Saturday, May 4, 2013

Cobb sets back Common Core and possibly state | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

Cobb sets back Common Core and possibly state | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:


Get Schooled: Cobb sets back Common Core and possibly state




When the National Governor’s Association, led by then-Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, and the Council of Chief State School Officers developed a framework of academic standards to raise student performance in math and language arts, they stressed that the effort was state-driven and not in any way a national curriculum, hence the Common Core State Standards.
They did so to prevent the standards from being politicized.
It didn’t work.
In the last few months, there’s been mounting Republican opposition in Georgia and elsewhere to the Common Core State Standards, much of it driven by misinformation and demagoguery. The Republican National Committee recently adopted a resolution opposing the new standards, and Cobb Republican leaders in the General Assembly are pledging to push for a repeal next year even though schools are already teaching the standards, which have the support of the state Department of Education. (In fact,  state school chief John Barge is speaking this morning at the Cobb Republican Party Breakfast on the standards.)
A DOE spokesman explained, "Let me emphasize that the Common Core is a set of standards.