Three Lawsuits: BESE, White Out on a Limb and Wielding a Saw
Late in the evening on July 29, 2014, I completely finished writing my book on the history, development, and promotion of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The manuscript is with the publisher. I promise that the book will make for quite the illuminating read.
At this point, publication looks like it will be in April 2015.
Proponents of CCSS like to call it “state led.”
What if the state is divided against itself over CCSS? What then?
As the 2014-15 school year rapidly approaches, we are discovering as much in Louisiana.
Why, on the very day that I finished my CCSS book, July 29, 2014, the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) held a special meeting to decide how to approach suing Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (let’s just get that intention out in the open and call the overall point of the meeting what it was). In short, Jindal does not want BESE to utilize any tests or even individual items created by or in cooperation with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). BESE President Chas Roemer and State Superintendent John White want to continue with PARCC and believe that this is their right in the official capacities that they hold. (For background, read here, and here, and here, and here.)
A major problem with insisting that Louisiana education be tied to either CCSS or PARCC is that state involvement in both ventures requires states to forego state sovereignty over state educational affairs. For example, the CCSS memorandum of understanding (MOU) that Jindal and former State Superintendent Paul Pastorek signed in May 2009 (and that Jindal canceled on June 18, 2014) stipulates that CCSS revision will be determined in consortium form. Thus, states adopting CCSS agree to forego their individual rights to revise CCSS. CCSS is a group projectowned by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). By design, individual states must forfeit sovereignty to the NGA- and CCSSO-led “group.”
As for PARCC involvement and the forfeiting of state sovereignty: On the day of Three Lawsuits: BESE, White Out on a Limb and Wielding a Saw | deutsch29: