Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi recounts how governors were cajoled into supporting the Common Core standards. It sounded like a good idea, it would be “state-led,” but now it turns out that if you try to change your mind, you lose federal funding. So much for “state-led.” Of the 24 states that agreed to use the federally-funded PARCC assessment, only 9 remain, he says.
He writes:
In 2008, a new system of public education standards was discussed by the National Governors Association. The new standards, called Common Core, would emphasize problem solving and competitiveness and would ensure that students throughout the nation met certain achievement benchmarks. The concept sounded solid, and we were assured that this was a state-led initiative with no federal control or connection to federal funds.
Now in 2014, we know something went terribly wrong. State control over the standards turned out to be a myth, and adopting the standards has been required if a state wants to even apply for major federal education funding. So much for no federal control.
Federalism in education has long been a feature of American education. States are supposed to be “laboratories of democracy,” encouraged to innovate. Mississippi’s low test scores are not caused by a lack of national standards and national tests but by poverty. Reduce poverty and test scores will rise, no matter what the test.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I would love to see Secretary of Education Duncan answer to this. We’ll see if a high level cabinet official talks down to a governor like he talks down to the rest of us.
Sorry, these governors don’t get a pass. They knew this would be a national curriculum. What changed was when it got connected to Obama. You can bet had McCain won, these people would still be all in.
Most every one of these governors is full steam ahead on other “reforms”.
They broke it and still own it.
The governors were “hoaxed,” what a crock.
That was my first thought. “Cajoled”, my Aunt Fanny. They lapped it up like my dog getting a shot at spilled chocolate milk.
Exactly. These governors seemed to have no problem with unilaterally signing away the state sovereignty to control education in each state. What did they think would happen?
“The concept sounded solid.”
If this sounds suspiciously like a substantive evaluation of the proposal for new standards made by someone in no position to make a substantive evaluation of the proposal for new standards, it’s because it is.
“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
“To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
“To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President [or governor] should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
I love Douglas Adams – I need to pull out his books again, it’s been too long. Just the other day I was thinking about his riff on the “little green pieces of paper” that fly around the world trying to solve problems and bring happiness, when it’s not even the little green pieces of paper which are unhappy.
Thanks for the memory.
So Mississippi has figured out that Common Core and PARCC are no good.
What amazing times we live in when Mississippi is out ahead of Massachusetts (and others) on this issue.
Massachusetts is still in because Mitchell Chester, the MA Commissioner of Education, is the head of the board for PARCC. Talk about a blatant conflict of interest.
Massachusetts is waking up. The Massachusetts Teachers Association board voted Saturday to introduce legislation for a 3 year moratorium on ALL high stakes tests (including PARCC, MCAS, and the kitchen sink). I think it has a good shot, because Republican’s want to hit the reset button, and Democrats have to face their actual constituency, which is fed up.
Nobody has the guts (yet) to take on the actual Race to the Top, but I have my fingers crossed, and am pushing hard for it. We’re coming up on the 5th year anniversary of the legislatures capitulation in January 2010. I was googling for background on that, and I came upon one of my own comments on an Edweek story. It made me a little nostalgic for the old Bridging Differences days, but it also made me realize how far we’ve come as a movement. Nobody is calling corporate privatization a wild-eyed conspiracy theory lately.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/12/23/16states.h29.html?tkn=RVPFzM22EIjqP2ntW5Er713F556rbnaM2gjT
A happy conundrum.
😏
Should I follow-up the comments and/or observations by 7th grade teacher in a Texas title 1 public school or Peter Smyth or FLERP! or Bob Shepherd or mathman?
