Concern Lately, there has been a lot of concern about the impact of the “Common Core” on public education in the US and particularly, on homeschooling. I hope to expose the “Common Core” for what it is, clear up some of the enormous confusion and, in many cases, some of the outright misinformation being dispensed about the “Common Core,” and dispel much of the concern and fear generated by the confusion and misinformation. Researching “Common Core?” I have to admit that my initial superficial perspective on this issue was that “Common Core” was another move by the Federal government to gain more control over how the states operate public schools. I had read a lot of the rhetoric and opinions about “Common Core” but did little personal research on the topic until recently. My initial motivation to research “Common Core” came from a homeschool group in Abilene, Texas (Big Country Home Educators) which asked my organization to do a workshop on it during their Spring 2014 conference. Armed with my impeccable capacity for exhaustive research and my intense intellectual prowess garnered by twenty-two years of college education, I embarked exuberantly on a personal crusade to take another swipe at the government by making public yet another government grab for power. My wife contends that I love to argue and look at opportunities like this recreationally. Well, my wife is right… and I was dead wrong! God has a way to humble the wise in their own foolishness. As I dug and dug and dug to find evidence to support my perspective, the more I dug, the more I learned how wrong it was and how much many people have been misled with some pretty bad information and some awfully poor journalism in many reputable publications. Confusion Google “Common Core” and, until about three months ago, the top position in the Google search was commoncore.org/. Many people perused this site, saw some of the more dubious questions in the curriculum (there are many), and assumed this was “Common Core.” Indeed, I have read dozens of articles that cited questions and curriculum from this article as the premise of their opinion. One article stands out: “The Ten Dumbest Common Core Problems ” published in the National Review, usually a reputable conservative publication. In this article, author Alec Torres cites and shows pictures of “Common Core” curriculum. One glance at these lessons and one look at the logo at the bottom of each page, and it is easy and quick to conclude that “Common Core” is not a good idea and should not be pursued. Many came to this conclusion based on reading similar articles citing this curriculum. In 1 John 4:1, the apostle urges us with “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (NIV). Many people failed to put this to the test. Instead, they chose to believe what they wanted to believe about “Common Core.” The truth is – this Commoncore.org website is run by a private educational company that provides curriculum. Much of the rhetoric about “Common Core” curriculum most likely came from references from the material on this website. What is the “Common Core?” The truth about what people think is “Common Core” is the Common Core State Standards Initiative, or CCSSI, initiated by the National Governors Associate (NGA) – STATE governors, who joined forces to deal with the issue of educational mediocrity in this country. The CCSSI focuses on English Language Arts and Math ONLY and established standards ONLY. There are no programs, no tests, and no curriculum. I am not going into a deep rendition of the CCSSI. Best that you “test the spirits” yourself at CoreStandards.org. I will deal with the rhetoric in the rest of this article. “Common Core” and the SAT There’s a lot of concern about the “Common Core” and the SAT. David Coleman became President of the College Board in 2012 after a stint as senior executive with the group that developed the CCSSI. His association with the CCSSI has caused many to speculate that the SAT will be aligned with the CCSSI. Whether or not a student is in a CCSSI compliant program will be irrelevant on the SAT, because CCSSI is based on academic content, not reasoning ability (which is what is tested the SAT – whether they will admit it or not ). I do not foresee the SAT becoming a Common Core test for several reasons: 1. The SAT is changing again in 2016 (I addressed this in a previous article). Nothing in this new change reflects anything to do with the CCSSI. 2. The SAT and ACT have to maintain some semblance of parity because colleges accept both/either test. The ACT has no indication any major change and hasn’t had one in the last 20 years – except to add an optional essay for those colleges that required it to maintain parity with the changes in the 2005 SAT. Homeschool Heresy? Pardon me, but I may just be committing an act of homeschool heresy with what follows. In an HSLDA article dated July 23, 2013, titled “Does Common Core Have a Philosophical Bias, ” the writer claimed there was a philosophical bias, but did not produce a single citation from the CCSSI to support the perspective. Instead, the writer focused the rhetoric on the evils of centralized education. The article states: “Three threads of philosophy weave through the Common Core—statism, moral relativism, and progressivism, which are revealed both by what is proclaimed and what is omitted. The statist goals of the Common Core are implicit in the lockstep uniformity that is the central thesis of the program. All children in all states will learn the same content in the same manner so that the children may become useful