Corporate Shill For Common Core And Privatization Worried About Opposition Common Core is common sense sfchronicle/opinion/openforum/article/Common-Core-is-common-sense-5487971.php Jim Steyer May 18, 2014 Associated Press Stacey Jacobson-Francis works on math homework with her 6-year-old daughter Luci at their home in Berkeley. Change is never easy. But through the leadership of a bipartisan group of respected educators and many of the nations governors, millions of children across the country have been benefiting from newly adopted education standards, known as the Common Core, which are designed to improve American student achievement. With the election season upon us, these standards have come under fire for purely political reasons. It is the time for leaders to stand firm, put our kids and schools above politics, and allow the Common Core the time it needs to work. Its important to understand what Common Core is - and is not. The changes constitute a long-overdue update on how our children learn and are specifically geared to better prepare them to compete in the 21st century. These standards were passed with the support of 44 governors, and they reflect a bipartisan effort to improve outcomes for our nations students. The standards have roots from the George W. Bush era, when state school chiefs across the United States devised a plan to help fix Americas public schools. As our students fall behind their counterparts in other countries, the Common Core was created to help Americas children succeed in the increasingly global and competitive 21st century economy. The overwhelming majority of the nations governors believe that setting these high achievement goals for our school children is the first step in helping them succeed. Teachers have been using Common Core Standards for several years and the methods are already helping increase student achievement across the United States. Half of students in this nation are being taught using the standards, and weve already seen a positive impact in the rigor of their academic curriculum. These educational goals emphasize the kinds of skills that are surely needed in the 21st century economy: communication, problem solving and collaboration. After years of focus on simple memorization and regurgitation, the Common Core raises the achievement bar for our kids. The urgency to make these changes is clear. As our population continues to diversify, our schools are experiencing a continuing and persistent racial and ethnic achievement gap. Our Latino and African American students are falling further behind their white counterparts. That gap will persist into the workplace unless we take steps to intervene. Meanwhile, the new National Assessment of Educational Progress (sometimes called the nations report card) reveals that our 12th-graders are not improving in reading and math. Quite simply, we need to do better by our nations kids. In 2000, presidential candidate George W. Bush talked about the soft bigotry of low expectations and asked our students and teachers to do more to push children and teens to learn. Today, there are partisan political forces in Washington and elsewhere that are seeking, once again, to lower our expectations for our students. This will further erode our nations competitive edge and increase the odds that more children will be left behind. To be sure, there have been issues with the implementation of Common Core standards in certain states, and these concerns definitely need to be addressed. But these types of speed bumps are to be expected with any major policy change. The transition may take time, but minor stumbles are by no means a reason to give up on our children and the broader focus on higher achievement goals for our kids. The bottom line is that the education system in the United States needs major improvement, and the Common Core will make it better. It is time for common sense to prevail when it comes to improving education standards and achievement for all of Americas students. And the Common Core is common sense. Jim Steyer is the president of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that provides educators and parents with objective, trustworthy information about media and technology. Common Sense Media Corporateers, Vulture Capitalists And Chelsea Clinton https://commonsensemedia.org/about-us/who-we-are/board-directors Board of Directors Harvey Anderson, CLO AVG Technologies USA, Inc. Reveta Bowers, Head of School, The Center for Early Education Wences Casares, Founder and CEO of Xapo. Chelsea Clinton, Vice Chair, Clinton Foundation Geoffrey Cowan, President, The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, University Professor & Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California Amy Errett, CEO and Founder, Madison Reed John H.N. Fisher, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Thomas J. Holland, President, Sunrun Martha L. Karsh, Founder, Karsh Family Foundation Lucinda Lee Katz, Ph.D., Head of School, Marin Country Day School Gary E. Knell, President and CEO, National Geographic Society April McClain-Delaney, Washington Director William E. McGlashan, Jr., Managing Partner, TPG Growth Robert L. Miller, President and CEO, Miller Publishing Group William S. Price III (Chair), Co-Founder and Partner Emeritus, TPG Capital, L.P. Susan Sachs, Former President and COO, Common Sense Media Theodore M. Shaw, Professor, Columbia University James P. Steyer, Founder and CEO, Common Sense Media Gene T. Sykes, Managing Director, Goldman, Sachs & Co. Nicole Taylor, President and CEO, Thrive Foundation for Youth Deborah Taylor Tate, Former Commissioner, U.S. Federal Communications Commission Ellyn Weisel, Chief Development Officer, 10,000 Degrees Lawrence Wilkinson (Vice Chair), Co-Founder, Oxygen Media and Global Business Network Board of Advisors And Profiteers https://commonsensemedia.org/about-us/who-we-are/board-advisors Aileen Adams, Former Deputy Mayor, City of Los Angeles Larry Baer, President and CEO, The San Francisco Giants Rich Barton, Co-Founder and Executive Chair, Zillow Richard I. Beattie, Chairman, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO, PolicyLink Geoffrey Canada, Founder and President, Harlem Childrens Zone Marcy Carsey, Founding Partner, Carsey-Werner Productions Ramon Cortines, Former Superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District James Coulter, Founding Partner, TPG Capital, L.P. Yogen Dalal, Managing Director,The Mayfield Fund Steven A. Denning, Founding Partner, General Atlantic Partners Susan Ford Dorsey, President, Sand Hill Foundation Millard Drexler, Chairman and CEO, J. Crew Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., Chair, Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, UPenn Robert J. Fisher, Director, GAP Inc. Howard Gardner, Ph.D., Professor, School of Education, Harvard University Terry Goddard, Former Attorney General, State of Arizona Arjun Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner, TeleSoft Partners Jim Herbert II, President and CEO, First Republic Bank David Hornik, Partner, August Capital Ron Johnson, Trustee, Stanford University Mitchell Kapor, Partner, Kapor Capital David Lawrence Jr., President, The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation Eddie Lazarus, General Counsel, Tribue Company Ronnie Lott, NFL Hall of Famer Susan McCaw, U.S. Ambassador to Austria (Ret.) Nion McEvoy, Chairman and CEO, Chronicle Books Nell Minow, Founder, The Corporate Library and Movie Mom Newton Minow, Counsel, Sidley, Austin and Brown; Former Chairman, Federal Communications Commission James Montoya, Senior Vice President, The College Board Becky Morgan, President, Morgan Family Foundation Nancy Peretsman, Managing Director, Allen & Company Inc. Michael Riordan, Founder, Gilead Sciences George Roberts, Founding Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Jesse Rogers, Founder, Altamont Capital Carrie Schwab Pomerantz, President, Charles Schwab Foundation Alan Schwartz, Executive Chairman, Guggenheim Partners Thomas Steyer, Founding Partner, Farallon Capital Deborah Stipek, Professor, School of Education, Stanford University Mike Tollin, President, Mandalay Sports Media Robert S. Townsend, Partner, Morrison & Foerster LLP Laura Walker, President, WNYC Radio Eugene Washington, M.D., Dean, School of Medicine, UCLA Alice Waters, Founder, Chez Panisse and Chez Panisse Foundation Robert Wehling, Founder, Family Friendly Programming Forum Tim Zagat, Co-Founder and Co-Chair, Zagat Survey
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 16:02:23 +0000
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