Common Core a race to the top or the bottom?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, editorial: “For too long, schools from district to district and state to state have had wildly different standards and tests that make it harder for some students to compete and harder for parents and educators to get a handle on how well schools are performing. The bipartisan effort to develop Common Core standards in reading, writing and math grew out of a National Governors Association initiative. The standards were developed over a several-year period of much public discussion. ... Fact is, a few Republican politicians, including Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, have decided ‘common core’ is the new ‘ ObamaCare,’ a wedge to be used to divide a nation that seems to be easy to divide these days.” Barry Erwin, The Times, Shreveport, La.: “Concerns that have arisen in a few states seem to center on the speed or quality of implementation, not the standards themselves. If there is a lesson to be learned from ... other states, it would be that Common Core is most successful when proper time and support are given to train teachers and prepare students prior to testing.” Jamie Gass and Charles Cheippo, The Wall Street Journal: “Compared with Massachusetts’ former standards, Common Core’s English standards reduce by 60% the amount of classic literature, poetry and drama that students will read. ... It also delays the point at which Bay State students reach Algebra I. ... The federal government and the Washington, D.C., groups behind Common Core don’t have records that inspire confidence. None of them can point to a program of theirs that has clearly improved student achievement in the past two decades. And in Massachusetts, the likely result of the Common Core is that the gains of the past 20 years will slowly but surely recede.” Phil Power, The Holland (Mich.) Sentinel: “It’s hard to see just why states still need to be sovereign over what skills kids need to have when they enter a job market that is now national in scope — and increasingly international. Local school boards in Texas might believe all kids ought to know in detail about the Alamo, while Michigan schools might stress Babe the Blue Ox. But I seriously doubt the folks at Google will find any of that a competitive advantage when picking whom to hire.” Susan Spicka, Keystone Politics: “Children in districts with high levels of poverty will be especially vulnerable to the new Common Core tests. High-stakes standardized tests are supposed to give an overall picture of what students have and haven’t learned. Instead, what they reliably show is which students have come to school well-fed, well-rested and well taken care of. Many, many students who are hungry, tired or abused struggle to perform well on them.” Andrea Neal, The Indianapolis Star: “As a middle school teacher of English and history, I’ve had the chance to review dozens of textbooks and workbooks being marketed by publishers as ‘Common Core aligned.’ These new materials are no better than what we have already, except they are more explicitly tied to coming assessments, which will be no better than what we have already. High quality instructional materials in the hands of effective teachers are more likely to affect achievement than a rewriting of standards. Education reformers should ... focus their attention on the recruitment, training and retention of excellent teachers for every classroom.”