A new Washington Post story by Lyndsey Layton about
how Bill Gates’ funded the Common Core revolution is startling. His
role and the role of the U.S. Department of Education in drafting and
coercing almost every state to adopt the Common Core standards should be
investigated by Congress.
The idea that the richest man in America can purchase and — working
closely with the U.S. Department of Education — impose new and untested
academic standards on the nation’s public schools is a national scandal.
A congressional investigation is warranted. The close involvement of
Education Secretary Arne Duncan raises questions about whether the
federal government overstepped its legal role in public education.
Thanks to the story in The Washington Post and to diligent bloggers,
we now know that one very rich man bought the enthusiastic support of
interest groups on the left and right to campaign for the Common
Core. Who knew that American education was for sale? Who knew that
federalism could so easily be dismissed as a relic of history? Who knew
that Gates and Duncan, working as partners, could destroy state and
local control of education?
"The idea that the richest man in America can
purchase and — working closely with the U.S. Department of Education —
impose new and untested academic standards on the nation’s public
schools is a national scandal."
The revelation that education policy was shaped by one unelected man —
who underwrote dozens of groups and was allied with the secretary of
education, whose staff was laced with Gates’ allies — is ample reason
for congressional hearings.
I have written on various occasions
that I could not support the Common Core standards because they were
developed and imposed without regard to democratic process. The writers
of the standards included no early childhood educators, no educators of
children with disabilities, no experienced classroom teachers; indeed,
the largest contingent of the drafting committee were representatives of
the testing industry. No attempt was made to have pilot testing of the
standards in real classrooms with real teachers and students.
The
standards do not permit any means to challenge, correct, or revise them.
In a democratic society, process matters. The high-handed manner in
which these standards were written and imposed in record time makes them
unacceptable. These standards not only undermine state and local
control of education, but the manner in which they were written and
adopted was authoritarian. No one knows how they will work, yet dozens
of groups have been paid millions of dollars by the Gates Foundation to
claim that they are absolutely vital for our economic future, based on
no evidence whatever.
Why does state and local control matter? Until now, in education, the
American idea has been that no single authority has all the answers.
Local boards are best equipped to handle local problems. States set
state policy, in keeping with the concept that states are “laboratories
of democracy,” where new ideas can evolve and prove themselves. In our
federal system, the federal government has the power to protect the
civil rights of students, to conduct research, and to redistribute
resources to the neediest children and schools.
Do we need to compare the academic performance of students in
different states? We already have the means to do so with the federally
funded National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). It has been
supplying state comparisons since 1992.
Will national standards improve test scores? There is no reason to believe so. Brookings scholar Tom Loveless predicted two years ago that
the Common Core standards would make little or no difference. The
biggest test-score gaps, he wrote, are within the same state, not
between states. Some states with excellent standards have low scores,
and some with excellent standards have large gaps among different groups
of students.
The reality is that the most reliable predictors of test scores are
family income and family education. Nearly one-quarter of America’s
children live in poverty. The Common Core standards divert our attention
from the root causes of low academic achievement.
Worse, at a time when many schools have fiscal problems and are
laying off teachers, nurses, and counselors, and eliminating arts
programs, the nation’s schools will be forced to spend billions of
dollars on Common Core materials, testing, hardware, and software.
Microsoft, Pearson, and other corporations and entrepreneurs will
reap the rewards of this new marketplace. Our nation’s children will
not.
Who decided to monetize the public schools? Who determined that the
federal government should promote privatization and neglect public
education? Who decided that the federal government should watch in
silence as school segregation resumed and grew? Who decided that schools
should invest in Common Core instead of smaller classes and school
nurses?
These are questions that should be asked at congressional hearings.
(Or, better still, by real public debate?)
from here
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