Common Core State Standards: Are They Right for Oklahoma?

Report Submitted to the Oklahoma House of Representatives as part of Interim Study #11-048, October 6, 2011 by Restore Oklahoma Public Education (ROPE)

Brief History of Public Education in America

The first indication of public schooling in America was found in the Massachusetts Bay Colony o The General School Law of 1647 also called The Old Deluder Satan Law (The Constitution Society) Any township containing more than 50 families shall hire a teacher Every town with more than 100 families establish a grammar school Oversight by local school boards Stipulated children to be taught fundamentals of reading, writing, ciphering, history, geography and Bible study 1787 Northwest Ordinance o Provided grants of federal land for the establishment of educational institutions on the basis that Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. (The CATO Institute) Andrew Jackson signed legislation creating the first Department of Education in 1867 o Department was demoted in 1868 to the OFFICE of education out of fear that a federal agency would exercise too much control over local schools (Ed.gov) Todays Federal Education Department (ED) was created in 1979 by the Carter administration o In the 1860s, a budget of $15,000 and four employees handled education fact-finding. o By 1965 (LBJs first ESEA) the Office of Education had more than 2,100 employees and a budget of $1.5 billion. o As of early 2009, the Department had nearly 4,200 employees and a budget of $67.3 billion [not including $100 billion in funding for the next two years provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009]. (Ed.gov)

Role of the Federal Government in Education

No Constitutional basis for federal control of education (Boaz) o The History of the Formation of the Union under the Constitution, published by the United States Constitution Sesquicentennial Commission, under the direction of the president, the vice president, and the Speaker of the House in 1941, contained this exchange in a section titled Questions and Answers Pertaining to the Constitution (Matteson)(page 128): Q. Where, in the Constitution, is there mention of education? A. There is none; education is a matter reserved for the states. o The U.S. Supreme Court has also refused to recognize any right to a taxpayer-funded education still considering public education a privilege (Boaz)

1 | Common Core State Standards: Are They Right For Oklahoma? Restore Oklahoma Public Education

Department of Education Act of October 17, 1979 P.L. 96-88 o Reaffirms the role of the federal government in public education In our Federal system, the primary public responsibility for education is reserved respectively to the States and local school systems Also indicates, parents have the primary responsibility for the education of their children (US CODE)

Laws Preventing the Use of National Standards, Testing and Curricula

President Johnson (LBJ) created the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965 o First time federal monies provided for state run public education on a wide scale o Prevented federal control of curricula Section 604, Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to authorize any department, agency officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution or school system or over the selection of library resources or printed or published instructional materials by any educational institution or school system." (Wikipedia) o Reaffirmed in section 1901 of current, No Child Left Behind ESEA Nothing in this title shall be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal Government to mandate, direct, or control a State, local educational agency, or school's specific instructional content, academic achievement standards and assessments, curriculum, or program of instruction. (Ed.gov) 20 USC 1232a - Prohibition Against Federal Control of Education, 1979 o Further affirms, No provision of any applicable program shall be construed to authorize any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, or over the selection of library resources, textbooks, or other printed or published instructional materials by any educational institution or school system. (V/lex) 20 USC 1232j Prohibition on Federally Sponsored Testing o no funds provided to the Department of Education or to an applicable program, may be used to pilot test, field test, implement, administer or distribute in any way any federally sponsored national test in reading, mathematics, or any other subject that is not specifically and explicitly provided for in authorizing legislation enacted into law (v/lex) Current knowledge o According to OKC attorney, Don Powers, What we discovered is a transition to a tyrannical form of government. Sections of the USCA that supported local, states rights and local control of schools as well as sections that placed restrictions on the Federal DOEd were being repealed all together and in instances replaced by sections that grant more control to the federal level. We also checked other areas of the USCA and found this to be the rule, and not the exception. From the historical records, that we could check with our meager resources, it has apparently been going on since before the 1960s. (Powers)

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Oklahoma Origins of Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

