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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Common Core: Substandard educational scheme. Georgia can do... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

Common Core: Substandard educational scheme. Georgia can do... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Common Core: Substandard educational scheme. Georgia can do better. 





A few days ago, I ran aessay by leaders of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education policy think tank, urging Georgia to stay the course with the Common Core State Standards. Here is a counterview by Jane Robbins of theAmerican Principles Project, a conservative advocacy organization, and Tanya Ditty of the Concerned Women for America of Georgia
By Jane Robbins and Tanya Ditty
Michael Petrilli and Michael Brickman of the Fordham Institute recently bemoaned Georgia parents’ “misguided and ill-informed” critiques of the Common Core national standards. Common Core has had no more enthusiastic a defender than Fordham, perhaps as a result of the $6.7 million Fordham has accepted from Common Core’s financier, the Gates Foundation, to advance Gates’s pet project.  In any event, Fordham challenges Georgians to put forth a “better plan.” As Georgia parents, grandparents, and taxpayers, we accept the challenge.
The Fordham lobbyists state that the Common Core national standards are “comparable” to the previous Georgia Performance Standards (GPS). In fact, even Fordham’s official comparison of the two sets of standards (a study funded by Gates) had to conclude that Georgia’s previous standards were in many ways superior to