This is the opposite of what we were told would happen with trillions of taxpayer dollars and an entire generation of children who deserve not to have been guinea pigs in a failed national experiment.
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.
Trillions of additional cost. And really not much to show for it except for larger Administrative bloat and shiny buildings. Oh, and much higher pay due to union pressure for higher wages. If this was the norm in almost almost any other industry, if the CEOs were turning in this kind of performance they’d be fired. Or their companies would be bankrupt. Or both (this is also true in politics).
Common Core was NEVER scientifically tested – EVER! THere were no test classes and no control classes. THere were no studies to eliminate variables (socioeconomic, graphical, et al) to normalize the data. This has been a huge experiment on our nation’s children in which Federal dollars (and Big Data companies) coerced local and State “leaders” into being bribed by “sugar plums dancing in their heads”.
This has been a pet peeve of mine as a BudComm member for years, especially when I hear that the School District wants to implement a new curriculum and they can’t tell me how they are going to know if it is better, worse, or just the same as the current one. I asked that, two years ago, about a new math program for the 5th grade. The answer I got?
Superintendent Kirk Beitler said that our high school graduation rates would be up when this class became seniors. Yes, I took that answer as both stupidity and “shut up, you’re not part of the Edu-Industrial Complex in-crowd” at the same time. While my hamlet’s NEAP scores are above NH’s average, when I see that we’re spending about $23K / student, my reaction is “sending them to private school would be a better value”.
Sure, they can all sing kumbaya and “sharing is caring” and all the rest of the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) indoctrination with the latest anti-conservative crap and get it right each and every time but when I go to the nearest convenience store and do the schtick on changing the bills so that the change back amount is different and they can’t shut the draw and have the cash register re-do it, it still amuses (and scares) me that the younger generation can’t do simple counting / use elementary math skills to properly give me the overage back.
That they don’t know their history, the foundational truths of this country – or even how many branches of the Federal Govt are (heck, even who the VP is or name three Supreme Court Justices). And the latest nonsense is that biological women are equal to trans (biological men) women are in sports when the results say otherwise.
Time for Conservatives to get back into education and the control of local boards. Then, perhaps, we can go back to what really worked in order to “move FORWARD!”. The days of social justice in our school systems should be thrown out and a new concentration on just the basic should be brought back.
And those that we have hired as employees had best be kept to stricter standards with our children. Because, they are OUR children and not, as Beitler and other believe, their children.
They really do believe it. Seriously. And I guess, based on results, they want their kids to be mere dolts.
(H/T: The Federalist)