Why Catholics are fighting each other over the Common Core standards
Sister Rachel Terry carries a cut-out of Pope Francis from the school to the convent at the Little Flower Parish in Bethesda, Md., with Sister Rosemaron, the school’s principal, on Sept. 5. (Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post)
The Common Core State Standards initiative has sparked a fierce debate in the United States that has dominated the public education reform discussion for years. What has been less visible is an argument among Catholics over whether the standards are appropriate for Catholic schools. Some say they are just fine, while others insist that they are inappropriate — and possibly dangerous — to Catholic education.
Catholic schools represent the largest grouping of private schools in the country, with about 40 percent of those students in non-public schools choosing them to attend. In 2012-2013, the last year for which there are statistics, about 6,680 Catholic schools — most of them elementary — enrolled more than 2 million students, according to the National Catholic Educational Association. In recent years, many Catholic dioceses have adopted the Core standards in math and English Language Arts.
The Common Core State Standards were adopted in full by 45 states and the District of Columbia several years ago, but support began to wane when critics from across the political spectrum expressed concerns about the authorship and content of some of the standards and Core-aligned tests, and the federal government’s involvement in the Core. The Obama administration did not mandate that states use the Core, but it used what some consider to be coercive tactics to persuade states to adopt the standards, and it provided $360 million for the development of Core-aligned standardized tests. The Core standards are still being implemented in most states, although sometimes under different names.
The fight among Catholics about whether the Core belongs in Catholic schools is, in some ways, similar to the one in public schools. Supporters of the Core in Catholic education say that many Catholic elementary school students wind up going to public high school and that it is important for them to be exposed to the standards they will meet later in their education. They also say the standards are strong and will help schools prepare students for college and careers. And they say there is nothing in the standards that contradicts Catholic values.
But critics of the Core in Catholic education say otherwise. Some say the standards are not rigorous enough. Others say the Core was mandated by the federal government. And still others say that Catholic schools that use the Core standards are at risk of losing their Catholic identity.
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