Education professional Steve Peha has a new newsletter out discussing the ongoing fears and debates surrounding the Common Core. While Peha is in no way one of the more vocal and enthusiastic backers of the Common Core, he does still support it because “we may end up at least one step closer to understanding the real problems and the fundamental inequities of our education system in unequivocal terms. (As long as state legislators don’t rewrite the rule book as they have done so often in the past.)”
That last part in parentheses is a major concern for Peha. He feels that states are too often afraid of the ramifications of student test results coming out badly, so they simply change what the grades/scores on the tests mean to mitigate this. This, of course, does nothing to help student learning, but it looks good politically.
Following is an excerpt:
A recent article in EdWeek expressed what I believe to be the common fear about the Common Core: that kids will do so poorly on Common Core-aligned tests, relative to previously used state tests, that many people will be upset, especially parents whose children have been passing state tests for years and, all of a sudden, will be failing instead.
“Even as states begin administering new tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards, they are ramping up efforts to eliminate or minimize public backlash when the scores—widely expected to be markedly lower than results from previous assessments—are released later this year.”
Strangely, the Core has done what many governors and presidents could not: unite Liberals and Conservatives throughout our nation around a single policy issue—one, I might add, that is nowhere near the top of any list of national or state educational priorities.
It’s really just a matter of embarrassment and, to some, perhaps a kind of breach of promise regarding how well their state has been educating their children. What most people don’t know is that states determine for themselves who passes and who doesn’t by setting their own cut points for passing and failing designations. So no matter how well or poorly kids do, state legislators can simply pass a law that says they did better. After all, this is exactly what has been happening in many states for the last 15-20 years.
The Common Core is a big deal but playing out the game of getting rid of it is classic “small ball” politics. School funding, teacher training (morale, evaluation, compensation, etc.), technology access, and racial injustice are far more serious and far more important to address. All states have had standards for years, and most of these standards look a lot like the Common Core.
But nothing brings arch rivals together better than fear. Faith, optimism, collegiality, goodwill—none of the better angels of our nature bring people together who don’t like each other because they hold opposing ideologies. Only fear can do that.
For more details, please visit:
http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=cc579a32e4983069e24308198&id=4584b3cd87&e=7ce44b9235
