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A bill is moving in the Senate Education Committee that requires the Dept. of Education to conduct a comprehensive review of the Iowa Core standards. This bill has already passed the Iowa House. Thanks to Senator Salmon for sharing this expanded review about Iowa Core Standards:
What is the Iowa Core?
The Iowa Core is, for all practical purposes, the Common Core. There are a few Iowa-specific standards sprinkled in but it is basically the Common Core.
The Iowa Core, or Common Core, consists of K-12 academic standards that outline what students are expected to learn in 2 subject areas: English Language Arts (ELA) and in Mathematics. Its stated goal is to make students “college and career-ready”.
Where did the Common Core come from?
It was written by private nationwide organizations out in Washington, D.C.: Achieve, Inc., National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officials (CCSSO). It was funded by the Gates Foundation.
How did Iowa get the Common Core?
In 2005 the legislature adopted the Iowa teacher-created Iowa Core standards in math, English, and science as a set of voluntary standards. In 2008 the Iowa Core became mandatory for all schools. In 2010 the State Board of Education mostly threw out the Iowa Core math and English standards and adopted in their place the Common Core, which are a set of federally incentivized standards for math and English. This was done, not by the legislature by the way, for the state to have a chance at getting federal “Race to the Top” money. Well, guess what? The state got no money but it did get Common Core! Implementation of the Common Core began in the Fall of 2012 for high schools and in the Fall of 2014 for K-8.
What are the advantages of Common Core?
Proponents say having all school districts study the same thing at the same time enables children who move from one school to another to not have any “gaps” in their education because they can pick up at the new school where they left off at the old school. The intended focus is on critical thinking and higher order thinking skills, which is very necessary and important. In math, there is a push for a deeper cognitive understanding, “how do you know?”. Have these advantages been realized?
What are the disadvantages of Common Core?
The biggest problem with the Common Core system is the not so thinly disguised control of the federal government over our children’s education. Under the 10th Amendment of our Constitution any power not specifically given by the Constitution to the federal government belongs to the states or to the people. And the right to direct our children’s education is one of those rights that is not given to the federal government by our Constitution but belongs to the states or to the people.
In accordance with this, our federal laws explicitly state that the federal government may not establish a set of national educational standards or national curriculum. And the Obama administration years ago pushed this using back-door means by luring the states with grants, promises and possibilities of money and dangling before states a waiver from No Child Left Behind if states would adopt Common Core. So the effect of their actions was to do exactly what federal law explicitly prohibits.
“Experts” have varying opinions on the quality of the content and rigor of the Common Core. I have heard mixed messages from people about that as well. The Common Core is like any other set of standards/curriculum. It has its strengths and it has its weaknesses. I don’t believe student achievement, performance, and ability to function in a positively contributing way in a free society has greatly increased with the adoption of the Common Core. If anything it has stagnated or gone down. And of course, covid didn’t help.
English Language Arts: According to some experts the English Language Arts (ELA) standards are more skill-based and less content based. Another complaint is the de-emphasis on the study of classic literature in favor of “informational texts”, such as government documents, court opinions, and technical manuals. Much could be said about the benefit of studying classic literature: understanding great principles and character qualities that have endured throughout human history such as faith, courage, respect, pursuit of truth and wisdom, what it means to love others, what it means to sacrifice at great cost, justice, consequences of our actions, taking responsibility for our life, and the rewards of a moral and virtuous life, etc. It has been questioned whether the focus in ELA is on educating students who can take their place in society as thoughtful, understanding, caring, and productive citizen leaders who are empowered in their exercise of the precious gift of liberty secured for them at great cost or is the focus on educating students to just learn the skills of reading to prepare them to take their place in the workforce and train them to conform and obey in jobs that will produce a good or a service for society. Not to denigrate training for the workforce, certainly that is needed, but in ELA, we have opportunity to impart something much more.
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