ALEC Behind Common Core Education Standards
In 2010, the United States adopted the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI), purportedly to streamline states’ education curricula using standards-based education reform principles. The controversial decision to implement national educational content standards has been referred to as an “uncommonly bad idea” for American education by many. Recently, educator and education advocate Morna McDermott has illuminated the initiative’s extensive corporate ties, many stemming from the American Legislative Exchange Council.
McDermott, an associate professor in the College of Education at Towson University, has mapped out CCSSI’s corporate connections in a flowchart. Her chart shows that many corporations and organizations that are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have “funded and perpetuated Common Core standards throughout the states,” Truthout reports.
The CCSSI initiative is part of a broader movement for “accountability” in education, which began with educational trends of the 1970s. According to Allan Ornstein’s, “The Evolving Accountability Movement,” the idea is partially rooted in “the ideas of Leon Lessinger and Sidney Marland, who translated business concepts