APPLE-Flavored Lipstick . . .

On the Common Core Pig?

When government leaders want to implement a program that proves unpopular, sometimes the program is re-branded with cosmetic changes (like a name change), but the program is still basically the same.  Is that the case with the Common Core reform package entitled “Achieving Pupil Preparedness & Launching Excellence (APPLE) Plan?”

According to Assemblywoman Malliotakis' website:

The APPLE plan solution addresses critical issues in the areas of Curriculum, Teacher Support, Funding, Student Anxiety, Special Education and Data Collection and concludes with two reform options recommended by members of the Assembly Minority Conference. Proposed solutions within the APPLE Plan include: 

•  Stopping the rushed implementation of the Common Core State Standards; 
•  Providing funding for professional development; 
•  Eliminating the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA); 
•  Reducing the over-reliance on student testing; 
•  Reasserting that an IEP is the supreme document for the education of a child with special needs; and 
•  Requiring that parents must consent to any disclosure of student information to a third party. 

“We need to put the brakes on Common Core implementation. You only get one chance to educate a child,” said Borelli. “Thanks to Ed Ra and the rest of the minority conference, we finally have a good plan in place for the proper education of our children.”

While the Assembly Minority members should be commended for producing a plan (available here) that addresses the most controversial aspects of the Common Core rollout, THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS STILL REMAIN.  These are standards that many psychologists are calling developmentally inappropriate.

As I blogged in December, there is a real problem with the Common Core Standards themselves, with their emphasis on performance over knowledge.  I concluded:

"Critical thinking" is "wisdom" . . . which comes with age and cannot be taught.  Common Core teaches the mimicry of wisdom while withholding the substance of it: knowledge.  

If you care about the next generation and the well-being of the nation, you will fight implementation of Common Core.