Alabama s College- and Career- Ready Standards: Clarifying Common Core Concerns

Alabama s College- and Career- Ready Standards: Clarifying Common Core Concerns John Hill, Ph.D. Senior Policy Analyst Alabama Policy Institute with Cameron Smith Vice President and General Counsel Alabama Policy Institute August 2013

Alabama Policy Institute 402 Office Park Drive, Suite 300 Birmingham, AL 35223 205.870.9900 info@alabamapolicy.org www.alabamapolicy.org

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Alabama s College- and Career- Ready Standards: Clarifying Common Core Concerns 1 Introduction Common Core Concerns Common Core could be used to increase the federal government s role in education which is properly the province of the states. The Alabama Policy Institute

2 Alabama s College- and Career- Ready Standards: Clarifying Common Core Concerns Common Core enables the federal government to dictate state curriculum, the approaches and materials teachers use to help kids learn. www.alabamapolicy.org

Alabama s College- and Career- Ready Standards: Clarifying Common Core Concerns 3 Common Core Standards are lower than Alabama s former standards. Common Core will trample on privacy rights by collecting large amounts of information on schoolchildren from kindergarten through high school. The Alabama Policy Institute

4 Alabama s College- and Career- Ready Standards: Clarifying Common Core Concerns Common Core will result in unexpected cost overruns at a time when state budgets remain tight. www.alabamapolicy.org

Alabama s College- and Career- Ready Standards: Clarifying Common Core Concerns 5 o o o The Alabama Policy Institute

6 Alabama s College- and Career- Ready Standards: Clarifying Common Core Concerns www.alabamapolicy.org

Alabama s College- and Career- Ready Standards: Clarifying Common Core Concerns 7 Common Core s assessments or Alabama s ACT-aligned assessment will have a negative impact on private schools and homeschoolers. The Alabama Policy Institute

8 Alabama s College- and Career- Ready Standards: Clarifying Common Core Concerns Options to Address Common Core Concerns Clearly communicate to the federal government that Alabama s education standards are solely determined by the Alabama State Board of Education as duly elected by the people of Alabama. Reject federal funds or regulatory relief tied to adopting top-down education standards. Encourage Alabama s federal delegation to support the state s role in establishing and maintaining its own standards and curriculum. www.alabamapolicy.org

Alabama s College- and Career- Ready Standards: Clarifying Common Core Concerns 9 Recognize the State Board of Education as the primary authority on education standards and hold them accountable for the results. Respect the broad range of perspectives related to education policy in Alabama. The Alabama Policy Institute

10 Alabama s College- and Career- Ready Standards: Clarifying Common Core Concerns Conclusion www.alabamapolicy.org

1 U.S. CONST. art. I 8, cl. 3. 2 U.S. CONST. art. I 8, cl. 1. 3 Gordon W. Gunderson, Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, The National School Lunch Program: Background and Development (Jan. 29, 2013), www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/lunch/aboutlunch/programhistory_5.htm#27. 4 74 Fed. Reg. 59,688 (Nov. 18, 2009). 5 Pub. L. No. 111-5, 123 Stat. 115 (2009). 6 74 Fed. Reg. 59,688 (Nov. 18, 2009). 7 Press Release, U.S. Department of Education, President Obama, U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan Announce National Competition to Advance School Reform (July 24, 2009), available at www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/07/07242009.html. 8 COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS INITIATIVE, IN THE STATES, www.corestandards.org/in-the-states (last visited July 2, 2013); and Geoffrey H. Fletcher, Race to the Top: No District Left Behind 37, T.H.E. JOURNAL, 17, 17-18 (2010). 9 ROBERT S. EITEL & KENT D. TALBERT, PIONEER INSTITUTE, NO. 81, THE ROAD TO A NATIONAL CURRICULUM: THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS, RACE TO THE TOP, AND CONDITIONAL WAIVERS 8-9, (Feb. 2012), available at http://pioneerinstitute.org/download/the-roadto-a-national-curriculum/. 10 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, RACE TO THE TOP: PHASE 1 FINAL RESULTS (Mar. 29, 2010), www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase1-applications/score-summary.pdf. 11 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, RACE TO THE TOP: PHASE 2 FINAL RESULTS (Aug. 19, 2010), www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/summary.pdf. 12 EITEL & TALBERT, supra note 9, at 21. 13 Id. 14 Press Release, Alabama State Department of Education, Alabama s Plan 2020 Accepted by the United States Department of Education, June 21, 2013), available at https://docs.alsde.edu/documents/55/newsreleases2013/6-21-13%20plan%202020%20- %20FLEX%20WAIVER%20ACCEPTANCE.pdf. 15 ALABAMA STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Alabama Plan 2020 ESEA Flexibility Request, www.alsde.edu/home/general/plan_2020_esea.aspx (last viewed July 8, 2013). 16 Bryan Lyman, Alabama Seeks Waiver on No Child Left Behind, MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER BLOG (Aug. 3, 2012, 1:08 AM), www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20120803/news02/308030019/alabama-seeks-waiver-no-child-left-behind. 17 75 Fed. Reg. 18,171-18,172 (Apr. 9, 2010). 18 ALABAMA STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, CURRICULUM GUIDE TO THE ALABAMA COURSE OF STUDY: ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS K-12 (Mar. 2013), available at http://alex.state.al.us/specialed/curriculum/cglanguagearts.pdf. 19 COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS & LITERACY IN HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES, SCIENCE, AND TECHNICAL SUBJECTS: APPENDIX B: TEXT EXEMPLARS AND SAMPLE PERFORMANCE TASKS (Oct. 29, 2010), available at www.corestandards.org/assets/appendix_b.pdf. 20 20 U.S.C. 7906(b)(1). 21 20 U.S.C 1232a (the GEPA); 20 U.S.C. 3403(b) (the DEOA); and 20 U.S.C. 7907(a) (the ESEA); as cited by Eitel & Talbert, supra note 9, at 2-5. 22 Eitel & Talbert, supra note 9, at 1. 23 THOMAS B. FORDHAM INSTITUTE, STATE OF STATE STANDARDS & THE COMMON CORE IN 2010: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, http://standards.educationgadfly.net/ccss/executive_summary/ (last viewed July 8, 2013). 24 THOMAS B. FORDHAM INSTITUTE, STATE OF STATE STANDARDS & THE COMMON CORE IN 2010: ALABAMA 1, http://edexcellencemedia.net/publications/2010/201007_state_education_standards_common_standards/alabama.pdf. 25 Id., at 4. 26 ALABAMA STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Correlation of Alabama Mathematics Standards and CCSS (Sept. 27, 2010), https://docs.alsde.edu/documents/54/2%20%20correlation%20of%20alabama%20mathematics%20standards%20and%20ccss.p df (last visited July 12, 2013). 27 ALABAMA STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Correlation of Alabama English Language Arts Standards and CCSS (Sept. 27, 2010), https://docs.alsde.edu/documents/54/2%20%20correlation%20of%20alabama%20english%20language%20arts%20standards%2 0and%20CCSS.pdf (last visited July 12, 2013). 28 Eitel & Talbert, supra note 9, at 21. 29 Institute for Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, About the SLDS Grant Program, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/about_slds.asp (last viewed July 8, 2013). 30 Institute for Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, Grantee States, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/stateinfo.asp (last viewed July 8, 2013). 31 Telephone interview with Emily Anthony, SLDS Director, National Center for Education Statistics (July 11, 2013).

