Retired teacher traces Common Core back to Sputnik

Common Core is the most recent version of a five-decade long reform movement, which has stressed over and over that public schools are failing. It all started with Sputnik.

In 2012, McDonnell and Weatherford, professors at UC-Santa Barbara, examined the connection of Common Core, policy, and politics. Contrary to common perception, public schools were not failing. They discovered that politics determined the definitions of what makes up "research" in order to support policy decisions concerning the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). In other words, the tail wags the dog.

McDonnell and Weatherford noted that teachers need more than what Common Core proponents offer in the way of platitudes, personal opinion, and a lack of research-based evidence. They are absolutely correct. Teachers want the details that support the claims made about Common Core. They do want their students to be successful. However, those evidence-based details are scant and questionable, and a flawed definition of research misleads educators throughout the country. What "research" there is, comes from those groups promoting Common Core (like the Gates Foundation) to policy makers at all levels, including the federal level.

To be told by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan that states need to adopt "internationally benchmarked standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the work place" is one thing. To merely say that evidence for standards exists on the international level, to create benchmarks ignoring child development, and to create assessments piecemeal and on the fly from other standardized tests and then window-dress them as "Common Core" is another.

Gene Glass, former president of the American Educational Research Association says this about the CCSS: "an idiot's solution to a misunderstood problem (an archaic curriculum that will prepare no child for life after 2040 and beyond)."

The backlash has begun.

Duane Pitts is a retired English teacher now living in Moses Lake. He taught English for 42 years - eight years in Valdosta, Ga; two years in Colfax; and 32 years in Odessa. As a retiree, he serving as a facilitator by helping teachers and principals learn about the new state teacher-principal evaluation project.