More than 30 years ago, a prominent commission declared the United States to be “a nation at risk” because of the “rising tide of mediocrity” sweeping our education system. Since then, policymakers and educators have put in place a series of reforms; some have worked better than others, but our progress is undeniable.
Unfortunately, this progress has not reached nearly far enough. Students at the middle and top of the performance spectrum have mostly flat-lined in recent decades. And in the past few years, even our lowest-performing students have been plateauing. That’s why, in 2010, dozens of states took the next step on the reform journey by adopting the more rigorous, college-and-career-ready Common Core State Standards. Rather than hold schools accountable just for getting students over a low bar, Georgia now expects its schools to help all pupils make progress toward challenging standards connected with student success — meaning a clear path after high school to college or a good-paying job.
Educators have spent the past four years preparing for the new standards by developing local curricula, adopting new textbooks, and prepping themselves to teach challenging material. It’s been a struggle, though, because the tests connected to the standards have yet to go live. These exams are expected to provide a more honest picture of student achievement, which inevitably means that fewer students will be deemed “proficient.”
Yet just as Georgia is about to reap the rewards of this long planting season and gain some mileage in the journey toward higher expectations, some want to backpedal. On multiple occasions, anti-Common Core lawmakers have introduced legislation to repeal the standards without success.
Much of the backlash is based on bad information or faulty arguments. Opponents say the standards are a nationally mandated curriculum even though they are: (a) not national (some states like Virginia and Texas have chosen different standards), (b) not a mandate (some states like Pennsylvania in 2010 and Indiana in 2014 chose to make some changes), and (c) not a curriculum (state standards, whether Common Core or otherwise, define the outcomes to which we aspire while locally determined curriculum helps teachers figure out how to get there).
Others make claims about supposed “data mining” or political indoctrination in the classroom — which may represent legitimate concerns, but have nothing to do with the Common Core. Still others cite a confusing worksheet or bad textbook, misconstruing a flawed attempt to meet high goals with the goals themselves.
Legislators and state officials across the country have looked closely at such claims, allegations and anxieties regarding the Common Core, and have found little to fear. Like more than 40 states, Georgia has stuck with the standards while attempting to address other concerns being raised about the education system.
We hope that is the outcome in Georgia. Its educators and students have worked too hard, for too long, to climb the mountain to higher expectations to turn around just as the summit comes into view.
