It's silly to pretend Common Core is not a curriculum
"The Common Core has become a rallying cry for fringe groups that claim it is a scheme for the federal government to usurp state and local control of what students learn. An op-ed in the New York Times called the Common Core "a radical curriculum." It is neither radical nor a curriculum." -- Arne Duncan
I half expect Duncan himself to slam me (call me "silly," a "suburban mom" or a "fringe group"?) for writing this but here goes.
Disinformation about the Common Core, coming straight from the D.O.E. and spread across a compliant media, includes the myths that standards are home-grown and that they are simply standards and NOT curriculum.
In an unusually long Huffington blog piece, ed writer Joy Resmovitz reports:
Each state sets its own learning standards, and those get translated through thousands of districts and schools and teachers. The Core is supposed to unify this patchwork of efforts not only across states, but across the country. .And contrary to popular belief, it's not a curriculum: School systems and teachers can choose their own instructional materials, as long as students know what the Core says they should know by year's end.But curriculum is all about determining and deciding what's most worthwhile to teach and