Common Core State Standards Initiative

What I read:
http://www.corestandards.org/
http://www.edutopia.org/poll-common-core-state-standards-initiative (comments section)

The Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) is a joint effort by the National Governor’s Association (NGA) and The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to embed common standards of achievement in both mathematics and English language arts (i.e. primarily reading).  Its purpose is to prepare all K-12 students for college and career success. Success in this case seems to be defined as being competitive and making money. The CCSSI is being called the College and Career Readiness Standards.

At the website http://www.corestandards.org/, the authors in charge of explaining and validating this initiative seem to imply that the purpose of education is to mold young children into business men and women ready to compete in the global economy. I cringe at the use of such forceful, economy-centered language and maintain that the ultimate purpose of education is an ethical task that demands we teach the next generation to pursue knowledge and truth (not money and power).

The CCSSI is (an):
“opportunity for states to collectively accelerate and drive education reform toward the ultimate goal of all children graduating from high school ready for college work, and success in the global economy.”

“to maintain America’s competitive edge.”

“to compete with not only their American peers, but with students from around the world.”

Another sort of weird power thing coming out of the CCSSI is that there is a Validation Committee already chosen who will verify that states have “accurately adopted the Common Core State Standards.”

I do have to give credit where credit is due and I have to say I was very much impressed with the CCSSI’s assessment statement. Assessment “will include multiple forms of assessment so that what a student knows and can do, not the form of the assessment, determines performance.” This leads me to hope that, as a nation, we are at long last, steering away from assessing knowledge and skills based on a single, primarily multiple choice, test.

However, the CCSSI is not actually taking on the task of assessment. Instead, it leaves this task to States to implement on their own. It also does not show any clear view of what the common standards are at any given grade level. It claims that the standards are for K-12 and not including pre-K. However the initiative as written, seems to be written for the graduating high school senior. The CCSSI math standards draft includes the following content:

1. Math Practice
2. Numbers
3. Quantity
4. Expressions
5. Equations
6. Functions
7. Modeling
8. Shape
9. Coordinates
10. Probability
11. Statistics

Given that a graduating senior should know both basic and advanced content and skills in statistics, where does that leave a third grade teacher for example? Additionally, I have grave concerns over who is going to give the teachers professional development time and access to this information? Theory and Practice are such very different animals, one doesn’t necessarily follow the other.

Other information I think you ought to know: Participation by states is optional but participants are more likely to receive federal (Race to the Top) money. The CCSSI is flouted as a state initiative but truly the National Governor’s Association is a National Organization based in Washington D.C.. Those declining to participate in the initiative are the states of Alaska and Texas, the territories of Guam and American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. If you know why any of these groups are not participating, I would love to hear from you about what you know.

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