News Brief
The Tea Party Is Wrong on the Common Core Curriculum
Washington Post (06/09/13) Markell, JackDelaware Gov. Jack Markell, co-chairman of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Initiative, says the standards were developed over a year-long process by state leaders from both parties, along with highly respected people from the business community and leading educators. In this opinion piece, he refutes claims from conservatives that local school boards lose control of school curriculum, noting that CCSS only ensures that the expectations for schools in all participating states will be the same. He explains that the standards ensure a junior in Delaware will be at the same place academically as a junior in California. Schools and educators will continue to have discretion in how they teach these higher objectives, which are driven by the highest global benchmarks in addition to a thorough, peer-reviewed study of the skills that high school graduates need most in order to succeed in college or a career. "We have maintained an intense focus on the ability of our next generation of workers to apply lessons learned in the classroom to real-world situations," Markell says. "It's time to focus on the difficult work that comes with effectively implementing higher standards across hundreds of thousands of classrooms."
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