“The Timing of the National Takeover of the Public Schools”

by Donna Garner

The 48 state Governors signed the Common Core standards adoption agreements before the public was told about the national tests.  

U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan waited until the state contracts were signed before he made the rest of the plan clear:

• At least 85% of states’ standards must be the Common Core.

• National tests would be created based upon those 85%. 

• To get the Race to the Top funds, states would have to be a part of the Common Core. 

• To get the Race To the Top funds, states would also have to implement an elaborate tracking system (provided by none other than Bill Gates I feel sure) that would link student test scores to individual teachers.

• This obviously means that teachers, whose merit pay will depend upon how their students do on the national tests, will teach their students a national curriculum to get them ready for the national tests.

• The vendors/lobbyists will be only too glad to develop the national curriculum, and they will love having to deal with the Beltway rather than having to get their wares vetted through individual state textbook/instructional materials adoption processes where the products are required to pass through public hearings with conscientious citizens who check for factual errors.   

• States can fool around with the 15% in their state standards all they want to, but the reality is that their teachers will teach the 85% because their salaries will depend upon it.

In my mind, anyone who thinks the U. S. Dept. of Ed. Is not heavily guiding the development of the Common Core Standards is not “reading the tea leaves right.” This plan actually goes all the way back to the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) and has been sitting on a shelf waiting to emerge when the right players were in place in Washington, D. C.

Here are excerpts from the EdWeek article on 10.20.09:

As 48 states charge ahead with plans to adopt common academic standards, the U.S. Department of Education will enlist experts and the public to help design a $350 million competition for the next step: the development of common tests…

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said as much in June, to some of the nation’s governors: “Some people may claim that a commonly created test is a threat to state control—but let’s remember who is in charge. You are. You will create these tests. You will drive the process. You will call the shots.”

…The $350 million that has been earmarked for assessments is a piece of the larger $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund, which was created as part of the $787 billion economic-stimulus package passed by Congress in February. Earlier this year, Mr. Duncan announced he would peel off a chunk of Race to the Top specifically to help states develop common assessments that would piggyback on the common-standards effort. ("Stimulus Seeks Enriched Tests," Aug. 12, 2009.)…

The Education Department is trying to usher along this effort, too, by linking a state’s participation in common standards—and the development of common assessments—to the separate competition for Race to the Top grants. Participation in both efforts for common standards and assessments would give states a competitive edge, according to draft regulations the department released in July. ("'Race to Top' Guidelines Stress Use of Test Data," July 23, 2009.)

If and when states can agree on a common set of standards, many education policy experts have said, the next step would be to develop common tests by which to assess students’ progress on the new standards, which could carry a hefty price tag.