Welcome Carolina Plott Hound readers!

Last weekend, NC Superintendent Atkinson tipped her hand on the rebrand strategy for Common Core in North Carolina. This week on the same program, NCSPIN, Governor Pat McCrory repeated the same statements.

In the initial part of the conversation, McCrory made a weak dodge on testing and should be called out — all major tests are Common Core aligned. Hasn’t his Teach For America Alum and Education Advisor, Eric Guckian, told him that yet?

The NCSPIN host confirmed with Governor McCrory that the Governor has been “a big supporter of Common Core”. McCrory answered, ” I am a supporter of Common Core but I also recognize the testing aspect needs some revision and change.”

McCrory continued and here’s where the cat is now out of the rebrand bag:

“The title of the bill of Common Core says we’re eliminating Common Core. If you read the bill, it doesn’t eliminate Common Core. It reviews Common Core and only the State Board of Education – with Bill Cobey as its chairman – can change Common Core.”

Well. There you have it, folks. This is the kick off of Operation Rebrand.



Governor McCrory just told everyone that he expects Bill Cobey to direct the State Board of Education to keep Common Core. The Chamber of Commerce was happy with SB812 for likely this very reason.

June Atkinson and Pat McCrory are going to use the State Board of Education to force keeping Common Core in North Carolina.

Recap of how Operation Rebrand will go down:

The Commission is for show.

The Commission will be patted on the head with their recommendations circular filed.

The SBOE will do what June Atkinson, Pat McCrory and the Chamber of Commerce wants.

North Carolina gets a Common Core Rebrand.

Parents will protest — loudly and publicly.

Homeschooling, which has been exploding under Common Core, will go Supernova.

Ticked off parents stay home on election day…or worse, vote for Roy Cooper.

Good Times!

REMINDER: The State Board of Education did not vet or review the standards, which is a violation of their own policies, but instead adopted them 8 days before the standards were released to the public based on a flashy PowerPoint presentation. (See the timeline below the video.) By the way, the archive of the 2010 meetings is no longer available on their site.

Governor Common Core? Stick a fork in McCrory for 2016.

The Governor was already losing parents Right, Left and Center with his blind support of Common Core, but this rebrand he, Atkinson and Cobey are attempting to pull off? The Governor may have just put one of the biggest nails in his own 2016 coffin. He should thank Eric Guckian for that in advance.

Our Governor clearly has ignored the evidence about Common Core being a fundamentally flawed experiment and the growing rejection of it by citizens from all walks of life — including teachers.

Pay attention to the conversation and note the set-up by the host to allow McCrory to talk about the committees set up by the legislature being “unconstitutional”. This is a blueprint on how McCrory plans to kill the Common Core commission.

Watch for yourself:



For the Governor’s reference, here’s the Common Core timeline for NC.

Note the activity before the Common Core was even released. We applied for federal grant money using a set of standards not publicly available for review. Our State Board of Education then adopted them without the review and vetting their own rules require. There are legal challenges here that, to date, no one has made yet.

January 14, 2010 NCDPI complete the Race To The Top Application – Inserts Common Core as a brand name into it. Dr. Atkinson and Former Governor Perdue sign it.

June 2, 2010 NCDPI’s Atkinson and Governor Perdue sign off on SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium) MOU, locking our testing into Common Core.

June 3rd, 2010 NC Board of Education adopts Common Core at the behest of Dr. Atkinson and her PowerPoint presentation at the June 2nd-3rd meeting. The formal announcement would come from the SBOE on June 24, 2010. You can read the 6/2010 meeting minutes here.

June 10, 2010 Common Core is released by the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers), NGA (National Governors Association) and Achieve, Inc.

March 2011 NCGA brings Common Core in via S724, SL2012-77. It is inserted in Edition 3 of the bill and makes it through to ratification. Common Core. as a brand name, is placed in our state’s statutes. Fall 2012 Common Core implemented in North Carolina Schools (K-12).

April 11, 2013 NCGA cuts the funding on the SBAC tests with HB 755.

May 15, 2013 NCGA begins to question Common Core and SBAC with HB 718.

October 19, 2013 A Common Core Legislative Research Committee is authorized.

Fall 2013 Dr. Atkinson is made President Elect of the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers).

May 2014 – Present Common Core LRC produces a report which is critical of Common Core and suggests replacement. One original draft of a replacement bill is entered into the report, authored by Senator Tillman. This initial bill draft becomes SB 812. The House also creates a bill, HB 1061. The language in 1061 is stronger and a tug of war ensues. In the end, SB 812’s language wins out. The conference version of 812 passes both houses after exiting a Conference Committee and is sent to Governor McCrory, who signs it on July 22nd, 2014.

Useful Links:

State Board of Education – Standard Course of Study Review Procedure.