![]() I cannot sum up the stakes any more clearly than Wurman did in his critique of this mess and the vested interests behind it: Ze'ev Wurman, a prominent software architect, electrical engineer and longtime math advisory expert in California and Washington, D.C., points out that Common Core delays proficiency with addition and subtraction until 4th grade and proficiency with basic multiplication until 5th grade, and skimps on logarithms, mathematical induction, parametric equations and trigonometry at the high school level. Traditional Euclidean geometry is replaced with an experimental approach that had not been previously pilot-tested in the U.S. Prime factorization, common denominators, conversions of fractions and decimals, and algebraic manipulation are de-emphasized or eschewed. Division is postponed from 5th to 6th grade. ![]() Under Common Core, as the American Principles Project and Pioneer Institute point out, algebra I instruction is pushed to 9th grade, instead of 8th grade, as commonly taught. Professor Jonathan Goodman of New York University found that the Common Core math standards imposed "significantly lower expectations with respect to algebra and geometry than the published standards of other countries." In protest, Milgram refused to sign off on the standards. In fact, Stanford University professor James Milgram, the only mathematician on the validation panel, concluded that the Common Core math scheme would place American students two years behind their peers in other high-achieving countries. Sandra Stotsky of the University of Arkansas reported, "No material was ever provided to the Validation Committee or to the public on the specific college readiness expectations of other leading nations in mathematics" or other subjects. There's no better illustration of Common Core's duplicitous talk of higher standards than to start with its math "reforms." While Common Core promoters assert their standards are "internationally benchmarked," independent members of the expert panel in charge of validating the standards refute the claim. And most importantly, I'll explain how this unprecedented federal meddling is corrupting our children's classrooms and textbooks. I'll tell you who's fighting it in grassroots tea party and parental revolts across the country from Massachusetts to Indiana, Texas, Georgia and Utah. Over the next several weeks and months, I'll use this column space to expose who's behind this disastrous scheme in D.C. In practice, Common Core's dubious "college- and career"-ready standards undermine local control of education, usurp state autonomy over curricular materials, and foist untested, mediocre and incoherent pedagogical theories on America's schoolchildren. Even states that lost their bids for Race to the Top money were required to commit to a dumbed-down and amorphous curricular "alignment." The administration bribed cash-starved states into adopting unseen instructional standards as a condition of winning billions of dollars in grants. It's being done in the name of federal "Common Core" standards that do anything but raise achievement standards.Ĭommon Core was enabled by Obama's federal stimulus law and his Department of Education's "Race to the Top" gimmickry. Under President Obama, these top-down mal-formers - empowered by Washington education bureaucrats and backed by misguided liberal philanthropists led by billionaire Bill Gates - are now presiding over a radical makeover of your children's school curriculum. They replaced time-tested rote techniques and standard algorithms with fuzzy math, inventive spelling and multicultural claptrap. They deemed ability grouping of students (tracking) bad for self-esteem. They attacked traditional grammar classes as irrelevant in modern life. "Progressive" reformers denounced Western civilization requirements, the Founding Fathers and the Great Books as racist. Rotten to the Core: Obama's War on Academic StandardsĪmerica's downfall doesn't begin with the "low-information voter." It starts with the no-knowledge student.įor decades, collectivist agitators in our schools have chipped away at academic excellence in the name of fairness, diversity and social justice.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |