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Friday, December 18, 2015

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Common Core Updates

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Common Core Updates:
Common Core Updates



(Editor's note: I seem to recall that some were saying that "Common Core was here to stay." Read on.)

This reads like it's from The Onion but nope, it's from the NY Times regarding a taskforce that Governor Cuomo of New York created around Common Core:


A task force Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo created is calling for changes in what New York State students learn and how they are assessed, in a set of recommendations released on Thursday.


The task force, which Mr. Cuomo convened in response to the concerns of parents and teachers, is also calling for the state not to use its test scores to evaluate teachers through the 2018-19 school year, to allow time to develop the new standards and tests.
Why does this appear to be happening?

It comes in the wake of a rebellion by parents against testing;one-fifth of students did not sit for the state exams this year, a fourfold increase from the previous year.

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, appeared to be heeding this anger when he created the task force in September and charged it with making recommendations “to overhaul the Common Core system — to do a total reboot.”
It is unclear how different the new standards will be from the Common Core. The task force’s report calls for enlisting educators and parents to help create them, and it recommends modifying the standards for kindergarten, first grade and second grade so that they are more age-appropriate. 
 Another hugely interesting article comes from Catholic Education Daily where there was concern over how Catholic school students (who don't generally use Seattle Schools Community Forum: Common Core Updates: