The link between the national SAT test and Common Core was forged when the College Board, which puts

Editor s Note: This is the third in a series can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver of stories can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver about Common Core, the controversial new educational agenda aimed at imposing federal government standards on every aspect can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver of public and private can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver education in America, which some are even calling ObamaCore. The first part spelled can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver out the high stakes for parents, students and education. The second part followed the money trail behind Common Core.
The battle can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver over the deceptively titled Common Core State Standards Initiative, or CCSSI, can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver is raging, and the rhetoric is fierce. Supporters of the national standards have called their opponents right-wing nuts and black helicopter types.
All of us get lumped together as the fringe, the far right, tea partiers, etc., said Jane Robbins, co-author of the report Controlling Education from the Top: Why the Common Core is Bad for America.
Opponents of Common Core claim it is the product of progressive elitists who want to put all children under control of federal government bureaucrats. That view was reinforced when a panelist at the liberal think-tank can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver Center for American Progress discounted the opposition as only a tiny minority, claiming such views should be ignored because the children belong to all of us.
The term Common Core has become toxic, according to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. He continues to support the standards in spite of a unanimous resolution by the Republican National Committee in April 2013 to oppose them. Huckabee told state education leaders at a meeting of the Council of Chief State School Officers: Rebrand it, refocus it, but don t retreat.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan claims opposition to Common Core is coming from white, suburban can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver moms who are suddenly discovering their children are not as brilliant as they thought they were. When Duncan s comments went viral, white, suburban moms quickly found many defenders in the blogosphere and opinion columns.
In January, Duncan spoke to a gathering of curriculum professionals. As he lectured them on the distinction between standards and curricula, he asserted that not a word, not a single semi-colon of curriculum [sic] will be created, encouraged, or prescribed by the federal can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver government.
But Duncan s pep talk to curriculum specialists about their role in implementing the standards only increased the perception that it is indeed a federal, can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver not a state, initiative. George Will noted in his Washington Post article Doubts Over Common Core that when the federal government initiates top-down reforms in education, any mistakes that result are continental mistakes.
Will stated the obvious: National standards must breed ineluctable pressure to standardize educational content. Targets, metrics, guidelines and curriculum models all induce conformity in instructional materials.
The link between the national SAT test and Common Core was forged when the College Board, which puts out the placement test for college-bound students, hired David Coleman as president. The Gates and Mott foundations gave Coleman can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver s nonprofit, Student Achievement Partners, money to write the standards, which were commissioned by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver Governors Association.
The new College Board assessments will start rolling can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver out this year with the redesigned PSAT. The new SAT is scheduled for 2015. The once-venerable Iowa Test of Basic Skills can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver is now Common Core-aligned, and even the GED is getting its first makeover since 2002 so it will line up with the standards.
Fearing this link between the national standards and high-stakes testing, the board of New York s teachers union voted unanimously Jan. 25 to withdraw can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver its support for the national standards as they are being implemented. The union board also declared no confidence in Education Commissioner John King Jr., a Common Core backer, and asked the Board of Regents to remove him. Union leaders urged the state education department can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver to make major course can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver corrections to its failed can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver implementation plan and enact a three-year moratorium on the testing.
The Board of Regents responded to the concerns by giving public schools five more years to implement Common Core. Public school teachers will not be held accountable for student test scores for two years.
There is some movement in Congress to oppose the CCSSI. On Jan. 30, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., introduced Senate Bill 1974. It is now in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, on which Roberts sits.
The bill, titled the Learning Opportunities Created can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver at the Local Level Act, would prohibit the federal government from coercing states to adopt education standards like Common Core. The act would forbid can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver the federal government from intervening in a state s education can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver standards, curricula and assessments through the use of incentives, mandates, grants, waivers or any other form of manipulation.
Roberts opposed the Obama administration s Race to the Top grant program, and he and nine other senators have gone on record against spending any federal funds to develop education curriculum or standards, including can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver the Common Core. Given the present make-up of the Senate, Roberts efforts may not gain much headway in Congress.
