Is California “Common Core Unrest State # 23″?
In response to my post, UPDATE: Common Core Unrest in 22 States, I received the following comment:
You should include California. It is the sleeping giant that no one is paying attention to and here is why: First, this past summer, California Republican Party overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning Common Core. Based on your above analysis, this alone would qualify the state on your list. Second, Gov. Brown has repeatedly stated he is opposed to any government-controlled standards and testing. He just said it again just this past week. Third, California received no Race to the Top grants for K-12. Therefore, CA would have no RTTP money to worry about and could reallocate state Common Core funds to spend on teachers and schools. Fourth, California is a “local control state.” This means that any school district may reject Common Core. Awareness and revolt is growing here (California has been lagging other states) and with the 2014 election year coming, watch the sparks fly, especially in Republican dominated school districts.
Indeed, California is still under the defunct No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements– which Duncan decided to use in to hold California hostage when the state decided in September 2013 to revamp its standardized testing because the old tests did not complement the new Common Core (CCSS) (for which CA accepted no RTTT money).
California is also the only state in which Duncan has blatantly ignored federalism and waived NCLB for select districts within a state. (Duncan’s “waiving” NCLB is in itself shaky since NCLB is a federal law.) As Washington Post education writer Valerie Strauss reports:
While new [California] tests aligned with the Common Core are being designed, state officials want to replace the old tests with a limited version of the exams that are coming in 2015 — but only in those districts that have the technology to administer the exams, which are to be done on computers. That makes infinite
