Common Core – Page 2 – Granite Grok

Manchester School District: On the Verge of Adopting a Failed Common Core Math Program?

The good news is, Manchester is looking to provide a math program for their students. The bad news is, the programs chosen align with the failed Common Core standards that have been plaguing schools for almost a decade now. The Curriculum and Instruction Committee began looking at different math programs to adopt in the school … Read more

Are New Hampshire Students Now at a Disadvantage When they Take the SAT/ACT?

by Ann Marie Banfield

With the recent announcement by the College Board to include adversity scores to the SAT, parents around the country are wondering if their children should sit for the assessment. David Coleman, the mastermind of the failed Common Core standards currently serves as the College Board President. Since Coleman began his tenure, there have been numerous … Read more

Steve Kenda on Education, and the Heroin Epidemic

by Steve MacDonald

In part two of our conversation with Steve Kenda, State Senate Candidate District 24, we talk about Education, Common core, school choice, the heroin epidemic, and bureaucracies.

GrokTALK! – With Michelle Levell: Education Bills

by Steve MacDonald

Education advocate Michelle Levell explains two very important educations bill up for a vote this week. HB 323 would incorporate more testing and statewide control and allow common core to dig its claws further into New Hampshire. HB 323 must die. HB 603, on the other hand, would secure a parents right to opt out … Read more

GrokTALK! With Carly Fiorina

by Steve MacDonald

Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina joins us for a Q&A on Common Core, dealing with bureaucracies, spending and budgets, Congressional responsibility, health Care in the US, and what the GOP can do to win the Presidency.

GrokTALK! Guest Segment – Robin Eubanks, Author of Credentialed to Destroy

by Steve MacDonald

In segment Two we are joined by Robin Eubanks for an in-depth discussion on Common Core. Robin is a mom who took her research skills as an attorney to dig down to the root of the education crisis. She wrote a book called ‘Credentialed to Destroy‘, and maintains a blog to provide current and ongoing … Read more

CALL TO ACTION: SB48 passed the House Ed Committee.

by Steve MacDonald

From Ann Marie Banfield c/o Facebook

CALL TO ACTION:

SB48 passed the House Ed Committee.

The good news is that both the Democrats and Republicans had ISSUES with ASSESSING “Dispositions”. That word was removed with an amendment.

Unfortunately schools will be labeled “Priority” and “Focus” schools based upon the standardized assessment results.

This means that if your students do not perform well on the standardized assessment that is ALIGNED TO COMMON CORE, your school could end up identified as a “Priority or Focus” school.

Read more

May 18th GrokTALK! Guest Segment – Ann Marie Banfield

by Steve MacDonald

Ann Marie Banfield from Cornerstone Policy Research talks about Education and Common Core in the state of New Hampshire and the nations; what it is really all about, and what we need to know to stop it and why. Listen Here Download this segment here You can get links to other segments or listen to … Read more

This Week on GrokTALK!

by Steve MacDonald

Dr. Julianne Cooper returns to discuss ADHD and other coding of children, and we’ll discuss the drugs used to ‘dumb down’ our students. The Honorable Jenn Coffey will visit to talk about stand your ground in NH, knife rights, up coming blade shows in Atlanta and more. And Ann Marie Banfield from Cornerstone Policy Research … Read more

Common Core architect & advisor to the NH DOE: ELIMINATE LOCAL CONTROL

by Ann Marie Banfield

This is the plan to eliminate Local School Boards….just released today – by Marc Tucker at the Center for American Progress (THE Progressive think tank frequented by Clintonistas and Obama-ites which is totally in favor of “fundamentally transforming” America); the important part: …If Americans are going to decide which level of government we want to … Read more

URGENT! HELP STOP COMMON CORE

by Steve MacDonald

From Doris Hohensee c/o Facebook URGENT! HELP STOP COMMON CORE Manchester Board of Education meets at 7pm this evening (Monday, May 13th) at City Hall. NH DoE Chief of State and Director of Instruction, Heather Gage, will be making an emergency presentation to the school board on Common Core. Remember how it was inappropriate for … Read more