Senate Bill 2033, passed in 2010, contained a number of public education reform measures to support Oklahomas application for the second round of federal Race to the Top (RTT) funding. o Section 15B states, By August 1, 2010, the State Board of Education shall adopt revisions to the subject matter curriculum adopted by the State Board for English Language Arts and Mathematics as is necessary to align the curriculum with the K-12 Common Core State Standards developed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative, an effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers. The revised curriculum shall reflect the K-12 Common Core State Standards in their entirety and may include additional standards as long as the amount of additional standards is not more than fifteen percent (15%) of the K-12 Common Core State Standards. (Garrett) Did not pass House on second reading (62% Aye) Passed third reading after Rep. Earl Sears motion to reconsider and House Conference and adoption of CCR No known public comment was solicited prior to the passage of this bill Like all state legislatures that adopted CCSS early on in the process, Oklahoma passed the bill adopting CCSS before the CCSS had been fully developed (Dean)

National Origins of Common Core State Standards

Marc Tucker, President of the National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE) wrote his friend Hillary Clinton a letter in 1990 o Urged Clintons to pass sweeping education reform to include National Standards and National Testing to drive an outcome based education model rebranded by using the slogan high standards Dear Hillary letter became 1994s School-to-Work Opportunities Act, Goals 2000 Act and Improving Americas Schools Act of 1994 (Clintons ESEA reauthorization) (Schafly) 1996 - Achieve, Inc. was formed by the nations governors and corporate leaders and NCEE at the Education Summit in Palisades, NY o Main goal of Achieve was to benchmark education standards and assessments in order to make the 1994 reforms lasting (Learn USA) 2008 - Achieve, Inc., The National Governors Association (NGO) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSSO) produced Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring Students Receive a World-Class Education (Achieve, Inc.) o Called for Washington to implement tiered incentives to push states to adopt common core standards 2009 Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education under newly elected Barrack Obama, creates RTTT a competitive grant process which invites states to compete for American Recovery and Reinvestment ACT (ARRA) funds in four categories. (Ed.gov) o Turning around lowest performing schools o Building data systems to measure student and teacher progress and outcomes o Recruiting, developing, rewarding and retaining effective teachers o Adopting Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

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No public hearings - Congressional or otherwise - were ever held on RTTT or any of the separate initiatives. (Greene)

Are The CCSS a Nationalization of Public Education?

The CCSS come directly from Goals 2000 and the purpose of the National Education Standards and Improvement Council (Ed.gov) CCSS are part of RTTT which are paid for with FEDERAL ARRA funds (Ed.gov) PARCC and SMARTER the two testing consortia are funded through the Department of Education using ARRA funds (Ed.gov) o Violates 20 USC 1232j o Questions are being raised concerning violations of 1979 law (Gewertz) Competitive RTTTapplications must include adoption of CCSS and states must pass legislation to secure them into state law (Application (A) (1) (e) State Success Factors) (Ed.gov) President Obama has indicated he would tie Title 1 funding to CCSS adoption (Krigman) Both NGO and CSSO are NATIONAL organizations with NATIONAL membership CCSS Assessments are mandatory (Oklahoma State Department of Education) o AYP is based on state defined performance benchmarks (unavailable for inspection on the OK SDE website 9/10/2011) including assessments (Oklahoma State Department of Education) o Schools that fail to meet the AYP benchmarks (performance continues below a federally acceptable level) face a number of possible sanctions including loss of funding o More information on NCLB and AYP (Education World)

Are CCSS Standards or Curricula?

Both PARCC and SMARTER were only to develop testing for use with CCSS (Oklahoma is a member of PARCC) (Achieve, Inc.) o PARCC says they will (page 58), develop model curriculum frameworks that teachers can use to plan instruction and gain a deep understanding of the CCSS, and released items and tasks that teachers can use for ongoing formative assessment. (PARCC) o Consortia cant develop tests for framework because framework is a very broad concept (represent and analyze quantitative relationships) (Hess) Tests ask specific questions arising from specific curricula (What is the equation specifying the relationship between moles of a substance and Avogadros number?) Standards pinpoint what children should learn without necessarily identifying how that goal should be reached, but just by defining the goal, you drive curriculum by stating what must be taught. (McCluskey) o What is the point of setting standards if there was no intent for it to affect what is actually taught in schools? English/Language Arts standards authors have published a set of publishers criteria which some feel undoubtedly tells teachers how to teach (curriculum) (Finne)

