Nevadans Against Common Core (Nevada Academic Content Standards)
The problems with common core English language arts
Common Core has already failed in Massachusetts
After three years of Common Core the state with the highest standards and test scores in the country Massachusetts here's what's happening, COMMON CORE IS DESTROYING THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. From the article,
"On the 2013 NAEP, Massachusetts’ five-point decline in fourth-grade reading was the largest in the country."
If CC is bringing the reading scores down of the highest achieving state in the nation, why don't we drop CC and use Massachusett's standards.
Dr. Sandra Stotsky - Endowed Chair in Teacher Quality at the University of Arkansas’s Department of Education Reform and Chair of the Sadlier Mathematics Advisory Board. Stotsky has abundant experience in developing and reviewing ELA standards. As senior associate commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Education, she helped revise pre–K-12 standards, which have proven to become among the highest in the country. She also served on the 2009 steering committee for NAEP reading and on the 2006 National Math Advisory Panel. Dr. Stotsky was on the Validation Committee; she would not sign off on the English language arts standards. Her reasons include:
a) MEDIOCRE QUALITY OF CC READING STANDARDS, ESPECIALLY IN GRADES 6-12
b) NON-TRANSPARENT PROCESS THAT WAS USED TO DEVELOP CC STANDARDS
c) THE NON-TRANSPARENT PROCESS NOW BEING USED TO DEVELOP A NATIONAL CURRICULUM AND NATIONAL TESTS.
Dr. Stotsky
Dr. Stotsky: “Just count… the writing and reading standards in CC at every grade. This imbalance is the reverse of what a century of research indicates as the basis for the development of reading and writing skills. The foundation for good writing is good reading.”
Dr. Stotsky wrote this article titled, MORE THAN ONE FATAL FLAW IN CC'S ELA STANDARDS. Stotsky writes, "There isn’t just one fatal flaw in Common Core’s English language arts standards: its arbitrary division of reading standards into two groups: 10 standards for 'informational' text and 9 for 'literature' at all grade levels from K to 12. Based on these numbers, school administrators have told English teachers to reduce literary study to less than 50% of reading instructional time. And their interpretation of this 50/50 division in ELA reading standards has not been contradicted by the chief architect of Common Core’s literature standards, now head of the College Board, who has managed to confuse everyone by insisting that literature remains the focus of the English class. A second flaw is Common Core’s writing standards. They are an intellectual impossibility for the average middle grade student. Nor are they linked to reading standards that would require students to read models of what they were being asked to compose."
DR. LOUSIA MOATS is a nationally-renowned teacher, psychologist, researcher, and author.
Dr. Moats was one of the contributing writers of Common Core.
Dr. Moats wrote:
By 11th and 12th grade only 30% of the reading will be literary, the other 70% is to be informational. Much of the 70% is political. Huffington Post Article titled - COMMON CORE NONFICTION READING STANDARDS MARK THE END OF LITERATURE, ENGLISH TEACHERS SAY.
CC does not mandate teaching of cursive handwriting. THIS ARTICLE written by Jamie Menard M.A. Reading and Reading Specialist is titled, How Does Cursive Fit Into The Common Core State Standards, in Reading Horizons states: "Researchers state that learning to write in cursive improves student's motor and visual skills. They express that practicing cursive handwriting improves and develops dexterity in our hands and fingers. These are the same skills that are required of a surgeon, dentist, computer technicians, and artist. It also improves our hand-eye coordination and the connection between our hand and brain. Even more impressive is the fact that learning to write in cursive positively affects brain development."
An article in Psychology Today titled, WHAT LEARNING CURSIVE DOES FOR YOUR BRAIN.
Will CC be the end of handwriting?
There are other issues with CC English language arts discussed in this article titled, THE BEST EXLANATION OF WHY COMMON CORE ELA STANDARDS ARE RUBBISH, he best explanation of why Common Core ELA standards are rubbish, The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, is on the SUGGESTED READING LIST FOR CC GRADES 11 AND 12 (PAGE 11).
WARNING GRAPHIC Page 162-163 "A bolt of desire ran down his genitals . . . . and softening the lips of his anus. . . . He wanted to fuck her—tenderly. But the tenderness would not hold. The tightness of her vagina was more than he could bear. His soul seemed to slip down his guts and fly out into her, and the gigantic thrust he made into her then provoked the only sound she made. Removing himself from her was so painful to him he cut it short and snatched his genitals out of the dry harbor of her vagina. She appeared to have fainted.” For more quotes from the book CLICK HERE. If you find these quotes offensive imagine how some of the 16 year olds forced to read this book will feel. On top of the borderline pornography the book is written at a 7TH GRADE READING LEVEL.
I wonder what classic this book will replace in CC classrooms.
ARIZONA SCHOOL DISTRICT PULLS COMMON CORE APROVED SEXUALLY CHARGED NOVEL FROM CLASSROOMS.
NY high school lesson, "THINK LIKE A NAZI...ARGUE WHY JEWS ARE EVIL." Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard, "said the exercise reflects the type of writing expected of students under the new Common Core curriculum."
Fox News article titled, FOURTH GRADERS TAUGHT ABOUT 'PIMPS' AND 'MOBSTAZ' IN LOUISIANA. "Superintendent Jerome Puyau told Fox News the “'po-pimp' assignment was aligned to a fourth grade English Language Arts standard for Common Core." For many more inappropriate Common Core lessons CLICK HERE.
The standards were created in private, by a few people and are not tied to any research.