! Ignorant.

          • Oh Jack, one worthless Education plan just takes over the next. Stop with all your words that amount to nothing.

            Like I said, Obama’s hogwash plan was to instill “group think” and brainwash our kids.

            Sure do like Obammy do ya? You can visit him in jail soon … will be stripped of his presidency too for Treason x1000.

            Get out from Obammy’s behind and do some research or stay angry and in the dark.

          • The Feds incentivesed adoption by making grant money more a “available” to schools that did.

          • That grant money is not what funds schools. It was in addition. When I was principal we had categorical funding based on our population. And school districts still receive that funding. We had more money from 2012 on than we ever had. If you think that’s why states adopted Common Core, you are listening to the wrong people.

          • So you don’t have to be a charter school in order to use another system than the common core?
            Also, what hold is there to accountability if a school has taken those monies. If they aren’t on task, do the funds get withdrawn, and who decides the oversight? Thank you for your thoughts on this.

          • No, if your state wants to use something else they can. The reason so many states went with Common Core is it better prepares kids for college, which was a problem with NCLB. Kids would have high scores but could not function in college because of weak writing and reading skills. As far as accountability goes, I see very little. The whole system is in disarray and we need to revisit the implementation and accountability. Race to the Top was a bad idea, and Education Dept. under Obama was one area he did not do well with. This does not change the fact Common Core was developed in the states and are better for kids.

          • Thank you for your kind reply. I hope we can revisit the system….I had such a shock and discouragement about it this past fall that your comment was the first since September that gives me some hope. (I am a French teacher who forayed into the elementary much to my chagrin. It should have been the joy of my life. (I don’t want to say what state I am talking about).

          • 🙂 I am credentialed in Cali. I just applied for a long term sub job today at a school in Sta. Monica that seems to embody what you are talking about. I hope they call me.

          • Good for you. If you want some Common Core Documents I have that would help you, send me your email and I will share them with you.

          • I have yet to hear one college professor state that children are better prepared for college. On the contrary the professors I have talked to are very discouraged, and weary of their job because the students are so ill-prepared. They do not speak highly of the Common Core standards at all.

          • Common Core has only been in effect for four years in my state. They are seeing the results of multiple choice testing education, which Common Core tests do not use. Kids in college today were in high school in 2012. Did not get Common Core in K-8.

          • And how are kids in college ‘functioning ‘ now? Common Core was and is a disaster. Follow the money, Jack.

          • Check my previous answers, I said the kids in college in CA did not have Common Core instruction in elementary school. I have also stated the rollout of Common Core by our system was flawed and we need to fix it. Was saying that from day one, continued to say it through my last three years in my district and continue to say it today.
            If you really knew me, you would know I have always been critical of the public school system and stood up for that stance and it cost me sometimes. I also support charter schools if they are run correctly and my daughter attended one for high school.

          • My husband and I are both retired CA public school teachers. You are correct in what you said. As we watched CA circle the drain over the years, it was, as you know, so frustrating to see all of the programs that were instituted by ‘friends’ of those in power. Big bucks walked in, and the children of the state were fed the worst in education. I also supported charter schools, but felt badly for those who never had a chance to attend them. Thank you for your response. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and California’s pudding is rotten.

          • Thanks for the response. There are people on here that just want to insult and attack people. Most of them never read my intial statements.

          • We also have allowed falsification of suspension rates by keeping kids in school who should be suspended. Our state math scores in middle schools show the fraud. Suspension rates are way down but scores are flatlined at less than 20% in large districts. So disruptive kids are still disrupting and keeping others from learning. Otherwise, the scores should be going up just cause of the additional time they are getting in class.

          • STOP following the money & focus on improving the ed system to allow regular smooth updates. Look at who controls content. Textbook publishers were always in charge so Feds told locals & states to take action to improve textbooks & content. In other words, FEDS told states & locals to take control from publishers!!! Standards like Common Core is one way to tell publishers what skills are desired. THEN teachers & textbooks decide HOW to teach those skills!!

          • Mel is correct, you had to endorse and use Common Core standards before you could touch a penny of the Race to the Top grant monies. This ended up hurting the poorer states disproportionally, as they rely on Federal grants to operate. ,

          • They still received their usual Federal categorical funding. Race to the Top was extra. The fact they are in states that choose not to spend as much on education is unfortunate. And prior to Common Core, states that set higher instructional bars were penalized while states who set lower standards were rewarded.

          • Nope. Some states do not use Common Core and have not lost federal money. Minnesota is an example. They use the English standards but not the math standard. Seven states, including Virginia are not Common Core states at all in any form and they did not lose any federal funding. It is not true that states MUST adhere to Common Core. I have family in VA that are very conservative and very upset about how schools are working for their kids and they tried to blame Common Core until I pointed out to them that VA did not adopt Common Core.

          • Wrong, actually it all but 5 states, Texas, Alaska, Nebraska, Virginia and Minnesota. And wrong again, Virginia did not apply because they did not meet the requirements and were too low on the totem poll to be competitive to receive the grants so they withdrew, same with Texas and Alaska with Nebraska getting it but with a palty 10% of what the top tier CC enthusiasts got.

            Whether the crappy SOL in Va or the crappy CC or any other systems used by states in America, all of it is worthless as America continues to plummet in the international rankings (PISA). And the public schools funded by the gov’t, with exception, produces the most poor results.

            Since the 70’s our education system in America is either stagnant or plummeting but never rising against ourselves and the international community. Common Core was just another failure, not the ONLY failure.

          • Our public school system is not doing well and needs to be revamped in a lot of areas. I agree with that. But there is no evidence full access charters do any better by any measurement when measured using the same criteria as public schools. Part of the problem is the school board- superintendent relationship.

          • I had all three of my children in various charters at various times in their lives. With the exception of ONE school I was thrilled with them (and I am talking 5 out of 6 schools) I live in an urban district. What they got from the charter schools was equal to what they had gotten in private schools and NOT equal to what was offered in the public schools.

          • and the other part is the STUPID criteria we use to measure schools. There needs to be CHOICE for kids to learn various things esp. when they get to HS. This baloney of trying to make every child on track for college is uh….baloney. Not all kids are college material. Not all kids ARE interested in college. And we NEED people in trades. Furthermore, they can make damn good money.

          • Wrong, actually it all but 5 states, Texas, Alaska, Nebraska, Virginia and Minnesota. And wrong again, Virginia did not apply because they did not meet the requirements and were too low on the totem poll to be competitive to receive the grants so they withdrew, same with Texas and Alaska with Nebraska getting it but with a palty 10% of what the top tier CC enthusiasts got.

            Whether the crappy SOL in Va or the crappy CC or any other systems used by states in America, all of it is worthless as America continues to plummet in the international rankings (PISA). And the public schools funded by the gov’t, with exception, produces the most poor results.

            Since the 70’s our education system in America is either stagnant or plummeting but never rising against ourselves and the international community. Common Core was just another failure, not the ONLY failure.

          • You seem to ignore Feds influence on education is limited, SO QUIT whining & blaming Feds!! In 1970s, Brit grads were 2 years ahead of U.S. 1983 study found states’ quality & results wildly inconsistent & recommended changes.
            U.S. education is local so success by any reform depends on great local support, training, teachers & curriculum. Fed is NOT allowed to interfere with local control so they encourage constructive approaches with funding BUT they cannot influence content or standards etc.

          • Virginia ,Has turned out to be a Socialist state,. And to think it they along with Massachusetts and Pennsylvania was once the Cradle of Liberty. They have changed their State motto to “Virginia is for Losers”

          • OH, I HOPE YOU ARE RIGHT!! It would be wonderful to see Obama and the Clintons hrld accountable for their despicable actions.

          • The storm is here alright….I cannot wait till ALL the dominoes finish falling. Dream on….

          • Mel how did you find out that BHO’s digital library was raided? I say Great.I hope and pray this man is shown to be “The Liar in chief” we knew he was and is still.

          • The storm is coming for Trump, and for your tax dollars. Trump (DeVos) is pushing Charter Schools as a way to bring the bible back into the classroom. Look what has happened to Charter Schools like this one in our large cities: They have not worked. Now we’ll get more of them and waste more of your money.

          • Jack, I hate to burst your bubble, but you’re wrong. You liberals hate the truth because it makes you look like the fools you really have are.

          • Deno, hate to burst YOUR bubble but you know nothing about me. What do you do for a living? And with the new guilty pleas, your boy is in deep and over his head. And no we don’t hate the truth, we can read and comprehend just like you racist idiots. We could have had a discussion but all you #MAGAmutts want to do is talk crap and call names. Get outta here with your BS.

          • When people claim to know what’s going on in education, I ask them what they do because it speaks to how much they know or do not know. That’s all. Lot of people talk about Common Core without knowing what they are talking about. If they work in education, I’d like to know that.

          • Because we are now living with the results Jack. We have kids graduating hugh school that lack…well…almost everything. In college classes they are asked to be spoon fed information. They can’t crtically think their way out of a box. They now expect to be “taught to the test.” Thry actually want to know what is ON the test exactly “so we don’t waste time studying what isn’t going to be on the test.” Would it hurt them to study the whole chapter/s? You betcha…it’s not what they’re used to.

          • I totally agree the high schools are graduating lids who can’t cut it in college. But Common Core was not around when they were in Elementary School . Common Core was designed to make sure all kids were doing just what you say needs to happen.

          • One thing I do know about poor management and administrators is how well change and confusion covers their tracks.

          • I had no tracks to cover. Still don’t. I am a critic of public education and am writing a book about all the stupid things that happen in our system. The poor job we did rolling out Common Core is chapter 1.

          • he feels superior because he taught and then or now is a principal…with high honors. Only problem was for the last 8 or so years, the Common Core was a stupid/ridiculous lesson plan to have been forcing on our children. I went into the Common Core site, it let me in because I said I was a teacher…I checked out the plans, and when I came to the book with pages of sketches of both boys and girls masturbating, that was all I needed to see to know this is not a good plan for third graders, and the math was insane! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c344210cc5d760c9a1eeb66c9303eb048e1e955bf52e6d09f4fd7f4a57f8292a.jpg
            Someone blacked out the sexual images, which were perfectly viewable… The entire program needs to be removed, and the people who wrote it fired.

          • That’s bullshit! What “Common Core Site?” There is no Common Core site that designates reading titles for schools. I have heard of that book and it sure didn’t come from ANY Common Core site that is real. I work for a major school textbook publisher and have never heard of ANY REAL Common Core website that selects ANY reading stories for kids.

          • Are you serious right now? You claim all others want to do is talk crap & call names. But you responded to Deno calling people “racist idiots & MAGAmutts”. It seems you are the name caller. It also seems you need to concentrate on your own profession as an “Educator”. I’ve never seen a true Educator name call as you do and have such a trashy attitude as you. With our kids dealing with the Common Core curriculum along with “Educators” such as yourself, no wonder our country’s children overall aren’t proficient or performing to their potential.

          • You need to go back and see how many times I was insulted before I responded in kind.

          • You are so ignorant Lori.. You know 0 about education, 0 about how the classroom works, 0 about the system and fricking 0 about the politics teachers face when trying to do the best for their students. Please inform yourself…you may just learn something…

          • Bots bots everywhere bots … coming out of the woodwork like cockroaches even answering from 3 months ago. Move forward Jack. Let it go. Its good for the soul … oh, nevermind.

          • States were given an incentive to adopt the Common Core Standards through the possibility of competitive federal Race to the Top grants. U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the Race to the Top competitive grants on July 24, 2009, as a motivator for education reform.

          • Yes, but Obama Administration did not create them. They originated in the states.
            Council of Chief State School Officers.The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization of public officials who head departments of elementary and secondary education in the U.S. states

          • Makes no difference who thought it up, us a stupid idea that caused more problems than benefits!

          • You won’t know about that for another few years. It was poorly implemented. And it does make a difference. This was not top down direction.

          • What kind of BS did you gI’ve into? Level the playing field? Since when does doing a good job include holding any child back?

          • This post by Jackthehack is correct. We agreed to use the Common Core Standards developed by the states. Obama’s plan did not spell out any curricular standards. Obama purposely let districts figure for themselves what methodology to use. Bottom line, Charter Schools waste your money.

          • “The standards were created to level the playing field” that seems scary al by itself. Education doesn’t need Socialism.

