Local Control and Common Core State Standards: The Coming Confrontation
Election night is over and most pundits agree that federal educational policy is unlikely to change dramatically in the next four years. In Washington DC this week at the Excellence in Action National Summit Secretary of Education Arne Duncan promised to “stay the course,” emphasizing early childhood education, holding teachers to higher standards, recruiting more qualified teachers, improving college graduation rates, and supporting community colleges.
But I wonder if this will be enough. It seems unlikely that the next four years will be a period of quiet tinkering: the educational crisis will not wait and there is a very big and very fast policy change headed our way— in 2014 the Common Core State Standards will be implemented in 46 states and the District of Columbia. When students are evaluated on their ability to master those standards in 2015 many American kids across the class spectrum will be labeled failures. While some policy-makers and politicians may consider this a salutary “wake-up call,” the repercussion on students, teachers, families, schools, school districts and states is likely be atsunami of angst and anger. Finger pointing will be raised to a new art form and suddenly colleges and universities will find they have far fewer students to enroll. Despite the best efforts of College Board PresidentDavid Coleman to reassure states and local communities that the Common Core is not a federal initiative, I suspect that finely tuned sematic distinctions will not hold back a flood of resentment.
Consider the fate of super star education reformer Tony Bennett, the former GOP Indiana State Superintendent of
But I wonder if this will be enough. It seems unlikely that the next four years will be a period of quiet tinkering: the educational crisis will not wait and there is a very big and very fast policy change headed our way— in 2014 the Common Core State Standards will be implemented in 46 states and the District of Columbia. When students are evaluated on their ability to master those standards in 2015 many American kids across the class spectrum will be labeled failures. While some policy-makers and politicians may consider this a salutary “wake-up call,” the repercussion on students, teachers, families, schools, school districts and states is likely be atsunami of angst and anger. Finger pointing will be raised to a new art form and suddenly colleges and universities will find they have far fewer students to enroll. Despite the best efforts of College Board PresidentDavid Coleman to reassure states and local communities that the Common Core is not a federal initiative, I suspect that finely tuned sematic distinctions will not hold back a flood of resentment.
Consider the fate of super star education reformer Tony Bennett, the former GOP Indiana State Superintendent of