A new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says the Tea Party and moneyed interests on the far political right have polluted the debate about the Common Core so badly with misinformation that no one who cares about the real quality of public education in the US can have a serious, informed discussion about the real issues with the standards anymore.
Here’s an excerpt from the executive summary:
To be sure, education experts of all political stripes have raised important questions about the Common Core. Are the standards too rigorous? Are they rigorous enough? Should children and teachers be evaluated on standardized testing? Has there been ample time for implementation and teacher training?
These and other issues should be the focus of robust debate—one rooted in the facts. Unfortunately, the issues are being obscured by a cloud of overheated hyperbole, misinformation and far-right propaganda.
We must do better.
Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Lillian Lowery said pretty much the same thing at a panel discussion hosted by the Council of Chief State School Officers last month, when she referred to the propaganda as “noise”:
When I pick up some of the morning newspapers and read that there’s bedlam all around, that things are coming completely apart at the seams, I’m wondering what schools these people have visited and what teachers with whom they’ve spoken. Because while this isn’t easy, and while we have amazing teachers doing amazing work, this is a shift. It’s a huge shift. It’s hard, but they are in there every day making it happen.
So, I’m trying to talk to our folks who are focused, the proponents, and say, that is noise, and we have to kind of deal with the noise, but let us at this level [motions to herself] deal with the noise, and protect the people in the classroom—the classrooms that are trying to get this done, the school leaders who are trying to get this done every day.
So, I believe what I would say to proponents [of the Common Core], maybe we weren’t listening hard enough. The footsteps were behind us, and we probably didn’t hear them coming as soon as we should have, because we were so focused on the work. We’ve got to do both: we’ve got to stay focused on the work, create safe zones for these teachers who are working like crazy every day for these children, protect them. But also we’ve got to do exactly what we’re doing today, not pay attention to the noise, because the noise is getting in the way.
Here’s hoping education professionals can deal with the “noise” coming from the political right wing. These professionals have devoted their lives to the education of our youngest generation, and they would very much like to get to work mending problems with No Child Left Behind instead of complaining about it, narrowing achievement gaps by expanding curricula in real public schools, and carrying on informed, intelligent debate about the standards and the surrounding issues.
Look, we have serious work to do, and the bilateral push against the Common Core from the political realm is getting in the way of anyone being able to make any necessary revisions. Ms Lowery didn’t specifically call for revisions, but other leading educators have directly or indirectly noted in public statements that the standards could use a looking over, including Linda Darling-Hammond, professor at Stanford, and Sean McComb, the 2014 National Teacher of the Year, who comes from Maryland.
