Citizens for Quality Education recently made a presentation during the April 22 Poway Unified School District Board meeting on the implementation of Common Core State Standards in schools (see Pomerado News article).
The concerns expressed by the group are of impact to all schools, not only those in the Poway area. So SD Rostra readers can better understand the issues associated with these standards, the citizens group has provided the text of its school board presentation.
This is the first part of the presentation, which will be published here as a series.
Guest Commentary
by Mary Baker, Jeannie Foulkrod and Steve Sarviel, Citizens for Quality Education
Common Core State Standards for Education
All Californians should be very aware of the new education standards that the State adopted under Governor Schwarzenegger for Math and English. This is supposed to be integrated by all districts by 2015, whether the districts have funding or not. Please read the series of articles taken from a recent Citizens for Quality Education presentation to the Poway Unified School District (PUSD) that address real concerns about the new standards.
Obviously, PUSD has its well publicized financial issues, but no one would disagree that the district has an excellent reputation statewide. It would not be beneficial to change a curriculum that is NOT broken, either for parents, business owners, homeowners or students in the district. Please do your own research and comment on the issues. This cuts across party lines as it is about education and privacy for our children and their families.
Poway Unified School District Board Meeting – Presentation on Common Core State Standards, Part 1
A few of us are here tonight representing a growing group of diverse socio-economic cross section of concerned voters and residents within the Poway Unified School District (or “PUSD”) including parents, educators and professionals. Thank you for taking your time to hear and carefully consider what we have to present this evening.
We all share with this Board a genuine concern for what is best for the children of this district and for our community. We would like the Board to consider these concerns and address them for us, for all parents and for the community at large.
No discussion involving PUSD can begin without first stating that Poway enjoys a well-deserved reputation for an exceptional educational system attracting parents from all over the county, the state and yes, even the rest of the country. Thank you for that.
There are multiple purposes for our presentation tonight. These include:
1) Establish a transparent dialog between the community and this Board regarding Common Core State Standards (or “CCSS”).
2) Make the Board aware of the community’s concerns and questions regarding the implementation of the standards.
3) Begin a coordinated effort of increasing awareness and stimulate the public to engage in the debate about the merits of CCSS.
4) And perhaps most importantly, obtain answers from this Board about their plans with regard to the standards.
Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is being promoted as a “state-led” effort but the truth is that CCSS was initiated by private interests in Washington, DC. With Department of Education 2009 Stimulus dollars, the creators of the standards, Achieve, Inc., enlisted two trade associations, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, to promote the standards to state governors and educators.
As the debate rages across the U.S. about the merits of CCSS, many educators and analysts are declaring that CCSS is not the ‘internationally benchmarked’ product that is being promoted.
Based on our research using credible sources, we have formed the opinion that CCSS, which is driving the PUSD curriculum, will decrease college readiness in Poway and will actually impede our students’ ability to succeed.
The added costs of CCSS are significant. It is likely that taxpayers will spend more for less.
Research has revealed that the National Assessment Consortium, SBAC, which was adopted by the state of CA, will be oriented to the standards. Additionally, we have learned that there are extensive student and family data tracking systems associated with this assessment.
All of this inquiry has led us to this evening’s presentation. We have many unanswered questions and we request input from you, our elected PUSD School Board.
Although there are many topics related to CCSS ultimately requiring our attention, for the purpose of clarity and brevity tonight, we have chosen to focus first, on the following three:
First, the financial costs of implementing the CCSS,
Second, data systems and their impact on student and parent privacy, and
Third, the unintended consequences of removing local control from our district and implementing untested, national content into the curriculum.
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Please continue to read the series on Rostra in the days ahead to understand the specific issues with Common Core Standards.