I remember when my son pledged his college fraternity. Would he “make it”? More importantly, would he survive “it”? The rituals, the abuse, the antics….um, I’m thinking hazing is….illegal.

This ritual that we are putting our children through, mandated, promoted and endorsed by the state…should be illegal! Put 20 or more 8-10 year olds in a room (well-ventilated, of course) for 90 minutes plus 20 minutes of test directions (really now) and set-up and what do you get? A situation equivalent to hazing on college campuses.

Third graders have the honor of first year initiation rites. Is this the rite of passage we want our children to remember? To have to endure? Or do we want them to treasure reading, steeped in places with people far, far away from test-prep land?

Clearly, as educators, we value genuine and authentic assessment, though that is another issue altogether. Perhaps, if our governor, education commissioner, and other elected officials sat in any of our classrooms during “the test” they would see another perspective.

As a veteran teacher in a well-respected, high-achieving public school district, my colleagues and administrators strive to provide rigorous instruction and meaningful feedback. We meet constantly to share ideas, enhance instruction, incorporate technology, communicate effectively and provide an environment where children learn, grow and succeed on all levels. We are dedicated, professional and compassionate, to children and each other.

We know that “the test” goes against everything we stand for. We do not engage in hazing rituals or tolerating them. Yet, in the past 3 days (just this year) there have been episodes of crying, sobbing uncontrollably, panic attacks and more. Students used to producing highly organized and thorough writing were watching the clock, biting their nails and twiddling their hair incessantly while anxiously writing and hoping they would finish in time. Some were so exhausted that they needed inspiring references to the 2014 Olympic games to continue and cross the “finish line.” Where are their gold medals? Is this what we want for OUR children? Parents do not send their children to school to be initiated into this twisted turmoil.

The examples cited above are just a few of those witnessed in the past few days. More specific details and examples (with quotes) won’t be cited, to protect the children we teach. I will mention, however, that the introduction to the first story in the fifth grade “essay booklet” might have captured the interest of a college level marine biology student. I wondered how the test-crafter who composed the “blurb” about an oceanographer thought this might grab his fifth grade audience. What a way to begin the day….I mean, Day 3 of “the test”.

By tomorrow the dust will have settled. Sick children will, once again, stay home. Real stories and books will be read. Thoughtful responses will be written. Informative Assessments will be given. Hazing, in the name of assessment will be halted.Everyday, we try to keep all of our children safe. Today we may have failed.

- A teacher who administered the PARCC in another state
 

My 4th grader was distraught over the PARCC interface and editing tools. She is an A student and a good writer. She complained about the test saying it was frustrating to express herself and be able to type as well as she could write on paper. “Why doesn’t this edit like Microsoft Word? That is how we are learning to type and edit. This is nothing like that. I could have written three times as much if I had paper and a pencil. Instead I gave up after only writing one paragraph. It was awful.”

- A TN parent whose child took the PARCC Writing Assessment


To see the above comments and many others made by parents, teachers, & administrators across the nation about the new Common Core testing, click HERE to visit www.testingtalk.org

Legislators: please vote to get rid of the Common Core PARCC test in TN.  Children deserve better than this.  Our scarce tax dollars should be spent in more meaningful ways to help students.

While I agree that standards are a good thing, I cannot support these standards that were developed in secret, and without a single expert in the area of Early Childhood Development. As a result my own young children are being submitted to participate in a "rigorous" curriculum that is DEVELOPMENTALLY INAPPROPRIATE and being forced to sit for hours at a time and take computerized assessments. Kindergarten and Elementary schools should be fun places that spark creativity and love of learning… this has not been our experience. My kids attend MNPS and they are miserable!
- A mother in Nashville, TN

CCSS is not what fits Tennessee! It is experimental and unsound, especially in K-2. I am one of Tennessee's 2 National Teachers Hall of Fame inductees. I vote NO!
- a teacher in Murfreesboro, TN

I am a teacher. I am very familiar with Common Core and its deficiencies. It is the worst idea in education in history. It is nothing but a political football and a cash cow for testing and textbook companies.
- A teacher in Shelbyville, TN

As an educator and a parent of school-age children, I am opposed to so much corporate testing. My children deserve better: less testing, teachers who can spend time teaching valuable skills and concepts rather than teaching to the test, and an environment that values the love of learning over data. I certainly hope that my students and my own children survive this "educational" scam. It is so disheartening to see the looks of frustration and disappointment on my students' faces because they continue to subjected to more and more meaningless tests. I hope that by the time my own children are in high school, that this madness will be a thing of the past.
- A Mother & Teacher in Memphis, TN

I am opposed to Common Core and do not want my children exposed to it nor do I want them to participate in it.
- A mother in Bartlett, TN

I am a licensed teacher and administrator. Common Core is causing teachers to have to get away from teaching and making them have to teach to the test.
- a teacher & administrator in Murfreesboro, TN