😳
Why stack rank? In their own ways they each hit some of the high notes and some of the low notes, some spill little digital ink and others more, some lean more towards tickling the funny bone and others more towards rubbing a sore wound raw, and absolutely best of all—
They complement each other. Each part is first rate on its own, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
I think the greatest compliment [no, not a typo, shills and trolls, please use a dictionary] I can make is to relay what a fading supernova in the self-styled “education reform” firmament retorted when someone vouched for the trustworthiness, value and accuracy of these five pieces on “Diane Ravitch’s blog A site to discuss better education for all”—
“I reject that mind-set.” [Michelle Rhee]
Ok, to be honest, that whole assertion and retort business is according to the latest unconfirmed rumors, but suffice it to say [thank you, Mr. Bill Gates!] that everyone will know in ten years whether or not I got it right…
😎
None of these governors would have been “hoaxed” if they used their brains and investigated the snake oil being sold to them. None said, “Gee I am being told the glories of common core … who is writing this stuff… do they have education expertise… why are there all these hedge fund managers on the rosters… why is someone (aka Coleman) with no education experience but who is involved in writing these standards nearly single-handedly being allowed to do so…
Governors were looking toward bottom line financial issues and let this cloud their judgement at the expense of public education. This should be a Supreme Court issue… states in no way should have to follow common core in order to receive federal funding… states in no way should even have to come up with a “common core” equivalent if they reject common core… just to get federal funding as is happening in Washington State!
“The Common Core”
The common core
Of Core defenders
Has shrunken more
Than CD vendors
They used to do this all the time in retail. It’s called “bait & switch”, ever wonder why it’s illegal!!!
I part ways on the federalism issue.
For one thing I think the conservative governors knew exactly what they were doing and for another, I think standards written by some of my own state lawmakers would be a disaster.
If I have to choose between the Common Core and standards written by the Ohio Republican who chairs the education committee in this state and believes public schools are a “government monopoly” that have to be turned over to the private sector I’ll take the Common Core.
My sixth grader’s math teacher is using material from NY’s Common Core website. I’m not outraged. I’m glad. God knows no one in this state was going to help public school teachers put in this giant project. I don;t know what else he was supposed to do. Develop an entire new curriculum in his spare time?
Chiara… a panel of educators with actual teaching experience should be able to be involved in the process of determining a state’s curriculum along with input from teachers in that given state. But what should be and “what is” are two different stories.
I agree that the Common Core process was terrible; opaque, top-down, private financing, sold using fear and a really cynical, orchestrated political campaign, but I have zero confidence anything that comes out of my state government will be any better. I think it will be worse.
Chiara, this sounds like a false choice. Legislators aren’t supposed to write learning standards. Neither are people (like the Common Core authors) who do don’t have a solid background in the fields they’ve decided to oversee.
Each state has an agency that’s charged with running the schools. Some states do it better than others. From what I’ve been reading here, it looks like New York is doing it worse than most. Following New York’s lead sounds like a bad idea.
When so-called standards (curricula by any other name) get tangled up with the federal government, it isn’t just a violation of federalism. It’s a violation of federal statute. I don’t think either violation is acceptable.
This Mississippi governor may be disingenuous and even completely ignorant about education. But when he says federal funding shouldn’t depend on the adoption of a particular set of standards, I don’t think he’s wrong.
Typo: who don’t have a solid background
You’re right that Common Core versus standards written by Ohio lawmakers is a false choice, but that’s what I’m presented with. I think they are going to have great difficulty putting in the Common Core, let alone writing new standards. I imagine my son’s 6th grade teacher is turning to Engage NY because Ohio puts in each and every ed reform mandate or fad or whim that comes down the pike and public schools are struggling just to keep their head above water.
I think this federalism claim is selective. The federal government is getting ready to fund a big new charter school funding program. It has requirements states must meet to take the funding. Will conservative governors line up for charter funding? What happened to federalism? There’s nothing more local than building a new school in a neighborhood. Will they be outraged about that “hoax”? They can read the charter bill right now. I did.
Randal.. this is why TEACHERS need to be the ones creating standards and curriculum. But it seems as if this ironically will never happen at this time in our history where those who have all the money/power rule the day. It is totally WEIRD how nobody questions non educators creating education policy. But then again we have ARNE DUNCAN as education secretary and he has no qualifications for the position.
