Common Core Sucks

For John, BLUF:  Our education system is failing us.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Federally Funded Study: Common Core Sunk U.S. Kids’ Test Scores

Here is the sub-headline:

In several cases student achievement reversed under Common Core, and in every subject studied students would have been better off if states had not adopted Common Core.

From TheFederalist, by Reporter Joy Pullmann, 30 May 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

Researchers the Obama administration funded to assist Common Core’s rollout recently found, to their surprise, that under Common Core U.S. student achievement has sunk (h/t Lance Izumi).

“Contrary to our expectation, we found that [Common Core] had significant negative effects on 4th graders’ reading achievement during the 7 years after the adoption of the new standards, and had a significant negative effect on 8th graders’ math achievement 7 years after adoption based on analyses of NAEP composite scores,” the Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction and Learning (C-SAIL) preliminary study said.  “The size of these negative effects, however, was generally small.”

The study found not only lower student achievement since Common Core, but also performed data analysis suggesting students would have done better if Common Core had never existed.  The achievement declines also grew worse over time, study coauthor Mengli Song told Chalkbeat, an education news website:  “That’s a little troubling.”

I am not advocating unschooling, but I do think we need to be teaching for success after graduation and in later life.  That may involve tailoring courses for individual students, or groups of students.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff