INDIANA’S COMMON CORE REWRITE
Indiana is in the
process of reshaping Common Core into something state leaders desperately want
to call “Indiana standards,” because that’s what they’ve promised thousands of
concerned moms and dads. Whether what comes out is actually as academically
rich as Indiana’s previous standards or simply warmed-over Common Core is yet
to be seen.
The grassroots is
quite suspicious of the process, and with good reason. As Heather Crossin and
Erin Tuttle, the laser-sharp moms spearheading Hoosiers Against Common Core,
have discovered, the state-selected panels to write and evaluate a new set of
English and math standards ‘appear to be a stacked deck.’ Some highlights:
- Fifteen of the 29 members of the standards evaluation panel have publicly declared their support for Common Core, some of them literally representing national Common Core tests in Indiana. Only one has publicly taken a stand against Common Core.
- Eight people sit on both the panel to choose standards and the second panel that evaluates the chosen standards, letting them serve as judge and jury of their own work. Further, seven of these people are among the 15 that have publicly supported Common Core.
- The standards the panels reviewed were limited to Common Core, the state’s last set of draft standards, and often-discredited models from national math and English teacher associations. They did not consider international standards or those from well-regarded states like California and Massachusetts.
The new set of draft
standards is making the rounds this week, as the state holds three public
hearings to discuss them. Citizens are allowed three minutes each to comment on
the standards at these hearings and are limited to discussing specific
standards only.
But do not worry. The
state asked Sujie Shin, of WestEd, to review the standards rewrite, and she
says it is the deepest she has observed and will be recommending Indiana’s
process as a best practice for other states reexamining Common Core, wrote state board of education
member Brad Oliver in an open letter. WestEd is a quasi-governmental
organization that happens to financially profit from Common Core as a contractor
for national Common Core tests.
A preliminary review of the draft
math standards by Hoover Institution fellow Ze’ev Wurman
concludes this draft did not focus strongly enough on improving the glaring
weaknesses of Common Core standards but instead made minor (and sometime
negative) changes, and piled a whole lot of new content on top of [the] already
massive Common Core. The draft is more bloated than the Common Core, and
immeasurably more bloated than the 2009 Indiana draft.
The news is not all
negative. The standards may still be changed, and Oliver’s latest news is that
the state department of education has engaged prominent content experts Sandra
Stotsky and R. James Milgram to provide an independent review of the drafts.
Their world-class knowledge and experience in their respective fields of
content standards, former positions as the only content experts on Common Core’s
final evaluation committee, and bold proclamations against Common Core ever
since mean the grassroots trusts Stotsky and Milgram’s judgment.
It will be interesting
to see what they have to say, and whether anything changes as a result.
SOURCE: Hoosiers Against Common Core
IN THIS ISSUE
OKLAHOMA: A lawmaker
who wants to create education savings accounts
and a Parent Trigger law discusses both. State Rep. Jason
Nelson’s kids are in public schools, and he thinks everyone should be free to
choose any school that fits them.
NORTH CAROLINA: A
judge blocks the state’s new voucher
program pending resolution of a union-driven lawsuit against
it. More than 4,000 low-income children already had signed up to exercise their
education options under the new law and will wait in limbo as the case moves
forward.
KANSAS: Lawmakers propose tax-credit
scholarships. If passed, this would be the first private
school choice law in the state. It would be funded by a 70 percent tax credit
for corporations that donate to scholarship-granting nonprofit organizations.
FLORIDA: Leaders
propose a big increase in the state’s
popular tax-credit scholarship program, but also to make all
recipients take the state test. Existing test returns show Florida’s tax-credit
scholarship students perform better than their public-school peers.
MISSISSIPPI: An
in-state newspaper supports bills to give
special-needs children school choice because it has
investigated the education these kids otherwise get and found it severely
deficient.
ARIZONA: On a 6-3
vote, a Senate panel approved four bills that would
prohibit the state from moving forward with Common Core. Gov.
Jan Brewer signed an executive order renaming Common Core and otherwise
believes it’s a good initiative, her press secretary said.
WISCONSIN: The state superintendent makes false
and misleading claims in attempting to stave off legislation
that would replace Common Core with better standards.
TENNESSEE: Parents in
Johnson City complain about a pilot program installing cameras in their kid’s
classrooms to evaluate teachers.
WRITING: Why can college
graduates still not write? Because their writing classes are
actually political indoctrination.
ACHIEVEMENT:
Policymakers seem to forget that students are ultimately
responsible for their academic work, Will Fitzhugh points
out.
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