State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson speaks at a school choice rally held at the N.C. Museum of History on Jan. 23, 2018. Hundreds attended the rally where Johnson was one of the featured speakers.
EDUCATION
NC schools chief, amid crowded GOP race for lieutenant governor, calls to end Common Core
Johnson said the state Department of Public Instruction will survey parents and teachers about the math and language arts standards as part of an effort to encourage the State Board of Education to remove any use of Common Core.
Johnson also announced that DPI will review the U.S. history requirements to ensure students still get “robust” history lessons. The state board voted to eliminate one of the two required high school U.S. history courses to fit in a new financial literacy course required by state lawmakers.
“Opposition to Common Core from educators and parents is what I hear about the most 
across our state,” Johnson said in a statement Thursday. “I strongly disagreed with the State Board of Education’s decision to keep Common Core in place in 2017.
“Many states, like North Carolina, were ‘changing’ standards by making tweaks to Common Core and then calling it by a different name. But now there’s a clear path we can replicate in North Carolina to remove Common Core, and I encourage the State Board to closely examine this new option with us.”
HOW COMMON CORE CAME ABOUT
Common Core standards were developed under the sponsorship of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, and were presented as the way to better prepare students for college and jobs.
Critics complained that the state rushed Common Core into classrooms without getting input from teachers or advising them adequately on how to teach it.
Johnson encouraged the state board to consider the example of Florida, which he said completely removed Common Core in its new standards.
“This is something where I hope we will be able to do a fulsome dive into our standards and review,” Johnson said at Thursday’s state board meeting. “And this time next year, if all goes according to plan for me as my plan has it, I’d like to be sitting here as lieutenant governor and actually have a vote on this board and vote for the new standards as well.”
The superintendent also addressed the controversy over the changing social studies standards in high school. Some social studies teachers have complained that only having one U.S. history course in high school will hurt the way that the subject is taught.
Johnson said Thursday that he’s instructed DPI staff that no social studies standards are to be eliminated as the state moves to revise the K-12 social studies curriculum.
“We will also be working to ensure that rigorous U.S. history requirements remain in place in North Carolina,” Johnson said in the statement. “Recent efforts in support of better financial literacy have led to concerns that this might be a backdoor effort to diminish the importance of American history classes in North Carolina schools. We will not let that happen.
“I want to make sure our parents know that students will still be getting robust, rigorous lessons in our history and founding principles, and not only will we keep all America history standards, we will improve our efforts to teach the founding principles of our nation.”
As the drumbeat to end Common Core continues to ripple through the states, one education question that continues is: should Parents take matters into their own hands and teach their OWN Children to read? Many are doing just that. And many are using ALPHA-PHONICS as tens of thousands have done very successfully for over 37 years. To learn all about this very simple, very easy to use and very successful phonics program instruction follow the LINKS below:
Alpha-Phonics
The Alphabet Song!
Water on the Floor
Alpha-Phonics the Book on CD Rom
Blumenfeld Oral Reading Assessment Test
How To Tutor
How To Tutor Cursive Handwriting Workbook
