Parky60 Loc: People's Republic of Illinois

Results Are In: Common Core Is Making American Kids Dumber
Stephen Kruiser ~ October 31, 2019
The never-ending quest of modern educators to find new ways of learning that will never hurt any child's feelings has not been a resounding success thus far. The ambitious attempt to standardize learning across the country known as Common Core can now be measured and the news isn't good.

The Common Core website explains the initiative:
[A] set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy (ELA). These learning goals outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade. The standards were created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the sk**ls and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live.

Super.

The aforementioned bad news is that the first group of Common Core high school graduates aren't as well prepared as their predecessors.

The Federalist:
For the third time in a row since Common Core was fully phased in nationwide, U.S. student test scores on the nation’s broadest and most respected test have dropped, a reversal of an upward trend between 1990 and 2015. Further, the class of 2019, the first to experience all four high school years under Common Core, is the worst-prepared for college in 15 years, according to a new report.

Paraphrasing a popular commercial from recent years, "That's not how this is supposed to work. That's not how any of this is supposed to work."

However noble its intentions, Common Core is a failure of one-size-fits-all standardization.

The Federalist post notes various slippages in proficiency in different subjects and different grades, but the most damning assessment comes from the college admissions testing organization ACT:

On the same day the NAEP results were released, the college testing organization ACT released a report showing that the high school class of 2019’s college preparedness in English and math is at seniors’ lowest levels in 15 years. These students are the first to have completed all four high school years under Common Core.

“Readiness levels in English, reading, math, and science have all decreased since 2015, with English and math seeing the largest decline,” the report noted. Student achievement declined on ACT’s measures among U.S. students of all races except for Asian-Americans, whose achievement increased.

The kids can't read, write, or count as well as they used to. Other than that, this is all going swimmingly.

I spent half of my elementary and high school years in Catholic schools, where the learning was a bit more tailored to a student's abilities. Not surprisingly, I learned more in those schools.

The avalanche of evidence about Common Core's failure will no doubt be used by liberals as evidence that schools and teachers need more money. While not a federal program per se, there were a lot of federal grant dollars spent to get states to adopt Common Core. The program began as a "more money" initiative. Of course, with the Left, there never is enough money to throw at a problem.

What is left out of the reports cited in the Federalist's article is the fact that -- despite all protestations to the contrary -- most public schools are more interested in liberal indoctrination than education. It's more important to terrorize children with apocalyptic c*****e-c****e messages than to teach them to read.

Common Core is an extremely detailed and fleshed-out approach. If it's failing at achieving its basic goals, the flaw is in the curriculum, not the funding.

8 Lessons to Learn From the Failure of Common Core

Oldsailor65 Loc: Iowa

We have the Socialist/C*******t controlled Teachers Union to thank for much of this.

Carol Kelly

Truer words were never written. Teachers unions makes as much sense as nurses unions. Clarence Darrow loved unions! That should be a good example against unionizing everything. At one point in this country, more than a hundred years ago, they served a purpose, but now they are a hindrance to a successful citizenry.

Oldsailor65 Loc: Iowa

Unions demands are what drove so many Mfg. jobs out of this country but the MSM won't say anything about that.

padremike Loc: Phenix City, Al

When 70% of our youth would v**e for socialism you know something is desperately wrong.

Carol Kelly

The total t***h. Some of us aren’t blind.

Carol Kelly

Amen. I can see the difference among my own grandchildren. Some were educated in small town, small schools and they’re doing well, others not so well. I’m afraid we’ll pay the price at the polls next year. A good case for hindsight.

Wonttakeitanymore

Bill gates helped design this catastrophe while his kids went to private schools to learn the real stuff! Can you say dumb down the future competition!

greenmountaineer Loc: Vermont

I was not aware that educators had come up with "common core." I thought the Federal government came up with it.
If you read that silly old 18th century document called The Constitution of the United States, you will find in it a list of things the Federal Government has authority to do. Education is NOT on the list. Education was to be left to the states and the people.
In 1961 I got a job teaching science in a small rural high school in Vermont. My lab equipment consisted of a dozen test tubes, a box of empty baby food jars, three alcohol burners and an empty snapping turtle shell. The principal told me that the Feds had just passed the "National Defense Education Act" and that it would pay for half of anything we needed. Great! We soon had all sorts of good equipment and could teach a decent science program. Notice that Congress had put the word "defense" in the title of the law. Defense is something that the Feds have authority to do. But the camel's nose was under the edge of the tent and they don't even bother to claim that education bills are Constitutional anymore. NDEA was helpful for communities that were cash strapped in the 1960's, but with all that Federal money, the suppliers started raising prices. In 1961 I'd go to the school board and tell 'em I needed this $10 gizmo to teach chemistry and they'd refuse. But in 1963, I'd tell 'em I needed this (same) $40 gizmo, but the Feds would pay half of it and they'd say "Great! Here's our half!" Prices spiralled up year after year. Now,you can't run a school with locally raised taxes anymore. And there definitely was a push to lower standards, starting in the 1970's. When I was at Burlington High, at the direction of an assistant superintendent, we had developed a watered down science course. The next year that same super told our department head to develop an even more watered down class! When he told us this at a department meeting, I said "Joe, what are we going to call it? "traces of Science?" The whole department laughed and the topic was tabled. I don't know why the Feds want to make kids so dumb. But it wasn't the educators who did this.

woodguru

The results have been in, most of those who support trump have low education levels, and are referred to as "low information v**ers".

padremike Loc: Phenix City, Al

If you're an example of being smart then thank you Lord for making me dumb.

Lt. Rob Polans ret.

Yep, that's why preschool and then after school or when possible during school we homeschooled.
"The kids can't read, write, or count as well as they used to. Other than that, this is all going swimmingly." What else is there? G****r studies? Art history? Come to the real world.