workers.” Let’s take a look at this statement: “Three threads… statism, moral relativism, and progressivism.” No citation and I failed to find this or any suggestion of this anywhere in the CCSSI documents. “The statist goals… implicit in the lockstep uniformity that is the central thesis of the program.” Again, no citation and, again, I found no indication of any “lockstep uniformity” as the central thesis of the program. CCSSI is a set of standards, not processes. “All children in all states will learn the same content in the same manner so that the children may become useful workers.” Again, no citation and, again, I found no indication of that “All children in all states will learn the same content in the same manner so that the children may become useful workers.” “All states?” Several states have opted out. The CCSSI contain NO content and, indeed, one of the stated goals of the CCSSI is to prepare students for college. The author concludes with: “The philosophy of the Common Core is not revealed in the individual standards.” I agree. Everything the author claims about the “Common Core” doesn’t seem to be anywhere in the “Common Core” itself. What I found was a diatribe assailing relativism, progressivism, and John Dewey’s model of education. There were no substantive content and no relevant facts that can be tied to the CCSSI. Personally, in my 20 years in leadership in elementary and secondary education (18 of those years operating my own schools) and my 16 years as a college professor in both secular and Christian universities, I am at a loss of how educational standards for English Language Arts and Math can somehow be philosophically biased. I do not know how Math Standards can be Marxist and Language Arts Standards can be Leninist. This is an argumentum e silentio – an Argument of Silence, where the conclusion is based on the absence of evidence instead of the existence of evidence. Indeed, the suggestion that this must be some liberal conspiracy is quite amusing. Let’s get a list of the “conspirators,” the members of the National Governors Association. The party breakdown of the 50 states yields 29 Republican and 21 Democrat governors. Hard to view this as some sort of collusion between these governors and the federal government to insert a “philosophical bias” into Math and English Language Arts standards. In addition, it “Begs the Question:” What is the fundamental issue over “Common Core?” Are the standards in and of themselves wrong, bad, or… evil? Do people simply detest the fact that the government appears to be trying to gain more control over local matters? Is this a threat to home schooling? I don’t know. I know what I have read and a lot of it doesn’t correlate with what many have written “about” the “Common Core.” “Common Core” Isn’t New Few realize that we already have versions of “Common Core.” The American Council of Education (ACE) has had national standards in place for decades. Indeed, the General Educational Development (GED) test is based on these standards. Since 1866, the State of New York has administered its Regent Exams that students had to pass to receive a state Regent’s diploma – often required to enter New York state colleges. These exams are based on a “Common Core” of academic requirements. One of the stated purposes of the Regent’s Exam is to create “a new and privileged class of students in the secondary schools of New York.” I wonder why no one has jumped on that one! The vast majority of colleges have a “Common Core” of subjects and standards required of all graduates, and these are relatively congruent across all colleges. I assure you, depending on the institution, there is certainly philosophical bias in the curriculum. This philosophical bias is true of most Christian colleges. Many homeschoolers are familiar with E. D. Hirsh, Jr. and his series “What Your ___ Grader Needs to Know.” He had this “Common Core” idea over 20 years ago. The retired University of Virginia Professor of Education and Humanities also supports the CCSSI. How are colleges going to respond? Colleges will most likely give a little lip service to the initiative. Colleges were not invited to participate in the CCSSI. Although part of the mission of the CCSSI is to better prepare students for college, most colleges will keep and maintain their standards regardless of what happens with CCSSI. Right now, it is estimated that 90% of seniors are not ready for college and 60% won’t graduate in six years! Colleges do not see this as their responsibility to fix high schools. High schools need to fix themselves. NOTE: This gives homeschoolers an advantage because they can choose to raise the bar and get the help and resources they need without depending on the government or the school districts to act. One last issue. One of the complaints about “Common Core” was the focus on testing. You know what… testing is a reality. Every homeschool curriculum has some sort of testing. The rhetoric somehow makes it seem that testing is bad. Yet we have few complain about CLEP Exams, AP/IB Exams, and the PSAT/ACT/SAT. Testing is not going to change with or without the CCSSI. My personal perspective: I agree with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush when he addressed those who opposed the CCSSI that while criticisms and conspiracy theories are easy attention grabbers; he instead wanted to hear their solutions to the problems in American education. So do I. And I have a few of my own, which
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 01:23:00 +0000
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