NYCDOE Gag Order - Political Repression at the DOE - District Supt. Claims Teachers Who Discuss Opt Out Violate Law: Must See Michael Elliot Video

Is MORE UFT Presidential candidate Jia Lee violating state, city and DOE laws by talking opt out? Come and get her.

Michael Elliot made this brilliant 3 minute extract of the District 15 Town Hall Testing event we attended on December 9 with panelists Carol Burris, Kathy Cashin, Jennifer Jennings, Dist. 15 Supt Anita Skopp and a principal and Assistant principal - see my pre-report here.

Skop claimed it was against the law for teachers to share political views with parents or students, equating opt out with political views  - with former NY State principal of the year Carol Burris who has been talking opt out for years, sitting a few seats away.

• [See Carol's latest WAPO blog on The Cuomo Common Core report: hint, more hype than relief.
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/12/14/how-far-will-n-y-gov-cuomo-really-go-in-overhauling-common-core/]

One of our ace opt-out parents Janine Sopp pointed this out from the audience - how come Carol does it? Another parent called out  to say how can Skop equate a discussion with parents on the quality and impact of tests and pointing out they did have the option to opt out with endorsing political candidates, pointing out that was as much an educational issue as talking about homework. See Skop's lame response in Michael's video. (I have video of the entire event and will get off my ass and post unedited versions of each panel member -- Carol Burris is just dynamite and Cashin was pretty good too -- and made sure to give Change the Stakes' Fred Smith some recognition.)

Cashin did point out that Skop was part of a chain of command linked to Farina and de Blasio - so though the buck stops there, let's not let Skop off the hook with the "I was only following orders excuse" excuse which so many people under Joel Klein claim now.

And what will the UFT tell you about these outrageous claims to muzzle teachers?

Arthur Goldstein has a few words for them at NYC Educator:

You Can Fool Some of the People Some of the Time, but You Can't Fool Opt-Out NY

Even as UFT leadership breaks out the champagne over NY State's largely meaningless Common Core recommendations, Governor Cuomo ought to keep worrying. Because the fact is UFT leadership has played virtually no part in opt-out. They've delayed and prevented meaningful resolutions, and backed up reformy claims that aid would be withheld if not enough kids took tests that Cuomo himself called meaningless, except for rating teachers.

Arthur closes with the reason MORE chose the leading teacher voice for opt-out, Jia Lee, for its presidential candidate to run against Mulgrew.

We need to take a stand with the opt-out movement, a true grassroots movement fueled by truth, passion and a desire to do what's right for our children. If Michael Mulgrew and his loyalty-oath signing sycophants are unwilling or unable to do the right thing, they should move over and endorse opt-out activist Jia Lee for UFT President. 

If you are a teacher without a union to protect you, get on your knees and thank an opt out parent for defending you.

https://vimeo.com/148527338




Also see Alan Singer:

Opt-Out Campaign Must Continue

www.huffingtonpost.com

The parent and teacher campaign to have children opt-out of high-stakes Common Core aligned testing is remarkably successful.

Countering Arne Duncan Slander: Opt-Out movement grows into new communities in NYC

I may have a new career. I will be going to a PTA meeting at a Title I school in Brooklyn to rep CTS tomorrow. Parents at another Brooklyn Title I school asked CTS to send a rep this morning but I couldn't make it. The "only white middle class opt out" line is beginning to break.

I have been maintaining that it is only a matter of time before the opt-out color line is broken. Black and latino/a kids are even more messed up by high stakes tests. The middle class in those communities supposedly support tests. I think that may turn into a myth.

The hard work of parent-oriented groups like the state-wide NYSAPE and the NYC based Change the Stakes (CTS) is beginning to pay off. Arne Duncan slammed opt-outers as white suburbanites who didn't want their children to be subject to his test based mania - they see it as child abuse. While we have seen the opt-out movement strength in certain communities like Park Slope and Washington Heights, the organizing work of NYSAPE and CTS is beginning to reach into other parts of the city. CTS made a decision last year to do outreach into these communities.