Children do not learn from being tested, they learn from being taught. Teachers do not have the time to teach what children need to know because they have to teach to the test.
- A teacher in Fayetteville, TN

My children are NOT learning with these new "higher standards". Instead they are being untaught the simple steps they've built upon since starting school which enabled them to learn and grow throughout their educational career. In short, Common Core is only working against our kids, effectively dumbing them down.
- A Mom from Roan Mountain, TN

This is vital to me as a teacher. I am tired of using valuable class time to teach "to the test," and to teach how to take a test. My students want to learn real material--not how to take tests. They are burned out from the constant testing & assessing, as are we. Literally, there has not been a single day in February or during the month of March (except for spring break) when our students have not been testing or assessing for something. Methinks Pearson and perhaps some state government folks are making a fat bundle of money from this--at the mental and educational expense of our children. Stop this now!! Let our students really learn! Let us teach!
- A teacher in Memphis, TN

After reading the course and what it teaches in history it scares me that they are trying to teach this craziness to my kids. It's another government failure.
- A father in Mount Juliet, TN

Dollars should be used to make SMALLER class sizes, Pre-K for every child (it proven unlike common core), libraries fully stocked, Vocational Training (not all students are headed to corporate america) not putting it into the pockets of wealthy corporations who don't care about the students.
- A teacher in Knoxville, TN

I have 4 grandchildren in school and I disagree with the text books used for Common Core.
- a Grandmother in Lebanon, TN

I would like to protect my child's personal information as well as let our individual state and school district decide what's best for our curriculum. A "one size fits all" approach never works, especially when children are involved.
- A Mother in Germantown, TN

I am a mother of 3 and a public school employee. Common Core is a violation of the 10th Amendment and several federal laws. It is a curriculum of empty skill sets written by non educators and used to make money for corporations. My children deserve better. Their education is NOT FOR SALE!
- a mother in Hendersonville, TN

The Federal Government and for profit revisionist history companies are killing education in the USA. It should be up to the individual States as to the core standards that are applied. Also, I completely reject the data mining that is attached to Common Core. Furthermore, testing has become the only thing teachers have time for. They no longer teach for academic excellence, they teach for the test. This will continue to stifle creativity and dumb down our nation. Students are not robots, they are humans. Hence they need to be treated as humans with dignity and respect. 
- Collierville, TN

First, Common Core was not state-led, it was only state implemented. It was done in secret, without research-based evidence of improved outcomes, and to be frank - I remember no out-cry that our kids were not learning! I believe this has been in the making for decades, comes from the United Nations to bring the US into the global economy, and in order to do this, a non-existent crisis was manufactured.
My children's teachers cannot speak out, so I will. They believe it is a watered-down set of standards with no research or teacher input, too much instruction time used for teachers to give formative tests on Mondays and summative tests on Fridays, and the H.S. EOC raw test scores (published by Pearson) "are hugely inflated and do not match the scores given on report cards" - done in an effort to pass students who otherwise failed the test to make it "appear" that Common Core is wonderful. I pray parents in TN wake up to the real Agenda!
- A Mother in Old Hickory, TN

I'm a teacher who sees the constant testing in our schools. We are testing so much students are not getting enough instruction time. The CC standards are not helping. A student can not teach themselves after only 5 minutes of teacher instruction time. These tests are also asking personal questions that are no one's business but the family's.
- A teacher in Memphis, TN

I teach; I see the children losing their love for learning. EVERYTHING they do is for the purpose of data. Learning has lost it's lure. When I actually get to do something with my children that is a little off kilter from common core, they LOVE it and in turn, they LEARN from it. We are raising a whole generation of test takers so they can all go to college. NOT ALL STUDENTS SHOULD GO TO COLLEGE!
- a teacher in Knoxville, TN

I disagree with the lack of quality instruction, spelling, grammar, science. I think it's ridiculous to label a teacher as "failing" because last years' bright kids scored a 98 percentile and this years equally bright kids score a 97 percent. I also wish the social ethics issues were left for parents to teach at home. My child has learned very little this year. I'm moving to private school as fast as I can. The data mining and cameras in the classroom and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funding of pushing this agenda is sickening. We need to take control of our educational system in TN!!
- A father in Gray, TN

The 1% created this financial crisis with their greed and mismanagement, flogging schoolchildren is not the way out of it.
- Sewannee, TN

I work for Head Start and I am seeing kids going to Kindergarten who are doing great developmentally according to the Head Start standard but still failing. I see parents who cannot help their kids because they have no idea how to do the work the way it has to be done. I see kids who can get the right answer in the way their parents showed them or kids who can just think for themselves but getting it wrong because it was not done the "right way." There are also kids who cannot get the right answer even thought they are doing it the way they are taught, but still getting more credit than those who actually get the right answer. I see teachers who don't want to be teachers anymore.
- Johnson City, TN
 

These are just a handful of comments Tennessee Parents & Teachers wrote as to why they are against Common Core.  You can read them, and hundreds more just like them, by clicking HERE.
 

