CCSS - Friend or Foe?

I have been asked about the Common Core State Standards by two different people in two days so I am guessing others (once again) are thinking about them. Good! They should definitely have you thinking (and running!). 

For those of you looking into what is aligned and what is not aligned I HIGHLY recommend you look at the amazing research done by Tina Hollenbeck over at the Homeschool Resource Road Map site:  http://www.hsroadmap.org/

More specifically the page you want is:  http://www.hsroadmap.org/common-core-project/

Remember that older materials can be a real friend here. While a publisher may have recently aligned their materials the materials that are 5+ years old will not be. Buying or renting used can not only save you money but help you stay away from CCSS aligned materials. Using these used materials will also no longer financially support the publisher if that is an issue for you. 

In all honesty my bigger concern is not the CCSS materials themselves - it is the testing that is being implemented along with the CCSS. 

The CCSS materials are being widely panned because they truly are horrible. Yet, the invasive, horrible testing will probably never go away once it is established. 

If you are of a mind to fight CCSS - please do so! But please, please, fight the testing far harder than the admittedly bad materials. Fads in education have a 10-12 year life cycle but invasions of our privacy last forever. The testing will, I fear, last forever if we allow it to become established. 

To read more about it please read: 

https://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/tag/data-mining/

http://www.occupy.com/article/exposed-how-murdoch-bill-gates-and-big-corporations-are-data-mining-our-schools