We can all work together to STOP Common Core in Michigan.
In case you haven’t noticed, momentum is building to get Michigan out of Common Core. Ideas here offer you specific actions you can take to help.
Please pass the word! Share this email with anyone and everyone you know.
Citizens
– Share your concerns, your knowledge and these action items with everyone you know. Here is a current article that explains important problems with the standards beyond Federal intrusion.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/386911/common-cores-five-big-half-truths-frederick-m-hess
– Contact all candidates in your area up for election in November. Ask them to commit publicly to getting Michigan out of Common Core!! Let us know where they stand and we can post it!
– Contact the Michigan State Board of Education and tell them we want a State Superintendent who will get us out of Common Core, by any name, including standards, assessments and data!
http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-5373_34843—,00.html
– Sign up at https://stopcommoncoreinmichigan.com/ to keep up to date!
Parents
– Opt your children out of state assessments, data collection and onerous Common Core aligned assignments.
. See press release from Thomas Moore Law Center attachment for more information.
http://bit.ly/1vmas62 to access the form developed by Thomas Moore Law Center
– NEW THIS YEAR, Michigan will be testing and sorting KINDERGARTEN children!! Opt them out as fast as you can
– Withdraw your student from AP History. The same people who wrote the Common Core Standards rewrote AP History.
They almost totally eliminated George Washington and Martin Luther King. Check it out.
http://www.cwfa.org/resources-new-ap-anti-u-s-history-curriculum-framework/
Teachers
– Honor the parents who opt their children out, treat the request with respect.
– Consider the onerous impact on you as a professional. Speak out to your peers, leaders and unions.
– Consider opting out of administering state assessments aligned with Common Core.
Local School Board members & candidates
– Pass policies protecting the rights, dignity and learning of parents & students who choose to opt out of Common Core.
– Opt your whole school out of State Assessments aligned with Common Core.
– Leverage attached ideas from Dan Guernsey to mitigate the damaging impacts of Common Core on students in your district.
Yes, it is written from a Catholic School perspective, but the ideas are clearly not about religion!
Some people ask, if not Common Core, what would we do?
Oklahoma passed legislation to get them out of CC and mapped a plan forward that is excellent.
The education model Massachusetts had before CC was comprehensive and effective. We could look at adopting their materials, available to Michigan for free!
It is important we begin to move the conversation to what we SHOULD do, now that we are winning the argument about what we should not do.
Please send us ideas and keep the conversation going.
Attachments
THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER OPT Out Press Release