No More Common Core: Part 1 of 9Posted: 2015-02-09 2-7-15 (reprinted with permission from Gilbert Watch) Several bills are beginning to make their way through the Arizona legislature’s first regular session of 2015. Some are designed to defeat and replace the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) also known as Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards (ACCRS). This series of nine articles has been written to inform you about why Common Core needs to be defeated and replaced. These articles only scratch the surface, because the tentacles go on forever. Tucson teacher and author Brad McQueen rightly calls it the “Common Core Leviathan.” Part 1 of 9 covers "How Arizona Got Tangled up In Common Core" and "Race to the Top (RTTT) Money - Arizona State Board and ADE Flunk Basic Arithmetic." How Arizona Got Tangled up in Common CoreWith the stroke of a pen on January 5, 2010, five months before the Common Core Standards were written, two people handed control of Arizona's K-12 public education standards to entities outside Arizona. Those two people were former Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and former Governor Jan Brewer, when they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Council of Chief State School Officers and National Governors Association, promising to adopt the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Adopting those standards meant that Arizona would have to follow all the rules for implementation and testing, and pay for all of it. At the time, Arizona was vying for Phase 1 Race to the Top Money. See pages 61-63 for the MOU in the RTTT Phase 1 Appendices. Arizona didn't dare make any changes or deletions to the national standards. That was because the tests were not under Arizona's control either. The common assessments would be developed by two national consortia to test the CCSS as written. “You cannot change one word of the Common Core standards,” says Tuttle. “You can only add 15 percent. That is different than in the past, where if a standard was problematic, we could change it. Now we can’t do that. Our standards are adopted verbatim. They are copyrighted. There are licensing and uses requirements as part of that adoption.’ “Colby says that’s not quite right — states can make subtractions and changes. But they do so at their own peril, as common assessments being developed by two national consortia test the Common Core as it’s written.” See Core Question: Does Copyright Mean States Can't Change The Common Core? The two national "consortia" were private companies Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and Smarter Balanced. See alsoIncompetent Pearson Wins PARCC Contract: Big Surprise. See also Rupert Murdoch Wins Contract to Develop Common Core Tests: Smarter Balanced. Back in 2012, Arizona State Board of Education President Jaime Molera announced that Arizona would abandon the state's standardized testing assessment, AIMS, for a new next generation K-12 assessment: PARCC. He described it as the "Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, a 24 state consortium working together to assess student’s readiness in reading and math. The assessments will be ready to be administered to all Arizona school students during the 2014-15 school year." See Arizona AIMS testing: PARCC to replace AIMS in 2014. In November 2014, the Arizona State Board of Education ditched PARCC in favor ofAZ Merit. How many bureaucrats does it take to figure out how to test students in reading and math? I suppose my answer, leave it to the teachers, isn't a viable option. In his article titled AZ Chooses its new Common Core Test, Six of One Half Dozen of the Other, Brad McQueen writes: "The Arizona Board of Education announced that it has awarded the contract to deliver its new Common Core test to AIR (American Institutes for Research) 'one of the world’s largest behavioral and social science research and evaluation organizations.' "There is nothing fresh about this AIR. Rather AIR is the same old stale Common Core company that has a contract with the Smarter Balanced testing group that, along with the PARCC testing group that Arizona used to be a part of, received over $350 million from the U.S. Department of Education to develop a Common Core test to assess the privately owned and secretly created federal Common Core standards. They do keep it all in the family of the cult of Common Core." The only standards that Arizona could control independently were the 15% additional standards they were allowed by the Common Core Standards Initiative. See State Adoption of the Common Core Standards: the 15% Rule. Arizona could also change the name, which Governor Brewer did in September 2013, to Arizona's College and Career Ready Standards (ACCRS). It was obviously not wise to delete or change the standards