Marc Tucker and Common Core Fuel Injection
On March 03, 2016, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), Marc Tucker, published an EdWeek opinion piece entitled, “Why the Common Core Will Be Declared a Failure.” (Based on the link, Tucker’s original title was, “Why the Common Core Will Be Declared a Failure and Why That Will Be Dead Wrong.”)
In short, according to Tucker, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) will fail because it is so advanced that the rest of the education system to which it must belong is bumbling by comparison and must be brought into line for CCSS to succeed.
Marc TuckerTo illustrate his point, Tucker uses an automotive metaphor whereby CCSS is “a 2016 fuel injector” that has been installed in the education system of “a 1910 Model T”:
Imagine that you have in your hand a set of fuel injectors for a modern automobile. These devices, used for making sure that each cylinder in your car’s engine gets just the right amount of fuel at just the right moment, are high precision devices, a key component of the car’s engine. Now suppose that a time traveller from 1910, having made this exciting discovery, races back to 1910 and sticks a purloined fuel injector into his brand new Model T, expecting it to produce a remarkable improvement in the performance of his car. Of course, nothing of the sort happens. His Model T won’t work at all. Why? Because a car engine is a system, all the parts of which have to be designed to work with the other parts.Education systems are, well, systems, and, like cars, don’t work very well if their parts and pieces have not been designed to work in harmony with one another. Only a fool would expect that putting a 2016 fuel injector into a 1910Marc Tucker and Common Core Fuel Injection | deutsch29: