The ‘seven deadly sins’ of Common Core — by an English teacher

Reblogged from The Washington Post’s Answer Sheet by Valerie Strauss

For years now, the Common Core State Standards have been at the center of a national controversy over public education. Supporters say the standards, being used in most states, will improve public education, raising the standards that had formerly been used in most states. Critics say otherwise; earlier this year, for example, more than 100 education researchers in California collectively issued a research brief saying that there is no “compelling” evidence that the Common Core State Standards will improve the quality of education for children or close the achievement gap. (They also labeled new Common Core standardized tests as lacking “validity, reliability and fairness.”)

Here is a new detailed look at the standards from a teacher in Georgia who once supported the Core but no longer does. She is D’Lee Pollock-Moore, an English teacher and English department chair at Warren County High School. In this post, a version of what appeared on her Musings from Master P blog, she details what she thinks are the “worst of the worst” of the English Language Arts standards.  Pollock-Moore gave me permission to publish her piece. (Pollock-Moore bolded certain words in the piece.)

By D’Lee Pollock-Moore

Here in jargon-free, acronym-free terms, is my list of what I consider to be the worst of the worst — or the seven deadly sins — of the Common Core English Language Arts standards.

  1. The Common Core English Standards are too ambiguous.

Before Common Core, many state English standards were specific.

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