Rating Common Core Math Textbooks—Isn’t THIS a National Curriculum?
A new report in Education Week discusses a “Consumer Reports-like” nonprofit group that will now evaluate math textbooks from different companies online. If you are teaching math and want to know which books are best—books aligned to the Common Core—you can go to Edreports.org and they will apparently tell you, eventually, which books, or book, best aligns to the math Common Core State Standards.
Isn’t this nationalizing the curriculum? I mean, once they rate the books, who is going to choose the books that don’t rate the highest? There will most likely be a monopoly of certain textbooks, or one textbook. This, in my view, definitely demonstrates that the Common Core State Standards nationalize the curriculum.
If you are shaking your head and saying, one more nonprofit to have to deal with, you are not alone. And Common Core Math has been highly criticized, even poked fun at, by comedians like Louis C.K. and others.
But there is trouble already with this group which should raise eyebrows. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation mostly sponsor it. They are involved now in almost every faction of public schooling, so much so, a commenter in the Ed. Week article says: “How long before the US Dept. of Education changes its name to The Bill & Melinda Gates Dept. of Education?” I think that’s an excellent question. Ed. Week also lets us know the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports Education Week! I will boast I already Rating Common Core Math Textbooks—Isn’t THIS a National Curriculum?: