Notes taken from the common core public forum that happened on Tuesday 7-10-12.
Go to the web site below to watch the video they will provide for all the details. Hope this will be of help.

This is as accurate as my hearing and pen scratching can decipher and its been almost a day since I took the notes. We’ll see if any of it is still coherent.

-Seventeen years ago some groups got together and said we needed national standards for our educational system. Lynn Chaney and other congress voted 99 to 1 to defeat this request.

One key reason people are concerned about Common Core, is that by creating national standards it will take authority from parents and give it to the government. Common Core will referenced from this point on as CC

2006 N.C.’s Governor Hunt, recruited trade organizations and combined with the Bill and Lynda Gates foundation to restart the process of national standards. The Gates foundation contributed $100 million for the task.

2008 Organization called Achieve created.

Under the Obama Administration the Benchmarking for Success project was documented and adopted.

In 2 and ½ weeks of 2009 $4.35 billion money from the stimulus bill was given toward this project. As a discriminatory grant which means they could use it in any way they want. Secretary of Education Duncan wanted to spend it on Bench marking for Success project and thus with others, created national standards. States were given an input box to give feedback but with only 2.5 weeks. There was little opportunity for response and many state legislatures were left out of the loop

2020, March = has standards and is called Raise to the top program. Government will give money to a certain number of states if they are willing to do certain things. Has to agree to be a part of the project even before they learn if they get money or not and before they know what is in the program. States are to compete for the money being given out by the government. Bu the states need to at least commit to the project for the possibility to get money and still is committed even if you don’t get the grant. States have to commit to standard and assessments before they are drafted.

2009-November. a draft went out and response expected by 2010. Title one money is grant money used to help needy children.

2010-march = Standards draft came out but not the assessments.

2010-June 1st = Second round of applications are due.

2010-June 2nd = Final draft released with a two month deadline to formally adopt the standards. Not much time for feedback.
Some of the changes provided from C.C. = English will move away from classic literature and concentrate upon informational text. Two examples were given Federal Reserve and technical manuals.

Sutherlin Institute (located n Utah) gave a report on common core and expressed some concerns.

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James Gasic: from a Boston think tank.
Alexis de Tocqueville in 1830 did a study of America and wrote a book called “Democracy in America” he made the observation that what made America distinct was that the moral/mindset of Americans came from the people and churches.

State of MA spent 20 years improving their education system and is now at the top of the nation. Had math experts to analyze C.C. and states that CC is of lower quality than what they and other top ranked states had. One contributor to the success of education is that 90% of education was devoted to the classics. By reading high quality literature it tests the students’ sense of identity and thinking. It also contributes and improves to the quality of vocabulary. State of MA did not apply to be a part of the Raise to the Top contest. Raise to the top uses grant money to pay states to apply by volunteering to pay for state’s assessment tests etc.

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Legal issue concerns (didn’t get name of lawyer)
-states and local communities, families and cities lose stewardship over content of education.

-three federal laws state that federal government is supposed to have a limited role in education

-what will be the cost to the states: $16 billion

-biggest cost will be implementing the technology for new system

-State legislatures were not told of the cost.

-First principal of education is to each children democracy

-When parents had a complaint about what was taught at a school they could go to the local school board. That option may be altered. This could also influence homeschools.

-Could alter education to match speed and ability of student, that may be altered.

Bill levers:
What is C.C. financial influence? Australia and Canada gives less power to government on education and previously didn’t have an education system much different than counties but they have been getting belter quality education now without national education.

-Utah before had 8th grade learn Algebra and this was also the standard for many countries. Now that C.C. is implemented the nation will start algebra in the 9th grade.

-Geometry (triangles, (angle side angle) or the algorithm for geometry was the way that geometry was being taught. The new way will be a manner not used in the nation except for a few colleges. (Not sure if there is any tracking done on the success of the new way)

-Heard that cursive writing will no longer be taught.

-Federalism: is where the nation entity and the states entity have their separate responsibilities. In a federal jury it was voted 7 to 2 that it was illegal to use conditional grant money to force the use of Medicare as it is against the constitution. (Yet C.C. uses conditional grants to push CC to the states)

-2011= criminal justice says no single government can be in charge of education

-The advantage of having unique education systems is that if someone didn’t like the system in one state or what was being taught they could move to new state that taught what they wanted. It would also provide competition amongst the states to be the best to draw people to their state. Also power is distributed amongst the states and local government where they decided what is good for their area. James Madison talked about the importance of citizens being able to follow personal preference.
Lawyer: content from a legal perspective.

-Department of education was created to be a separate entity from the government. It has not become part of the government. Wants control over state standards.

-conditional wavier: is where states can ask for a waiver on meeting the standards of math and English. One of the reasons for some of this is that on the national level all students progress at the same speed (If I understand this correctly) on a state level some students need more time than what they grade level is giving them or some students are faster. So they want a waiver. If get waiver they have to meet certain conditions. Those seeking a waiver must have common standards and assessments. Curriculum will need to be modified to meet the new content.

-2012 and assessments come on line. Educators are currently being trained

-Assessments will be computer based. States ask for 2014 deadline to be proficiency to meet grade level

-there is a bill written called Student success act = that provided a wavier because can can’t put conditions to the waiver.

For those concerned about CC what can be done?
1. Educate neighbors about your concerns
2. 2. Call the governor
3. Check out site: http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards or piorneer.com
4. Hold decision maker’s feet to the fire

Other info learned from people attending the discussion.
-The state officer of education are currently chosen by the governor unless legislators gets involved. For people that ran for positions they were asked to you agree with common core.

-homeschoolers are active members in TrustandAmericaneducation. Is worried that CC will influence the application process and obtaining scholarship for homeschool students.

-Training of teachers = cost driver , test book and professional development cost will be 5.2 billion for the states.

-Privacy act = student records will be provided to crate a database on students (longitude database) Some people wonder who will have access to this info. Researchers will have access to the info. Data will be shared without permission of parent or the student. Which counters the privacy rights.

Check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville
http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/pdf/120222_CCSSICost.pdf (a document)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/5/want-to-withdraw-from-obama-ed/
http://www.smarterbalanced.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Smarter-Balanced-Governance.pdf (a document)
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/sbac-cooperative-agreement.pdf (a document)
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/09/27/obama-waives-congress-away/
http://www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com/
these are sources too but I couldn’t bring them up:
http://sbs.alpinedistrict.org/cgi-bin/webobjects/eAgenda.woa/wa/displaymeeting?meetingID=850