COMMON CORE'S A LITTLE SORE: It's been a bit of a back and forth week for the Common Core State Standards. Last weekend, the New York State teachers union put forth demands for NY to pull out of upcoming Common Core testing. The New York State United Teachers' (NYSUT) board of directors unanimously voted for a resolution proclaiming "no confidence" in the New York State Education Department or in its head, Commissioner John King Jr., while also withdrawing support for Common Core until the Ed board "makes major course corrections to its failed implementation plan."
On the other side of the spectrum, the Gates Foundation took a stance on Eduwonk this week in the form of a guest post by Vicki Phillips, Gates' Director of Education (College Ready). In her post, Phillips acknowledges that big changes like the transition to Common Core can be "unsettling," but that "in the vast majority of cases, these changes are being implemented carefully to avoid precisely these pitfalls." She also points to statistics that suggest enthusiasm around CCSS, including national survey findings that 73 percent of teachers (math, ELA, science, or social studies) in states that have adopted the Common Core are enthusiastic about implementation in their classrooms. Read more in Phillips's Eduwonk entry.