After attending the first TNCore Math Common Core training the summer of 2012, I completely bought into teaching Common Core.  I believed the trainers when they told us that students instructed in this way would easily pass any test, even TCAP, due to it's "rigor." 

I met with the other teachers in our fifth grade team.  They, too, delved head-first into Common Core, spending additional hours researching and planning to fully implement it during the 2012-13 school year.  We all drank the Common Core kool-aid. 

As far as CC math went, I had all of my students "do the dew." This meant to solve a problem they had to Draw a picture, write a horizontal number Equation, and a Word solution sentence. 

While there is nothing wrong with these expectations, they should not be mandatory.  Some students can "see" the answer in their heads and do not need to do all this work.  Some math problems do not require all of this work.  It is more difficult to draw the picture than solve the problem.  Actually, many of the students worked backwards and solved the problem before drawing the picture.  

When the TCAP tests were administered, all of our students did as we trained them to do.  They drew pictures to solve problems.  I do not know what the problems on the test were, but I'm sure they did not all require them to "do the dew".  Solving their problems in this manner slowed them down so none of the students in my classroom completed the test in time.  They were very frustrated and disheartened. 

I know my students did their best.  They did as they had been taught.  I taught Common Core fully and rigorously, as I was trained to do.  This did NOT transfer to TCAP, even with all the so-called rigor.  Most of these students scores dropped from the previous year.  This reflected harshly in my TVAAS score.  I was rated a level 1 this year.  The previous two years I had been a level 4 and a level 5.  Hmmm... this says something.  

The teacher that I co-team teach with had the same TVAAS scores as I did.  Her scores dropped from 5 to 1 as well.  She taught Common Core wholeheartedly for English Language Arts that year.  It obviously did not transfer to any test.  Actually, most of the other teacher's TVAAS scores in our school dropped to 1s, as well. 

This year, we analyzed why we has such a drop on scores.  The main consensus was that we taught to the wrong test.  Why should we teach to a test?  Why shouldn't the test match what we teach?  Why were we told that teaching the "rigorous" Common Core would allow students to excel at any test??? 

We learned from our mistakes and we are teaching the old SPIs to prepare the students for TCAP this year.  So, this school year, we have not taught Common Core at all.  This was a decision made by teachers and administrators.  We made this decision in hopes that the students scores would improve, for their sakes, as well as for our TVAAS scores.  

One point I think needs to be made right now is to clarify the lies the state board of Ed is making.  They are saying it's too late to stop Common Core because it has been implemented for 3 years.  Not true.  We have received training on it over a three year period of time, but very few teachers have implemented it because TCAP is still the test being used.  Technically, we are still teaching the SPIs we always have.  I haven't taught any Common Core standards at all this year.  I have asked others across the state and they said the same thing.

I just hate that they are using this as an excuse to say why we need to keep going with Common Core.  It's a bunch of lies.  

- A teacher in Tipton County, TN


FYI:  Indiana just completely withdrew from Common Core.  They didn't have any fiscal notes attached to their decision.


Question of the day...

If Common Core is supposed to be "VOLUNTARY" and "STATE-LED", then why can't we VOLUNTARILY LEAD ourselves out of it???

Do the math...  no matter which math method you use to arrive at your answer, a $10 million dollar fiscal note on the bill would prevent a $40-50 million dollar wasted expense!  Clearly, it is the better situation for our state and students!

Hey, Legislators: How about letting the voters decide?  Pause Common Core and hold a state-wide Referendum to let voters make that choice.  That would totally be "state-led" and "voluntary."  


"Stopping Common Core would cost millions of dollars, but implementing it will cost Tennessee millions of scholars."  - a TN parent

In the spring of 2011 I received a receipt for the sale of my children.  It came in the form of a flyer that simply notified me that my state and, thereby, my children’s school would comply with the Common Core. No other details of the transaction were included. The transaction was complete, and I had no say. In fact, it was the very first time I’d heard about it.

I know what you’re thinking. That’s outrageous! Common  Core has nothing to do with selling things, especially not children!

Okay, so the idea that the State School Board and Governor who’d made this decision could be described as “selling” my children is hyperbole. It is an exaggeration intended to convey an emotion regarding who, in this land of the free, has ultimate authority over decisions that directly affect my children’s intellectual development, privacy, and future opportunities. It is not even an accurate representation of my initial reaction to the flyer. I say it to make a point  that I didn’t realize until much, much later… this isn’t just an issue of education, but of money and control. Please allow me to explain.

That first day my husband picked up the flyer and asked me, “What is Common Core?” To be honest, I had no idea. We looked it up online.  We read that they were standards for each grade that would be consistent across a number of states. They were described as higher standards, internationally benchmarked, state-led, and inclusive of parent and teacher in-put. It didn’t sound like a bad thing, but why hadn’t we ever heard about it before? Again, did I miss the parent in-put meeting or questionnaire… the vote in our legislature? Who from my state had helped to write the standards? In consideration of the decades of disagreement on education trends that I’ve observed regarding education, how in the world did that many states settle all their differences enough to agree on the same standards? It must have taken years, right? How could I have missed it?

