are considering a plan to pull Alabama out of the Common Core State
Standards program. This multi-state academic program was proposed in
March,2010 by a panel of educators convened by the National Governors
Association and Council of Chief State School Officers.
Previously, the 50 states each adopted their own standards; states at
the time differed in their expectations of what students need to learn,
which led to complaints that some graduates weren't ready for college or
Advocates of Common Core argued
that a single, multi-state set of standards — at least in core subjects
such as Math and English — would help correct that, and would make a
number of educational processes easier. Textbooks could be written for
use in multiple states, students could transfer
across state lines more easily and states could pool their resources to
design standardized tests, the theory went. So far, 45 states have
adopted Common Core standards.
Alabama signed on in 2010, incorporating
Common Core standards for Math and English into
its curriculum. The move has created a backlash from conservative
activists, who see it as an attempt to give the federal government
control of what is taught in local school systems. However, that simply
is not true. No one in the federal government was involved
in drafting the initiative.
I believe the real reason that our legislators want to pull Alabama out of the program is because Alabama ranks near the bottom of the states academically and our representatives don’t want to admit they’ve been doing a bad job all along. All in the name of States Rights. We have the right to mess up if we want to.