Common core not the first educational miracle

(Page 3 of 4)

While some states already have begun testing students, it may be too early to say. Kentucky was the first state to fully implement the standards and saw math and English proficiency drop by a third in the first round of state assessments, in the 2011-12 school year. (The results of Kentucky’s 2012-13 tests are expected at the end of September.) Proficiency levels also plummeted in New York, the next state to fully implement the standards, but education leaders cautioned that the results were more a reflection of higher standards than declining student achievement.

If you listed to the real education experts, you can begin to see the problems with Common Core.

Neal McCluskey is the associate director of the Center for Educational Reform. Williamson Evers was the U.S. assistant secretary for education for policy. Sandra Stotsky was senior associate commissioner of education for Massachusetts.

The three recently wrote an op-ed piece for the Daily News.

They point to a number of problems with the Common Core.

“First, the creation and adoption of these standards have violated the traditions of open debate and citizen control that are supposed to undergird public schooling,” they wrote, pointing out that the adoption process was “strong-armed” by the Obama administration via the Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind money that was only granted to states that adopted the curriculum with no questions asked.

Secondly, they said, “The Core is supposed to be internationally benchmarked, but supporters cannot name on nation to which it is pegged.”

Third, they say, “there is little evidence that setting national standards yields superior outcomes.”

“There is little deeper research on [the Core Curriculum], but what there is suggests that once you control for variables such as income and culture, national standards have no effect.

Page 3 / 4