At first it was really difficult to get answers to all my questions. I started by asking the people who were in charge of implementing the standards at the school district office, and later talked with my representative on the local school board. I made phone calls and I went to public meetings. We talked a lot about the standards themselves. No one seemed to know the answers to, or wanted to talk about my questions about how the decision was made, the cost, or how it influenced my ability as a parent to advocate for my children regarding curriculum. I even had the chance to ask the Governor himself at a couple of local political meetings. I was always given a similar response. It usually went something like this:

Question: “How much will this cost?”

Answer: “These are really good standards.”

Question: “I read that the Algebra that was offered in 8th grade, will now not be offered until 9th grade. How is this a higher standard?”

Answer: “These are better standards. They go deeper into concepts.”

Question: “Was there a public meeting that I missed?”

Answer: “You should really read the standards. This is a good thing.”

Question: “Isn’t it against the Constitution and the law of the land to have a national curriculum under the control of the federal government?’

Answer: “Don’t you want your kids to have the best curriculum?”

It got to the point where I felt like I was talking to Jedi masters who, instead of actually answering my questions, would wave their hand in my face and say, “You will like these standards.”

I stopped asking. I started reading.

I read the standards. I read about who wrote the standards. I read about the timeline of how we adopted the standards (before the standards were written.) I read my state’s Race to the Top grant application, in which we said we were going to adopt the standards. I read the rejection of that grant application and why we wouldn’t be given additional funding to pay for this commitment. I read how standardized national test scores are measured and how states are ranked. I read news articles, blogs, technical documents, legislation, speeches given by the US Education Secretary and other principle players, and even a few international resolutions regarding education.

I learned a lot.

I learned that most other parents didn’t know what the Common Core was either.

I learned that the standards were state accepted, but definitely not “state led.”

I learned that the international benchmark claim is a pretty shaky one and doesn’t mean they are better than or even equal to international standards that are considered high.

I learned that there was NO public input before the standards were adopted. State-level decision makers had very little time themselves and had to agree to them in principle as the actual standards were not yet complete.

I learned that the only content experts on the panel to review the standards had refused to sign off on them, and why they thought the standards were flawed.

I learned that much of the specific standards are not supported by research but are considered experimental.

I learned that in addition to national standards we agreed to new national tests that are funded and controlled by the federal government.

I learned that in my state, a portion of teacher pay is dependent on student test performance.

I learned that not only test scores, but additional personal information about my children and our family would be tracked in a state-wide data collection project for the express purpose of making decisions about their educational path and “aligning” them with the workforce.

I learned that there are fields for tracking home-schooled children in this database too.

I learned that the first step toward getting pre-school age children into this data project is currently underway with new legislation that would start a new state preschool program.

I learned that this data project was federally funded with a stipulation that it be compatible with other state’s data projects. Wouldn’t this feature create a de facto national database of children?

I learned that my parental rights to deny the collection of this data or restrict who has access to it have been changed at the federal level through executive regulation, not the legislative process.

I learned that these rights as protected under state law are currently under review and could also be changed.

I learned that the financing, writing, evaluation, and promotion of the standards had all been done by non-governmental special interest groups with a common agenda.

I learned that their agenda was in direct conflict with what I consider to be the best interests of my children, my family, and even my country.

Yes, I had concerns about the standards themselves, but suddenly that issue seemed small in comparison to the legal, financial, constitutional and representative issues hiding behind the standards and any good intentions to improve the educational experience of my children.

If it was really about the best standards, why did we adopt them before they were even written?

If they are so wonderful that all, or even a majority of parents would jump for joy to have them implemented, why wasn’t there any forum for parental input?

What about the part where I said I felt my children had been sold? I learned that the U.S. market for education is one of the most lucrative – bigger than energy or technology by one account – especially in light of these new national standards that not only create economy of scale for education vendors, but require schools to purchase all new materials, tests and related technology. Almost everything the schools had was suddenly outdated.

When I discovered that the vendors with the biggest market share and in the position to profit the most from this new regulation had actually helped write or finance the standards, the mama bear inside me ROARED!

Could it be that the new standards had more to do with profit than what was best for students? Good thing for their shareholders they were able to avoid a messy process involving parents or their legislative representatives.

As I kept note of the vast sums of money exchanging hands in connection with these standards with none of it going to address the critical needs of my local school – I felt cheated.

When I was told that the end would justify the means, that it was for the common good of our children and our society, and to sit back and trust that they had my children’s best interests at heart – they lost my trust.

As I listened to the Governor and education policy makers on a state and national level speak about my children and their education in terms of tracking, alignment, workforce, and human capital – I was offended.

When I was told that this is a done deal, and there was nothing as a parent or citizen that I could do about it – I was motivated.

