Man behind Common Core Standards couldn't get hired as a teacher

Noted education blogger Diane Ravitch, a former Education Department official under President George H. W. Bush, is an outspoken opponent of Common Core Standards. In her latest post, she notes that the man who is generally acknowledged as the creator of Common Core Standards, David Coleman, was unable to get a teaching job. (And while it's true that I am in the same boat, Coleman cannot blame C. J. Huff, Angie Besendorfer and the Legion of Doom at 32nd and Duquesne for his problem.)

And now the man who could not get hired for a teaching job is the one who is determining what most of the schools in the United States will be teaching.

That would be like putting someone who has never been a teacher in charge of the U. S. Department of Education.

Who would ever think of doing a thing like that?

At the same time that he was writing the Common Core standards, Coleman was treasurer of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst in its first year of operation. The board had two other members: Jason Zemba, who wrote the Common Core math standards, and a third person who was an employee of David Coleman’s Student Achievement Partners.

Now, Coleman is reshaping the SAT and the AP tests to align with the Common Core.

Obviously, Coleman is an incredibly brilliant and well-educated man. He went to the very best universities. His parents were highly educated (his mother is president of Bennington College).

Since he has never been a teacher, what we must wonder about is his ability to understand that not all children will score over 700 on their SAT, no matter how hard they try. Not all children will go to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. Not all children will go to Oxford.

We have a federal policy today that seems to have been written by people who got very high scores on their standardized tests and lack empathy for those who can’t do the same.