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Conflicts of Interest and Monopolies

Achieve, Inc., along with the NGO and the CCSSO produced Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring Students Receive a World-Class Education (Achieve, Inc.) Achieve, is serving as the project management partner for (Achieve, Inc.)PARCC, a consortium of 25 states that was awarded a Race to the Top assessment competition grant. (PARCC) Achieve created Americas Choice through Marc Tuckers NCEE (America's Choice) o Americas Choices School Design is a coherent, comprehensive design that offers exceptional instructional materials and strategies with first-rate coaching and professional development. Dedicated to serving every aspect of that required by RTT. (America's Choice) Pearson has purchased Americas Choice (Pearson) o Pearson provides Complete and cohesive support to implement the new Common Core State Standards (Pearson) which includes English and math curricula, consultation services, professional development, and tests (Pearson) as well as being the largest textbook supplier in the world (American Textbook Council) o Pearson is a Level 1 funder of the CCSSO (as is Microsoft) (Council of Cheif State School Officers) The Bill Gates Foundation has played a PROMINENT role in Achieve, Americas Choice, The Common Core State Standards Initiative and PARCC. o PARCC is committed to developing a computer-based assessment system aligned to the math and English CCSS (Achieve, Inc.)

What Will the Common Core State Standards Initiative Cost Oklahoma?
Missouri, Washington, California and Oklahoma signed on to CCSS without winning an RTTTgrant o The projected unfunded cost to Californians is projected to be $1.6 Billion dollars (Lasken) 1 Billion for textbooks aligned with the then-new California standards + 70 million already allocated for textbooks $800 million for new curriculum $765 million for teacher training $20 million for principal training Other assorted costs o Washington States Superintendent (Office of Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction) has asked their legislature for $2,156,000 million dollars to implement the CCSS in Washington o Missouri reports one unsubstantiated estimate to be $750,000,000 (Logue) o Texas will not sign on to CCSS partly because the costs to implement are estimated to be as high as 3 billion dollars Oklahoma would be responsible for the same type outlays as California Of interest: the state of Ohio, who won an RTTTgrant, has a number of districts returning RTTTmoney saying they can't afford to spend more than they'd get from the grant (Starzyk).

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Are the Common Core State Standards Effective?

Andrew Porter, dean of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education [a previous and early supporter of CCSS] (Porter), states, Our research shows (Andrew Porter) that the common-core standards do not represent a meaningful improvement over existing state standards. o He also goes on to say, The common core is not a new gold standardits firmly in the middle of the pack of current curricula. Zeev Wurman and Sandra Stotsky (both early CCSS contributors and reviewers) determined, in their paper, Common Cores Standards Still Dont Make the Grade, Common Cores college readiness standards do not point to a level of intellectual achievement that signifies readiness for authentic college-level work. At best, they point to no more than readiness for a high school diploma. (Sandra Stotsky) Reaching the Goal by the Educational Policy Improvement Center (whose clients include Achieve and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) suggests strong support for the validity of common core standards, but had great concern about the areas they do not cover. o CCSS not a complete recipe for college preparation. o Defining a set of standards as college and career ready that overlook ... dimensions beyond content knowledge will result in assuming that students who have achieved a particular score on the common assessments [of the standards] are fully ready for college and career studies when, in fact, they may possess only a subset of the knowledge and skills, strategies and techniques necessary to be fully ready for postsecondary success, he and his co-authors write in the study. Dr. David Conley, CEO (Conley) Closing the Door on Innovation, a manifesto signed by a wide collection of interested parties including Brandon Dutcher and Michael Carnuccio of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA) and ROPEs Board of Directors o Contains five reasons states should not adopt CCSS o Includes, lack of consistent evidence indicating that a national curriculum leads to high academic achievement. (K12 Innovation) When indexed by NAEP scores, differences among states in academic achievement do not seem to be related to differences in the quality of state content standards or the difficulty of passing the state assessment. Brookings Institute The effects of curricula on student achievement are larger, more certain and less expensive than popular reforms such as common standards (Whitehurst) Jen Jenson, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist and education consultant says, o Lists 5 different ways the CCSS dont measure up o Primary concern was the fact that there are too many standards Kids should learn a FEW things WELL and build upon existing knowledge (Jensen)

