TERMS OF USE
LAST UPDATED: 2/22/2008

USE OF SITE
By use of the Common Core, Inc. Website (the “Site”), you agree to all of the terms, conditions, and notices contained or referenced in the Site (the “Terms of Use”). If you do not agree to these Terms of Use, do not use this Site. Common Core reserves the right to update or revise these Terms of Use. Your continued use of this Site following the posting of any changes to the Terms of Use constitutes acceptance of those changes.

COPYRIGHT
The entire content of this Site is protected by copyright. You may not copy, distribute, or create derivative works from any part of this website (including its graphics, pictorial matter, and text) without the prior written consent of Common Core unless otherwise expressly permitted by the Site. Common Core claims no interest in content owned by other persons or entities which may appear on, or be linked to from, this Site.

TRADEMARKS
COMMON CORE and other names, logos, designs, titles, words, or phrases within this Site are trademarks, service marks, or trade names of Common Core or its affiliated companies and may not be used without prior written permission. Common Core claims no interest in marks owned by entities not affiliated with Common Core which may appear on this Site.

NO CONFIDENTIALITY
Should you choose to contact Common Core through the “Contact Us” link with any information, feedback, data, questions, comments, suggestions, or the like regarding the content of this Site, the content of any such response shall be deemed not to be confidential and Common Core shall be free to reproduce, use, disclose, and distribute the response to others without limitation or compensation, provided that Common Core will always comply with its Privacy Policy posted on this Site. Further, by choosing to submit a comment or message to Common Core through the “Contact Us” link, you agree to assign to Common Core all copyright interests in your questions, comments, suggestions, or commentary, and agree that Common Core is free to use the contents of your message, or derivatives thereof, without limitation.

CONTRIBUTED CONTENT
Users posting content to the Site are solely responsible for all content and any infringement, defamation, or other claims resulting from or related thereto. Common Core reserves the right to remove or refuse to post any content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, and makes no guarantee of the accuracy, integrity, or quality of posted content.

COMMON CORE MAILING LIST
Should you submit your contact information through the “Join Our Mailing List” link, you agree to receive periodic emails and postal mail relating to news and updates regarding Common Core’s efforts and the efforts of like-minded organizations. You may discontinue receipt of such emails and postal mail through the opt out provisions included in the promotional emails.

NO LINKS; NO ENDORSEMENTS
Any links on this Site to third party websites are not an endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation of the third parties or the third parties’ ideas, products, or services. Similarly, any references in this Site to third parties and their products or services do not constitute an endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation. If you follow links to third party websites, or any other companies or organizations affiliated or unaffiliated with Common Core, you are subject to the terms and conditions and privacy policies of those sites, and Common Core marks no warranty or representations regarding those sites. Further, Common Core is not responsible for the content of third party or affiliated company sites or any actions, inactions, results, or damages caused by visiting those sites.

NO GUARANTY OF INTERNATIONAL SERVICE OR COMPLIANCE
This Site was designed for and is operated in the United States. Regardless of where the Site is viewed, you are responsible for compliance with applicable local laws.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. THE MATERIAL IN THIS WEBSITE IS PROVIDED “AS IS,” WITHOUT ANY KIND OF WARRANTY. THE MATERIAL ON THIS WEBSITE IS NOT A WARRANTY AS TO ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE PROVIDED BY COMMON CORE OR ANY AFFILIATED OR UNAFFILIATED ORGANIZATION.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. COMMON CORE IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY ERRORS, DELAYS, INACCURACIES, OR OMISSIONS IN THIS SITE OR ANY SITES THAT ARE LINKED TO, OR REFERRED TO BY, THIS SITE. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL COMMON CORE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM THE USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THIS SITE WHETHER BASED ON ACTIONS IN CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF COMMON CORE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

JURISDICTION AND VENUE
You and Common Core agree that the laws of the District of Columbia will apply to all matters arising from or relating to use of this Site, whether for claims in contract, tort, or otherwise, without regard to conflicts of laws principles.

