Why Common Core Has Won Battles But Not the War

Earlier this month, POLITICO published an article claiming that Common Core has quietly won the war as it has "become a reality" for 40 million students whose state has adopted and implemented the standards. 

But though the Common Core standards might be implemented in most states and have effectively become common place in most schools as the article suggests, Common Core dictates standards and not curriculum or teaching methods, therefore allowing implementation to vary greatly from state-to-state.

As a result, it's not so easy to say that Common Core has "won a war" against its various opponents because it is has no spoils of victory to show for it.

What Does 'Proficient' Mean?

Last spring millions of students sat in on standardized tests aligned with Common Core standards.

One of the biggest expectations of implementing the standards was to create a national standard for education. Experts hoped such a national standard would consequentially disintegrate achievement gaps and help create a desired level of consistency across states to ensure all the nation's students are proficient in reading and math.

As test results continue to come in for various states, The New York Times has found that this national standard has not been achieved because states have been adjusting the measures by which they consider students "proficient."

Though Ohio declared last month that two-thirds of its students were proficient based on last spring's test scores, "similar scores on the same tests meant something quite different in Illinois, where education officials said only about a third of students were on track. And in Massachusetts, typically one of the strongest academic performers, the state said about half of the students who took the same tests as Ohio’s children met expectations," The Times said.

In other words, proficient varies per state thanks to the ability of each state being able to determine what labels can be placed on scores.

However, this variance in proficiency is not simply a result of the Common Core- in fact, it's the exact problem the Common Core has attempted to solve.

"Before the Common Core, each state set its own standards and devised its own tests. Some states made the standardized tests so easy or set passing scores so low that virtually all students were rated proficient even as they scored much lower on federal exams and showed up for college requiring remedial help," The Times said.

Designed to help remedy this, the Common Core has not yet achieved such a victory. 

Mixed Engagement of and Support from Parents

It hasn't won over parents, either. While schools are busy training teachers and scrambling for resources, educating parents about the adjustments made to how their child learns via the Common Core standards has not been a priority.

As a result, many parents have no idea what the Common Core actually is. Left in the dark and unable to help children with homework, parents are more likely to denounce the standards than support them.

Some districts have sought out innovative ways to address this issue, such as in the Hazelwood School District, where administrators hold classes specifically for parents to learn the new ways of teaching math through Common Core.

But not all districts have the time or the resources to hold such workshops and as a result parent engagement varies from district to district let alone just state to state.

Uncertainty Over Instructional Materials

State and districts also vary when it comes to what instructional materials are used to help teach the Common Core. With the roll-out of the standards came the need for updated textbooks and learning materials, but states and districts received little help in deciding what to pick for replacements.

According to U.S. News, "[a]cross the country, 19 states have a state-level adoption process for curriculum materials but leave the final selection decisions to individual school districts. Of those 19 states, nine compile a list of materials from which school districts are 'required or strongly encouraged' to use when selecting textbooks and other instructional materials."

By leaving curriculum materials up to the districts' discretion, students still effectively receive very different instruction in different schools based on the choices of materials chosen despite being guided by the same set of standards.

The Bottom Line

Sure, POLITICO is right when saying "[t]he conspiracy theories that Common Core would require monitoring kids via iris scans, force teachers to use porn to help students learn to read or ban teaching cursive have largely quieted."

Many of the irrational fears that once consumed the Common Core have settled down, but that still doesn't mean that Common Core has prevailed.

Setting a national standard is a good intention, but Common Core implementation has a long way to go and a lot more support from its champions before it can achieve it.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

10/19/2015