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Common Core
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is one of the most controversial pieces of education policy to emerge in decades. Detailing what and when K–12 students should be taught, it has led to expensive reforms and displaced other valuable ways to educate children. In this nuanced and provocative book, Nicholas Tampio argues that, though national standards can raise the education bar for some students, the democratic costs outweigh the benefits.
To make his case, Tampio describes the history, philosophy, content, and controversy surrounding the Common Core standards for English language arts and math. He also explains and critiques the Next Generation Science Standards, the Advanced Placement US History curriculum framework, and the National Sexuality Education Standards. Though each set of standards has admirable elements, Tampio asserts that democracies should disperse education authority rather than entrust one political or pedagogical faction to decide the country’s entire philosophy of education.
Ultimately, this lively and accessible book presents a compelling case that the greater threat to democratic education comes from centralized government control rather than from local education authorities.
216 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 18, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 6, 2018
I was fortunate enough to have been educated and launched into adulthood before Common Core was imposed on American schoolchildren. However, a couple of stints as an educational support person in the public school system has given me some exposure to Common Core. Naturally, I was curious to see how the author of this book might consider this new national education standard a "threat to Democracy."
In the introduction to his book, Nicholas Tampio immediately informs the reader of his educational and political leanings, which makes it easy to decide whether or not you want to buy the book. He also summarizes what he intends to talk about in the book. In fact, this is a rather annoying habit of this author: Rather than letting his arguments unfold organically, he feels compelled to tell you each step of the way what he's going to address next. I find it not only redundant, but also rather insulting to the reader's intelligence.
One erroneous assumption woven throughout the book is that ours is a democratic society. That's probably because of his political affiliation. However, the United States of American is not a nation governed exclusively by its citizens. It is a representative government ruled by both laws and people. Not since the Greek city-states has a purely democratic society existed. Ours is a democratic-republic; not a democracy.
Although I am not affiliated with a particular political party, I appreciate the author's fairness to all in his efforts to equitably represent various sides of the national education standards issue. He quotes extensively from representatives of the various points of view and includes specific examples from actual standards documents, curricula and tests. He includes excellent references with end notes and a voluminous bibliography at the end of the book to allow for personal study. This equips the reader to form his or her own conclusions regarding each topic under consideration.
Tampio continually reminds the reader that the U.S. Constitution reserves educational control for the states. He warns of the danger of any single faction or ideology being in control of the standards, content and testing for educational institutions nationwide. Quite practically, he asks something like this: "How would you like it if someone who differed from your views was in charge and imposing their particular ideology on you and your children?" Rather than national standards and a monopoly on curriculum and testing, the author advocates local control with healthy debate and more options for educators among publishers and test companies.
The author shows how "teaching to the test" has hobbled schools and limited educational opportunities for districts and students--particularly in communities with poor and minority students, which the standards were intended to help. He exposes the hypocrisy of policy makers who choose to educate their children in non-Common Core schools. While being touted as a curriculum that teaches children to think, it is actually teaching them to follow very narrow rules and believe whatever is presented to them. Many critics feel that students are learning only how to parrot what they are told and fill in little circles for the standardized tests. As one teacher I worked with in a Title I school lamented, "I no longer get to teach my kids anything, except how to pass the test!" With this "one size fits all" approach, particularly gifted students lose their creative edge, while ESL and special needs children are left behind.
Part of the issue is a desire to teach and test children in a way that can easily be evaluated with a computer. In gravitating toward this method, many hands-on activities are eliminated and kinesthetic (hands-on) learners miss out on those "ah-hah moments" that come from experimentation. Computer software developers, textbook publishers and test-writers are making lots of money, but students are paying the price. Democracy suffers, the author contends, because parents, teachers, school boards and other concerned members of local communities are edged out of the entire process of education and feel disenfranchised of their right to contribute to the education of the next generation.
One thing that was completely new to me was the author's discussion of the "Test Refusal Movement." In order to coerce states to adopt the Common Core standards, the federal government has tied Title I funding to test results in each state--mandating a 95% participation rate and threatening to shut down public schools that don't comply. Because their voices are not being heard and because they feel the tests and curricula of Common Core is so narrow, many parents are exercising their right to exclude their children from the annual testing required by Common Core and its enforcing policies. I didn't even know this was a thing, but Tampio discusses how it is influencing the ongoing debate on Common Core.
Whether you are a parent, grandparent, teacher, or concerned citizen, you really should educate yourself on Common Core and its related policies. Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, T-Party members or Independents will benefit from this author's discussion that airs the concerns of representatives from all sides of the debate. Whether you are a liberal, moderate or conservative, you may be alarmed at where this educational reform is taking us and how it may impact our society for generations to come.
In the introduction to his book, Nicholas Tampio immediately informs the reader of his educational and political leanings, which makes it easy to decide whether or not you want to buy the book. He also summarizes what he intends to talk about in the book. In fact, this is a rather annoying habit of this author: Rather than letting his arguments unfold organically, he feels compelled to tell you each step of the way what he's going to address next. I find it not only redundant, but also rather insulting to the reader's intelligence.
One erroneous assumption woven throughout the book is that ours is a democratic society. That's probably because of his political affiliation. However, the United States of American is not a nation governed exclusively by its citizens. It is a representative government ruled by both laws and people. Not since the Greek city-states has a purely democratic society existed. Ours is a democratic-republic; not a democracy.
