Common Core or Uncommon Confusion?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you have heard the words “Common Core.”

What is it? The Common Core State Standards are standards which define what K-12 public school children should know when they graduate from high school in mathematics and English language arts & literacy. 45 states including Georgia, D.C. and 2 territories have signed on to adopt these standards and began implementation in the 2012-13 school year. The next generation science standards will be next unless stopped.

In 2014-15 Georgia plans to replace the mandatory CRCT tests with new tests developed by PARCC - Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers - to assess student mastery of the new math and language arts CCSS.

So what’s the big deal? As this program has come into the classroom the criticism has elevated to a feverish pitch – it has become a political hot potato within the Republican Party. The perceived politics behind the program have people foaming at the mouth and saying some things, which aren’t helpful or relevant to the problem at hand.

First of all – where did the Common Core Standards come from? The program was developed by a group called Achieve, Inc. formed in 1996 by business leaders, governors and foundations. Work on the standards was underway in 2004 – so much for this being Obama’s “leftist agenda.”  Check Achieve’s history here http://www.achieve.org/history-achieve. 

Far from being a “leftist agenda” many on the “left” are saying that this program is the ultimate triumph of corporate America turning public school teachers into their pawns. 

Achieve’s promise for your son or daughter’s education; “All students should graduate from high school fully prepared for college and career.” Per their own description: “Achieve helps raise academic standards and graduation requirements, improve assessments and strengthen accountability.” 

You surely want your children to go to college and get a good job after college but what exactly are they going to be “assessed “ on from kindergarten to 12th grade to ensure they can get into college? What research can Achieve show that validates the standards?  What happens to my child if he or she doesn’t “track well” in 3rd grade. What research can Achieve or PARCC show that the assessments align with the curriculum each state is supposed to be developing on their own to achieve the standards? What are the consequences for schools with low-test scores? 

Or, how about these questions; why is Georgia passing laws (HB 244) which tie 50% of an “assessed” subject teacher’s salary to standards which are not research based and on an assessment which has not yet been validated? No Child Left Behind demonstrated that high stakes testing – think APS - did not improve teacher effectiveness or student learning. Is the assumption in the Common Core agenda that it was just the WRONG test?  Do they have new evidence that teaching to this test and learning are related?  

If you or your child likes tests – you may like the Common Core agenda. 

My biggest beef with the whole program is this – if it continues as planned (I hope not), the kids that have resources and parental involvement will master the tests eventually; the kids that don’t will continue to perform poorly. We will accomplish nothing in Georgia except spend millions of dollars on a whiz bang data system to tell us what we already knew - low income kids have lower graduation rates
and lower test scores than other kids http://bit.ly/12bxElN. Everyone, including Obama, will continue to ignore the word “poverty.”

The Common Core mantra: if the bar is set higher and kids try harder they will achieve more. There’s nothing wrong with optimism unless your job depends on someone else wanting to try harder perhaps.

My other problem with CCS in Georgia - will this “new data” give our legislators who continue to defund public education to the tune of $1 billion each year more ammunition to send tax dollars to private schools and state charter schools? All public schools will lose.  So much for national programs and reams of data in the hands of those who on the state level have not shown support for public education or local control and call themselves Republican legislators who care about the state’s economy.

Is Common Core a good thing? What state are you calling from?

Finally, it is amusing to see legislators and lobbyists who supported the Charter Amendment last fall now tripping all over themselves to trash Common Core. Federal overreach is horrible but state overreach is not? Again – this is education policy – logic need not apply and in my opinion, no logic applies to the Common Core agenda. 

Parents and taxpayers – please ask lots of questions. Every child who attends public school in Georgia will be affected by Common Core. Your voice matters. Contact the GA State BOE bit.ly/1296v4m and ask them to stop further investment in Common Core until they can give you answers to your questions.