By now I am certain you have all heard of Common Core. Though the intent may have been good, the resulting standards and implementation have been a complete debacle.
At no time were early education or developmental specialists consulted in designing the standards. Special needs children have been completely forgotten. The result is a set of expectations for our youngest students which are not only developmentally inappropriate, but completely at odds with what we know of cognitive development. Ironically, Jason Zimba, the mathematics standards writer for Common Core, reports that these standards were designed to prepare students for a two-year college, and that graduating seniors would be unprepared for a freshman calculus course. How can we consider these standards to be superior if our graduating students will be even less prepared for STEM fields than they are now?
Dr. Sandra Stotsky and Professor James Milgram, the only two educational experts on the validation committee, refused to sign off on the standards, reporting that they would leave our students unprepared for a four-year college and make advancement in the STEM fields virtually impossible.
Finally, the data collection associated with the standards is a blatant violation of privacy. Over 400 data points are being collected and stored in a national data base. Along with academic history and test scores, more sensitive information is being collected, such as behavioral or disciplinary actions at school, medical or psychological diagnoses, and family marital status, to name a few, with personally identifiable information linked to it! This information may be shared with third-party vendors at the discretion of the district and state, under the guise of development of educational materials.
FERPA and HIPAA laws were modified to prevent parents from blocking such data collection. Although I am vehemently opposed to my daughter’s personal and private information being collected and shared, I have no rights to prevent this.
I have attempted to be brief in my many, many objections to Common Core. I am therefore urging you to read this petition and sign to put a halt to common core and get our educational system back on track. We are making headway, but we still need more voices. Please step up for our children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, friends, and put an end to this. I am enclosing a link to a petition, which I hope you will consider signing.
I thank you for your time and your efforts and ask that if you agree with the above sentiments, you share this letter or a similar one with your friends and family.
http://www.fixnyschools.com/
Sam B. Myers, Garden City
