Without the development of the common core standards, the vast standards-based assessments would not exist.
Right, but the part you're missing is that standards already existed before the common core. EVERY STATE already HAD standards. And most (maybe all) of them already had standardized tests supposedly based on their standards. There's nothing new about having standards or tests based on them. The only new thing here is that most states are now using the same standards instead of making up their own, and using the same tests instead of making up their own. ALL this stuff already existed before the Common Core hit the news. You already had "one size fits all" standards, except in some states they were low standards, and in some states they were high standards, and in every state they had different names and different tests. The common core standards aren't the problem.
If you throw out common core, then what do you have? "[Your State Name Here] State Standards" instead. If you google that phrase, you'll be able to find the standards your state was previously using, back before politicians decided to start making politics about them.
If you throw out the common core, you have 50 different sets of standards instead of 1 shared set. You have companies publishing 50 different sets of curriculum. You have 50 different standardized tests with 50 different names. You have some states that are winners with good standards, and some that are losers with poor standards. But standards and standard-based tests won't cease to exist. That just won't happen. It wasn't how things worked before the common core hit the news, and it isn't what will happen if politicians playing politics destroy it.
