Round II on Common Core for State Board

The State Board of Education last month got an earful from grassroots Common Core Standards critics (see story), but on Wednesday it heard from the other side.

Four teachers, a business representative, a district administrator and the vice president of a teacher training and policy non-profit all took advantage of the board’s late afternoon public comment period to praise the standards.

“They address the very individual and unique needs of our kids,” said Aurora teacher Jessica Cuthbertson.

“I really believe the standards promote the kind of thinking and problem solving” needed for college and work, said Adams 12-Five Star teacher Jessica Keigan.

Ulcca Joshi Hansen, vice president of the Public Education & Business Coalition, said the standards “clearly articulate what should know and be able to do,” and Luke Ragland from the business group Colorado Succeeds said, “It was crucial that Colorado adopted the Common Core Standards.”

The five critics who also testified weren’t convinced.

Mike Stapleton, who said he’s with a group named Pueblo Freedom and Rights, took care to mention that he was involved in the successful recall campaign against Sen. Angela Giron, D-Pueblo. He said that “as elected representatives you’re accountable to the citizens of Colorado” and that earlier State Board adoption of the Common Core was “a blatant injustice, and it’s not being accountable to the citizens, students and teachers of the state of Colorado.”

Donna Jack of Evergreen blamed the federal government, UNESCO, the Gates Foundation and the Pearson testing company for all working to erode student privacy and the wishes of average citizens.