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Community Corner

Common Core: The Next Education Reform (Hosted by Cornerstone Action)

New Hampshire schools are beginning to follow another education reform called Common Core.  

A few years ago, the New Hampshire Board of Education voted to adopt Common Core Standards in Math and English/Language Arts.  Most people in the state did not realize this would fundamentally change their local schools.  

  1. What does this mean for New Hampshire students?  
  2. Does this impact private and home-schoolers?  
  3. What is this going to cost the local taxpayers?  
  4. Why are so many parents, teachers and legislators now opposing Common Core standards ?  
  5. What about all of the private and personal data schools will now be collecting on children without parental consent?
These are questions that many parents are beginning to ask.  

As the Education Liaison for Cornerstone Action in New Hampshire, I've done extensive research on this new reform effort and after years of research, many questions still remain unanswered.  

I've asked some of the leading experts around the country who have been vocalizing their opposition to come to New Hampshire and explain why Common Core is not a good education reform effort for New Hampshire schools.

I invite you to join us on Tuesday, September 17th at 7pm at St. Anselm's Institute of Politics.  These experts will discuss the many problems with Common Core in our local schools.  This is FREE and open to the public.

Listen to why Common Core has been criticized as a "national take over of public education".  Look at how the Federal Government is threatening to withhold funding if schools do not evaluate teachers based on standardized test scores.  The only two content experts (Dr. James Milgram and Dr. Sandra Stotsky) on the Common Core Validation Committee refused to sign off on the academic standards.

Dr. Milgram, Dr. Stotsky, and others have testified against adopting Common Core highlighting some of the problems as: 
1) The math Common Core standards put U.S. students "two years behind their peers in high achieving countries," 
2) By 11th and 12th grade the reading requirement in English/Lang. Arts classes is only 30% literature, and 70% non-fiction including political documents; the reading standards are mediocre especially in grades 6-12, cursive (handwriting) is eliminated. 

Please join the following experts to discuss Common Core:

Sandra Stotsky was professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas and held the 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality. She served on the Common Core Validation Committee, from 2009-2010. She was one of the five members of the Validation Committee who would not sign off on the standards as being validated.  

Jamie Gass is Pioneer Institute’s Director of the Center for School Reform. He has discussed and written about the problems with the Common Core national education standards, including their weaker academic quality, illegality, and significant costs.

Emmett McGroarty, Esq. is a Senior Fellow at the American Principles Project. He works to protect the natural rights of parents and to promote government policies that protect the innocence of children. Mr. McGroarty is one of the foremost experts on the details and effects of the Common Core Standards. 

Bill Evers
, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a member of the Institution’s Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, was the US assistant secretary of education for policy from 2007 to 2009. Evers has been a member of National Educational Research Policy and Priorities Board, a commissioner on the California State Academic Standards Commission.

Ann Marie Banfield
Education Liaison, Cornerstone Action
www.nhcornerstone.org
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