Common Core: Upcoming Presentation!

by Skip

“Ann Marie Banfield and Doris Hohensee promote the upcoming May 28th Manchester School Board meeting held in Manchester City Hall at 7 pm for people to get a better idea of what Common Core education is all about.” Common Core is the “new” educational standard that was funded by the Bill Gates Foundation and which … Read more

Notable Quote – Common Core

by Steve MacDonald

Common Core is just the secular-humanist-educational equivalent of Shari’a Law, implemented by controlling, secular-humanist, anti-religious socialist, personal-choice-bigots who insist we spend billions more every year because every child learns differently but then can’t seem to see the hypocrisy of wanting every state, county, and School district across the fruited plain to follow a one-size-fits-all nation-wide curriculum, implemented by statist fatwa, advanced through an organized campaign based on guilt and intimidation, … Read more

April 20th GrokTALK! Snippets – Segment Two: Seacoast Freedom Festival, Honor Your Oath, NHGOP and more…

by Steve MacDonald

With our apologies to Max Abramson who, unknown to us, was at the door but could not get in. We have no idea how that happened but we’ll get him back in soon. Sans Max, Skip and Steve promote the Seacoast Freedom Festival, talk about hot the media got last weeks honor your oath rally … Read more

April 20th GrokTALK! Snippets – Segment One: CNHT, Bombs, Drones, Liberty, Immigration…

by Steve MacDonald

Skip and Steve talk about…bombers, the honoring your oath ralley–and how the media keeps getting it wrong, getting kicked out of NH-GOP meetings, GrokDrones, Immigration, setting people up to fail, and a lot more… Note: Individual guest segements will be posted throughout the day today. You can hear the entire podcast here. Please support this … Read more

All New GrokTALK! April 20th, 2013

by Steve MacDonald

This week on GrokTALK! – Dr. Julianne Cooper visits to talk about a Liberal education, Common Core, Teenage brains, surviving 25 years in the White Tower, Learning 9 to 5, and how those ‘new’ progressive ideas you keep hearing about are not as new as you think. – We talk with Josh Youssef about HB … Read more

A List of 54 Anti Common Core Facebook Pages – By State

by Steve MacDonald

Laura Rambeau Lee from Right Reason.com has done us all a great service. She has compiled a list of all the anti-common core facebook pages by state. There are 54 links (so far), three in New Hampshire, so feel free to check a few of them out. And by all means, like these groups and … Read more

EDUCATION: Common Core (National Standards): Follow Them Or Expect Better?

by Ann Marie Banfield

As public schools in New Hampshire begin the process of aligning curriculum to the new Common Core (National) Standards, parents should take the time to know what this means for their children.

The National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) together formed the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) to develop a set of academic standards. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is a set of learning standards in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. These standards replaced existing state standards in these subject areas.

To be fair, the old New Hampshire state education standards were some of the poorest academic standards in the country. Unfortunately, under the new CCSS, we will not see much academic improvement, while at the same time we are embracing some truly troubling “reforms.”

Contrary to the claims of the CCSS public relations machine, experts have uncovered the following about Common Core:

The Common Core only allows States to make changes to the standards by a factor of up to 15 percent. Therefore, if a parent or state official identifies a problem with the CCS, to whom do they appeal? It is unclear who governs these standards, and it seems as though the people of New Hampshire now have to lobby the NGA and CCSSO in Washington, DC in order to make changes necessary to respond to the needs of New Hampshire children.

Common Core won’t improve education

by Ann Marie Banfield

This is a letter I wrote to the Nashua Telegraph. Their version was edited. Here is the original.
When President Obama touts “education reform” as one of his accomplishments, most people do not realize that he is referring to the new Common Core State Standards being implemented nationwide, including in New Hampshire.

Governor Lynch and the New Hampshire Board of Education brought this Trojan horse to our public schools.

Common Core was supposed to raise academic standards. However, they are not world class standards but a race to mediocrity.

Under Common Core, by the end of eighth grade students will be two years behind their international counterparts in math. High school graduates will achieve only a seventh-grade reading level.