Dive Brief:
- The Consortium for Policy Research in Education launched #Common Core, a new website that examines social media's relationship with education politics.
- The organization released its first report last week, finding that social media allows parents and non-traditional education advocacy groups to get a soapbox in the education dialog.
- The same study also found that while social media allows more opinions to be heard, it also means the Common Core has been co-opted for "proxy wars" about more divisive topics like testing and student privacy.
Dive Insight:
According to Education Week, the study brings up the five most common "proxy" topics that arise among Common Core objectors. Among them: concerns about federal oversight, data privacy, high-stakes testing, businesses infiltrating public education and creating "marketplaces," and how emphasis on student test scores ignores bigger issues like poverty and inequality, which are also connected to poor achievement.