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Monday, November 18, 2013

Common Core standards for education are taking flak from the right, but also from the left

UPDATE: For a comprehensive look at the standards debate, click here. For a look at the experience in Kentucky, the national leader in adopting the standards and tests, go here.

Some children are not in school today because their parents are keeping them home in protest of the Common Core education standards that 45 states have adopted. It's the third such annual protest, reports Chalonda Roberts of WHEC-TV in Rochester, N.Y., but seems to be getting more attention as school systems begin to implement the standards. Charley Hannagan of The Post-Standard in Syracuse writes about a strong reaction to her story about a local family joining the protest.

The organizers of “Don’t Send Your Child To School Day” issued a press release saying, “We recommend that you keep your children out of school . . . and help us send a message to the federal government. We the people want evidence-based curriculum that is locally controlled and which does not require data mining our children.” As Chuck Todd and his NBC News "First Read" colleagues note, "Common Core is not a federal government initiative, but one that was created by governors. Yet that hasn’t stopped this scare campaign among some on the right. To us, it’s amazing how Common Core standards have become a hot political potato. In many respects, it’s the Tea Party meets education reform."

Perhaps, but the standards also came under attack Saturday from a liberal blogger and former teacher, Anthony Cody, on his "Living in Dialogue" blog on Education Week's Teacher edition. In a post Sunday, Cody said the original post " has been the most widely read article on Education Week over the weekend, and has been 'liked' more than seven thousand times on Facebook. (Read more)

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