[Peace-discuss] Are Progressive Critics of Common Core "Getting Played" By Enemies of Public

[David Green]

I think Cody's article is probably on target. Again, setting up an unproductive debate, narrowly framed, all serving powerful interests.

DG



On Sunday, January 26, 2014 7:53 PM, David Johnson <davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net> wrote:
  
 
>Comments and 
opinions on this article about Common Core, David and Lynn ? 
>Are Progressive Critics of Common Core 
"Getting Played" By Enemies of Public Education? 
>By Anthony 
Cody on January 
7, 2014 3:33 PM  
> 
>Today, Politico 
offers an analysisof conservative's 
organized opposition to the Common Core 
which points out that the end game for many of these Koch-funded groups is total 
annihilation of public education, through the expansion of vouchers for private 
and parochial schools, and home schooling. The response on the part of some has 
been to suggest that those of us on the progressive side who have also been 
critical of Common Core have "been played." That somehow we have lent credence 
to this conservative movement, and therefore we are being manipulated or 
used.  
>But blaming progressive critics of Common Core for the rise of this 
conservative movement turns reality on its head. The people who have 
let down our public schools are those who are willing to embrace standardization 
and high stakes tests as some sort of "progressive" guarantor of equity. We have 
been down this path with No Child Left Behind, which was sold to us by an 
alliance of liberal and neo-conservative politicians. We were told children in 
poverty would get more attention and resources once standardized tests "shed 
light" on just how far behind they were. We got teacher 'evaluation' schemes 
built around faulty VAM metrics, leading to mass demoralization and too-many 
losses of strong educators, simultaneous with a hypocritical push to replace 
seasoned teachers with Teach for America novices. The result? Intense pressure 
to raise test scores, narrowed curriculum, and school closings by the hundreds - 
all with the mantle of approval by our "liberal" leaders. Who really got played 
here?  
>Then Common Core came along in 2009. Everyone was weary of NCLB, and ready 
for change. But some of us could read the writing on the wall. The fancy words 
about critical thinking and "moving beyond the bubble tests" sounded nice, but a 
closer look revealed standards that were originally written with little to no 
participation by K12 teachers. The promises to get rid of bubble tests only 
meant that the tests would be taken on expensive computers. The promise to 
escape the narrowing of curriculum only meant we would be testing more often, in 
more subjects. 
>So many of us started 
raising concerns. The basic premise of Common Core was similar to NCLB - our 
schools are failing, and we must respond with "higher standards," and more 
difficult tests. But the indictment of public education has been wrong from the 
start, and we should not lend it credence by supporting phony 
solutions. 
>But those who objected were drowned out by 
the incentives provided by Race to the Top and a bottomless well of grant 
funding from the Gates Foundation, which purchased support from the PTA, 
professional organizations like ASCD, and even our unions.  
>In April, I 
wrote about  the trap our leaders fall into when they embrace the 
Common Core with enthusiasm, and offer largely unqualified endorsements of its 
inherent goodness: 
>But there is a new reason to get up on our hind legs and fight the Common  Core and it is very political. A number of conservatives are making this a  major issue. While corporate Republicans like Jeb Bush remain thoroughly  wedded to Common Core, the real energy of the party is elsewhere. The energy  is with the more Libertarian types, like Rand Paul and Glenn Beck. They are  likely to escalate their attacks on the Common Core, and they already hate  unions. That makes it very easy forthem to attack Common Core as a Big Government, Big Union plot to  squash local control of schools and impose a monolithic curriculum on the  populace. 
>>The Obama administration's education policies have been, by and large, a  disaster. And Republicans are poised to rev  up their attack machine on these grounds and teacher unions will be  smeared right along with the administration so long as they are on 
board. 
>It is not progressive opponents of 
Common Core who have set our public schools and unions up for this. It is the 
corporate reformers, and those willing to promote their grandiose Common Core 
project.
>
>     
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