ACT joins SAT in Aligning with Common Core

Received in an email from HSLDA:

 

http://www.hslda.org/commoncore/topic7.aspx

For now, the Common Core applies only to public schools in the 45 states that have adopted it. Federal law, under 20 U.S.C. § 7886, prohibits any federal education mandates from applying to private schools that do not receive federal funds or homeschools.

However, there is no such protection for families who have enrolled their children in programs that receive federal funds, especially those who are using virtual charter schools that are run through the local public school for their home education.

Though the specific provisions of the Common Core only directly bind public schools, it is reasonably predictable that private schools that accept federal funding (through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, for example) may face a decision between foregoing federal funding and accepting the Common Core standards in the near future. Moreover, President Obama intends to condition funding from Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act on states’ agreement to follow common standards “developed by a state-led consortium.”1 There is no reason to expect that private schools who receive Title I funding would not have to agree to this mandate.

The current impact of the Common Core on home and private education is revealed in the expanding state longitudinal databases, shifting college admissions expectations, newly updated curricula, and revised standardized tests. All these are fulfilling education historian Diane Ravitch’s prediction that “no one will escape [the Common Core’s] reach, whether they attend public or private school.”2 (more…)

Top 12 Things Home School Parents Need to Know About the SAT and ACT

Written by Dr. Kuni Beasley
Taken from Practical Homeschooling Magazine #107
January/February/March 2013 Edition
www.home-school.com

1.  First Impression.  The more competitive the college, the more test scores are used to separate the GREAT students from the good students.

2. Use the SAT & ACT Websites.  (Collegeboard.org & ACT.org)  There is a 50-point difference on the SAT between students who use the website and those who don’t (out of 800 maximum points)!  For the ACT, there is a 5-point difference (of of 35 maximum points).  As a minimum, we recommend a thorough trip through the websites, including taking the practice questions.

3.  Not Academic Tests.  The PSAT, ACT & SAT are not academic tests.  They are tests of reasoning ability and problem-solving ability.  Until recently, the SAT published on their website that the SAT was a test of “Reasoning Ability”.  The ACT is not much different. (more…)

The Common Core Standards Are Here. Now. What Are They? What Do They Mean to Home Schoolers?

Taken from Practical Homeschooling Magazine #107
January/February/March 2013 Edition
www.home-school.com

“Despite three federal laws that prohibit federal departments or agencies from directing, supervising or controlling elementary and secondary school curricula, programs of instruction and instructional materials, the U.S. Department of Education…has placed the nation on the road to a national curriculum, according to a new report written by a former general counsel and former deputy general counsel of the U.S. Department of Education.”

So began a TruthInAmericanEducation.com story on the report The Road to a National Curriculum: The Legal Aspects of the Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and Conditional Waivers.   Sponsored by Pioneer Institute, the Federalist Society, the American Principles Project, and the Pacific Research Institute of California, it was released in February 2012.

As the report itself goes on to say,

With only minor exceptions, the General Education Provisions Act, the Department of Education Organization Act, and the ESEA, a amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, ban federal departments and agencies from directing, supervising, or controlling elementary and secondary school curriculum, programs of instruction, and instructional materials.

Left unchallenged by Congress, these standards and assessments will ultimately direct the course of elementary and secondary study in most states across the nation, running the risk that states will become little more than administrative agents for a nationalized K-12 program of instruction…

Who Are the Players? (more…)