HOT OFF THE PRESSES! Arizona Board of Education voted 6-2 to reject the Common Core Standards, though it said it wouldn’t eliminate them immediately, after Ed Supe Diane Douglas presented the idea at the meeting.

“This will send a clear message to the citizens of Arizona and the nation that Arizonans are smart enough, engaged enough, and collaborative enough to control the education of our own children, ” said Douglas.
Which means what I just posted a few minutes ago, that “it’s unlikely to happen” was dead wrong. I think I’ll avoid the racetrack, online betting and poker with the boys today.

Related Stories

This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2015.

15 replies on “A “Boy, Was I Wrong About the Common Core Vote!” Update”

  1. The only clear message this state sends about education is that the legislature doesn’t want to fund it, unless by funding you mean, “give vouchers to the right families to cover their children’s education”. Those families will, inevitably, be ones that do not need any help funding anything, but do fund political campaigns.

  2. Even Obama and Duncan are now backing down on their support for high stakes testing as the sine qua non of “school reform” and “accountability:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/obama…

    Call it trickle up common sense in the face of the opt out movements springing up across the nation and the all too apparent dysfunction in the relationship between the states and feds. Fifteen years of federal overreach has done little but enrich everyone with an improvement plan but leaves teachers voting with their feet.

    Any bets where Arne Duncan lands when he leaves the government?

  3. “This will send a clear message to the citizens of Arizona and the nation that Arizonans are smart enough, engaged enough, and collaborative enough to control the education of our own children, ” said Douglas.

    What Planet is Douglas on???? She is illusional.

    June 03, 2015 / Lisa Irish/Arizona Education News Service

    “Arizona provides less state funding per student that any state in the nation, according to national data released yesterday…..When ranked by state funding sources alone, Arizona was 39th in 1992 and had fallen to 50th in 2013. The $3,018 per pupil provided in 2013 is just 53.8 percent of the national average. “….and…

    “Arizona Earns a D-Plus on State Report Card, Ranks 47th in Nation… “

    The Republicans are continuing, with impunity, to Destroy Public Education in Arizona!!!

    It is so easy to criticize the efficacy of a National Curriculum/ Standard Assessment Examinations (Common Core) so as to ensure Teacher/Administrator Academic Accountability by measuring if Students are being taught properly and/or effectively learning the required body of information per Subject Area necessary for them to achieve their career goals without offering alternative strategies. Principal evaluations are subjective, limited, and of no real value. Classroom instructional heterogeneity requires an objective measure.

    Local Control of Public Education, generally, has been a dismal failure!! We need to turn this around via a National Curriculum/Assessment Examinations.

    : “…To assure each one the facility of perfecting his skill…..Those talents with which Nature has endowed him; and thereby to establish among all citizens an actual equality, thus rendering real the political equality recognized by the law. This should be the first aim of any national education…an obligation of justice.” (Condorcet, 1792)

  4. The US is a constitutional republic with an amendment (the 10th) stating “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Because public education is not mentioned as one of those federal powers it is delegated to the local and state governments. Period, end of story. Short of a constitutional amendment, neither a national curriculum or assessment examinations is possible.

    “It is so easy to criticize the efficacy of a National Curriculum/ Standard Assessment Examinations (Common Core)…” Common Core is NOT a national curriculum, the standards were developed specifically by each of the state’s governors and their chief education officers ever mindful of the 10th amendment and open to interpretation and development by those representing each state. It, Common Core, can hardly be celebrated as a national undertaking or as a success.

    In a nation as fractious as the US, it is impossible to conceive, much less develop, a national curriculum embraced by all. Worst case, the Republicans win control of the federal government and develop their version of a national curriculum. Second worst case, the Democrats win control and develop their version of a national curriculum.

    Local control of public education has served the US reasonably well until GW Bush and then Obama began their ill fated “improvement” programs and sold public education to the highest bidders.

