Common Core Academic Standards Causing Critical Backlash

The recent furor about Colorado’s adoption of the Common Core academic standards has a puzzling sense of deja vu about it.

Wasn’t this debated in 2010? Didn’t the opponents lose?

And weren’t the Colorado Academic Standards, which broadly overlap the Common Core, the subject of a two-year statewide conversation prior to adoption?

The answer to all of those questions is a resounding yes. Colorado has been there and done that.

Given that history and our longstanding support for the new standards, we were glad to see the Colorado Senate education committee on Thursday put an end to an effort to stall implementation of the new standards.

There has been a troubling backlash brewing nationally against the voluntary standards, adopted by 45 states, one that is fueled by a disjointed confluence of interests on the right and left of the political spectrum.

Some believe the core is an effort to undermine CLICK TO READ

Backlash against Common Core education standards surfaces in Colorado

Backlash to implementation of new education standards known as the Common Core has begun to surface in Colorado, following about two dozen other states that have raised concerns about both the content and the high-stakes testing that comes with it.

A group that describes itself as a collection of concerned moms in Fort Collins has networked with others around the state to express misgivings about the standards, which provide a grade-by-grade framework aimed at improving college and workforce readiness.

Critics fear it will foster mediocrity.

“The concern was that the Common Core was going to be sort of a race to the middle,” said Cheri Kiesecker, describing the issue that mobilized her and other Fort Collins parents.

Those worries turned into a draft bill to put the brakes on implementation for one year pending a review by an independent panel that would assess the standards, hold public hearings and do a cost-benefit analysis. Sen. Vicki Marble, a Fort Collins Republican, agreed to carry it.

But while those protesting the Common Core stress that they’re pushing a nonpartisan issue, they say they have found zero Democratic support and suspect that without it, the bill would go nowhere. Marble, the only listed sponsor so far, was not available for comment Monday. She planned a Tuesday press conference to talk about the issue.

Sen. Michael Johnston, D-Denver, has met with some of the concerned groups and said he thinks there’s “a lot of misunderstanding” about the standards and that “different sets of concerns somehow were cobbled together under the flag of Common Core.”

“We’ve had standards in Colorado before that balance local autonomy over curriculum to a state goal of what kids should know,” he said. “The same is true of Common Core, only we’re able to share best resources and practices across states.”

Colorado adopted the Common Core for math and language arts in 2010 as part of an integration with revised state standards in other areas that already had been in the works. Proponents say the standards are more rigorous and require higher-level thinking.

The integrated standards were approved
Read more: Backlash against Common Core education standards surfaces in Colorado – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25004965/backlash-against-common-core-education-standards-surfaces-colorado#ixzz2rhP8iX7l Kevin Simpson