Monday, April 14, 2014

EDUCATION - A Step Backward, States Rejecting Common Core Education

As if having a common standard to measure K-12 educations is bad.  Note that Common Core is NOT mandatory, states DO NOT have to adopt it whole-hog, which means it is state controlled.

The thing that is WRONG with Common Core is the tests and the link to education funding.  The test have long been seen NOT to measure progress of a individual child's education.  And the test should have never been linked to education funding.

"Facing bipartisan backlash, Oklahoma reconsiders Common Core education standards" PBS NewsHour 4/11/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  This month, Oklahoma became the latest state to take a big step toward repealing the Common Core education standards.  The Oklahoma State Senate passed a bill just last week to do so, this as more than a dozen other states are considering repeal, and still others are reviewing how they use the standards when it comes to teaching and testing.

It’s a big shift from the broad and often bipartisan support that Common Core enjoyed just a few years ago.

Jeffrey Brown has the story.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  Common Core was initiated in 2009 by the nation’s governors, seeking national standards for math and English literacy.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan supported the move, spending $350 million to develop Common Core tests.

ARNE DUNCAN, Secretary of Education:  I believe this new generation of assessment is an absolute game-changer for American education.

JEFFREY BROWN:  In relatively short order, nearly every state agreed to create curricula based on the Common Core guidelines.

But more recently, a backlash has begun.  Last month, Indiana became the first state to drop the Common Core standards it had already adopted.

Governor Mike Pence explained the move in an Indianapolis radio interview.

GOV. MIKE PENCE, R, Ind.:  Hoosiers should be very proud and take every opportunity to be engaged in the fact that we’re the first state in the country that’s really going back to the principle that education is a state and local function.

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