Opinion: Common Core education ‘standard’ deserves second look
By MARK BALLARD
Guest columnist
MARK BALLARD
Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013, 8 p.m. — There is a lot of talk as of late about Common Core. What is Common Core?
The Mission Statement states:
“The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.” (Source)
Wow, sounds great, right? But are we really slacking behind the rest of the world?
“NCLB (No Child Left Behind) requires at least 95 percent of learning disabled (LD) and limited English proficient (LEP) students’ scores on math, reading, and soon science, be included in the overall state yearly progress reports.” link A
The rest of the world does not include learning disabled and limited English proficiency scores in their overall average. Comparing apples to oranges doesn’t quite seem right.
In reality, Common Core is nothing more than a federal takeover of the education system. It will replace state and local control of curriculum with national standards.
Common Core was passed as part of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package and will affect every school in the nation.
Common Core State Standards are actually not “state” standards at all. They are designed to circumvent federal restrictions on the adoption of a national curriculum. The fact that the Bill of Rights and the Constitution leaves power for setting education standards in the hands of the states themselves matters not to this administration, which has done nothing but work to circumvent both. The word “State” is in the title only to throw off suspicion of the federal government overstepping its bounds yet again.
States were enticed to adopt this standard through the offerings of federal grants. Greedy governors who can’t manage their state’s finances (like Kentucky) jumped at the chance to get more “free” money — the catch is they have to forfeit the rights of the teachers and parents to have input into the curriculum for their children and their communities.
If done under the guise of improving our place in the world among the educated, Common Core falls short. It is more of a move to produce automatons and not independent thinkers we need with their own ideas and imaginations. It will definitely indoctrinate our youth; but educate them to higher standards than the rest of the world? Don’t believe it.
The curriculum is driven by policy makers in Washington D.C. It was developed with little or no dialogue with the public, little or no feedback from experienced educators, and no evidence that it works.
“Already, 45 states, D.C., and four U.S. territories have built educational curricula based on Common Core. But, as reality is coming to light, some states are withdrawing, and others are refusing to participate. More and more teachers are speaking out about the unrealistic and unfinished nature of Common Core; national education commentators are weighing in on the classroom havoc around the country. Meanwhile, the federal government is aggressively pushing to add Common Core standards for science and social studies.” (Source)
I encourage you to educate yourself on Common Core State Standards and see if you think it is something we as parents, teachers, or members of the community should support. If not, call your state legislators and Gov. Steve Beshear and demand they put an end to this indoctrination of our children.
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