Common Core Update

The Washington progressives now in charge of American public education apparently think the rest of the country is too uncaring or uninformed to notice the recent admission from the federally funded Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). According to PARCC executive officer Laura Slover: 

High quality assessments go hand-in-hand with high quality instruction based on high quality standards. You cannot have one without the other… The PARCC states see quality assessments as a part of instruction, not a break from instruction. 

What she is saying, “for the sake of Steelers’ fans” as Hugh Hewitt likes to say, is that Common Core State Standards and associated tests are intended to drive curriculum. 

For months, criticisms that Washington is dictating curriculum have been allayed by Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan’s repeated admonition that Common Core State Standards are only standards. Critics were assured that it is up to local school districts to determine curriculum. 

The trouble with prevaricating is that it is necessary to remember what has been said. That can be difficult enough for one individual, but when the premier federal education agency does so and all associated entities must follow suit, someone is bound to make a mistake and tell the truth. 

So what is now evident about Common Core State Standards?

It was not true when Duncan and other education officials claimed they were state led.  

See The Core Problem  

It was not true when Duncan and company said they do not dictate curriculum.

 See More on Common Core,

And Parcc States Reduce No Items ELA Literacy Portion Test (Third paragraph from the bottom.)

Stay tuned.