Who hates the Common Core? Teachers? Conservatives? Whoever they are, many of them took the time to vote in this week’s Ed Next Readers Poll.
For the past week we have been asking our readers the following question:
As you may know, all states are currently deciding whether or not to adopt the Common Core standards in reading and math. If adopted, these standards would be used to hold the state’s schools accountable for their performance. Do you support or oppose the adoption of the Common Core standards in your state?
The results were as follows:
Completely support – 17%
Somewhat support – 13%
Neither support nor oppose – 4%
Somewhat oppose – 12 %
Completely oppose – 54%
A number of our readers provided their own thoughts on the question. Here are some of the responses:
Against the Common Core:
“The common core will require more testing; it is very expensive with money going to test companies and corporations not students or classrooms; there is no justification for common core since common core does not teach, people do.”
“I wonder how the results would be if respondees realized that there is no justification for the common core in the first place: the problem is poverty.”
In support of the Common Core:
“Where are people getting that the Common Core requires more testing than NCLB? I am on my district’s CCSS team as well on the national American Federation of Teachers CCSS work team. The standards are about levels and types of reading and writing that will make students college-ready and critical thinkers. All assessments in the core are authentic, written work evaluated by classroom teachers. The standards themselves were designed with heavy teacher input.”
On the fence:
“The promise of the Common Core State Standards is that the United States, like other countries to which we are compared, will once again respect and trust the professional knowledge of its educators to teach, guided by a strong, common group of standards. The peril is that others who are not in schools full time will take control of this iteration of the standards movement. If state departments of education, districts, and textbook companies are allowed to own the CCSS, they are doomed to be the next thing layered on teachers—the next thing we have to do with fidelity, but without ownership.”
(These comments and more can be viewed by visiting the poll page and scrolling down to the comments section.)
According to a recent poll by Achieve, most teachers have a very or somewhat favorable view of the standards, but the majority of U.S. voters have not seen, read or heard anything about the standards.
For more about the Common Core State Standards from Education Next, please read:
“The Common Core Math Standards: Are They a Step Forward or Backward?”
“The War Against the Common Core”
“Let Progress Trickle Up on Standards”
“The Fate of the Common Core: The View from 2022”
“E Pluribus Unum? Two Longtime School Reformers Debate the Merits of a National Curriculum”
-Education Next