• Spread the Word: GET YOUR NYC OPT OUT T SHIRTS

Parents from Title 1 schools have been in touch asking for us to send representatives to their PTA meetings to inform them of their rights to opt-out and to demolish some of the mis-truths and distortions some school and district administrators are telling them.

• New Voices Principal Frank Giordano Confuses Parents...

In fact I've been drafted to cover one of these schools and bring information to a PTA meeting because many of the CTS ladies are tied up this week (though now I think some parents from Park Slope are joining me).

If this grows deeper into those communities, that will be a sea change. Even some of my colleagues in MORE seem to buy into the line that opting out is a white, middle class thing.

The other day I heard Republican NYS Assemblyman Jim Tedisco on NPR making a presentation on testing and common core that could come from Susan Ohanian. I almost choked when he said "follow the money" and mentioned Gates and Pearson. And here is the story on the bill he proposed on March 16:

• Bill empowers parents to opt out of Common Core tests

Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, who turned out to be the top contender in the Assembly on the "Stop Common Core" ballot line in 2014, announced new legislation he is drafting: the Common Core Parental Refusal Act. This legislation would require school districts to notify parents about their right to opt-out of Common Core standardized tests for students in grades 3 through 8.

Where are the Democrats? With their pals in NYSUT and the UFT I guess.

Leonie Haimson has been busy as usual:

Bookstore in Oneonta NY: books for kids to read while opting out of the state tests.  NYSAPE suggested the list and supplied the sign.

A CTS parent sent this regarding administrator obstructions:

I am so steamed today b/c at our school's meeting for parents getting ready for tests, admin. would not share the DOE Parent Guide. There should be copies available for parents. Though I asked beforehand. Luckily I prepped another parent to tell the other parents b/c I could not make it. And, this is after we all marched together around the school on Thurs. But more parents than before have asked for info about opt out and the fifth grade parents might be ready to try now.

She includes this letter.

To the City Council:

As a parent in a public school for the past six years, and as a strong proponent of refusing state ELA and math tests, I ask that you require specific information about opting out of state tests, steps detailing how to do so, and an outline of
consequences, be shared with parents at the start of each year in the Parents' Bill of Rights.

The Parent Guide at http://schools.nyc.gov/Accountability/resources/testing/default.htm is difficult for parents and guardians to find and, to my knowledge, has not been widely shared. Families who want to make an informed decision about whether or not to allow their children to take the tests are unable to do so. At a time in which the DOE wants to engage parents more fully, and work together in partnership, every step should be taken to give us information that we are fully entitled to. It is every parent or guardian's right to determine what is best for their child, and not providing clear information to all parents, early in the school year, is unacceptable.

Schools ask permission to take our children's photos. to take them on field trips, and to participate in sports or dance classes. However, for the state tests, which have stakes that are higher than ever and cause tremendous disruption to the schools, the burden is upon parents and guardians to search for information in order to opt out or refuse.

Please pass this bill (Res. 577-2015), so that all parents have equal access to opt-out/refusal policies.

Add on: Opt-out is causing panic at the DOE

My sons teachers told me today I can't opt out for the state testing this year. They said the principal will require them to go to summer school and they will have to do a project. Is this true? Last year my son was able to opt out with no problem.

And then this:

I'm choosing to opt my son (8th Grade, NYC public school in Manhattan)out of the upcoming ELA exam.  I wrote a letter to his principal explaining my views and expressing my desire to opt him out.  Today I get a phone call from his school saying that due to new DOE policy, I need to have a meeting with the school administration to discuss the matter before they will exempt him.  Never heard of this policy, do you know if this is legal or legitimate?

