Highlights from the story:
ABERDEEN, SD –
…The standards specify what students are expected to know at each grade level. Several states across the country have adopted the standards. The South Dakota Board of Education did so November 2010.
The state plans to assess students using the Common Core Standards this spring, but schools won’t be held accountable for the assessments until tests taken during the 2014-15 school year.
More than 500 educators attended a training hosted by Northern State University in Aberdeen Friday. That’s one way they’re getting ready for the change.
…Sen. Chuck Welke (D-Warner) attended Friday’s session.
“Well, I think there will probably be some hiccups and challenges, but I think that schools have been working very hard to try and get ready so I’m confident they’ll be ready,” Sen. Chuck Welke of Warner said.
…Welke says he’s hearing from some who oppose the Common Core State Standards but also supporters who say they’ve put in a lot of work preparing and don’t want to see the state change its mind.
I would like to offer this response to the “professional development” that we are always offering teachers from Dr. Sandra Stotsky.
The state keeps saying that these are South Dakota’s standards and that we have local control. I don’t know of any local school board or even the state Board of Education, that went to the residents of South Dakota and said, “We want to make your children smarter and make education better, so instead of going to the time-tested classical instruction, we are launching this experiment on your children designed to radically change education. In fact, the Common Core is so radical, that the SAT, ACT, GED and AP are being changed to align with this new experiment. The Common Core will train your children to be a part of the workforce able to function in a global economy. Oh and by the way, we don’t own the copyright to the Common Core, so we can’t change them. Only private entities in Washington DC can change the standards. But that’s ok. We can trust the private trade organizations in the beltway.” We are paying for teacher training to “educate” our children without representation.
South Dakotans Against Common Core 