Common Core Disaster

I'm not qualified to comment on the Common Core English standards, but I'm qualified enough to comment on the CC math standards.  I stand by what I've said since those math standards were first published--they're not as rigorous as California's 1997 standards.  Nor are they as clear.

Essentially, they're crap compared to what we had.

But if students are learning more, they're not crap, right?  The proof is in the pudding, right?  Why yes, yes it is, and California's kids aren't doing better in math:

The Common Core curriculum-content standards are a national listing of topics that students are expected to learn in the subjects of English and mathematics. An independent initiative of three Washington, D.C.-based organizations created the national standards, but they were endorsed and promoted by the Obama-era U.S. Department of Education. The standards were released in June 2010. Their summer launch meant that teachers and parents did not have much of an opportunity to discuss their merits and drawbacks. Abiding by the standards was necessary for states to be eligible for massive federal grants. California adopted the national standards and fully implemented them in 2014-2015.

This was a mistake. Looking at how the state’s students performed in math before and after the standards were implemented, it’s clear that the old system served students much better. Before Common Core, California had its own mathematics curriculum-content standards. They had been written largely by the faculty of the Mathematics Department at Stanford University and were adopted by the state in December 1997...

After the 2010 vote, we wrote an opinion piece where we explained why adopting Common Core was the wrong decision for California, and we predicted that only “an elite few students will be able to succeed” in eighth grade algebra under Common Core. Eight years later, that, indeed, seems to be the case...

Because California set up its 1997 standards to prepare all students for Algebra I in eighth grade and because it attempted to place all those who were ready into such classes, the biggest beneficiaries of this effort were ethnic-minority and low-income students. While the whole cohort success increased by a factor of three, the rates of success jumped by factors of five for African Americans and six for Latinos and low-SES students—double the rate of the whole cohort...


From the outset, California’s education officials recognized that improving student achievement so substantially would take time. The state overhauled its entire math curriculum. New instructional plans introduced pre-algebra concepts as early as third grade. School districts augmented on-the-job math training for teachers, approved math textbooks that matched the curriculum, and revised the state accountability system to include teacher supports and rewards for teaching Algebra I by eighth grade.

But with the Common Core standards, this progress began to stall. Common Core expects Algebra I in the ninth grade. That threw a monkey wrench in California’s longstanding effort introducing the math class to students earlier. As seen in the chart below, in the four years under Common Core, the number of eighth graders taking Algebra I in California dropped precipitously to 19 percent in 2017, taking California back to where it was around 1999, when early algebra taking was the privilege of the elite. And while all demographic groups lost ground, the loss for Latino and African American students was much deeper than for white and Asian Americans.

Common Core proponents repeatedly praise it for its “rigor,” how it will prepare children for the twenty-first century, enable more American students to pursue STEM, and increase America’s competitiveness in the world. Yet when it comes to the clearest benchmark of rigor and expectations on par with international high-achievers—Algebra I in eighth grade—the Common Core not only punted, but it retarded and reversed the progress California had made during the pre-Common Core period, and the Common Core regress disproportionally hit disadvantaged minorities. The reduced rigor in K-8 education has resulted in less enrollment in advanced mathematics courses in high school, particularly of low-income and minority students. This reduces their chances of pursuing challenging and rewarding careers...

California’s adoption of Common Core caused an earthquake in mathematics education in the state. In K-12 education, the gains of the previous 10-15 years—as reflected in large increases in students successfully taking Algebra I early, and in students taking more advanced math courses in high school—have been reversed. As worrisome is the fact that disadvantaged minorities (who made faster gains than the rest of the cohort before Common Core) are losing ground after Common Core at faster rates...

Adopting the Common Core math curriculum standards has proven to be a setback for California. When California had its own mathematics standards before Common Core, its students performed significantly better in math than they have after the Common Core was put into effect. The hardest hit by this change were the most vulnerable students. The state of California Education under Common Core is not good.

I posted the first comment at the link above:

8th grade Algebra 1 is one valuable marker, and you rightly point out that California's students have slipped on that metric since California adopted Common Core.  But wouldn't a better standard be "how well are students learning?"  How were California students performing on benchmark tests before CCSS, and how does their performance now compare?