RALEIGH — As the New Year
launches, disquiet over Common Core testing is building. States from Kentucky to New York to North Carolina have
posted abysmal scores on early tests aligned with the math and English
language-arts standards adopted by 45 states.
Parents
and local educators, many of whom feel duped by Common Core's stealthy arrival,
are raising a ruckus. As a result, multiple states have moved to delay
components of Common Core implementation or testing. North Carolina should follow suit.
In
early November, North Carolina’s
Department of Public Instruction released scores on the first round of Common
Core tests, revealing epic rates of failure. At all points along the grade 3-8
continuum, a majority of students fell short of proficiency thresholds. Fewer
than half of third-graders scored proficient in reading and math. Among
eighth-graders, 41 percent demonstrated proficiency in reading; just 34 percent
did so in math.
Should
we be mollified by assurances that the standards measured by these tests are
well-crafted and rigorous? Nope. Content experts on Common Core’s validation
committee, Sandra Stotsky and James Milgram, refused to approve the standards,
calling them flawed.
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