I feel like plucking some low-hanging fruit today, and so let’s take a look at Common Core. I’ve written of it before, how it ignores science, how it’s just another excuse to inject more indoctrination into our schools, and how by changing the approach to how mathematics is learned, will further separate the children from […] … learn more→
Tag Archives: Common Core
Common core graduates are the worst prepared for College
The result of Common Core? The worst ACT scores in a decade
I recently realized this is the most time I’ve spend off campus in, well, my adult life, so allow me to wander off campus in my writings as well, at least for a little. “…Back in 1952 the Army quietly began hiring hundreds of psychologists to find out how 600,000 high school graduates had successfully […] … learn more→
Can Common Core reading tests ever be fair?
Yandilixza Esteves’ face lights up when she talks about reading. Her favorite books are from “The Magic Tree House” series because, “I can imagine I’m in the places they’re talking about,” she says. Esteves, age 10, is a fourth-grader at Roberto Clemente Elementary School in Newark, N.J., and a native of Puerto Rico. She moved […] … learn more→
More than five years after adopting Common Core, Kentucky’s black-white achievement gap is widening
The second-graders in Sarah Bowling’s class at Dunn Elementary were on a scavenger hunt to find “arrays.” The bookshelf had a picture of three rows of five fish. The door had an image of four rows with three beach pails in each. Several other pictures were strategically placed in different corners of the brightly decorated […] … learn more→
The Common Core explained
Beginning in 2010, mathematics and English language arts standards, called the Common Core State Standards, were adopted in 45 of 50 U.S. states. The Common Core Standards represent a substantial change from what was in place before. They are not just national (nearly) in scope, but also their content differs considerably from prior state standards. […] … learn more→
Common Core will be imposed on private schools that get Fed funds
Senate bill 1177 is a bipartisan measure to federalize education, all in the name of preserving local control. It will be imposed on charter schools and all private schools that accept a nickel of aid. As I said 30 years ago, “If you take the government’s nickel, you also take its noose.” S-1177 is about […] … learn more→
Students are opting out of testing. How did we get here?
“Opt Out,” a civil disobedience movement against state-mandated testing in elementary and secondary education, is growing rapidly across the United States. Last year, Opt Out protests occurred in about half the states. This year, the movement has found support across all 50 states. In New York state alone, the number of students opting out has […] … learn more→
Common core and fractions
This is a republish of this article. “See that big thing with the hairy mane? Don’t go near that, it will eat you!” –advice from adult to child on the Serengeti, to avoid lions. This is really all the explanation a child needs, at least at first. A discussion of biology, the need for the […] … learn more→
Nude Adult Models, William Bennett, Common Core
I had originally begun politely with a news hook quoting William J. Bennett on the common core, and will return to it, but as things are in our society, I think the following will give the common core more publicity: As reported by Eric Owens, education editor of The Daily Caller, in “Common Core is […] … learn more→
Rotten teacher’s apple: The common core
In a recent opinion piece by William J. Bennett in the Wall Street Journal, “The Conservative Case for a Common Core,” with an unfortunate double-entendre title that misfires, one statement makes good sense: “Nearly all Americans agree that to prepare a child for civic responsibility and competition in the modern economy, he or she must […] … learn more→
