How did the Common Core initiative, whose goal seemed so pure — to provide a better education to all of America’s students — get to be so politically toxic? Despite the obligatory Tea Party backlash, the initiative initially had bipartisan support. Now that liberal education activists like Diane Ravitch are chiming in against the standards, however, it’s clear that they have some serious problems.
For starters, the fact that almost no one knew what is in the Common Core is concerning. The standard-setting should have involved many members of the education community, including teachers. Instead, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers — the standards’ authors — teamed up with big education companies like Pearson.
The corporate reform movement, which supports the Common Core, also advocates for heightened accountability, meaning expanding the use of standardized tests to judge students, teachers, and schools. The Common Core furthers this goal, creating even more tests for students to take and for teachers to be evaluated based upon. At Grady, I’ve seen firsthand the detrimental effects of this overemphasis on testing.
The Common Core isn’t all bad, though. The argument that it constitutes a federal takeover of education is preposterous, as the standards are completely optional, and efforts to get rid of the Common Core have justifiably prompted fierce backlash.
The standards need to be fixed, not dismantled.
The need they address — the watering-down of state education standards to allow students to meet the increasingly unreasonable standards set by No Child Left Behind — is real. And the goal of giving all students a quality education is a worthy one. But instead of emphasizing high-stakes testing, the Common Core should focus more on exposing students to a broad range of subjects, including the arts. It should not just prepare students for college, but also offer them the opportunity to gain vocational skills. It should offer the same resources to low-income students as it does their wealthy peers. Only then will American students get the kind of education they deserve.
