More bad news for support for the Common Core standards, a voluntary policy that 48 states have adopted to create common standards for United States students. Proponents of the Common Core, including the Obama administration, believe these universal standards will address the great disparity between standards set by states. But, with the implementation of the standards and the accompanying assessments,
researchers,
parents, and
educators are protesting the fallacy of the standards. In
New York, an early adopter of the standards, tensions over the standards are mounting. So, what's all the fuss?
The fury over the common core requires a disentanglement of the issue, especially when you consider the early adoption of it. Remember, the Common Core is voluntary. States do not have to adopt them. Of course, there are several incentives to adopt them. The Obama administration has tied Race to the Top and other grant funding to states that are willing to include the Common Core as part of their educational reform. But even if there wasn't that, many educators, researchers, and policy makers agree that there should be a common set of standards. Why should expectations for fourth graders in Tennessee be different from those in Oregon or in Vermont? In essence, when students complete 12th grade, they should all have a certain amount of skills and knowledge to prepare them to be contributing citizens to the community. Yet, still there is substantial opposition to the Common Core.
The problem, today, seems to be not in the idea of the standards but in the way they are implemented. Educators and parents alike can't figure out what the purpose of this new "system" of learning. And why not? The image to the left is from a Kindergarten workbook. What is the child supposed to do? The Common Core in its implementation phase seems to be more of an expensive marketing campaign by the reformers rather than an effective improvement to the education system. Still, I doubt the Common Core will die. After all, the for profit curriculum companies and educational consultants need to make their money first.