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Saturday, March 8, 2014

CURMUDGUCATION: How Did CCSS Happen?

CURMUDGUCATION: How Did CCSS Happen?:



How Did CCSS Happen?









My wife is a smart person, and great and committed teacher. But she rarely reads this blog because mostly she says that it's over her head. She's a reminder to me that for every one of us who have been wading in this stuff for what feels like ages, there are many other concerned professionals who feel like they just walked in on the second season finale of Game of Thrones and aren't sure how to figure out what the hell is going on.

So I'm making a commitment to create and curate material for those folks. These occasional columns will be different from my usual stuff. Straightforward titles, clear explanations, basic materials for smart, interested people who are just coming in on the middle of this Nightmare on School Reform Street movie festival.

To keep myself honest, I'm going to imagine this first entry as a conversation between me and my wife. To all readers who are actually married to me, let me just say that this will be done with nothing but love and respect.

So where did Common Core come from anyway? 

Well, back in 1983 with A Nation at Risk--

You promised this would not be like six seasons of How I Met Your Mother 

Right. No Child Left Behind put school districts under a lot of pressure. We had to get a certain percentage of students to get above average scores on a standardized test every year. The above-