Now that Arizona has severed its relationship with the "Common Core State Standards" as of the October 26, 2015 vote of the Arizona State Board of Education, it’s more important than ever to move to more appropriate standards for our State. To do this, the Standards Development Committee is currently gathering feedback from the public. Use the following link to read the Common Core English/Language Arts and Math standards and make suggestions: https://k12standards.az.gov/comment-standards.
The pro-Common Core forces are heavily funded and well organized, and they are submitting the same age-inappropriate, inferior Common Core Standards to the Standards Development Committee. Please make your voice heard. Silence speaks acceptance of the status quo.
Common Core is a Federal ($4.3 billion) /Corporate ($2+ billion) take-over of our K-12 educational system. Teacher and parental control is virtually nonexistent.
The deadline for making comments is November 20. Need help making suggestions? See below.
Math: Kindergarten
Recently, homeschool mother Gina Ray provided simple, streamlined, standards for Kindergarten math. She removed age-inappropriate standards; overly prescriptive "how to’s" that outrageously tell teachers how to teach; redundancies; and what she calls "goobly-goosh."
Click HERE for the link to the Common Core Kindergarten math standards, so you can compare them to Ms. Ray’s simple, straightforward standards below.
Counting and Cardinality.
Know number names and the count sequence (0 to 100).
Count to tell the number of objects (0 to 100).
Compare numbers.
Know how to group numbers in tens.
Mathematical Operations
Solve addition and subtraction word problems within 10.
Fluently add and subtract within 5.
Number & Operations in Base Ten
Demonstrate an understanding that numbers 11 and above are composed of tens and ones.
Measurement & Data
Describe and compare measurable attributes.
Compare two objects.
Introduce charts and graphs to compare two objects.
Geometry
Identify and describe shapes. Correctly name them regardless of their orientations or size. Describe relative position of objects (such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to).
Compare shapes of all kinds (two-dimensional and three dimensional). Describe similarities and differences of the attributes of shapes (corners, number of sides, having sides of equal length, etc.)
Compose and decompose simple shapes (such as two rectangles forming a square and vice versa).
Where does Common Core introduce Patterns & Money? It simply doesn’t exist!
Ms. Ray has suggested the following, which is taken from the Core Knowledge Sequence developed by Dr. E. D. Hirsh, Jr. In fact, all of the Core Knowledge standards are far superior to the CCS…easy to understand and have been time proven.
Patterns and Classification
Establish concepts of likeness and difference by sorting and classifying objects according to various attributes: size, shape, color, amount, function, etc.
Define a set by the common property of its elements.
In a collection of objects that includes a given set and an item that does not belong, indicate which item does not belong.
Moving from concrete objects to pictorial representations, recognize patterns and predict the extension of a pattern.
Extend a sequence of ordered concrete objects.
Money
Identify pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
Identify the one-dollar bill.
Identify the dollar sign ($) and cents sign (¢).
Write money amounts using the cents sign (¢).
Click HERE for Ms. Ray’s complete analysis.
Internationally Competitive Math Standards: A Model
As a model for Arizona’s K-12 Mathematics standards, please consider California’s pre-2010 standards. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute gave these Standards an “A.” Fordham stated:
"California’s standards could well serve as a model for internationally competitive national standards. They are explicit, clear, and cover the essential topics for rigorous mathematics instruction."
Click HERE to read them.
Two addenda could be added that elaborate on the standards themselves and deal with pedagogical and organizational issues: 1) Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools, 2000 Revised Edition; and 2) Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools, 2006 Edition."
See Also:
Arizonans Encouraged to Address Education Standards Development Committee.
Core Knowledge Sequence by E. D. Hirsch.
An English Language Arts Curriculum Framework for American Public Schools: A Model, by Dr. Sandra Stotsky
Missing or Delayed in Common Core’s Mathematics Standard, by mathematician Dr. James Milgram.
Flaws in Common Core’s English Language Arts and Literacy Standards Presented at National Principals Leadership Institute, by Dr. Sandra Stotsky.
Fact Sheet on Common Core’s Developers, Writers, Validation Committee, and Standards, by Sandra Stotsky
Statement for New York State Assembly Education Forum, given by Marie Calamia, Licensed Clinical Social Worker.
Teacher’s resignation goes viral: ‘It is not the children who are disordered’
Common Core 101: Child Clinical Psychologist Dr. Megan Koschnick.
Crash Course in Early Child Development by Child Clinical Psychologist Dr. Megan Koschnick.
Reading Instruction in Kindergarten: Little to Gain and Much to Lose, by the Alliance for Childhood.
The Cult of Common Core, by Tucson 5th grade teacher Brad McQueen.
Five People Wrote State Led Common Core.
Feds Admit U.S. Education Department Forced States to Accept Common Core from its Start.
How Bill Gates pulled off the swift Common Core revolution.
How Microsoft will Make Money from Common Core Despite what Bill Gates Said.
Gates Foundation: How We Work. As of this writing, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funneled over $2 billion in grant money to 2,177 (and counting) organizations to push support for "College and Career Ready" Common Core. A brief list of grantees includes Chambers of Commerce, the National Governors Association, Achieve, Inc., Council of Chief State School Officers, Student Achievement Partners, the College Board, American Association of School Administrators, National Association of State Boards of Education, PTA associations, the Military Child Education Coalition, Council of State Governments, National Council of Teachers of English, the American Federation of Teachers Educational Foundation, and even state entities, including Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania departments of education, as well as local education offices in Indiana, Ohio, and New Mexico.
"The Common Core will have little to no effect on student achievement. The quality or rigor of state standards has been unrelated to state NAEP scores. Moreover, most of the variation in NAEP scores lies within states, not between them. Whatever impact standards alone can have on reducing within-state differences should have already been felt by the standards that all states have had since 2003." Tom Loveless, Senior fellow of the Brookings Institute.