-Laelth

at least at my daughter's middle school. I'm working on an op-ed on 10 issues with it alone. I wish I could home-school my daughter. It's the worst corporate ed reform I've seen in my lifetime.

They are a list of standards, not bad nor good in themselves, like any other list of standards. Personally, I prefer the old "frameworks," which gave content and skills in a scope and sequence with a narrative to keep them in context, but that's just me. I haven't been excited about very long lists of isolated skills that we call "standards."

It's not the standards themselves, though, but the abuse and misuse of those standards, and that's what we've been dealing with since the "standards and accountability movement" came to power.

The CCSS is no exception. The abuse and misuse is already in full swing.

>>>>By all indicators, teachers are generally favorable to the new standards.>>>>>>

As Jack Nicholson said to Faye Dunaway in Chinatown, "That runs contrary to my experience."

OK, I'll bite: what are the indicators?

Common core is a list of standards, it is not (by itself) curriculum, nor is it a test, nor does it require testing.

All common core is, is a standard says that a 5th grader should know this, a 6th grader that, etc.

If states / school districts want to test on that basis, its a different issue. However, everyone has been tested from time immemorial. I received a B in 9th grade biology 25 years ago, so obviously I was tested and expected to know *something*. Hopefully with common core if I receive a B it will mean I know the same things as some one the next county, city, or state over or across the country.

You could reasonably argue (and people have) that the standards are bad for various reasons -- not age appropriate, not needed or valuable skills / knowledge, not rigorous enough, etc. But arguing against common core because of testing requirements seem disingenuous, since they are not synonymous.

From The Guardian:

Should Pearson, a giant multinational, be influencing our education policy?

Pearson, the giant London-based multinational, is the world's largest education firm as well as running Penguin books and the Financial Times. Attention is now focusing on its seemingly ever-growing influence on English school life.

Pearson's level of involvement in state education in the US, particularly through testing, has become high-profile in recent weeks. Last month, hundreds of parents reportedly protested outside the firm's New York offices, unhappy at the company's $35m (£22m) contract to provide controversial high-stakes tests for the city's schools. A statement from the group ParentVoicesNY said the protest was about "the excessive power and influence the billion-dollar, for-profit company, Pearson, has over [New York City's] education department".

Pearson also reportedly has a five-year contract worth nearly $500m (£318m) to provide tests for schools in Texas, and sets tests across other states including Florida, Kentucky, Arizona, Virginia and Maryland.

"The corporation is acting as a quasi-government agency in several instances, but it is not a quasi-government agency: it is a business that sells products and services. What part of the field of education does Pearson not manage?