What is it with the state of Florida? The Common Core State Standards Initiative is supported by several groups including by the National Governor's Association. The goal is to set standards for what a student should have mastered by the end of each school year grades K to 12 in language arts and math.
The American Institutes for Research has helped to design the tests to be used for evaluation. The nonprofit has been around in one form or another since WWII when one of the founders designed tests to identify potential combat pilots. I've looked at their website. Looks unoffensive to me.
Florida Representative Charles Van Zant, whose educational history includes a degree in architecture and a masters from a Southern Baptist seminary, has come to the conclusion that SOMEHOW the Common Core Curriculum and AIR's tests are targeting our kids with the goal of "turning them as gay as possible." There's a good section in the Wickipedia entry on the language and math standards. I wasn't aware that learning how to write a decent research paper (among other things) or factor linear equations had the potential to turn you "gay."
But there it is. He stands by his original statements made in March with a new update on Think Progress today . If you read his statement it's obvious he could use some remedial work in research and the writing of a paragraph that makes sense with facts to back it up. Yo, congressman. Those three R's are just exactly what that curriculum covers. Compared to the rest of the world our math skills suck. Listen to any newscast these days and chances are that if you love well spoken and written English you'll start bleeding from the ears and hit the off button with disgust. And you can't master all those other skills (I notice he didn't mention science) without a firm foundation in language and math.
I suspect he doesn't believe in Climate Change either. As the seas rise Florida will be the first to go. Along with most of the Gulf Coast. I wonder where his district is and how soon it will flood out?
1 comment:
common core sucks.
it doesn't turn you gay, it just takes a lot of good ideas about education and makes them the tools of the standardized test industry.
say goodbye to innovation and hello to more cookie-cutter factory-turned high stress assembly line schools.
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