Dive Brief:
- One week after Florida signed a $220-million contract with the American Institute for Research (AIR) to develop its new Common Core aligned state assessments, The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition has shifted its attention to the company, saying AIR promotes gay lifestyle to schoolchildren.
- The Common Core opponents are partially right in their assertion: In addition to creating student assessments, AIR does do research on LGBT youth issues, which they provide — upon request — to organizations working with youth. They do the same with information on bullying and substance abuse. AIR, however, is not an advocacy group.
- This is not the first time this argument has been used. Utahns Against Common Core also called out AIR’s work on LGBT issues when the state adopted AIR tests in 2012.
Dive Insight:
Context is everything. While AIR does do research on LGBT issues, it is not an advocacy group and does the same research on a plethora of topics that affect youth today. To argue that this will affect the organization's ability to create test questions is unfair and detrimental to dialogue surrounding the Common Core. By focusing on AIR's other projects, The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition has shifted attention from the bigger and more pertinent issue: the actual Common Core standards and what they mean for our nation’s youth.