Education Next – Sandra Stotsky
“Most governors, state commissioners of education, state boards of education, and Chambers of Commerce seem to have an unshakable confidence in Common Core’s standards as the silver bullet that will make all K-12 students college and career ready. This confidence is remarkable for two reasons. First, Common Core’s standards are vastly different from those in the one state—Massachusetts—whose pre-Common Core standards led to greatly increased student achievement in reading, mathematics, and science in its common public schools and in its vocational/technical high schools. Second, it is not at all clear that the Bay State’s standards, however superior they were to Common Core’s, were the decisive factor responsible for the “Massachusetts education miracle.” The gains were deservedly noteworthy, putting the Bay State in first place on five consecutive National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in both grade 4 and grade 8, in both reading and mathematics, and from 2005 to 2013. Moreover, international tests confirmed these gains. Bay State students were in a first-place tie in grade 8 science and among the top countries in grade 8 mathematics on Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 2007 and 2011 (the state had entered as a separate country). In addition, most Bay State regional vocational/technical high schools (all with grades 9-12) now have high pass rates in mathematics and English on the state’s high school tests, an attrition rate that is close to zero, and long waiting lists.”(more)