What Common Core Has Done to Massachusetts

Jamie Gass and Charles Chieppo with the Pioneer Institute highlight in an op/ed in the Worcester News & Telegram how Common Core has impacted education in Massachusetts who once led the nation in K-12 education.

It isn’t pretty.  They write:

 Following the landmark 1993 Education Reform Act that provided public schools with a massive infusion of new money in return for high standards, accountability and more school choice, Massachusetts’ student performance skyrocketed.

In 2005, the commonwealth’s schoolchildren became the first ever to finish first among the states in every category and at every grade level tested on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as “the nation’s report card.” Two years later our students were among the best in the world on international math and science testing.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

SAT scores are down 20 points from their 2006 highs. On the 2013 NAEP, Massachusetts’ five-point decline in fourth-grade reading was the largest in the country.

Third-grade reading scores are the best predictor of future academic success. Last year the percentage of Massachusetts third-graders scoring proficient or advanced on MCAS reading tests fell to its lowest level since 2009. This year they stayed the same. At 57 percent, the portion of third-graders who are at least proficient in reading is 10 points lower than it was in 2002.

Common Core advocates and fans are entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.  The fact is Common Core is destroying the quality of education in Massachusetts.  Read the rest.