Principal warns parents: ‘Don’t buy the bunk’ about new Common Core tests
That is the title of this post at the Answer Sheet Blog of the Washington Post, run by Valerie Strauss. The author is Carol Burris, an award-winning principal in Long Island who originally supported the idea of Common Core but has become increasingly concerned about the damage it will do as she has watched it take shape, particularly with respect to the assessments that will go with the Common Core. As Burris puts it,
New York’s Common Core tests, designed to measure whether 8-14 year olds are on the path to college readiness, will soon begin. The stakes have never been higher, since teachers and principals are now being evaluated in part by student scores. Like the teacher evaluation system, Common Core testing is a plane being built in the air — a plane in which the passengers are children.She warns parents not to be taken in, and offers four key points: