... I doubt it's because of the common core. It's because of the demographics of who lives here now.
Common Core and demographics are NOT unrelated. Although the common core website (corestandards.org) has undergone many changes and much of the original content has been retired, many webpages and PDF files which were previously part of the corestandards.org website can still be found using the Way Back Machine (internet archive). This provides an accurate history of documents, and transparency into the Common Core.
Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education
A report by the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and Achieve, Inc.
Learning how some countries achieve performance that is both higher and more equitable has tremendous implications in this country given America’s long term demographic outlook. Demographers now predict that “minorities” will constitute the majority of schoolchildren by 2023 and of working-age Americans by 2039. In 2006, U.S. Hispanic 15-year-olds performed below the average of every OECD country except Turkey and Mexico in science literacy, and black students performed even worse (Figure 2). America cannot remain competitive if half of its population graduates from high school so poorly prepared that it is unable to thrive in the global knowledge economy. States that plan to grow their economies must find ways to close their achievement gaps.
We also see the seeds being sown for equal
outcomes (as opposed to equal
opportunities). Unfortunately, closing achievement gaps and enforcing equal outcomes tends to cap the growth of students at the top.
You may wish to download and save the PDF file and read the whole report. At only 52 pages, it is a manageable read.
This
old post on contents of the Common Core website may also be of interest.
To remain on-topic: Hopefully parents are doing better by understanding the realities of forces currently in play and impacting gifted education in the USA... and worldwide.
