Common Core State Standards Development Work Group and Feedback Group Announced
Ohanian Comment: This, of course, comes as no surprise. We knew that Achieve, Inc. was on a path to take over curriculum for the whole country. You can keep track of their current iteration at http://www.corestandards.org.
You may look at this list of names, recognize someone's name whose work you admire, and feel a sense of relief.
That's a mistake. No good will come of this and we should fight it down to the last toenail.
I sit here with tears streaming down my face. I think this marks the end of public schools as we know them. And instead of protesting, our professional organizations are joining in.
There are too many references to Achieve on this site to list. In brief, with IBM CEO Lou Gerstner leading the way, Achieve was created in 1996 by the nation's governors and corporate leaders to tell schools what to do, namely, to put more "rigor" into the schools. Edward Rust, Jr. sits on the board. Rust is now or has been the co-chair of the Business Coalition for Excellence in Education, chair of the Business Roundtable Education Task Force, chair of National Alliance of Business, cochair Committee for Economic Development Subcommittee on Education Policy, member of board Achieve, member of board McGraw-Hill, member President-elect Bush's Transition Advisory Team Committee on Education, member board of Trustees American Enterprise Institute. This makes him very suited to an alliance with Achieve, Inc.
Here are Achieve, Inc. funders:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Boeing Company
Brookhill Foundation
Carnegie Corp. of New York
The GE Foundation
IBM Corp.
Intel Foundation
Lumina
Nationwide
Noyce Foundation
The Prudential Foundation
State Farm Insurance Companies
Washington Mutual Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
I've provided some of the connections between and among people working on the English Language Arts Standards and Achieve. Many of the math people's connections are identified in this press release.
News Release
Contact: Jodi Omear, 202-624-5346
Office of Communications
NGA Center, CCSSO Unveil New Web site; Outline Process to Develop Common English-language Arts and Mathematics Standards
WASHINGTON--The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) today announced the names of the experts serving on the Common Core State Standards Development Work Group and Feedback Group and provided more detailed information on the college and career ready standards development process. The college and career ready standards are expected to be ready for comment July 2009. The K-12 standards work is expected to be completed in December 2009. The two groups also unveiled a new Web site at www.corestandards.org. This Web site is designed to provide information as the process continues.
Forty-nine states and territories have joined the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The initiative is being jointly led by the NGA Center and CCSSO in partnership with Achieve, Inc, ACT and the College Board. It builds directly on recent efforts of leading organizations and states that have focused on developing college-and career-ready standards and ensures that these standards can be internationally benchmarked to top-performing countries around the world.
"This initiative is a significant and historic opportunity for states to collectively accelerate and drive education reform so that all children graduate from high school ready for college, work and success in the global economy," said Dane Linn of the NGA Center's Education Division. "These standards will be research and evidence-based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and work expectations and include rigorous content and skills."
It is time for us as states to challenge the education system and finally answer the question, "What will it take for every child to be successful?" stated Gene Wilhoit, executive director of CCSSO [former Kentucky state commissioner of education]. "Fewer, clearer, and higher standards will help us get there."
The Standards Development Work Group is currently engaged in determining and writing the college and career readiness standards in English-language arts and mathematics. This group is composed of content experts from Achieve, Inc., ACT, and the College Board. This group will be expanded later in the year to include additional experts to develop the standards for grades K-12 in English language arts and mathematics. Additionally, CCSSO and the NGA Center have selected an independent facilitator and an independent writer as well as resource advisors to support each content area work group throughout the standards development process. The Work Group's deliberations will be confidential throughout the process. States and national education organizations will have an opportunity to review and provide evidence-based feedback on the draft documents throughout the process.
The members of the mathematics Work Group are:
* Sara Clough, Director, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
* Phil Daro, Senior Fellow, America's Choice
* Susan K. Eddins, Educational Consultant, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (Retired)
* Kaye Forgione, Senior Associate and Team Leader for Mathematics, Achieve
* John Kraman, Associate Director, Research, Achieve
* Marci Ladd, Mathematics Consultant, The College Board & Senior Manager and Mathematics Content Lead, Academic Benchmarks
* William McCallum, University Distinguished Professor and Head, Department of Mathematics, The University of Arizona &Mathematics Consultant, Achieve
* Sherri Miller, Assistant Vice President, Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
* Robin O'Callaghan, Senior Director, Mathematics, Research and Development, The College Board
* Andrew Schwartz, Assessment Manager, Research and Development, The College Board
* Laura McGiffert Slover, Vice President, Content and Policy Research, Achieve
* Douglas Sovde, Senior Associate, Mathematics, Achieve
* Natasha Vasavada, Senior Director, Standards and Curriculum Alignment Services, Research and Development, The College Board
* Jason Zimba, Faculty Member, Physics, Mathematics, and the Center for the Advancement of Public Action, Bennington College and Cofounder, Student Achievement Partners
Members of the English-language Arts Work Group are:
* Sara Clough, Director, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
* David Coleman, Founder, Student Achievement Partners. Coleman is founder of Grow Network, a part of McGraw-Hill Education.
* Sally Hampton, Senior Fellow for Literacy, America's Choice [Director of Research on Curriculum and Instruction and English Language Arts for the National Center on Education and the Economy, creators of America's Choice.]
