TRUTH ABOUT COMMON CORE
Welcome
Welcome to the Arizonans Against Common Core website. This site is dedicated to giving you the information you need about Common Core and what it means for you and your child, your wallet, and your freedom as a parent or an educator.
WHAT IS COMMON CORE?
Common Core, or the Common Core State Standards Initative (CCSSI), as it is known at the Arizona State and Federal level, is a set of national education standards that will fulfill the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, through a waiver system. (The NCLB Act was put into place by Congress in 2001 and signed into law by President George W. Bush).
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AZ adopted the CCSSI for English Language Arts and Math Standards in June 2010 and started implementing them across the state. To find out more details on Arizona's Implementation of Common Core, visit the "When did AZ Join?" webpage link. Governor Brewer renamed the Common Core Standards in our state in September 2013, to the "AZ College and Career Ready Standards" but former Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), John Huppenthal, has stated "nothing would change in the Arizona classroom" despite this name change.
Former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer |
Former SPI John Huppenthal |
Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) are not state standards in the first place, and are nothing more than further federalization of our state education systems. It has been the goal of federal education departments for decades to further control state education of our children through federal standards, federal testing mandates, data mining of our chidlren, and to take education out of the hands of the parents and put it to "the state," or away from the parents. This has been done at a rapid pace through "school-to-work" and "college readiness" programs. To read further on these programs visit our College Readiness link here.
"Educators have described Common Core as 'No Child Left Behind' (NCLB) on steriods! In layman's terms, the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) is a set of National K-12 standards developed primarily by a nonprofit called Achieve, Inc., in Washington, D.C. under the auspices of the National Governor's Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). These Common Core Standards were developed without state legislative authority." Go here for the Common Core "Quick Facts Sheet."
States were hooked into the Common Core movement with Race-to-the-Top (RTTT) grants (funded through Obama's 2009-2012 stimulus package the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act- ARRA) they applied for in 2009-2010, and with those applications, they were allowed to apply for "No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Waivers" if if they adopted "college and career ready" standards. Most of the states chose to adopt CCSSI verbatim! Subsequently, each state was allowed to add 15% to these federal standards under the "Common Core 15% Rule" only after they adopted these CCSSI standards verbatim. Read more on the "State Adoption of the Common Core: the Standards 15 Percent Rule" here.
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Department of Education (DOE) and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Logos |
For more details on "Who is Behind" the Common Core implementation in the States visit the "Common Core Federal Standards Initiative- How is it implemented in our 'States?'" flowchart and the "Who is Behind Common Core?" webpage.
2014 COMMON CORE FORUM
Common Core Panel- Bottom Row: Candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) Diane Douglas, Ze'ev Wurman, Dr. Sandra Stotsky, and Dr. James Milgram. Top Row: Jennifer Reynolds and Candidate for Governor Frank Riggs. |
Learn why we need to "Restore Local Control and Stop Common Core" in our state by watching the leading experts speak at our Common Core Forum held on August 2, 2014- Dr. Sandra Stotsky, Dr. James Milgram and Ze'ev Wurman- on our "Arizonans Against Common Core" YouTube channel
At the Common Core Forum, Dr. Stotsky and Dr. Milgram presented the "Flaws of the English Language Arts (ELA) Standards" and the "Flaws of the Math Standards," respectively. Ze'ev Wurman showed how these standards do not measure up to International Expectations and are not Internationally Benchmarked. The Common Core Standards will not prepare our students for a 4-yr university in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM); will not make our students better critical thinkers; Common Core lacks a strong literary base in English Language Arts (ELA); will make our students 2-years behind in Math and only prepare them up to Algebra II; the Common Core Assessments, PARCC and SBAC, violate student privacy laws (the Family Education Rights to Privacy Act- FERPA, for one example) with the student data collection and reporting to the "federal government and outside entities;" and Common Core implementation in our state will backrupt Arizona with this "heavy cost burden." Join me in contacting our legislators, Governor Ducey and Superintendent Diane Douglas in sending a clear message that Arizonans want "Local Control Over Standards and Assessments in our State, AND NO DATA MINING on our children!"
2013 COMMON CORE SENATE HEARING
Watch the Common Core Senate Hearing (Standards Symposium) that was held on 10/30/13. Dr. Sandra Stotsky, former Common Core Validation Committee Member (leading expert on Common Core); Jared Taylor, Heritage Academy Business Manager; Jonathan Butcher, from the Goldwater Institute; and John Huppenthal, former Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) speak on Common Core concerns in our state. Watch their testimonies and answers to your questions about Common Core.
"PETITION FOR REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES" WAS SUBMITTED TO ARIZONA STATE LEADERSHIP IN 2013 AND 2015.
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This "Petition for Redress" was signed by members of the community and it outlines that the State Board of Education (SBE) did not follow Arizona State Statute ARS15-203(A) when Common Core was adopted in our state on June 2010. No cost analysis was performed before adoption and very little public input was obtained. Did you hear about Common Core before the 2012-2013 school year when it was implemented state-wide? I bet the answer is NO! Signatures for this petition were completed on 6/30/13, and the petition was submitted to the current Governor Jan Brewer, Senate President Andy Biggs, House Majority Leader Andy Tobin, Attorney General Tom Horne and many of our local school districts. Our petition was ignored by our state leadership in 2013. Our new Governor, Doug Ducey, was given this "Petition of Redress" in our "Mommy Lobby" meeting with him on 4/28/15 to prove to him that there is huge opposition to "The Common Core System"= Common Core Standards + AzMERIT Assessment + Data Mining of our children in our state!
