I am a married mom of two boys and our family lives in Cheshire. One son is an 8th grader and the other is a high school senior.
The words "Common Core Standards" first really registered for me during a middle school PTA meeting in September 2013. The principal mentioned "Nationwide curriculum benchmarks – closely tied with federally-mandated... ‘Race to the Top’ through the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) tied to Common Core State Standards (CCSS)" It was all meaningless gobbledeegook to me but I figured it was just a new way to test the kids, since he also mentioned that there are "plans underway to move away from CMT standardization" (1) to meet the new standards, but that no firm decisions had been made on a state level just yet.
Then a friend who homeschools started talking about Common Core on facebook. She referenced links that came through from a facebook page called "Stop Common Core in CT". So, being a parent who likes to stay educated about what my kids are being taught in school, I started reading through the tons of information on that page. It really is packed with tons of links about Common Core. Another active page is Learning Beyond 4 Walls. Well, one link led to another, to another, to another...
I wanted to share much of this information with my friends, but the problem was that most of it contains flat-out fear mongering, and lots and lots and lots of political bias. One use of small words like "liberal bias" in an otherwise awesome 30-minute presentation ruined that whole presentation. So if I shared one link my Republican friends were outraged, another link would cause my Democrat friends to be outraged, and another link caused one friend to say it was all just a lot of conspiracy theory.
So I decided it was time to compile information about the Common Core, and how it affects residents in Connecticut, without the rhetoric, to the best of my ability. This means that I am plowing through the blogs and following the links to their references, and finding the actual information to read and watch without opinions about it. It's not an easy job, and it's very time consuming, but it does need to be done. Because as I said to my homeschooling friend on facebook "People
fight against feeling manipulated, no matter how legitimate the message
or the cause. We have to stay calm and share the facts".
So here, to the best of my ability, are just the facts.
And my own experiences.