        • Wrong! The state-led effort to develop the Common Core State Standards was launched in 2009 by state leaders, including governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, two territories and the District of Columbia, through their membership in the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA

        • Exactly. The partisan bickering about who is more responsible for the globalist common core agenda is a waste of time. Clinton, Bush (Bushes), and Obama are all globalists who follow the globalist agenda to dumb down the masses in order to better control them. That’s one reason they all hate Trump who is trying to re-ignite patriotism, nationalism and capitalism, which have been the engine of enormous prosperity for the majority of Americans.
          This is where partisan debate is worthwhile: If we could eliminate the “government plantation” efforts by democrats to maintain minorities’ dependence upon government largess and, therefore, capturing their votes, and eliminate democrat race-baiting in order to increase racism to further divide us, huge additional numbers of minorities would also be able to participate in this prosperity. But that would destroy the democrats’ voter base so they will never agree to it.

          • Anyone who wants to go read read UNESCO order 21. It explains the need for dedication the advanced countries. The justification is that intelligent techno advanced countries use to much resources. It’s about a global alignment of wealth and equality of life.

      • No Child Left behind was a HUGE platform that Clinton ran on and pushed through.
        Unfortunately for W when he was elected it was on his desk for him to sign. Though he could’ve vetoed, his ONLY action towards it was putting his name on it.

        • His signature indicated that he acknowledged and agreed with what was put before him. That is what a signature is for.

          • False, it indicated that the Senate (D controlled) and House (D Controlled) had agreed to the previous administration’s (D – Clinton) pushing of it.
            W’s signature was a grandiose gesture and he had no say. The house and senate said that any veto would be overturned with a 2/3’s vote.
            It was also a way for W to show that he was willing to cross the aisle.
            Had he known the lunatic turn the Dems would take during his 8 years he never would’ve signed.

          • “Lunatic turn”? Like lying to the nation to get us in a war that we’re still in? Yep, that WAS lunatic!

          • Bush was following the so-called “intelligence” that the “intelligence agencies” gave him about Saddam having WMDs. These are the same “intelligence agencies” that Democrats now trust without question that Trump colluded with the Russians! Now that’s utter lunacy!!!

          • What is utter lunacy is that you swallowed the garbage that 23 intelligence agencies gave GWB intel that Iraq had nukes. That was so far off base that Cheney’s office had to sack the CIA agent ( NOC ? ) in charge of the nuclear threat desk at the CIA by ‘blowing’ Valerie Plame / Wilson and thus the Brewster Jennings intelligence network in the middle east. The company bled over that one. Scooter Libby took the fall for Cheney’s office. Scuttlebutt was that Cheney was pissed GWB took 2 years to commute his sentence – which plausibly risked the death penalty if it had been possible for the truth to be told.

          • Just like every democrat/main stream media has swallowed the garbage from “all” the intel agencies that there was “Russian collusion”. Utter lunacy indeed.

          • There was no copy of the NIE to GWB on nukes available to the public. What it said has always been a matter of allegation or speculation.
            I don’t know as I would be so charitable as to say media believed the ‘Russian collusion’ story so much as ran with it. The FBI was the main ‘intel’ player promoting hype. Shades of Hoover.

          • Agreed. Why would anyone believe anything the intel community says? The head of it all, Clapper lied under oath when he said there was no significant spying on American citizens. Of course, he has never been charged, indicted or convicted of perjury and neither have any of the other crooks in the FBI, CIA or NSA. I guess they are all “too big to prosecute”.

          • They just sent the first defendant to jail. He is married to a Russian oligarch’s daughter. Naw, no Russian connection. He was sent to jail because he lied about his knowledge of his clients contacts with another Russian GRU officer. That is just defendant number one. And the jail sentence means Manaforte will for sure not be walking out of this. He will rat out the President. Good luck with all your bluster and BS. The judge will decide.

          • First sentencing is today. Cause the lawyer lied about knowing they were dealing with a Russian GRU agent. Mueller is coming. And I didn’t bring it up. One of your buddies did.

        • LOL That was the one thing that was good about the Bush II administration. And you want to credit Clinton for it?? Good job!

          • There was nothing good about that administration. no child can survive was near the top of the shit heap.

      • Anybody who knows anything about our system would tell you the dumbing down happened during NCLB. Common Core is more rigorous. And if you want to ignore NASA about climate change, be my guess. I would rather trust them than a bunch of opinion writers.

        • It’s become interestingly difficult to find resources mentioning “Right Stuff”. Those were senior NASA atmospheric scientists who ‘came out’ to rebut official positions dealing with manmade climate change. Bert Rutan wrote an especially scathing analysis on the likelihood of a trace gas dominating atmospheric conditions.

          • I’ll look for Rutan’s piece. Never heard about that. But I still trust NASA. I also trust what I can see with my own eyes and the fact the “northernmost points” of land in the world are now being revised because of all of the melting ice.

          • ” I also trust what I can see with my own eyes” Me too.
            That Rutan piece is something I cached years ago. It’ll be interesting to see how that fares in Search.
            Not bad, actually. http://rps3.com/Pages/Burt_Rutan_on_Climate_Change.htm
            The nation of India was so alarmed by IPCC representations of the melting Himalayas in the future that it assigned its own study team to the topic. They determined the salient factor was action of winds ; direction, moisture content, temperature, etc. CO2 warming action was not validated.
            One other vanished piece of intel was on the temperatures in the Arctic in the mid 30’s. Like today, they were unusually high.
            I really have more solid analysis from people studying cyclic action of weather change ( climate ). And yes, climate refers to weather patterns.
            Here are your NASA atmospheric scientists.
            http://www.therightclimatestuff.com/

          • Thanks for the Info. If you get a chance, look up Dennis Schimdt, explorer. I got paired up with him on a golf course when we were both single players. You can find him in Wikipedia. I do understand there is some dispute, but hope we can err on the right side. If you saw the strange weather in our area this year, you would wonder.

          • Interesting – but hardly an argument for global conditions. Indeed, there are arguments for geothermal activity underneath the Greenland Ice Shelf. Regardless, the secret US military station from the 1950’s has reappeared after being buried by glacial ice formation. That would argue towards cyclic behaviour of the ice pack, which would presumably expose that which was buried and vice versa.

          • I don’t see my response – which I was going to add to. You are doubtless aware of the representations that CO2 affects the water cycle. What is a current topic of conversation is how the water cycle affects surface temperature readings. This despite other thoughts about how changes aloft are the real determinant of ‘climate action.’ http://joannenova.com.au/2018/03/mystery-solved-rain-means-satellite-and-surface-temps-are-different-climate-models-didnt-predict-this/

          • I watched the Rutan video. And he makes some compelling points. I also read the other article, which is not exactly balanced, in my opinion. I did see one of Rutan’s planes fly last week in Mojave when I was coming back from working with a school at Edwards AFB. Thanks for the information.

      • Yes!!! Charlotte Iserbyt is right…check out her explanations on yt videos of what she found under Reagan…and the targeting plan of idiocy they put in place.

          • I am sure it is…In one appendix of the Iserbyt book about the Dumbing Down of America she mentioned Vygotsky. Since he was recently popularized I dug in and found that he and Luria, both brain experts were used by Lewin (Tavistock) and Bruner (Stanford) to torture kids by making them schizoid. Vygotsky wanted out and he then died in his thirties of a virulent TB incident.

      • You make a good point; the failed system has been increasingly embraced since the late 1960s. But Obama’s Chicago friends were involved in the latest version of what was formerly called “outcome-based education.” I used to write and lecture on the issue. Iserbyt does explain it well. So does Phyllis Schlafly who wrote a classic phonics program to teach kids how to read before they learn the failed methods used at schools. I use this book for tutoring.

        • I think I was in the last class to learn using “phonetics”. At home, n Oxford dictionary gave standard pronunciations and inflections along with definitions. Together with browsing Encyclopaedia Brittanica my youth was nurtured by explorations likely missed by my peers. Dad strictly limited TV watching – perhaps a half hour per week. I sometimes wondered why he bothered to buy one at all. The point is that reading provided my recreation. I was not shy about a preference for fiction, figuring I would just as soon read truths billed as lies as lies billed as truth ; propaganda and advertising being a lot more obvious then than now.

      • Actually, it has everything to do with obama as he was the President for eight of the last nine years , and because of him this Country has suffered almost to the point of no return ,and that is why PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP Non Politician was chosen to try and get our Country back on track

        • There have been other Presidents than Obama and other officials in government. It seems a disservice to the very concept of government balanced by conflicting responsibilities and powers to look at all issues as the way that they reflect the direction of a tyrant.

      • Don’t mix Corporations up with the SOB[obama}! Corporations need educated people to compete against the world!

        • “compete against” I think you miss the basic concept of monopoly. Laws against it have pretty well gone by the board in this age of globalization.

    • Then why is our economy doing well? Trump has not been president long enough to influence that!

        • Sadly it is now dropping as we begin having doubts that our government will stand behind the American people’s choices and help our president do what we put him there to do. With all the obstruction we are becoming weary and fear it may be too late.

          • Problem is Trumpers voted for campaign slogans, not experience or ability to affect the actions of the most dysfunctional Congress with lowest approval ever!!

          • Seems that Tea Party wanted dysfunction & Republicans voted for Trump. How were liberals at fault?

          • Are conservatives trying to end the liberal idea to allow everyone the freedom of speech? Why do conservatives think liberal comments in classwork threatens conservative values?

          • Then why complain when people think differently? You seem to need Common Core independent critical thinking to help understand & avoid bias.

          • What we need are more people researching in the right places. Then we will find MORE people with good solutions.

          • Researching opinions lacks legitimacy. Look at freedom of speech to find acceptance of alternative thoughts.

          • Toso i earned my place in american history shitturd…did you?nah…you never served.you think ur entitled dont you.wish i had ur face in front of my fist

          • Michael little boy i served 15months in korea with 7th division.3months on the Z was assigned to recon plt.MOS11delta.
            Served 11months vietnam with the air cav assigned as a scout to 1st/9th delta blues.courteous?boy you should be lickin the shitballs from my asshole.i receive a full pension for TBI&PTSD..P&T..

          • You are an idiot that thinks you can feel anyway you want and it doesnt cost a thing.you are whats wrong with this country

          • Mason Classical Academy goals match Common Core. They still use the Common Core testing. They use Core Knowledge Language Arts & Singapore math that Common Core schools use.
            What evidence shows they DITCHED Common Core?

          • U.S. is built on immigration, meaning many different views. Why do conservatives say liberal (multiple) views is not compatible with conservatives? Search “liberal Common Core” on Twitter!

          • Constitution says freedom of speech for everyone, a liberal value! But conservatives think that threatens their values!

        • Maybe you want to really think what consumer confidence measures. It’s like the words “nice weather”. Just wait a few days it will change.

      • Well, speculators control the markets. The night Trump was elected worldwide markets dropped and Gold shot up well over $100 overnight for safe haven demand. Nevermind, Stephanie you don’t understand any of this. Trump’s policies and all star cabinet of business people made the US stock market thrive and if you have a 401K plan, thank Trump and look at your numbers since election night. THis is all 100% Trump because he went to power under removing the stifling employer mandate of Obamacare and he invited the CEOs and business leaders of every sector of the economy to identify to Pres Trump himself what can I do to help you grow business and increase investment. I know those watching CNN don’t get this information, hence why I am here to help you Stephanie. Additionally, lowering the tax rates and a lower penalty to repatriate cash reserves overseas, these ideas have driven optimism. Now if Trump cannot deliver on the promises of no employer mandate, tax reform for individuals and more importantly businesses, you might be better off taking your 401K gains, pay the 10% penalty and go an buy physical gold for safe haven demand. I hear real estate prices are at an all time high again in some areas and the Congress is looking to remove Dodd Frank and we know what happened the last time there was no Dodd Frank and all time high real estate prices and no optimism.

      • Keep drinking that koolaid, sister. The upswing in the economy has everything to do with Obama and the fact that he is no longer the President.

    • As though Obama had something to do with the methodology. You people are so hateful it is pathetic.

      • OK, now call then racist, isn’t that the next thing in the Liberal repertoire? If you didn’t agree with Obama’s budget priorities, you must have been racist. If you didn’t agree with his wishy washy foreign policies, you must’ve been a racist. Get real Bill Carter, disagreeing with a methodology that was pushed by a particular administration is not being hateful. Try to stop being an a$$.

        • I will abide you the name calling if you will abide me the privilege of explaining to you that the NGA (National Governor’s Assoc. and the CCSCO (Council of Chief State School Officers) formulated the Common Core. Neither of these are under the jurisdiction of the POTUS.
          http://www.newsweek.com/conservatives-have-forgotten-common-core-reagan-invention-370429
          I am not an educator but I know some who are and they are still debating the value and practicality of CC. My comment was simply that many of the responses tried to tie Obama into the issue. 1-I never mentioned racism, 2-I never mentioned liberalism. However, since you felt the liberty to call me an ass and that I am ignorant, I will take the liberty to tell you that you are one of the hateful and pathetic that I speak of. If you are trolling try staying on subject.

