Make you Voice heard about Common Core In Florida at Florida Standards Review
The hearings in Florida to get public input on the Florida Education Standards and particularly common core are over. Only time will tell is the hearings did any good. Many in the stop common core movement are not hopeful.
In spite of an order by Governor Rick Scott requiring public input, Pam Stewart, the new Commissioner for the FDOE, admitted before the hearings even started that “While the Department of Education plans to hold community town hall meetings to hear from the public about the pros and cons of the new Common Core State Standards, she expects little changes in the curriculum as a result” Ocala Star Banner.
However, there may be a way to have our voices heard. The Florida Department of Education Standards website has a comment page at flstandards.org. This forum was reproted to have received
5,000 comments by the Sunshine State News on October 16th . It is importent that we put our comments in before October 31st. Do not worry about not being qulaifed to add commets, the Florida common core standards are so flawed that simple common sense is all you need to prompt a comment. Fortunately we happen to have some guidance from two of the country’s top experts on standards, Sandra Stotsky for the ELA and Ze’ev Wurman for the Math. A brief statement of their credentials is also in the Sunshine State News article. While they were helping with the hearings they were kind enough to go over Florida’s standards and supply their opinion on many of them. The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, who published the excellent Common Core Analysis, has tow PDF files, Comments on the Florida Common Core English Language Arts Standards by Sandra Stotsky andComments on the Florida Common Core Mathematics Standards by Ze’ev Wurman, available for our consideration. Not all tha comments are included are included but they are in the same order and related text as the website. This is only my opinion, but if your comments are to be taken seriously they need to be cogent, thoughtful and related to the specific standad that is being commented upon. Feel free to comment on standarrs that were not addressed in by the two experts.
While Pam Stewart may ignore what the public said at the hearings, we may be able to still have an in impact. If thousands of comments are made to the forum, it will be noticed, maybe not by the Board of Education, but by elected officials, many of whom who are up for reelection in 2014. Is getting attention now, and common core is shaping op to be one of the pivotal issues in 2014. Will make it an issue, as will parents and teachers when common core is fully implemented a few months before the election.
It is important for our children that we take every opportunity to save our kids from this debacle that is common core. If we do not take a leadership role in our own children’s and grandchildren’s education we may discover one day that we have lost them forever.