Finally, I learned one more very important thing. I am not the only one who feels this way. Across the nation parents grandparents and other concerned citizens are educating themselves, sharing what they have learned and coming together. The problem is, it is not happening fast enough. Digging through all the evidence, as I have done, takes a lot of time – far more time than the most people are able to spend. In order to help, I summarized what I thought was some of the most important information into a flowchart so that others could see at a glance what I was talking about.

I am not asking you to take my word for it. I want people to check the references and question the sources. I am not asking for a vote or for money. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. I do believe with all my heart that a decision that affects the children of almost every state in the country should not be made without a much broader discussion, validated research, and much greater input from parents and citizens than it was originally afforded.

If you agree I encourage you to share this information. Post it, pin it, email it, tweet it.

No more decisions behind closed doors! Let’s get everyone talking about Common Core.

Thanks to Alyson Williams for permission to publish her story.

Sources for research: http://www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/FlowchartSources.pdf

My 4th grade child is a typical 'A' student.  She's a confident writer and story teller. She's even won some poetry contests. Her teacher prepared her class for the PARCC test with assignments that mimicked the way the questions would be asked on PARCC. On the practice assignments using paper, my child felt she did very well comparing and contrasting two stories and writing about them. But when it came time to do the practice PARCC online, my child struggled.

The computer interface was a split screen and the editing tools were unfamiliar. My child came home crying. She was distraught that she only completed one paragraph because it took her too long to edit.

She was angry with the computer testing. "Why can't we just do this on paper so I can show them what I know?"

The anger and frustration at the tool is abusive.  Especially for little kids who are not prepared emotionally for the frustration.  What are we doing to our kids?

My kid is not your lab rat. 

- from a TN parent in Nashville, TN

A Mom in New York (who is actually PRO-Common Core) took a video of her child doing an easy PARCC math sample question on the PARCC website. The Mom wrote:

"The website has a link that allows you to, and I quote: “Try out sample test questions in their intended environment.”

So I did.

And I was frustrated.  Immensely frustrated.

But then I realized that no one is going to care about my descriptions of my frustration with “the sample test questions in their intended environment.”  But maybe someone will care about my daughter’s frustration.  After all, she’s 9.  She’s currently in third grade.  She will be taking these tests a year from now.  And she’s a good kid, she’s a strong student, and she is game to try new things.

So I asked her to try one of the sample questions.  A few minutes in, when I got a sense of how frustrating the process was for her, I asked her permission to video her attempts to get the interface to work.  

Click HERE to see the video of how it went for that Mom & child who had up-to-date technology and more patience than most.

This PARCC test is not rigorous, it is RIDICULOUS.
It is a ridiculous waste of our tax money.
It is a ridiculous waste of our children's time.

This does not show how much a child has learned, it shows how computer literate the child is to figure out this confusing, frustrating format.  Affluent children with a computers in their homes will have a clear advantage over children who do not.  This will widen the achievement gap even more than it already is.
 

Legislators:  If you vote against HB1129/SB1266 and its amendments to allow the TNDOE to give our children this expensive, ridiculous PARCC test, there will be a boatload of frustrated parents and teachers contacting you next year about getting rid of Common Core.  And even though you will try to tell them that Common Core "is just standards," they know better.  They won't believe you.  They will remember you allowed it to happen and they will campaign against you in your next election.  Education is a key issue to parents because our children mean more to us than anything else in this world.   
 

States that want to opt out of the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) and/or the tests aligned to or based on its standards are being threatened by a toothless tiger that doesn’t want the states to know the tiger has no claws.

States are hearing, “It’s too late to back out”; “You’ll waste all the money you’ve spent on implementing the [low-level Common Core] standards your state board of education adopted three years ago”; “You’ll waste all the money you’ve spent on [self-described] Common Core consultants who have given [very costly] professional development to your teachers and told them what to change in their classroom curriculum to address Common Core”; “You will have to pay back all the money you got under Race to the Top (RttT)”; or, “You will lose your waiver and not get your Title I money.”

Can the U.S. Department of Education (USED) demand repayment from states that got RttT funds? Can it withhold Title I money from a state that loses its waiver? It is important to recall that Congress didn’t pass legislation requiring Common Core’s standards or tests. All it authorized in 2001 was a re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) called No Child Left Behind (NCLB). ESEA hasn’t been re-authorized since then, so there are no new or different education policies passed by Congress. A variety of conditions have been attached to the recent waivers issued by USED, but they may have no constitutional legitimacy since Congress didn’t approve them. States can certainly raise that objection.

At the national level:
If a state received RttT money and spent it, it most likely doesn’t have to pay it back if it now seeks to opt out of using Common Core’s standards (by any name) and any tests aligned to or based on these standards. Neither the RttT application nor the grant award from USED contained a repayment penalty for withdrawing from a commitment. Moreover, the Grant Award Notification from USED implied withholding of future RttT funds, not repayment of RttT funds already expended. 

