Saturday, April 6, 2013

Missouri Education Watchdog: More Common Core Spin from Missouri DESE

Missouri Education Watchdog: More Common Core Spin from Missouri DESE:


More Common Core Spin from Missouri DESE

Missouri Commissioner of DESE took to youtube to deliver a pro common core message.









What the Commissioner said: 

Common Core standards are now called "Missouri Learning Standards" of which Common Core is a part of.  I guess the 15% of standards Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia "allows" Missouri to adopt in addition to CCSS supersedes the mandated 100% of standards Missouri has contracted with SBAC to follow.

The Commissioner fails to tell her viewers that if the bar was set too low for standards, she, as Commissioner, had the authority and duty to tweak the standards.  If she could not or would not, then we need a commissioner who could perform that job function.  The governor, DESE and the State Board did not have to sign an MOU (is that a contract?) to a 26 state consortia taking away local/state control and bestowing millions of dollars on to taxpayers in the form of unfunded debt for standards/assessments that are privately crafted/owned/copyrighted.

We hear the same old story that schools can set their own curriculum.  What is not said is that the curriculum must be aligned to common core standards.  It's like buying gasoline. You can buy it from different gas companies, but in reality, it's the same product.  The line of "you can pick your own