This document provides links and information that will offer insights into some of the concerns parents,

educators, students and officials have about the Common Core State Standards and standardized testing. You will also find links to the pro Common Core and testing sites so that you may have both the pros and cons from both camps. Please keep in mind this is a limited amount of material and more information can be found by way of internet research, books, publications, state offices and your local school district. That said you should understand that you will likely get only the pro CC talking points from school administrators who are provided them through those same agencies, trade organizations, individuals, businesses and groups that you will hear about in the links below. Many states have already heavily invested in CC and testing (textbooks, teacher training, computers and tech upgrades) and to suggest that there is a problem at this point or to change direction would cost them a great deal of money. Those who pushed CC and new testing like PARCC (in Massachusetts our own Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester is Chair of the PARCC Governing Board) would not be looked upon in a very favorable light nor would those who stood by and let it happen if it was indeed found that Common Core and the associated testing was NOT good for our children, teachers and schools but put in place to create a big business/government controlled system to make workers and not lifelong learners and free thinkers, to nationalize curriculum and place it under federal control, to make money for the big testing companies and associated business like Microsoft, to control teachers and take away their freedom to teach, to collect data on American children and families and to push a political agenda. It should also be understood that in most cases local school district have little to no control over these issues and many teachers and administrators share some of the same concerns that parents do. However, if you are concerned all is not lost. Many school committees, teacher unions, administrators, law makers and parents are pushing back across the country. Many have pulled out of Common Core and the associated testing like PARCC, many have slowed down the process to take a second look and still others continue to fight every day. This will not have been the first time our nation had seen the errors of its ways and changed direction for the better. That is never a bad thing even if it comes at a financial cost as it is the individual and in this case our children who will benefit from the change.

Concerns about Common Core, Standardized Testing and PARCC Testing: Dr. Joseph Maruszczak Mendon-Upton Superintendent on High Stakes Testing: To be clear, I am all for higher, more rigorous standards in our public schools. I also believe that we must have a mechanism to assess how well our students are meeting these standards and how well our teachers are teaching to these standards. All of us must be held accountable for results. However, the reforms such as the PARCC as envisioned in the federal $4.3 billion Race to the Top (RTTT) program do not represent a reasonable approach to improving student achievement. Much like its precursor legislation, No Child Left Behind, there is far too much emphasis on the testing of children. This takes high-stakes testing to a new level. Think of the instructional time that is lost in order to administer these assessments!

http://mursd.blogspot.com/2013/11/walking-through-parcc.html Dr. Sandra Stotsky on Common Core: Former Senior Associate Commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Education, research associate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Research Scholar in the School of Education at Northeastern University among others titles past and present. The development of the standards violated almost every civic procedure that I have been familiar with in my life and I have been in the MA Dept. of Ed in charge of the public process for the development of our standards so I know what the public process is like from a Dept. of Education point of view. http://youtu.be/z0aLonR51Ac Dr. Megan Koschnick: Child clinical psychologist presents on how the Common Core Standards are developmentally inappropriate for young students http://youtu.be/vrQbJlmVJZo A mom speaks out and poses a math question to her school committee: http://youtu.be/wZEGijN_8R0 A student speaks about his concerns: These standards are designed for an industrial model for schools. http://youtu.be/PprP5TCZBRI More than 130 leading Catholic scholars have signed a letter to the U.S. bishops criticizing the Common Core State Standards for school curricula, warning that the core philosophy will undermine Catholic education. We believe that implementing Common Core would be a grave disservice to Catholic education in America, said the Oct. 16 letter, organized by Notre Dame Law School professor Gerard Bradley. http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholic-scholars-voice-concern-over-common-corecurriculum/

A TOP TEN LIST OF AMERICAN PROFESSORS WHO SPEAK OUT AGAINST COMMON CORE: Dr. Anthony Esolen of Providence College in Rhode Island, Dr. Thomas Newkirk of University of New Hampshire, Dr. Daniel Coupland of Hillsdale College, Dr. Christopher Tienken of Seton Hall University, Dr. James Milgram of Stanford University, Dr. Sandra Stotsky of University of Arkansas, Dr. Alan Manning of Brigham Young University, Dr. Bill Evers of Hoover Institute at Stanford University, Dr. Terrence Moore of Hillsdale College, Dr. William Mathis, of the University of Colorado http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/top-ten-professors-calling-out-commoncores-so-called-college-readiness/

Tiverton School Committee OKs resolution calling for delay in new state test:

In its resolution, the committee states that that local school committees, teachers and parents were not involved in the development of the Common Core, a set of education standards developed the National Governors Association and most of the nation's state school commissioners. http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20140129-tiverton-school-committeeoks-resolution-calling-for-delay-in-new-state-test-poll.ece

Why Pioneer Institute opposes Common Core: http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/columnists/ci_25016122/why-pioneer-institute-opposescommon-core

Loss of local control and good overview of how it started: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coRNJluF2O4&list=PLWqL2Og4ICdvllViIJu00MBc15yaXp2UH&featur e=share

What is Common Core: Quick overview http://youtu.be/6AdiCGgxj58

Myth vs Fact about Common Core: http://stopcommoncore.com/myths-versus-facts/

The Cost to Districts: We will see budgets going up this year so this will be important to understand. To be clear NOT Mendon-Uptons fault but a current and another unfunded mandate "Infrastructure and equipment upgrades will cost the district around $2.5 million" http://www.forestparkreview.com/News/Articles/10-22-2013/D209-tech--upgrade-to-cost-$2.5M/ "Testing costs have removed Georgia from the list of states that will administer PARCC" http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2013/07/23/costs-push-georgia-common-core-tests

"PARCC assessments are to be performed on computers. No district in the state has every one of its schools at the minimum 2:1 student to device ratio called for in the PARCC administration plan. Our current state average is approximately three students to each device." http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/07/18/florida-gop-lawmakers-urgebreak-with-common-core-testing-group/

Here is the links to the CC and PARCC pages. They will give you the pros in their opinion: Common Core Home Page: http://www.corestandards.org/ PARCC Online: http://parcconline.org/

Pages to follow if youre concerned: You can follow these pages if you are concerned about Common Core, high stakes testing and other education issues or to just stay informed. You will NOT get any of this from your local school district, most state leaders or the Dept. of Ed. To really understand the pros and cons of any issue you need to be exposed to both sides of the debate. If youre a teacher: Badass Teachers Association (They accept parents concerned with testing, common core and education related issues but their membership is mostly teachers. You get a good feel as a parent from TEACHERS who are dealing with CC and testing why we should be concerned.) https://www.facebook.com/groups/BadAssTeachers/

MA Parents Interested in Common Core: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MAParentsInterestedInCommonCore/

Parents and Educators Against Common Core: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PEACCS/

Mass Parents Opt Out of PARCC Pilot Testing: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mass-Parents-OptOut-of-PARCC-Pilot-Testing/168197043382200

What is Common Core: http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/tag/stop-common-core/

Stop Common Core: http://stopcommoncore.com/

Diane Ravitch Common Core Topics: http://dianeravitch.net/?s=Common+Core

Mercedes Schneider Education Blog: http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/category/common-core/

United Opt Out: How to opt out of high stakes testing with state by state guides and advice http://unitedoptout.com/