Mr. Van Roekel: Common Core Standards Mean Standardization, Not an End to One-Size-Fits-All
The critical thinking that the Common Core is supposed to promote cannot come soon enough. It is sorely lacking in the defense of the Common Core standards offered today by NEA president Dennis Van Roekel. Mr. Van Roekel continues the union's attempt to separate the standards from the tests that have been designed to enforce them. He describes a mythical land where standards are broad, and teachers have autonomy to create their own lessons.
The problems start with the headline: "Why the Common Core Could Bring the End of One-Size-Fits-All Learning."
Wouldn't that be great? Isn't that what everyone dreams of? So let's pull up our chairs and read a bit about how this could happen.
First Mr. Van Roekel offers this:
Over the past decade we have increasingly relied on standardized test results to judge students, teachers, and schools, but we still haven't created assessments that give a fully accurate picture of student learning.
Is this intended to suggest that there are assessments around the corner that COULD give a fully accurate picture of student learning -- but we just haven't created them yet? What about the tests that were given last spring in New York?
Next we have a critique of the patchwork of different states using different standardized tests
