The National Education Association, America’s biggest teachers union, is now taking back its once-enthusiastic support of Common Core. These academic standards have experienced a terrible rollout, something similar to Obamacare!
Although the President of the union, Dennis Van Roekel, says he still believes the standards can improve education, but he also says they need some major changes. He does not exclude rewriting some of the standards and revising the related tests.
Mr. Van Roekel says, “In far too many states, implementation has been completely botched.” This plan from the Obama administration was supposed to instill more rigorous language-arts and math instruction in public schools, but it appears this is another project that isn’t working out too well for them.
45 states plus DC have adopted these Common Core standards, but as lessons have been rolled out in classrooms, many are now questioning their effectiveness. Many people are also worried about the federal government’s role in this program. Indiana is close to pulling out of these standards, and several other states are starting to have serious debates about whether or not to remain a part of this system.
It’s still unclear how this will play out, but what we know for sure is that parents trust teachers to do right by their kids. With 70% of teachers saying implementation of Common Core is going poorly, perhaps there is something to that. And most teachers say they haven’t even been asked for input on how to introduce the new standards.
How is it that teachers and parents are supposed to get behind a new standard that is dictated to them by people who don’t live it every day?
Just last month the board of the New York state teachers union withdrew its support for Common Core as it stands. And now the country’s biggest teachers union is taking back its support too. Clearly the Obama administration needs to do some serious PR work when they start losing teachers unions’ support. The American Federation of Teachers has also expressed concern about the implementation of Common Core and has called for a 3 year moratorium on high-stakes testing. How can the Obama administration save this failing policy? They already have so many other flawed policies to worry about!
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