Outgoing South Carolina School Chief: I Will Kill Common Core
Photo credit: Milken Family Foundation
I have a healthy skepticism about how the review and replacement of the Common Core will go down in South Carolina. I’m still inclined to believe there are political games being played right now.
Outgoing State Superintendent of Public Schools Mick Zais’ interview with The State makes me want to rethink that a little.
Zais vows those standards will be S.C.-written and very different from Common Core.“We’re not going to repackage (Common Core). We’re not going to rebrand. We’re not going to tweak the Common Core … and we’re not even going to have a copy of Common Core state standards in the room for the writing panels,” Zais told The State earlier this week.Instead, Zais says he will instruct the teams writing the math and English standards to start with South Carolina’s homegrown 2007 standards. That is the best way to have “new” standards by the fall of 2015, as required by the state law passed in May, Zais said.
Ok, that sounds good. We’ll see… I’d say trust, but verify. I’d rather just verify.
And here’s why we still need to be skeptical:
Zais’ critics say the law clearly directs the review to begin with Common Core’s English and math standards, which were not written by the state.State law “doesn’t say they (Common Core standards) will be scrapped and thrown away,”Outgoing South Carolina School Chief: I Will Kill Common Core | Truth in American Education:
Junk Common Core Curriculum
Photo credit: Link Community SchoolFordham Institute’s Amber Northern provided a workshop called “Spring Training: Working on the Fundamentals” at the Education Writer’s Association’s 67th National Seminar at Vanderbilt University.Fordham Institute did a study of four different schools that they called early adopters of the Common Core.She noted that curriculum development was like a “patchwork qu