Louisiana Educator: The Common Core in Louisiana, Part 2:
The Common Core in Louisiana, Part 2
Classroom testing the CCSS
As the standards were written, there was no provision made for field testing of the standards in K-12 schools, probably because this would have added additional time to the development process. The Gates Foundation and Arne Duncan believed that public education in the U.S. was performing at such a low level compared to other industrialized countries (Diane Ravitch shows that this is a myth) that a quick implementation of new standards was essential. Regular classroom teachers were not asked if they believed that the teaching techniques necessary for proficiency in Common Core standards were practical and effective. Only after the standards had been written were a few teachers asked to give only a cursory review of the standards. No teacher was ever actually allowed real input into the standards. Lack of field testing of the standards in my opinion has been a serious mistake. Millions of students across the nation are now serving as guinea pigs for a very crudely designed and flawed system. Louisiana's experience with standards implementation
Another flawed assumption of the Common Core adoption in my opinion, was that it is assumed that the new standards are more rigorous and will somehow automatically produce higher level learning. There is no evidence whatsoever that student achievement will be improved because the CCSSS have not been tested. For Louisiana in particular, I don't think that any
