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Louis CK ignites belated Core debate
The Common Core revolt started with baffled parents who went online to complain about their children’s “core-aligned” homework. Now a parent with 3 million Twitter followers — comedian Louis CK —...
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Credit recovery goes online
As high schools struggle to raise graduation rates, many have turned to online credit recovery programs, writes Hechinger’s Sarah Carr on Education Next. Are students learning — or just being moved...
View ArticleCore no more
Following Indiana’s lead, Oklahoma and South Carolina have dropped Common Core standards, vowing to write their own. North Carolina will be next. After that? Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal wants his state...
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How Bill Gates sold the Common Core
Bill Gates put $200 million into Common Core standards. Common Core State Standards were the brainchild of Gene Wilhoit, director of a national group of state school chiefs, and David Coleman, reports...
View ArticleGates: Don’t use Core scores for 2 years
Common Core-aligned tests shouldn’t be used for teacher evaluations and student promotions for two years, writes Vicki Phillips for the Gates Foundation. “The standards need time to work.” Teachers...
View ArticleCommon Core? What’s that?
Only 53 percent of Americans have heard of Common Core standards and only 20 percent have heard a lot about them, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll. When told about the standards, 59...
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Is this a good Core lesson?
NPR highlights a “good Common Core lesson” designed for the first day of ninth-grade English. Students review the day’s standards: citing textual evidence and determining meaning of words in context,...
View ArticleMoats: Core fail
Common Core standards are appropriate for the “most academically able” students, says Louisa Moats in a Psychology Today interview. At least half of students will not be able to meet the standards. A...
View ArticleRIP, close reading
Close Reading passed away last week, writes Dave Stuart, Jr. on Teaching the Core. The cause of death was buzzwordification. The death of “close reading, one of the most ubiquitous terms of the Common...
View ArticleTop teachers trump standards
Standards and tests won’t improve American public education, argues Sandra Stotsky, professor emerita at the University of Arkansas and an author of Massachusetts’ standards. Policymakers should focus...
View ArticleAFT funds teachers to ‘rewrite’ standards
The American Federation of Teachers will give $4.4 million in grants to teachers to critique or rewrite Common Core standards. The money to revise the standards will come from the AFT Innovation Fund,...
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Is it wrong to want to know which way is right?
A second-grade math work sheet. Credit: Edmund D. Fountain for The New York Times Is it wrong to want to know which way is right? asks Katharine Beals on Out in Left Field. In a story on parents’...
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Core enables life, the universe . . .
After criticizing Common Core’s implementation in New York, state teachers’ union president Karen Magee asked, “If not standards, then what?A free-for-all? Everyone does what they please?” On NYC...
View ArticleDo Core promoters ‘get it’ now?
Common Core advocates believe they’re losing the public relations war, while “Moms” are “winning,” writes Stephanie Simon on Politico. So pro-Core forces have decided to appeal to “hearts” rather than...
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Don’t blame teachers for math failure
Americans stink at math because U.S. teachers aren’t trained to teach for understanding, argues Elizabeth Green in the New York Times. Teaching “mind-numbing” routines bores students and sets them up...
View ArticleUnion chief: I’ll punch Core critics in the face
Common Core critics with “cold, sick, twisted hands” are trying to grab standards from teachers, said Michael Mulgrew, the teachers’ union chief in New York City. “I’m going to punch you in the face...
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Poll: 60% oppose Common Core
Sixty percent of Americans now oppose the Common Core, fearing that the standards will limit teachers’ flexibility to teach what they think is best, according to the annual PDK/Gallup poll. Last year,...
View ArticleRestarting the Common Core debate
Mike Petrilli hopes to restart the Common Core debate by laying out the facts on which everyone can agree. Is it too late for rational debate?
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Never diet without a scale and a mirror
Never Diet Without a Bathroom Scale and Mirror, writes Thomas J. Kane, who directed the Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching Project, on Brookings’ blog. And don’t give up on measuring...
View ArticleThe conservative case for the Core
William J. Bennett, Reagan’s education secretary, makes The Conservative Case for Common Core in the Wall Street Journal. . . . public schools should have high standards based on a core curriculum that...
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