George Will Writes About the Common Core

Doubts over Common Core From the Washington Post By George F. Will, Published: January 15 E-mail the writer Viewed from Washington, which often is the last to learn about important developments, opposition to the Common Core State Standards Initiative still seems as small as thebiblical cloud that ariseth out of the sea, no larger than a man’s hand. Soon, however, this education…

Senate Bill 62 Would Create Common Core Standards Evaluation Council and Public Hearings

SB 62 is a bill that would create and fund with $100,000, the South Dakota Common Core State Standards Evaluation Council. The council would evaluate the following topics regarding the common core state standards (1) Comparison of the substance of previous South Dakota math and English language arts content standards to the Common Core State Standards; (2) Comparison…

Assessment Opt Out Information

There are many reasons to opt your child out of the Smarter Balanced Assessments. We now know that the children of South Dakota are not being assessed on their academic progress,  but instead, are being used to serve the needs of a private consortium. It seems to me that parents have every right to opt…

South Dakota Children Being Used to Write SBAC Assessments

With the announcement from the Sioux Falls Catholic School system that they are withdrawing from the SBAC Assessments, I learned that South Dakota children are being used to help write the SBAC assessment.  From the SFCS announcement: • The Smarter Balanced Assessment is a field test where students will be exposed to thousands of test items…

Common Core’s Potential Impact on Catholic Education

Common Core may endanger religious freedom of Catholic schools January 12, 2014 EAG News MANASSAS, Va. – In the fourth of a series of reports on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) published by The Cardinal Newman Society, two legal experts on religious freedom issues explain that Catholic schools must “maintain their religious mission in all their…

Dr. Bill Evers: “Better to Not Have a National Set of Curriculum Content Standards”

Common Core Catastrophe? By Tribune-Review Published: Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014, 9:00 p.m. Williamson Evers is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank based at Stanford University in California, and the former U.S. assistant secretary of Education for policy. He spoke to the Trib regarding the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a federal…