Delaying Common Core the Chicago Way

Opposition to Common Core continues to spread well across party lines, no matter how much the educational establishment tires to minimize the blowback. “Illinois state officials have threatened to withhold funding from school districts that refuse to administer a new state exam aligned with Common Core State Standards,” the American School Board Journal reported in the current issue of the magazine. “The threat, issued in a letter earlier this year to school districts, followed a Chicago Public Schools announcement that it would not administer the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exam.”

“In explaining their decision, Chicago officials expressed concern about student access to technology necessary for the computer-based tests. Other Illinois districts have voiced concern about PARCC, and sporadic parent boycotts have arisen nationwide to protest Common Core or the excessive use of standardized tests.”

Actually, “More than 40 downstate superintendents have asked state schools Superintendent Christopher] Koch to delay PARCC testing, saying ‘the testing initiative has moved too fast, is ill-planned, does not support the basic tenets of quality formative assessment such as validity and reliability, is consuming vast and valuable resources (both human and monetary) at the district level, and, most importantly, will not truly benefit our students,’” Juan Perez Jr. and Diane Rado reported in The Chicago Tribune.

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