          • You didn’t really expect a reply from a troll? Once they know their cover is blown, they scuttle for cover like a rat with their tail between their legs.

          • Funny, it is usually Anti Common Core that runs for cover when their arguments are proved to be non factual. OR are they the trolls you refer to?

          • It is true that Obama didn’t develop Common Core; however, it is also true that he had criticized “No Child Left Behind” and his administration shifted the educational grant money that had been tied to “No Child Left Behind” to the implementation and use of Common Core. Now, you are also correct that it was supported by people in both parties to included Jeb Bush…but the fact remains that Obama owned it when his administration tied federal funds to it.

          • I think you have oversimplified a complicated situation but if it makes the Obama bashers feel better I will yield that he supported it. But, we are here and now and common core is still debated. I just didn’t see how the person I was responding to made Obama and Liberals the issue.

          • Obama did NOT own Common Core but simply helped fund standards supported by states. RTTT wanted multiple groups of states to cooperate & compete. Why does Anti Common Core fail to research & quote the actual standards & compare with homework? That indicates superstition (belief without proof), NOT facts.

          • No Child Left Behind was still in force when Race to the Top encouraged states to form groups to share effort & compete to create better standards. States only formed the ONE Common Core group but any state with high standards could have created a competitor to Common Core!! You would not complain if states would have created more groups like Race to the Top wanted!!

          • Sorry Mr Carter; you are totally misinformed, it was started by Janet Napaltano in 2008, they were just part of a much bigger picture and had absolutely nothing to do with the formation of the curriculum of th Common Core, which ended up being run by a think tank in Washington DC. Then the government step in, offered the states money to take the program, this in it’s self was totally illegal if you look at the constitution or understand exactly what ESSA is about. their own statement says it all “explicitly forbidding the establishment of a national curriculum.” exactly what do you call Common Core?You people on the left will never admit something is wrong because your socialist leaders created it, they have done their work by indoctrination you to all they say is right and everyone else is wrong.

            Common Core is a massive failure just like every other education program the federal government has attempted to push on the system, programs to be exact, everyone failed, the last 2 RTTP and NCLBH. $7 billion failures.

          • RYSTYDAAG. Thanks for sharing your point of view, but just as with most things coming from the right, first you tell me I am wrong, then you give me your intepretation of the facts (no more founded or unfounded than mine) then you attempt to vilify anyone left of you with “you people will never…” and your stock remarks about Obama tell me more about you and your political persuasion than it does about Common core. Although I am not an educator I have friends and family in the system and they don’t feel it is a failure. So, the debate on Common Core’s beginning, it’s nexus and it’s end result continues.

          • Lol..dont pretend you know something about how this country works you fuckin idiot;you dont.dont pretend to be a man with me because you believe you have the ability to think above others.some of us do not entertain the notion of free debate.theres the truth and there is what idiots like you think what the world is when havin a free discussion based on ur pathetic knowledge of what you think is goin on.You kno nuthin..zero…nada..coherent conversation?ur a driveling fool who thinks hes educated

      • Let’s not get into a “who’s more hate-filled debate;” the left wins that one hands down every time.

        • You’ve got huge blinkers on to come up with that. You nigger hating Ku Klux Klan facist nazis lead the list on that.

          • Because it accurately describes you and what you are. No use calling you a pussy when that description is totally inadequate.

          • Oh look, another omniscient liberal who knows all things about people he’s never met. If you were slightly less ignorant you would know the etymology of my name and not have made an ass of yourself. Go back to your ANTIFA meeting in someone’s basement.

          • You’re focusing a lot of your insecurity and fear on someone who has no idea of what the hell you are saying. It’s true I have no idea of the entomology of Joshua but I do know where to look it up if I gave a damn about it. You’re merely another minor annoyance on the level of a midge. Inconsequential and insignificant but rest assured, I’m deeply sorry for you and you have my pity. You really must learn not to think people care about what you post.

    • This was developed by the states. Obama had nothing to do with it. And. one of your anecdotes are new, we have seen these regurgitated in other rightwingnut articles. I guess people who work in the auto industry or who benefit from 300% growth in the stock market may disagree with you about Obama. Your blanket statement demonstrates ignorance.

    • Yes, that’s why we have an thriving auto industry, our housing values are up, and we have made progress against ISIS. Market went from 6000 to 18000. Trump can’t even get people to work there and is about to be indicted. Good luck with your alternative reality.

    • I teach. It is ridiculous to blame Obama for this. I know of no public schools that teach this way. (My wife also teaches) In time, after kids master subtraction, when you teach rounding, you let (help) kids figure this methodology out for themselves. This was a Charter School that had a better way, now they’ve come back to using what we know works. Aren’t you glad taxpayers wasted all that money on a Charter School? Blame W, he started the movement.

  1. So, deliberately are trying to turn smart kids into what the USA citizens have become now. Reading the example that 16% of the USA population believes that chocolate milk come from Brown Cows, WOW !!! That is scary.

    • I believe that was always the intent behind Kommunist Korps. Dumb down the next generation of kids to make them future “useful idiots” for the left’s army to take over Amerika. So far, mission accomplished.

    • Teaching grads how to think independently, analyse critically & solve problems is dumbing down smart kids? Adults have trad ed, not Common Core so you complain about old school learning that Common Core is trying to fix. Any reform depends on great teachers & textbooks to decide HOW to teach required skills. Anti Common Core looks at homework, not what skills are being learned & how standards affect local choices.

  2. Phonics based approaches need to be mixed with other methods or they will kill creativity and often lead to diminished comprehension and poor personal reading habits. Reading, taught properly, should lead to better critical thinking skills.

    • we just need students to stay in school and be active and alert on their studies and get Good teachers that know the art of teaching what they know, not just toss books at them and say ok read and pass tests.. and then be checking with the parents so they also get involved.. they wanted a child so now you have to put some effort into it to nurture so it grows, thrives, evolves and learns to function independent of parents and anyone but be willing to ask for help if and when needed, these are the jobs of parents and teachers to accomplish and if they fail to do so then so fails the child and the system and the world, such as it has been doing and is in the case of now so pathetically.

      • The biggest reason for failure is inability of critics to understand by refusal to read the actual documents that define the topic.

    • This kind of response is what’s so discouraging for those of us who want the absolute best for our children! The article highlighted a school that is top ranked. What is different about the school? The school’s focus on literacy where EXPLICIT phonics is taught. We’ve tried these blended approaches and gotten mediocre results. Reading, taught properly, leads to children able to read complex texts such as Treasure Island at a young age, just like our grandparents and great grandparents did before whole language waged battle on literacy.

          • Huh? The claim was made above that the difference between the charter school instructional method and the Common Core Standards was explicit phonics instruction. The Common Core Standards include explicit phonics instruction from the earliest grade. I’m not pushing a corporate education method, I’m correcting a factual mis-statement in a discussion, and I’m including a supporting link.

          • Any explicit instruction would include such things as actual word lists & it doesn’t.

          • Stop the inaccurate descriptions & actually read the facts BEFORE judging!

      • I’m an English teacher, we tried your crappy Phonics only approach in the UK for a number of years and it resulted in a bunch of kids that could read but couldn’t understand what they were reading and didn’t bother reading because focusing only on the mechanics of language had made reading about as interesting for children as algebra is.

      • Mason Classical Academy uses Core Knowledge Language Arts & SIngapore math that are also used by Common Core schools!! Amazing what can be accomplished with quality curriculum & great teachers & training even under Common Core!!!

  3. I read “charter school” and my mind went blank and I started screaming WHITE SCHOOL and throwing chicken tenders around my room.

    /liberals

    • Who gives a shit if it is a “White” school or a “Not-so White” school? What counts are the educated students, capable of critical thinking, that it produces. And BTW guess which two groups turn out in the top 1% of world high schools? How about Asians and Whites?

      • Somehow you managed to completely miss the sarcasm in his comment. The little “/liberals” tag was just sitting right there, waiting for you to see it and realize he’s joking. But you missed it. Maybe give it a re-read so you can get the joke and laugh a little.

    • there is no white school or black or indian or whatever type of school they are mixed thru out the system. where did you get a wild idea like segregated schooling?

      • I’m going to guess Aristotle got that idea because so many charter schools are white privilege’s answer to segregation. Just a guess, though.

      • Must have been a leftover thought from 1960s before busing! Eisenhower sent national guard into Little Rock to escort a few blacks to a white school in 1950s. But private schools still bias based mostly on income or belief.

    • You should thank liberals for being more open to new ideas like the Earth is round & revolves around the Sun. Common Core is about skills needed & teachers following textbooks figure out HOW to teach it. Standards do not focus on curricula, testing, data or ideology. Anti Common Core seems highly misinformed.

  4. You should be able to arrive at the same result by either method. Knowing “classical” subtraction is good because not every combinations of numbers can easily be made “friendly”.

    • When you learn all the different ways of doing arithmetic you don’t have to think about how you do it. Your brain does it for you automatically . That’s how math was taught at my school- I went to school overseas. I was hoping

      • its just like using metric or not we gave it a try years ago when they wanted the US to convert and it never caught on so evidently what we were using was working fine so we remained on non metric and the worlds still revolving and functioning to spite it lol

        • Are you saying we are too dumb in this country to learn new things ? Or even old – like grammar ? Lol

          • Maybe that is why adults cannot understand critical thinking & that different political views are part of the whole picture. As an engineer, I understand no single view is perfect.

        • I find it fascinating, as a 30-year. preK-college-level veteran of the classroom, that every single grade level I’ve taught for the past 12 years easily work and think in metric because the math and science books from elementary up ALL use it. We teach the American system, too, but the kids have learned to not be so focused on flat memorization we once taught (they probably won’t be able to tell you how many feet are in a mile, but most adults over 30 can’t either and that was something they’d have reviewed with kids over and over and over from 3rd grade up). Today’s math is more focused on using the measurement as a tool to solve problems. THAT is what Common Core, when taught correctly, is focused on. It actually gives teachers more flex and breadth to teach, but state tests often are directly connected to 1 or 2 publishers’ texts. And, the article above skews dramatically what Common Core supposedly does when teaching literature. Phonics, sight words, Latin/Greek roots, and many other comprehension/fluency skills are taught within it, as well they should be.

          • Glad to see someone else advocating for Common Core – I teach 2nd and LOVE that I can reach so many more students by introducing multiple strategies. I also agree that this article largely misconstrues the way CC teaches Reading.

          • I find it amazing that Anti Common Core thinks its multiple strategies means limited to only ONE way to solve problems. Should thank kings of fake news Dr. Pesta & Glenn Beck.

        • I also think it is noteworthy that the primary reason the U.S. did not go full bore into the metric system was because of the auto manufacturing industry here during the 1970’s and early 80’s. There’s significant documentation, from articles in the main newspapers of the day, to 60 Minutes excerpts, to even the Jr. Scholastic and Weekly Reader newspapers we passed out in classrooms, that it was considered too expensive to retool our auto manufacturing to metric and still be competitive with foreign manufacturing plants. NAFTA and other industry changes have certainly lessened the importance of American standard (Imperial standard)-only measurement. I would also note that many people in Canada, Great Britain, and other countries still use portions of the old measuring system for tasks like baking cakes when the measurements call for it. It’s a smart thing to be able to work back and forth between systems, to be able to think about what you need to do, rather than just mechanically work within one system.

      • The whole concept of having one method favored by the national government is absurd. The federal government has no business sticking its nose into education, period.

        • Common Core doesn’t promote one method. If you look at the actual standards, you can see it lists lots of ways to solve problems.

        • AMEN!!! The education of children is a state and local responsibility. Just like other things – get the feds involved an it all goes to h— in a hand basket. As a retired educator of 25 years, I’m dismayed at the decline morale in schools as teachers have to worry every day about their “results.” They spend inordinate amounts of time and resources training students for successful test results. This time an resource should be directed at teaching real skills that can be generalized into life skills. The Pavlovian Response being encouraged does not translate. The stronger students are going to be stronger anyway. The weaker students still won’t get it because they don’t have the maturity or background skills to ‘get it.’ The middle students might look stronger. Is that doing anybody any good? Let teachers teach as they know from training and experience. Let government do their jobs and stay out of unknown territory for which they have little or no training.

