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Sandra Stotsky

Education
September 15, 2014

Doubling Down on Doublespeak

This past week, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by William Bennett, author of The Book of Virtues and once chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, in which he defended Common Core as a conservative approach to school reform—allowing,...
American Citizenship, Education
September 2, 2014

Study: Common Core ELA Standards Will Further Harm U.S. History Instruction

Study Says Common Core ELA Standards Will Further Harm U.S. History Instruction States and schools should offer separate standards and classes for English and U.S. History rather than follow Common Core approach of merging academic disciplines BOSTON – By trying to include...
Education
July 17, 2014

What Wakefield, NH’s School Board Is Doing to Ensure a First-Rate Education for All Its Students

As state legislatures begin to pick up steam in their efforts to get rid of the Common Core octopus, with its many hidden tentacles reaching into the entire curriculum (under the guise of “literacy” standards), Common Core advocates have come up with...
Education
July 8, 2014

On Common Core, a Study in Contrasts

In a front-page article in June, the Washington Post featured corporate billionaire Bill Gates as a political sinner who deserves sainthood because his heart is in the right place.  He bought off every organization in the country and colluded with the U.S....
Education
July 2, 2014

7 Major Differences between No Child Left Behind and Common Core/Race to the Top

1. Focus of Accountability: Schools or Teachers Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), schools and school districts were held accountable based on student scores. Under Common Core/Race to the Top (CC/RttT), teachers are to be held accountable based on varying percentages of...
Education
June 24, 2014

How to Turn a Sow’s Ear into a Silk Purse

Gates, Duncan, Fordham et al misunderstood from the beginning who the strongest critics of Common Core would be.  Just because they successfully sold Common Core as a workforce development panacea to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce didn’t mean that mothers across the...
Education
May 28, 2014

Legislative Common Core Remedy No Panacea

The next phase of the Great Game to control the minds of the next generation of Americans has just begun. Oklahoma is the most recent state to try to eliminate the academic malignancies entailed by Common Core.  Many Oklahomans deserve credit for the bill...
Education
May 27, 2014

States Should Adopt Stand-Alone Teacher Licensure Test in Reading Linked to Common Core

States Should Adopt Stand-Alone Teacher Licensure Test in Reading Linked to Common Core Passing the test should be a requirement for all early education and elementary school teachers, most special education teachers BOSTON – States that have adopted the Common Core English...
Education
April 29, 2014

Study Finds Poetry Slighted in Common Core English Standards

Significant overall reduction in time spent on classic literary texts will make it difficult to give poetry the prominence it deserves BOSTON – April is National Poetry Month, but poetry is not well addressed in Common Core’s English language arts standards. It’s...
Education
April 8, 2014

What Reporters Think They Know about Common Core

The public is ill-served by reporters who are no longer skeptical of what they are told, can’t read a set of ELA or math standards for K-12, and do not try to find out what is actually happening in the classroom in...