Common Core on the Ropes

, Malcolm A. Kline, 3 Comments

The Common Core education standards are not advancing as supporters had hoped and the Obama Administration that promoted them bears much of the blame, according to a journal of the education establishment.

“Common Core has an image problem,” Kathleen Vail writes in the American School Board Journal. “The set of academic standards in math and language arts were embraced by 43 states and the District of Columbia in record time. States and individual school districts have been spending time, e­ffort, and money to implement the standards.”

“As those efforts go on, states have begun to pull out of the standards. At the EdNet conference I attended this fall, one public relations professional noted that, years from now, the Common Core will be a textbook example of a tainted brand. It certainly didn’t help when pundits started calling the standards Obama Core—referring to the U.S. Department of Education’s enthusiastic support.”

Indeed, one could argue that only a vowel separates Obama Core from the disastrous health care makeover that the president proclaims that he is proud that his name is attached to. Nevertheless, Vail never acknowledges that a large part of the problem lay with the content of the education plan.

If you don’t believe me, just go to the math page of the Common core web site and try to find any mention of multiplication or division.