We have an opportunity to make a stand against Common Core. This email was forwarded from Dr. Walt Chappell and Nancy Hanahan. Subject: Huge opportunity to again convince SBOE to NOT implement Common Core As Walt notes here, some of the Board members are beginning to understand the cost and concern we have about this intrusive curriculum. Hello Friends, Our next opportunity to make a significant change in how the Common Core impacts Kansas K-12 students will be this next Tuesday—July 9th. The State Board of Education will hold its Citizens Open Forum at 10:30AM, but people who want to speak for 3 minutes each need to sign up between 9:45 and 10AM @ 120 S.E. 10th Ave. in Topeka. The KSDE staff has reported that there is major concern among Kansas school district superintendents and local boards of education about the high costs of implementing the SmarterBalanced or ACT Common Core national assessments. These new tests are estimated to cost 2 to 5 times more that the State Department of Education currently pays Kansas University to administer the year-end state reading and math assessments. The SmarterBalanced assessments are also estimated to take up 8 hours for each student to complete—if there are no computer failures like have been experienced during the pilot tests this Spring. After the June public comments were completed, the State Board heard a presentation on SmarterBalanced and ACT Common Core tests. At least four of the 10 State Board members voiced concerns about the costs of both national tests plus the loss of student, parent and teacher privacy if these tests are given to Kansas students. State board members, legislators and governors in Alabama, Georgia, Utah, Pennsylvania and now Oklahoma have decided not to force their students to take either the SmarterBalanced or PARCC national tests. They are joined by Texas, Virginia, Alaska, Nebraska and Minnesota. There are similar efforts to stop this waste of time and taxpayer money in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky. (See the attached news articles on testing problems and the Oklahoma decision just reported.) It is time for Kansas parents and citizens to speak up again. With another strong public presence at the State Board meeting this July 9th, it will help develop the “political will” for at least 6 members to vote to stop the SmarterBalance or ACT assessments of the Common Core in Kansas schools. If the Board will vote this month to stay with the Kansas University assessments of English and Math, it will save millions of dollars which local school boards can keep in Kansas classrooms rather than purchase expensive technology to try to comply with national tests which are too expensive and time consuming to implement. Plus, the risk of sending “student-level data” and “individual” data on every Kansas principal and teacher to the Federal government is far too great for the State Board to force our schools to give these tests. (Please read pages 2, 10 and 11 of the attached SBAC Cooperative Agreement between the US Department of Education and SmarterBalanced to see how data must be reported to the Feds. Then read the changes to the FERPA requirements which the USDOE made in December, 2011 — without the knowledge or authorization of Congress — to do “information sharing” between federal agencies and vendors they hire to analyze these data.) Please invite people in your networks to come join us and speak out on July 9th to ask that no national CCS assessments be done in Kansas schools. This battle can be won!! With your help and leadership, Common Sense and rational dialogue with the 10 members of the State Board will finally prevail.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 02:52:18 +0000
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