“When so-called standards (curricula by any other name). . . ”
NO! Standards ARE NOT “curricula by any other name”. The concept of standard involves the concept of measurement. Curricula is a course of study. BIG, BIG, not HUGE difference in epistemological and ontological underpinnings. HUGE implications for pedagogy.
STANDARDS ARE NOT CURRICULA!!!
Even though damn near everyone thinks they are. (sloppy language users that we are).
“BIG, BIG, not HUGE difference”
should read
BIG, BIG, no HUGE difference
(damn sloppy language user this poster)
Duane Swacker:
I would thank you for the gentle correction, except that I didn’t call them standards. I said “so-called standards.” “So-called standards” are not standards.
The Common Core Standards aren’t real standards, but with tests (and bad tests at that) attached, they are in practice being turned into curricula.
Again, “so-called standards” are not standards. Big difference.
Duane Swacker:
Since you’re interested in precision, it’s worth noting that the word “standard” in this case doesn’t strictly imply measurement.
Synonyms for “standard” (as in “a safety standard”) include “yardstick,” “benchmark,” and “measure.”
But they also include “criterion,” “guide,” “touchstone,” “model,” “pattern,” “example,” and “exemplar.” At least that’s what my thesaurus says. These variations on the meaning of “standards” imply the possibility of qualitative evaluation. In that sense, “standards” may encompass much more than what can be quantified.
In the case of the Common Core Standards, it’s even doubtful that what the Common Core tests claim to measure is really being measured at all.
Just for clarity, the Common Core Standards project includes various appendices, guidelines for publishers, suggestions for texts to be studied, and so on that do add up to a prescribed curriculum of sorts. To say that the so-called standards are independent of curricula, you have to ignore all of this (mainly ridiculous) apparatus. And you have to ignore the high-stakes tests that are still conjoined with them.
Did Ohio have a set of state curricular guidelines before Common Core? In NJ we did (from the early ’90’s), they were spare, decent, & in my opinion far superior to CCSS. The World Lang stds are particularly good. Thank goodness they’ll still be there before Christie gets to them. By then this house of cards will have collapsed.
There is a great documentary about the fight over state standards in Texas. In the movie, state standards were written by educators, but then radically rewritten by a conservative cadre to reflect their personal ideologies. I don’t remember what the name was. But it shows just how easily the state standards can be gamed if a state has the will.
Yes, Ohio had and still has their own state standards. Subjects not covered by Common Core follow these and were recently revised. Ohio’s New Learning Standards are basically are rebranding of Common Core.
The hapless governors should be held accountable in the most rigorous way to improve their career readiness now that they are raising the bar with critical thinking skills.
Sadly, stupid is as stupid does…..
Reblogged this on Network Schools – Wayne Gersen and commented:
The opposition to the Common Core ha created strange bedfellows… but MS will probable address low test scores the same as TX (and NYC for that matter): make the tests easier and change the cut scores to show that progress is being made. Address poverty? Not on any politicians radar!
So Bryant did not know what was going on re: the CCSS. He was a Mississippi legislator for 5 years (1990 to 95). Was state auditor from 1996 to about 2007. Was Lt, Gov. in 2007. In 1996 Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice attended the Palisades conference and that’s when Achieve was created. Most of us reading this Blog know about that. In 2005 when Bryant was still the Mississippi state auditor, then Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour attended the NGA conference re: High schools. By that time the American Diploma Project was setting the foundation for the CCSS. The 2005 summit produced this statement. “The NGA summit calls for Congress to align federal education policy with state high school initiatives and support a seamless education system from pre-school to post-secondary education.” The State of Mississippi was deeply involved in creating the relationship that now exists between the Feds and the states.
Come on Gov. Bryant!!! What were “ya all” doin during that time??? You telling the world that you did not know what your Mississippi governors were doing????
Tom
“Hoaxus Pocus”
Folks were hoaxed
By Common Core
And governors coaxed
With common lore
“Hoaxus Pocus,” or “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”