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CCS Math Standards

US standards the least informative of those from South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan o A study in bureaucratic ambiguity. Jonathan Goodman, Professor of Mathematics, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, NYU (Goodman) The Core mathematics standards are written to reflect very low expectations o An extremely unusual approach to geometry from grade 7 on, the most likely outcome of which will be the complete suppression of the key topics in Euclidean geometry including proofs and deductive reasoning. James Milgram, Professor emeritus, Stanford University member of the Common Core Validation committee (Milgram) United States Coalition for World Class Math (US World Class Math) o This omission of significant portions of essential Algebra II and Geometry content renders the Common Core Standards inadequate for students who will enter undergraduate programs in STEM or even non-STEM disciplines in much of the country o States should not adopt the "College-Readiness" Standards unless they adequately identify the content required for success in credit-bearing mathematics courses in their state universities. The current Common Core Standards draft falls significantly short of this requirement for many states. o Are NOT internationally benchmarked (US World Class Math) Wheres The Math? o Place emphasis on Standards for Mathematical Practice which supports a constructivist (progressive) approach. o This approach is typical of reform (fuzzy) math programs to which many parents across the country object. (Where's The Math) Students learn perseverance by struggling throughand ultimately succeeding onvery difficult problems. And you just simply cannot do that unless you have mastered the content you need to succeed. Empty problem solving skills simply cannot make up for missing content. Fordham Institute (Porter-Magee) Relevant isnt supposed to be a synonym for dumbed-down, it just always seems to work out that way. And my hunch is that students might struggle less with algebra, geometry and calculus if they showed up in high school with a strong foundation in basic math skills. Core Knowledge Institute (Pondiscio) Common Core Math writers/reviewers have been unwilling to defend the standards, o Over the past three months, we've now asked six individuals involved in the Common Core math standards to pen a piece making the case for their rigor and quality, and each has declined in turn. Rick Hess, editor, EdWeek. (Hess)

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CCS Science Standards

This framework does not expect our students to be able to do any science, or to be able to solve any science problem. o This framework simply teaches our students science appreciation, rather than science. It expects our students to become good consumers of science and technology, rather than prepare them to be the discoverers of science and creators of technology. Zeev Wurman, Chief Software Architect of MonolithIC 3D Inc., former senior policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Education (Wurman) Theres a section [of the proposed standards] called modeling. The only discernible standard I could find was: The student will be able to use graphs, for example, graphs of Co2 emissions and global temperatures over time. The joke was What do we call this class? Do we call it Global Warming Math? Robert Scott, Texas Commissioner of Education (Burke) Computer science largely excluded. Computing in the Core advocacy group (members include Google, Microsoft and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) (Robelen)

CCS English Standards

National Council of Teachers of English sees the standards as too narrow in scope, drafted as individual, testable actions rather than as authentic performances in college classrooms or workplaces. o Research demonstrates that narrow and high stakes assessments reduce the scope of curriculum and decrease student engagement o Document claims to be evidence-based, but we note that none of the evidence has been drawn from peer-reviewed research journals or similar sources, but mainly consists of surveys done by testing companies (National Council of Teachers of English) Sandra Stotsky, (Ph.D. in reading research and reading education) says, there is no research base supporting the empty 10 College-and-Career-Readiness Standards for reading on K-12 gradelevel standards o NO international benchmarking o Few content-rich Literature and reading standards in grades 6-12 o Pedagogically useless Vocabulary standards in grades 6-12 (Stotsky) The new Common Core standards will require students to read considerably less fiction. Julia Steiny, former member of the Providence School Board, consults on schools and government initiatives, such as Information Works!, Rhode Islands school-accountability project. (Steiny) Cursive writing is not among the standards. o Research proves that handwriting teaches letter formation, a fundamental base of literacy; advances neurological development with perceptual and motor skills practice; supports reading and language acquisition; and augments writing fluency. Zaner-Bloser (Zaner-Bloser) o Cursive is not just about writing, said Claire Wilkins, director of the Satori Elementary School in Galveston. Its about engaging both sides of the brain. Regardless of whether we have computers, there is some point at which sentences have to be written down. (Turner)