In other words, there seem to be no likely penalties if a state accepted a USED award of RttT funds and now chooses to withdraw from the agreement. States can justify their withdrawal on the grounds that the Common Core standards do not meet the original requirements of “common standards” outlined in the RttT application. These standards were supposed to be “supported by evidence that they are internationally benchmarked.” But they are not. The Common Core Validation Committee never received any evidence.  

Nor has evidence been provided by two post hoc attempts to provide such evidence: the 2011 report by David Conley at the University of Oregon and the 2012 report by William Schmidt and a colleague at Michigan State University, Richard Houang. Conley’s report, funded by the Gates Foundation, contradicted the findings in his 2003 pre-Common Core report on college-readiness standards, while Schmidt and Houang’s report has been severely criticized on methodological grounds. It is unclear who funded it.

Moreover, RttT was a three-year program extended to last four years. It expires in the fall of 2014. Whatever changes states make after 2014 cannot affect the grant. In addition, no state committed itself explicitly to maintain forever the new policies required by RttT. Once RttT grants expire, it is unclear how the USED could demand repayment for an expired program.

If a state obtained a waiver from some aspects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and now seeks to opt out of using Common Core’s standards and tests aligned to or based on them, it is highly unlikely to lose Title I money. Title I is implicated in the Common Core issue only because the state committed to the CCLS to obtain the waiver.

If the state applies for an extension of the waiver through the 2015-2016 school year, it would need to replace its commitment to implement the Common Core with a commitment to implement alternative standards approved by its institutions of higher education (IHEs). IHE approval of more demanding “college- and career-ready” standards would allow the state to retain the waiver, without penalty. Legislators need to ask their public IHEs to approve standards that enable mathematically and scientifically ambitious high school students to take STEM-preparatory coursework while in high school, not in transition courses elsewhere after high school graduation or after passing a GED test.

If the US Department of Education (USED) decided to be punitive, it could withhold at most only 5%-10% of the 1% of Title I funds set aside for state administrative functions. For example, if a state received $200 million under Title I, the administrative set-aside is $2 million. The most severe federal punishment would be 5-10% of that, or a maximum of $200K.

If the state chose to give up its waiver, the state would be under the NCLB mandate again to get all students to proficiency by 2014. NCLB has a range of sanctions for persistently failing schools and districts, ranging from conversion to charter schools, closing the school down altogether, replacing a large percentage of the school’s staff, to carrying out turnaround plans. If states give up their USED waivers from NCLB requirements, they would still have to assess their state’s standards annually with tests that, by law, must be based on these standards, and NCLB’s sanctions would again apply for failing schools and districts. It is not clear what the sanction would be for failing to get all students to proficiency by 2014, that is, if most schools failed to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for all subgroups. 

The primary financial consequence of relinquishing the waiver would involve flexibility, not amount, of funding. Under NCLB, failing schools must allocate 20% of their Title I funding to Supplemental Education Services, typically outside tutoring. The waiver doesn’t change the amount of funding those schools receive but allows them to redirect 20% of it to other Title I uses. These districts would lose flexibility, not money.

USED would find it politically difficult to impose financial penalties on waiver cancellation when Common Core is not, in theory, a federal program. Or so we are regularly told.

At the state level:
Districts can select their own curricula and, in some states, their own standards. What they cannot do easily is avoid state testing. State tests operate under state laws which force all districts to participate, although sanctions vary by state. Typically, the results of these tests are used to rank or grade schools publicly, and they serve to label the schools as meeting or not meeting NCLB's requirement of proficiency.

A district with a stronger curriculum than one addressing Common Core’s standards is betting implicitly that its results will be better on the state test. If schools choosing to address more demanding standards than Common Core’s are ranked low on a Common Core-aligned test for several years, they may face state department of education sanctions, which can range from the state managing the district to reshuffling school administrators. Legislators can address this power play by withholding funding of the state’s department of education if it seeks to prevent schools with low scores on a Common Core-aligned test from addressing more demanding standards than Common Core’s. All the district should be required to do is produce evidence of evaluations showing that its standards are more demanding than Common Core's.

A future post will further address districts that want better standards and tests than their state board and department of education are imposing on them.  


Click HERE to read the original article written by Dr. Sandra Stotsky.  Sandra Stotsky, Ed.D. is Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas.  She was one of 2 professional educators on the original Common Core Validation Committee and refused to sign off on the Common Core standards.  ClickHERE to hear, in her own words, why she refused to put her signature on Common Core standards and the secretive way the standards were written.

GOVERNOR GREETED WITH PROTESTS OVER EDUCATION STANDARDS IN SMITHVILLE, TENNESSEE 
February 27, 2014
by: Dwayne Page

A group of local educators, students, and others opposed to Tennessee Common Core standards greeted Governor Bill Haslam with protest signs and chants as he arrived in Smithville Thursday evening to speak at the local Republican Party's Reagan Day Dinner. The event was held at the county complex auditorium.

The Governor did not acknowledge the protestors as he emerged from his automobile and entered the building where friends and supporters were waiting to welcome him.

