Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Georgia State GOP Committee Passes Resolution Against Common Core | Scathing Purple Musings

Georgia State GOP Committee Passes Resolution Against Common Core | Scathing Purple Musings:

Georgia State GOP Committee Passes Resolution Against Common Core

From Marietti Daily Journal reporter Lindsay Field:
MARIETTA — The chess match over Georgia’s involvement in a controversial program  to create nationwide educational standards got deeper over the  weekend.The State Committee of the Georgia Republican Party adopted a  resolution Saturday that recommends the state withdraw from participation in the  Common Core standards and the national tests that are tied to them. It  also asks the Legislature to prohibit state officials from entering into any  agreements that would cede local control over education to the federal  government. Also banned under the resolution would be the collection, tracking  and sharing of student and teacher data with schools or agencies outside the  state.The Common Core standards initiative started more than five years  ago as an effort by private and government forces to establish a nationwide set  of educational standards for students in kindergarten through 12th grade,  starting with English and math. Standards are expected later for science and  social studies.But critics worry that Common Core has become President  Barack Obama’s attempt to federalize education. Obama has tied his federal “Race  to 


FLDOE Charter School Superiority Study Contradicted By CREDO – Florida Charter Schools “Lagging”

Orlando Sentinel reporter Leslie Postal has skimmed through the much ballyhooed Stanford CREDO Institute and found that Florida’s charter schools aren’t measuring up to public schools.
The average charter school student in Florida loses the equivalent of seven days of learning in reading compared to the average student in traditional public schools, according to an updated national charter school study by researchers at Stanford University.Charter school and traditional school students are on par in math………But the study noted that charter school students have “markedly different learning gains” across the 27 states included in the study, even with demographic differences were taken into account……In 11 states, such as Louisiana and Tennessee, charter students gained more in both reading and math than counterparts in traditional schools. But Florida was not among those, with its charter students lagging in reading and doing no better in math. The study noted, however, that differences in states’ overall academic achievement would influence whether the differences in days of learning made an actual difference to particular children.