          • We are talking about Common Core, NOT NCLB testing & data to ensure quality & fairness. Common Core says TEACHERS know what works in the classroom. Common Core says what skills to teach & teachers following textbooks decide HOW to teach. I am surprised teachers get the facts confused. I interpret the DOE mission “research & inform” as a library function to SUPPORT local control because locals focus on local concerns & not on how to compete with other states or nations.
            My question is WHY do people want choices limited by state or any other borders? I don’t want Amazon to ask which state then limit my choices. We need a POSITIVE discussion.

          • I don’t know how trad ed was practical. I found many adults unable to translate basic mail carrier (sort & deliver) & assembly line (setup & travel) principles to other tasks like stocking shelves & shopping. Amazing people know what assembly lines are but not why they work.

    • And, since when did “friendly” become a mathematical term? Liberals seem to want to inject emotion into everything, and discourage logic, and critical thinking skills. Emotions have their place, but are irrelevant in math, just as they are in many other things. This is beside the point that the government-run, public education system seems to have social/political “group-think” indoctrination as its primary focus – as opposed to training a child to think, and act, rationally, and logically, so as to be successful as an individual. Liberal elites desperately want “the masses” to be controllable, passive, compliant, dependent – and stupid.

      • Trad math teaching creates generations of math haters who thought math was for engineers & not useful for average people. That requires a different attitude like “friendly” to overcome those generations of bias!!!

    • yes, you can arrive at the answer in different ways. The point is that adding and then subtracting and then having to remember what you added to begin with so you know what to subtract after you’ve subtracted is rather awkward.

        • Is counting sheep like Sesame St unnecessary? We find different number representations & methods help understand math operations and concepts. 1834 “North American Arithmetic” says “much of arithmetic is practiced but little learned”. Trad math trained generations of human calculators but practical math illiterates unable to solve problems unless in standard form.

      • But, it is exactly what most people do automatically when they are doing a math problem in their head. The awkward part is that, as teachers, we are trying to get the kids to articulate the same thinking they might do when mentally figuring elapsed time; the total cost, minus discount and then added tips, at a restaurant; potential gas mileage and the risk of waiting 50 miles to get to that next gas station (or, if you are in Canada, those 90ish kilometers). Those are things we do daily and that we didn’t have to spend so much time teaching kids back when they actually handled money, when everyone used analog watches (still important for teaching ratios, fractions, and many other skills beyond time), when kids spent time measuring, cooking, and making a variety of things, etc.

        • So true. Even something simple as counting money. Many people have no problem counting the 20’s. (20, 40, 60, 80), but to do so after counting, say an odd number of 50’s ( 50, 70, 90, 110, 130) some have difficulty, so end up counting the 50 after all the 20s. They just automatically rearranged the bills. ( either mentally or physically.)

        • Problem is adults do not look at the practical applications of the homework seen. All they notice is it is unfamiliar & takes longer but fail to look for motive. I saw homework that tried to count change without physical money or explanation. The complaint was it was dumbing down & should focus on counting change. Should have looked at the method more closely.

          • Common Core is an academic disaster. It is a forced monopoly and partnership between big brother gov’t (i.e. transformational Marxism) and big corporate (a monopoly on lousy curriculum, electronics and forced data mining re “assessments” and it doesn’t teach real Mathematics or classic liberal arts.

            Recently, I asked a 16 year old girl at Chick Fil A if she could give me change for a dollar and she stared at me like I had spoken to her in a foreign language. She then told me she did not know how to do that. I asked her if she had learned Common Core Math and she replied yes.

            The classic charter schools will expose the fake learning which is dumbing down American children. It is criminal what the governors and legislators have done in exchange for Federal dollars.

          • My Dad claimed grads could not make change decades ago. A 16 year old is too old to have learned Common Core Arithmetic!! State testing & data mining are from ESSA (NCLB) for all states even without Common Core. Locals choose curriculum including textbooks. 1834 “North American Arithmetic” said “much of math is practiced but little learned”. Trad math trained human calculators, not problem solvers & did not teach real math. You are using fake news!!

      • Using the mathematical problem shown above, by adding 30 to both sides, you don’t actually have to subtract anything extra. When adding the same number to both sides, the “answer” that you will obtain is the same. 530-270=260 560-300=260. Don’t get me wrong–I’m not a huge fan of Common Core, but it does have some benefits.

          • I object to the fact that teachers are now forced to teach the test. There is little-to-no time nowadays to teach critical thinking and reasoning, which are vital also. The initial intent of NCLB was great–the implementation, and how it has impacted education overall, not so much.

          • You refer to NCLB that started a decade before Common Core & applies to all standards, that includes non Common Core states as well.

      • Number sense like any thinking strategy makes flexible minds & with exercise helps fight Alzheimer’s.

  5. Because I know common core, I solved the math question in three seconds (one second to read, one second to consider, not even a second to state the answer). Unfortunately, because you are so set in your ways and don’t haven’t been able to comprehend this different way, you’re against it. Once common core is understood and it’s applied, math problems – even complicated math problems, can be solved quickly IN YOUR HEAD, without having to line up the numbers and add/subtract one column at a time. Yes, it’s not as straight forward to learn as lining numbers up in columns, but it is far more efficient and faster once you understand it. But, hey. Who needs to learn math, when you can just ask Siri, Alexa, or Bixby.

        • I found British grads were 2 years ahead of U.S. in 1975. Would take 2 years of community college to keep up. Heard that again recently about Germany. All Greeks learn philosophy, trig & physics, that U.S would whine about.

      • we used to count on our fingers – that worked.
        we used to count using an abacus – that worked.
        we used to keep track of numbers using hand written ledgers – that worked.
        we used to use thousand dollar calculators to derive fairly simple calculations – that worked.
        we used to us main frame computers to derive complex calculations – that worked.
        we used to use larger desktop computers to derive complex calculations – that worked.
        we used to use smart phones …..

        I see your point. We should go back to counting with our fingers. That was a system that worked!

      • The system did not work even during the space age of 1960s! I found myself trying to explain simple math to mature adults but they often had no preparation to understand & complained simple arithmetic was rocket science! They often wanted to be told how to get results but did not want explanations so they could solve problems on their own.

      • the demographics and class size probably have a lot more to do with the scores than them ditching common core.

        • That makes no sense. So some kids are just genetically predisposed to getting math questions correct? No. Common core is awful. Classical education is excellent (hence the word “classical”).

          • Since Common Core is flexible leaving locals to decide how to teach, I question your distinction with classical education. Greek philosophy enabled people to discuss differences of opinion that is encouraged by Common Core but mostly discouraged in life especially in politics. Trad ed before Common Core focused on memorization of math tables, vocabulary & methods with little thinking involved.

      • The trick about Common Core as reported was not that it does not work, but that difficulty for grade level was inappropriate. i.e. more difficult than many students at a given age and development would readily acquire for use. This then would work to discourage a larger fraction of students from further progress.

          • Think about it. The clear inference is that children can be categorized by ability – as a class – or that this can be done on an individual basis. Even if that were true, does it occur reliably and are the indicated progressions followed ? Things can be a kludge and impractical if it is not possible to implement them — and one could see that working with constant testing wasting effort devoted to learning.

          • Teachers always judge if students ready to advance. Students & teachers use quiz or self test to see if lesson learned.

    • This may be true for simple arithmetic, but it makes learning higher math much more difficult if you don’t understand the ‘traditional’ methods of approaching it.

      • maybe you have a point. You’d have to elaborate and show an example of where common core would fail in an advanced setting.
        I’ve always been quick with numbers. I’m quick to see relationships … maybe that made common core easier for me to understand. Or, maybe it’s the common core mindset that lets me see the relationships.

        • “I’ve always been quick with numbers. I’m quick to see relationships …” That’s exactly my point! Everyone uses those Common Core methods without needing to be taught. Common Core is a waste of time in school.

          • that’s just it … I’m not sure that “everyone” uses it 0r at least, not to the extent that they could.

          • I had an interesting conversation with an aunt a number of years ago. She could not comprehend the concept of negative numbers. It reminded me that the plan to advance everyone’s curriculum is not based on human ability, but on a conceit that teaching can be improved with different mandated methods.

          • Your aunt never heard of debt, loans, borrowing, owing money? Negative numbers like any concept needs practical examples. Common Core promotes different views to match different learners but leaves those decisions to local teachers.

          • Not everyone sees number, operations & relationships quickly, we need to help those who are not so quick. We also need to explain so people do not just do them but understand why & can explain to others.

      • Since Common Core wants multiple strategies & INCLUDES understanding & traditional methods, I question your reasoning!!!

      • Since Common Core includes traditional methods & wants understanding as well I fail to understand your objection.

    • It depends on what you call “complicated math”. Every time you look in your grocery cart, and add it up, you’re using the “Common Core” method. People ALREADY know how to do that, INTUITIVELY. We DON’T need to teach that in the schools! What we DO need to teach kids, is how to arrive at precise answers needed for the sciences. Kids need to learn the methods of long division, multiplication, etc. They need to know WHY we’re lining up the numbers, and Why we “carry the one”. They need to understand the terms, “divisor” and “dividend”. We need to stop wasting valuable school time on short-cut methods, that will only be useful for adding up your grocery cart. #DumbingDownOfAmerica

      • Thank you for your points.

        Your points on precision and sciences are valid. And, you’re correct, education shouldn’t be only about shortcuts (as in, conducted at a lowest common denominator (aka dumbing down)). But, then again, isn’t that often the purpose of creating disruptive technologies and business practices? (to create shorter or more efficient ways of accomplishing something).

        I’ll concede, there isn’t a one size fits all approach for education and more advanced education needs to be taught/available. On the flip side, many finish primary education without being able to deploy the basic concepts they’ve learned. I think that’s one of the reasons common core was thought to be practical.

        You’re right, many are able to estimate the dollar value of their full shopping cart. But, less so by common core, and more so by rounding numbers, which is a part of common core. However, common core is more than rounding numbers, and offers a means to calculate precise numbers, even when used in multiplication or division (but to your point, there is a limit to the level of complexity that common core can be used. For example, I often calculate derivative values … with common core methodologies I can quickly see if numbers are approximately correct. However, to verify precision accuracy, more advanced methodologies are necessary.)

        That said, based on how much debt is carried per capita, I’m assuming that most can’t (or at least, don’t) sum the value of their groceries. [Yes, I know the reasons for US consumer spending habits and debt loads are more complicated than that, but, it would be interesting to see what part (if any), the failure (or inability) to sum the dollars represented by a full shopping cart, play on consumer spending habits and consumer debt]

        • Common Core is more about adding understanding & different strategies to solve the same problems so it is more flexible. You are correct that its main emphasis is for younger learners to help them create a solid base for math.

      • I mean, when you say students need to know why we carry the one, you’re actually incorrect yourself. The irony is that Common Core DOES teach students why they “carry the one” which is actually not a 1, but a 10 or 100 or 1000 or whatever unit you’ve created by adding smaller units. Every student who has been taught under Common Core by a teacher who understands the standards would be able to explain this to you, and apparently they understand it better than you do.

  6. common core sounds exactly what Obama would inspire.. to do as little as possible with min effect and take credit later for any good from it

    • Would help first to understand the issue & educators have not sold the issue of what Common Core is & how it works. Unfamiliar homework confuses parents but many adults refuse to understand why it looks different.

      • I have a degree in education. I have seen common core problems on a variety of levels. It IS confusing to children that are 5, 6, and 7 to teach 8+7= 8+2+5 = 15 instead of 8+7 = 15. Do I add the common core way in my head? Absolutely! But not until AFTER I had rote memorized basic facts. I do the same with multiplication as needed. People are amazed that I can come up with answers before they can punch it into a calculator. Not for everything mind you, but many times. It is BECAUSE I have my basic facts down that I can do it, not in spite of.
        Now, having 3 children in school, I can tell you a huge issue that I have seen in the last 10 years. Today we are going to learn how to add fractions, never mind that most of you don’t have your times tables memorized. First we have to have the same denominator, remember how we did the least common multiple yesterday? All of you completed 10 problems correctly, so you mastered that skill. Now we have common denominators we can add the fractions. Here is 10 problems to do in class. Tomorrow we will learn how to subtract fractions…. and literally this is how my oldest daughter’s 4th grade math class went. The next year guess what happened? She didn’t remember learning how to do it. She didn’t practice and review skills enough to RETAIN!

  7. This article fails to include the school’s demographic…they are around 90-95% caucasian, maybe 7% ELL and about 2% free/reduced lunch, which makes a huge difference. Sorry, but it is a fact that higher income, English speaking kids will score better on tests. So, especially compared to the rest of the state of Florida, their results are little skewed.

  8. If you look at that school’s website,their curriculum page goes to the state’s Common Core page. I think this story is a bunch of hooey.

