Common Core State Standards (recently renamed PA Core Standards) is a costly, untested, educational experiment that was foisted on Pennsylvania’s schools without legislative approval. When full math and language arts implementation began in PA’s public schools in July of 2013, few educators, school administrators, school board members and legislators understood the particulars of this initiative that will fundamentally transform our educational system. Currently, even fewer parents and taxpayers understand the variety of motives for its formulation, its methodologies, its huge unfunded mandates, and its potential harmful effects on Pennsylvania’s educational system and economy.
Listed below are several questions that citizens should pose to their own district’s school board members and school administrators in order to gain a better understanding of the Common Core initiative and parental and student rights with regard to its mandates.
1. There are multiple indications that the federal government will wrest control of our educational system from local school boards and parents via the Common Core initiative.
Question: Is this likely to occur in our school district? If the answer is “No,” can you provide assurances and convincing reasons why this will not happen?
2. Beginning in 2017, the passage of three Keystones -- Algebra I, Biology, and Literature – will be a requirement for high school graduation in PA.
Question: What is the estimated cost to our district for the remediation and/or project- based assessments that must be provided to students who are unable to pass these Keystones?
3. Pennsylvania’s regulations describe: (1) an opportunity for students to opt out of the PSSA’s and the Keystones on religious grounds, and (2) the right of a Chief School Administrator to waive the Keystone graduation requirements on a case-by-case basis for “good cause.”
Question: Will our district fully explain the specifics of each of these options to parents?
RIGHT'S RIGHT 
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Mon Feb 10, 2014 9:04 am
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