ATLANTA (August 5, 2013) – Sen. William Ligon (R-Brunswick) released two reports today, one regarding math and the other on English language arts, which compare the Common Core Standards to Georgia’s previous Performance Standards. The independent analysis on the math standards was provided by Dr. Mary Kay Bacallao, a 25-year veteran of math instruction who teaches mathematics and science education at Mercer University’s Tift College. Dr. Sandra Stotsky, Professor Emerita of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas and a former member of the Common Core Validation Committee, provided the analysis on the English language arts standards.
“Now that Georgia has withdrawn from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), I believe the next step in our efforts to exit the national Common Core framework must turn to the standards themselves,” stated Sen. Ligon. “I am encouraged that Dr. John Barge and Governor Nathan Deal jointly agreed to exit PARCC, but until Georgia reclaims control over all facets of our educational system, including our standards as well as testing, our citizens cannot exercise their full constitutional authority over education.”
The Common Core Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS) were adopted on July 8, 2010 under Governor Sonny Perdue’s administration as part of the State’s efforts to comply with the federal Race to the Top (RTTT) grant. The Common Core represents the first attempt at nationalized curriculum standards in math and English language arts (ELA) for grades K – 12. The PARCC is one of the consortia responsible for the development of assessments that will be aligned to the Common Core.
“State officials and their personnel knew early on that Georgia was one of the nine states that already had standards as good as or better than Common Core. That analysis was provided by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which in fact is a pro-Common Core organization which received Gates Foundation funds to perform that study. Even so, Georgia’s standards fared very well under their analysis,” stated Sen. Ligon. “However, I wanted to know just how satisfactory or how deficient Common Core standards are compared to what Georgia already had. I sought out two content experts who were willing to perform the study. What they found is eye-opening and proves that Georgia made a very bad deal when it traded in our former standards for Common Core.”
The math report summary shows that important mathematical concepts have been removed in the elementary grades: (1) data-analysis tools such as mean, median, mode, and range; (2) the concept of pi, including area and circumference of circles; and (3) division of a fraction by a fraction, which is a key component to number sense.
Throughout the math standards, the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic (prime factorization) is gone completely. Other missing concepts include (1) geometry – two of the five standard geometry theorems for triangles; (2) measurement – density; (3) number and operations – using fractions, decimals, and percents interchangeably. Algebra has been pushed back one year, from 8th to 9th grade. This means that the majority of Georgia students will not reach calculus in high school, as expected by selective universities.
Common Core English language arts fared no better. Based on her experience as a reviewer for Fordham in 1997, 2000, and 2005, Dr. Stotsky applied the same criteria and 4.0 scale that she used when examining English language arts standards in all the states during those years.
In Dr. Stotsky’s analysis comparing the standards side-by-side, the previous Georgia Performance Standards in ELA outscored the Common Core’s ELA standards as the following table shows.
| CC | GA | |
| Reading Pedagogy and Independent Reading | 3.3 | 3.6 |
| Value of Literary Study | 1 | 3.6 |
|
Organization and Disciplinary Coverage of the Standards |
1.7 | 3.6 |
| Quality of the Standards | 1.4 | 2.4 |
| Total Average | 1.85 | 3.3 |
In fact, Dr. Stotsky’s analysis led her to recommend that Georgia should “re-adopt its previous standards (with some revisions…) because they are far superior to Common Core’s.”
To ensure that Georgia’s citizens will have the opportunity to fully understand the findings of Dr. Stotsky and Dr. Bacallao, Sen. Ligon has posted these documents on his website so that all interested citizens can review the information. The website address is www.senatorligon.com.
Sen. Ligon is the author of legislation (SB 167 and SB 203) which would withdraw Georgia from the Common Core and the aligned assessments; prohibit the adoption of any future national curriculum standards; prohibit intrusive student data-tracking; and provide for a transparent, statewide public adoption process for curriculum standards.
RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
August 5, 2013
For Information Contact:
Jennifer Yarber, Interim Director
Shawna Mercer, Sr. Communications Specialist
Shawna.Mercer@senate.ga.gov
404.656.0028