Part One – Common Core Fact or Fiction?
Common Core is something that has been in the works for a long time but just crossed my radar about a year ago. I received a lengthy letter from a well-meaning homeschool mom asking if my curriculum was alligned or not.
Deer in the headlight time. I had no idea!
1. What is Common Core?
2. How does it affect my business, Media Angels? [So that I could answer this well meaning parent-run group leader against common core.]
3. And more importantly how does it impact my children and my rights as a homeschool parent?
This is a complex issue for those outside of the educational jargon. I was trained as an elementary education, specific learning disabilities and early childhood educator with a BA degree from a noted Christian college. However, in the world of education the ABC’s of jargon prevail and words like “standards,” “national norms” and “rubrics” while not bad in and of themselves take on a sinister hue when coupled with funding from private sources.
Let’s tackle the issues here:
1. What is common core?
First of all it is a FACT and something we need to be aware about and if you’ve never been mobilized politically here is your chance!
According to the website on Common Core the standards sound wonderful! They are “consistent – strong – and clear” they are “benchmarks for English, Language Arts and Math” no matter where the child goes to school and are created to make all kids equal in what the local state schools are teaching.
Who wouldn’t want clear strong and consistent guidelines in all states? Sounds good but we need to dig deeper.
For a good overview of the common core standards this movie demonstrates the crux of the issue, which I will share in upcoming posts visit this website – Common Core Movie
2. How does common core affect Media Angels?
My curriculum is focused on a Christian-Worldview and a literal six-day creation philosophy. I believe that God created the world as the book of Genesis clearly demonstrates. Therefore, my curriculum which is science based falls out of the scope of common core, however since it is unit studies it does touch on language arts – which again because of the Christian content would not be aligned. This hurts those of us who sell to Christian schools who have become common core aligned – they can no longer purchase our curriculum as it does not follow their benchmarks.
So, Media Angels(R), Inc. is not common core aligned.
3. What about my kids in the here and now – will they be impacted?
The good news is regard to number 3 that currently there is no impact on my family and my curriculum choices because we carefully select curriculum we know is not common core aligned. In fact many of us will be using – NO COMMON CORE HERE as advertising in our promotions for our products. Why is that? Because of who backs common core, moreso than what the standards indicate.
Listen to the audio with Meredith and Felice on curriculum selection here for more information about their thoughts on good curriculum which is an independent family choice and common core.
More coming soon.
What are your thoughts on common core?
I agree with you Felice it is a touchy subject. The big problem that I see is MO has accepted the common core and the schools are changing to them and I see that just in a few months or years that the homeschoolers will be forced to use common core or not be able to continue. Our curriculum that we use is not common core ready either but I see caution lights ahead. At this point we are asking God to lead us in the direction He wants us.
At first I though I didn’t have to worry about CC being a homeschooling family but I found out I was wrong. It’s a very touchy subject & one that I (along w/ my other admins) dread seeing posts about in our homeschool Facebook group because it seems to stir up drama from both sides.
Thanks for this post. I’ve been unsure where to start with the Common Core issue!
Thanks for the post. It’s so good to be truly informed as there is lots of info floating around out there about this.
I think this is where some ‘disconnect’ between “both sides” occurs: “Because .of who backs common core, moreso than what the standards indicate “. I have heard people say that we shouldn’t let “our principles stand in the way of the education of the children in this country”, but without standing fast for our principles how else should we live? Let others dictate how things are run ‘for the good of all’? I don’t think so! Sometimes things look good on the surface, but when we dig deeper we can see that it has a rotten center. Great post. Thanks!
I agree, Common Core is bad. I’ve been homeschooling for 25 yrs, and I still have 7 yrs to go. This is a very touchy subject, of which I am re-educating myself about.
I haven’t paid much attention to the Common Core issue. Thanks for addressing it.
Common Core will most certainly affect homeschoolers, at a minimum, as our children approach the high school years. As tests such as SAT, ACT, SATII, CLEP, etc are aligned to Rotten Common Core, we will have to equip our kids – particularly in their test-taking prep – to navigate their way through these “clear” (read, “obscure and ambiguous”) standards.