Common Core vs. Common Sense

By Ronald A. Wolk

The headline in a recent edition of Education Week read, "Hopes Pinned on Standards to Boost College Readiness: SAT results show no improvement in any tested subject."

We've been pinning our hopes on standards for more than two decades with little to show for it. About half of our high school graduates are no better prepared for college or work than they were 20 years ago, when standards and testing became the nation's school improvement strategy.

Now, all but a few states are on the verge of implementing the ultimate phase of that strategy: the new common-core standards in mathematics and English/language arts for grades K-12, soon to be followed by new assessments supported by $500 million...