By signing on to national standards and the assessments that will accompany them, participating states have ceded their autonomy to design and oversee the implementation of their own standards and tests. The implications of ceding this autonomy are varied. Not only do some states risk sacrificing high quality standards for national standards that may be less rigorous, all states are sacrificing their ability to inform what students learn. Moreover, the act of adopting national standards has and will continue to disrupt legal and other processes upon which states rely to ensure the adequate and equitable delivery of educational materials and resources. Finally and, perhaps, most distressing, the predicted cost to states of implementing the Common Core is in the billions of dollars, a number that only stands to grow if implementation ramps up.
The previous paragraph is from the Executive Summary of A Republic of Republics: How Common Core Undermines State and Local Autonomy Over K-12 Education. The report, authored by Robert Scott, former Commissioner, Texas Education Agency and published by the Pioneer Institute, chronicles how Common Core Standards weaken federalism and centralize control of public education in the hands of the federal government and other private entities. Scott goes on to describe the costs — financial and otherwise — of states sacrificing their autonomy and ends with recommendations for how concerned citizens might think about the proper role of federal and state government in an era of national standards and tests.
For anyone interested in a sobering account of Common Core Standards and their consequences, A Republic of Republics is must reading.
See here to learn more about Robert Scott’s views about Common Core and what’s going on in North Carolina.
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