Mary Natali teaches her first grade class at George Buck Elementary School in Indianapolis. Indiana was the first state in the country to revoke the Common Core math and English standards, leaving teachers reeling from years of change. (AP)
Follow on TwitterStephen Colbert mockedit. Comedian Louis C.K.called it a “massive stress ball that hangs over the whole school.” And lawmakers in state capitols spent countless hours over the past few months debating it.
Their target is theCommon Core, a set of math and English language arts standards voluntarily adopted beginning four years ago by all but a handful of states. The standards define what students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade.
Forty-five states and the District of Columbia initially signed onto the standards in both math and language arts (Minnesota adopted only the language arts standards), hoping to better prepare students for college and careers by the time they graduate from high school. Supporters say the Common Core encourages critical thinking and analytical skills, rather than rote memorization.
But in the past year, criticism over the Common Core has ramped up in state legislatures, school board meetings and classrooms. Critics from both the right and the left, including a very vocal tea party contingent, want to throw out the standards.
As of May 15, lawmakers introduced over 340 bills in 46 states—every state that had had a regular legislative session this year— that addressed college- and career-readiness education standards, including the Common Core, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Of those, 30 would slow down or delay college- and career-readiness standards and 35 would halt or revoke implementation altogether.
At the same time, implementation of the standards is well underway in most of the states that originally signed on. Despite widespread debate, only a handful of states have officially backed away from the Common Core, with a few others on the fence.
Criticism has come from the left and right. Opponents argue that the federal government is forcing Common Core on states. (Although the standards were a state-led effort, the Obama administration has given states incentives to adopt the Common Core through the competitive Race to the Top grant program and No Child Left Behind.) Some argue the standards aren’t academically demanding enough. Others say the implementation has been sloppy, with confusing or subpar curricular materials and inconsistent teacher training.
Battles Rage
About a half dozen governors have weighed in since last year with executive orders on the issue, generally reasserting the rights of states to determine their own education standards. In March, Democratic Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy signed an executive order creating a task force to study and make recommendations on the Common Core Sparks Flood of Legislation: