Arizona is set to rebrand Common Core again, time is running out

If you put lipstick on the Common Core pig, it is still a pig!

The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) and State Board of Education (SBE) are on the verge of rebranding the Common Core State Standards for the second time in three years. The latest 2016 draft of the English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics Standards shows very few changes.

Jennifer Reynolds, publisher of Arizonans Against Common Core, circulated an urgent communication Wednesday urging the public to speak out against the proposed 2016 standards.

Reynolds writes:

The ADE Working Groups were tasked to review and incorporate our public comments which have been ignored. Our pleas to take out the “prescriptive examples and developmentally inappropriate standards for ELA and Mathematics” have been brushed aside, and the ADE Working Groups proceeded with the 2nd rewrite with very little changes to the Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards (aka Common Core). If you put lipstick on the Common Core pig, it is still a pig!

When Governor Jan Brewer (R) used an executive order to rebrand Common Core in 2013, there was less public awareness regarding the standards. The growing awareness among the public has not effected change. Parents and teachers have watched Arizona become one of the top five worst states for teachers and school-system quality.

Reynolds has a message to everyone who wants Common Core repealed and local control of education restored:

We need your voices at the Arizona Standards Development Committee Meeting on December 14th.

December 14, 9am at the ADE building (1535 W. Jefferson, Phoenix, AZ 85007). If you have commented on the draft 2016 ELA and Math standards AND/OR if you are fed up with what is happening in your child’s classroom with the Common Core standards and testing please show up and let your voices be heard. Nothing will change in Arizona if the 2016 ELA and Mathematics standards are approved by the Arizona Standards Development Committee and the State Board of Education which will happen with a subsequent vote. Common Core will be here to stay if we don’t rise up and stop it! 

Can't attend the meeting?  HERE is a list of who to contact.

Read the rest of the article at Western Free Press