Outraged at the core

Sent to the Washington Post, September 9, 2014

The Post says that progressives are "uncomfortable with the role of the Gates foundation and new tests associated with the (Common Core) standards" ("Common Core 2.0: Common Core by another name," Sept. 10).

Uncomfortable? More accurate would be "outraged."

Outraged not only at Gates' role in the Common Core, but also because the Common Core imposes a sequence of standards totally unsupported by research,  with no plans to test it.

Outraged because the Common Core is requiring more standardized testing than we have ever seen on this planet, despite research showing that increased testing does not increase student achievement.

Outraged because there is no need for this expensive boondoggle: Studies show that the real problem in American education is poverty: When researchers control for the effect of poverty, American students score at the top of the world on international tests.  

Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus
University of Southern California

Original article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/common-core-20-common-core-by-another-name/2014/09/09/

Amount of testing: Krashen, S. 2011. How much testing? Posted on The Answer Sheet, Valerie Strauss’ Washington Post blog: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/
Increasing testing: Nichols, S., Glass, G. and Berliner, D. 2006. “High-Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Does Accountability Pressure Increase Student Learning?” Education Policy Archives 14 (1). <http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/72/198> (accessed October 14, 2013).
Control for the effects of poverty: Payne, K. and Biddle, B. 1999. Poor school funding, child poverty, and mathematics achievement. Educational Researcher 28 (6): 4-13; Bracey, G. 2009. The Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/Bracey-Report. Berliner, D. 2011. The Context for Interpreting PISA Results in the USA: Negativism, Chauvinism, Misunderstanding, and the Potential to Distort the Educational Systems of Nations. In Pereyra, M., Kottoff, H-G., & Cowan, R. (Eds.). PISA under examination: Changing knowledge, changing tests, and changing schools. Amsterdam: Sense Publishers. Tienken, C. 2010. Common core state standards: I wonder? Kappa Delta Phi Record 47 (1): 14-17. Carnoy, M and Rothstein, R. 2013, What Do International Tests Really Show Us about U.S. Student Performance. Washington DC: Economic Policy Institute. 2012. http://www.epi.org/).