Increasingly Uncommon Common Core

As more states learn what Common Core involves, fewer of them want anything to do with it. “The number of states participating in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) Common Core-aligned testing consortium has fallen from 26 plus Washington, DC in 2010 to just seven states and Washington, DC today, according to the Pioneer Institute,” Heather Kays reported in School Reform News. “Ohio abandoned PARCC on June 30, making it the latest state to back out of the consortium.”

“Ohio officials decided in July to use the assessments created by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), which has partnered with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. AIR already administers Ohio’s standardized social studies and science tests.” School Reform News is published by the Heartland Institute.

By the way, in her book, Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?, Mercedes K. Schneider notes that “PARCC received a $170 million federal startup grant” from the Obama Administration as well as “an additional $16 million to help consortia states ‘transition’ to the resulting assessments.”

“(Transitioning to common assessments happens to be one of the [Race to the Top] RTTT criteria.” Race to the Top is the Obama Administration’s education reform plan.

On the bright side, even if Common Core, as it looks increasingly likely, goes belly up, students and teachers can console themselves with their bulk copies of Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs, a favorite text of Common Core enthusiasts.

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