This is from the Alliance for Childhood. I hope you'll take actions they outline...
As many of you know, the Alliance for Childhood is gravely concerned
about the newly proposed “common core standards” for children in kindergarten
and the early grades. Hundreds of early childhood health and education
professionals have signed the Alliance’s joint
statement on the K-3 standards calling for their withdrawal. Now is
the time for each of you to take action on this critical issue.
After
months of drafting in secrecy, the final proposed version of the K-12 standards
was released by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of
Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) on March 10. Some aspects of this version
are better than the draft that was leaked to the press in January; some are
worse. But overall we are sure these standards will intensify an already
inappropriate emphasis on cognitive development of young children that is
divorced from social-emotional and physical development. Current practices are
already causing enormous stress in children’s lives. These new standards will
add to that.
The NGA and CCSSO have announced that the proposed
standards are “available for comment” until April 2, after which they will
revise the standards and issue the final version. Unfortunately, this is not a
true public comment process, such as would be required for an important piece of
legislation moving through Congress. Yet the federal government has announced
that billions of tax dollars—including “Race to the Top” and Title I education
funds—will be tied to states’ adopting these standards. We are deeply troubled
by this entire process.
The NGA and
CCSSO have set up an online survey to collect comments. The survey is rather
confusing. Here are the steps you need to take to ask that the early childhood
standards be withdrawn and reconsidered:
1.
Go to www.corestandards.org.
2.
Scroll to the
bottom of the home page and click on the link to the
questionnaire.
3.
At the “Section
2—Feedback” page, choose the third option, “English Language Arts and
Mathematics Standards.”
4.
The next page
asks you to “select the level of feedback you would like to give.” Choose the
second option, “General Feedback and Feedback on Specific
Sections.”
5.
On the “Specific
Feedback—English Language Arts” page, check the four boxes for K-5 (Reading,
Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language). This will enable you to select
“Remove or entirely rewrite” as your preference if you agree with our
position.
6.
On the “Specific
Feedback—Mathematics” page, check the four boxes for Kindergarten, Grade 1,
Grade 2, and Grade 3. This will enable you to select “Remove or entirely
rewrite.”
It is vital that
you submit comments and get friends and colleagues to do the same. It’s a small
window of time between now and April 2, but the biggest one Americans have had
yet to speak out about the need for strong, experiential, play-based approaches
to early education. Use the boxes for “additional comments” in the questionnaire
to inform policymakers about your own experiences and concerns about early
education.
See the Alliance web site, www.allianceforchildhood.org,
to read our statement on the standards, the comments of many of the signers, and
more details on how you can respond. Policymakers need to hear from us all,
especially parents and teachers. Their voices are rarely heard on educational
issues. It’s time to act.
With warm regards,
Joan Almon and Ed
Miller
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