Many educators say they are fed up with the pressures put upon them in the classroom and they want the Governor, a supporter of Common Core, to hear their voices. "We're sick and tired of being sick and tired with the way teachers and kids are being treated in education," said Bill Conger, President of the DeKalb County Education Association. "We're over testing and putting too much on the kids. The Common Core and the standards they're trying to set for us are too high, too fast and they're putting pressure on teachers making it difficult for them to do their job every day," said Conger.

"It's difficult for the teachers to live up to all the mandates," said Bryan Jones, an eighth grade science teacher. "We just can't teach school because of all the paperwork. We have so many things going on we have to do to comply with the state. It's also very difficult for the kids. Common Core is something we need to reject as a county and state," added Jones.

Lisa Mabe, a third grade teacher at Northside Elementary, said the evaluations and merit pay system are most unfair to teachers. "We teach our hearts out every day. We want our students to do well but we are judged on an evaluation system that isn't fair. We're scored one through five and we're rarely given five's because we're not perfect. Yet we do everything that is expected of us. We love our kids and we want them to learn. We only ask that they treat us fairly. The merit pay isn't fair. They want to give us raises based on our job performance and our test scores but our classes aren't divided equally. If you want us to have merit pay, you've got to base all our classrooms equally and give all teachers a chance to achieve those standards but it's not set up that way. It never has been. I've been teaching for nineteen years and I've had more evaluations this year than I had my first year of teaching. You are welcome in our classroom anytime. I want to be accountable. I am accountable, but do it fairly," said Mabe.

Dear Representative Harry Brooks from Knoxville & Representative Mark White from Memphis,

We are asking that you please, pretty please, include these:

• Educator Respect and Accountability Act of 2014 (HB 2263 / SB 2047) 
• Repeal Common Core bill (HB 2332 / SB 2405)

on the House Education sub-committee and committee schedules very soon.  Teachers and parents are eager to see these become Law this year.  

As Chairmen of these committees, you have the responsibility of scheduling when Bills are heard and voted upon.  Surely you wouldn't do anything underhanded like delaying those bills until the end of the Legislative Session so the Governor can veto them after all the Legislators have all gone home and cannot over-ride it, now would you, Representative Harry Brooks from Knoxville and Representative Mark White from Memphis???  That would not only be selfish, but it would be an abuse of power by committee chairs.  

We know Governor Haslam isn't happy with these bills, but his job isn't tied to volatile test scores of children using a secret mathematical equation that nobody can explain (His job, like yours, is tied to the ballots cast by us voters, which everyone clearly understands).  And his own children aren't forced to do unproven, untested, developmentally inappropriate standards (Because private schools are wisely not adopting Common Core).  

Representative Brooks from Knoxville, even though you may not agree with the bill to support and respect our children's teachers, 77 of 99  Representatives agree with it strongly enough that they have signed on to the Bill as co-sponsors.  So, it shouldn't take long at all to pass it through your House Education Committee and on to the House Floor so our Representatives can vote on it.  Surely you can squeeze it on your House Education Committee Agenda in the next few weeks, can't you?

Representative White from Memphis, even though your own children aren't affected by Common Core, ours are.  Tennessee parents want this bill heard in a timely manner because a year in our children's lives is too long to wait while we elect new leaders to get rid of Common Core.  Surely you can include this bill in your sub-committee agenda on the March 4th agenda as was originally planned?

We know you're stuck in a difficult situation by the Governor.  In times like these, it is especially important to remember who it is that you have been elected to serve.
 
Sincerely,
Tennessee Parents 

SENATE BILL 2405 
By Beavers 
HOUSE BILL 2332 
By Womick 
 
AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, 
Chapter 1; Title 49, Chapter 10; Title 49, Chapter 2 and Title 49, Chapter 6, relative to common core state standards. 
 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE: 
 SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-1-302, is amended by adding the following language as a new, appropriately designated subsection: 
 On July 1, 2014, the state board and the department of education shall discontinue the use of the common core state standards in English language arts and mathematics. Beginning on July 1, 2014, the standards for English language arts and mathematics adopted by the state board that were in use prior to the adoption of the common core state standards shall become the standards for use by LEAs and schools 
until the state board develops and adopts new Tennessee specific standards for English language arts and mathematics. 
 SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it. 

A parent in Nashville recently sent us this post. And now we know why some very wealthy people, who have never sent their own children to public schools, are so supportive of Common Core:

Why have some extremely wealthy Tennesseans who have never attended, nor sent their children to, public schools been so involved with pushing education "reform" and Common Core? The following are facts of how some of these very wealthy individuals are making money big bucks:
 
Orrin Ingram of Ingram Industries is a Tennessee State Collaboration on Reforming Education (SCORE) Board Member. SCORE is nonprofit group established by former senator Bill Frist and it strongly supports the new Common Core standards. In an effort to promote the standards, SCORE established the "Expect More, Achieve More" campaign that includes a snazzy website, glossy brochures, and fliers that are sent home from school with students. And, not surprisingly, Ingram Industries signed on as a "coalition member" for the Expect More, Achieve More campaign. (Side note: Just a few months ago, SCORE received a $250,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help promote the CC standards. Hmm.....)

