Do We Really Care about the Education of Other People’s Children?
You may have noticed the hot debate about the Common Core Standards (and tests) being rolled out across the states. The Common Core is the latest chapter in the test-based accountability movement. The idea is that if we set the standards much higher and make the tests harder, our children will improve and their test scores on international tests will become competitive with the scores of the children in Shanghai and Finland.
The Common Core Standards have been developed by two statewide consortia—the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. Forty-five states have bought into this effort, which has been heavily “incentivized” through requirements of federal programs like the Department of Education’s No Child Left Behind waivers. Qualifying for a waiver demands that states adopt “college and career-ready” standards, with participation in the Common Core the most immediate way a state can meet this requirement. Development of the Common Core has been extensively supported by funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
What should children know? What should they be taught at each grade level? Can we use standardized test scores as a motivator to push teachers to expect more at every level and students to work harder? These are the questions underneath the standards and accountability movement that has washed across the country in the past quarter century.
There is nothing scientific about any of this. It is, of course, possible to make academic