Bill Gates Comes To The Defense Of The Common Core:

Bill Gates Comes To The Defense Of The Common Core

Bill Gates is rallying teachers to support an embattled cause, the Common Core State Standards.

At a speech Friday afternoon in Washington, D.C., the Microsoft co-founder is lending his voice to save the standards. According to prepared remarks provided to The Huffington Post, Gates told educators at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards' Teaching and Learning Conference that the Common Core is the key to creativity for teachers. He also charged that the controversy around the Core "comes from people who want to stop the standards, which would send us back to what we had before."

The Common Core is a set of learning standards that has been touted as more focused, rigorous and internationally competitive than the current hodgepodge of learning expectations that define American education. Its proponents say the Core intends to have students learn less content but in greater depth. In English language arts, students will read more nonfiction texts to train them to engage with material one might encounter in the real world. In math, proofs and demonstration of work will be emphasized over the memorization of equations.

Gates argued that America's education system currently does not prepare students