Here is where it gets very interesting: Ingram Industries is making money off of developing and distributing Common Core products. For example, a press release from Ingram Content Group stated that, "the New York State Education Department has selected Vital Source Technologies, Inc., in collaboration with SchoolWorks® LLC., to develop a comprehensive library of professional development videos to support the implementation of Common Core Learning Standards throughout New York State." According to the press release, "Ingram Content Group Inc. is a subsidiary of Nashville-based Ingram Industries Inc. The company provides books, music and media content to over 39,000 retailers, libraries, schools and distribution partners in 195 countries." (Vital Source Technologies, which was awarded this contract, is one of "Ingram's operating units".) This video project, interestingly, is being funded by a $3.7 million dollar Race to the Top (RTTT) Grant. (Click here to see the press release.)
 
But that's not all! Apparently Tennessee is also using VitalSource Technologies (i.e., Ingram Industries) videos for teacher training on Common Core: The Ayers Institute at Lipscomb University received a grant from the state of TN (i.e., the Tennessee Higher Education Commission) "to create resources for university faculty to use when preparing new teachers to employ the national and state-adopted Common Core Standards." At a subsequent Common Core training seminar at the Ayers Institute, it was noted that, "VitalSource Technologies, a division of Ingram Content,
produced the video series” they will be using to train new teachers (pg.10). (Click here to see a link to the presentation.) And, just as in NY, the Common Core training project being developed at Lipscomb and, subsequently, the videos produced for the project by Vital Source Technologies are funded by Race to the Top monies (pg. 8).
 
FYI: The Ayers Institute was founded in 2012 "as a partnership between the Ayers Foundation and Lipscomb University’s College of Education." (As you can guess, Jim Ayers was the founder of Ayers Foundation.) Jim Ayers and his wife, Janet, donated an initial contribution of 1 million dollars to the Ayers Institute at Lipscomb. Mr. Ayers is a former board member of SCORE and Mrs. Ayers is a current board member of SCORE and a member of the TN State Board of Education. [Please note that Rep. Harry Brooks (Chair of the House Education Committee), Rep. John DeBerry (Member of the House Education Committee), Sen. Delores Gresham (Chair of the Senate Education Committee), and Rep. Beth Harwell (Speaker of the House) are all on the SCORE steering committee.]
 
Now how did the Ayers Institute receive the grant to develop the Common Core training program for new teachers in TN? We do not know. But we do know that Ayers Asset Management, which is owned by Jim Ayers, donated the maximum allowed amount to Haslam's inauguration fund. According to a Chattanooga Times-Free Press article on the donations, "Corporations are banned from making direct contributions to candidates in elections, but are allowed to give up to $7,500 to inaugurations." Janet and Jim Ayers also personally donated $53,000 and $19,500 to Haslam in 2010 and 2012, respectively.
 
Now back to Ingram Industries: Ingram Industries also donated the maximum amount to Haslam’s inauguration fund. In addition to this business contribution, Orrin Ingram--CEO of Ingram Industries--donated $7000 to Haslam for his 2010 Gubernatorial campaign. (He also donated $5000 to Haslam in 2012.)

A short list of Ingram Industries executives and subsidiaries who also recently contributed to Haslam: 

• Martha Ingram (Chairperson of Ingram Industries) = $10,303 (2010) 
• John R Ingram (Chairman of Ingram Industries Board of Directors & Chairman/CEO of Ingram Content Group)= $7500 (2010)/$2800 (2012)
• David Ingram (Chairman and President of Ingram Entertainment)= $17,000 (2010)/$4000 (2012)\
• Ingram Barge Co. = $3500 (2010)

A further review of Haslam's contributions lists from 2010 & 2012 also reveals a variety of high dollar donations from Ingram Industries executives’ family members. (Click here and here for documentation of donations to Haslam from the Ingram family.)
 
We want to know how the state chose Ayers Institute and VitalSource Technologies to receive these RTT grants/contracts. Given Haslam’s past history with approving no-bid contracts, we would not be surprised if the RTTT money was divvied out with little regard for a fair bidding process. We also strongly suspect some members of SCORE—such as the Ingrams and Ayers—may not be part of the push for education reform for purely philanthropic reasons.
 

Ask yourself: Why do the Ingrams and the Ayers support Common Core and SCORE? Is it because they truly believe they are helping our students? Or is it because they see Common Core and other SCORE-endorsed reforms as new money making or "prestige-earning" opportunities? What better way to position yourself to make taxpayer money and/or accolades from these reforms by imbedding yourself into the middle of the push for these new nationalized standards--and by donating 100s of thousands of dollars to the governor who arguably controls the RTTT purse strings?
 
We, as taxpayers and consumers of public education, deserve to know.