The News and Observer has come up with another delusion about Common Core State Standards: that the only explanation for opposition to the standards “is that [NC] GOP leaders are being led around by tea party extremists.”
That’s the claim News & Observer editors made in a recent editorial. Blaming the Tea Party is a convenient tactic. It allows editors to put forth their favorite narrative: Extremists are driving the conservative education agenda and in the process sabotaging a bipartisan effort adopted by 45 states to improve academic standards.
There’s only one problem: It’s not true.
To believe the Tea Party is the major thrust opposing Common Core is to ignore the academic, political, philosophical and pragmatic critiques of Common Core. The critiques have been offered by groups across the political spectrum. Both liberals and conservatives have helped to fuel the pushback against Common Core in 35 states across this country.
Diane Ravitch is a prominent historian, education reformer and scholar at New York University. As you might guess about an NYU professor, Diane Ravitch is not a member of the Tea Party. Ravitch is a vocal liberal critic of Common Core who has written insightfully about the problems associated with the implementation of the standards. She laid out her decision to oppose Common Core in a lengthy and thoughtful blog post.
Lest N&O editors think Ravitch a lone voice in the halls of academia, editors should consider Harvard Professor and Brookings Institute Researcher Thom Loveless. Loveless set off a firestorm two years ago when he wrote a study of the Common Core Standards and concluded they make little or no difference in student achievement.
Dr. William Mathis, of the University of Colorado and the National Education Policy Center on that campus, has expressed his concern that Common Core is dominated by corporate interests. He also believes adoption of a set of standards and assessments by themselves is unlikely to improve learning, increase test scores, or close the achievement gap.
Paul Horton is a teacher of history at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Horton is another well-known liberal progressive who argues that Common Core undermines the teaching profession because its only purpose is to generate profits for businesses. Horton has done much to rally his fellow liberals against Common Core. I could go on but you get the point.
N&O editors disregarded these developments and their impacts nationally. Editors have also conveniently ignored much of the real pushback against Common Core that has occurred in blue states.
Gov. Cuomo of New York has heard an earful from teacher union activists and concerned parents of all political persuasions who oppose Common Core because of how teachers are evaluated. The recently-approved New York state budget included a provision that delays the impact of Common Core test results on students. Cuomo has also said he may revisit Common Core’s impact on teachers later in the legislative session.
Last year Massachusetts voted to delay implementation of Common Core tests by two years while it compares assessment tests. Massachusetts Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester called the proposed timeline to implement the Common Core assessments “too precipitous” for his state’s schools.
It’s also interesting to note that last month the 110,000-member Massachusetts Teachers Association elected a president, Barbara Madeloni, who opposes high-stakes testing, the use of tests to evaluate teachers, and Common Core standards. During her campaign, Madeloni called for a vigorous campaign against the “corporate forces” behind the standards and other evaluation efforts.
Do these developments impact North Carolina? Yes. The facts suggest the Tea Party is far from the only opposition to the Common Core standards. Diane Ravitch has written about many recent educational developments in North Carolina and both liberals and conservatives have invoked Ravitch’s views on Common Core.
The criticism is filtering into the teaching profession. An informal 2013 Civitas online survey of public school teachers in North Carolina found that nearly two-thirds of all teachers favored slowing down or halting the process of implementing Common Core standards in North Carolina public schools.
Anyone familiar with the public comments voiced at the last LRC Common Core Committee meeting heard the standards being criticized for any number of reasons, including being age-inappropriate, giving too much power to unelected officials, over-reliance on testing, and excessive influence of corporate interests.
Current efforts against Common Core Standards in North Carolina are a fusion of critiques from the right and left. Conservatives oppose Common Core because it violates federalism and takes away control of education from parents and states. Many progressives and liberals oppose Common Core because they feel threatened by the standardization of education and by how businesses may reap billions from these changes if they can exploit the opportunity.
Finally, doesn’t the major funder of Common Core also deserve scrutiny? By one estimate, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent $2.3 billion to develop and implement Common Core standards in the states. Since 2008, the Gates Foundation has given North Carolina organizations about $17.2 million – much of it to the Hunt Institute – to implement Common Core Standards. The Gates Foundation is by far the single biggest funder of the Common Core Standards in North Carolina and nationally. For as much as N&O editors like to bring down individuals for throwing around their money and influence, it is stunning that the newspaper remains virtually mum on the tremendous influence Gates’ money has had on developing and spreading Common Core in North Carolina and nationally.
The paper continues to claim the Tea Party has brought North Carolina to the precipice. The facts speak otherwise. So does the N&O’s silence.
Is anybody surprised that the Observer is taking an anti-conservative, anti-Tea Party stance to an unpopular item pushed by a liberal president? The observer is used to line litter pans in this house.
I not heard anyone in the profession of educations attack the reasoning or Common Core objectives of teaching critical thinking. America needs a world class public education system. I have heard criticism of the excessive testing. The conservative plan seems to be another pathway to move public tax dollars to “for profit” education without having to be accountable to the public.