#AFT14 Convention Video - Common Core Debate - Mulgrew is Going to Punch Someone in the Face

Has anyone speaking against the common core said they don't WANT standards? .... Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater? The baby is in the bath water... Pia Payne-Shannon, Minneapolis Teacher opposing common core in rousing speech at AFT convention

I extracted a 12 minute sliver from over an hour debate including the Mike Mulgrew "punch you in the face" line. Followed by Leroy Barr and new NYSUT President Karen Magee (see Randi's face as she qvells at her coup) - I didn't include all of Magee's - yada, yada, yada. I put in 2 speeches of a Chicago teacher and a rousing rebuttal from a Minneapolis teacher.

It was union leadership pushing common core vs classroom teachers opposing. I still have a load of great speeches, mostly from Chicago, which I'll put up tomorrow.

Rebecca Mead in New Yorker on Teachers Refusing to Give Test and on Louis C.K. Slam of Testing and Common Core

This week, teachers at International High School at Prospect Heights, which serves a population of recently arrived immigrants from non-English-speaking countries, announced that they would not administer an assessment required by the city. A pre-test in the fall “was a traumatic and demoralizing experience for students,” a statement issued by the teachers said. “Many students, after asking for help that teachers were not allowed to give, simply put their heads down for the duration. Some students even cried.” When a comedian points out the way in which the current priorities don’t add up, it earns even the attention of those who haven’t thought much about school since they graduated. But the brutal math of the New York City school system is no laughing matter.... Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker

Rebecca is an opt-out parent in Brooklyn and talks about our pals at the International School at Prospect Heights campus - see the video I made (Video and Press Release: NYC High School Teachers Refuse to Administer Test). 

The Louis C.K. story has been circulating for days, topped by his appearance on Letterman. I posted some of his tweets the other day - Even more Louis CK Tweets this time about CC and "Bill Hates"!!!

His kids go to public school in Manhattan. Here are some more links to stories.

Diane Ravitch: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/louis-ck-common-core_b_5250982.html

An ed deform Newsweek writer, who claims to be a former teacher - attacked Louis and used the same old tired excuses, even resorting to pulling same race card used by Arne Duncan -- that it is white middle class people protesting because they have nothing to lose while ed deform will save the poor children on the plantation.

Louis C.K.        ✔ @louisck 

@alexnazaryan the things you say about me are shallow and mean but you posed in front of some books for your pic & thus sound smart.

Ravitch does touch on this issue in one of her responses to Nazaryan.

Actually, we at Change the Stakes are beginning to see a real uptick in parents of color joining the opt-out movement. CTS has been going into these neighborhoods to provide info for people.

"LOUIS C.K. HAS FIGURED OUT WHY OUR KIDS ARE SAD"

"Their love of learning is dying. And the only way to fix it is to listen to them."
by Ben Collins
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/news/louis-ck-education

Gothamist--has embedded clip of Louis CK on Letterman. First two minutes of video

http://gothamist.com/2014/05/02/video_louis_ck_slams_common_core_te.php

Boing Boing piece by Cory Doctorow:

http://boingboing.net/2014/05/02/standardized-testing-and-schoo.html

Louis on ABC News. On Facebook: 1 minute video.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152184094139818&set=vb.214832449817&type=2&theater

 

May 1, 2014

Louis C.K. Against the Common Core

Posted by Rebecca Mead

On Thursday morning, thousands of children who attend public school in New York City will be sitting down for the second of three days of standardized math tests. Among them will be the offspring of Louis C.K., the comedian. Earlier this week, he took to social media to express his frustration at his daughter’s math homework, tweeting the questions she was required to solve to his more than three million followers. “My kids used to love math! Now it makes them cry,” he wrote.

Math looks different these days from when Louis C.K. and his contemporaries attended school, and many similarly aged parents have found themselves puzzled by the manner in which math concepts are being presented to this generation of learners as well as perplexed as to how to offer the most basic assistance when their children are struggling with homework. If you are over the age of twenty and not yourself a teacher, it is unlikely that you will have an intuitive facility with a “number line,” or know how to write a “number sentence,” or even understand what is meant by the omnipresent directive to “show your work.”
In several of his tweets, C.K. blasted the Common Core, the federally approved (but not nationally mandated) standards that most states, including New York, have adopted. Parental critiques of Common Core math problems have gone viral before. At the same time, defenders of the Common Core have argued that the standards themselves are not the problem so much as the poorly conceived or badly expressed curricula in which they are often embedded. This defense sounds reasonable enough, though parents whose children come home with worksheets presenting obscurely worded or illogically presented problems and bearing the words Common Core can hardly be blamed for conflating the two.

More:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/05/louis-ck-against-the-common-core.html  

Where is the Right Wing on the Charter Takeover of Local Education?

How interesting that the right opposes common core because they see it as mandates from the federal government but ignores parent trigger laws and the charter school movement, which are more invasive takeovers of local education control - by both government fiat (see NYState Cuomo backed charter give-away law removing mayoral authority to charge rent or deny space in public schools.)

On the surface, the right and tea partiers support movements that kill teacher unions by signing onto the phony "choice" concept. In reality, the charter movement removes choice from local communities that pay for and support their public school. An outside charter management organization like KIPP, by gaining political support from outside the community - say the governor or state legislature - can force a community to divert funds from its own schools to support an invading charter.

In essence, this boils down to the very same issue the right is complaining about when it comes to the common core.

Glenn Beck, where are you?

Common Bore Hysteria: Branding Common Core as Right Wing Conspiracy While Ignoring the Left

I have read the Times consistently my entire adult life and I do not recall a single instance in which two writers [Bill Keller, Paul Krugman] wrote essentially the same article two days in a row on the same subject... Raging Horse

Port Jefferson rally last Sat.

Our pal, Raging Horse (another great MORE member blogger) has followed up other great bloggers on the NY Times hysteria over defending CC (New York Times Editorials Reveal A Complete Ignorance of Common Core).

...two days after a sizable anti-Common Core rally in suburban Port Jefferson, Long Island, the venerable New York Times saw fit to publish not one but two editorials in two days, not merely praising the Common Core State Standards, but attempting to reduce almost all criticism of it to right wing nut jobs like Glenn Beck and the Tea Party. To make matters worse, the editorials were written by Times heavy hitters Bill Keller and, sadly, Paul Krugman. Both articles reveal Keller and Krugman to be completely ignorant of both the Common Core Standards themselves, their genesis, as well as to the ever widening and deepening political opposition to the entire billion-dollar Common Core campaign.

Boy that Port Jefferson rally is scaring the b-Jesus out of the

deformers, as it the general revolt on Long Island, including the Supe in Rockville Center (Carol Burris' turf). Deformers (Diane Ravitch's blog
A Hero Superintendent in Long Island Says: “To Hell with These Scores. They Do Not Matter” -) are using "Glenn Beck hysteria" to try to scare the left into jumping on board. And anti-common core Lawn Signs urging parent to opt-out? Holy shit! We - teachers and parents and anyone who gets what ed deform is all about -- need to play a role in making a massive opt-out movement happen. (Change the Stakes will be leading the way -- next meeting is Tues, 5:30.) If I were running the union I would print a million of these things and blanket the state.

But instead we get this: Mulgrew "Frightened" By Opposition To Common Core with this comment by RBE:

Why should a debate over Common Core frighten you, Mike? Oh, right - I remember now. You head the UFT, an organization which eschews debate, shuts down opposition within the ranks and otherwise works to quell anything and anybody that isn't AFT- and UFT-leadership approved. Well, get ready for a frightful year, Mikey. ... APPR and Common Core are your babies. You were, God help us all, in at the conception of both. 

(Can someone photoshop Randi and Mulgrew as parents giving birth to CC and APPR?)

If one tracks back opposition to the CC it is clear that the uprising came from the left, not the right, which came late to the issue. Witness Susan Ohanian's campaign from DAY 1 years ago. And Leonie Haimson. And I remember when in the initial stages Diane Ravitch took a neutral "wait and see" attitude to study the issue before moving firmly into the "left" wing of opponents.

Ed Notes too took an early stand against CC not because I did any studying or thinking deeply but because of the groups and individuals who were humping it: Duncan/Obama, Gates, Randi, Walcott -- you know when the union and Tweed push something with a heavy hand it is time to run.

(Sorry I don't have the time to find links to the above -- I need to spend time on my deck contemplating my backyard while watching things grow (or try to). Every individual plant needs some cheer leading. And we are also doing some Fringe Festival plays over the last few days.)

Back to business. Right wing states are pulling the plug on support for the CC while the left rallies parents to start opting out -- deny the beast as Karen Lewis told us in Chicago two weeks ago (video will be up this weekend.)

I did a mid-term summary of the bloggers on the issue when Krugman spoke: Jumping All Over Paul Krugman on Common Core

And NYC Educator jumps in with a 3rd NY Times columnist: Charles M. Blow Joins NY Times Common Core Lovefest.

It looks like, in the space of a week, three NY Times columnists have come out swinging in favor of the Common Core. The latest is Charles M. Blow, who I'd previously found thoughtful and worthwhile. His opening salvo informs us we are not keeping up with other countries, yet our lower test scores align precisely with our disgraceful higher poverty levels. 

Back to Raging Horse:

by insinuating that most opposition to the CCSS derives from the far right, the articles are simultaneously an insult to the hundreds of thousands of educators from coast to coast who distrust or even loathe the Common Core and all that it stands for — particularly the very real fear that intrinsically related high stakes testing combined with junk science testing will lead to their termination — as well as to leading education scholars and activists such as Diane Ravitch, Lois Wiener, Gary Rubinstein, Leonie Haimson, Arthur Goldstein, Carol Burris, Anthony Cody, and Susan O’Hanian, to name but a few. Both Keller and Krugman seem oblivious to them all.

For his sake, I hope Krugman, always the most prescient and intrepid of the Times scribes, was drunk when he wrote it so that he might be excused for employing such extravagant or even silly language such as “ entirely praiseworthy” to describe a subject he clearly knows absolutely nothing about. 

Read all of it here.

Susan Ohanian: The best rebuttal of the Common Core. The BEST.

Susan has a plethora of common core critiques. Now, not being directly involved in teaching anymore, I really don't pay much attention to the details of common core. "So why are you opposed," I am often asked? Because of the people and orgs who are supporting it: Every ed deformer and the UFT/AFT. When Tweed and the UFT are on the same side, watch out.

Susan also highlights an article by MORE candidate for UFT Secretary Brian Jones:

Teaching By the Numbers
Brian Jones

2013-01-22
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1068

New York City teacher Brian Jones explains  that standardized testing has more to do with controlling teachers than it does with improving learning.

Other bloggers like Ravitch and RBE have some CC pieces today:

• Perdido Street School

  How Damaging Will Common Core Be To Young Children?
  
• 
  Diane Ravitch's blog

  Special Education Teacher on Common Core

Here is a batch of Susan's CC stuff (Updated):

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A Weapon of Mass Distraction
Susan Ohanian with letter by Stephen Krashen
blog
2013-01-18
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=409

Here's a little quiz on the Common Core posted at the Christian Science Monitor.



Their side is winning.

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Sense of Urgency
L2Gura
Stories from School: Practice Meets Policy blog
2013-01-24
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=408

This teacher presents very clearly the harm Common Core rigor is doing to first graders--and then presents the only answer

 

Common Core State (sic) Standards: An Example of Data-less Decision Making
 Christopher H. Tienken
AASA Journal of Scholarship and Practice
2011-01-01 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=400

--------------------
The Common Core State (sic) Standards Update on the Ten Commandments Susan Ohanian
blog
2013-01-25 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=406
Here's an update on the 10 Commandments.

------------------- Playtime's over, kindergartners: Standards Stressing Kids Out Susan Edelman
New York Post
2013-01-27 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=407
The Common Core Standards are making kindergartners cry. Small wonder.

