2013 in Review Part Two: The Year the Common Core Began to Unravel
It was supposed to be easy. The campaign was one of shock and awe, intended to overpower and silence anyone with the nerve to criticize. Most of us first heard of the Common Core when we learned that 45 states and the District of Columbia had summarily adopted them, with no public hearings or even legislative approval. Just the signatures of the Governor and state superintendent was all that was required, and we were off to the races - or Race to the Top, as it turned out.
We were warned to get on board, get out of the way, or get run over. Our unions signed on, professional organizations, and of course all the recipients of Gates funding as well, became cheerleaders for the new standards - which had nothing to do with curriculum or testing, of course.
But the project began to unravel this year, as people began to see the ways in which the Common Core enhanced and deepened our reliance on high stakes tests for all sorts of important decisions. I tracked the growing opposition, beginning with this February post which described an Arizona event where I debated a conservative proponent of standards associated with ALEC, and found surprising support from the audience for my critique of high stakes testing.
In the summer we received the Common Core test results from New York state, and saw how officials there had created a "disaster by design," since they knew in advance that only 30% of the students were going to pass. This dovetailed with a report from Indiana that showed how one of