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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Common Core Standards Distract From Real Educational Reform - US News and World Report

Common Core Standards Distract From Real Educational Reform - US News and World Report:

A Distraction from Real Education Reform

The emphasis on common standards is drawing attention away from bigger problems

October 28, 2013 RSS Feed Print
Create an SAT or ACT study schedule that allows you to pace yourself to avoid burnout.
Policymakers and reform advocates alike have rallied around introducing a set of national content standards, suggesting that this will jump-start the stagnating achievement of U.S. students. As history clearly indicates, simply calling for students to know more is not the same as ensuring they will learn more. Discussions of the Common Core standards are actually sucking all of the air out of the room, distracting attention from any serious efforts to reform our schools.
To be sure, it is a real problem when students in one state learn very different things than those in other states, and in particular when many students lack the skills needed for our modern economy. We really do have a national labor market, implying that significant numbers of our population end up living and working in a state with different needs than the one where they were born and went to school. The presumption behind having national standards (whether voluntary or coerced) is that having a clearer and more consistent statement of learning objectives across states will tend to lessen the problem of students