--------------------
Where Bill Gates Got the Idea to Call CCSS 'State' Standards http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=706

------------------
The Final Word on the Common Core http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=842

NON CC FROM SUSAN BELOW

Steve Krashen and I have a Test Your Public Ed Savvy quiz over at The Progressive. Please pass it on. The Progressive gives us a chance at talking to a different audience
http://www.progressive.org/test-your-public-ed-savvy
 
I have reprised my cover story for Phi Delta Kappan Goals 2000: What's in a Name? because it offers a quite thorough look at what brought us to where we are now. I am struck by how similar the language of ed reform is. I urge you to read this, definitely proof of that warning: Those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it.
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=404
I've overloaded you with grim news. Don't miss the Good News: Bob Gliner's film is coming to PBS: Schools That Change Communities. We should rally around this film. It changes the conversation. http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=799
Plus some cartoons:
Why Isn't That Ever On the Test? http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=844
Improving on Reading Tests http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=843

Follow the Money Trail on Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CCSS Funding http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=707
Whew!
Susan
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Goals 2000: What's in a Name? Susan Ohanian
Phi Delta Kappan
2013-01-26 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=404
I wrote this piece in 2000 and even I am surprised by how very depressingly current it still is. It is actually informative about how we got to where we are today.
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ASCD  Poll About Arts as Handmaidens of Common Core Subjects Susan Ohanian
blog
2012-01-24 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=401
One more attempt to reduce the important of the arts.

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Parents Beware! Teachers Had Better Wake Up Too Susan Ohanian with extensive quotes from 2 Parent
Daily Censored
2012-01-22 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=399
This is the massive data system funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that will put your students' data up to the highest bidder and eat you alive. Why hasn't your union told you about any of this?

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To the editor Susan Ohanian
2012-01-23 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1514
Sarcasm is undoubtedly a mistake in letters to the editor, but I like the letter.
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To the editor
Stephen Krashen, professor emeritus, USC
Education Week
2012-01-23 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1514
GREAT letter.
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Go Team! Three Cheers!
Robert Bligh
2012-01-25 http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1498
Go, Nebraska gadfly and true school reformer, Robert Bligh!
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Schools That Change Communities Film Coming to PBS Susan Ohanian
0000-00-00 http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=799
Schools That Change Communities

, a one hour documentary about schools that use their communities as classrooms has begun airing on many public broadcasting system stations across the country. Watch it. Order it for your school board and PTA.
------------------------------

----------------------
Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs) http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 26
Charlotte, VT 05445

 By the way, Susan is coming into town on May 4 to speak at a high stakes testing conference. I will keep you posted.

Common Core Ills

We need to focus more on common core. Here are just a few tidbits followed by a discussion on the Change the Stakes listserve between parents and teachers.
----------

Susan Ohanian continues her onslaught against Common Core, which you should oppose merely on the ground that both the UFT/AFT and Tweed support it.

Frightened to the Core
R. L. Ratto
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=285

The Common Core frightens this elementary teacher. Rightfully so.

Straight Up Conversation: Common Core Architect and New College Board President David Coleman
Rick Hess
Straight Up Education Week blog
2012-06-11
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=282

Rick Hess interviews David Coleman. Don't blame David Coleman for being very efficient at what he does. Blame NCTE, IRA, NCTM, ASCD, AFT, NEA.

And this on CC:

Yong Zhao 5:09pm Jun 17 Common Sense Vs. Common Core: How to Minimize the Damages of the Common Core Read my most recent blog post: http://zhaolearning.com/?p=1214 Common Sense Vs. Common Core: How to Minimize the Damages of the Common Core zhaolearning.com The wonder drug has been invented, manufactured, packaged, and shipped. Doctors and nurses are being..