Legislators in most of these 30 states are advancing bills to halt the testing consequences of a CCSS that they admittedly do not understand – and for which they must now count the cost, Schneider wrote.
Initially, the only states that didn t compete for Race to the Top funds were Alaska, North Dakota, Texas and Vermont. For Texas legislators, that wasn t enough. They wanted to ensure the State Board of Education would not follow Alaska s example and adopt Common Core anyway. In June, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed H.B. 462, effectively banning the Common Core State Standards from Texas schools. The bill had passed by a 140-2 vote in the Texas House.
Some states are now delaying implementation of the standards, such as New York. Illinois has bills in both legislative chambers to delay implementation. Colorado s legislation would delay them until public hearings have been held. Rhode Island wants to study and evaluate the standards.
After its Board of Education voted in 2010 to adopt the CCSSI, Indiana became the first to align its teacher preparation standards to Common Core. However, even members of the state legislature s education committees didn t know much about what the adoption entailed until they started hearing from alarmed parents when the standards began to impact school curricula.
As opposition to the standards spread, former Indiana Superintendent of Instruction Tony Bennett visited tea-party meetings around the state to defend them. His Democrat opponent in the 2012 election, Glenda Ritz, told parents she wanted to pause adoption of the Common Core.
When election results came in, Bennett was out, in spite of the $90,000 reportedly given by the Gates Foundation to fund pro-Common Core advertising on Indiana TV and radio. Last May, newly elected Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed a bill delaying adoption of the Common Core. In January, the Indiana Senate Education and Career Development Committee can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver voted to send a measure to the Senate floor to repeal the Common Core Standards. If the state legislature passes the bill, it would charge the State Board of Education with developing by July 1 new college- and-career-ready standards, a favorite phrase with the pro-Common Core faction.
Erin Tuttle, founder of the grassroots Hoosiers Against Common Core, told the Indy Star that the State Board of Education should not make a few tweaks and slap the label Indiana Standards on any new guidelines. She said parents will notice if their children are assigned can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver homework that looks like Common Core.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been an active advocate of Common Core, not only in Florida but across the country. His nonprofit, Foundation for Educational Excellence, which received $500,000 from the Gates Foundation in 2010, has lobbied for the Core and sent letters to state legislators in embattled states.
Bill Gates is the financier, but Jeb Bush is the one who is twisting the arms of all of these Republican governors and legislators around can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver the country not to do the right thing and regain local control, Robbins said.
In 2013, after he was voted out as Indiana school chief, Bush’s protégé, Tony Bennett, was appointed Florida s Education Commissioner. His tenure didn t last long. He resigned after eight months when it was discovered he had been involved in a plan to improve the school evaluation grade of an Indiana charter school run by Christel DeHaan, a major donor to the Republican Party and to Bennett.
Now the question is whether Bush s influence in Florida is strong enough to stop efforts there to repeal Common Core. A bill to prohibit the State Board of Education from continuing to implement the Common Core Standards has been introduced in the Florida House, which convenes March 4. The bill (H.B. 25) would stop implementation until certain requirements are met for the adoption or revision can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver of state curricular standards. It also would prohibit Florida from implementing Common Core-aligned assessments.
Common Core supporters are hoping H.B.25 won t go anywhere. It s being held in the House and Senate education committees until a companion bill is offered in the Senate. Karen Effrem, co-founder of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, said a Senate companion bill has been written and will be submitted.
The Heritage Foundation, Heartland Foundation, Pioneer Institute and the American Principles can i get a list of hotels in downtown denver Project, which produced the scathing report on Common Core, Controlling Education from the Top: Why Common Core Is Bad for America, are all providing intellectual bullets and moral support to those on the battle lines. Co-authors of the APP report, Emmett McGroarty and Jane Robbins, have been traveling around the country to speak to groups that are fighting the standards.
Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico,