The idea that the push for Common Core Standards was well underway even before the Obama Administration began is questionable and so are a lot of other things Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a speech Monday to the American Society of News Editors.
In an article in Education Week, Michelle McNeil fact-checks Duncan:
He didn't mention Race to the Top Round 3, the bridesmaid round as we call it, when common standards adoption and implementation mattered even more. Implementing common standards and participating in a testing consortia were required in order for any of the nine finalist states to get their consolation prize. (UPDATE: I should point out that the department did this to make sure states didn't backtrack from the promises they made in the original rounds of competition.)
Also going unmentioned was the $360 million in Race to the Top funds Duncan used to help states develop common tests linked to the common standards. His speech was almost entirely focused on the standards themselves.
Duncan used the speech to take on his critics, basically accusing them of taking the easy way out as they sought to derail other education-improvement efforts.
"Some of the hostility to Common Core also comes from critics who conflate standards with curriculum, assessments and accountability. They oppose mandated testing and they oppose using student achievement growth and gain as one of multiple measures to evaluate principals and teachers. They also oppose intervention in chronically low-performing schools. Some seem to feel that poverty is destiny," he said.
"It's convenient for opponents to simply write it all off as federal overreach—but these are separate and distinct issues--and they should be publicly debated openly and honestly with a common understanding about the facts."
Arne Duncan should try sticking to those facts before he chastises others for dishonesty.
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