The Times Talks Common Core

The Times has an article about Common Core and why it's no big deal in Washington State. (The article is not in their education blog and I truly get mixed up about the difference between their ed blog stories and their education section stories. But I digress.)

They ask a bunch of the usual suspects about CC but they don't do two big things.

1) They don't really explain why there is so much pushback throughout the country. 
2) They don't have a SINGLE person with a quote on why they don't like it.  Almost as if they don't exist in our state.  (You can Google - Washington State Common Core - and guess what you find?  Stop Common Core in Washington State.)

The Times also doesn't mention the bill numbers for the bills introduced to eliminate the use of Common Core in Washington State - that would be HB 2165 and SB 6030.  The House bill has 20 sponsors and the Senate bill has seven.   Most are Republicans but yes, a few Dems in there.


The Times' take - from the quotes they do have - is that McCleary is sucking all the air out of any public ed discussion.  That's somewhat plausible but again, if you don't even try to find people against Common Core, it's a little suspicious.

From the article:

Two national groups of schools chiefs and governors coordinated the writing of the standards hoping, in part, to encourage teachers to help students do more critical thinking and problem solving. 

Makes CC sound absolutely beign, no?  (And, of course, no mention that it was Daddy Warbucks (Bill Gates) who funded the creation of CC.

Then, of course, there are those who want to entirely throw readers off:

“Once folks read the actual standards, it’s a bit of an ‘emperor has no clothes’ moment,” said Rep. Chad Magendanz, R-Issaquah, in an email.  

Again, just read the standards and you'll know everything you need to about CC.  I'm sure Rep. Magendanz, an ed reformer, would love for that to be the case. 

The contrast becomes clear here:

Both the far left and far right, he said, have found common ground in opposing the Common Core. That alliance has made Washington moderates in both parties wary of the anti-Common Core message, he said, and as a result, the political center here hasn’t been swayed by the arguments.

In this state, both political parties have voted to condemn the standards — the state Republicans last year, and the state Democrats last month.

But their arguments don’t appear to have resonated with most elected officials.

So the parties are listening to the discussion and people from the far ends of the parties are listening to the discussion but not elected officials.  You have to wonder why that is but alas, the article doesn't question that issue.

Superintendent Randy Dorn puts all in easy-to-understand language:  higher standards and money.

“Many legislators have kind of taken a look at the Common Core, and (said), ‘OK, the reason for doing this is to have higher expectations for all children,’ ” Dorn said. “That’s it.”

Scrapping the standards and tests now, he said, would waste millions of dollars and all the time teachers have put into reorganizing their lessons to prepare students for them.

If only it was all that simple.

Most of the comments are around, "Why are standards bad?" and, of course, they are not.  But what's behind the curtain?  Not so good. 

I suppose all we have to do is wait and see because Washington State hasn't had its own personal experience with testing.  

I think there might be a different story then.