      • Local teachers & textbooks decide how to teach. That is true with or without Common Core. Common Core is a list of skills & includes traditional methods. Most people look at homework, not standards & could not tell the difference.

    • Just another tool by the State to create divisions. When do we realize we’ve been so distracted by “social media” and “chats” and “comments sections” that we’re too tired to actually change any of this crap?

    • Sounds like many adults cannot tell the difference between trad ed & Common Core. Homework & textbooks are local choices & different everywhere.

  9. Their brainwashing, I mean education is most often wrong. They get a big ol diploma and stick their noses in the air explaining to “common” people how common sense is wrong and if they were brainwashed, I mean educated like them then they’d be intelligent and understand too…to disagree makes you stupid no matter how much data shows you’re right…you’re not educated.

    • Trad basic ed did not work. It created generations of math illiterates unable to participate in meaningful discussions. 1834 Arithmetic book said “much of Arithmetic is practiced but little is learned”. Try understand what that means to adults.

  10. This article is clearly written by someone who isn’t a teacher or doesn’t understand common core or the basics of educational systems.

    Common core isn’t a set of teaching practices or a set of curriculum materials. It gives the impression that schools aren’t responsible for developing teachers and districts aren’t responsible for selecting curriculum materials.

    In fact this article is so poorly written as to be generally a disgrace to the English language.

    • Let these kids who have to learn the common core way take a timed speed math test when getting into college. They will be slaughtered and will want their comfort zone to go hide in until someone says they are ok and can go to college anyway even if they do not know how to do math logically…..You can see it at times at cash registers, kids under this garbage teaching technique take forever to make change..

      • Not at all. The Common Core isn’t a way of teaching at all. The other ways of solving math are the ways lots of people do math in their heads already.

      • Common Core is the set of standards. (Students at this grade level must be able to perform these skills.) The actual curriculum comes from the teacher / district/ evil educational supply companies.

        I have seen some students perform in academic decathlons that blow way past me in solving problems, while I am still trying to figure the problem out in my head along with them.

      • Most strange methods you see are not intended to be practical!! Common Core DOES teach the traditional methods & math tables so the speed test would be at least the same but would give advantages with such things as mental math methods to aid speed. Please do careful research before judging.

  11. That, and common core being targeted more towards the simian brain and not humans . . .

  12. It’s ironic that adults are articulating the view that Common Core was federal government initiative when it wasn’t. Common Core was a state initiative, that was not part of No Child Left Behind or any other federal initiative. That said, I wholeheartedly agree that methods used to teach kids under Common Core were confusing and unnecessarily complicated. But, it’s important to separate fact from fiction. http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/myths-vs-facts/

    • NCLB is about the assessments and performance of students and teachers. CC is about how to achieve the desired outcome. It’s all stupid. I thought when NCLB started it would be so great to have standards and benchmarks the same across the country so that if a child moved to a different state they would not be behind or have skipped a segment of importance. That isn’t the way is works. It’s just a bunch of bureaucrats trying to justify a bad idea. I left teaching in a public school because I had to pay more attention to the low kids by assessing every week and creating lessons for them or sending them to a resource teacher and then having a weekly meeting with that teacher. The other students deserved to grow too, but they were ignored more or less because they already could meet the standards. That, of course got partially covered by a Talented and Gifted program, but that can’t address enough children. In addition, I had become a behavior manager, because the kids who find the work too easy act out. The mediocre students glide through and school is boring for them. Give the schools back to the teachers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      • NCLB was about each state deciding the content & quality of its OWN education. That meant each state was different!! Standards define a set of shared knowledge skills but teachers & textbooks decide HOW to teach them. You seem to confuse these definitions.
        When most states failed at creating quality standards RTTT decided for states to cooperate & compete. Common Core was one of several sets of standards that were expected. People confuse Common Core with homework & local classroom choices.

  13. There’s an WISE,old adage….K-I-S = Keep it simple.
    37 minus 18 does not have to be a long drawn out debacle that no one can figure out!!!

    • Explanations do require making solutions appear more complex just like counting sheep on Sesame St. Many methods are meant to help explain concepts & are not intended to be practical. Bear that in mind BEFORE judging!!
      Your prefer training human calculators instead of problem solvers? The global economy does not slow down so we need to improve to keep up & compete.

  14. As most public school teachers will tell you, teaching to the common core group is a somewhat waste of time and resources. The so called “common core” has been around before President Obama came into office, it just went by different names before being called,”common core”. As a retired public school teacher, ‘ve always said that teaching the basics to elementary school children was the best thing for them. “Common Core” can be taught in middle and high school, where it would do the most good.

  15. As most public school teachers will tell you, teaching to the common core group is a somewhat waste of time and resources. The so called “common core” has been around before President Obama came into office, it just went by different names, had different goals, before being called,”common core”. As a retired public school teacher, I’ve always said that teaching the basics to elementary school children was the best thing for them. “Common Core” can be taught in middle and high school, where it would do the most good.

  16. This appears to be written by someone who has never read the actual Common Core State Standards. It shows absolutely no understanding of the actual standards. They do not promote sight words over phonics. They do not “dumb down’ anything.

  17. The Teacher’s unions really want a two tiered system: an intellectual elite and poorly educated masses. These are the two kinds of people they can influence to vote for leftwing democrats and their policies. in short, it benefits the democratic party to have a lot of uneducated, MIS-educated people.

  18. I’ve known this for years. What took so long? Maybe cause Obama is gone. Now maybe we can get back to what works!!! Maybe this will be the beginning of teaching our children and preparing them for a better life and social skills they all desperately need.
    I pray this is a new beginning of a beautiful future especially for our children.

  19. Looks like they require uniform dress. Keeps everyone equal. A very, very big plus. I have always advocated a neat, uniform dress code from first through 12th grade. This is actually more important for grades 7 through 12.

  20. Mixing educational metaphors… “We’re not doing common core…we’re doing common core-ish stuff.” I opened this hoping to see a description of teacher autonomy. Instead, it is talking as if phonics isn’t in common core (it is – see RF 3 and L 2), using analytical language isn’t in common core (it is – see the anchor standards for all grade levels), etc. I agree that common core has been a tool used by corporations to force teachers into following pre-packaged, scripted gloop with limited flexibility…. because states and districts insist that teachers are there to implement the curriculum rather than the curriculum being there as one of many tools at hand for teachers. I also see huge gaps in common core’s coverage of student skills, and some compartmentalization of things that belong together. However, that doesn’t mean that I think the take that this article has… that dumping pre-packaged CCSS materials is the sole reason for this charter’s success. I would rather suggest a breakdown of numbers for special needs, second-language learners, students from poverty, etc. with aligned comparisons to similar populations…. plus a better look at what teachers are actually doing vs. administrative micro-management of instruction, etc.

  21. Any time the government gets involved in the people’s business, government screws it up. Time to do away with the Department of Education and Federal grants. Education is a state and local initiative. We do not need ‘experts’ at the Federal level involved. They are too stupid to be dealing with this.

  22. My son is entering 5th grade. As 4th grade wound down he was still struggling with his times tables and basic math. When I asked his teacher why they didn’t have the kids memorize their times tables from 1 through 12 he said that’s not the way the do it anymore. His teacher said they gloss over multiplication then move onto something else and would circle back to it.

    What?

    That’s like saying we’ll build half the foundation of the basement, then move onto building the upper floors and circle back around to finishing the foundation. I have a Masters Degree in Computer Science. You CANNOT DO THIS! Kids need to learn basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division before you move onto anything else. Once I found out how they were “teaching” my son I took it into my own hands to make him learn math.

    His 4th grade class sat at “group” tables and learned in groups. When kids interrupted they weren’t sent to the principle they were allowed to stay in class and “play” until they calmed down. WTF!

    We need to go back to what worked. In the 1970-80’s when I went to school we sat in rows of single desks. The teacher taught and if kids acted up they were removed from class. You were issued text books that were shared year after year. Basic math and English has NOT changed regardless of modern technology. Teach the basics and when the kids hit middle school then introduce technology. Stop focusing on State mandated test scores and start holding parents accountable for their children’s learning!

    • Common Core says “By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.” You are confusing Common Core standards & local classroom choices made by teachers & textbooks. Being from 1960s I found trad ed created generations of math illiterates unable to solve a problem unless it was in a standard form. 1834 “North American Arithmetic” says “much of math was practiced but little was learned”.

  23. American schools have always had decent math scores in lower grades, but we are failing at higher level maths, which is what the concepts in common core are trying to correct. Math based on memorization of facts and algorithms instead of true understanding will not work with higher level concepts. What seems like an overly complicated method is actually teaching a thought process that will be applied to much more complicated concepts later on.

  24. A friendly suggestion to all: if you haven’t done it yet, go to the website for Common Core and read the actual CC standards. You’ll see that it doesn’t supply the methods–teachers need to do that. The weird problems that are constantly brought forward as examples are “after market” concoctions. If teachers don’t like them, don’t use them!

    • Hard to explain to people who focus on homework, not standards. They only believe Common Core is in charge & forget how it works in a local control education system.

  25. I actually taught kindergarten in a Common Core school. The statement in which the author claims that phonics is not part of the Common Core instruction should refer to RF.K.1, RF.K.2, and RF.K.3. I am not sure why this school in Florida so only focused on whole word reading, but they were not following the Common Core nor applying developmentally appropriate practices into teaching early literacy.

    • Seems Florida like Tennessee has difficulty understanding standards. They blame Common Core for local choices by teachers & textbooks.

      • Choices?

        Monopoly on education curriculum via Pearson Publishing and their subsidiaries; anyone knows that who looks closely at Common Core and the awful substandard curriculum they offer. Pearson Publishing is from the U.K. own 80 percent of America’s K-12 curriculum.

        • The point is standards like Common Core depend on quality teachers training & support like textbooks. Most complaints are not about standards. You made a good claim about Pearson and agree with Common Core creators about poor quality curriculum. That has been true with or without Common Core. The 1983 “A Nation At Risk” found problems with ed & Feds made states take charge of improving content by creating standards.
          The problem is poor support but people look at classwork, not standards & can’t tell the difference.

  26. Propoganda for charter schools, swallowed hook, line, and sinker by its target audience. Nice work.

  27. Common Core Sucks the teachers hate it the Koreans in my community literally laugh at the math their children are doing in school and send them to specialized math outside the school… that sucks since the average home tax here is 18,000 USD annually. DUMP IT NOW.

  28. So I’m actually a teacher in Detroit and I am a huge advocate of Common Core, particularly in math because it gives students a much deeper and true understanding of what they are actually doing when they complete a problem.
    That last paragraph, which mentions the teacher marking the student wrong, is where things get dicey.
    In my opinion, the beauty of CC is that it allows students the freedom to use a strategy that works for them. The strategy that teacher wanted her student to use is called compensation and it does work for some students because they’re now subtracting from a “friendly” number (the term has nothing to do with emotion, it’s just kid-friendly language), meaning a multiple of 10 or 100. This allows them to skip-count backwards or perform much simpler subtraction if they think in terms of units (5 hundreds 6 tens – 3 hundreds = 2 hundreds 6 tens)
    However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with solving a different way. In fact, most of my students wouldn’t choose this strategy and I’d be fine with it because CC is about MULTIPLE strategies being used.
    IF CC is taught correctly, it works wonders in reaching students at multiple levels and giving everyone the opportunity to be successful. It can seem more confusing if you haven’t explicitly been taught what the standards mean or why they are taught that way, but I can promise you, from a classroom perspective where my students in Detroit outperform the entire state of Michigan in math, it DOES work. Not only can students DO math, but they can EXPLAIN it.

    • People can’t seem to understand the success of education reform with any standards in the U.S. depends on quality teachers & support. Dr. Pesta seems to think that grading a lesson should not depend on that lesson. That is against any policy I know.

  29. The demographics at this charter school does not math the demographics of Florida or the majority of our schools. This school is 78%white. Only 1% of the kids are black and 1% are Asian, Only 17% of kids attending the school are living in poverty. The school does not list their English Learning population or if they have any children with learning disabilities.

    The author of this article wrote with complete bias about a charter school that has a teacher to student ration of 1:15. I looked on schoodigger,com and Mason Academy is ranked 99 not number 1 in Florida. I am wondering where the author found his biased facts. Seems like more alternative facts from someone who does not understand that common core is a set of standards not a teaching method. It was written with teachers.

  30. Makes a strong argument for ditching common-core, but we also need to know this school’s previous scores, how long has this charter school been going, etc., to see the whole picture.

    • Can’t make a strong argument without knowledge of the subject & this author’s focus does not include understanding how Common Core works.