ENTIRE AGREEMENT
These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and Common Core with respect to your use of this Site and supersede all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether oral, written, or electronic, between you and Common Core with respect to this Site. If any provision(s) of these Terms of Use are held invalid or unenforceable, those provisions shall be construed in a manner consistent with applicable law to reflect, as nearly as possible, the original intentions of the parties, and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

Please also read our Privacy Policy which explains other information regarding use of our Site.

PRIVACY POLICY
LAST UPDATED: 2/22/2008

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) is posted to explain to you our online information practices. To make this Policy easy to find, we make it readily available on the Common Core, Inc. Website (the “Site”). Please read below for more specific information on the type of information we collect and how we use it.

OUR COMMITMENT TO PRIVACY
Security. Common Core is committed to protecting the privacy and security of visitors to its Site. We do not disclose to unaffiliated third parties any of the information provided by you without your permission. Further, Common Core has measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of personally identifiable information that is under our control. Only select Common Core staff and contracted individuals have access to personally identifiable information provided by visitors to non-public areas of our Site. We use industry-standard encryption technologies when transferring and receiving sensitive personal and financial data from our Site. Please note, however, that security breaches can occur even if reasonable steps are taken to prevent such breaches. We cannot guarantee that information provided through our Site will not be illegally accessed or intercepted. Please contact us if you believe there has been any breach of the security of our Site.

Children’s Privacy. Common Core is concerned about the safety and privacy of children online. Because of this, we make all efforts to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). We do not and will not knowingly contact or collect personal information from children under 13. Our Site is not intended to solicit information of any kind from children under 13, and we will develop our Site with the capacity to block acceptance of information from children under 13 when and if age information is requested.

TYPES OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOW WE USE IT
Online Donations. Visitors to our Site may make a donation to Common Core by submitting payment electronically through a PayPal account. Persons using the electronic donation option will be asked to submit contact information for verification purposes and are subject to PayPal’s privacy policy and terms and conditions of use. While Common Core has chosen to use PayPal due to its reputation as a provider of secure and efficient online payment services, Common Core makes no representations or warranties with respect to PayPal’s services. PayPal shares with us the contact information of persons who have made donations to Common Core using PayPal’s service. Common Core retains this information in a secure location, and financial information will not be stored except when it is needed for record-keeping and contact purposes. Common Core does not share personally identifying donor information with unaffiliated third parties.

Mailing List. Through the “Join Our Mailing List” link, you may subscribe to receive periodic email and postal mail updates about Common Core’s efforts and other like-minded organizations who we think subscribers might find interesting. In order to subscribe, we ask that you provide your name, company name, mailing address, and email address. Upon submission, this information will be received by trusted web hosting/tech providers for the purpose of providing gathering and database creation services for Common Core’s use. Common Core will not sell or otherwise share this information. All emails sent to subscribers will contain an opt-out option whereby the recipient can choose to opt out of receiving all such future mail.

Contact Us Information. We use the information obtained when you contact us through the “Contact Us” link to process and respond to your comments or inquiries. Common Core will not sell or otherwise share your contact information with third parties, but does reserve the right, consistent with the Site Terms of Use, to reproduce, use, disclose, and distribute the content of your comment or inquiry, and our response, without limitation or compensation.

Cookies, Internet Protocol Address, and Aggregate Information. Like many Websites, we gather non-personally identifying information about how visitors use our Site in order to track usage patterns and other demographics of Site visitors as a group. Common Core may also use session cookies (a “cookie” is a small piece of information that a Website can store on a computer and later use to recognize a user). These session cookies expire when a user closes the browser in which the Common Core Site was viewed. As with all cookies, users can personalize their browser settings to reject session cookies. Common Core servers also create log files of IP addresses for systems administration and troubleshooting. IP addresses are ID numbers for the location of your computer or network on the Internet. Log files are recordings of the traffic to and from a server. We also track page hits in the aggregate to track the popularity of pages that people visit.

