This is the resistance you were looking for.
As educational professionals, we support teacher expertise and autonomy. We oppose the current educational reform initiative known as the "Common Core State Standards Initiative" for many reasons, paramount among them, the difficulty that they will create in allowing teachers to be responsive to student learning needs.
Students, not "standards."
CCSS
Rebel Base
Follow up with our presenters and their materials!
Kim McCollum-Clark is Associate Professor of English at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. She is the proud Mama Lionness to several generations of English "teacher babies." You can reach her on Twitter @KimMcCollum or on email at kimmccollum32@me.com.
The full link to the YouTube video of David Coleman speaking to the NY State Board of Ed in April 2011 may be found here. (Gird your loins--it's long.) You can find many more interviews and "demonstrations" by Mr. Coleman on YouTube and elsewhere on the web. He is now president of the College Board.
Cindy Minnich is a high school English teacher and certified librarian in Dauphin County, PA. She is mom to a Junior Librarian and the tech goddess partner in the Nerdy Book Club. Cindy can be reached on Twitter @CBethM.
Paul W. Hankins is the Lead Learner in Room 407 at Silver Creek High School in Indiana. He is also a Lead Teacher for Wonderopolis. You can reach him on Twitter @PaulWHankins. He hopes to create a new version of "The Wretched Education of Harold" sometime soon! We will link to it when he makes it available!
A. S. King is the Michael Printz Honor Award-winning (and lots of other awards too numerous to count and she is just really getting started!) author of Please Ignore Vera Dietz, Everybody Sees the Ants, Ask the Passengers, and 2013's Reality Boy. This really only scratches the surface. You can follow Amy's hijinks at her blog here and on Twitter @as_king. Get ready to start counting "stars."
Teri Lesesne, our own irrepressible Professor Nana, Goddess of YA, and doyenne of ALAN, is Professor of Library Science at Sam Houston State University in Texas. Her blog (link here) is essential reading for linking the elements of the Common Core with what we know about literacy. You can also catch up with her on Twitter @professornana.
Mark Letcher is an Assistant Professor of English at Purdue University Calumet. A teacher-educator and YA fan extraordinaire (he's the one taking his ALAN box back to his students UNOPENED!), Mark can be reached on Twitter @m_letcher.