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Testing (Assessments)
According to Education Week Experts See Hurdles Ahead for Common Core Tests o High expectations for tests may outpace ability of states to pay for and administer them o Tight timelines wont allow for well-done piloting of the assessments o National assessments were originally intended to save states money, but federal grants contain no money for administration o Many brick and mortar schools do not have the technology necessary to administer the tests (Sparks) The current focus on testing has tended to make test results the goal of the system rather than a measure. (Cody) o Violates Goodhart's Law: when measure becomes the goal, it ceases to be an effective measure. (Wikipedia) One-third of a billion dollars has now gone into mere development (Flanagan) (not roll-out, printing, training or scoring (Farley)) of Common Core assessments alone, which will in turn render useless the billions already spent, state to state, to develop, print, administer and score standardized tests tied to state standards and curricula. o Oklahomas last contract with Pearson cost the state $16.7 million dollars (Rolland) Testing [was to] shine a spotlight on low-performing schools, and choice would create opportunities for poor kids to leave for better schools. All of this seemed to make sense, but there was little empirical evidence, just promise and hope. Diane Ravitch, former Asst. Secretary of Education for George. H.W. Bush (National Public Radio staff) Oklahoma has had significant problems with testing companies for over a decade o This is a national problem described by one think tank (FairTest) as a perverted game of musical chairs where companies move from state to state as they are hired and then fired for poor performance. (Rolland) o Results allow computation of API and will soon be used to evaluate teachers and principals, the very people closest to the students. Conflict of interest o Pearson has a poor testing track record in Oklahoma as well as the rest of the nation, but due to corporate mergers, is one of just a handful of testing companies left in the market (Solochek) o The interests of testing advocates and testing companies like Pearson are often one and the same. (Rapoport) Because the competition between testing companies is so fierce, Pearson isnt shy about deploying high-powered lobbyists and/or paying expenses for education officials to conduct business (Taylor) In Texas, bills that would have reduced the states reliance on tests didnt pass Makes it difficult for legislators to assess testings efficacy. Creates testing programs that perpetuate themselves. A business education complex has been created so that industries perpetuate ideologies and ideologies keep the industries afloat. o The Wall Street Journal explains that The implementation of core standards would reduce the burden Pearson faces in adapting materials to individual state requirements and open up an opportunity for Pearson to win a new contract measuring the progress of that common-standards initiative. (Sonne)

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What Are Other Organizations Saying About CCSS?

Association of American Educators Poll (Garner) o 69% of surveyed membership believes that the federal government should NOT mandate curriculum standards o 64% supported the states making the final determination about the standards. o Teachers in the field recognize that students in addition to being held to a high academic standard, ought to be given the opportunity to learn from state-based curriculums designed with the goals of their state in mind. Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll 2010 (Phi Delta Kappa, Gallup) o 65% of respondents believed the federal government should NOT set the standards for what students should know o 44% of respondents believed the most important national program was improving the quality of our teachers compared to 24% who said, developing demanding education standards Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll 2011 (Phi Delta Kappa, Gallup) o 74% of respondents thought teachers should NOT be required to follow a prescribed curriculum so all students could learn the same content ROPE 2011 (Restore Oklahoma Public Education) o 81% of respondents believed Oklahoma public schools that take federal money are made to follow federal regulations o 95% of respondents believed that when local Oklahoma schools are made to follow federal regulations educational opportunities for Oklahoma students decline