We use this information to improve the design and content of our Site and to help us improve your overall Internet experience. For example, we may use this data to tailor your experience at our Site, showing you content that we think you might be interested in and displaying content according to your preferences. We also may use this information to analyze site usage. We do not share this information with unaffiliated third parties.

OTHER INFORMATION SUBMITTED
Blog/Comment Entries. Please be aware that any information you disclose on a publicly accessible area of the Site will be publicly viewable. Please contact us if you believe a Site user is improperly collecting or using information about you or other Site users.

Third Party Websites. We may from time to time contract with advertisers or other third parties who place information, advertisements, or other promotional material or links on our Site. Further, our Site will display links to affiliated organizations or other sites which we believe you may find of interest. If you click on an advertisement or other link provided by or to a third party or affiliate and leave our Site, whether through a link or through visiting another website framed within our Site, you are subject to the privacy policies of the advertisers or other third parties or affiliates. We do not have responsibility for or access to the information collected by the advertisers or other third parties or affiliates.

CHANGING YOUR INFORMATION
If you would like to change the information in our files relating to your donations to Common Core, please contact us at info@commoncore.org. If you have subscribed to our Mailing List and would like to change your email or postal mailing address, we recommend that you first opt out of receiving promotional emails by following the opt out procedures included with the Common Core email when received. You may then enter the alternative address information through the “Join Our Mailing List” subscription function of our Site.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY
We reserve the right to change our Policy from time to time, and may need to revise the Policy as the Site is developed and/or new features are added to the Site. Any changes to our Policy will be effective and applicable upon change of our Policy as accessible through the Site.

COMPLIANCE WITH LAW OR LEGAL ORDER
Please note that Common Core reserves the right to act in a manner not consistent with this Privacy Policy, including the disclosing of personal information, if we believe in good faith that such action or disclosure is required to comply with the law or a legal order.

HOW TO CONTACT US
If you have questions about our Policy, please feel free to email us at info@commoncore.org

Please also read our Site Terms of Use which explains other terms governing the use of our Site.

The
Maps

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Why we disagree with P21

(and you should, too)

Spring 2010 • The new issue of the AFT's American Educator shines a light on 21st century skills, featuring contributions from Common Core's Lynne Munson and Laura Bornfreund, eduwonk Andy Rotherham and UVA's Dan Willingham, Diana Senechal, and Diane Ravitch.

December 4 • EdWeek profile questions motives of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

November 10 • You can now read Diane RavitchÕs op/ed on 21st century skills in the Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Metro West Daily News, Lowell Sun, and Quincy Patriot Ledger.

November 3 • Education Week highlights Common Core's concerns about the appointment of a P21 leader to a key Dept. of Education post.

November • Lynne Munson and Richard Kessler explain why arts education is vital in the November 2009 issue of Parenting magazine.

October 10 • Diane Ravitch's recent op/ed on 21st century skills has been reprinted in the Providence Journal.

September 16 • A group of prominent scholars, teachers, education reform advocates, and union leaders issued a statement today expressing concern about the program put forth by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) and calling for its revision. Press Advisory (pdf)

September 15 • Common Core’s Diane Ravitch shows how dated the idea of “21st century skills” really is in the Boston Globe

July 13 • Common Core’s Lynne Munson raises concerns about national standards at convention of the American Federation of Teachers. (PDF document)

July 9 • In USAToday Common Core’s Lynne Munson argues that a comprehensive education is more likely than a STEM education to produce new scientists.

July 2 • A USAToday editorial cites and links to Common Core’s “Still at Risk”" study which showed how little our 17-year-olds know about history and literature.

June 2 • Common Core releases Why We’re Behind: What Top Nations Teach Their Students But We Don’t, a report showing that the nations that consistently outrank us on international comparison tests provide their students with a fulsome education in the liberal arts and sciences. Why is this news? Because the U.S. is moving further and further away from this model. Read brief excerpts from the documents featured in the report here.