Issue Position: Common Core

Issue Position

As an educator for over 30 years, I am steadfastly opposed to Common Core. Mandating standards from the top down is a failed approach that undermines local interests and authority, and unalterably degrades education. States, local communities and families know far better how to design standards based on their students and parents' needs than Washington bureaucrats, and how to provide the classroom content to meet those standards.

There has been an attempt to sell Common Core to the public as a way of elevating educational outcome. We are told repeatedly that the standards are "rigorous", internationally benchmarked, designed by educators, and initiated by the states. None of these assertions are true.

We are also told that Common Core is just a set of standards, and not a curriculum, so individual communities can set their own standards higher. However, national assessments and college entrance exams will be tied tightly to these so-called "rigorous" standards, so classroom content is driven by the federal standards. In other words, your children will be taught what the federal government wants them to learn. Please read that sentence over again to yourself, slowly. Ask yourself whether history suggests this is a healthy arrangement.

I am not a newcomer to this subject. I have been working diligently against the implementation of Common Core in Massachusetts for three years. When I first began, teachers were unaware of what was involved. Later, they expressed quiet dissatisfaction, but were afraid to voice their objections. They told us they were, literally, afraid of losing their jobs. Now, many teachers and teachers' unions are openly opposed to the Common Core because they see how it ties their hands and requires that they, too, be subjected to poorly-designed standards and practices.

Perhaps most egregious is the invasion of privacy that we face under federalized education plans. Highly personal data is collected from students and is incorporated into a permanent record that will follow your child for life. The information collected is more than just test scores and academic progress. Examples are given below, in this chart taken directly from page 4 of the SLDS Technical brief (http://pgbovine.net/OET-Draft-Grit-Report-2-17-13.pdf):

Common_core_table.png

Let me know if you feel comfortable with what you see here.

Despite the stated intent to advance educational standards, Common Core will require many states, including Massachussetts, to move backwards. Sandra Stotsky, who served on the Steering Committee for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment framework for 2009, and who served on the committee to validate Common Core standards said, "The standards dumb down American education by about two grades-worth."

Washington has tried one-size-fits-all education approaches time and again. Common Core is just the next step in elevating the role of federal government in the classroom. Centralized education programs have not worked and will never work. The quality of education has only declined over the past several decades. The solution is to get the federal government out of the education business.

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