  31. Seems that the Synonym for ”Common Core’ would be Common Ignorance”. Whether it be Bush or Obama, it amounts to the push for world government and to make everyone commonly ignorant to what is really happening.

  32. FTA: “One of its defining characteristics is the way it “dumbs down” many concepts and has students take too many steps to reach conclusions that are obvious to those of us who were schooled the traditional way.”

    If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

    • I learned the traditional way & is was Broken!! Trad ed trained human calculators who were math illiterates unable to solve real problems unless in standard form. Solving word problems caused headaches.

  33. Tribalism is alive and well, let’s just divide up and kill each other. Dialogue with idiots is such a waste!

  34. I would say the Florida school results pretty much speak for themselves. They ditched common core and their results were much better. Same thing happened in my generation. They started “New Math” ie they tried to teach algebra rules before children learned to add, subtract, multiple and divide. The new books and methods were started in California. The rest of the nation was changing all their elementary school math texts to copy. Then California found out it didn’t work worth a damn. So everyone got to change their books and methods back again. You would think educators would figure out new stuff should be tested in the field to see if it REALLY worked but noooooooo can’t do that.

  35. The common core does not recommend not teaching phonics in kindergarten. It does include working on high frequency words as a small part but heavily focuses on phonics and phonemic awareness in kindergarten. Standard for phonics and word recognition: Know and apply grade–level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. There is no mention of high frequency words in the literacy foundation skills for kindergarten.

    • Please do not confuse people with facts!! They focus on fake news & opinions instead. I applaud your trying though!!

  36. It has been said a million times that even public schools can be decent on a local level without the feds and states messing it up.

    Wealthy areas have public schools that are bad, but actually use some brain cells and create some pathways. Working/Middle Class areas have schools that create total idiots and inner-cities have zoos that create animals.

    • 1983 “A Nation At Risk” found inconsistent quality of content & grading. I found LOCALS can mess up best intentions. “A” in one state could be a “C” in another. A global effort to make results consistent so parents can make meaningful choices should be a priority.

  37. What is the per-child spending of this Charter School? What is the teacher to student ratio? How do these measures compare to the rest of Florida? What is the median income of the students’ families, and how does it compare to the median income of all Florida students?

  38. You people really are just so pathetic lol. The deplorables are such a sad lot. May Jesus show them pity.

  39. I’ve read the many comments tying President Obama to an allegedly failed educational policy. The idea that this man had the time to micromanage school systems is nonsense, but let the haters hate. What many of us feel is that an extremely articulate, brilliant man in the White House set an example of thinking things through, weighing his words before he spoke and remaining calm and fair-minded. And that’s what millions of adults and children growing up saw of this man and his wife, Michelle. That’s where we get many of our lessons on what it means to be educated, adult, a man of courage and conviction, and a leader.

  40. “Obama’s common core”?

    2009 the state school chiefs and governors that comprise CCSSO and the NGA Center coordinated a state-led effort to develop the Common Core State Standards

    • NON Common Core states make minor changes & rename. Common Core succeeded & Smart people appreciate the goals.

  41. Mason Classical Academy English & math use resources aligned to the Common Core. Common Core is standards or skills needed & leaves teachers to use what teaching methods they feel works. The testing & data are from ESSA, for all states even without Common Core.
    Can’t believe the misinformation in this article.

  42. I have been in lines at McDonald’s when they were having trouble with their cash registers and had to stand their while the figured out my change. Can you imagine how long it would have taken if they were using Common Core?

  43. Publishers have always been the deciding factor for curriculum In California. Whoever does the best presentation gets the contract. Education lobbyists are in competition to get the education dollars for their company. Research is not questioned and the people who make up the curriculum may have never been inside an elementary classroom. Shameful waste of our dollar!

    • That was the reason for Feds charging states & locals to define content required. That was a first attempt to control textbook content.

    • Math is math. Look at what skills are taught & try to teach math without them. Most concerns are local method choices.

  44. Common core is one reason that the education system in the US is ranked so low. It is also a reason the people can’t get jobs, especially minorities, as US edu caters to the lowest common denominator. People came to the US because we were the best and offer true sucess. But, those with intelligence are greatly disappointed at what they find in our government schools.

    • The Mason Classical Academy uses CKLA & Singapore math curriculum that are also used with Common Core. Check with EngageNY! That does seem to correct many complaints caused by local choices that are blamed on Common Core.
      Amazing how great curriculum can succeed with great teachers & training.

  45. This is FAKE NEWS!! This school DOES use of Common Core that DOES include phonics in kindergarten. The testing is ESSA, NOT Common Core. The grading of the 530-270 problem marking it as wrong is local grading policy & not part of Common Core! Taking too many steps is traditional for methods that help understand, like counting sheep by Sesame St. Common Core does encourage play, interaction with others & experimentation to make knowledge like math more real.

  46. it’s the typical liberal mindset. If you want equality, then you lower the best down to the level of the worst so the worst don’t feel bad and it’s easier to control stupid people than deal with people smarter than them.

    • The idea is to RAISE the level for everyone but don’t limit anyone. Common Core leaves that to LOCAL policy. Amazing people blame Common Core for what it does not & should not control!!

  47. CommonCore was created by a group of Leftists, funded by Bill Gates, and fast-tracked. That way they did not have to have it take years going through the system with funding. Most states adopted it to get their share of the 400 billion dollar stimulus fund set aside for education, per Obama’s Race to the Top Initiative. In addition, Race To The Stop stipulated that any state that took the blackmail money, had to agree to fund CommonCore themselves once the stimulus ran out. Clever.

    CommonCore is to education like Obamacare to Healthcare. Socialized Education because once the Fed had most all states agreeing to one program, the program then incorporates more and more SJW stuff.

    This way …. getting to our children early on, would complete the indoctrination of the leftist agenda.

    Kill commie CommonCore.

    • 1983 study “A Nation At Risk” found local control caused inconsistent education that varied by content, quality & results by state & community, even within the same school. Feds charged states & locals to take charge of defining content & proving consistent measure of results.

      • I wasn’t genuinely asking, as I know how it occurred. It was a rhetorical statement about the inability for government to bring innovation and proper education to students. Wow, now they can all be equally as shitty. Socialistic ideology wins again.

        • Locals keep blaming Feds for their own failure. Feds make an easily accepted scapegoat for people who cannot do proper research & who accept any view supporting their own.

  48. I heard some friends talking and they had investigated their kids education and checked colleges and they would not be admitted to many colleges with an education of Common Core.

  49. You mean when we stop brainwashing children and teach them to think creatively they get better scores on State tests?

    Go figure.

  50. Here is my response to “Michael.” Common Core standards are NOT more “rigorous” as its proponents claim.
    Since you (Michael) want to focus ONLY on math and English/Language
    Arts, let’s go there. Sandra Stotsky, the ONLY ELA expert and a member
    of the Massachusetts state board of education, hired to validate CC ELA
    standards, refused to sign off on the standards because they were
    inferior to the previous standards in many states and “cannot prepare
    students for authentic college course work.” Likewise, math professor
    James Milgram, the ONLY mathematician on the CC validation committee,
    refused to sign off on the math standards saying they would put students
    two years behind other countries by the time they reach 8th grade and
    the “get even worse in high school.” He has also publicly stated that
    only 5% of AP students intending to enter STEM professions, ever
    graduate with a STEM degree. Even Jason Zimba, one of three creators of
    Common Core math, admits that the term “college ready” is a “minimal
    definition of college readiness” and that it is “not only NOT for STEM
    but NOT for ‘selective’ colleges.” These statements are available on
    video and in print.
    http://www.educationviews.org/common-core-college-career-standards-big-fraud/.
    For the record, I haven’t read every single comment in this thread, but
    from my observation, Michael, you are the only one using the term
    “racism.” Anti-American, anti-Christian and pro-islam bias have been
    cited hundreds of times by concerned parents nationwide in Pearson
    (Common Core) textbooks, but their voices are being drowned out by the
    educrats, many of whom who treat parents with contempt. One of my own
    local school board members confirmed very recently that our public
    school teachers are required to teach the five pillars of islam. Why
    then, are we not teaching them the Protestant apostles creed, the
    catechism, or the tenets of the Jewish faith? Bill Gates, who dumped
    billions of his own money into the development of Common Core, signed an
    agreement with UNESCO in 2004 to train teachers worldwide to teach
    Common Core. States like Florida and most other states – many with GOP
    governors have changed 1 to 3% of the curriculum and simply renamed it –
    like “Florida Standards” Our college entrance exams are Common Core
    aligned. The lucrative business of Common Core “edcuation”
    (indoctrination) pays big dividends to the (partially) Saudi shareholder
    owned multi-billion dollar Pearson conglomerate, which has bought out
    most of the major publishing companies worldwide (like Houghton-Mifflin
    and many others), testing corporations and data tracking organizations.
    It’s proponents and supportive politicians have everything to gain and
    nothing to lose by supporting Common Core. it will take an act of God to
    remove the curse of Common Core and to restore true local control of
    education.

  51. Each of us use methods for easier calculations. What amused me the other day was a trick math question. It wasn`t difficult with a few minutes observation. One just had to observe the trend top to bottom with 4 level of math, the last being left blank for the answer. As simple as it was for me, all others took upon difficult calculations with none right. I am 65 yrs old. Use your head.

  52. I have one child who excelled with phonic as well as 80 percent of the human population. I have another child who could not understand phonics if his life depended on it, for after much testing, it was discovered that he has a visual processing problem. He learned “sight ” words. Why cant both programs be offered?

  53. Freaking figures, now when your kids get home from school you have to unteach them everything they just learned.

    • The Mason Classical Academy CKLA & Singapore math curriculum are used with Common Core. Check with EngageNY! That does correct many complaints caused by local curriculum choices that are blamed on Common Core.

  54. Mason Classical Academy curriculum of Core Knowledge Language Arts & Singapore math are used with Common Core. CKLA is included in EngageNY & Singapore math is used by many CC schools. Amazing people try to blame Common Core for local curriculum choices then celebrate when they think they succeeded without Common Core

  55. I see complaints about local control issues. The state testing is still here. The same curriculum is used by Common Core schools.The grading etc is local policy. WHERE are any complaints about Common Core here?

  56. Right here, you are in essence blaming the teacher. “Although the student got the right answer, his teacher wanted him to solve it by adding 30 to both numbers so the problem would then be 560-300.” The teacher does NOT want to mark it wrong, trust me! As a teacher, I’d love to teach the way I was taught, old school. Unfortunately, our evaluations and the people put in charge of our jobs dictate what we can and cannot do in the classroom these days. Change the leaders, not the old system. Pick people who have been in the classroom for years, with years of real world experience.

  57. The math problem of 530-270… wrong strategy and nice try with the lies of common core math. Common core would encourage students to think flexibly about numbers. so…. a student wouldn’t have to write this problem down and solve it by the “traditional math” as you call it. I call the old fashioned, long way to solve something that should be mental math. Nice try though. And common core math doesn’t force kids into a strategy, it tries to allow students to understand the concepts and then progress along a natural continuum with a strategy that they understand. Not everyone fits into the same way of thinking about math. Kids understand what place value is, why multiplication works, how to decompose numbers to make long division easier,etc. Maybe actually understand common core math prior writing an article that is completely biased.

  58. The one question I have was never answered here: Soared from where? I don’t want to know about county numbers I want to know the numbers this particular school had before and after! That would make this worth sharing. Without that though it really doesn’t say much as a story.

  59. The dummy-down approach started in the 70. Goes back to the getting every child on the same level and bring them up together. Educators forgot the latter

  60. Oddly enough, It sounds like they took aspects of Australia’s Curriculum and bodged it in the typical American Education fashion. Like, the last one is quite simple, Upwards rounding then subtract a whole number which was a thing I learnt in Year 2 as a solving method amoung the many different types of ways to make essential mathematics easier.

  61. Michael Toso knows what he’s talking about. I don’t know why so many of you are arguing with him. The so-called “Common Core” that this district ditched is NOT “Common Core”.

    Over a decade ago, a group of local school districts and state governors got together and agreed that they needed to define a set of common standards of knowledge by which all students could be judged. This would simplify things when families moved from state to state, and it would ensure that all students had an equal shot at entrance to colleges and universities. This was not a new idea. For example, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) had been working on a set of nationwide standards already.

    The federal government got wind of it and started using it as a cudgel instead of a precision tool. They had no right to do that, and they may have ruined something that was (and still is) inherently good.

    Common Core standards ONLY exist for Mathematics and Language Arts. There are NO Common Core standards for science, history or any other subject. Anybody who tells you different is full of bullsh*t.

