Just wondering how everyone feels about Common Core. Are you for it or against it or somewhere in between?

I am for national standards and a common curriculum that goes beyond math and "language arts" to include a wide range of content.

I had high hopes that the Common Core would be a step in the right direction in this regard. Unfortunately, the way the math standards are worded, they require testing on "understanding" so kids are drilled on "showing understanding," which tends to border on the ridiculous. And since they left out the content, the language arts standards dictate skill development in a vacuum.

Like many efforts in this category, it was a good thought, but left something to be desired in the execution. Some of us remember back to the last several rounds of math standards coming out of NCTM, dating back to the '80s. NCTE has similar ones for literacy. Curriculum fads come and go regularly.

National standards have been part of the educational system for quite a long time, actually, but implemented mainly through textbook publisher oligopolies (increasingly approaching monopoly).

What's less consistent is actually state assessments and high school graduation requirements. If you take algebra II, you will probably receive the same algebra II course anywhere in North America, but in some states you aren't required to take algebra II to graduate. Or four years of math, for that matter.

What is the reason it didn't catch on?

A few things I could find for research:

https://www.c-sail.org/press/csail-...ew-study-finds-small-disturbing-negative

https://www.brookings.edu/research/measuring-effects-of-the-common-core/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2332858417691749

And this is not an original research piece, but has some points worth considering, especially from the point of view od educators.

https://www.thoughtco.com/common-core-state-standards-3194603

When Common Core Standards were introduced/implemented, schools "aligned" their curriculum to the standards.
- If curriculum was moved DOWN one or more grade levels,
...that school's prior standards had been lower or easier, and became more rigorous under Common Core,
...as the lessons and materials would now be taught earlier.
- If the curriculum was moved UP one or more grade levels,
...that school's prior standards had been more challenging or rigorous, and became lower under Common Core,
...as the lessons and materials would now be taught later.

The US Department of Education's Race To The Top Executive Summary (2009) discusses implementation of Common Core "standards together with all of their supporting components." (page 8/15)

The supporting components include assessments and extreme data collection into a longitudinal database.
Supporting components underpin the goals (page 6/15) including:
- closing achievement gaps
- increasing high school graduation rates
- increasing college enrollment
Unfortunately, these goals may not necessarily reflect an increase in knowledge.
Achieving uniform outcomes may occur by lowering the measurement ceiling.
Achieving uniform outcomes may also depend upon manipulating pupil grades and reporting.
Increasing high school graduation rates and increasing college enrollment may depend upon lowering requirements.

One of the supporting components, data collection, is also outlined in the US Department of Education's Factsheet on Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (2009).

Given that the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution constrains federalism ("The powers not delegated to the United States[/i] [i]by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people"), some have expressed belief that the creation and existence of the US Department of Education, and all its decrees, represent federal exertion of a power not granted to it by the US Constitution, and therefore as unconstitutional.

I've NOT seen the implementation of Common Core result in increasing pupil knowledge and/or pupils' sense of "internal locus of control." I have seen the implementation of Common Core dismantle programming which provided appropriate placement, curriculum, pacing, and intellectual peers for gifted pupils, in favor of equal outcomes among all pupils in classrooms of students varying considerably in ability and readiness.

Overall, not a fan.