Education

‘Common Core’ Seeks to Rescue Liberal Arts

February 26, 2008 1 min read
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The debate over whether NCLB has narrowed schools’ curricula has a new player—a group called Common Core.

“Everyone’s children deserve to receive a comprehensive, content-rich education in the liberal arts and sciences,” Lynne Munson, the group’s executive director, writes in the introduction of a report released by the group today. “Of course they must be able to read and compute. But they must also possess real knowledge about important things, knowledge of civics, biology, geography, art history, languages—the full range of subjects that comprise a complete education.”

Among the group’s trustees are Antonia Cortese, an executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Diane Ravitch, a noted author and half of the dynamic duo on Education Week’s Bridging Differences blog.

See this USA Today story presenting what Common Core found when it asked 17-year-olds some basic historical questions. Take the quiz yourself.

A version of this news article first appeared in the NCLB: Act II blog.

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