A NYC teacher writes on CC:

NY State used some of its discretionary RTTT funds to create Common Core frameworks for Pre-K. This article is one of the scariest pieces of evidence I've seen for the "war against childhood.":

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=3161

A parent asks:

I'm coming to this a bit late; could someone point me to some materials explaining why national curricula are bad?  Looking at this somewhat ignorantly, arithmetic is arithmetic, physics is physics, biology is biology (even in the states where it's not ;-)), etc., so why oppose national standards?.  Obviously, regional content is important, but it should be possible to strike a balance without losing what's good about common standards in subjects that clearly lend themselves to such standards.  It seems to me that the core problem with the common core is not that it's national -- it's that it's bad (i.e., it's designed to be a cattle chute toward short answer tests, it's simultaneously prescriptive and vague to the point of inscrutability, it's unsupported by realistic research or field testing, etc.).  National curricula (such as those that exist in many nations considered exemplary) don't have to have these flaws.  Am I wrong in my thinking?

 Another parent replies:

That's a great question. What we're seeing with the Common Core is
that the process was so bad -- not transparent, excessively controlled
by the testing companies, etc. -- that many of the original
participants refused to sign off on the final result (see the articles
in Leonie's recent post on the Common Core).

The question I'm asking is, why do we need imposed national standards
for public but not private schools? If there's a basic principle at
stake here, that the nation as a whole has a legitimate,
constitutional interest in dictating learning goals to the nation's
children, why are some categories of children excluded from those
dictates?

Clearly there are advanced nations with national standards that are
doing fine. But this is the United States. Our great distinguishing
national characteristic is supposed to be the premium we place on
freedom, on individual rights, and the associated dynamism and
creativity of our culture -- which are real. Moreover, our
constitution supposedly delegates the regulation of education to the
states. Since our most comprehensive effort at national standards, the
Common Core, is an unfolding disaster, it does beg the question, why,
in a time of scarcity most especially, but really at any time at all,
should we violate our national traditions of pluralism, individualism
and local control of education to move towards a model that show no
signs of achieving the goals we all supposedly care about -- helping
our children become more creative, flexible thinkers ready for the
ever-changing conditions of the job markets of the future?

 And I chip in:

While it seems obvious that there are certain things that everyone should be taught -- algebra is algebra but the devil is in the details. A national curricula that is mandated vs recommended means it will be measured. And watered down by politics. Can't you see pressure to include intelligent design? Or maybe flat earth to be fair to those who still debunk the "earth is round" theory?
We all know the civil war should be taught, but I can imagine it being taught very differently in different places. Thus an argument for standardizing. But imagine the potential battles over that.

While nations like France have a centralized system we can already see how dangerous NCLB and RTTT have been destructive. The nations you talk about are not driven by destruction of public education with the aim of privatization so we need to look at common core in that context and not as a theoretical basis.

 And this idea from a parent activist in Change the Stakes:

I'm sure someone must have fully developed the following argument, but
it's just occurring to me so I'll share it for possible inclusion in
some form in our evolving position statements.

Two things are clear:

1) In order to avoid having federal and state governments destroy
public education, we must return to local control.

2) Yet there must be some sort of state oversight, or you get
situations like that unfolding in Louisiana in which anyone with a
bank of computer terminals and a few DVDs can set up shop as a school.

I haven't noticed a burgeoning movement of affluent parents protesting
the destructive interference of government in our nation's private
schools. Whatever the accreditation process for private schools, the
rich seem pretty much satisfied with the range of educational
approaches they offer. So let's govern public schools the same way.
They must meet certain very general standards to be accredited, but
after that they get to design their own curricula, choose their own
teaching materials, and make their own determinations about how to
evaluate their staff and students.

It is such an obvious injustice that no one talks about it: in our
country, the state can impose whatever draconion and counterproductive
policies it likes on parents and children who cannot afford to buy
their way out of the system through the option of private schooling,
but the affluent can bypass "standards" and "accountability" at will.
Moreover, the wonderful range of existing public schools in New York
proves that the teachers and principals in the public system are fully
capable of developing as rich and varied a range of schooling options
as those in the private system. What exactly is wrong with offering
the same freedoms to public-school parents that private-school parents
enjoy?

We as a society can choose equity in the domain of school regulation
-- and the beauty of it is it will save taxpayer money, since we can
ditch the fantastically wasteful and destructive accountability
systems now consuming billions of dollars nationwide.