Dive Brief:
- Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told the State Board of Education Monday that he wants to see a statewide review of the Common Core State Standards.
- While Ducey did not say he plans to repeal the standards, he did say he opposes them and wants to give schools more choices when it comes to what standards they use.
- Ducey asked the board to create a Common Core review committee with appointed teachers, parents, and students from across the state. The board has yet to comment on Ducey's request.
Dive Insight:
Ducey has at least one ally. In January, the state's superintendent of public instruction, Diane Douglas, also spoke out against its Common Core-aligned exam. At the time, she said the test should be dropped, as well as the standards. Interestingly, Douglas also said at the time that changing standards too frequently can hurt districts and leave them cash-strapped after they've already sunk funds into curriculum that is no longer relevant. The irony here, of course, is that pushing out Common Core would likely do just that. The state has already spent millions putting the standards into schools, so taking them out could cause a whole other set of issues. Just look at Indiana and its current testing budget woes.
While many states quickly adopted the Common Core in 2010, when it was tied to both President Barack Obama's Race to the Top grants and No Child Left Behind waivers, many have since vocalized frustrations with what may have been a hasty, shortsighted decision.
What is important to remember, however, is that the Common Core is ultimately just standards, not curriculum. The latter is what is most important for students and will determine what they learn and retain. Standards are merely suggestions for what the curriculum should address. The big problem comes with the attached tests, as those can have much bigger consequences.