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Draw your own conclusions on Common Core

By Staff | May 31, 2015

New Hampshire, like many other states, recently scrapped its K-12 curriculum standards in favor of Common Core State Standards. You may be wondering how this happened and why there is widespread controversy surrounding Common Core. If you are, chances are that you are not alone. The birth of this educational transformation (often referred to College and Career Ready) has been shrouded and secrecy and promoted with misleading propaganda. Saying that there has been transparency regarding this issue would be like saying that Hillary Clinton uses only government owned email subject to public scrutiny.

Given the fact that access to high quality public schools is of the utmost importance to the future of the children of the Granite State, it is crucial that we dispel the myths and educate ourselves with the facts.

This past February, after reaching out the the New Hampshire State Board of Education as part of my quest for facts on Common Core, I received the following as part of a reply from the board’s chair, Tom Raffio, “First, I have to tell you, hundreds of New Hampshire teachers helped in the multi-state effort to write the standards…”

This is simply not true. The development of Common Core was not a state-led initiative and furthermore, teachers and parents were not involved in its creation. Common Core State Standards were created by a group of Gates-funded policy makers, education researchers and bureaucrats.

Of the writers, five refused to sign off on the quality of the finished product. Two of those five, Dr. Sandra Stotsky and Dr. James Milgram, were the only content-area experts on the panel. Amongst the many other highly respected academic experts who have voiced serious concerns regarding Common Core are former Assistant Secretary of Education and education historian, Diane Ravitch and Professor and author Yong Zhao; arguably two of the most knowledgable and widely respected experts in the field of education.

Another myth surrounding recent education reforms such as NCLB and Common Core is the fact that the reforms were necessitated by failing schools that were not able to keep up with countries such as China that score well on international tests. The fact of the matter is that the United States has never performed well on these tests. Yet, immigrants have continued to flock here in droves, enrolling their children in public schools. Often, these students who come from countries that historically test well are hard working, but struggle in other areas such as independent thinking and creativity.

Yong Zhao best described this in his keynote address at the recent Network for Public Education Conference in Chicago, stating: “Theoretically speaking, if smart, intelligent, or extremely exceptional people are born randomly distributed in any population, China, with 1.3 billion people, should have four Steve Jobs born. Four times the population of the US. What happened to the four Steve Jobs, the baby Steve Jobs?” So, if you are look at this thing, a lot of people criticize American education for lowering test scores, for spending more but having less scores. What is it that cultivates something? Why is (the) US still here? Why China can’t have a baby Steve Jobs, or Steve Jobs, as grown up?”

Zhao goes on to suggest that the ingenuity of China’s students has been, “squeezed out” by its focus on testing.

While there are a few positives to Common Core, the fact remains that Common Core is surrounded by criticism and controversy. I strongly encourage everyone, not just parents and teachers, to engage in their own research process and draw their own conclusions. This truly is an issue of the utmost importance. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”

Londonderry resident Diane Sekula has more than a decade of experience teaching in public schools. She currently teaches in Hooksett.

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