Curriculum Should Precede Assessments
by Diana SenechalSeptember 16th, 2010
The Common Core State Standards state that they do not outline the content that students should learn; this, they say, is the role of a curriculum. Yet it seems someone hasn’t been listening. Two groups of states are already rushing to develop assessments, which, according to the New York Times, will rely on technology and include “performance-based tasks, designed to mirror complex, real-world situations.”
Why the rush to make new tests? Isn’t there a great danger—even likelihood—that the tests will define and even impede the curriculum? This is worse than the cart going before the horse. This is a cart boasting that it will give birth to the horse—a horse with wheels that will follow in the cart’s grooves. O hubristic cart, how many fake horses will you bring forth before you regret your ways?
Here’s what I mean. The Common Core State Standards leave room for actual curricular courses in