    You can read the standards yourself at http://www.corestandards.org/read-the-standards/. Why don’t you do that before spouting off about them?

    The standards do not define HOW the knowledge is to be taught or acquired. That’s left up to the local teachers. Unfortunately, a commercial enterprise bought the commoncore.org URL and started promoting a curriculum under the guise of a nonprofit organization. The curriculum was created and sold by for-profit textbook companies, and THIS is what a lot of people are calling Common Core, but it’s NOT common core. The real common core is at http://www.corestandards.org.

    If you’re still reading this, then click on this link to read more about what Common Core is or isn’t. You’re fighting against a bogeyman, a monster that doesn’t really exist. The link is: https://zyzmog.blogspot.com/search?q=common+core

  62. By the way, the 530-270 example used at the end of the article to illustrate the badness of common core is a stupid story. First, it was 427-316, and second, the “Frustrated Father” was an idiot. Here’s one article that refutes Frustrated Father: https://zyzmog.blogspot.com/2014/03/dear-frustrated-father-stop-acting-like.html. Here’s a follow-up article about it: https://zyzmog.blogspot.com/2014/10/more-about-common-core-number-lines-and.html. And I wasn’t the only person to call out Frustrated Father on his idiocy: https://zyzmog.blogspot.com/2014/05/common-core-backlash-against-frustrated.html .

    Once again, the “Common Core” that everyone is up in arms against is a bogeyman, an imaginary beast that bears no resemblance to the real thing.

  63. Get the damned Federal Government out of the education system. There is no Constitutional provision for it. Let the States and localities decide how and what their children are taught, not some Federal agency that is wholly unaccountable to anyone.

  64. Actually, Common Core is just one of MANY tools in Agendas 21 and 2030 moving us toward The New World Order. Read them on the United Nations website … and weep.

  65. The “dumbing down” has been going on long before Obama! Which is why people in general believe everything they seen on the news, read on the internet, or hear!!! This is how the Government keeps us in order! It’s sickening! AND it needs to STOP!!!

  66. I TOOK MY KIDS OUT OF SCHOOL WHEN THIS CAME TO BE —-NOW THEY ARE HAPPY AND WORKING IN ENTRY LEVEL JOBS DOING MUCH BETTER THAT THOSE WHO MINDLESSLY FOLLOWED THE FALSE GOD OBOZO

  67. Common core is simply a faster way to answer a question. The problem with that is the student doesn’t actually learn how to solve that problem only how to get a correct answer. This type of education is what allows many other countries to put out high test scores in grade schools. Which is exactly why it was pushed so hard. One it makes for good press when a political figure says I’ve raised test scores X% over the last how many ever years. 2 it solves a problem many on the left had been trying to solve for years which is low admission of minority’s to college due to bad grades.
    The problem with common core arise in college and later in the work world. The product of not knowing how to solve simple and not so simple problems becomes huge when you now have to actually solve a problem. If we were still a manufacturing strong country then following a predetermined work pattern would be a breeze for for these kids and young adults. However we are not that type of economy anymore. In the US we need to adapt solutions to complex problems that arise daily in any of our high paying jobs. In countries like China where this type of teaching was first introduced they simply follow a preset pattern and go through their day without the need to actually think about what they are doing.
    What it all boils down to is common core is a disaster on our youth and the sooner it is removed the better. The greatest minds of our time were all educated using the old way and it’s no wonder that it has been over 15 years since we have saw a mark zuckleberg or bill gates type of person rise up. In my opinion it’s why these people are pushing this type of education. Not only will it put more money in their pockets but it greatly improves the time that they get stay on top.

  68. How could Mason claim it DITCHED Common Core? Florida is a CC state with CC testing. Mason uses CKLA & Singapore Math that are CC curriculum. This article sells Mason teaching approaches that sound just like CC goals.

  69. You’re saying you’re not smart enough to google and figure out that Obama had us bombing 8 different countries…illegally ? Wow. I knew you leftists were smug morons, but you take the cake.

    Btw, The “mortgage crisis”…the one where the Democrats screamed how it was racist to not give home loans to drug dealers and pimps ? THAT one ? …yeah, you dummies sure didn’t mind driving up our DEBT on empty promises….oh ..wait, that’s ALL YOU DUMMIES DO ! Promise everything, Deliver NOTHING , then blame anyone else.

    • I thought so. You made it up just like all the other stupid statements you made. You should go read the Big Short or watch the movie if you can’t read. When I make a statement I can prove it. Just like Bush’s signing of the “Home Ownership” initiative which allowed all the banks to screw around with mortgage derivatives. Notice also don’t need to call names to get my point across.

      • The big short is a fictional take on real elements. Look up the legislation. Also Bush addressed both house’s of Congress and asked for repeal of the CRA and ecconomists were warning about it back when it was pushed by Clinton administration and Dems in the 90’s. This argument is about common core, and you obviously are misinformed about the financial crisis.

  70. The superintendent that is against one of the most successful schools in Florida has outed himself as a dithering idiot and must be replaced because he is a danger to children’s education.

  71. Progressive Education was designed to destroy a child’s ability to learn by ignoring context and hierarchy. Common Core is designed to destroy his DESIRE to learn. I wish Michigan would drop both.

  72. This article is missing the obvious…. what were the scores at this school before they switched away from common core? The other data points are irrelevant if they already had excellent scores.

    My opinion is that Common Core is complex for someone who does not know math… but is more efficient if you have solid math skills and knowledge.

  73. charter schools can exclude students who perform poorly. parents are involved in the lives of these charter kids because they must be to get into charter schools. i don’t know about teaching but i know public schools must by law accept everyone

  74. Statement above is not correct. We begin teaching phonics in Kindergarten and the words they “memorize” are Sight Words, which many can not be sounded out using traditional phonics, so they have to just memorize them. Very misleading and incorrect statement. In NC children are taught (and assessed using DIBELS) phonics using various programs ranging from Fundations to Letterland. Plus, traditional reading programs also incorporate phonics into their reading lessons. We do not think You need to do a little more research! Also, the “dumbing down” is called critical thinking. This is nothing more than fluff meant to sway people toward a certain charter school.

  75. Have to weigh in here.. Clinton Administration was responsible for the mortgage crisis work in the industry, we knew the laws and we knew it was bad. Started in the 90’s under the increased lending requirements set by the Fed under the CRA… But Bush was responsible for pushing tat f’ed up BS NCLB, both him and Ted Kennedy shoved that manure down both sides of the Isle

  76. Please cite what you are referring to when you say, “Thanks to the
    classical approach of phonics, an impressive 90 percent of the
    third-grade students at Mason Classical Academy were proficient in
    English Language Arts, compared to just 58 percent in the county
    overall, most of whom rely on Common Core.” Are they proficient
    according to FSA results? Because FSA tests Florida Standards are
    close to Common Core. Also, Florida Standards and Common Core standards
    are not a curriculum. You wrote about a curriculum that actually does
    well when when taking the FSA (IF that is what you are referring to.).And
    then you compare these results to California which OBVIOUSLY does not
    test their students using the FSA. What you should do is research what
    you are writing about because you have done an injustice to journalism.
    Your article is heavily flawed.

  77. What are they basing this on? Number two and number one based on what measurement? That is the key part that is missing.

  78. If you look on the school’s website you will see they expect students who enter the school to already be on academic level. They do not accept students who need remediation. But I’m sure the author of the article already knew that.

  79. As a teacher of special education for 46 years, I totally agree. Common Core is a disaster for students and teachers. Glad to be retired now for 2 years, so I no longer have to deal with the stupidity of it.

  80. Great that a school went independent and is getting excellent results. The article would better serve the public if it mentioned that Common Core, although endorsed by the Obama administration, was a state-led effort. Common Core State Standards was launched in 2009 by state leaders, including governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, two territories and the District of Columbia, through their membership in the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices.

  81. Common Core was introduced to address shortcomings and failings of traditional methods in schools where performance was poor, It was not ” imposed by Obama ” as if he created it. Political bullshit. It was created by non partisan educators and academics from across the political spectrum to address failing students and failing schools. Of course traditional methods work – they worked for many years. But obviously not everywhere. What is the background of this school? What was its performance before Common Core? What kind of resources were allocated before, during, and after? Class sizes? Levels of parental involvement? Homework load?

  82. We have Florida Standards, not Common Core. Kindergarteners have always learned sight words, way before Common Core or the current Florida Standards. They are words that don’t follow the rules of phonics. We still teach phonics. I agree that some of the Math problem solving is confusing, but we encourage and teach students multiple strategies to get to an answer. I don’t think this school’s scores has anything to do with the curriculum. There are most likely many other factors that contributed to their success like demographics, class size, teacher efficacy, parent involvement, etc.

  83. I am a teacher and I agree that it does confuse the students that have to do common core that all ready know the traditional way. Parents don’t even know how to do the common core and cant teach their children this way because they never learned it. If the child gets the answer correct it should be excepted correct not wrong. It doesn’t make any difference which way its done if common core works for the lowest let them use it but if others can use the traditional way it should be used and correct too.

  84. Common Core was thought up by people who were set out to dumb down our children. To make robots and idiots out of society in general. I was against it from the beginning.

  85. Hey racist pigs Florida Obama Didn’t Start The Common Core shit Bush did and it’s been shit for years so don’t pat yourself on the back for being racist pigs

  86. I strongly agree with this article. I have tried and have yet to see why math cannot be taught the old way. It makes more sense and is way more practical. I’m not against using the other method if you have a child that is challenged in math and may need the common core method, but on the whole I think the “old” method in the long run is much better.

  87. The main flaw here is that Common Core is not a method. Is merely standards that students to know. Teachers and schools choose how to get students to learn that standard. Example form kindergarten is RF.K.3 ” Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding word. It does say phonics, which is knowing letter sound correspondence, which is important in pronouncing words, and it also has you recognize and read high frequency sight words. For math 4.O.A.A.2 . Multiply or divide to solve word problems. That’s it. no where does it say the ‘Japanese method, the lattice method, partial products method or anything like that. Common Core is standards.

    It gets a terrible rap, but in reality, the standards are developmentally appropriate and based on Piaget for one, and were based on international benchmarks which were just renamed ‘Common Core’.

  88. I’m just curious about the demographics of this school and if they are similar to the other schools that are not performing as well.

  89. I agree, Common Core is a waste. However, the concept of sight words – memorizing words – is at least 50-yrs older than Common Core. Way too many simple words defy phonics that if kids aren’t memorizing at least half of the simple words, they won’t know enough words to read anything.

  90. Common core has zero to do with how things are taught. All it did was make it so different state standards lined up with each other so kids wouldn’t miss skills when they move between states.

    And, of course rote memorization leads to better elementary test scores, but those grades will plummet, like they always have, for 90% of the kids when they enter algebra. The newer methods take longer to learn because it isn’t just memorizing facts, but learning how math actually works so they then are able to easily transition to higher level math.

  91. This needs to be confirmed. Statements alone such as, “Common core proponents are panicking…” should be enough reason to doubt this as accurate news. It’s a private school, why would CCP be panicking? What standards were compared with what other standards? Where can we find this information? Has the principal been contacted to confirm this story? Be careful what you spread. I hate seeing people argue over information that hasn’t been confirmed. This is exact why Russia, China, and North Korea are easily damaging us.. we are lacking critical thinking faculties from every angle here in the US.

  92. I can not stand common core! We live in fort worth tx. I was wondering y my son was having trouble spelling simple words that he should be able to spell in 4th grade. I was helping with the pre and started talking to teachers. I found out that for the last 2 years the state has taken spelling out of the curriculum. Not only do they no longer teach spelling but do not teach cursive either. Not to mention the strange way they want them to solve math problems.

    How are these kids supposed to write a resume or a report for work or a book for that matter. They can not if they don’t know how to spell even the months of the year or days of the week.

    How will these kids sign a mortgage,bank deposit slip or even a credit application or for their children’s school permission slip?
    What do the administrators and politicians think they are doing because they are not helping our children. I guess it’s up to us parents to teach them these things as if we don’t have enough problems protecting them from bullies,predators and all the other evil in this world.

  93. I had the highest test scores in my school and was in the top ten of all 4th grade teachers in a 75 elementary school district. 60% were english Learners. You should not have to help your daughter, that is the job of the school. I won’t insult you like you did me.

    You can read my published work at http://www.portical.org/blog/

    • I can’t tell which article is yours. Are you Micheal? and I agree when you said “you should not have to help your daughter, that is the job of the school” but I found in a common core kinder this fall that the teacher graded on what they already knew so if parents weren’t teaching from home the classroom didn’t add to it. All testing was from inferred passive learning….there was no direct teaching or referring to what would be tested. It was strange.