Although I am not affiliated with a particular political party, I appreciate the author's fairness to all in his efforts to equitably represent various sides of the national education standards issue. He quotes extensively from representatives of the various points of view and includes specific examples from actual standards documents, curricula and tests. He includes excellent references with end notes and a voluminous bibliography at the end of the book to allow for personal study. This equips the reader to form his or her own conclusions regarding each topic under consideration.
Tampio continually reminds the reader that the U.S. Constitution reserves educational control for the states. He warns of the danger of any single faction or ideology being in control of the standards, content and testing for educational institutions nationwide. Quite practically, he asks something like this: "How would you like it if someone who differed from your views was in charge and imposing their particular ideology on you and your children?" Rather than national standards and a monopoly on curriculum and testing, the author advocates local control with healthy debate and more options for educators among publishers and test companies.
The author shows how "teaching to the test" has hobbled schools and limited educational opportunities for districts and students--particularly in communities with poor and minority students, which the standards were intended to help. He exposes the hypocrisy of policy makers who choose to educate their children in non-Common Core schools. While being touted as a curriculum that teaches children to think, it is actually teaching them to follow very narrow rules and believe whatever is presented to them. Many critics feel that students are learning only how to parrot what they are told and fill in little circles for the standardized tests. As one teacher I worked with in a Title I school lamented, "I no longer get to teach my kids anything, except how to pass the test!" With this "one size fits all" approach, particularly gifted students lose their creative edge, while ESL and special needs children are left behind.
Part of the issue is a desire to teach and test children in a way that can easily be evaluated with a computer. In gravitating toward this method, many hands-on activities are eliminated and kinesthetic (hands-on) learners miss out on those "ah-hah moments" that come from experimentation. Computer software developers, textbook publishers and test-writers are making lots of money, but students are paying the price. Democracy suffers, the author contends, because parents, teachers, school boards and other concerned members of local communities are edged out of the entire process of education and feel disenfranchised of their right to contribute to the education of the next generation.
One thing that was completely new to me was the author's discussion of the "Test Refusal Movement." In order to coerce states to adopt the Common Core standards, the federal government has tied Title I funding to test results in each state--mandating a 95% participation rate and threatening to shut down public schools that don't comply. Because their voices are not being heard and because they feel the tests and curricula of Common Core is so narrow, many parents are exercising their right to exclude their children from the annual testing required by Common Core and its enforcing policies. I didn't even know this was a thing, but Tampio discusses how it is influencing the ongoing debate on Common Core.
Whether you are a parent, grandparent, teacher, or concerned citizen, you really should educate yourself on Common Core and its related policies. Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, T-Party members or Independents will benefit from this author's discussion that airs the concerns of representatives from all sides of the debate. Whether you are a liberal, moderate or conservative, you may be alarmed at where this educational reform is taking us and how it may impact our society for generations to come.
July 23, 2023
I have one million feelings about this book, and yet not a single page is dog-eared or marked for follow-up. I mostly agree with Tampio that national standards are not the panacea that many think (thought?) they would be. There are some impossible problems, though, when it comes to bias and prejudice and institutionalized racism and patriarchy. Tampio's suggestion that trying to nationalize such solutions to such hotly debated problems is wrong--and I agree!--but he does very little to wrestle with what that really means. This book is academic to the Nth degree. The outline is so rigid and repetitive, and never does Tampio push out against it to think, really. And I suppose that could be a difference between his goals and my desires--as in he wanted a dispassionate aggregation of arguments about national standards and I want some more reflection and synthesis--but the result is a kind of airless book that doesn't ven take its own arguments to their logical ends. For example, Tampio points out the connections between the CCSS authors and the College Board but never really explicitly tangles with what it means that nationalized education standards are ripe for capture by private businesses. In the five years since this was published, we have seen how that capitalist capture has hurt the AP brand and College Board more generally. But Tampio had all the seeds already in this book to see that development and just kind of let them lay there, listless and dormant.
This book did successfully radicalize me to how the focus on close reading in the ELA CCSS is political, and I am quite grateful for that. I just wish this book had been reported instead of being researched because Tampio misses QUITE a lot about how the standards hit the ground by just reading about them.
This book did successfully radicalize me to how the focus on close reading in the ELA CCSS is political, and I am quite grateful for that. I just wish this book had been reported instead of being researched because Tampio misses QUITE a lot about how the standards hit the ground by just reading about them.
January 17, 2022
dnf’d at 10 pages. i give the book 2 stars to be neutral. this judgement is based solely on the writing, as i was unable to form an opinion on the content.
as a child of and hater of the common core system, i was so excited to read this book. unfortunately, the writing doesn’t do it for me.
this book is written in a stilted academic tone. there is no voice or personality; the author is a john doe.
in the pages i read, the author does nothing but explain what he is about to argue. it’s very juvenile. “in this book i will,” “my goal is to,” “in chapter 1 i,” “[person] said [thing] at [place] to [audience]. it reminds me of how we are taught to write in high school. it is unnecessarily explicit and leaves the reader no time to breathe or to think. it is dense with information and, frankly, boring.
as a child of and hater of the common core system, i was so excited to read this book. unfortunately, the writing doesn’t do it for me.
this book is written in a stilted academic tone. there is no voice or personality; the author is a john doe.
in the pages i read, the author does nothing but explain what he is about to argue. it’s very juvenile. “in this book i will,” “my goal is to,” “in chapter 1 i,” “[person] said [thing] at [place] to [audience]. it reminds me of how we are taught to write in high school. it is unnecessarily explicit and leaves the reader no time to breathe or to think. it is dense with information and, frankly, boring.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews