Stotsky: Local School Districts Should Eliminate Common Core, Adopt Stronger Standards

Dr. Sandra Stotsky wrote an article at Breitbart that was blocked at Facebook for some strange reason.  I wanted to highlight it here.

She contends that local school boards need to take matters into their own hands and not depend on their states doing the right thing.  Below are the steps she believes boards should take:

Here are possible steps for local school boards to take, depending on what the legislature has passed:

1. Local school boards vote to eliminate Common Core’s standards in their school district. This is as far as Oklahoma needs to go.  In other states, parents and others may need to petition their local school boards to do this.

2.  Local school boards in other states then need to vote to adopt/develop new and stronger standards in ELA and math for their district. For this to happen, school boards must authorize their superintendent and teaching staff in ELA and math to use as working blueprints the old California or my (free) ELA standards (based on the former Massachusetts ELA standards) and a set of math standards chosen by their high school mathematics staff (they could come from Minnesota, California 1997, Indiana 2006, Massachusetts 2000). It is crucial to start with a non-Common Core blueprint or outline in order to prevent development of a version of Common Core (as in Indiana or Manchester, New Hampshire) called “the floor” or the “Common Core floor.” There is apt to be nothing above the floor to be taught. Even if there is, it won’t be tested.

3.  Local school boards then need to vote to direct their superintendent, all school administrators, and all teachers to adjust their K-12 curriculum to address the new standards. (New standards development and curriculum re-adjustment needs to be done in a matter of months, not years.)

4.  THEN, local school boards can refuse to administer any Common Core-aligned state tests on the grounds that they are incompatible with their locally adopted, approved, official standards and curriculum. No state or federal money can be legally withheld because there is NO statute in any state requiring local districts to take a test that is incompatible with locally adopted, approved, or official standards and curriculum. Local school boards can do whatever state law does not explicitly require or forbid.

If there is disagreement on the matter by a state commissioner or department of education, let the matter head to the State Supreme Court for hearings. Parents must argue for the right to have their own legally elected school board members and state legislators decide on policies for their local schools.

5. Plan B: The state legislature develops and passes a bill to eliminate the state board and department of education. The U.S. Department of Education then sends Congressionally appropriated Title I funds directly to local school districts.