Millennial Debate Standardized Testing Debate
A2: Common Core Testing Supports Standards That Improve Education
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- National standards fail — policymakers don’t understand the classroom and teachers inevitably reject standards anyways
- Common core testing won’t improve education, it sucks money out of an educational system needed to deal with poverty
A2: Common Core Testing Supports Standards That Improve EducationCommon core, like every attempt for standardized standards, is doomed — a one-size-fits-all approach can’t solveKibbe 14 — Matt Kibbe, President of FreedomWorks, former Chief of Staff to Rep. Dan Miller, Director of Federal Budget Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Senior economist at the Republican National Committee, 2014 ("Common Core’s Top-Down Standards are Doomed to Failure," US News & World Report, February 27th, Available Online at http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/are-the-common-core-standards-a-good-idea/attempts-to-standardize-education-are-doomed-to-fail, Accessed 7-6-2015) For the uninitiated, Common Core represents a set of national standards with the aim of imposing uniformity on the country’s schools through rigorous testing requirements. Aside from the circulation of number of laughably terrible math questions approved under the new standards, the response from those affected has not been enthusiastic, with a wide variety of state level initiatives being proposed to block the implementation of Common Core. Even the National Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in the country, is walking back its initial support for the standards in light of what it calls a “completely botched” roll-out. This should come as no surprise. Attempts to standardize something like education are, by their very nature, doomed to fail because every child’s mind is unique. Different students learn in different ways, at different paces, and forcing adherence to inflexible, one-size-fits-all standards can only result in harm in the long term. Since school funding is tied to success in testing, good teachers are handicapped from using their skills to their best advantage. Instead of bringing their years of experience to engage students on a personal level, pressure to produce measurable “results” will turn teachers into little more than automatons, frantically teaching to the test under the threat of losing their own jobs if the required scores don’t materialize. We saw this same pattern under No Child Left Behind, which placed increased emphasis on standardized testing. The freedom and creativity necessary to inspire students and get them thinking for themselves, as unique individuals, is lost in the ruthless quest for conformity. [Check out our editorial cartoons on President Obama.] In a recent and half-hearted attempt to spin Common Core into something conservatives could support, Republican strategist Rich Galen insisted, “Standards and accountability are conservative values that we have promoted for decades!" While there is undoubtedly some truth in this, the assumption behind the statement is completely backwards. There is nothing conservative about standards imposed from on high by a government that has proven itself to be — time and time again — hopelessly corrupt, relentlessly partisan, and painfully incompetent. Instead, accountability should be local in nature. No one is better equipped to understand the needs of individual children than their parents, working with teachers within their shared communities. National standards fail — policymakers don’t understand the classroom and teachers inevitably reject standards anywaysMehta 13 — Jal Mehta, Associate Professor in education at Harvard, PhD in Sociology and Public Policy from Harvard, 2013 (“Why American Education Fails” Foreign Affairs, May/June Issue, Available online at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2013-04-03/why-american-education-fails, Accessed 7-7-15) The result has been a vicious cycle in the interaction between policymakers and practitioners, one that leaves little hope for the much-needed improvements in American education. Policymakers understandably want to intervene in the failing system, given the highly uneven performance among schools, with dropout rates as high as 40-50 percent in some urban districts. They have done so through a variety of mechanisms, but most notably through an effort to set higher standards for student performance and to create consequences for schools that fail to improve. Teachers, for their part, resent the external mandates developed by people who know little of their daily work and who are unwilling to provide the social support that their students need. Teachers' unions worry that their members are being scapegoated for their schools' failure, and so they frequently harden their positions and seek to resist what they see as unfair and unwise external accountability measures. Many policymakers, in turn, see schools as units that need tighter coupling to overcome the teachers' opposition and think of unions as an obstruction to necessary reforms. The cycle continues, with each group playing its appointed role, but with no improvement in sight. Common core testing won’t improve education, it sucks money out of an educational system needed to deal with povertyStephen Krashen, January 25, 2014, Schools Matter, The Common Core: A Disaster for Libraries, A Disaster for Language Arts, A Disaster for American Education, Knowledge Quest 42 (3), http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2014/01/the-common-core-disaster-for-libraries.html DOA: 10-26-15 There never has been a need for the common core and there is no evidence that it will do students any good. The common core ignores the real problem in American education: Poverty. The common core will continue the process of turning schools into test-prep centers, and bleed billions from places the money is badly needed, where it can help protect children from the effects of poverty. The only real goal of the common core is to do the opposite, to profit a small group of the elite, the .01% at taxpayer expense, a classic case of "take from the needy, give to the greedy." 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