Questions that need to be answered by your childs Principal and School Board! I have been working on these questions for quite a while...I hope you will ask your childs Principal and or School Board! 1. There is a contract agreement between smarter balance test consortium and the federal gov’t to share my child’s personal data that will be easy for third parties to access. Given the recent NSA scandal and our own state of sc security breach with social security numbers and credit card info, why are we allowing my child’s personal information to be handed over? 2. As I read through the standards there seems to be a common thread. The standards are requiring students to rely on “group” consensus for their facts and thinking instead of allowing students to be independent thinkers. This is alarming to me; given the fact bullying is rampant in schools. Why should we have standards that are promoting disagreeing with our peers at a time when socialization skills need improvement? Won’t this whole “consensus” group thinking really result in producing the results of one bully personality in the group getting his point of view to become the rest of the group’s point of view? 3. Why is learning to identify money and count money no longer a standard in first grade, I thought common core was supposed to be rigorous? 4. Many of the first grade standards require 6 and 7 year old children to collaborate with their peers and accept criticism from their peers. Children at this age have delicate egos and are very self-centered. Why should we have standards that will inhibit children from making friends? this age child hungers for approval and is constantly asking,” Will you be my friend?” If other children are asked to criticize his writing or speaking skills, I can envision an answer to, “will you be my friend”… being, “no cause you didnt like my story I wrote” so why do these standards promote students critiquing each other? 5. How can these standards be in the best interest of the young child when not one single early childhood development specialist served on the committee who wrote them or validated them? 6. I keep hearing these standards will not change the way a teacher teaches they are just standards. then why will teachers now have to spend as much as 70% of their time teaching cold, dry reading of documents instead of classic literature…isnt that a change and also…why is there such an increase in collaborative peer consensus teaching methods in these standards where the teacher is merely a facilitator and not a teacher? Isn’t that a change in teaching methods? 7. As I read through these standards it appears we are stifling children’s creativity and individuality by leaning heavily on group projects and group consensus thinking. How is this a better way of teaching than teaching children to be independent lifelong learners and thinkers? 8. Why has algebra I been taken out of the 8th grade standards and moved up to 9th grade…how is this more rigorous? 9. Governor Haley does not support these standards neither does Superintendent Mick Zais and there are 22 states that are fighting them, if these standards are so wonderful why should I trust them as being valid when so many knowledgeable elected officials doubt them? 10. I keep hearing these standards were state led. How many SC parents, students, teachers, principals, superintendents, school board members were involved in the input and control over the content and testing consortia? 11. How can standards which have never been field tested prepare children to be college and career ready? 12. How do one size fits all standards accommodate for children’s different backgrounds of poverty, dysfunctional family life, and health problems? 13. Why have we adopted national standards which promote sameness when the USA was founded on freedom of choice and celebrates individuality? 14. Explain how increasing rigor will create better test scores. 15. How can standards not be curriculum when curriculum is derived from standards and standards have to have tests which ultimately drive curriculum? …and have you noticed… all the major textbooks have been aligned with common core standards! 16. Where is the research that proves these common core standards are better than our previous ones or better than Massachusetts standards? 17. Why were these standards created in secret and the writers forced to sign an agreement to keep their deliberations silent? Shouldn’t creation of academic standards be open and transparent? 18. The common core approach is reminiscent of the school to work program currently being used throughout Europe and Asia. under this educational approach the gov’t collects reams of data on students and their families from the earliest years possible to determine whether they have the mental, psychological and physical competence necessary to advance to higher learning…or whether they are to be shunted to lesser careers or trade schools. We are no longer allowing individuals and their families to decide the future of their children. Is this what common core means by career ready? 19. The estimated cost of implementing CCS in SC is close to $300 million over a five year period with $154 spent in the first year to upgrade technology capability needed for full implementation. These are unfunded mandates from the Federal Gov’t. How will this be paid for and by whom? 20. If raising the bar and making standards more rigorous helps students obtain being college and career ready… does that also mean by putting an object up on a higher shelf in my house help me to obtain that object? 21. What percent of parents in SC provided feedback on the draft of these standards? 22. What percent of teachers in SC provided feedback on the draft of these standards? 23. What percent of students in SC provided feedback on the draft of these standards? 24. Do you agree or disagree with Albert Einstein’s quote, “ I believe in standardizing automobiles, I do not believe in standardizing human beings.” And why or why not.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Feb 2014 12:44:45 +0000
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