Common Core

Building the Machine: Common Core

Anita Christy

Haven’t heard of "Common Core"?  If you live anywhere in Arizona, your children are being indoctrinated with Common Core State Standards.   Governor Jan Brewer recently signed Executive Order # 2013-08 which changed its name to Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards.  It’s time you found out what YOUR children are learning in your local schools.  By the way, the schools are 90% "on board" with it.  Good teachers are helping your students learn, in spite of Common Core.  You are on your own in learning the Truth about Common Core.  Check out this website, for starters:  Common Core: Education Without Representation.  

 

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Student Kenneth Ye Farragut takes down Common Core in Tennessee

Anita Christy

Please note that Kenneth Ye Farragut is a top honors student who has scored 5’s on AP Calculus and AP Statistics.  He states, "I am unable to answer or justify the first grade Pearson math question, ‘What is a related subtraction sentence?’"  He refers to the public school systems that have adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as "Data Run Factories."  (In Arizona, CCSS is referred to as Arizona College and Career Ready Standards, which is identical to Common Core.)

Please also note that Kenneth Ye Farragut notes that Pearson is the largest educational text sales company in the world.  Bill Gates – one unelected businessman – partnered with Pearson to market Common Core.  Bill Gates also funded the Common Core initiative and paid the PTA and the pro-Common Core think tanks (Fordham Institute, Manhattan Institute, Foundation for Educational Excellence) that advocate for it. He has also paid Achieve, Inc.  Achieve, Inc. had more to do with the development of Common Core than any other single organization.  Bill Gates has publically called American schools his "uniform customer base."  He has said that his goal is for Common Core tests, curriculum, and standards to align.  

  

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Education is a System of Indoctrination of the Young: Noam Chomsky

Anita Christy

Say what you will about Noam Chomsky, the Leftist-Libertarian-Socialist who dabbles in anarchy.  The fact is, he understands and articulates very well what America’s government schools are doing:  They are indoctrinating our children to be obedient to the State and to not question authority, their government, or bureaucratic "experts."  Think of this when your child attempts to present scientific evidence that refutes Global Warming and Darwinism.   Think of when you see otherwise thinking individuals such as Gilbert Town Council members who "struggle" to vote against their bureaucratic advisors and the ICC (International Code Council), even when an overwhelming number of citizens know that the codes are unnecessary.   

He has stated that "with regard to freedom of speech there are basically two positions: you defend it vigorously for views you hate, or you reject it and prefer Stalinist/fascist standards."  He has also stated that "Obama, first of all, is running the biggest terrorist operation that exists, maybe in history."

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Why Parents are Opting Their Children out of the AZMerit Exam

Anita Christy

From the website Opt Out AZ. 

"What are some of the problems with AZMerit?

•  It is unconstitutional and violates the 4th Amendment. Personally identifiable information will be collected on your student and can be distributed among companies and organizations that participated in the development and implementation of the Common Core Standards. This data will also be stored by the U.S. Department of Education and can become part of your student’s permanent record.

•  AIR (who administers the AZMerit) is a behavioral research organization. Behavioral research is usually administered to people who have severe cognitive or communication disabilities to determine why they demonstrate inappropriate behaviors. Why is a behavior based research organization testing children who are attending normal schools? This question should be asked by every parent.

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Showdown in Show Low: Common Core State Standards

Anita Christy

Karen Warnick, a reporter with the White Mountains Independent, featured an excellent article titled "Huppenthal Grilled on Common Core standards."  Click HERE for the link to the article. 

 

You may not be able to read the entire article, unless you subscribe.  So,here are some highlights.  

 

State Superintendent of Schools John Huppenthal heard from many parents and teachers on Arizona’s new educational standards during a meeting of the White Mountain Conservatives held at the VFW on Oct. 23.

 

Huppenthal and Janet Ryan, owner and operator of the East Valley Academy charter school, spoke on the Common Core Standards, or what is now called the Arizona College and Career Ready Standards. The name was recently changed by Gov. Jan Brewer at Huppenthal’s suggestion. The meeting was also Huppenthal’s idea.  About 80 people attended the meeting, most of them local parents and teachers of various mountain school districts.

“No American should be forced to accept national standards,” said Ryan. “The old standards are superior to these and there was no public discussion or cost analysis done.”

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East Valley Academy in Mesa Steadfastly Refuses Common Core and AZMerit!

Anita Christy

Janet Ryan, principal of East Valley Academy, a public charter school for grades K-6, has better things to do than to administer AZMerit.  When you see some of those “better things" she’s doing, you’ll understand why.  Ms. Ryan states, “The writing portion of the AzMerit Test is completely age inappropriate, and there is much in the test that was hastily thrown together.” 

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East Valley Academy K-6: No Common Core!

Anita Christy

If you are the conscientious parent of a child/children in grades K-6 and live in Mesa, please consider this highly rated public charter school.  East Valley Academy, 1858 E. Brown Road, is a small school sitting on an acre of land in a house that’s been converted into classrooms.  The school’s leadership has steadfastly refused to incorporate the inferior Common Core and its adherence to "factory learning."   All parents opted their children out of AzMERIT, the "high stakes test" that has never been validated or proven to be reliable.  

Yet, for the past three years running, every student in EVA has met or exceeded every standard in reading, writing, math, and science across all grades K-6.  EVA has a 100% passing rate.  In fact, the school has been rated the #1 performing charter school in Arizona.   Kindergartners learn to read by Christmas.  In some classes, grades 3-6 learn together, at different levels.  It isn’t uncommon for a competitive 10-year old to strive to understand what the older kids are studying.

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Comparing Common Core’s Kindergarten English/Language Arts Standards to Arizona’s 2016 “Final”

Anita Christy

We are at the point where many children who are being taught under Common Core will never recover those lost years.  These children will be sent out unprepared into the world.  I have no faith that the "State" is capable of, or committed to, providing a quality education to Arizona’s children.  Our only hope is that more parents understand that they are far more competent and far more concerned about educating their children.  "Public and private teachers are but proxies, substitutes, surrogates for those ultimately responsible–the parents."  Dr. Ray E. Ballmann

The purpose of this article is to show you that Arizona’s Final ELA standards have changed very little from the original Common Core.   These standards are detrimental to a quality education. 

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Arizona’s Newest K-12 Math Standards No Different than Common Core

Anita Christy

Superintendent Diane Douglas may have conned members of the state legislature, who have far more on their plate than to question her “repeal and replace” Common Core shell game.  She may also have successfully deceived the low information voters.  

But, no matter how much she rants, raves, and bullies, she didn’t succeed with the Mommy Lobby, members of the Arizona Standards Development Committee,  Arizonans Against Common Core, Breitbart, Itasca Small writing for the Arizona Daily Independent, Seeing Red Arizona, or various Stop Common Core facebook groups: Click HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. 

One of the mothers with the Mommy Lobby volunteered her time to do a 73-page comparison of the old Common Core K-12 Math Standards against Arizona’s Final “repealed and replaced” Draft.  

Judge for yourself.  You don’t need a college degree to figure it out.  Unless your definition of "repeal and replace" is "tweak," anyone who actually looks at the old versus the “new,” can see with their own eyes that the newest version is the same old, despised, age-inappropriate Common Core.

Diane Douglas, in so many words, is telling everyone:  "Who are you gonna believe?  Me, or your lyin’ eyes"?

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