Nearly 5 percent of Madison students opt out of new Common Core state test : Wsj

When Brad Werntz’s daughter Emma was in fourth grade about a decade ago, she took about two standardized tests during the school year.

Now, his younger son John-Pio and daughter Misa are enrolled in fourth and fifth grade, and Werntz describes their school years as a “completely different experience.”

“In roughly the 10 years since our eldest was in these same grades, we’ve seen a radical change,” Werntz said. “It seems like they’re getting tested at least once a month.”

This school year, the state mandates 12 tests for students across various grade levels. In addition, the Madison School District administers one test multiple times a year to measure growth. Ten years ago, there were many fewer state-mandated tests, according to the Department of Public Instruction.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/education/local_schools/nearly-percent-of-madison-students-opt-out-of-new-common/article_98a88c77-585a-5ed1-9b17-3c27cff3517b.html#ixzz3XrLhASLo

Fail: College Students Try On Common Core Math

Hundreds of high school students in the greater-Seattle area are protesting a new Common Core-aligned standardized test, prompting one local reporter to ask college students to complete math questions from the controversial education standard.

Common Core Standards Dead in South Carolina

Columbia, SC (WLTX) The South Carolina Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday afternoon to replace the Common Core Standards now being used in math and English, killing Common Core in the state. The board adopted new standards, written by teams of South Carolinians, which teachers will start using this fall.

Common Core has been controversial here and across the country.

Critics say the Common Core Standards were a federal takeover of state schools, even though it was state governors who decided to put the standards together.

The idea for them was that, with each state having its own standards, it was impossible to tell whether South Carolina students were learning the same things and being held to the same standards as those in Georgia or California.

more info…

Common Core Made To Fail Special Needs Students

The Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium test is intentionally designed to ensure that the vast majority of students are deemed failures.  [The Common Core PARCC test is no better]

According to SBAC’s own official policy, the Common Core SBAC test is designed so that almost 7 in 10 children who take the “mandatory” test fail to reach “goal” in math and about 6 in 10 are deemed failures in English Language Arts.

Making the Common Core SBAC test even more inappropriate is that the fact that the 2014 SBAC Field Test results prove that the test discriminates against students who come from poor households, students who are not proficient in the English Language (English Language Learners) and students who need special education services.

Perhaps the most outrageous reality of all is that the Common Core SBAC test is rigged to ensure that the almost all students who require special education services are deemed to be failures.

Jon Pelto: Common Core Test Designed to Fail Most Students.

Common Core SBAC Standardized Test: I Refuse

The collusion between big government, big business and private foundations conspired to develop a system of educational reform linking Common Core standards with special testing groups (SBAC and PARCC) to evaluate the implementation of Common Core. I….

PARCC testing sparks massive high school walkouts

Common Core Standardized Tests Stink

Stop Common Core.

Stop Common Core

Common Core Fail in Kansas

House committee takes up sweeping anti-standards legislation

A parade of advocates on Monday demanded the House Education Committee stand against tyranny by uprooting K-12 student performance standards adopted by the Kansas State Board of Education.

Opponents of House Bill 2292 lined up to argue the repeal legislation would destroy Kansas College and Career Ready Standards in place since 2010, while also devouring standards related to college admission tests, advanced placement courses and an array of academic elements outside Common Core’s realm.

Common Core Really Stinks! Read more here

South Dakota: Common Core is an Epic Fail

Yet another state may ax Common Core this week, when the South Dakota House of Representatives votes Tuesday to remove the educational standards from public schools.

Conservatives turned on Common Core – a set of national education standards encouraged by the Obama administration and passed with bipartisan support by 43 states and the District of Columbia – during implementation, criticizing it as a federal takeover of public education.

Now, as testing slowly begins with brand new curricula designed to meet the standards, conservatives’ ire has doubled. Oklahoma, Indiana, and North Carolina voted in 2014 to repeal and remove the Core; others have renamed the Core to try to defuse the hot button issue, and more than a dozen states have considered or are in the process of considering a review or repeal.

Common Core really sucks! Read more here.

All Kids Are Not the Same: What Common Core Standards Fail to Do

Standards are written by people with little to no knowledge of child development.

Did you know that there are 90 reading standards for kindergartners under Common Core and that allkindergartners will be expected to read under these standards?

I don’t know why I’m surprised. In an interview on BAM Radio Network several years ago, noted early childhood expert Jane Healy told me, “We have a tendency in this country to put everybody into a formula – to throw them all into the same box and have these expectations that they’re all going to do the same thing at the same time.”

Common Core Really Stinks! Read more here.