Education publishing giant Pearson wants teachers to stop talking about its tests, designed to align to Common Core State Standards. The Common Core and its high stakes tests have been highly scrutinized, since their inception. In fact, some states that originally adopted the standards -- Indiana is one -- have recently opted out.
Now, educators are finding mistakes in the new tests, but they can't specify what those errors are, due to a gag order, which Pearson included in its contract with New York state, which is rolling out the publishers' examinations.
Pearson, the world's largest education company, is being paid $32 million to prepare Common Core tests for New York students. So, the tests finally arrive, and educators find errors.
Not only is this unforgivable, the problem is compounded by Pearson attempting to hide the issues.
Some believe this signals trouble for Pearson. Doubtful. Pearson will continue to churn out textbooks and other materials, and school administrators will continue to buy.
For the Common Cores and its advocates, however, the battle continues, and the casualties continue to mount.
Teachers hate standardized testing, but there's little they can do to stop it. Last year, CNN did a story about two children whose parents opted them out of a year-end standardized test. The video showed the students engaged in other activities, while their peers filled in bubbles on the test.
The parents said they believed the tests to be a poor way to evaluate learning -- something the average teacher has been saying for more than a decade. Yet the tests keep coming.
With more protests, could testing be eliminated? If thousands, even millions, of parents like the ones in the CNN story take the lead and opt out their children from testing, wouldn't it have to stop?
Like anything in politics, eventually it's all about numbers. A couple of kids not taking a test makes news but is insignificant, in the long run. Let's put a video of an entire class of students not taking a state-mandated test on CNN and see what happens.
Mark Barnes is an education author and consultant and the publisher of Brilliant or Insane. Learn more about Mark on our Team page. Follow him on Twitter here.
Indiana made history, when it became the first state to officially abandon the Common Core State Standards, prompting educators and politicians to wonder if this isn't the beginning of the end of the Common Core as we know it.
When the U.S Government originally rolled out the Common Core, five states stood out, disdaining the initiative. Certainly, Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia looked like rebels, when they said No to federal intrusion and nationwide standardization.
The real rebel
Indiana, which originally adopted the Common Core but recently pulled out, is education's new rebel, in what appears to be a growing move to obliterate the CCSS. More than 200 bills were introduced this year, according to the Indy Star, on the Common Core, with more than half of those proposing to stop implementation of the standards.
With so much legislation cropping up across the country, I wonder if Indiana will look like a leader in this fight or just a rebel without a cause.
Mark Barnes is an education author and consultant and the publisher of Brilliant or Insane. Learn more about Mark on our Team page. Follow him on Twitter here.
As I was preparing slides for my Social Studies Virtual Learning Network webinar on Problems of Practice with integrating the Common Core, I stumbled upon this video, "Ben Swann Exposes Common Core Standards."
While not a huge fan of standardization, I am doing all I can to help teachers make a smooth transition to successful Common Core practice.
My experience and research tells me that the information Swann presents is accurate.
Do these facts change your opinion of the Common Core?