How Do Federal Mandates and Programs Effect States

A 1994 Government Accountability Office report on education finance found that, while the feds provided just 7 percent of education funding, they accounted for 41 percent of the paperwork burden imposed on the states causing to hire 13,400 workers just to oversee compliance with all the red tape. (Burke) o 2006 GAO reported that guidelines and regulations were estimated to have increased state and local education agencies annual paperwork burden by 6.7 million hours, at a cost of $141 million o Since the 1950s, the number of teachers as a percentage of school staff has declined from 70 percent to about 51 percent. Meanwhile, administrative support staff increased from 23.8 percent to 30 percent. o Its estimated that only 65-70 cents of every education dollar leaving Washington makes it into the classroom o How much money are states actually getting from the DOE once costs of the programs are realized? American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (Melissa Junge), Federal Compliance Works against Education Policy Goals o The current federal education compliance structure is a significant barrier to fulfilling federal policy goals

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Fiscal and administrative requirements often lead to expensive and time-consuming compliance processes that are not related to improving student achievement or school success. Mercatus Center, George Mason University, Do Governmental Grants Create Tax Ratchets in State and Local Taxes? (Russell Sobel) o Results suggest that the increase in federal grants to state and local governments as a result of ARRA will have significant implications at the state and local level as these governments raise revenue to continue these newly funded programs into the future. o Using our estimates, this increase will eventually result in roughly $80 billion in future state and local tax and own source revenue increases.

Are There Other Mechanisms by Which Students can be Nationally Benchmarked?

Karl Springer, Superintendent of Oklahoma City Public Schools says, ACT is attractive due to the use of EXPLORE (8th Grade) and PLAN (10th Grade) benchmarking assessments that the state pays for students to take across the state. EPAS allows for districts to benchmark student progress toward meeting college readiness standards. (McGuigan) Though some believe NAEP cut scores to be too high (Fair Test) Kentucky found close agreement between NAEP (proficient, not basic) and ACTs EXPLORE (Freedom Kentucky)in 8th grade reading and mathematics as a benchmark for assessing college and career readiness. o Through these comparisons, Kentucky was also able to determine that Kentuckys own Core Content Test scores in the area of reading and math were seriously inflated.

Conclusion
Often cited as the model country for school improvement, Finland does exactly the opposite of the NCLB and RTT/Common Core based reform of the US o Many progressive educational policy researchers (Darling-Hammond) and activists point to the fact that, as a socialist country, there are no equity gaps among children o According to a recent Smithsonian article (Hancock) though it is exceptionally rare for a child to show up hungry or homeless, children nevertheless arrive for school in August miles apart in reading and language levels. o What does Finland do differently? Compulsory schooling does not begin until age 7 National control over policies was shifted to town councils Educational professionals are selected from the top 10 percent of the nations graduates to earn a required masters degree in education at state expense Require an extra year of schooling for special education teachers [Applicants began flooding teaching programs not because the salaries were so high but because autonomy and respect made the job attractive] The people who run the schools are educators, there are no administrators or administration buildings filled with policy experts and support staff Teachers created the SUGGESTED national curriculum guidelines

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There are no mandated standardized tests excepting one end of year exam for seniors Every school gets the same amount of government money Teachers realize not every student will go to college and work toward also preparing them for other options (two-track system) Centralized education policy has failed to raise standards of excellence for almost a half-century (Sheffield) and doesnt address the fundamental problems in education today (Lindsey Burke) o Home school students have higher ACT scores (Cogan), GPAs and graduation rates in comparison with public school students. National standards present the risk of states accepting a middle-of-the-road, lowest common denominator education standard. (Marshall) Implementation of national education standards cedes even greater control to Washington and weakens the decision-making power of those closest to students. (Sheffield) Arne Duncan is pushing states to embrace a blueprint that isnt the law of the land and that hasnt been adopted by a single house of Congress even during the time Democrats enjoyed two years of unified control. (Hess) National Council of Teachers of English believe CCSS publishers criteria to be a signal of usurpation of teacher judgment in ways that are alarming (Gewertz) Five different states are now attempting to repeal or limit their use of the CCSS (Gewertz): Minnesota, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Utah (Schencker) and Massachusetts (Minor)

Oklahoma should too.

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