“Common Core”, we hear that term in education and all kinds
of thoughts go through heads, ranging from: “politics” to “government meddling”,
but it seems like the most important thing is not mentioned enough, and that is
children.
Let’s look at an article and count:
“State Lawmaker
Hasn't Read Common Standards But Wants to Revoke Them”
“Read these two statements and see
what your reaction is:
- A Kansas state representative hopes to stop the common core in its tracks.
- A Kansas state representative who is leading the fight to set aside the state's adoption of the Common Core State Standards admits that he hasn't read them.”
“Your reaction probably depends a
lot on where you stand on a key question: whether the federal government's
ardent embrace of the standards amounts to an overstepping of authority.”
“We saw this play out in an
intriguing way over the weekend. Two news outlets reported the same story quite
differently, each capitalizing on one of the two angles I offered you at the
top of this post.”
“Exhibit number one: the Lawrence
Journal-World, which reported that Willie Dove, a Republican who
represents northeastern Kansas, is one of the big advocates of a bill that
would revoke the state's adoption of the common standards and also the Next
Generation Science Standards.”
“"While testing officials at
Kansas University are busy developing new reading and math assessments for
students to take this year, one northeast Kansas lawmaker is trying to halt the
project in its tracks," the newspaper said in the first paragraph of the
story.”
“Exhibit number two: the Associated
Press version of the story. AP spotted something in the sixth paragraph
of the Journal-World story and made it the first paragraph.”
“"An eastern Kansas Republican
who is the main proponent of a House measure that would nullify common core
reading and math standards in the state admits he hasn't read what's in
them."”
“And therein lies one of the most
interesting—and potentially disturbing, at least to some—aspects of the debate
around the common standards: to what extent is opposition based on the content
of the standards themselves—what they actually expect students to know and
do—and to what extent is it based on things that have nothing to do with
content, such as the federal government's role in getting states to adopt them?”
“For Dove, it seems, it's clearly
about the latter, since he didn't read the standards. He told the World
Journal:
"I do not believe it is within
the scope of our federal government to put something together when it comes to
education."”
“Dove has company in some sectors,
to be sure. There has been a lot of publicity given to those who feel that the
federal government's offering of incentives—such as points to help win the Race
to the Top competition, and its funding of tests designed for the
standards—constitutes a violation of laws that bar the feds from mandating
local education decisions.”
“To this, the creators of the
standards repeatedly point out that while the U.S. Department of Education has
encouraged the adoption of the standards, that's a far cry from writing them,
mandating them, or "putting them together," as Dove says.”
“To be sure, there have been critics
who have dived into the content of the standards and come up with judgments
about their quality and appropriateness. But those kinds of debates are not the
ones getting top billing in the aisles of state legislatures, which have the
power to protect or destroy academic standards, even though the authority to
adopt them typically lies with state boards of education or state chiefs.”
“So, as many state legislatures
around the country decide the fate of the standards this year, it will be
interesting to see how much of those decisions are about what children should actually learn, and how much is about the
real—or perceived—role the federal government played in creating those
standards.”
I counted the word children just once; and therein lays the problem
with this conversation (and with many education conversations), the most
important stakeholders are being left out.
Dr Flavius A
B Akerele III
The ETeam
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