Missouri Coaltion Against Common Core Response to DESE's Common Core Claims
The following response was sent to legislators in response to Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's claims on Common Core. You may find some responses helpful in your fight against Common Core spin from your state agency. From Missouri Coalition Against Common Core Standards:
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Inaccuracies in the DESE Information Packet For Legislators
on Common Core Standards
DESE Statement: “The standards establish consistent learning goals for all students, regardless of where they live so that children will stay on track in school when moving from one state to another.”
· The transient student population is not a large problem that requires a whole new system for standards development. The actual percentage of students who move each year is between only 0.3-2%.
· In addition, CC standards provide only a year end proficiency goal. If individual districts may determine their own curriculum, order and pacing, as the CC proponents claim, there is no inherent guarantee in the standards that a student moving mid-year will have received instruction in the exact portion of the standard as any another district.
· Section 160.2000 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children, already addresses barriers to educational successimposed on children of military families because of frequent moves and deployment of their parents. Common Core offers nothing new.
DESE Statement: “The standards are relevant to the real world, focusing on knowledge and skills students will need to succeed in life after high school, in both post-secondary education and a globally competitive workforce.”
· There are no pilot data to support this statement. This is merely a statement of intent, not a guaranteed, or even likely, result.
· Members of the both the ELA and Math Validation Committees refused to sign off on the standards because this statement could not be substantiated with research or data.
DESE Statement: “A diverse team of teachers, parents, administrators, researchers and content experts developed the CC to be academically rigorous, attainable for students and practical for teachers and districts.”
· CC was developed primarily by people affiliated with DC nonprofit Achieve, Inc., financed by large grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and funds from the US Department of Education.
· The standards development committee contained no high school English or mathematics teachers or English professors. It was made up primarily of test preparers, test providers and administrators. The two people credited with writing the grade-level English language arts standards (David Coleman and Susan Pimentel) have never taught in K-12 and have never published anything