32 Id. 33 Patrick Murphy, Elliot Regenstein & Keith McNamara, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, PUTTING A PRICE TAG ON THE COMMON CORE: HOW MUCH WILL SMART IMPLEMENTATION COST? 5 (May 2012), available at www.edexcellencemedia.net/publications/2012/20120530- Putting-A-Price-Tag-on-the-Common-Core/20120530-Putting-a-Price-Tag-on-the-Common-Core-FINAL.pdf. 34 Id. 35 ALABAMA STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, ALABAMA S EDUCATION REPORT CARD, 2011-2012 19 (JUNE 28, 2013), available at www.alsde.edu/general/alabamaeducationreportcard.pdf. 36 ALABAMA LEGISLATIVE FISCAL OFFICE, EDUCATION TRUST FUND COMPARISON SHEET: FY 2013 3 (July 2, 2012), www.lfo.state.al.us/pdfs/fy2013%20budget%20info/fy2013%20etf/etf%20fy%202013%20enacted%207-2-12.pdf. 37 Professional development costs were derived by multiplying the total number of public K-12 educators in the 2011-2012 school year (46,074) by the average, annual estimated cost of professional development ($1,931). Sources teachers: ALABAMA STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, supra note 34, at 15; professional development costs: PIONEER INSTITUTE, NO. 82, NATIONAL COST OF ALIGNING STATES AND LOCALITIES TO THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS, 14 (Feb. 2012), http://pioneerinstitute.org/download/summary-national-costof-aligning-states-and-localities-to-the-common-core-standards/. 38 Murphy, Regenstein & McNamara, supra note 32, at 5. 39 PIONEER INSTITUTE, NO. 82, NATIONAL COST OF ALIGNING STATES AND LOCALITIES TO THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS 2-5 (Feb. 2012), http://pioneerinstitute.org/download/summary-national-cost-of-aligning-states-and-localities-to-the-common-core-standards/. 40 Id. at 22. 41 Id. at 20. 42 Id. at 1. 43 Catherine Gewertz, Alabama Withdraws from Both Testing Consortia, EDUCATION WEEK (Feb. 1, 2013, 10:37 AM), http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2013/02/alabama_withdraws_from_both_te.html. 44 Memorandum from Thomas R. Bice, Alabama State Department of Education, to State Superintendents of Education (Apr. 30, 2013) (on file with author). 45 PIONEER INSTITUTE, supra note 39, at 2-5. 46 Student-to-computer ratios calculated using district-level data from ALABAMA STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, ALSDE REPORTS BY SITE, www.alsde.edu/home/reports/reportsbysite.aspx (last viewed July 17, 2013). 47 PIONEER INSTITUTE, supra note 39, at 2. 48 William A. Estrada, Homeschool Legal Defense Association, Common Core Standards Initiative: Too Close to a National Curriculum (Dec. 17, 2012), www.hslda.org/docs/news/2012/201212170.asp (last viewed July 17, 2013). 49 Id. 50 Id. 51 Brittany Corona, The Heritage Network, Common Core: Homeschoolers Face New Questions on College Admissions, THE FOUNDRY (June 23, 2013, 3:46 PM), http://blog.heritage.org/2013/06/23/common-cores-nationalizing-tentacles-sat-act-and-ged-alignment/ (last viewed July 17, 2013). 52 Estrada, supra note 48. 53 Who Is Explicitly Aligned, THE EDUCATIONAL FREEDOM COALITION (July 12, 2013), www.theeducationalfreedomcoalition.org/2013/04/who-is-explicitly-aligned.html (last viewed July 17, 2013). 54 Alabama Senator Says the State Wants the Unemployed Money the Governor Rejected, WTVY.COM (Mar. 4, 2009), www.wtvy.com/news/alabama/headlines/40719272.html (last viewed July 15, 2013). 55 H.R. 2089, 113 th Cong. (2013). 56 Id. 57 Id. 58 Id. 59 EITEL & TALBERT, supra note 9, at 1.