Debate on PARCC, Common Core to be Held in Lake Forest

Submitted by the Women’s Republican Club of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff

“What is Common Core and is it Good or Bad for America” is the subject of a debate hosted by The Women’s Republican Club of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Saturday, March 14 at 9 a.m. at Gorton Community Center’s Stuart Room in Lake Forest,

Debaters include Bruno Behrend, J.D., a senior fellow for education policy at The Heartland Institute and a Lake Forest High School graduate. The Heartland Institute is a vocal opponent of Common Core and its mandated PARCC testing. Jessica Handy, currently the Government Affairs Director with Stand For Children, and a vocal proponent of Common Core and PARCC will also participate. She is a former teacher, and former Illinois Senate Democratic staffer, serving in a variety of capacities before becoming the Policy and Budget Analyst for the Education and Pensions committees.

Lake Forest-Lake Bluff school districts #65, #67 and #115 have embraced Common Core standards. Many Lake Forest-Lake Bluff parents, like thousands across the country, are concerned about Common Core standards, PARCC testing on those standards and the accumulation and storage of their children’s personal data.

Proponents of Common Core argue that individual state standards were vague, failed to prioritize essential content and skills, and included serious content gaps and omissions. Thus Common Core standards were devised and are touted by proponents as challenging, clear and fair. Common Core supporters note that states which align themselves to these standards will be providing a high quality education that prepares students for college or a career in the 21st century and will ensure American students will be competitive in a global marketplace.

Opponents argue that research has demonstrated these so-called “higher” standards have no effect whatsoever—that there is no link between “higher standards” and “higher student achievement” and cite the Brookings Institute, a left-leaning think tank, for that claim. Other objections include concerns over curriculum choices, the inordinate amount of classroom time for irrelevant and intrusive testing, and the increased federal government control over local schools.

Moreover, according to DiscovertheNetworks.org, Heartland and others, a particularly controversial feature of Common Core is its Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS). It collects personal information on individual students and then archives it, creating a dossier of students’ beliefs and behaviors. Many parents are concerned about this “womb to tomb” data collection process originated by the U.S. Department of Labor, as it includes personally identifiable

Information for every U.S. citizen under 26 years old. The information is collected from K-12 grades and consists of identifiers such as behavioral patterns, disciplinary issues, health history, and test performance.

Access to that centralized data has been expanded to include any organization even tangentially involved in a child’s education. Moreover, parental notification or permission is no longer be required in order for a school to share students’ personal data with such outside groups or companies.

The storage place for the data collected under the auspices of Common Core testing is a private database called InBloom, which is funded mainly by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

As of September 2014, three of the original 46 states that signed on to the Common Core State Standards had officially repealed them. In addition, 34 states had introduced various pieces of anti-Common Core legislation; 16 states had either withdrawn or were in the process of withdrawing from the Common Core test consortia; and 27 states had introduced legislation to ban the use of SBAC or PARCC assessments.