With school districts across the nation gearing up to assess students based on tests linked to the Common Core State Standards, more information is being aimed at getting parents up to speed on the effort.
An article released this week by the American Enterprise Institute, “Five Things Every Parent Needs to Know About The Common Core,” briefly examines the origins of CCSS, informs parents about the difference between curricula and standards, and shares the political influences at play with the initiative.
While parents should be asking more questions about the common core, the answers aren’t always clear, writes Michael McShane, a research fellow at AEI. McShane asserts that the reform effort is at risk of being trivialized, noting that more than 30,000 books and supplemental material listed on Amazon.com have “common core” somewhere in the name.
In the article, which appears in AEI’s online magazine, McShane also states that there are no guarantees for parents wondering what the new standards mean to their children.
“The Common Core itself is neither a good nor a bad idea,” McShane concludes in the article. “It has the potential to be a positive force in education, but it will rise and fall on how it is implemented in schools and classrooms across the country.”
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