"The empirical evidence suggests that the Common Core will have little effect on American students' achievement." -- Brookings Institution.
"Common Core's standards not only present a serious threat to state and local education authority, but also put academic quality at risk." -- Heritage Foundation Issue Brief, by University of Arkansas Education Reform Professor Sandra Stotsky.
As another school year concludes, attentive classroom teachers, education-policy specialists and parents from across the political spectrum have expressed dissatisfaction, ranging to alarm, over the "Common Core State Standards Initiative" (CCSSI) being rushed into K-12 schools nationwide, including the San Ramon Valley schools our children attend.
CCSSI, the latest federal incursion into state and local direction of the educational process, is being insinuated via linkage to "No Child Left Behind" waivers and billions in "Race to the Top" grants, despite three federal laws prohibiting U.S. government control of curriculum.
Common Core is recognizably a top-down retread of the Orwellian scheme promoted by activist Marc Tucker's infamous 1992 "Dear Hillary" letter. Tucker wanted "to remold the entire American system" into "a seamless