Monday, November 25, 2013

Signing on to the Common Core

Did our Montgomery County Board of Education really vet the new curriculum, otherwise known as the Common Core, before the rollout? Or was our school system just taken with the bells, and whistles of the program AND the goodies offered by the Pearson arrangement? 

 In Massachusetts, the State Board of Education decided to delay the rollout. Not an individual board - but State Wide. Here is a summary

 This week, the Massachusetts Board of Education voted to slow the transition to Common Core. The board decided to delay implementation for two years while it compares the Common Core aligned Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests to their existing—and widely praised—Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam. Commissioner Mitchell Chester, who also chairs the governing board for the PARCC consortium, says that adopting the Common Core by the 2014–2015 deadline would cause Massachusetts “too precipitous a transition.” Massachusetts is known for its quality state academic standards and student achievement levels. This year, Massachusetts celebrated its 20th anniversary of its historic education reforms that kick-started the state’s success.

Continue reading here:  http://blog.heritage.org/2013/11/22/cracks-core-massachusetts-halts-common-core-implementation/

Numerous states are reconsidering whether to adopt the Common Core.  You can read the progress of the state level efforts here.

So - Montgomery County - will we be innovative or has the Pearson Punch taken over?

Stay tuned.

1 comment:

  1. Maryland's State Superintendent, Lillian Lowery, is a graduate of the (completely uncertified and unrecognized) Broad Superintendents' Academy. http://www.broadcenter.org/academy/network/profile/lillian-lowery

    For more information about the Broad Academy, see here: http://thebroadreport.blogspot.com/p/parent-guide.html

    She is also on the PARCC Governing Board: http://www.parcconline.org/governing-board Oh, and she appears to have made Maryland the PARCC "fiscal agent": http://www.parcconline.org/maryland-takes-parcc-fiscal-agent-role

    I don't see Maryland giving up Common Core any time soon....

    ReplyDelete

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