Video: Which Louisiana Teachers Wrote Common Core?
When I debated Stephanie Deselle of the Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL) in November 2013, she mentioned “three Louisiana teachers” who were involved in writing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Never mind that “three” is an embarrassingly low number.
Deselle provided no names.
During April 2014 testimony on the writing of CCSS and its test, the Partnership for Assessment of College and Career Readiness (PARCC) test, Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) member Holly Boffy is unable to readily provide the names of Louisiana teachers who participated in writing CCSS to Louisiana State Representative Jerome “Dee” Richard.
Here is a powerful one-minute video on Boffy’s failure to answer:
Note that Boffy has a clear conflict of interest from her financial connection to the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), one of the CCSS license owners.
If it is only three teachers, as Deselle stated in November 2013, why is it so difficult for Boffy to offer specific names??
deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog 
It’s almost laughable at this point…..Idaho only has one person, our state Superintendant Tom Luna, involved in CC….when he was at the table of the CCSSO. Funnier yet, is he is NOT even an educator!!!!
Not good enough given the high-stakes nature of CCSS.
As I understand it these are the 29 people who “developed” CCSS:
The members of the mathematics Work Group are:
Sara Clough, Director, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
Phil Daro, Senior Fellow, America’s Choice
Susan K. Eddins, Educational Consultant, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (Retired)
Kaye Forgione, Senior Associate and Team Leader for Mathematics, Achieve
John Kraman, Associate Director, Research, Achieve
Marci Ladd, Mathematics Consultant, The College Board & Senior Manager and Mathematics Content Lead, Academic Benchmarks
William McCallum, University Distinguished Professor and Head, Department of Mathematics, The University of Arizona &Mathematics Consultant, Achieve
Sherri Miller, Assistant Vice President, Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
Ken Mullen, Senior Program Development Associate—Mathematics, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
Robin O’Callaghan, Senior Director, Mathematics, Research and Development, The College Board
Andrew Schwartz, Assessment Manager, Research and Development, The College Board
Laura McGiffert Slover, Vice President, Content and Policy Research, Achieve
Douglas Sovde, Senior Associate, Mathematics, Achieve
Natasha Vasavada, Senior Director, Standards and Curriculum Alignment Services, Research and Development, The College Board
Jason Zimba, Faculty Member, Physics, Mathematics, and the Center for the Advancement of Public Action, Bennington College and Cofounder, Student Achievement Partners
Members of the English-language Arts Work Group are:
Sara Clough, Director, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
David Coleman, Founder, Student Achievement Partners
Sally Hampton, Senior Fellow for Literacy, America’s Choice
Joel Harris, Director, English Language Arts Curriculum and Standards, Research and Development, The College Board
Beth Hart, Senior Assessment Specialist, Research and Development, The College Board
John Kraman, Associate Director, Research, Achieve
Laura McGiffert Slover, Vice President, Content and Policy Research, Achieve
Nina Metzner, Senior Test Development Associate—Language Arts, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
Sherri Miller, Assistant Vice President, Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
Sandy Murphy, Professor Emeritus, University of California – Davis
Jim Patterson, Senior Program Development Associate—Language Arts, Elementary and Secondary School Programs, Development, Education Division, ACT, Inc.
Sue Pimentel, Co-Founder, StandardsWork; English Language Arts Consultant, Achieve
Natasha Vasavada, Senior Director, Standards and Curriculum Alignment Services, Research and Development, The College Board
Martha Vockley, Principal and Founder, VockleyLang, LLC
Correct me if this is not the case.
The feedback groups had 35 participants, almost all of whom were university professors. One classroom teacher was involved in the entire process. According to teacher educator Nancy Carlsson-Paige: “In all, there were 135 people on the review panels for the Common Core. Not a single one of them was a K–3 classroom teacher or early childhood professional.” Parents were entirely missing. K–12 educators were mostly brought in after the fact to tweak and endorse the standards—and lend legitimacy to the results.
Yup. Writing an investigative post on this crew right now.
Great video 😉 Great blog! I always enjoy reading.
I love your blog and have been reading it for some time now. As a retired educator I have been following the restructuring of education since 1992 and know very well that this nation is in deep trouble. I’d like to see you move and refocus on the reasons for restructuring America’s system. One only has to read Bush’s America 2000 and Clinton’s Goals 2000 legislation to come to the conclusion that changing America from a representative form of government with non-elected appointed councils and commissions and implement a planned economy through workforce training is the true purpose for in restructuring our nations education. The madness must stop and we must return to local control of our schools! Top down control will not improve education. Twenty five years of gut wrenching changes have not improved education but instead have destroyed a system that was once the envy of the world.
I appreciate your comment. Right now, my job is one of whistle-blowing, which does include the motives behind the destruction of America’s education system.