  5. Local control is a great theory. But the dunderheads in the legislative majority all know better than every local school what it takes to be successful. They mouth local control but constantly tell local districts what to do, down to the American made, American flags in classrooms. The criticize “too much administration”, but half the admin staff in every district is there to respond to reporting requirementsof the DOE, as required by the legislature. But we can’t just have local standards because we must prepare our kids to work ANYWHERE in the world. Our students are passing Microsoft certifications. We should just make up our own Microsoft certifications? We should make up our own algebra and trig standards? The Russell Pearce standard? The Judy Burges science standard? The Sonny Borrelli “Italian Stallion” standard?

  6. US Constitution: Article 1, Section 8: …..To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

    We have a National Department of Education and a National Secretary of Education whose Powers/Duties are covered by Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution.

  7. High stakes testing and Common Core standards are 2 separate issues. You can have high stakes testing regardless of the standards. I blame the unpopularity of Common Core on insufficient information about them going to the parents. Also the testing IMHO also does not indicate whether they are a failure or not. They have an entire team of educators, testing gurus and more investigating ways to improve the AZMERIT test. I like the Common Core standards although getting to understand that this is to help with critical thinking if not necessarily easy. I think it is a big jump from the old standards. I think money should have been appropriated to teach to parents( workshops). Our system has been dummied down for decades. THis is a new way of learning and thinking and of course many are not comfortable with it. We fall far behind other developed countries in educational achievement. But it is unpopular so we don’t accept it? I wish politics didn’t run the show around education because that’s what this story is about.

  8. The public school system has not been dumbed down. and we DO NOT fall far behind other developed countries in educational achievement.
    This is an oft repeated lie. David has also addressed this in various posts.

    Forbes Magazine:

    “… if Massachusetts were allowed to report subject scores independently — much the way that, say, Shanghai is allowed to do so — the Bay State would rank 9th in the world in Math Proficiency, tied with Japan, and on the heels of 8th-ranked Switzerland. In reading, Massachusetts would rank fourth in the world, tied with Hong Kong, and not far behind third-ranked Finland.”

    “Moreover, in reading, Vermont would be tied for fifth with Singapore, ahead of such perennial PISA stalwarts as New Zealand, Japan, Canada, Australia and Belgium.”

    “…there are dramatic differences in educational performance by state and region in the US. Clearly, the Northeast – with six of the top ten states in overall academic proficiency – is doing something right on multiple levels. And clearly the traditional South – with five states in the bottom 10 –- is doing something fundamentally wrong.”

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallc…

    So in essence, you get what you pay for.

  10. @Francis Saitta. Obviously you not only didn’t read the article, but you didn’t understand the quotes.

  12. I watched the textbooks be dummied down and wondered for the longest time what was going on. Finally I learned ( which I saw) that text books that were written for 4th graders in the ’80s are now being written at that reading level for 8th graders. I could give you countless examples for I did readability tests on multiple texts and they were indeed dummied down. So whatever you have read, is less valid to me than what I saw with my own eyes. This just didn’t happen in AZ but rather across the nation. Text book companies take marching orders from governors, districts, and anyone that will buy their books. In addition, there was more rote learning emphasized than critical thinking. A prime example is an over emphasis on phonics in the teaching of reading , even after students are decoding. There is no critical thinking in that or deep comprehension in that type of teaching. Many good teachers brought in supplemental books to enhance and excite children. Now the former standards are okay but not sufficient. They alone did not dummy down education but rather how education was viewed and testing became the be all and end all ( not for me ) for many schools. Passing the tests is easier if it is rote learning. AZMerit constructors learned how difficult it is to create a standardized test that measures critical thinking . I could go on but those who say and write that education has not been dummied down are looking at it in a shallow way. I like the Common Core because they are more complete in identifying what needs to be taught. Are they perfect? No. Are they better? IMHO YES.

  13. David, David, David. Finally!!!!! Unanimity about what you know and don’t know. Instead of staying away from the racetracks consider another very long vacation from here.

Comments are closed.