We know, by research, that Common Core is a BIG mistake from its inception to implementation. However, based on evidence (not my opinion), I’ll share today WHY Common Core deserves to be inducted into a Folly of Shame Club. (Prov. 26:11 states that fools who repeat folly are like dogs which return to their vomit./Joseph Conrad stated, “Let a fool be made serviceable according to his own folly.”)
The Fools: CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers)
Let us count their follies, shall we? One for half copyright owner of the CCSS (Common Core State Standards).
One for participating against our U.S. Constitution for helping create the CCSS. One for meddling in education and forcing an un-American agenda on innocent people. One for stacking the deck of what is being sold as ‘educational research’ with ONLY pro-CCSS groups. One for assuring all this by impacting legislation across the nation. One for selling lies as truth to those who run the schools at the LOCAL capacity. One for encouraging data mining, global readiness, and workforces as ‘human capital’ (aka: ‘talent supply). One for pushing over assessing students and creating a falseness surrounding a skills gap that’s pretty dire. Okay, I count 8. I’m sure there are others, but I think we can see the fools keep recycling folly clearly enough.
The Follies in Print:
First, you’ll want to download the entire pdf of repeated follies, ILN Knowledge Skills and Dispositions CCR Framework February 2013 Published in 2013, this wonderfully shame worthy paper explains in detail how the folly of “CCCR” (College, Career, and Citizen Readiness) is to play out. From research by leading experts (especially post-secondary ones) to graduation from a post-secondary school.
Here’s a sampling of what you’ll discover about the CCSSO’s shameful folly making:
a) via the CCSSO’s ILN (Innovation Lab Network) follies began about 2011. Here’s what the introduction states, “In 2011, member states of the Innovation Lab Network (ILN or Network), facilitated by the
Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), agreed to work together under the shared
belief that their states face a great opportunity to transform their education systems to new
designs that prepare all students for postsecondary learning, work, and citizenship.
Gathering as a Network, these states aimed to define the challenge, establish shared
objectives, and support one another in identifying, testing, and sharing replicable, cost
effective models that will compel system-wide changes in lab states, in other states, and in
federal policy. First among their objectives was to create a shared framework for
understanding the definitional elements of “college, career, and citizenship readiness”
(CCCR) that will serve as a compass for state-to-local actions.” {Note: If you don’t know what the ILN is, please read my article, https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/10/21/ftf-tuesday-common-core-network/ ; Fellow anti-CCSS warrior, LadyLiberty1885, wrote this one about the CCSSO and ILN, “http://ladyliberty1885.com/2014/10/24/the-ccsso-unc-nc-and-india/ “; for other CCSSO Common Core follies, see my article, “https://www.commoncorediva.com/tag/newtech-network/ “}
b) each of the lab states committed to ensuring CCCR measures were made. (Member states lead the way for the rest of the states. CO, OR, CA, NH, NY, OH, WV, KY, WI, and ME) c) by exerting constant outcome based education/assessments pressure, the CCSSO gets the agenda goals they have made, met. d) the lenses used to formulate CCCR?? A well known person, Dr. David Conley. The source? His book about CCCR! {Note: Want to learn more about Dr. Conley’s CCSS ties? He was a member of the CCSS validation committee!! See the committee’s report, featuring his ‘wisdom’, http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CommonCoreReport_6.10.pdf }; e) You’ll see how the Asia Society, PISA, and others made up the ‘international’ component to the CCSSO’s master plan of folly; f) you’ll see the post-secondary education experts {here’s the list, I couldn’t wait for you to see which groups are considered ‘experts’: “Achieve, ACT, Center on Education Policy, ConnectEd, Data Quality Campaign, National Council of Social Studies, National High School Center at the American Institutes of Research, Next Generation Science Standards, Southern Regional Education Board, and Ready By 21, among others”}.
When You Assume..Well, You Know the Rest:
The CCSSO has repeatedly made the same follies when it comes to education, but here’s one they admit they’ve assumed about our students, “Several underlying assumptions were agreed upon…..1. Every student should graduate college, career and citizenship ready. 2. Causing consistently high levels of learning among young people from widely varying backgrounds and with diverse needs will require radical changes in current beliefs, policy, practice and structure. 3. The Common Core State Standards are foundational to college and career readiness; they are absolutely essential, but not sufficient. 4. There is a significant overlap between the profiles of college readiness and career readiness that should be fostered in all students, although additional technical skills may be required for one versus the other. 5. Citizenship readiness, or preparing America’s youth to be contributing members of the larger society, is a fundamental mission of public schools.” {Note: to see what kind of student a CCCR one is to be, click on the picture below to enlarge it.}
How the Legislators Got Fooled:
You’ll also see HOW the CCSSO made moves blatantly, to have legislators come up with laws to back the agenda in this document!!! For example, “… several domains of state policy and implementation, including how the state will establish CCCR as the goal of its education system; how delivery systems will be redesigned to ensure each child’s development of CCCR; how educators will be prepared and supported to develop students’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions; how state and local systems will measure student progress toward CCCR; how systems will hold students, schools, districts, and educators accountable for fostering CCCR; how K-12 diplomas, credentials, or certificates articulate with post-secondary opportunities including higher education and the workforce…”
See Wisconsin’s ILN video:
Below is the ILN member state of WI and the video they placed on YouTube to show you how some of the key pieces in the report have been ‘successful’.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9Biji1cEUc&w=420&h=315]
Closing:
While I’m not the only one to write about the CCSSO, I know that should you care to search my blog, you’ll find articles on Individual Learning Plans, data mining, Project Based Learning and how each of these are so embedded in the CCSS. If you’re not aware of how all the repeated follies are being used in a viscous cycle, I urge you to investigate. If not here, on my blog, then on some other anti CCSS warrior who has the evidence.
You make great points on the relation of common core components. It’s important that readers understand that when we speak of common core, we are not just referring to ‘some standards’. The copyrighted standards are just part of what we call the common core package which includes the high-stake assessment, data collection plus an outcome based education (OBE) model. In Maine it’s call proficiency based but goes by many names. Now throw in some of the teaching models and methods like the PBL, close reading and about anything described with the word ‘rigor” and you have the recipe for an educational disaster.