Common Core and the Exodus of Critical Pedagogy

• In Event: 72.023 - Social Justice Standards: Does the Common Core Allow Room for Critical Pedagogy?

Abstract

Common Core,” “competency-based education” and “accountability,” all bound up in a supererogatory embrace of democracy. Competencies, which clearly define what students will accomplish to demonstrate learning for a workforce-related need, are an improvement in some ways, i.e., students can better pace themselves—but ultimately these competencies must be rendered measurable. No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and Common Core high-stakes testing of students, and new performance ratings for teachers based on student test scores, has meant that school districts, schools, and teachers try to avoid poor evaluations by avoiding minority students they fear will be poorly performing and potentially disruptive.

So why do schools end up adopting the standards? Because they are fearful of losing federal funds. Common Core, like almost all “test and punish” or “blame and shame” approaches to urban school reforms, ignores the impact of inequality in terms of the wide disparity between the rich and the poor in capitalist countries.

In this paper, I wish to make the case that required use of the Common Core tests to evaluate educators will significantly damage the teaching profession instead of helping it. When test scores drop dramatically there likely will be a renewed attack on teachers and increased demands that more public schools be closed and more privatized charters and voucher schools be built. My paper attempts to situate the high-stakes assessment of Common Core standards to the larger debate over high-stakes testing and the “opt-out” movements that are occurring throughout the United States.

Author

• Tyrone C. Howard, University of California - Los Angeles