Tweedledee and Tweedledum
I was intrigued by this quote from a Diane Ravitch article:
‘The Common Core standards have been adopted in 46 states and the District of Columbia without any field test. They are being imposed on the children of this nation despite the fact that no one has any idea how they will affect students, teachers, or schools. We are a nation of guinea pigs, almost all trying an unknown new program at the same time.’
The New Zealand variant of CCS is called National Standards (or, since imposed by the National Party, otherwise known as National’s Standards). These were developed in a very similar manner as Diane highlights – no field test, no research base, no input from reputable education and assessment experts, etc – and imposed in the face of strenuous opposition from national and international educators (“why on earth are you doing this?’ or words to that effect). The wording is similar, as are the defined levels of ‘achievement’.
Further, the rationale for the imposition of National Standards is also similar – failure as evidenced by the PISA test regimes – which shows up deficiencies as compared to other countries. The expressed aim is to compete against other countries, to be ranked higher. Australia, which hasn’t (yet) gone down the standards route, uses
‘The Common Core standards have been adopted in 46 states and the District of Columbia without any field test. They are being imposed on the children of this nation despite the fact that no one has any idea how they will affect students, teachers, or schools. We are a nation of guinea pigs, almost all trying an unknown new program at the same time.’
The New Zealand variant of CCS is called National Standards (or, since imposed by the National Party, otherwise known as National’s Standards). These were developed in a very similar manner as Diane highlights – no field test, no research base, no input from reputable education and assessment experts, etc – and imposed in the face of strenuous opposition from national and international educators (“why on earth are you doing this?’ or words to that effect). The wording is similar, as are the defined levels of ‘achievement’.
Further, the rationale for the imposition of National Standards is also similar – failure as evidenced by the PISA test regimes – which shows up deficiencies as compared to other countries. The expressed aim is to compete against other countries, to be ranked higher. Australia, which hasn’t (yet) gone down the standards route, uses