The Problem With Common Core

This is an opportunity for interested individuals to find out "what all the fuss is about" with regard to the growing resistance to Common Core State Standards that were recently adopted for public schools by most US states, including Idaho.

Hear about "The Problems With Common Core" directly from national education experts, who have been actively engaged with this initiative since its inception. Find out why a growing number of parents, grandparents, and educators are so very concerned about this latest version of education reform.

We've all heard the polished political talking points from the proponents of Common Core. Now we owe it to our children and grandchildren to get this information first hand in order to draw our own conclusions. Please join us for this important opportunity to learn about the concerns that are sweeping our nation.

OUR GUEST SPEAKERS (Doors open at 8:30am)

Jane Robbins is an attorney and a senior fellow with the American Principles Project in Washington, DC. In that position she has crafted federal and state legislation designed to restore the constitutional autonomy of states and parents in education policy, and to protect the rights of religious freedom and conscience. Her essays on these topics have been published in various print and online media. With Emmett McGroarty she co-authored the APP/Pioneer Institute report, Controlling Education From the Top: Why Common Core Is Bad for America. She has written numerous articles about the problems with Common Core and has testified about the issue before the legislatures of six states. She is a graduate of Clemson University and the Harvard Law School.

Sandra Stotsky was professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas and held the 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality. She retired in December 2012. She served as Senior Associate Commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from 1999-2003, where she was in charge of developing or revising all the state’s K-12 standards, teacher licensure tests, and teacher and administrator licensure regulations. She served on the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from 2006-2010, appointed by Governor Mitt Romney. She served on the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, from 2006-2008, appointed by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. Most recently she served on the Common Core Validation Committee, from 2009-2010. She was also editor of NCTE’s premier research journal, Research in the Teaching of English, from 1991 to 1997. She has published extensively in professional journals and written several books.

Ze’ev Wurman is a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution. From 2007 to 2009, Wurman served as a Senior Adviser at the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development in the U.S. Department of Education. Throughout the development of the Common Core standards in 2009-2010 he analyzed its mathematics draft standards for the Pioneer Institute and for the State of California. In the summer of 2010 he served on the California Academic Content Standards Commission that reviewed the adoption of Common Core for California. In the late 1990s Wurman participated in the development of California mathematics content standards and framework and served on the mathematics Content Review Panel for the California state test since its inception in 1999. Wurman has published professional and opinion articles about education and about the Common Core, among others, in Education Next, Education Week, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, and City Journal. In his non-educational life Wurman is an executive with Monolithic 3D, a Silicon Valley semiconductor start-up.

Michelle Malkin has agreed to bring to this conference a special video message for Idahoans who share the concerns of she and her husband about Common Core and the gigantic federal footprint that accompanies it. Don't miss her inspiring personal message!