Common Core Disses Bilingual Education

The bad reviews of Common Core keep pouring in, and not just from the right of center.

“Among bilingual educators there has been much debate about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS),” Jeff Bale writes in the Fall 2015 issue of Rethinking Schools. “Some of the most respected scholars of bilingual education have endorsed the Common Core and are working hard to make it relevant for English learners.”

“Others have been more suspicious. Not only do the standards focus on English-only, critics note, but they were bankrolled by the Gates Foundation, pushed on states in a way that amounts to bribery by the Obama Administration, and promise to worsen the impact of high-stakes standardized testing.” Bale, currently an associate professor of language and literacies education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, “previously taught English to newcomers in urban secondary schools in Washington, D. C., Chicago and Phoenix for a decade,” according to his credit line.

This development is a bit surprising, particularly given candidate Obama’s exhortation to voters to learn Spanish during his first run for the White House. Moreover, the Republican most associated with the CCSS, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, misses no opportunity to demonstrate his own multilingual abilities.

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