      • I am Jack.
        Teachers are all over the place on grades, and you should go talk to the principal about that policy. There is nothing a K student is supposed to “already know”. There should be direct teaching going on all day in K and the skills are foundational: letters, numbers, beginning high frequency words, etc.

        • Exactly,….one boy regressed within the first 2 months and his Mom knew it…
          I told the principal and his right hand gal as well, that the co teacher was using British pronunciation but after repeatedly asking them to intervene, I gave up. The principal told me to dial down to a 3. He said when I was at a 10 I needed to go to a 3 (as if that is a common tool to discuss anything). Anyway, yes, thank you Jack. Keep in touch. eagleswingstherapy@gmail.com

  94. Why doesn’t it surprise me that Baltimore is doing so poorly? Might have something to do with the fact the city is 64% black.

  95. The new math might be challenging for some high IQ students, but it is so ridiculously complicated that most parents who learned traditional math cannot help their children with math homework. So what is problem with traditional math? It sent men to the moon and was not so hard to understand

  96. You left out the fact that they were also instructing 3rd graders how to mastrabate!!! Disgusting, and all the math was ridiculous.

  97. Obama the sh!t-stain president knew that it would be easier rule and manipulate a dumbed down society. Thus, common core. This is a cynical and criminal thing to do to children and to a society in general. It’s makes me think there may be a totalitarian future at the end of the dumbing down. You know when there are no more conservatives left to save the day.

  98. Then you should go talk to your granddaughter’s teacher. We did a poor job of rolling our Common Core. I have said that already. And if you watch video of me teaching you’ll know your pity is misplaced.

  99. First of all, Common Core had its start in 2007 when George W. Bush was President. Common Core was discussed by state leaders and was pushed by state Governors, not the federal government. In 2009 49 state governors committed their states to working on shared standards. Many Republican governors agreed since nearly every state was involved. Secondly, Common Core is not a teaching method. It does not mandate how schools teach things or which pedagogical methods are used. It presents a set of standards for things kids should learn by certain grades. It does not tell schools how to teach the material, it just sets guidelines for what kids should know. Common Core does not prohibit using Phonics. The methods chosen to teach reading and meet standards is made at the local district level or at the state level. These decisions are not mandated by Common Core or the federal government. Whether or not phonics is uses is and always have been a local decision. The decision on which math teaching method to use is also not a Common Core mandate. Instructional methods are LOCAL decisions. Our state does not use all of the Common Core standards and we have not lost any federal money. There is no actual federal mandate related to Common Core. Thirdly, standardized testing is not being pushed by one particular party or ideology. In our state, standardized testing is being protected by Republicans in our legislature as a way of holding teachers accountable. Our governor, who is a Democrat, it trying to cut back on mandated state testing and the Republicans in the legislature are not going along. They say standardized testing is vital and critical. Standardized testing got a huge push starting in 2001 with the No Child Left Behind Act under, again under George W. Bush, not under Obama. DeVos and Trump have yet to suggest undoing No Child Left Behind and have also not suggested undoing Obama’s ESSA. They cannot undo Common Core, because, again, Common Core is not a federal mandate. Common Core is voluntarily adopted by states as content guidelines and has nothing to do with pedagogical method decisions made locally.

  100. ROFLMAO!!!! Now will come the wailing and gnashing of teeth of the socialists trying to force this school to return to the flock. We can only hope that other schools and then districts will grow some balls and ditch Common Core like a bad egg and go back to what worked for decades and centuries.

  101. Helped “coach” a 5th grader in “reading” – there wasn’t anything wrong with her reading it was the way it was tested – if they had wanted to find a way to make reading unpleasant it could not have been designed better than Common Core. I’m so glad some schools are “teaching” according to what works rather than what somebody things is a good idea.

  102. Get the facts straight! That is journalism “The state-led effort to develop the Common Core State Standards was launched in 2009 by state leaders, including governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, two territories and the District of Columbia, through their membership in the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA)”

  103. This is a good article. The driving push behind CC, were the unions. They are in fear of the charter schools. Also, if we dumb down our youth they are more easily controlled.

  104. Common Core is confusing and does not approach the core of reading, phonics. How do you learn the structure of a word let alone read it in the dictionary? CC came on board when my youngest started school, 1985.

  105. Ugh! Stupid people.

    Common core is not curriculum or any way of teaching. It is performances standards that no state or school is required to subscriber to.

    This is just more fodder for the bottom feeding paste eaters to get riled up over the black man about.

  106. This is the stupidest sh*t I ever heard of. We were never taught this way and it’s worked for us for GENERATIONS. I was reading the article about the school in Florida giving it up and now being in the top of the list and the posting of comments were just as stupid. All political. It’s about the kids NOT who put this stupdity in place. It’s
    time they take this crap out of schools. I would rather they teach the STEM ideas. That is the way of the future. Stop stressing our kids out and let them feel good about achieving their goals. Feel free to pass along my comments if it helps. I’m a grandma and I got this far WITHOUT knowing this stupid Common Core crap! Wise up guys!

  107. I have long argued that Common Core was more oriented towards dumbing kids down to the lowest common denominator, rather than actually teaching them how to read and do arithmetic.

  108. What I find troubling about this story is the fact that there are Six schools in Baltimore Maryland that do not have a single student who is proficient in English language arts,or Math. Is Maryland still part of these United States?

  109. I am in my 50’s and I have no idea how a child is to learn anything through Common Core. I read this article to the finishing paragraph. I do not know how adding 30 to each number made the math problem correct. Common Core is only Common if you remove all manner of common sense.

  110. Common Core is a list of common standards that were developed to “equal the playing field” when it came to comparing proficiency by state. It is not a curriculum. It does not tell teachers how to teach. That is a fallacy.

  111. It sounds like the “New Math” that I had in 11th grade in 1971. I even tried to fail the course, so I could take it over and learn how to Geometry the right way. But the teacher “socially” advanced me with a D-. Me with and overall average of 22%.

  112. started with the states then NCLB then common core….one grew out of the other and screwed what was left of the educational system….

  113. Actually, Common Core was A Bush initiative. And since they aren’t being compared to other students, they could just be getting higher grades, Not learning more. The baseline is probably very low.

  114. Bottom Line, if you want to fix education, you will need to first fix the American Family. Too many kids ARRIVING in school today are trauma victims. Absurd yes, but sadly true. Check the stats. Cities: High poverty, high crime neighborhoods at least 25% of children arrive at school with PTSD.50% from families experiencing chaos. Across America it’s the Opioid Epidemic. Like nothing we’ve ever seen before. More kids affected now than doing crack baby epidemic. at least 2-3 kids per class. Teachers are farmers. They need good seeds to produce a good crop.

    https://www.children-and-divorce.com/children-divorce-statistics.html

    General children divorce statistics. 50% of all North-American children will witness the divorce of their parents. Almost half of them will also see the breakup of a parent’s second marriage. (Furstenberg and others -Life Course-); One out of 10 children of divorce experiences three or more parental marriage breakups.

  115. In phonics. Learning to read the way we we’re taught 50 years ago , not only could you sound out a word you may not know , but t also comes in handy in spelling a word your not sure of . I use it quite often here to help spell a word then look to spell check, amazingly enough l am correct in the 90 % range of getting that word correct
    And in math, l’ve seen ehat they have to offer these kids today and it a F***ing discrase that or educatioal prossess has come to trying to turn out the dumbest bunch of kids in the history of this nation

  116. Being a retired teacher, I congratulate this school for dumping common core which was and is a worthless exercise by the left to dumb down the kids.

  117. Thank God they are losing Common Core, it was a joke….now they need to implement to all schools….why the hell they would dummy down our kids, I have no idea

  118. When Jennifer Cheatham became Madison, Wisconsin’s new school superintendent in 2013, she admitted that common core would probably lower school test assessments. “And even though it’s likely the new assessments will cause test scores to drop, Cheatham says it is critical to “raise the bar” anyway.

    “It’s important for all of us to keep in mind that we’re not teaching the Common Core because we want to do well on the tests,” says Cheatham. “In our district, we’re really focusing on making sure that students are academically ready, but we also want to make sure they have access to a well-rounded educational experience — exposure and learning in the arts, for example. And we want them to have the interpersonal skills and cultural competence to engage in the world as full participants in our communities.”” https://isthmus.com/news/cover-story/jennifer-cheatham-takes-charge-of-madison-schools/

    What a macabre stroke of genius common core is. Common core manages to make it near impossible for parents to help their children with homework and disenfranchises them as educational partners. It helps eliminate the achievement gap between children whose parents who helped them and children who parents didn’t help them.

  119. If it’s not broken, don’r fix it; rule of thumb to follow in life. Apparently, the government, which happened so, was our under the former POTUS 2009-2017. In those years, coincidentally, along came Common Core (CC). Obviously during those years, people were more gullible and every brilliant ideas that were born out of that era became gospel. The brilliance was, “Let’s fix a well-functioning educational system, and change it to CC.” Well, that kept everyone busy for a good 8 years, either by those who fought it knowing it’s failures and those, instead, who kept shoving it down student’s throats, similar to how it was done with ACA. Fast-forward to today, a new POTUS in 2017, reverting back to a working educational system which had been successful for many years, and now students are excelling, yes. By golly, we have a winner. ;=)

  120. Do you realize TEACHERS following TEXTBOOKS decide what methods to teach? Common Core only requires the standard methods & tables. Other methods help visualize math, teach mental math etc! People see classwork, not standards but blame standards anyway. Must compare standards with classwork BEFORE judging.

  121. “How we learned” made us functional at the Quickie Mart and balancing a checkbook. Yea!?!? How we learned made us 23rd in the world in science, 24th! in literacy, …and 40th in math. “How we learned” made us barely functional at being human beings. Seriously, with all we have, shouldn’t we be in at least the top 5 in pretty much everything? Just because most of the US is too ignorant to understand that we have fallen behind 39 other countries in our understanding of math, we cling to the addition and subtraction that Grammy and Granpy, their forefathers, and their forefathers forefathers were taught. How do people not see that the world has changed so much over that time. How the HELL did we become so ignorant and complacent that we became 40th (out of only 195 TOTAL countries?????) in math?? This is the way we did it 30-200 years ago is about the dumbest reason to cling to. If you didn’t take calculus and trig by the 10th grade, you probably shouldn’t be allowed to express a opinion on teaching methods used in countries where they do.

  122. I am so glad that someone is following through on this and sharing it with the rest of the country. I believe the common core does set so many kids up for failure..keep it simple why does everything need to be made complicated..

  123. as a retired Texas teacher, I saw a steady decline in quality from the 70’s on. NCLB was basicaly All Children Left Behind and Common Core is Communist to the Core, and yes, it IS an Obama thing along with his many leftist minions in the Texas Dept of Education. CC was designed to take down the achievement level of bright kids by boring them to death and causing them to become disinterested in school. At the same time, it covertly encouraged hiring the worst new teachers possible, as they are malleable and can be easily controlled by administrators, who, in turn are very often merely a stable of mistresses or lackeys of the superintendent. I am not exaggerating. Education is not aboit educating children. It is about collecting federal funds and jockeying for the positions that are easiest to use for feathering their own nests. And yes, I agree with some other comments that much of the curriculum does come down through the influences of the UN to inure Americans to the NWO.

  124. Unfortunately, every attempt to pull the students who can’t or don’t want to learn up to the level of those that do, has failed. It was predictable that it would only “dumb down” the good students to the level of the bad ones. One shoe does not fit all.

  125. I teach at an after school reading and tutoring program and have seen that common core has been a nightmare. The students have been asked to do ridiculous steps to get a simple answer. They are confused and are set up to fail. This is the approach of bureaucrats, not educators. The teachers and students are so over burdened by tests that valuable realistic education does not take place.

  126. Thank you for leading the way and truly understanding the frustrating our families feel when it’s homework time!

  127. I teach in a public high school, juniors and seniors. Part of the problem is that elementary schools are more concerned with self esteem of students rather than actual reading, writing and math. The students come to me with no idea of how to write legibly or how to write a complete sentence. They are addicted to their phones and cheat as much as possible.

  128. Common Core doesn’t stipulate how you teach, but what the students should know by the end of the school year. I see a lot of Phonics being taught in K classes in the various schools I have visited.
    As for all of the testing, that stems from Bush’s No Child Left Behind.

  129. Mason Classic never used Common Core Standards so it never “dumped” them. While Mason is a good school, most years the schools that place higher than Mason do use Common Core and even this year 4 common core schools placed higher than Mason in Math.

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