The last thing conservatives want is an educated public, it just not in their interest. Uneducated people are much easier to control.
Absolutely agree with Lonnie.
Lonnie –
Your comments are baseless. Our criticism of Common Core is based on the premise that it provides an inferior education. It does not do what it says it will do; and raises too many unanswered questions. If you want to comment, please add to the discussion.and not provide baseless allegations.
Bob, the question that should be ask is who is supporting Common Core and what are the objectives? Here’s a list of groups supporting Common Core.
“Statements About the Common Core State Standards
Achieve
ACT, Inc.
Alliance for Excellent Education
American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
American Council on Education
American Statistical Association
ASCD
Bill Schmidt, University Distinguished Professor of statistics and education at Michigan State University
Business Endorsement Letter
The Business-Higher Education Forum
The College Board
Coalition for a College and Career Ready America (CCCRA)
Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE)
Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)
Council of the Great City Schools
Hunt Institute
Joint statement by: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM), the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics (ASSM), and the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE)
Military Child Education Coalition
National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE)
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
National Education Association (NEA)
National Higher Education Organizations
National Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
National School Boards Association (NSBA)
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Presentation by Dr. Hung-Hsi Wu
State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO)
The United States Army”
I suggest the readers watch the video on the top right of the link. http://www.corestandards.org/other-resources/statements-of-support/
Lonnie,
Excellent job, you certainly added to the discussion, if one can call it that here.
The link between educational attainment and party affiliation is pretty much well known. As witnessed over the last few years, it isn’t even necessarily an issue of control, but more a matter of instilling fear into the GOP base (Black Panthers, death panels, muslims, etc. etc.)
YoYoman
Fear and hate are all these conservatives have in their political tool bag. Civitas Institute and conservative action groups have no solutions, no ideas and no vision for a brighter future. They offer wage earning workers nothing but scapegoats and bigotry.
Couldn’t agree more. This organization has zero credibility.
Common Core is simply a set of standards that the US needs for education. In a society as mobile as ours, it is necessary to have standards that all states should abide by. I don’t how many times I have heard children who have moved to our state either say they learned this subject last year in their school (so NC is behind) or who miss a topic because NC is ahead of where they are.
Reading some of the comments here concerning how conservatives want a dumb down society, I can see how effective our worthless public education system has been in its indoctrination of students and insuring that they remain emotional (subjective) when making a decision rather than being objective. Common Core allows for an expansion of reaching a conclusion by choosing what makes one feel good and not necessarily the correct answer!
Dan, it appears your comments are based on emotion rather then facts. See the link on the objectives of Common Core. The excessive over testing is controlled by the NCGA and can easily be remedied by not over testing.
See the list of organizations supporting Common Core objectives.
http://www.corestandards.org/other-resources/statements-of-support/
Lonnie
I have read numerous articles and looked at numerous facts about Common Core. It allows for being creative in approaching testing, such as a really silly wrong answer by a student being considered correct because they were being creative by stating their answer. Taught at community college and university levels for over 16 years while seving as a LEO. Had high numbers of students from the public Ed. system whose reading writing and cognitive skills were a joke, but graduated from N. C. High schools.
Dan, here’s an excellent example of the critical thinking skills that are the objectives of Common Core . You offer and opinion challenging the organizations below whom have devoted much study into their endorsement. Should a reasonable person believe your opinion over the professional groups below just on your opinion?
Achieve
ACT, Inc.
Alliance for Excellent Education
American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
American Council on Education
American Statistical Association
ASCD
Bill Schmidt, University Distinguished Professor of statistics and education at Michigan State University
Business Endorsement Letter
The Business-Higher Education Forum
The College Board
Coalition for a College and Career Ready America (CCCRA)
Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE)
Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)
Council of the Great City Schools
Hunt Institute
Joint statement by: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM), the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics (ASSM), and the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE)
Military Child Education Coalition
National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE)
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
National Education Association (NEA)
National Higher Education Organizations
National Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
National School Boards Association (NSBA)
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Presentation by Dr. Hung-Hsi Wu
State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO)
The United States Army”
I suggest the readers watch the video on the top right of the link. http://www.corestandards.org/other-resources/statements-of-support/
Lonnie
I guess you do not consider an opinion based on 16 years of teaching at the higher levels of education. But I can understand that since you place so much value in these professional organizations that I see as being responsible for much of our failed education system. A system whose apparent goal is to turn out as many illiterate students who have high self-esteem, but cannot read and write! Make great liberal voters.
Dan, Is that what you see in todays youth? How long have the Common Core objectives been in place? I was under the impression this is the plan for American public education to be uniform across the country with the objective of American youth from any state or county to have a world class education competitive to any country in the world? What are your understandings?
Lonnie,You and YoYo are always rambling on about fear and hate.I think I speak for most conservatives when I say,I don’t hate Liberals,and I sure don’t fear them.The only thing I fear is people this stupid becoming the majority.