New teaching standards not a subversive ploy

opinions

March 14, 2013 - 12:00 AM

The new Common Core curriculum is coming under fire by no less than Kansas legislators — our new experts in education.
Besides taking umbrage at the Kansas Supreme Court’s role in deciding how schools should be funded, legislators are now alleging Common Core standards are nothing less than Big Brother, i.e., President Obama, ramming new laws down our throats.
No, and no.
The new teaching standards are a state-led effort designed to teach students in a better way than the federal No Child Left Behind program.
A widespread complaint of No Child was that it forced teachers to teach to the test, requiring students to memorize data. Common Core standards are designed to teach students how to comprehend the subject matter. The standards are not a curriculum per se, but rather a shared set of goals and expectations for what knowledge and skills will help our students succeed.

MEMBERS of the Kansas House Education Committee will have nothing of it and maintain the state board of education should scrap Common Core standards, adopted by Kansas in 2010.
Outsiders were brought in to testify against Common Core, including a former education commissioner from Texas and a former member of the Massachusetts State Board of Education.
Robert Scott of Texas warned education committee members the Common Core curriculum would result in a “loss of control locally,” which is “troubling.”
Hogwash. Kansas educators helped develop the standards, according to Brad Neuenswander, deputy commissioner at the state department of education.
Fellow fear-monger Sandra Stotsky of Massachusetts said she “would never trust any bureaucrat in Washington,” in her statements against the new curriculum.
Well, that’s a pretty safe statement on just about any subject these days, but hardly a valid criticism.
Stotsky is currently touring the nation making such speeches. To date, 46 states have adopted the Common Core curriculum.
The new math and language arts standards, it should be noted, came at the behest of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
There is no “Big Brother” behind the scenes, contrary to the rhetoric from the Kansas Policy Institute.
If the state were to drop Common Core, it would revert to having to follow the No Child Left Behind guidelines until it could devise a different set of standards, a process that typically takes two years.
Legislators should take a cue from students. Discern the facts and digest — before reacting. That’s called learning.
— Susan Lynn

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