NATIONAL PTA PRESIDENT SUPPORTS COMMON CORE:
The National PTA President is supporting Common Core. Common Core is a set of standards and a curriculum (even though they say it isn't a curriculum) that is being foisted on states by the Federal Government. Unwise governors, many of them artless Republicans, bought into the Federal agenda before they understood what it was and accepted the program in their states. What's new? Fortunately for Texans, OUR governor, Rick Perry, saw what he was getting--a pig in a poke, and declined the whole mess. Republican governors of several states, once they realized what Common Core is (a Trojan horse), have or are trying to get their states out of it. Local superintendents tried to go around the governor, and hopefully they have not been successful. Instead, Texas educrats at Regional Centers, devised the CSCOPE curriculum which is much the same thing as Common Core, and researchers have found many similarities between the two. Thank Senator Dan Patrick for at least trying to stop CSCOPE in Texas.
The point is that Common Core is the first nationwide effort by the Feds to try to take over public education which is a States' Right. Obama is the one pushing Common Core with the help of such socialists as Bill Gates. Conservative Republicans (which is what most Katy citizens are) reject this effort if they realize what it is.
In the meantime with people such as this President of the National PTA pushing the Obama agenda, we're beginning to see it locally in Katy. Our community just elected two more PTA presidents to our school board. I have no idea if they are smart enough to know what they are doing or if they are just bimbos who are going along for the ride, but in any case, the situation is dire. In my opinion, they will be pre-disposed to the PTA agenda regardless of their level of understanding.
Read this piece from the PTA National President. If you know your stuff, one can see, in my opinion, that just about every sentence is not true. These people are very clever, and it's hard to oppose them. Just realize that these people with this socialist agenda have been at this for over a hundred years--intensively since 1970 and had put most of their agenda in place in our public schools by 2000. And yet, we are seeing NO improvement in our schools, decreases in academic ability, and a populace that cannot even think for itself. It's very sad to watch. And one can look around in Katy and see too many students getting GED's, turning to vocational education, finding themselves in jail, having to live at home with their parents because they have no real skills or academic education, and not fulfilling the hopes that their parents had when they moved their families to Katy ISD because of the phony, manufactured, deceitful reputation it has for "good" schools.
National PTA president: A parent's praise for Common Core
Published May 09, 2014
Proponents say Common Core will help establish national education standards, but critics believe it will mean the end of local control of education. (AP)
Picture this: you are a seventh grader whose father is in the military. You and your sister have gotten used to moving every couple of years, based on your father’s assignments. You do your best to fit in at a new school and make friends. But your parents wonder whether the school you left provided you with an education equal to your new one.
As a retired Army officer, I know what it’s like to have to research the quality and competitiveness of a state’s educational offerings. Now I serve as the president of National PTA (Parent-Teacher Association), and I can definitely say that lack of consistent educational standards and accountability are doing a disservice to our children.
I support the Common Core Standards. It has been very disappointing to read criticisms from Erick Erickson and a host of others who are reacting to parts of the program instead of looking at its entirety.
With Common Core, all parents can be assured that their children will receive similar excellence in their schools.
The fact is, experts from 48 states were involved in drafting the standards, which were also shaped by more than 11,000 public comments. The standards address only the core competencies of English and math and are in no way meant to encompass all of the subjects we expect schools to teach.
But I strongly disagree with his assessment of the Common Core based not just on my own research but from the feedback National PTA has gotten from millions of parents and teachers.
In fact, recent efforts by our association that reached 3 million parents electronically and included face-to-face conversations with 60,000 more parents indicate that 87 percent of those we spoke with support the Common Core.
National PTA represents millions of children in the United States and at Department of Defense schools abroad, and we are uniquely positioned to interact daily with hundreds of thousands and parents and educators. What we hear from both groups is overwhelming support for the Common Core because students are gaining a more substantive understanding of what they are studying.
There is consistency not just among school districts but throughout states – and students, parents and educators all have confidence that high academic standards extend beyond state borders. Finally, we can have assurance that a high school senior in North Carolina is receiving the same quality education as a senior in Colorado.
The most commonly repeated myth about Common Core is that the standards were developed in secret and forced onto the states. This is completely false. The federal government had no role in developing the standards. Forty-five states adopted the standards in a manner consistent with state laws, which are generally developed by state Boards of Education.
Last December, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development released the results of its 2012 worldwide testing of 15 year-old students in mathematics, science and reading literacy. The United States scored slightly above average in reading, average in science, and below average in math. This is clear proof that whatever “standards” were in place before Common Core were not working.
As a nation, we have very high expectations for our children. We expect that their grade-school and high-school educations will provide them a foundation for success in their lives.
We do our children a disservice not to couple those high expectations with meaningful assessment and accountability measures. The Common Core standards are not a curriculum – they are benchmarks that every state-developed curriculum must meet.
I recently heard from one of our members, a veteran first-grade teacher in Ohio who has taught under both the former method and Common Core.
Her experience with Common Core has been significantly better for her students. As she related, the Common Core standards do not force her to teach in a way that might not be beneficial for young learners. Instead, she has the flexibility to design lesson plans instead of being restricted to pre-planned lessons.
During February, her students wrote about significant African-American historical figures using narrative writing – a high-reaching goal for such young students but one in which their teacher said they excelled. In fact, this teacher said her students are writing better pieces now than they ever have due to the high standards and flexibility of the Common Core.
My children received an excellent education in all of the schools they attended. With Common Core, all parents can be assured that their children will receive similar excellence in their schools. The many critics of Common Core focus on myths that have no basis in reality. To paraphrase what we all learned in kindergarten, if you can’t speak the truth, then at least stop spreading misinformation.
Otha Thornton is president of National PTA and a member of the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education.