The Initiative
In July 2009, Washington joined the Common Core Standards Initiative, a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers to develop common, rigorous learning expectations.
For the unmentioned truth, leave OSPI as a source and visit the Washington Post.
How Bill Gates pulled off the swift Common Core revolution
The pair of education advocates, Coleman and Wilhoit, had a big idea, a new approach to transform every public-school classroom in America. By early 2008, many of the nation’s top politicians and education leaders had lined up in support.
(Sight unseen, many WA State legislators were committed well before July 2011)
But that wasn’t enough. The duo needed money — tens of millions of dollars, at least — and they needed a champion who could overcome the politics that had thwarted every previous attempt to institute national standards.
So they turned to the richest man in the world.
Initially the Common Core work group members were unknown to the general public. This was a semi-secret operation. Several states adopted these new standards before the standards were completed. A true triumph of insider politics over science.
Kentucky adopted the CCSS in 2010 and Washington State in July 2011.
Washington was eager to get in early as the belief was that Joe Willhoft, Dr. WASL, would likely become a heavy weight in Smarter Balanced testing within Common Core. The belief was if that happened it would be to Washington's advantage as Dr. Willhoft could exercise some control in Smarter Balanced Consortium decision making. Joe Willhoft got the SB position but it is really hard to see how that helped Washington.
Since almost every state was economically suffering from the economic meltdown that began in 2008, nearly every state went chasing dollars by adopting CCSS. No Student Left Behind plus Race to the Top money became the motivator to adopt Standards that were barely examined by the states adopting them. The states jumped at the chance to get possible RttT federal cash. Obama's Arne Duncan became nearly a US Dictator of Education. His position as US Secretary of Education was far more powerful than any previous secretary.
Duncan had the power to tell states what to do and how to do it. Eventually a small rebellion enabled the passage of new federal legislation, which reduced (supposedly eliminated) the power of the Secretary of Education to punish states and school districts. That now being the case, why hasn't WA State junked the CCSS and stopped the unproductive inefficient nonsense these perpetuate?
From the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress results, it is clear that the current situation is hindering students from learning math. The CCSS have produced a chaotic situation. The comparison of NAEP 2015 results with 2013 results yields the following in regard to change in mathematics scores. ==>
4th grade math: 3 states UP and 16 states down
8th grade math: Puerto Rico UP and 22 states down
Can we stop this wasteful academically unsuccessful diversion from education yet?
1 comment:
While there were names like "No Child Left Behind", what CCSS created was a rich ground for vendor profits. A maze of Federal Education mandates that violated state sovereignty became acceptable. Decision-making had nothing to do with the analysis of relevant data, as top-down power was the mechanism of change. --- Time to step up and leave CCSS for the good of our children.
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