COLUMBIA, S.C. – Today, Palmetto Policy Forum released a new report titled How Common Core Went Wrong: Bringing Common Sense to Education Standards in South Carolina. Authored by Forum Senior Fellow, Dr. Oran Smith, the report’s Executive Summary states:
The advent of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has ignited a firestorm among parents, educators and policy makers. This paper attempts to cut through the haze with a much needed common sense conservative analysis. In it, we provide a thumbnail history of educational standards in America, how CCSS went wrong, and what South Carolina can do to maintain control of our standards and promote the rigorous accountability our students need to equip them for success in school and in life.
Additionally, the report outlines a timeline of how education standards have evolved in South Carolina, how other states are dealing with Common Core, a “Common Core Common Sense Report Card,” as well as an eight-step blueprint to reclaim control of South Carolina’s standards:
RESTRUCTURE state education governance to insure democratic control of future standard adoption.
REVISIT South Carolina’s commitment to the federally-funded SMARTER Balanced testing consortium.
REVISE Common Core Math and ELA standards to insure state control and reflect South Carolina priorities.
REJECT future federal funding that commits South Carolina to a particular standard, curriculum or test.
RESTRICT the sharing of South Carolina students’ personal data.
FREEZE adoption of any further Common Core standards, such as Science or Social Studies.
FACILITATE a conversation with South Carolina parents about what future standards should look like.
FUND the demands of current standards only if it represents a net savings over reversing course and local control is restored.
Commenting on the release of the report, Forum President Ellen Weaver said, “Rigorous standards are critical to prepare our students to compete in the global economy. However, parental control of what is taught in our local schools is a fundamental principle on which Common Core State Standards have failed to make the grade.”
She continued, “The Common Core debate has generated a unique opportunity to engage parents, educators and business leaders in a thoughtful conversation about what we expect of South Carolina’s students. We trust this report will be a useful resource for policy makers and parents to help sift through the heated rhetoric and create a platform for high-quality, locally-directed academic excellence.”
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The online version of the full report may be found HERE.
21 comments
I simply don’t like the idea of the Common Core on the basis that it promotes this idea that Washington DC should have command & control over the policies of all states.
Just like roads, DC will use the federal funding mechanisms to drive policy changes they feel are best regardless of the will of the local population.
This notion that the Federal government knows better than the state and local governments has to be tossed out the window or the move towards a soft DC dictatorship will only continue.
like the idea of the Common Core on the basis that it promotes this idea that Washington DC should have command
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I’d cut off my nose before I’d let Washington blow it for me.
You wouldn’t have to cut it off, they’d do it for you and tell you “all better now, we know best.”
I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. As a matter of fact, I might just cut it off just so they can’t surprise me with it.
Never thought that South Carolina chill’in need noin or abiding that new-fangled idea of the sun revolving around the earth to winnow rice or run looms.
So are you against the SC school system as it is currently run?
Red Herring. Its easy and cheap to ed-u-ma-kate the aristocracy. Its a lot harder and more expensive to ed-u-ma-kate the field hands. The overseers are simply too insecure in their positions to challenge the status quo. Any attempt to ed-u-ma-kate will be met with opposition. Been t’at way since Lord Ashley.
lol, do you even know what a red herring is?
So you don’t want to answer the question, fine. I can only assume you are not for the current SC education system as it’s currently structured.
Doesn’t seem like that hard a question to answer, but hey, transparency is difficult at times
As currently structured, the curriculum is adequate. Common Core is essentially what is taught in schools today brought together by parents and schools nationally. The issue with education in South Carolina is funding. Has been funding and will continue to be funding. It costs money to educate and even more to educate poor with social problems. Nobody in South Carolina is willing to address the chronic underfunding, including the South Carolina Supreme Court. So every program and every action has become painting with whitewash over rot.
And SC at the bottom of the rung for educating it’s citizens.
“The issue with education in South Carolina is funding. Has been funding and will continue to be funding. ”
Last time I checked, SC funds at #28…so do you expect this funding to improve by embracing the federally funded standards?
It doesn’t matter if SC funds at #28 if the amount necessary to ed-u-ma-kate is to fund at a higher level to address the issues that are holding performance back. The argument is a red herring, a distraction. Golf-clap.
“It doesn’t matter if SC funds at #28 if the amount necessary to ed-u-ma-kate is to fund at a higher level to address the issues that are holding performance back. ”
Yea, see…here’s where you’re wrong. Because our finance ranking doesn’t match up with our academic rating which fluctuates around the high 40’s.
So you’re “argument” that the SC educrat system just needs more dough doesn’t match up with the reality of their performance, not withstanding today’s news about Common Core potentially reducing funds available per student.
Conflating two different statistics and cherry picking another does not make an argument. That is called rhetoric and we all can appreciate the use of the ‘slippery slope’ argument in your concluding remark too. Academic rating of 40’s in what: percentile, percentage or total number. College, High School, private or public. Between 2010 and 2011 real inflation and population adjusted funding dropped 1.7 percent in SC while SC ranked just above Tennessee and Mississippi in funding.
Conflating?
lol…you asked for it:
http://www.alec.org/publications/report-card-on-american-education/
Lest you think this site is ‘biased’, here’s another one, eoc/gov based, see page 2, k-12 achievement:
http://www.eoc.sc.gov/In%20the%20News/At-A-Glance/2012/February/National%20Ranking%20Released%20At-A-Glance%20-%20Feb%202012.pdf
Seriously, what argument do you have left now? NONE.
Game, set, match.
Really, ALEC as your source? Why not simply make up some numbers? Good try – its called cherry picking.
lol…did you even read the second link? I posted two…do you take exception with SC’s own report as well, or is reading comprehension the problem?
Clearly someone has comprehension problems, the underlying source is derived from the same ALEC report. Careful reading skills require understanding of what is read. Cherry picking and navel gazing is rhetoric. Were you taught in the wonderful SC public schools? Poor performance comes down to the same problem in SC public schools, a lack of any meaningful funding and use of a lot of cheap whitewashing over the underlying rot caused by its lack of funding.
Now it’s coming out that states participating in Common Core may actually have to spend more money than they receive to implement its standards.
THIS COULD ACTUALLY REDUCING FUNDING PER CHILD!!!!
Link(sure, it’s Fox news which is likely to send half the people here into conniption fits, but if it is true EVERYONE should be concerned regardless of paradigm):
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/05/number-states-backing-out-common-core-testing-maryland-schools-low-on-funding/
“REVISE Common Core Math and ELA standards to insure state control and reflect South Carolina priorities”
Does that mean South Carolina produces its own version of the English language dictionary?
Not sure I am interested in education policy advice from a group that doesn’t know the difference between insure and ensure.