Jackson Jambalaya

I have a relative involved in the never ending process of testing and documenting things of zero value just so the feds can later decide how to work it all into a bar graph or some sort of metrics table that will have no value.

The only value of any of it is to justify, somehow, the existence of the people at the top who need things to look at and conjectures to assimilate.

Other than meaningless statements regarding the hoped-for value of this crap, what is there to possibly justify the staff, the expenditures and the waste of children's time?

Bobby Jindal just had the good sense to veto a bill that would allow a federally issued ID that would replace all forms of state ID issuance and control. I'm glad Bryant had the common sense to see this as nothing but more federal takeover.

But, the two people you quote in the lead story here need new office equipment, more money to waste and more opportunity to pass out pork in order to increase their PERS retirement.

No Child Left Behind

If you want to discuss paperwork nightmares and teaching to test rather than learn, there's your poster

And speaking of the State Supt of Education, how in hell did we wind up with this final candidate anyway? She had sent her resume out in application for some seven to ten other state superintendents in other states. Obviously she only is interested in increasing her income in her final several years at the trough. And we all know what the high four years mean.

History teaches us that anytime the federal government gets a toe hold in our schools the costs go up and the quality of education goes down.There is not one word in the constitution that says that the federal government has any duty or right to interfere in the education of our children. The upper levels of school administrators are prostituting themselves for federal bribe money.

Common core is different. Mind boggling at best, but I'm pretty sure that's the point of the program. After all, the point of an education is to learn how to think, not what to think. If you want your child to regurgitate useless facts, by all means repeal it, however, if you want your child to learn deductive reasoning and logic that goes hand in hand with a classical education, I say give it a chance.

Implementing any new system with no method to evaluate it (beta testing or otherwise) is planning to fail . Common core as a larger standard shows why larger organizations can't compete. They are not nimble and cannot adapt quickly as is so often needed. New York implemented testing of common core last year with some districts experiencing 30% PASS rates. They are now delaying testing for 2-3 years, but are STILL teaching the curricula. Georgia is also moving to delay testing but is still teaching it. Madness.....

Common Core teaches children 'how to think'? That's a new spin on this madness.

A questionnaire being sent home to parents asking them to identify themselves as liberal or conservative - Help me understand what that teaches a child.

Common Core standards were developed by a consortium of states and funded by corporations, not the federal government, although incentives were created in connection with grant monies, ones that states can always refuse to accept, a la Medicaid expansion monies. So, going on about Uncle Sam forcing this on the states and this being a federal program, etc., is ignorant.

Teaching children how to think for themselves is important. You are teaching them how to weigh and evaluate facts and problem solve rather than simply memorize and regurgitate.

Do you want instead to teach them what to think so they are no more than robots ?

Do you want them to be followers rather than have the skills to be leaders?

Do you want them to be prey for every con artist and charlatan?

We are behind because being able to think is necessary for invention.

Indeed, those who want to use Common Core to frighten you , I suspect like very much that you will believe any political garbage fed to you without questioning it's validity!

Considering that MS is late to the Common Core game, in which states has it been measurably successful?

Unfortunately , too many parents don't believe in science and math. If they speak or write English, they mangle it. They don't see any value in the arts. Nor do they see the point of learning about ancient civilizations.
Too many certainly don't want to have their children read , oh Marx or the Koran, as they don't understand the value in knowing your enemy.
And, sadly, far too many parents are afraid for their children to be more educated than they are.

And, I've seen too many parents force their children to turn down scholarships to MIT and Ivy League schools and take the scholarships to schools in state instead. They want to keep their children " down on the farm" .

10:43 You nailed it. Critical thinking is to criticize your parent or lifestyle. The old axiom "don't speak unless you're spoken to" comes to mind. Then the child meanders through life, and passes it on to another generation. Go to the local community college so you can do your chores. You're not mature enough to leave home, until I'm ready for you to. Lot's of play goes into your statement.

"The state is still in the implementation phase, and to remove the standards now would be disheartening to the district and school leaders and teachers who have invested time and resources in this effort."
“Ultimately, our students are at the heart of everything we do..."
Dr. Carey Wright

We all want our students to learn to think critically. Critical thinking is built upon firm foundations. Firm foundations are formed from basic education. The wedge Common Core is driving between the parents and the students is unacceptable. The only reason acceptable to me for a mentally sound student to consistently fail to learn the basics is lack of discipline in the school and in the classroom (and on the bus). If students learn from kindergarten on that there will be consequences for not doing their work, then you will see them learn. No consequences; no work and no learning.

So, 3:44 a.m., that Common Core standards were developed in focus groups funded by (lodging and donuts) corporations, it's not a federal program? Nice try.

7:42 opines that "Children thinking for themselves is important". What's that got to do with this monstrous, life-sucking, federal albatros? It's also important that children obey the crossing guard, which is just as unrelated as your comment.

"Validity"? Where is the validity of an unproven social experiment? How can you speak of validity when nothing at all has been validated or remotely proven in this vast, bureaucratic cesspool?

@10:43....Parents are "forcing their children to turn down MIT scholarships...in order to stay down on the farm"? Name one.

What we have here, is a bunch of posts from state employees and would be contractors who have hitched their income and retirement wagons to a willy-nilly federal concept dreamed up by people like Arne Duncan who are in favor of the theory of student mind control and forcing meaningless mush into the cranial abyss of my child.

Next, we might discuss the desire of the federal Department of Education to inextricably attach such leeches to every family in America in order to suck out and tabulate information, thus giving the government one more card in the deck of socialism.

Common Core isn't so much about how the students learn but how the government (and by extension, private companies) collects data on a previously untapped market. Common Core is a data initiative and the sooner our elected leaders start asking questions about data collection the better.

Bill Gates does nothing unless it furthers his company's bottom line. Our kids are not a charity case for him, they are an income source.

Consider Common Core Math:

Add 26 + 17 by breaking apart numbers to make a ten.

Use a number that adds with the 6 in 26 to make a 10. Since 6 + 4 = 10, use 4.

Think: 17 = 4 + 13.

Add: 26 + 4 = 30.

Add: 30 + 13 = 43.

So, 26 + 17 = 43.

Send her yankee ass back where she came from and clean house of all the leaches at MS Dept of Ed - and throw a good number of legislators in for good measure - and might as well kick higher ed asses out the door too.

Regardless of the corruptive way Common Core has been brought forward, the name, itself, belies exactly why it's wrong.

In case one has not determined this for oneself. People are different from one another. They actually learn differently. Some can take tests, some can't but that doesn't make one smarter or more intelligent than another.

Some can apply what they learn, others are "book smart." Some are critical thinkers others are mimickers.

We force children to go to a school and have a teacher based on where they live. Instead of holding up high the schools and teachers that do well and where parents want to send their children, we provide "standards" so that the schools will become more equal.

That is the attitude that has pervaded our education system because it is indirectly being homogenized through the federal/state government.

This lady demonstrates exactly what's wrong with the Common Core proponents...they don't understand basic logic and reason. Her argument is that we have spent 4 years and still have not fully implemented this educational silver bullet...therefore we should continue to implement it so that we can find out if its a success. However, she was more than willing to dive into the Common Core deep end with zero evidence it would be successful. In fact, the overwhelming evidence is it does not work. The scale model for Common Core was the Annenberg Challenge which after ten years its final report stated that the model schools demonstrated no results worthy of replication and no appreciable improvement in academic results.