Common Core Video & Update for Lake County, FL

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August 07, 2013

Common Core Video & Update for Lake County, FL

Eustis, FL - August 6, 2013

Here is my video of a Common Core Presentation by Lake County FL School District on Aug. 6, 2013 in Eustis, FL. http://youtu.be/1ACDJ4UeOTU It only contained the Schools viewpoint, but they did provide some good answers to some public concerns.

This was a presentation to about 80-100 public attendees by the staff of the Lake County School District (Florida) on how they are implementing Common Core, along with answering questions. Contains a segment by a representative of the Florida Dept of Education, plus an overview of security over kids data, and three good presentations by teachers on how they are implementing Common Core. Several questions from the public were answered including a lame one I asked because I tried winging it.

This was the second of two public events on Common Core by the School District. The first one in Clermont, FL, had the same speakers, but was not as good because most questions were from teachers about administrative issues. So teachers might want to watch our video of that one also at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKdzx7Gej0k .

Additionally, the Lake County Republican Party had an earlier public event on Common Core with both advocates and opponents in a debate, and our two part video is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja1hXvymPSs <<< Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js-yBQ6Kvk8 <<< Par 2

See my factsheet on Common Core at www.tinyurl.com/HaltCommonCoreNow . This includes many concerns by parents, teachers, etc on the credibility of Common Core, AND I have added a list of actions to take to minimize the damage in Florida from Common Core, including recommendations for legislative changes to reduce some excess practices in Common Core.

As for Lake County School District implementation of Common Core, I recommend watching the video link at the top. The School Districts by Florida law have to implement Common Core, but they explain how some opposition concerns are not a concern in Lake County.

However, when watching the FL Education Dept representative talk about how good Common Core was, our caveat is she followed Bennett from Indiana and still uses all the marketing buzzwords to avoid many stated concerns. In other words, she drank the Common Core Kool Aid in my opinion.

Other News on Common Core

Recently, FL Gov. Rick Scott "accepted" the resignation of pro-Common Core zealot and FL Education Commissioner Dr. Tony Bennett after being implicated in a scandal in Indiana where he worked earlier as Ed Commissioner and was fired. The press recently reported that he was also implicated in forcing official school grade ranking changes for a small school run by a heavy campaign contributor, which is the reason why he was asked to resign.

Unfortunately, Gov. Scott has replaced Bennett with another Common Core advocate, when opponents were demanding a more objective appointment be made. The opponents have been working to get Florida to drop out of a Common Core testing ("assessments") consortium because it was funded with Federal funds and ignored much Florida participation. The consortium, PARCC, is known to be formed by liberal advocates and friends of Pres. Obama and observers are concerned the tests will be skewed to liberal viewpoints, thus resulting in Florida schools "teaching to the test". The result will be curriculums and lesson plans designed to teach any liberal viewpoint contained in the PARCC tests.

Coincidentally, Indiana, former employer of the fired Dr. Bennett dropped out of the PARCC consortium this same week and may be pulling out of Common Core entirely.

FL Senator Marco Rubio surprisingly came out against Common Core and this article says he is now directly opposing former FL Gov. Jeb Bush, who is a Common Core proponent.

Reports are appearing that Elected Democrats are starting to fear they will lose elections due to the affects of Common Core. Some may start coming out against Common Core or even vote for their state to pull out of it.

Leading Florida Republicans are demanding that Florida pull out of Common Core, and three major public meetings were held in the Tallahassee area this week to discuss it. I don't have the results yet.

Reports indicate that materials and videos on the internet that damage the reputation of Common Core are "disappearing".

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And, here is my massive list of Common Core links (also on the Factsheet) in case you want LOTS more information. The most recent items are last in this list of bookmarks.