Common core revamp succeeds by failing
Published January 7, 2016
Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, January 6, 2016.
Not every F grade is a failure. In the case of the Common Core curriculum in North Carolina, it may be graduation with honors.
Some political ideologues in the General Assembly got wrapped up in the national hysteria about Common Core education standards. So they set up a commission to ditch the national benchmarks and create North Carolina's own.
If the Academic Standards Review Commission had succeeded in that mission, it would have hurt this state's students - especially the children of military families. Common Core was especially attractive to the military, and Army leaders have been vocal in their support. Frequent transfers are a hallmark of military life and soldiers' children have long paid an academic price for it as they move from state to state, trying to meet sometimes sharply differing academic standards.
Common Core changes that. Families know that when they move from, say, North Carolina to Texas, the children will see similar curriculum and testing.
But some of this state's political leaders took umbrage, proclaiming that they would fight this unjust imposition by the Obama administration.
Trouble is, Obama didn't have much to do with Common Core. The standards were developed by state school leaders and the National Governors Association (which is dominated by Republicans). The administration does support Common Core and offered incentives for strong academic standards through its Race to the Top program. North Carolina was a big winner in that competition.
In the end, 44 states adopted the standards, but several, including this one, later decided to opt out. That could have created a mind-boggling mess for educators, who had just gone through a major curriculum revamp and training in Common Core standards.
Fortunately, the review commission was unable to agree on much of anything and last month acknowledged that it mostly failed. The panel recommended some adjustments so that standards better fit students' ages, and said teachers need better training.
It was, in short, a minor facelift. "It means taking Common Core and calling it something different, that's what I think ultimately these recommendations will accomplish," said Tammy Covil, commission co-chair.
That's about right. Give it a new name and call the exercise a success. And then get on with sound, challenging and consistent education.
January 9, 2016 at 11:39 am
Sandra stotsky says:
You could reprint this and arouse more readers.
http://newbostonpost.com/2016/01/08/deliberately-deceiving-the-public-on-common-core/