* Joel Harris, Director, English Language Arts Curriculum and Standards, Research and Development, The College Board
* Beth Hart, Senior Assessment Specialist, Research and Development, The College Board
* John Kraman, Associate Director, Research, Achieve [Technical advisor for Education Week on Diplomas Count 2009.
* Laura McGiffert Slover, Vice President, Content and Policy Research, Achieve
* Nina Metzner, Senior Test Development Associate--Language Arts, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
* Sherri Miller, Assistant Vice President, Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
* Sandy Murphy, Professor Emeritus, University of California-- Davis
* Jim Patterson, Senior Program Development Associate--Language Arts, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
* Sue Pimentel, Co-Founder, StandardsWork; English Language Arts Consultant, Achieve.
* Natasha Vasavada, Senior Director, Standards and Curriculum Alignment Services, Research and Development, The College Board
* Martha Vockley, Principal and Founder, VockleyLang, LLC
Also, as a step in the standards development process, the NGA Center and CCSSO are overseeing the work of a Feedback Group. The role of this Feedback Group is to provide information backed by research to inform the standards development process by offering expert input on draft documents. Final decisions regarding the common core standards document will be made by the Standards Development Work Group. The Feedback Group will play an advisory role, not a decision-making role in the process.[emphasis added]
Members of the mathematics Feedback Group are:
* George Andrews, The Pennsylvania State University, Evan Pugh Professor of Mathematics
* Hyman Bass, University of Michigan, Samuel Eilenberg Distinguished University Professor of Mathematics & Mathematics Education
* David Bressoud, Macalester College, DeWitt Wallace Professor of Mathematics & President, Mathematical Association of America
* John Dossey, Illinois State University, Distinguished University Professor of Mathematics Emeritus
* Scott Eddins, Tennessee Department of Education, Mathematics Coordinator & President, Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics (ASSM)
* Brian Gong, The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Executive Director
* Roger Howe, Yale University, Professor of Mathematics
* Henry S. Kepner, Jr., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Professor, Curriculum & Instruction and Mathematical Sciences
* Suzanne Lane, University of Pittsburgh, Professor in the Research Methodology Program, School of Education
* Robert Linn, University of Colorado, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, and Co-Director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST)
* Jim Milgram, Stanford University, Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus, Department of Mathematics
* Fabio Milner, School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Arizona State University, Director, Mathematics for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education
* Roxy Peck, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Associate Dean, College of Science and Mathematics and Professor of Statistics
* Nora Ramirez, TODOS: Mathematics for ALL, President
* William Schmidt, Michigan State University, College of Education, University Distinguished Professor
* Uri Treisman, University of Texas, Professor of Mathematics and Public Affairs & Executive Director, Charles A. Dana Center
* Vern Williams, Mathematics Teacher, HW Longfellow Middle School, Fairfax County, Virginia Public Schools
* W. Stephen Wilson, Johns Hopkins University, Professor of Mathematics
Members of the English-language Arts Feedback Group are:
* Peter Afflerbach, University of Maryland, Professor
* Arthur Applebee, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY) Distinguished Professor & Chair, Department of Educational Theory & Practice, School of Education [Reviewer, Achieve's American Diploma Project.]
* Mark Bauerlein, Emory University, Professor of English [Employed by Achieve as Writer/Reviewer for English and Communications Benchmarks, Grades 4 * 12; reviewer, Achieve's American Diploma Project.]
* Mary Bozik, University of Northern Iowa, Professor, Communication Studies
* Don Deshler, University of Kansas, Williamson Family Distinguished Professor of Special Education & Director, Center for Research on Learning
* Checker Finn, Fordham Institute Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University & President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute [The Thomas B, Fordham Foundation, which Finn heads, was, in 2002, with Achieve, the Education Trust, and the National Alliance of Business, co-sponsor of the American Diploma Project.]
* Brian Gong, The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Executive Director
* Carol Jago, University of California--Los Angeles, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) President-elect, California Reading and Literature Project [Employed by Achieve as Writer/Reviewer for English and Communications Benchmarks, Grades 4 & 12.]
* Jeanneine Jones, University of North Carolina--Charlotte, Professor
* Michael Kamil, Stanford University, Professor, School of Education
* Suzanne Lane, University of Pittsburgh, Professor in the Research Methodology Program, School of Education [College Board's Advisory Committee on Research.]
* Carol Lee, Northwestern University, Professor of Education and Social Policy [bio at Northwestern states "Lee is active in the school reform movement in Chicago Public Schools."]
* Robert Linn, University of Colorado, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, and Co-Director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST)
* Dolores Perin, Columbia University, Associate Professor of Psychology and Education
* Tim Shanahan, University of Illinois at Chicago, Professor, Urban Education
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a nonpartisan [sic], nationwide, nonprofit organization of public officials who head departments of elementary and secondary education in the states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Education Activity, and five U.S. extra-state jurisdictions. CCSSO provides leadership, advocacy, and technical assistance on major educational issues. The Council seeks member consensus on major educational issues and expresses their views to civic and professional organizations, federal agencies, Congress, and the public. www.ccsso.org
— Press Release
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices
2009-07-01
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/07/01/36standards.h28.html?tkn=XXXFjWPmAG3IjPKNq4xngSQDy8AcPPB3dNqr
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
