State Board of Education

Recommended Modifications to 2016 AZ Draft English/Language Arts Standards: Richard W Hawkins

Anita Christy

The following modifications were submitted by Richard W Hawkins, USAF, Lt Col (ret) to the Standards Review committee of the Arizona State Board of Education.

His recommendations included suggestions to modify:  1) Introduction of the 2016 Draft ELA Standards;  2) draft ELA Standards; and 3) Glossary of the 2016 Draft ELA Standards 

He also included the following papers/articles:  Develop the Skills for Finding Truth and Teach and Develop the Skills to use the Laws of Logic and Identify Logical Fallacies, in addition to a Religious Worldview Chart.  (Click HERE to access it.)    

(Please note that the Comment period closed on October 3, 2016.)

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Developmentally Inappropriate Standards for K-3 Should be Removed

Anita Christy

In spite of "over 200 teachers spending over 6,000 volunteer hours to complete a comprehensive revision on the standards," the 2016 Arizona Draft Standards have hardly been changed, especially for Kindergarten through Grade 3.  They are still Common Core.  They are still developmentally inappropriate.  You have until Oct. 3 to make a difference in a child’s education!  Please click HERE to comment.  Or send an email to the Arizona State Board inbox at inbox@azsbe.az.gov.

Grades K-3 are critically important, because whatever is learned in these grades affects a child’s success in every grade that follows.  

The English Language Arts and Math Executive Summaries indicate that the review Committees considered Clarity, Cognitive Demand, and Measurability. 

Why didn’t they ask this question?   “Is the standard developmentally appropriate? 

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2016 Draft of the Arizona Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics

Anita Christy

The first draft of the "Arizona Standards for English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics" has been completed and is available for public comment on the Arizona State Board of Education website. Click HERE to read them.    

We have until Oct. 3, 2016 to submit comments.  Some improvements over Common Core include: 1) the removal of wording that directed teachers how to teach a standard in a specific way, 2) the over-emphasis on informational text has been lifted, and 3) cursive writing is back in.  

Unfortunately, the standards you will see in Kindergarten through Grade 3 continue to be developmentally inappropriate.  Young children are not little adults.  Their brains haven’t developed to where they can reflect on their own thinking.  They cannot think abstractly.  They cannot empathize or view the world as others do.  

In Kindergarten especially, children are internally motivated to be independent and creative, and this is very important to them.  They are learning to tie their shoes, erect a sand castle, pull up their pants, tie a bow.  They are working on competence, mastery, and creativity.  

This is not the time to encourage dependence and conformity.  It is not appropriate to demand that they express opinions about an author’s motives, or collaborate and seek others’ suggestions and incorporate them into their writing.  Some children will “get it.”  However, many more won’t.  Teachers will have to drill, drill, and drill the right responses into them.  This time would be better spent teaching grade-appropriate materials.  Children who cannot meet these standards will experience much stress and a loss of creativity.  They will wrongly suffer disapproval from teachers and parents, and might be considered “delayed” and subjected to remedial classes they don’t need.  See Dr. Megan Koschnick’s 9/9/2013 videotaped presentation, which she gave at a  conference at the University of Notre Dame. The event was sponsored by American Principles Project. 

If you are a parent, grandparent, teacher, concerned citizen, or if you specialize in child development, please comment on some of these inappropriate standards.  Please also copy me at anitalchristy@gmail.com, so I can share your comments with members of our Mommy Lobby.  We want to ensure that the State Board is made aware of these serious issues. 

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The Legislature’s Pyrrhic Victory? SB1416 Strips Superintendent of Power

Anita Christy

If the Arizona Legislature succeeds in passing Senator Jeff Dial’s repulsive SB1416, this is what they will have accomplished:   

Turned Arizona’s only elected official within the Department of Education into a water boy kowtowing to the will of 10 unelected, historically incompetent and downright dangerous, wasteful members of the State Board of Education.

Arizona’s voters won’t be fooled into believing that this bill "merely clarifies statutes," as Dial states. The voters who put Ms. Douglas into office aren’t that stupid. 

This is what will be very clear to voters:   The Legislature has removed the Superintendent’s effective representation of the voter’s mandate.  The Legislature has devalued and dishonored the voters. The Legislature has told the voters to “stuff it.”   The Governor, if he signs it, will be signing one of the worst "anti-voter", anti-elected official" bills we’ve seen in a long time.

Historically, members of the State Board of Education, serving at the will of whichever Governor appointed them, love to wield power, without a shred of deliberation, debate, or accountability. (Recent Ducey appointees Jared Taylor and Chuck Schmidt are the exceptions.) Here are just a few of their thoughtless, costly, and downright dangerous actions: 

The SBE’s reputation for lowering standards.  "In 2005 the State Board, over the objections of state Superintendent Tom Horne, reduced the passing grade on the AIMS test from 72 percent to 59 percent for reading, and from 71 percent to 60 percent for math.  Even with the reduced passing threshold, and a math test that has gotten progressively easier, just 61 percent of the class has passed after three attempts."  Most State Board of Education members said lowering the scores would look as if they were lowering the bar and backing off high standards for high school graduates, but still they voted 9-1 to do it. And the Legislature, in their vast wisdom then as now, got into the act, allowing grades in class work to add as much as 25 percent to a student’s AIMS results. 

The SBE spent untold thousands of dollars developing new Math standards in 2008/2009, only to dump them for Common Core Math in 2010.  

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Vacancy on the Arizona State Board of Education’s Standards Development Committee

Anita Christy

If you would like to play an effective role in replacing Common Core in Arizona, now’s your chance!  There’s a vacancy on the State Board of Education’s Standards Development Committee for a member who is a parent of a public high school student.  The Arizona Standards Development Committee includes representation from the Board, business community, deans of colleges, parents, classroom teachers, a school administrator, and a school district governing board member. The Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas is also a member of the Committee. Members of the Committee are an equal mix of those who have and have not participated in the standards development process in the past.

More information about the Arizona Standards Development Committee can be found HERE.   

Applicants are encouraged to complete the application and return the requested documents to inbox@azsbe.az.gov by May 31, 2016.   Click HERE to print out the application.  

According to State Board Member Jared Taylor, “It would be great to get some good parents of high school students to apply.”

Are you interested in reviewing some excellent K-12 standards that already exist?  See An English Language Arts Curriculum Framework for American Public Schools: A Model  and Mathematics Content Standards for California Public Schools Kindergarten through Grade Twelve: A Model

Two addenda could be added to the California standards referenced above 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."

Please contact Gilbert Watch and let us know if you apply!

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