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…

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…

The Sioux Falls Catholic Schools have chosen not to use the Smarter Balanced Assessments. The SFCS has sited the following concerns: • The Smarter Balanced Assessment is a field test where students will be exposed to thousands of test items in an effort to assist the consortium in choosing the best test items for the…

Make no mistake about it, the National Sexual Education Standards are coming. Notice the spokesperson said that it aligns with the national standards. Also, that the poster never should have been left up after the unit was done. As if it would have been better if parents had never seen the poster. Be sure to…

 WHEN:    Saturday, January 25, 2014  WHERE:  American Legion                       408 Orleans Ave.                       Dell Rapids, SD   TIME:      10:30 am- 12:00pm

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…

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…

Thank-you to all who attended the Confronting Common Core event in Aberdeen on January 7. Because of time constraints, I was unable to share this video of Dr. Bill Evers, former Assistant Secretary of Education from 2007-2009. This is a man on the inside track of education. Please listen for what he says about the…

South Dakota’s Family Heritage Alliance is still in the research mode on Common Core and not quite ready to state a position. Family Heritage Alliance’s MISSION STATEMENT: “The Family Heritage Alliance exists to Champion the Judeo-Christian Values of Faith, Family and Freedom.” Two of the core values of the Family Heritage Alliance are: We will…

WHAT:   The Common Core and Catholic Education  WHEN:    Wednesday, January 8th  TIME:      7:00 pm WHERE:  Tinners (go in the Event Center door)                   449 W 69th St  Sioux Falls