as written. See Some States Rebrand Controversial Common Core Education Standards. Also Common Core Name Changes, Standards Remain. On June 2, 2010, the National Governors Association released the CCSS. On June 28, 2010, the Arizona State Board of Education formally adopted the Common Core State Standards. On July 26, 2010: Arizona State Board of Education President Dr. Vicki Ballentine assured the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Race to the Top Committee that Arizona had formally adopted CCSS on June 28, 2010. Please note that Dr. Ballentine highlightsARS 15-701. A. 1., which gives the State Board complete, total authority to adopt academic standards of their choosing, without any oversight from anybody. Race to the Top (RTTT) Money - Arizona State Board and ADEFlunk Basic ArithmeticIn February 2009, at President Obama’s urging, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). About $800 billion was to be spent to “stimulate the economy.” In July 2009, the Obama Administration announced that some of this money would be available to “advance school reform.” This was a competition for Race to the Top (RTTT) funds. The MOU signed by Brewer and Horne in January 2010 was required as part ofArizona's application for Phase 1 federal RTTT money. The U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) declined Arizona’s request, but encouraged them to try again. So, on March 28, 2010, Arizona applied for Phase 2 funding, but were again declined. Finally, the U.S. Dept. of Education awarded Arizona $25 million per Arizona's Dec. 13, 2011 application for Phase 3 RTTT funds. No one at the Arizona State Board asked: "That's nice that we got $25 million to adopt the CCSS. What will it cost to implement them"? Even though the Arizona State Legislature had no say in the decision to adopt the CCSS, they would end up with both the costs and the bad press. The Arizona taxpayers had no say in the decision to adopt CCSS either, but ultimately, the bill will be presented to them. On October 18, 2013, at the request of Rep. Bob Thorpe (LD6), Steve Schimpp, staff member of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) provided him with estimates from both the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) and the Arizona Association of School Business Officials (AASBO). Schimpp states in his email: "ADE estimates that it would cost $131 million over 2 years (FY14 and FY15) to implement Common Core, not including related costs for additional Internet access and computers needed for testing. See ADE Common Core Implementation Estimate "Corresponding AASBO estimates, are $157 million for instruction-related costs plus $230 million for additional Internet access and computers ($387 million total). See Schools Prepare to Implement Common Core Without new Funding. So, Arizona received $25 million to adopt CCSS, but it's going to cost Arizona $387 million to implement CCSS. Some believe that these estimates are too low. Everything that the State Board, former Superintendent Horne, and former Gov. Brewer did was completely within Arizona law. That's because, according to ARS 15-701, the State Board has complete, total, legal authority, without any oversight, and without informing the citizens of Arizona, to adopt academic standards for all the "common schools" in Arizona. Please email and call your Arizona senators and representatives to change it. ClickHERE to find your senator's contact information. Click HERE to find your representatives' contact information. Sources:How Arizona Got Tangled up in Common CorePhase 1 Race to the Top Application The Memorandum of Understanding signed by Tom Horne and Jan Brewer can be found on pages 61-63 in the RTTT Phase 1 Appendices. Core Question: Does Copyright Mean States Can't Change The Common Core? Incompetent Pearson Wins PARCC Contract: Big Surprise Rupert Murdoch Wins Contract to Develop Common Core Tests: Smarter Balanced Arizona AIMS testing: PARCC to replace AIMS in 2014 AZ Chooses its new Common Core Test, Six of One Half Dozen of the Other State Adoption of the Common Core Standards: the 15% Rule Some States Rebrand Controversial Common Core Education Standards Common Core Name Changes, Standards Remain. National Governors Association released the CCSS. Arizona State Board of Education formally adopted the Common Core State Standards. Race to the Top (RTTT) Money - Arizona State Board and ADEFlunk Basic ArithmeticAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) President Obama, Secretary Duncan Announce Race to the Top Arizona's application for Phase 1 federal RTTT money Arizona applied for Phase 2 funding Arizona's Dec. 13, 2011 application for Phase 3 RTTT funds
http://www.gilbertwatch.com/index.cfm/blog/no-more-common-core-part-1-of-9/
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